MACROTHEORIES OF AMERICAN POLITICS
Political Science 904
Byron E. Shafer, Spring Semester, 2010
Week #1, January 22
Introduction to Macrotheories
CONSISTENT INFLUENCES
Week #2, January 29, American Exceptionalism
John W. Kingdon, AMERICA THE UNUSUAL (New York: St. Martin’s/
Worth, 1999).
Byron E. Shafer, "American Exceptionalism," Annual Review of Political
Science 2(1999), 445-463.
Week #3, February 5, Social Cleavages
Geoffrey Layman, THE GREAT DIVIDE: Religious and Cultural Conflict in
American Party Politics (New York: Columbia University Press, 2001).
Geoffrey C. Layman and John C. Green, “Wars and Rumors of Wars: The
Contexts of Cultural Conflict in American Political Behavior”, British
Journal of Political Science 36(2006), 61-89.
Week #4, February 12, Institutional Structure
Stephen Skowronek, THE POLITICS PRESIDENTS MAKE: Leadership
from John Adams to George Bush (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press, 1993).
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EVOLUTIONARY INFLUENCES
Week #5, February 19, Political Development
James W. Ceaser, NATURE AND HISTORY IN AMERICAN POLITICAL
DEVELOPMENT: A Debate (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press,
2006).
Week #6, February 26, Guest Speaker
James W. Ceaser, University of Virginia
Week #7, March 5, Public Philosophies
John Gerring, PARTY IDEOLOGIES IN AMERICA, 1828-1996 (New York:
Cambridge University Press, 1998).
Week #8, March 12, Issue Evolution
William J.M. Claggett and Byron E. Shafer, THE AMERICAN PUBLIC
MIND: The Issue Structure of Mass Politics in the Postwar United States
(New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010).
Edward G. Carmines and James A. Stimson, “On the Structure and
Sequence of Issue Evolution”, American Political Science Review
80(September 1986), 901-920.
Week #9, March 19, Guest Speaker
Richard Johnston, University of British Columbia
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PUNCTUATED DISRUPTIONS
Week #10, March 26, Culture
Samuel P. Huntington, AMERICAN POLITICS: The Promise of Disharmony
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1981).
Spring Break, April 2, No Class
Week #11, April 9, Partisan Alignment
V.O. Key, Jr., “A Theory of Critical Elections”, Journal of Politics
17(February 1955), 3-18.
James L. Sundquist, DYNAMICS OF THE PARTY SYSTEM: Alignment and
Realignment of Political Parties in the United States, rev.ed. (Washington,
DC: Brookings Institution, 1983).
Week #12, April 16, Guest Speaker
David R. Mayhew, Yale University
EXOGENOUS SHOCKS
Week #13, April 23, International Relations
Robert Saldin, WAR AND AMERICAN POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT (New
York: Cambridge University Press, 2010).
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Week #14, April 30, SYNTHETIC APPROACHES
Byron E. Shafer and Anthony J. Badger, eds., CONTESTING
DEMOCRACY: Substance and Structure in American Political History,
1775-2000 (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2001).
V.O. Key, Jr., “Secular Realignment and the Party System”, Journal of
Politics 21(May 1959), 198-210.
Week #15, May 7, Guest Speaker
Edward G. Carmines
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EXPANDED READING LIST
American Exceptionalism
John W. Kingdon, AMERICA THE UNUSUAL (New York: St. Martin’s/
Worth, 1999).
Byron E. Shafer, "American Exceptionalism," Annual Review of Political
Science 2(1999), 445-463.
Louis Hartz, THE LIBERAL TRADITION IN AMERICA ((New York:
Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1955).
Seymour Martin Lipset, THE FIRST NEW NATION: The United States in
Historical & Comparative Perspective (New York: W.W. Norton, 1979).
Graham K. Wilson, ONLY IN AMERICA? The Politics of the United States
in Comparative Perspective (Chatham, NJ: Chatham House, 1998).
Byron E. Shafer, ed., IS AMERICA DIFFERENT? A New Look at American
Exceptionalism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991).
Social Cleavages
Geoffrey Layman, THE GREAT DIVIDE: Religious and Cultural Conflict in
American Party Politics (New York: Columbia University Press, 2001).
Geoffrey C. Layman and John C. Green, “Wars and Rumors of Wars: The
Contexts of Cultural Conflict in American Political Behavior”, British
Journal of Political Science 36(2006), 61-89.
James Davison Hunter, CULTURE WARS: The Struggle to Define America
(New York: Basic Books, 1991).
Jeff Manza & Clem Brooks, SOCIAL CLEAVAGES AND POLITICAL
CHANGE: Voter Alignments and U.S. Party Coalitions (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1999).
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Jeffrey M. Stonecash, CLASS AND PARTY IN AMERICAN POLITICS
(Boulder: Westview, 2000).
Mark D. Brewer and Jeffrey M. Stonecash, SPLIT: Class and Cultural
Divides in American Politics (Washington, DC: CQ Press, 2006).
Institutional Structure
Stephen Skowronek, THE POLITICS PRESIDENTS MAKE: Leadership
from John Adams to George Bush (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press, 1993).
Eric Schickler, DISJOINTED PLURALISM: Institutional Innovation and the
Development of the U.S. Congress (Princeton: Princeton University Press,
2001).
Gerald N. Rosenberg, THE HOLLOW HOPE: Can Courts Bring About
Social Change? (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991).
Byron E. Shafer, QUIET REVOLUTION: The Struggle for the Democratic
Party and the Shaping of Post-Reform Politics (New York: Russell Sage,
1983).
Austin Ranney, CHANNELS OF POWER: The Impact of Television on
American Politics (New York: Basic Books, 1983).
American Political Development
James W. Ceaser, NATURE AND HISTORY IN AMERICAN POLITICAL
DEVELOPMENT: A Debate (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press,
2006).
Henry Jones Ford, THE RISE AND GROWTH OF AMERICAN POLITICS:
A Sketch of Constitutional Development (New York: Macmillan, 1898).
Michael Barone, OUR COUNTRY: The Shaping of America from Roosevelt
to Reagan (New York: Free Press, 1990).
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Byron E. Shafer & William J.M. Claggett, THE TWO MAJORITIES: The
Issue Context of Modern American Politics (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins
University Press, 1995).
David M. Ricci, THE TRANSFORMATION OF AMERICAN POLITICS: The
Rise of Think Tanks (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993).
Public Philosophies
John Gerring, PARTY IDEOLOGIES IN AMERICA, 1828-1996 (New York:
Cambridge University Press, 1998).
Daniel J. Elazar, THE AMERICAN MOSAIC: The Impact of Space, Time,
and Culture on American Politics (Boulder: Westview Press, 1994).
Herbert McClosky and John Zaller, THE AMERICAN ETHOS: Public
Attitudes toward Capitalism and Democracy (Cambridge: Harvard
University Press, 1984).
Everett Carll Ladd, THE AMERICAN IDEOLOGY: An Exploration of the
Origins, Meaning, and Role of American Political Ideas (Storrs, CT: The
Roper Center, 1994).
Kenneth S. Baer, REINVENTING DEMOCRATS: The Politics of Liberalism
from Reagan to Clinton (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2000).
Issue Evolution
William J.M. Claggett and Byron E. Shafer, THE AMERICAN PUBLIC
MIND: The Issue Structure of Mass Politics in the Postwar United States
(New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010).
Edward G. Carmines and James A. Stimson, “On the Structure and
Sequence of Issue Evolution”, American Political Science Review
80(September 1986), 901-920.
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Edward G. Carmines & James A. Stimson, ISSUE EVOLUTION: Race and
the Transformation of American Politics (Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 1989).
Alan I. Abramowitz, “Issue Evolution Reconsidered: Racial Attitudes and
Partisanship in the US Electorate”, American Journal of Political Science
38(1994), 1-24.
James A. Stimson, PUBLIC OPINION IN AMERICA: Moods, Cycles, and
Swings (Boulder: Westview Press, 1991).
William G. Mayer, THE CHANGING AMERICAN MIND: How and Why
American Public Opinion Changed between 1960 and 1988 (Ann Arbor:
University of Michigan Press, 1993).
Culture
Samuel P. Huntington, AMERICAN POLITICS: The Promise of Disharmony
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1981).
Robert Kelley, THE CULTURAL PATTERN IN AMERICAN POLITICS: The
First Century (New York: Random House, 1979).
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., THE CYCLES OF AMERICAN HISTORY
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1986).
Eric M. Patashnik, REFORMS AT RISK: What Happens After Major Policy
Changes Are Enacted (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008).
Robert S. Erikson, Michael B. MacKuen, and James A. Stimson, THE
MACRO POLITY (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002).
Frank R. Baumgartner and Bryan D. Jones, AGENDAS AND INSTABIILTY
IN AMERICAN POLITICS (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993).
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Partisan Alignment
V.O. Key, Jr., “A Theory of Critical Elections”, Journal of Politics
17(February 1955), 3-18.
James L. Sundquist, DYNAMICS OF THE PARTY SYSTEM: Alignment and
Realignment of Political Parties in the United States, rev.ed. (Washington,
DC: Brookings Institution, 1983).
Walter Dean Burnham, CRITICAL ELECTIONS AND THE MAINSPRINGS
OF AMERICAN POLITICS (New York: W.W. Norton, 1970).
Jerome M. Clubb, William H. Flanagan, and Nancy H. Zingale, PARTISAN
REALIGNMENT: Voters, Parties, and Government in American History
(Boulder: Westview, 1990).
Byron E. Shafer, ed., THE END OF REALIGNMENT? Interpreting
American Electoral Eras (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1991).
David R. Mayhew, ELECTORAL REALIGNMENTS: A Critique of an
American Genre (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002).
Theodore Rosenof, REALIGNMENT: The Theory That Changed the Way We
Think about American Politics (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003).
External Shocks
Robert Saldin, WAR AND AMERICAN POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT (New
York: Cambridge University Press, 2010).
Daniel Tichenor, DIVIDING LINES: The Politics of Immigration Control in
America (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2002).
Hugh Davis Graham, THE CIVIL RIGHTS ERA: Origins and Development
of National Policy, 1960-1972 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990).
John D. Skrentny, THE MINORITY RIGHTS REVOLUTION (Cambridge,
MA: Harvard University Press, 2002).
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Synthetic Approaches
Byron E. Shafer & Anthony J. Badger, eds., CONTESTING DEMOCRACY:
Substance and Structure in American Political History, 1775-2000
(Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2001).
Gareth Davies, FROM OPPORTUNITY TO ENTITLEMENT: The Transformation and Decline of Great Society Liberalism (Lawrence: University
Press of Kansas, 1996).
William Nisbet Chambers and Walter Dean Burnham, eds., THE
AMERICAN PARTY SYSTEMS: Stages of Political Development (New
York: Oxford University Press, 1967).
Pietro S. Nivola & David W. Brady, eds., RED AND BLUE NATION:
Characteristics and Causes of America’s Polarized Politics, Vol. 1
(Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 2006).
Jeffrey M. Stonecash, Mark D. Brewer, and Mack D. Mariani, DIVERGING
PARTIES: Social Change, Realignment, and Party Polarization (Boulder:
Westview, 2003).
Andrew Gelman, RED STATE, BLUE STATE, RICH STATE, POOR STATE:
Why Americans Vote the Way They Do (Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 2008).
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