Theories of American Politics

Political Science 621
Syracuse University

 

Note: This syllabus is under construction and subject to change.

 

Instructor: Thomas M. Keck
Phone: (315) 443-5862
E-mail: tmkeck@maxwell.syr.edu
Class meets: TBA

Office Hours: TBA

Course content and objectives

This course will provide a broad survey of political science research on American government and politics. We cannot cover everything, of course, but by the end of the semester, you should have an improved sense of the various sorts of substantive questions being addressed in the field and the competing approaches to answering those questions. If all goes well, the class will help you prepare for your general exams; have intelligent conversations with a wide variety of American politics scholars; think about how best to teach this material to undergraduates; and most importantly, identify one or more research questions which you might wish to pursue on your own.

In selecting the readings, I have tried to assemble a list that is broadly representative in three ways. First, I have included a mix of both classic and contemporary works. There is a heavier emphasis on the contemporary, but some important classics are included as well; in some cases, I have selected classic books that have recently been reissued, indicating their continued importance to the field. Second, I have tried to provide works representing each of the three broad traditions of empirical research in political science: survey-based behavioralism, rational choice modeling, and historical institutionalism. And third, I have tried to cover a broad range of substantive fields of research. This last task is the hardest, as there is simply too much to cover, but I have selected a range of topics that are or have been particularly important in the discipline. In a perfect world of never-ending semesters, we would devote additional time to gender and politics, the bureaucracy, the media, federalism, state and local politics, urban politics, electoral behavior, and civic engagement. These topics will come up throughout the semester, but they will not receive the focused attention that they deserve.

Course readings

The following books have been ordered at the Syracuse University Bookstore. Though some are listed as "required" and some as "recommended," it is of course up to you which ones to purchase. We'll discuss this during our first meeting.

Required books 

Recommended books

Course requirements

Course grades will be based on class participation, five analytic essays responding to course readings, and a preliminary research proposal on a topic of your choice.

Class participation (25%):  You will be expected to attend all class sessions, complete all assigned readings before class, participate in class discussions, and make occasional brief presentations on your research paper or proposal.  

Analytic essays (10% each, 50% total):  In each of these papers, you should identify a debate in the literature and take a side in that debate. For example, your argument could take the following form: "While Smith argues A, Jones makes a more persuasive case for not-A." That's not the only possibility, however. For example: "The literature on X seems to be divided between advocates of A and not-A, but neither of these camps has been able to explain B." However you frame it, you need to identify a proposition on which political scientists (or other informed observers of American politics) disagree with one another. During some weeks, the selection of required readings should provide you with a good set of debates to work with; at other times, you will have to delve into the recommended readings as well. Each of these papers should be about five pages in length, and each is due in class during the relevant week. At some point prior to that class, however, you should send a short email to the class listserv which presents your basic argument. You should think of it as sending each of us your introductory paragraph. Try to get this to us as early as possible, and no later than 4:00 p.m. on the day before class.

If that's not enough to think about, some further requirements for this assignment:

Research proposal (25%): This is an 8-10 page paper in which you will delve more deeply into a topic of your choosing that is related to the course material. The most important part of this assignment will be choosing, and clearly articulating, a research question that is (a) interesting and (b) answerable. We'll spend a significant amount of class time "workshopping" these research questions, and she should not go ahead with any further work on the project until I have approved your question. Once you have that approval, you should prepare a preliminary answer to your question (i.e., a hypothesis); a clear statement of why this question is interesting or significant, and how it fits with the existing literature; and a preliminary description of how you might go about answering this question. We will talk more about this in class.

For the research proposals, your topic must be approved by me no later than October 31. (In fact, you'll be making a short presentation on your work in progress that day.) We'll have presentations of the completed works on December 5, and the proposals and papers themselves are due on December 8. I hope you will consider this assignment to be part of an ongoing work-in-progress. It could represent an early stab at your dissertation research, for example, or it could be revised into a conference paper.

A note on professional development: While we're on the subject, I encourage everyone (or at least those of you who are Ph.D. students in political science) to do the following things before the end of the semester (if you haven't done them already): (a) become a member of APSA; (b) identify at least one conference in the coming year which you will attend; (c) identify at least one professional journal which you will begin to read on a regular basis.

Course policies

Academic misconduct: You should all know this, but just for the record: Whenever you refer to, or make use of, arguments or examples from course material or other sources—either by quoting or paraphrasing—you must fully cite that source in a footnote, endnote, or an embedded reference combined with a bibliography. Proper citation is a central feature of academic integrity and professionalism and there is no excuse for failing to properly cite your sources. Improper citation can lead to a failing grade in the course and dismissal from the graduate program. If you are not sure whether you are doing it right, then you need to ask right away.

Student academic work: Any work that you produce as part of your participation in this course may be used for educational purposes in future courses. For example, if you write a very good paper, I may distribute it in future classes as a model. If and when I do so, I will always remove your name so that the work is rendered anonymous. 

Reasonable accommodation: If you have any disability that may prevent you from fully demonstrating your abilities in this course, you should contact me as soon as possible to discuss accommodations necessary to ensure your full participation and to facilitate your educational opportunities.

Religious holidays: In accordance with SU policy, I will excuse any absences that result from religious observances, provided that you notify me in advance of the planned absence.

Office hours and email communication: My regular office hours are listed above, but you are welcome to make an appointment for some other time, or simply to drop by. If you just have a quick question, I encourage you to reach me by email. I have also set up a listserv for the course. To send a message to everyone in the class, simply address it to PSC_621@listserv.syr.edu.

August 29: Course introduction. No need to do any reading ahead of time, though we'll be doing some reading in class.

After we do so, we'll spend some time discussing three broad sets of causal forces that might be thought to influence political action and events (ideas, interests, and institutions) and three broad sets of social science methods that might be thought useful for examining those causal forces (large-n surveys; formal modeling; and historical interpretation).

September 5

Who Governs in America?

For our first couple weeks, we'll focus on some of the key substantive and methodological debates that characterized the discipline in the middle of the 20th century, beginning with the so-called community power debates of the 1960s.

Additional classic works on pluralism, democratic governance, and the like include:

September 12

Is the Public Irrational?

On the mid-century "behavioral revolution" in the discipline, see:

These reflections on the history of (particular aspects of) the subfield may be helpful as well:

September 19

Has American politics undergone a partisan realignment every generation or so? When is the next one coming?

Additional classics on political parties include:

Our resident expert on political parties is Professor Stonecash, who regularly teaches a graduate seminar on the subject. I encourage you to familiarize yourself with his work, along with these other recent treatments:

September 26

Is American political development better explained by reference to patterns of institutional conflict than patterns of partisan conflict?

October 3

Are members of Congress single-minded seekers of reelection? If so, what are Supreme Court justices seeking?

The literature on congressional behavior is enormous, with a variety of camps devoted to demonstrating the primacy of electoral, partisan, or policy influences. A sample of leading works:

Less directly relevant to this debate, but other noteworthy scholarship on Congress:

These accounts of rational choice approaches to studying politics may be helpful as well:

October 10

Does the Supreme Court follow the election returns?

Like the literature on congressional behavior, the literature on judicial behavior is quite extensive, with various camps emphasizing the significance of straightforward policy voting, sophisticated strategic maneuvering, partisan loyalty, and legal commitments on the part of the justices. A sample of leading works:

Less directly relevant, but other recommended classics on the Court:

October 17

How powerful is the American presidency?

The books by Neustadt and Skowronek are without question the leading classic and contemporary works, respectively. Other recent treatments of presidential power include:

October 24

What do government agencies do and why do they do it? And for whom do the bureaucrats work? How about judges?

October 31

What do the American people want (and how often do they get it)?

Survey-based studies of public opinion have been a staple of American political science for fifty years. Perhaps the two dominant concerns of this literature over the years have been (a) whether the American public is rational or stupid; and (b) whether the public's preferences have any effect on policy outcomes. The latter question will be our principal focus this week, though we may touch on the former as well (for which the Page and Shapiro book listed below is the leading account). In a perfect world, we would devote additional weeks to voting behavior, campaigns and elections, political participation, and the media, so we may discuss those topics today as well. Our resident expert on most of these issues is Professor Hayes, and I encourage you to consult him for further suggestions and advice.

Some recommended classics on public opinion and voting behavior:

And some more recent accounts:

November 7

Is collective action possible?

Recommended works on social movements and contentious politics:

Recommended work on interest groups:

November 14

Are Americans bowling alone? If so, does this mark a break with the past? If it does, why has this happened and why should we care? If it does not, why has there been so much hand-wringing about declining civic engagement over the past twenty years or so?

Recommended works on political participation and civic engagement:

November 21

Is America polarized?

We'll look this week at one of the leading questions--in both popular and scholarly commentary--about contemporary American politics. What do you think?

Some recommended readings on polarization:

Note also these recent works on inequality and contemporary American democracy:

November 28

To what extent has the American welfare state been dismantled? What does this tell us about processes of policy change more generally? 

Some recommended readings on public policy and political change, a topic that is well-covered in seminars offered by Professors Mettler and Pralle:

Pierson is a leading advocate of a historical institutionalist approach to studying politics. Other leading works in this vein, often called (in the American context) "American political development" (or APD), include:

December 5

How democratic is the American Constitution?

Is it fair to say that the scholarship we've discussed so far has neglected the significance of political ideas? If so, what do we gain from such a focus? For example, what were the key principles that animated the founding, and to what extent do they still govern American politics today? If these questions seem interesting to you, I encourage you to take Professor Ketcham's legendary seminar on "The Foundations of American Politics." If you do so, or if you read his Framed for Posterity, you'll find a spirited defense of the republican character of the original Constitution. For this week, however, we'll be focusing on a variety of recent works which paint a very different picture. In addition to these recent secondary sources, if your knowledge of the founding is sketchy, you may want to browse some primary sources as well. Madison, Hamilton, and Jay's Federalist Papers are widely available on-line, and this collection of documents edited by Philip Kurland and Ralph Lerner is a wonderful resource as well.

A very partial list of other treatments of the founding that are worth reading (with an emphasis on recent works):

See my course on American constitutional development.

Additional class session: Student presentations.

December 8: Research papers and proposals due by 4:30 p.m.