Political Science 12
University of California, Santa Barbara
Department of Political Science
Introduction to American Government and Politics
Lotte Lehman Concert Hall, MWF 11-11:50 a.m.
Fall 2012
Instructor: Visiting Professor J. Theodore Anagnoson (a/NAG/no/son), Ellison 3713. anagnoson@polsci.ucsb.edu or
anag999@silcom.com. By far the best way to reach me is by email.
Office hour 12-1:00 on Fridays. If this is inconvenient, email me for a different time. Most emails answered
within a few hours.
Course web site: On GauchoSpace.
Teaching Assistants: Nicole Filler nicolegfiller@umail.ucsb.edu; Julian Gottlieb gottlieb@umail.ucsb.edu;
Katie Swain kostrander@umail.ucsb.edu ; EG Garey eggaray1@gmail.com
Welcome to POL S 12 for Fall 2012.
If you have a 3 or better in the AP American government exam, you
shouldn’t take POL S 12. You won’t get any credit for it – be ye warned.
Course Description: POL S 12. American Government and Politics (4). Political ideas, institutions, and processes
of American government. The role of congress and the president in policy formation and of the supreme court in
interpreting the constitution.
Purpose – an introductory survey of American politics. We begin with the constitution, federalism, civil rights and
civil liberties (= the rules of the game). We do the major institutions: Congress, the presidency, the Supreme Court (the
decision makers). And we cover political behavior: public opinion, voting, campaigns, elections, parties, interest
groups, and the media (the ways that society influences the decision makers).
Student Learning Outcomes – Most importantly, a basic understanding of the fundamentals of American politics. An
understanding of the constitution and how it has lasted for 200+ years. The fundamentals of the above topics.
Books and Materials – the three main books are on one-day reserve.
• Kernell, Samuel, Gary C. Jacobson and Thad Kousser. The Logic of American Politics. 5th ed. Washington,
D.C.: CQ Press, 2012.
• Fiorina, Morris with Samuel J. Abrams. Disconnect, The Breakdown of Representation in American Politics.
Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2009.
• Hacker, Jacob S. and Paul Pierson. Winner-Take-All Politics, How Washington Made the Rich Richer and
Turned Its Back on the Middle Class. N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, 2010.
• Various articles and web-based materials. Most of those on the syllabus are 1-2 pages, like op-ed pieces.
Sometimes I will place things on GauchoSpace; these are required reading in the sense that I expect that you
have read them when it comes to the exams. If this is not the case, and the reading is truly optional, it will be
labeled “optional.”
• Web sites listed on the syllabus are optional.
If there are changes to the readings, these will be announced in class and posted on GauchoSpace.
Other (optional) materials – the Kahn Academy has a few videos on the constitution and one on the Prisoners’
Dilemma, and there are a lot of YouTube videos on prisoners’ dilemmas if you are interested, as well as interviews
and short talks by the authors, particularly Mo Fiorina, Jacob Hacker, and Paul Pierson.
Course Requirements
1. Attendance –we don’t take attendance because there are too many of you, but I consider it required. If you don’t
come, you will miss a lot. Be ye warned.
2.
Midterm Examination 25% – scheduled for Friday, November 2 during class time. The exam will consist of
short essays (on which you write 1-2 paragraphs) and a long essay.
POL S 12 – Fall 2012.
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3.
Paper 25% – due the end of the 9th week, Friday, November 30th. We will announce how the papers are to be
turned in. The penalty for turning in a late paper is a drop of one grade (e.g., A- to B-, etc.) for each day the paper
is late.
• Advice – start planning your paper starting week 2! You will have dates when your topic, a short
bibliography, and then an outline of the paper are due to your TA. You should be on time for these, and
you should turn in as extensive an outline and bibliography as you can – these are ways to convince your
TA that you are on top of things and to receive good quality feedback.
• “Obviousman” Hint: people who are “on top of things” do better in academic work, and in life.
4.
Final Exam. 40%. Scheduled for: Thursday, December 13, 2012. 12 noon to 3 p.m.
5.
Make-up exams – with appropriate documentation, and for medical and other emergencies, you may take a makeup exam for both the midterm and the final.
• However, all make-up exams are all essay, with no choice.
• They are graded by Dr. Anagnoson, not by your TA.
o You don’t want to do this unless you absolutely have to.
6.
Section grade. 10%. This grade is assigned by your teaching assistant.
Grading scale: Your TA will either assign numbers or use grades and then convert them to numbers. The grading
scale is:
A+ 97-100
B+ 87-89
C+ 77-79
D+ 67-69
F <60
A 93-96
B 83-86
C 73-76
D 63-66
A- 90-92
B- 80-82
C- 70-72
D- 60-62
The papers: Your paper should be eight to ten pages. Plus your list of sources/bibliography, tables, figures, and a
cover page. The format for the footnotes and works cited is the American Political Science Association format, which
is summarized on one of several two to four-page handouts available on GauchoSpace. The format is similar to that of
the APA.
Paper policies – Please note carefully:
• Papers must be typed or word processed, 11 or 12 point type, double spaced, normal margins (1” on all four sides
or 1.25” on the left and 1” on the top, bottom and right).
• Please indent and single space any quotes that are longer than 3 lines. Check a style guide to see how to do
this.
• Papers should be well-edited and checked for spelling, punctuation, run-on sentences, agreement between subject
and verb, agreement among pronouns, tense and general sentence construction and syntax.
• Do not use plastic folders for your paper; generally speaking, professors just toss them.
• Use a title page with the title of the paper, your name, this course number, your TA’s name and section day and
time, plus the date, and staple the whole package in the upper left.
• Use page numbers.
• If you wish to have your name or an identifier at the top of each page, use the last four digits of UCSB’s student id
number. Do not place your name at the top of each page.
• Use the American Political Science Association style. Several guides to same are on GauchoSpace.
• If you submit anything electronically to me, I need either RTF (rich text format) or Word for Windows 2003 or
2007. No PDFs or older versions of WordPerfect, please. Your TA will give you his or her specific requirements.
People often ask what I want in a paper. Here is the answer:
• Depth and analysis strongly preferred to breadth and bologna.
• Well-researched. Any statement that is not in the common domain or is not your opinion should be
documented. For a frosh paper, you will probably have a citation every 2nd or 3rd sentence, at least.
• Well-written. No grammatical or stylistic errors whatsoever – the best edited paper you have ever done in
your life. Neither your TA nor I is your proofreader or editor. There is no surer way to have your paper’s
grade sink than to submit a paper with numerous stylistic and grammatical errors.
POL S 12 – Fall 2012.
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Thoroughly analyzed. Answering the question of what happened and why.
Opinion kept to the very end.
What is an A, B, C, D and F Paper? There’s no room for this here, but there is a document on GauchoSpace that
details the differences among A, B, C, D, and F papers. Read it.
Professionalism and Community Respect:
1. Policy on attendance – In my upper division classes, I take attendance at every class to encourage people to
come. In the lectures in this class, we obviously can’t do that, but you should be aware that there is a strong
correlation between attendance, your grade, and the amount learned.
2.
Academic Dishonesty / Cheating policy -- You need to do your own work. Collaborating with others either in
the class or outside it is ENCOURAGED when you are planning your papers, planning your poster, and studying
for exams. Forming study groups is often an effective way to study and to learn. But when you write your paper
(or take a take-home exam), you need to work on your own.
• You must observe all the standard rules of attribution -- if you get an idea or a phrase or a quote or a
paraphrase or anything at all from another source, it needs to be acknowledged. Use the APSA style with
the author's name, the date, and the page number at the end of the sentence (Anagnoson 2003, 96). Then
have a list of references at the end of the document. If I find that you have copied material from another
source without attribution, you will receive a zero for the particular piece of work in question (your term
paper) or in the entire course (as per UCSB guidelines) and be reported to Student Affairs. This
statement includes ideas from your friends or me or the TAs (Anagnoson 2009).
Reference: Anagnoson, J. Theodore. Conversation. 1/15/09.
Here is the UCSB site on academic integrity: http://judicialaffairs.sa.ucsb.edu/AcademicIntegrity.aspx
UCSB’s policy on plagiarism, applying to both examinations and term papers:
Representing the words, ideas, or concepts of another person without appropriate attribution is
plagiarism. Whenever another person’s written word is utilized, whether it be a single phrase or longer,
quotation marks must be used and sources cited. Paraphrasing another’s work, i.e., borrowing ideas or
concepts and putting them into one’s own words, must also be acknowledged.
The UCSB guidelines on plagiarism state (good advice in my view):
“Credit must be given:
1. For every direct quotation.
2. When a work is paraphrased or summarized in whole or in part in your own words.
3. For information which is not common knowledge (it appears in several sources about the subject).
UCSB History Professor Sears McGee advises: ‘Generally, if a student writes while looking at a source or
while looking at notes taken from a source, a footnote should be given’.”
Remind me to tell you about the student who copied three articles from Penthouse Magazine for his paper in
POL S 158 around 1980, not to mention the several cases we had this last year.
I don’t want you to plagiarize, and I don’t expect you to plagiarize. Plagiarism is wrong because it's a form of stealing,
because it's unfair to other students, and because it ultimately prevents you from acquiring the writing skills you're
going to need—and be expected to have—as a college graduate in the work force or in graduate school. The #1
complaint from employers about California public college graduates is that they can’t write well.
If we have proof that you have plagiarized, you’ll have a record in Student Affairs – I report all incidents.
We reserve the right to run selected papers through software that looks for plagiarized passages.
3.
4.
Cell Phones and Pagers, etc. -- please turn these off in class. If your cell phone goes off in class, I answer it
– you don’t want that to happen, although I have sometimes had interesting conversations with students’
parents and friends.
PPTs for each class. PPTs will be available for some classes by about 10 p.m. the night before class. The
PPTs are more an outline than a record of the class, that is, they are not a substitute for coming to class. If
attendance is good, I’ll put more content in them over time.
POL S 12 – Fall 2012.
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Students with Disabilities – please let the instructor and/or TA know if you fall into this category, and we
will arrange appropriate accommodation.
Library guides for political science are located here: http://guides.library.ucsb.edu/politics.
There is an extensive guide for American politics – choose “American Government and Politics” from the fourth line
from the top.
Holidays:
Lecture/Discussion Schedule
(Web sites listed are optional.)
Monday, November 12, Veterans Day
Thursday and Friday, November 22-23, Thanksgiving
There IS class the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.
1.
Introduction. 9/28
a. Kernell, Chapter 1.
b. Hamilton, Lee H. “In Defense of Politics.” The Center on Congress at Indiana University, 3/27/12.
c. Hujer, Marc. “The End of Reason, What Potatoes Say About the State of U.S. Democracy.” Der
Spiegel, August 17, 2012.
2.
Demographics, the U.S. Constitution. Plagiarism. 10/1, 10/3, 10/5
a. UCSB, Student Affairs. “Academic Integrity: A Student’s Guide.”
b. Kernell, Chapter 2.
c. Federalist papers numbers 10 and 51 (Kernell, Appendices).
d. Thomas B. Edsall. “What the Right Gets Right.” NYT Blog, January 15, 2012.
e. Stengel, Richard. “One Document, Under Siege.” Time Magazine, June 23, 2011.
f. Web sites: National Constitution Center: www.constitutioncenter.org. PBS series on liberty:
http://www.pbs.org/ktca/liberty/.
3.
Federalism. 10/8, 10/10
a. Kernell, Chapter 3.
b. Library, Institute for Governmental Studies, UC Berkeley. “Medical Marijuana.” Quick Research
Tool. August 2009.
http://igs.berkeley.edu/library/research/quickhelp/policy/social/medicalmairjuana.html
c. National Federation of Independent Business et. al. v. Sebelius, sections of Chief Justice Roberts’
opinion re Medicaid and federalism. June 2012.
d. Wilentz, Sean. “States of Anarchy: America’s Long, Sordid Affair with Nullification.” New Republic,
April 29, 2010.
e. Web sites: AEI: Census Bureau: www.census.gov. Urban Institute : www.urban.org.
4.
Civil liberties. 10/12, 10/15
a. Kernell, Chapter 4.
b. Hoffman, Jan. “Police Refine Methods So Potent, Even the Innocent Have Confessed.” New York
Times, March 30, 1998.
c. Shipler, David. “Why do Innocent People Confess?” NYT. February 23, 2012.
d. Schat, David. “Five Myths About Church and State in America.” Washington Post, April 22, 2012.
e. Denniston, Lyle. “Constitution Check: Can the Government Require Protesters to Justify Their
Intentions?” National Constitution Center, 8/14/12.
f. October 12: Fiorina, Chapters 1-2.
g. Web sites: Religious freedom page: http://religiousfreedom.lib.virginia.edu/. Electronic Privacy
Information Center: http://epic.org/privacy/. ACLU: www.aclu.org.
5.
Civil rights. 10/17, 10/19
a. Kernell, Chapter 5.
b. Ford, Richard Thompson. “Civil Rights are Yesterday, It’s Time for a New Approach to Social
Justice.” Zocalo Public Square, January 16, 2012.
POL S 12 – Fall 2012.
c.
d.
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Web sites: ADA: www.ada.gov. US Commission on Civil Rights: http://www.usccr.gov/. On gender
discrimination: http://www.equalitynow.org/. Latinos: http://www.maldef.org/. Blacks :
www.naacp.org.
October 19: Fiorina, Chapters 3-4.
6.
Congress. 10/22, 10/24
a. Kernell, Chapter 6.
b. Mufson, Steven. “Read Their Lips: For the Origin of Today’s Deficit Fight, Look to 1990.”
Washington Post, July 27, 2011.
c. Hamilton, Lee H. “Why Politicians Overreach.” Center on Congress at Indiana University, March 10,
2011.
d. Burke, Sheila. “The U.S. Congress and Health Policy.” Tutorial. http://www.kaiseredu.org/Tutorialsand-Presentations/US-Congress-and-Health-Policy.aspx
e. Schlobohm, Alan. “The Process of Health Reform Legislation.” November 2009. Kaiser Family
Foundation. http://www.kaiseredu.org/tutorials/reformprocess/player.html
f. Web sites: Politics page of the Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics. Roll Call:
http://www.rollcall.com/.
7.
The Presidency. 10/26, 10/29
a. Kernell, Chapter 7
b. October 26, Fiorina Ch 5-6.
c. Miller, Aaron David. “Five Myths About the Presidency.” Washington Post, February 17, 2012.
d. FairVote.org. “Delegate Allocation Rules in 2012 GOP Nomination Race: The Spectrum from
Proportional Representation to Winner Take All.” FairVote.
e. Knowledge at Wharton. “Ten Ways to Judge a President.” July 22, 2009.
f. Der Spiegel. “Ronald Reagan’s PR Director, ‘Our Political System is Basically Dysfunctional’.” June
14, 2012.
g. Ackerman, Bruce, and Oona Hathaway. “Death of the War Powers Act?” Washington Post blogs,
May 17, 2012.
h. Web site: American Pres. Project: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/. Miller Center on the Presidency,
U of Virginia: http://millercenter.org/. For fun: http://www.vicepresidents.com.
8.
Midterm examination.
9.
The courts and judicial system. 10/31, 11/5
a. Kernell, Chapter 9.
b. Federalist no. 78.
c. Glennon, Michael J. “The Case that Made the Court.” Wilson Quarterly, 2003, pp. 20-28.
d. Liptak, Adam. “At Heart of Health Law Clash, a 1942 Case of a Farmer’s Wheat.” New York Times,
March 19, 2012.
e. Web sites: Office of the Solicitor General: http://www.justice.gov/osg/index.html. U.S. Supreme
Court: http://www.supremecourt.gov/default.aspx.
11/2
10. Public Opinion. 11/7, 11/9
a. November 9: Fiorina, Chapters 7-8
b. Kernell, Chapter 10
c. Check where you are on the World’s Shortest Political Quiz (10 questions – do you think they are fair
questions?) - http://www.theadvocates.org/quiz
d. Cillizza, Chris. “How Much Government is Too Much Government?” Washington Post, 6/27/12.
e. Jones, Jeffrey M. “Economy is Paramount Issue to U.S. Voters, Social Issues, Immigration are Less
Important. Gallup.com, February 29, 2012.
f. Appelbaum, Binyamin, and Robert Gebeloff. “Even Critics of the Safety Net Increasingly Depend on
it.” New York Times, February 11, 2012.
g. Web sites: American Association for PO Research: http://www.aapor.org/Home.htm. Pew:
http://www.pewtrusts.org/. Gallup: http://www.gallup.com/home.aspx?ref=logo
POL S 12 – Fall 2012.
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Monday 11/12 – Veterans Day
11. Voting and elections. 11/14, 11/16
a. Kernell, Chapter 11
b. Take the Pew Political Party Quiz to see where you fit overall, on economic issues, and on social
issues: http://www.people-press.org/political-party-quiz/
c. Galston, William A. “Telling Americans to Vote, or Else.” New York Times, November 6, 2011,
Review, p. 9.
d. Connelly, Marjorie. “Dissecting the Changing Electorate.” New York Times, November 9, 2008,
Review, p. 5.
e. Luo, Michael. “Changes Have Money Talking Louder than Ever in Midterms.” New York Times,
October 8, 2010.
f. “Do Voter ID Laws Prevent Fraud, or Dampen Turnout?” NPR Fresh Air, August 15, 2012.
g. Page, Susan, Jerry Mosemak and Cooper Allen. “Why 90 Million Americans Won’t Vote in
November.” USA Today, August 15, 2012.
h. Web sites: Cook political report: http://cookpolitical.com/. Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball:
http://www.centerforpolitics.org/crystalball/.
i. November 16: Hacker and Pierson, Chapters 1-2-3
12. Political parties. 11/19, 11/21
a. Read: Kernell, Chapter 12.
Thanksgiving is 11/22, 11/23
13. Interest groups. 11/26, 11/28
a. Kernell, Chapter 13.
b. Washington Post, 3 articles from January/February 2012 on the “influence industry.”
c. Abramson, Jill. “The Business of Persuasion Thrives in the Nation’s Capital.” NY Times, September
29, 1998.
d. Web sites: Take a look at the range of goods and services offered by the AARP at www.aarp.org.
14. The news media. 11/30, 12/3
a. Kernell, Chapter 14.
b. November 30: Hacker and Pierson, Chapters 4, 5, 6.
c. Keller, Bill. “The Politics of Ecnonomics in the Age of Shouting.” NY Times, 11/27/2011.
d. Web site: Pew: http://www.pew.org. Accuracy in Media: http://www.aim.org/.
e. Hacker and Pierson, Chapters 7-8
15. The Politics of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA or ACA), 12/5
a. Kernell, Chapter 15.
On the PPACA, read:
b. Urban Institute. “Health Care Reform.” 2012. A two page overview of the PPACA.
c. Blumberg, Linda, et. al. “The Individual Mandate in Perspective, Timely Analysis of Immediate
Health Policy Issues.” March 2012. Washington, D.C.: The Urban Institute.
d. Zuckerman, Stephen. “What are the Provisions in the New Law for Containing Costs and How
Effective Will They Be? Timely Analysis of Immediate Health Policy Issues.” August 2010.
Washington, D.C.: The Urban Institute.
16. Review for the final, 12/7
a. December 7: Hacker and Pierson, Chapters 7- 10, Conclusion
11 – Final Exam Scheduled
For Thursday December 13, 2012
12 noon to 3 p.m.