Class Calendar

To download a list of daily discussion questions, please click here.

I. MEASURING PUBLIC OPINION

Tuesday, January 15: Introductory Remarks

• No reading assignment.

Thursday, January 17: Public Opinion and the Classical Tradition

• Erikson and Tedin (2007): Chapter 1 (sections 1-2).
• James Bryce, "The Nature of Public Opinion." In, Morris Janowitz and Paul M. Hirsch, eds., Reader in Public Opinion and Mass Communication (1981): 3-9.
• A. Lawrence Lowell, "Public Opinion." In, Morris Janowitz and Paul M. Hirsch, eds. Reader in Public Opinion and Mass Communication (1981): 10-16.

Tuesday, January 22: Changing Conceptions of Public Opinion

• Erikson and Tedin (2007): Chapter 1 (sections 3-7).
• Herbert Blumer, "Public Opinion and Public Opinion Polling," American Sociological Review, 13 (1948): 542-549.
• Philip E. Converse, "Changing Conceptions of Public Opinion in the Political Process," Public Opinion Quarterly, 52 (1987): S12-S24.
• Adam J. Berinsky, “The Two Faces of Public Opinion,” American Journal of Political Science, 43 (October 1999): 1209-1230.

Thursday, January 24: A Primer on Survey Research

• Asher (2004): Chapters 1-5.
• John Zaller and Stanley Feldman, “A Simple Theory of the Survey Response: Answering Questions versus Revealing Preferences,” American Journal of Political Science, 36 (August 1992): 579-616.

Tuesday, January 29: The Use (and Abuse) of Polls

• Asher (2004): Chapters 6-9.
• Andrew Kohut, “Getting it Wrong,” The New York Times (January 10, 2008).

Thursday, January 31: Computer Lab

• Location T.B.A.

Tuesday, February 5: Beyond Numbers: The Quantitative-Qualitative Debate

• Jennifer L. Hochschild, What’s Fair? American Beliefs about Distributive Justice (1981): Chapters 1-3, 8.
• Stanley Feldman and John Zaller, "The Political Culture of Ambivalence," American Journal of Political Science, 36 (1992): 268-307.
• James S. Fishkin and Robert C. Luskin, “Experimenting with a Democratic Ideal: Deliberative Polling and Public Opinion,” Acta Politics, 40 (2005): 284-298.

II. SOURCES OF PUBLIC OPINION

Thursday, February 7: Agents of Socialization

• Erikson and Tedin (2007): Chapter 5.
• Richard G. Niemi and Mary A. Hepburn, “The Rebirth of Political Socialization,” Perspectives on Political Science, 24 (1995): 7-16.
• Edgar Litt, “Civic Education, Community Norms, and Political Indoctrination,” American Sociological Review, 28 (1963): 69-75.

Tuesday, February 12: Political Knowledge

• Walter Lippmann, “The Phantom Public.” In, The Lanahan Readings in the American Polity, 4th edition. Edited by Ann G. Serow and Everett C. Ladd (2007): 383-387.
• Michael X. Delli Carpini and Scott Keeter, “Measuring Political Knowledge: Putting First Things First,” American Journal of Political Science, 37 (November 1993): 1179-1206.
• James H. Kuklinski, Paul J. Quirk, Jennifer Jerit, David Schwieder, and Robert F. Rich, “Misinformation and the Currency of Democratic Citizenship,” Journal of Politics, 62 (August 2000): 790-816.

Thursday, February 14: Anxiety and Emotion

• Ted Brader, “Striking a Responsive Chord: How Political Ads Motivate and Persuade Voters by Appealing to Emotions,” American Journal of Political Science, 49 (April 2005): 388-405.
• Leonie Huddy, Stanley Feldman, Charles Taber, and Gallya Lahav, “Threat Anxiety, and Support for Antiterrorism Policies,” American Journal of Political Science, 49 (July 2005): 593-608.

Tuesday, February 19: Social Identities

• Erikson and Tedin (2007): Chapter 7.
• Donald P. Green, Eric Schickler, and Bradley Palmquist, Partisan Hearts and Minds: Political Parties and the Social Identities of Voters (2002): Chapter 2, “Partisan Groups as Objects of Identification,” 24-51.
• Donald L. Kinder and Nicholas Winter, “Exploring the Racial Divide: Blacks, Whites, and Opinion on National Policy,” American Journal of Political Science, 45 (April 2001): 439-456.

Thursday, February 21: Self-Interest

• Paul R. Brewer, “Public Opinion, Economic Issues, and the Vote: Are Presidential Elections ‘All About the Benjamins’?” In, Understanding Public Opinion, edited by Barbara Norrander and Clyde Wilcox (2001): 243-262.
• Robert Erikson, “Economic Conditions and the Presidential Vote,” American Political Science Review, 83 (1989): 567 676.

Tuesday, February 26: The News Media

• Erikson and Tedin (2007): Chapter 8.
• Martin Gilens, “Race and Poverty in America: Public Misperceptions and the American News Media,” Public Opinion Quarterly, 60 (1996): 515-541.
• Mark Hetherington, “The Media’s Role in Forming Voters’ National Economic Evaluations in 1992.” American Journal of Political Science, 40 (1996): 372-395.

Thursday, February 28: The News Media (continued)

• John Zaller, “Monica Lewinsky’s Contribution to Political Science,” PS: Political Science & Politics, 31 (June 1998): 182-189.
• Steven Kull, Clay Ramsay, and Evan Lewis, “Misperceptions, the Media, and the Iraq War,” Political Science Quarterly, 118 (Winter 2003-2004): 569-598.

  TOWN MEETING DAY: Tuesday, March 4

 ^{MIDTERM EXAM: Thursday, March 6}

  SPRING RECESS: March 10-14

III. ORGANIZING ATTITUDES

Tuesday, March 18: The Nature of Mass Belief Systems

• Erikson and Tedin (2007): Chapter 3.
• Mark A. Peffley and Jon Hurwitz, “A Hierarchical Model of Attitude Constraint,” American Journal of Political Science, 29 (1985): 871-890.
• James W. Prothro and Charles M. Grigg, “Fundamental Principles of Democracy: Bases of Agreement and Disagreement,” Journal of Politics, 22 (1960): 276-294.

Thursday, March 20: Core Values and Beliefs

• Erikson and Tedin (2007): Chapter 6.
• Stanley Feldman, “Structure and Consistency in Public Opinion: The Role of Core Beliefs and Values,” American Journal of Political Science, 32 (May 1988): 416-440.
• Darren W. Davis and Brian D. Silver, “Civil Liberties vs. Security: Public Opinion in the Context of the Terrorist Attacks on America,” American Journal of Political Science, 48 (January 2004): 28-46.
• James B. Murphy, “Tug of War,” Education Next (Fall 2003): 70-76.

IV. THE DISTRIBUTION OF OPINION

Tuesday, March 25: One State, Two State, Red State, Blue State

• Michael Barone, “The 49 Percent Nation,” National Journal (June 9, 2001).
• Morris P. Fiorina, with Samuel J. Abrams and Jeremy C. Pope, Culture War? The Myth of a Polarized America (2006): Chapters 1-2.

V. MOVEMENT IN PUBLIC OPINION

Thursday, March 27: What Moves Public Opinion?

• Erikson and Tedin (2007): Chapter 4.
• Benjamin I. Page and Robert Y. Shapiro, The Rational Public: Fifty Years of Trends in Americans’ Policy Preferences (1992): Chapter 2, “The Myth of Capricious Change,” 37-66.
• James A. Stimson, Public Opinion in America: Moods, Cycles, and Swings (1999): Chapter 2, “The Concept of Policy Mood,” 19-36.
• Marc J. Hetherington and Michael Nelson, “Anatomy of a Rally Effect: George W. Bush and the War on Terrorism,” PS: Political Science and Politics, 36 (January 2003): 37-42.

   ^{OUTLINE and BIBLIOGRAPHY DUE:  Thursday, March 27}

VI. ACTION AND ENGAGEMENT

Tuesday, April 1: Civic Participation: An Introduction

• Robert Putnam, "The Strange Disappearance of Civic America," The American Prospect, 7 (1996).
• Garry Wills, “Putnam’s America,” The American Prospect (November 30, 2002).
• Gary Wolf, “How the Internet Invented Howard Dean,” Wired, issue 12-01 (January 2004).

Thursday, April 3: Understanding Trends in Voter Turnout

• Thomas Patterson, “The Vanishing Voter: Why Are the Voting Booths So Empty?” National Civic Review (Winter 2002): 367-378.
• Michael P. McDonald and Samuel L. Popkin, “The Myth of the Vanishing Voter,” American Political Science Review, 95 (December 2001): 963-974.

Tuesday, April 8: Getting Out the Vote

• Marshall Ganz, “Motor Voter or Motivated Voter?” The American Prospect, 28 (1996): 41-48.
• Patrick C. Meirick and Daniel B. Wackman, “Kids Voting and Political Knowledge: Narrowing Gaps, Informing Votes,” Social Science Quarterly, 85 (December 2004): 1161-1177.
• Alan S. Gerber and Donald P. Green, “Does Canvassing Increase Voter Turnout? A Field Experiment,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, 96 (September 1999): 10939-10942.

Thursday, April 10: Models of Voting

• Edward G. Carmines and James A. Stimson, “The Two Faces of Issue Voting,” American Political Science Review, 74 (March 1980): 78-91.
• 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.

Tuesday, April 15: Elections as an Instrument of Popular Control

• Erikson and Tedin (2007) Chapter 9.
• Richard R. Lau and David P. Redlawsk, “Voting Correctly,” American Political Science Review, 91 (September 1997): 585-598.
• Larry M. Bartels, "Uniformed Votes: Information Effects in Presidential Elections," American Journal of Political Science, 40 (1996): 194-230.

VII. CONSEQUENCES

Thursday, April 17: The Interplay between Public Opinion and Public Policy

• Erikson and Tedin (2007): Chapter 10.
• Benjamin I. Page and Robert Y. Shapiro, “Effects of Public Opinion on Policy,” American Political Science Review, 77 (1983): 175-190.
• Robert Weissberg, “Why Policymakers Should Ignore Public Opinion Polls,” Policy Analysis, 301 (May 29, 2001): 1-16.

Tuesday, April 22: Manipulating Opinion

• Kathleen M. McGraw, “Manipulating Public Opinion.” In, Understanding Public Opinion, edited by Barbara Norrander and Clyde Wilcox (2001): 265-280.
• Michael Barone, “Polls are Part of the Air Politicians Breathe,” Public Perspective,” 8 (1997): 1-2.
• Lawrence R. Jacobs and Robert Y. Shapiro, “Debunking the Pandering Politician Myth,” Public Perspective, 8 (April/May 1997): 3-5.
• Frank Luntz, “The Environment: A Cleaner, Safer, Healthier America” (1995). See also: http://www.luntzspeak.com.

Thursday, April 24: Trust in Government

• Marc J. Hetherington, “The Political Relevance of Political Trust, “American Political Science Review, 92 (December 1998): 791-808.
• John R. Hibbing and Elizabeth Theiss-Morse, “Process Preferences and American Politics: What the People Want Government to Be,” American Political Science Review, 95 (March 2001): 145-153.

Tuesday, April 29: Governing by Public Opinion

• Erikson and Tedin (2007): Chapter 11.
• V.O. Key, “Public Opinion and American Democracy.” In, The Lanahan Readings in the American Polity, 4th edition. Edited by Ann G. Serow and Everett C. Ladd (2007): 387.

RESEARCH PAPER DUE: Tuesday, April 29

 ^{FINAL EXAM: Tuesday, May 6, from 9:00-11:00 AM}