Political Science Department
San Diego State University
Fall 2012
Professor Ronald King
Adams-Humanities 4133
rking@mail.sdsu.edu
POLS 620
SEMINAR IN AMERICAN NATIONAL GOVERNMENT
Wednesday 4:00 – 6:40
AH 2107
This class is a graduate-level reading seminar in American government and politics. It
assumes substantial previous knowledge about U.S. governing institutions and
democratic practices. It should not be taken unless the student has extensive background
in the subject. Sessions are organized by topic, emphasizing general themes of
interpretation.
Students are expected to attend all class sessions and to participate fully in discussions.
Any student who must be absent should inform me of the fact in advance by e-mail. The
reading list includes twelve (12) required books, listed below. Supplemental articles for
the class are posted on Blackboard. They should be easily accessible for downloading.
Assigned readings must be completed before the relevant class session.
Each student will submit a one-page interpretive comment on the readings, due (strictly)
at the start of each class session. These will be used to prompt discussion. There will be
penalties for non-attendance, non-preparation, and non-submission of the one-page
comments, as these comprise 25% of the grade. There will also be three take-home
essays, each worth 25%.
Students are reminded that plagiarism is a major offense. They are responsible for
learning the university rules regarding plagiarism and for avoiding all violations. Any
student deemed guilty of plagiarism automatically will receive a failing grade in the class.
Student Learning Objectives:
-- To gain sophisticated understanding regarding topics of contemporary relevance in
American national politics.
-- To think, read, and write critically about the topics pertaining to fundamental American
political principles and institutional structures, the changing nature of American identity,
and developments within the current American political regime.
-- To develop better skills in close reading of texts, note-taking, verbal and written
communication, the organization of ideas, and research design.
-- To demonstrate the ability to produce essays that impart information, frame and
support an argument, use critical thinking and analysis, make logical assumptions, derive
sound conclusions from evidence, and display graduate-level use of language, grammar,
and rhetorical structure.
AGENDA FOR THE TERM
0.
NO CLASS (August 29). The American Political Science Association annual
meeting is being held in New Orleans.
I. Structures of the American State
1. On Independence and its Justifications (September 5)
On Madisonian Principles
“The Declaration of Independence”
“The Articles of Confederation”
“The U.S. Constitution”
James Madison, The Federalist Papers: #10 and #51
2. On the Coherence of U.S. Institutions/Congress (September 12)
William F. Connelly, Jr., Madison Rules America: The Constitutional Origins of
Congressional Partisanship
Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein, It’s Even Worse Than It Looks (selection)
3. On Time and Patterns in U.S. Politics/Presidency (September 19)
Walter Dean Burnham, “Party Systems and the Political Process,” in Chambers
and Burnham, The American Party Systems, pp. 277-307.
Stephen Skowronek, The Politics Presidents Make
4. On the Extent of U.S. Institutional Democracy (September 26)
Sanford Levinson, Our Undemocratic Constitution
5. Reform of the U.S. Constitutional System (October 3)
Brutus (Robert Yates), “Essay # 1”
Woodrow Wilson, Congressional Government (selections).
Lloyd Cutler, “To Form a Government,” Foreign Affairs, Vol. 59 (1980).
Juan Linz, “The Perils of Presidentialism,” Journal of Democracy, Vol. 1
(1990).
Scott Mainwaring and Matthew Shugart, “Juan Linz, Presidentialism, and
Democracy,” Comparative Politics, Vol. 29 (1997).
Ronald F. King and Thomas Langston, “Narratives of American Politics,”
Perspectives on Politics, Vol. 6 (2008).
II. The Nature of American Identity
6. Liberal Individualism (October 10)
Louis Hartz, The Liberal Tradition In America
Herbert McClosky and John Zaller, The American Ethos. Chapter 9, pp. 264-290.
TAKE-HOME EXAM #1 DUE – at start of class
7. Religion and Morality (October 17)
John Winthrop, “A Model of Christian Charity”
James Morone, Hellfire Nation
8. A Nation of Races (October 24)
Rogers Smith, “Beyond Tocqueville, Myrdal, and Hartz: The Multiple Traditions
in America,” American Political Science Review, Vol. 83 (1993).
Tali Mendelberg, The Race Card.
9. A Nation of Immigrants (October 31)
Mae Ngai, Impossible Subjects.
Samuel Huntington, “The Hispanic Challenge,” Foreign Policy, Issue 141
(2004).
III. Character of the Contemporary American Regime
10. On the Politics of Democratic Inclusion and Exclusion (November 7)
Richard Scher, The Politics of Disenfranchisement.
Ronald King and Justin Moeller. “Party Politics and the Popular Franchise:
Removal of the Property Qualification and the Democratization of
America,” unpublished manuscript.
Christopher Uggen and Jeff Manza, “Democratic Contraction? Political
Consequences of Felon Disenfranchisement in the United States,”
American Sociological Review, Vol. 67 (2002).
Rainer Baubock, “Expansive Citizenship – Voting Beyond Territory and
Membership,” PS, Vol. 38 (2005).
TAKE-HOME EXAM #2 DUE – at start of class
11. On the Power of the Mass (November 14)
Robert Erikson, Michael MacKuen and James Stimson, The Macro Polity.
Chapter 8, pp. 284-324.
Larry Bartels, Unequal Democracy
Murray Edelman, The Symbolic Uses of Politics (1964). Chapter 1, pp. 1-21.
12. On the Power of Interests (November 21)
Robert Dahl, “On the Species Homo Politicus,” from Who Governs?
Kay Schlozman,, Sidney Verba, and Henry Brady, Unheavenly Chorus:
Unequal Political Voice and the Promise of American Democracy
13. On the Power of Elites (November 28)
C. Wright Mills, The Power Elite
APSA Task Force Report, “American Democracy in an Age of Rising
Inequality,” Perspectives on Politics, Vol. 2 (2004).
Charles Lindblom, “Market as Prison,” Journal of Politics, Vol. 44 (1982).
14. On Policy, Inequality, and Poverty (December 5)
Tax and Spending Data Tables (U.S. Budget/OECD)
Inequality and Poverty Data Tables (U.S. Census/LIS)
Anthony Atkinson, Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez, “Top Incomes in the
Long Run of History,” Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. 49 (2011).
Alberto Alexina and Edward Glaeser, Fighting Poverty in the U.S. and Europe
December 12: TAKE-HOME EXAM #3
Due to my mailbox in the Political Science Department Office
Before 4:00 p.m.
Take-Home Exam 1 – Due October 10
At the Start of Class
Madisonian principles emphasize the importance of “auxiliary precautions” to
promote democratic deliberation and protect democratic liberty. Regarding participation,
the goal is to “extend the sphere” to incorporate a multiplicity of voices, so that “society
itself will be broken into so many parts, interests, and classes of citizens, that the rights of
individuals, or of the minority, will be in little danger.” Regarding institutions, the goal is
to fragment governing power, giving to “each department the necessary constitutional
means and personal motives to resist encroachments.” Both dimensions are essential to
the Madisonian ideal that “ambition must be made to counteract ambition.”
Nevertheless, Madisonian principles have been and remain quite controversial.
Not every commentator agrees about the allegedly beneficial implications of
constitutional multiplicity. You task is to comment, based on our class readings and
discussions, regarding the benefits and costs of such multiplicity in the U.S. In your
opinion, do Madisonian principles, as currently evident in American politics, serve the
U.S. well or not? What reforms, based on what possible alternative principles, would you
espouse/reject? Explain and justify your preferences.
Instructions: You are to write for approximately two hours. Before taking the
exam, feel free to consult your notes, discuss the topic with others, attempt draft answers,
etc. However, all books and papers must be put away before you begin taking the exam.
You should work un-interrupted (as much as possible) for the entire exam period, which
can begin whenever you choose. After the two hours are over, you do have permission to
re-type or re-format your response for clarity of reading, and to edit it for grammatical
and spelling mistakes.
Take-Home Exam 2 – Due November 7
At the Start of Class
One of the great controversies in U.S. politics concerns what it means to be an
American. Louis Hartz provides an answer, that Americans are culturally distinct
because of their extreme, “natural” adherence to liberal individualism. The answer is both
perceptive and problematic. According to James Morone and to Rogers Smith, liberal
individualism provides an incomplete and possibly misleading portrayal of American
political culture. According to Tali Mendelberg and Mae Ngai, liberalism sits
uncomfortably with the American experience of racial and ethnic injustice. The debate
seems to exist in two general parts: a) is there a definable and ‘exceptional’ American
political culture; b) to the extent this might be true, is that political culture inclusive or
exclusive, is it fixed or flexible?
Your task is to comment intelligently about this debate, using the readings and our
classroom discussions. Among the topics you might wish to discuss are: how does/does
not American political culture work to define membership/non-membership in the
American political community? What advantages/risks does it pose politically? How
does that political culture affect contemporary political life in the U.S.? Is the culture, as
Huntington claims, currently under threat?
Instructions (as before): You are to write for approximately two hours. Before
taking the exam, feel free to consult your notes, discuss the topic with others, attempt
draft answers, etc. However, all books and papers must be put away before you begin
taking the exam. You should work un-interrupted (as much as possible) for the entire
exam period, which can begin whenever you choose. After the two hours are over, you
do have permission to re-type or re-format your response for clarity of reading, and to
edit it for grammatical and spelling mistakes.
Take-Home Exam 3 – Due December 12
Place in my mailbox in the Political Science Department Office
Before 4:00 p.m.
Among the most important questions when investigating the politics of any
country is, “Who Governs?” Who exercises real political power? Whose interests are
served by the state apparatus, and whose are ignored? You task is to answer these
questions with respect to the contemporary United States. You are to base your answer
upon our assigned readings and class discussions, especially those from the final third of
the semester.
To what extent is power exercised by mass opinion and electoral democracy? To
what extent do multiple interests organize and fairly compete? To what extent does a
narrow elite rule our country? Consider what your answer implies for the current state of
American politics and the direction in which the nation is heading. Is the U.S.
government serving the interests of its people? Is it providing necessary and desired
goods and services? Is the nation currently in good political shape or not?
Instructions (as before): You are to write for approximately two hours. Before
taking the exam, feel free to consult your notes, discuss the topic with others, attempt
draft answers, etc. However, all books and papers must be put away before you begin
taking the exam. You should work un-interrupted (as much as possible) for the entire
exam period, which can begin whenever you choose. After the two hours are over, you
do have permission to re-type or re-format your response for clarity of reading, and to
edit it for grammatical and spelling mistakes.