the american political
system
Politics 001 (305)
Prof. Dennis J. Goldford Fall
2002
E-mail:
dennis.goldford@drake.edu Office: 208 Meredith
Office Hours: MWF 9-11 a.m. and by appointment Phone: 271-3197
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objectives: Politics 001 examines the principal features of the
American political system‹our political institutions,
practices, and beliefs‹as interrelated elements of the broader American
social system. The course takes what political scientists call
a political-economy approach to understanding the American political system,
in that it examines not just government but also the market as a political
institution. Focusing on "the political" as that which
affects the lives of substantial numbers of people in fundamental and
significant ways, the course is thus ultimately about power in American society: how is power organized, who has
it, and for what purposes is it used?
The nature of power in American, or any other, society can be revealed
by understanding both why government does what it does, and, somewhat unusually
but more fundamentally, why government doesn't do what it doesn't do. This is an introductory-level course,
without any prerequisites, and is open to all students.
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required texts (editions in university
bookstores):
1) Baker, House and Senate, 3rd ed. (Norton, 2001).
2) Bibby, Politics, Parties, and Elections in
America, 5th ed. (Nelson Hall,
2003),
3) Dye, Who's Running
America? 7th ed. (Prentice-Hall, 2002).
4) Fiorina et al., America's
New Democracy (Longman, 2002).
5) Genovese, The Presidential
Dilemma (HarperCollins, 1995).
6) The New York Times (discount subscription in the D-Shoppe).
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Electronic Reserves:
Go to: http://ereserves.lib.drake.edu/
(cookies must be enabled), to Goldford, to POLS 001-305, (password: government): Lindblom,
Politics and Markets, Chapters
13-14.
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important
websites
(1) http://www.drake.edu/artsci/PolSci/PolSci_Home_Page.html
(the home page of the Dept. of Politics and International Relations at Drake
University, containing numerous useful links to other politics-related
sites).
(2) http://www.politics1.com (a
treasure-trove of information on political parties, issues, and the
election process).
(3) http://cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/ (a
digest of all the latest news about politics).
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week date discussion
topics and assigned readings
01 08-26: Course
Introduction: Goals and Policies.
08-28: Basic
concepts: Government, Politics,
Power (4:1).
02 09-02: [Labor
Day Recess]
09-04: Models
of Power (3:1-5).
03 09-09: Models
of Power (Lindblom, on ereserves).
09-11: The
Socioeconomic Framework (3:6-7, 9).
04 09-16: The
Socioeconomic Framework (practice essay).
09-18: The
Ideological Framework: formal (4:
Dec. of Independence).
05 09-23: The
Ideological Framework: substantive
(4: 4).
09-25: The
Ideological Framework:
substantive.
06 09-30: examination #1
10-02: The
Constitutional Framework (4: Constitution).
07 10-07: The
Constitutional Framework (4: 2-3).
10-09: The
Constitutional Framework (4: 13-14).
08 10-14: Political
Participation: Public Opinion and
Media (4:5, 12).
10-16: Political
Participation: Parties and
Elections (4:6-7).
09 10-21: [Fall
Recess]
10-23: Political
Participation: Parties and
Elections (2:1-4).
10 10-28: Political
Participation: Parties and
Elections (2:6-8).
10-30: Political
Participation: Interest Groups
(4:8).
11 11-04: examination #2
11-06: The
Legislative Branch: Congress
(4:9).
12 11-11: The
Legislative Branch: Congress
(2:9).
11-13: The
Legislative Branch: Congress
(1:2-3).
13 11-18: The
Legislative Branch: Congress
(1:4-7).
11-20: The
Executive Branch: the Presidency
(4:10).
14 11-25: The
Legislative Branch: the
Presidency.
11-27: [Thanksgiving
recess]
15 12-02: The
Executive Branch: the Presidency
and Bureaucracy.
12-04: The
Judicial Branch: the Courts. essay
due.
16 12-09: The
Judicial Branch: the Courts
(4:11).
12-11: Course
summary and conclusion (4:15).
17 12-16: final examination: monday, 12:00-1:50 p.m.
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course
procedures and grading policy:
1) You are expected to attend class
regularly, to have read the assigned text material prior to class, and to
participate in class discussions.
Although I often will have to lecture, I would like to function
most of the time as a discussion group requiring your active participation
as well as mine. You are subject
in every class to my calling upon you to explain the assigned reading of
the day.
2) You must successfully complete all
written assignments: two mid-term
essay examinations and one 5-page analytical essay, each of
which counts 20%, and one final examination, which counts 40%. Failure to complete an assignment
is cause for a grade of F for the course, not just for the assignment,
and make-ups or extensions are solely a matter of my discretion rather
than automatic right.
3) no
matter what your major or career plans, you simply must be able to write
and spell. Because a major goal of this course is
to help develop your reasoning and writing capabilities, all
examinations‹and, obviously, the analytical essay‹will consist
of essays. Each essay will be evaluated in terms of letter grades, but
letter grades will then be averaged and weighted in terms of a 12-level point
system:
A+ = 12 B+ = 9 C+ = 6 D+ = 3 F = 0
A = 11 B = 8 C = 5 D = 2
A- = 10 B- = 7 C- = 4 D- = 1
5) Our focus on writing stems from the
kind of knowledge about American government and politics this course seeks to
help you acquire. Briefly, our
goal is to develop not merely a passive, but an active knowledge of American government and
politics. If you have ever taken a
foreign language, you might recall the distinction between the active
and passive use of a language, which is not to be confused with the grammatical
distinction between active and passive voice. When you are learning Spanish, for example,
and you have learned enough to be able to understand someone talking or
something you are reading, we say that you have a passive knowledge of the language.
You have truly learned Spanish, however, when you not
only can understand someone talking or something you are reading, but
when you are able to speak and write the language yourself. When you can speak and write the
language yourself, we say that you have acquired the active use of the language. In that sense, the goal of this course is to train you in
the capacity to speak and write the language of American government and
politics. If you find yourself
able to understand lectures and discussion and the readings in the
assigned texts, then you have acquired the passive knowledge we seek‹but
you are only half-way to your goal.
The central question will be, can you talk and write
your way through the material yourself, doing so well enough that you
could teach the material to someone else?
When you don't know the material, you write simplistically; when you do
know the material, however, you write simply. That is your challenge this semester. Remember the old saying: "I know what I mean; I just can't
put it into words"? Well, if
you can't put it into words, you don't yet know what you mean! Essay questions in this course will be
similar to word problems in arithmetic:
they will not be trick questions, but you will have to figure out the
logic of each question in order to know how to answer it.
6) The New York Times: While
I certainly encourage you to choose politics as a major or second major during
your career at Drake, for many of you this course will be your only exposure to
the systematic study of politics and government. With that in mind, consider my Department's mission
statement:
The Department of Politics and International
Relations seeks to induct students into the community of liberally educated
individuals who are capable of understanding government and politics
in terms of the theories, concepts, and tools of sophisticated political
analysis which characterize the discipline of political science. The
liberal-arts dimension of our mission stems from our belief that all people are
embedded in a political environment which acts upon them in ways they must
understand if they are to function effectively as active participants in a
democratic society. Our goal,
therefore, is not to train professional political scientists, but rather
to produce the liberally educated citizen who is fluent in the language of
politics and political analysis and thereby has a foundation for both citizenship
in a democratic society and successful training in a job, in a graduate
school, or in a professional school. Such a person has the capacity to
recognize and evaluate assumptions, implications, and causal relationships
pertaining to government and politics and, by extension, to other realms
of human experience.
Put succinctly, one of the chief goals of this course
is that you learn to recognize in everyday life the "players"
and "rules of the game" of politics and government. I urge you to read The New York Times this semester (and beyond) as a way to learn how to
recognize those rules, and I will refer to stories in it often. You can purchase and pick up the (wonderfully) discounted weekday
subscription for college students in the D-Shoppe.
7) Your
analytical essay will be based in some way on course material we have addressed
during the semester. I will
provide more detail as the semester proceeds. N.B.: It is your responsibility to have an extra copy of
your analytical essay in addition to the one you hand in to me. Should
the unthinkable happen and I lose or misplace the one you give me, I will have
to ask you for another one.
8) Final grades are based upon your
written work and my evaluation of your class attendance and participation. There is no course grading curve; you
might find it helpful‹indeed, I urge you‹to study together on a regular
basis. Tip: studies show that you will retain
course material markedly better if you will make sure to read over and discuss
your class notes sometime later in the same day you have had the class. You will remember points you
forgot to write down, and you will encounter things you're not quite sure
you understood, giving you time to jot down any questions to ask at the beginning
of the next class. Not looking at
your notes until the night before an examination is a ticket to disaster.
9) Cheating, plagiarism, and any other
forms of academic dishonesty are strictly forbidden, and any incident thereof
will result in an automatic "F" for the semester. Please consult the following website
for your Drake Student Handbook policies and definitions governing such
issues:
http://www.drake.edu/dos/handbook/academic.html#dishonesty
I expect you to become familiar with these policies and definitions, for they govern you throughout your academic career at Drake University.