I. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS

Monday, August 27: Do Elections Really Matter?

• Editorial, "Fixing Democracy," The New York Times (January 18, 2004).

II. POLITICAL PARTIES IN THEORY AND PRACTICE

Wednesday, August 29: The Function of Political Parties

• Marjorie Randon Hershey, Party Politics in America (2007): Preface and Chapter 1.

Friday, August 31: The American Two-Party System

• Marjorie Randon Hershey, Party Politics in America (2007): Chapters 2-5.

  LABOR DAY HOLIDAY: Monday, September 3

Wednesday, September 5: Electoral Realignments and Party Systems

• Marjorie Randon Hershey, Party Politics in America (2007): Chapter 7.
• Fred Barnes, “Realignment, Now More Than Ever: The Next Best Thing to a Permanent Majority,” The Weekly Standard (November 22, 2004).

Friday, September 7: The 49% Nation

• Michael Barone, "The 49 Percent Nation," National Journal (June 9, 2001): 1710.
• Daniel Casse, "An Emerging Republican Majority?" Commentary (January 2003): 17-22.
• John B. Judis and Ruy Teixeira, “Back to the Future: The Re-Emergence of the Emerging Democratic Majority,” The American Prospect (July-August 2007): 12-18.

Monday, September 10: Understanding Ideology

• Robert B. Smith, "Ideology, Partisanship, and the New Political Continuum," Society (March-April 1997): 13-18.
• Daniel Casse, “Is Bush a Conservative?” Commentary (February 2004): 19-26.

Wednesday, September 12: Third Party Insurgents

• Ralph Nader and Theresa Amato, "So You Want to Run for President?  Ha!  Barriers to Third-Party Entry," National Civic Review (Summer 2001): 163.
• Jack W. Germond and Jules Witcover, "Thanks for Nothing, Ralph," National Journal (November 18, 2000): 3691.

III. THE CITIZEN AS VOTER

Friday, September 14: Voter Turnout in Comparative Perspective

• William H. Flanigan and Nancy H. Zingale, Political Behavior of the American Electorate (2005): Chapters: 1-2.

Monday, September 17: The Vanishing (or Resurgent) Voter?

• Thomas Patterson, "The Vanishing Voter: Why Are the Voting Booths So Empty?" National Civic Review (Winter 2002): 367-378.

Wednesday, September 19: Motorize or Mobilize?

• Marshall Ganz, "Motor Voter or Motivated Voter?" The American Prospect, 28 (1996): 41-48.
• National Voter Registration Act Factsheet.

Friday, September 21: Strategizing Turnout

• Paula Dwyer, Lee Walczak, and Lorraine Woellert, “The Invisible Campaign,” Business Week (September 13, 2004): 30.
• Hal Malchow, “Predicting Turnout in a Presidential Election,” Campaigns & Elections (September 2004): 38-40.

  ^{EXAM #1: Monday, September 24}

Wednesday, September 26: Race and Gender

• Steven Stark, "Gap Politics," The Atlantic Monthly, 278 (July 1996): 71-80.
• Karen Tumulty, "Goodbye, Soccer Mom.  Hello, Security Mom,"  Time (June 2, 2003): 26.
• Tamar Jacoby, “A Voting Bloc Without a Party,” The New York Times (October 28, 2002).

Friday, September 28: Generational Politics

• Anna Greenberg, "New Generation, New Politics," The American Prospect (October 2003): A3.

Monday, October 1: Party Identification

• William H. Flanigan and Nancy H. Zingale, Political Behavior of the American Electorate (2005): Chapters: 3-5.

Wednesday, October 3: The Culture Wars

• William A. Galston, “A Victory for People Like Us: Moral Values and the U.S. Election,” America (February 14): 7 [online].
• Thomas Byrne Edsall, “Blue Movie: The ‘Morality Gap’ is Becoming the Key Variable in American Politics,” The Atlantic Monthly (January-February 2003): 36-37.

Friday, October 5: Issue Voting

• William H. Flanigan and Nancy H. Zingale, Political Behavior of the American Electorate (2005): Chapters: 6-7.
• Karl Eisenhower and Pete Nelson, "The Phony Science of Prediction Elections," Slate (2000).
• Deborah Tannen, “Let Them Eat Words,” The American Prospect (Aug 31, 2003).

Monday, October 8: Candidate Appeal

• Karl M. Cannon, "Voting: It’s Not Just the Economy, Stupid," National Journal (November 1, 2000).
• Jonathan Chait, “Fictional Character: The Invention of Flip-Flop,” The New Republic (October 18, 2004): 20.

Wednesday, October 10: Putting it All Together

• Morris Fiorina, Samuel Abrams, and Jeremy Pope, "The 2000 U.S. Presidential Election: Can Retrospective Voting be Saved?"  British Journal of Political Science, 33 (April 2003): 163-187.
• Joshua Murachik, “Why the Democrats Keep Losing,” Commentary, 119 (2005): 21-32.

   ^{MIDTERM PAPER DUE:} Wednesday, October 10 Monday, October 15

IV. CANDIDATES AND CAMPAIGNS

Friday, October 12: The Incumbency Factor in Congressional Elections

• Gary C. Jacobson, The Politics of Congressional Elections (2001): Chapters 1-4.

Monday, October 15: The Candidate-Centered Campaign

• Gary C. Jacobson, The Politics of Congressional Elections (2001): Chapters 5-7.

Wednesday, October 17: Drawing District Lines

• Steven Hill, “Behind Closed Doors: The Recurring Plague of Redistricting and the Politics of Geography,” National Civic Review (Winter 2002): 317-330.

Friday, October 19: Decoding Midterm Elections

• Paul Glastris, “Politics 101: The Meaning of Midterms,” The Washington Monthly (November 2006): 13-14.
• W. James Antle, III, “Sad Lessons of Election 2006,” The American Spectator (December 2006/January 2007): 14-19.

Monday, October 22: Reforming Congressional Elections

• Gary C. Jacobson, The Politics of Congressional Elections (2001): Chapter 8.

Wednesday, October 24: The Electoral College

• Stephen J. Wayne, The Road to the White House 2004 (2004): Chapter 1.
• Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., "Not the People’s Choice: How to Democratize American Democracy," The American Prospect (March 25, 2002): 23-27.

Friday, October 26: The Presidential Nomination Process

• Stephen J. Wayne, The Road to the White House 2004 (2004): Chapters 4-5.
• John Nichols, "Racing into 2004," The Nation (Feburary 17, 2003): 16.

Monday, October 29: A History of Presidential Campaigns

• Richard J. Ellis and Mark Dedrick, "The Presidential Candidate, Then and Now," Perspectives on Political Science, 26 (Fall 1997): 208-216.

Wednesday, October 31: From Broadsides to Broadcasts: The Changing Role of the Media

• Evan Cornog, "Character vs. Policy:  Press Coverage of the 2000 Presidential Elections," Columbia Journalism Review, 39 (January 2001): 54.
• Mary E. Stuckey, "Here We Go Again: Presidential Elections and the National Media," Perspectives on Political Science (Spring 2000): 99.

Friday, November 2: Campaign Advertising

• Stephen J. Wayne, The Road to the White House 2004 (2004): Chapters 6-7.
• Stephen Ansolabehere and Shanto Iyengar, "Winning, But Losing: How Negative Campaigns Shrink Electorate, Manipulate News Media," Going Negative: How Political Advertisements Shrink and Polarize the Electorate [excerpt].

Monday, November 5: Campaigning on the Web

• Micah L. Sifry, “The Rise of Open-Source Politics,” The Nation (November 22, 2004): 14.
• Brian Reich, “E-Strategies That Worked,” Campaigns & Elections (February 2005): 35-35.

Wednesday, November 7: Film

• The War Room, an excellent documentary about the 1992 Clinton campaign, will be viewed in class.

Friday, November 9: Film (continued)

• The War Room, an excellent documentary about the 1992 Clinton campaign, will be viewed in class.

Monday, November 11: The Making of the President, 2008?

• Stephen J. Wayne, The Road to the White House 2004 (2004): Chapter 8.

Wednesday, November 14: Show Me the Money: The Politics of Campaign Finance

• Stephen J. Wayne, The Road to the White House 2004 (2004): Chapters 2-3.

Friday, November 16: When Pigs Fly: In Search of Real Campaign Finance Reform

• Bradley A. Smith, "Campaign Finance Regulation:  Faulty Assumptions and Undemocratic Consequences," Cato Policy Analysis (1995).
• LII Backgrounder on the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act Cases.

  THANKSGIVING RECESS: November 19-23

Monday, November 26: Film

• True Believers: Life Inside the Dean Campaign will be viewed in class.

Wednesday, November 28: Electoral Reform

• Stephen J. Wayne, The Road to the White House 2004 (2004): Chapter 9.

  ^{EXAM #2:  Friday, November 30}

V. PARTIES IN GOVERNMENT

Monday, December 3:  Divided Government

• Marjorie Randon Hershey, Party Politics in America (2007): Chapters 13-14.
• Stephen E. Nicholson, “The Jeffords Switch and Public Support for Divided Government,” British Journal of Political Science, 35 (April 2005): 343-356.

Wednesday, December 5:  Party Government and Popular Control

• Marjorie Randon Hershey, Party Politics in America (2007): Chapters 15-16.
• Jonathan Chait, “What’s So Great About Bipartisanship? The New Republic (January 15, 2001): 17.

   ^{FINAL PAPER DUE: Friday, December 7 by 4:00 PM}