American Political System:
POLITICAL SCIENCE 1101
University
of Colorado-Boulder
Prof.
Vanessa A. Baird
Office
Ketchum 131D; Email bairdv@sobek.colorado.edu
Office
Hours: Monday, Wednesday 11-12, 2-3
(also by appointment)
I
am nearly always available on email.
http://socsci.colorado.edu/~bairdv
“If
men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern
men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.
In framing a government which is to be governed by men over men, the great
difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the
governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. A dependence on
the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience
has taught mankind the need for auxiliary precautions.”
- Federalist 51 (Madison)
“Each man’s experience starts again from
the beginning. Only institutions grow
wiser: they accumulate collective experience and owing to this experience and
this wisdom, men subject to the same rules will not see their own nature
changing, but their behavior gradually transformed.”
- Henri-Frederic Amiel
(1821-1882)
The purpose of this course is to provide a better
understanding of the American political system, focusing primarily on how its
institutions and historical ideas shape how people behave. To begin with, we will explore the ideas that
formed the basis for our constitution, and the extent to which those ideas have
worked in the last two hundred years. We
will then examine both the historical and contemporary context of how
federalism, Congress, the presidency, elections and the courts work in real
situations. The course will also delve
into issues that transcend time and space, such as how institutions work to
ensure that citizens cooperate with one another.
The reading and the lectures are not
redundant of one another. You are
required to come to every class day, prepared
by the reading for discussion. This
means that everyone is expected to have done all the reading and each person is
responsible for sharing their unique understanding of the topics. Each person’s contribution is highly valued
and necessary for a successful seminar.
For this reason, 25% of your grade will be composed of a combination of
attendance and class participation. You
can miss three class sessions without any consequences for your grade. If you have to miss more than three classes
for any reason, then your attendance grade will suffer, regardless of the reason for missing class. Participation in meaningful, insightful and
creative ways is also a part of that 25%.
Each student will have to complete an oral
presentation on concepts from the recommended textbook that I will make
available. They will be responsible for summarizing anything that they learned
from the reading as well as respond to other students’ questions – and my
questions. This oral presentation is
worth 10% of your grade. Part of that grade will include your questions to
other students who are presenting on days that you are not presenting.
There are assignments due throughout the
semester (including one quiz). These will be worth a total of 65% of your
grade. The specifics about each
assignment as well as the due dates will be mentioned in class. Please do not email me and ask whether you
missed anything in class. Please assume
that you missed a great deal when you miss class. Incompletes are
strongly discouraged by the College and are only given for non-academic
reasons.
There are no exams.
Riker, The Art of Political Manipulation
All
the work you do in this course is expected to be your own. Absolutely no
cheating or plagiarism (using someone else’s words or ideas without proper
citation) will be tolerated. Any cases of cheating or plagiarism will be
reported to the Office of the Dean of Students.
If you cheat, you will fail the course. Please review the University’s policy
regarding academic integrity: http://www.colorado.edu/policies/acadinteg.html
The
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) provides protection from illegal
discrimination for qualified individuals with disabilities. Students requesting instructional
accommodations due to disabilities must arrange for such accommodation. Please review the University’s services for
such accommodations: http://www.colorado.edu/sacs/disabilityservices/index.html
Note:
You will be expected to behave professionally in this class. I will not tolerate disruptive behavior,
including, but not limited to, reading newspapers, conversing during lectures,
insulting classmates or the instructor.
Course Outline
|
Week |
General
topic |
Specific
topics |
Reading |
One page
assignments: due on Tuesday of beginning of week |
|
Week 1 |
What
political science is…. and is not |
Variance,
variables, units, kinds of arguments |
In
class quiz: Friday |
|
|
Week 2 |
Research
Design |
Causal
correlation, spurious correlation |
Kellstedt
and Whitten Chapters 4, 5 Spurious Correlation |
Invent
a concept and a way to measure it, defend your measure |
|
Week 3 |
Why
Government? Justice or cooperation? |
Plato,
Hobbes, Olson, collective action exercise |
Logic, Chapter
1,
Plato |
Research
idea: what causes y to vary? |
|
Week 4 |
The
American constitution |
Institutional
Design |
Logic,
Chapter 2 Riker,
Chapter 4 |
Interpretation
exercise: what is the difference between justice and cooperation, according
to Plato (Socrates) |
|
Week 5 |
Rights
and Liberties |
Rights,
liberties |
Logic,
Chapter 13, 14; Griswold;
|
One
page essay: Does the logic of Griswold serve as the foundation for privacy
rights? |
|
Week 6 |
Federalism |
Tenth
Amendment necessary and proper, state policy as laboratories? |
Logic, Chapter
3,
Calhoun, Weingast Civil War |
One
page essay: what would you want the people (or institutions) in your town
(country) to be like if you were in the minority |
|
Week 7 |
Judiciary
|
Rule of law, limited government, judicial independence, self-enforcing
rules
|
Logic, Chapter 9 Listen: FDR fireside chat; Weingast Rule of Law
|
One page
essay: critique of Calhoun’s Disquisition
|
|
Week 8 |
Congress |
Rules
and lawmaking |
Logic,
Chapter 6;
Riker, Chapter 10, 11 |
|
|
Week 9 |
Presidency |
The
nexus of presidential political power |
Logic, Chapter
7
Riker, Chapter 1 |
One page essay: Change the U.S.
Constitution in a way that would have prevented the Civil War? Must be able to argue that the main players
would have agreed (i.e. you cannot just say: “ban slavery.”
|
|
Week |
General topic |
Specific
topics |
Reading |
One page assignments: due on
Tuesday of beginning of week
|
|
Week 10 |
Elections |
Duverger’s law,
rules, agenda setting |
Logic, Chapter 11, 15; Riker,
Chapter 2 and 6 |
Create the election rules for a
country that has the same diversity as the U.S.
|
|
Week 11 |
The
Media, Public Opinion |
Effects
of media bias, attitude formation |
Logic, Chapter 10, 14 |
|
|
Week 12 |
Voting, Political
Participation |
Why
are young people less likely to vote? You won’t believe it… |
Logic
Chapter 11,
Riker, Franklin
Chapter 3 |
|
|
Week 13 |
Interest
Groups, Parties |
Money,
polarization |
Logic Chapter 12, 13,
Francis Lee |
Provide
a one page critical essay (not necessarily disagreement) of Citizens United |
|
Week 14 |
Diversity,
Disagreement |
How
to handle disagreement, diversity, dialogue |
Mutz
Chapter 3; Baird,
What is Wrong with Being Right? |
|