I. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS

Monday, August 29: How Did We Get Here?

• Jonathan Rauch, "How American Politics Went Insane," The Atlantic (July/August 2016).

II. POLITICAL PARTIES IN THEORY AND PRACTICE

Wednesday, August 31: The Function of Political Parties

• Brian F. Schaffner, Politics, Parties and Elections in America (2011): Preface and Chapter 1.
• APSA, “Toward a More Responsible Two-Party System” (1950): Part 1.

Friday, September 2: The American Two-Party System

• Brian F. Schaffner, Politics, Parties and Elections in America (2011): Chapters 3-5.

  LABOR DAY HOLIDAY: Monday, September 5

Wednesday, September 7: Electoral Realignments and Party Systems

• Brian F. Schaffner, Politics, Parties and Elections in America (2011): Chapter 2.
• David R. Mayhew, Electoral Realignments: A Critique of an American Genre (2004): Chapters 2-3.
• Michael Lind, "This is What the Future of American Politics Looks Like," Politico (May 22, 2016).

Friday, September 9: Party Polarization

• Michael Barone, "The 49 Percent Nation," National Journal (June 9, 2001): 1710.
• Morris P. Fiorina, Samuel J. Abrams, and Jeremy C. Pope, Culture War? The Myth of a Polarized America (2004): Chapters 1-2.
• Marc J. Hetherington, “Putting Polarization in Perspective,” British Journal of Political Science, 39 (2009): 413-448.

Monday, September 12: Understanding Ideology

• “The Split,” The New Republic (June 14, 2016).
• Harold Meyerson, “The Long March of Bernie’s Army,” The American Prospect (March 23, 2016).
• Amanda Taub, “After Trump: How Authoritarian Voters Will Change American Politics," Vox (April 28, 2016).

Wednesday, September 14: Third Party Insurgents

• Steven J. Rosenstone, Roy L. Behr, and Edward H. Lazarus, Third Parties in America: Citizen Response to Major Party Failure (1996): Chapters 2 & 5.
• Robert Reich, “How the Peoples Party Prevailed in 2020,” RobertReich.org (March 21, 2016).
• Ezra Klein, “A Third Party Won’t Fix What’s Broken in American Politics,” Vox (December 8, 2014).

III. THE CITIZEN AS VOTER

Friday, September 16: Voter Turnout in Comparative Perspective

• Brian F. Schaffner, Politics, Parties and Elections in America (2011): Chapter 7.

Monday, September 19: The Vanishing (or Resurgent) Voter?

• Thomas Patterson, "The Vanishing Voter: Why Are the Voting Booths So Empty?" National Civic Review (Winter 2002): 367-378.
• Dylan Matthews, “Obama Suggested Making it Illegal Not to Vote. Here’s How That’s Worked in Australia,” Vox (March 18, 2015).

Wednesday, September 21: Motorize or Mobilize?

• Marshall Ganz, "Motor Voter or Motivated Voter?" The American Prospect, 28 (1996): 41-48.
• Sasha Issenberg, “How Obama’s Team Used Big Data to Rally Voters,” MIT Technology Review (December 19, 2012).

Friday, September 23: The Politics of Voter Turnout: Fraud and Suppression

• Spencer Overton, Stealing Democracy: The New Politics of Voter Suppression (2006): Chapter 6.
• Jim Rutenberg, “A Dream Undone,” The New York Times Magazine (July 29, 2015).

Monday, September 26: How We Vote, Part I: Identity Politics

• Brian F. Schaffner, Politics, Parties and Elections in America (2011): Chapter 7.
• Donald R. Kinder and Cindy D. Kam, Us Against Them: Ethnocentric Foundations of American Opinion (2010): Chapters 1-3.

Wednesday, September 28: How We Vote, Part II: Generational Politics

• Martin P. Wattenberg, Is Voting for Young People? (2007): Introduction and Chapters 6-7.
• Nathan Heller, “Feeling the Bern With the Youth Vote,” The New Yorker (August 25, 2015).

Friday, September 30: How We Vote, Part III: Class and the Culture Wars

• Ronald Brownstein, “The Class Inversion of American Politics Accelerates,” The Atlantic (July 26, 2016).
• Thomas Frank, “Millions of Ordinary Americans Support Donald Trump. Here's Why,” The Guardian (March 7, 2016). 
• Margaret Talbot, “The Populist Prophet: Bernie Sanders has Spent Decades Attacking Inequality. Now the Country is Listening,” The New Yorker (October 12, 2015).

Monday, October 3: How We Vote, Part IV: Reason and Emotion

• Donald Green, Bradley Palmquist, and Eric Schickler, Partisan Hearts and Minds: Political Parties and the Social Identities of Voters (2004): Chapters 1-2.
• Drew Westen, The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation (2007): Chapters 1-2.
• Christopher D. Cook, “The Pragmatic Case for Bernie Sanders,” The Atlantic (February 15, 2016).

Wednesday, October 5: How We Vote, Part IV: Issue Voting

• Alan A. Abramowitz, "Forecasting the 2016 Presidential Election: Will Time for Change Mean Time for Trump?" Sabato's Crystal Ball (August 11, 2016).

Friday, October 7: How We Vote, Part V: Candidate Evaluations

• Henry Louis Gates, “Hating Hillary,” The New Yorker (February 26, 1996).
• Amanda Taub, “The Rise of American Authoritarianism,” Vox (March 1, 2016).

  FALL RECESS: Monday, October 10

Wednesday, October 12: Putting it all Together

• Gerald M. Pomper, “The 2000 Presidential Election: Why Gore Lost,” Political Science Quarterly, 116 (2001): 201-223.
• Barry C. Burden, “An Alternative Account of the 2004 Presidential Election,” The Forum, November 15, 2004.
• Ryan Lizza, “Battle Plans: How Obama Won,” New Yorker (November 17, 2008). 

 EXAM #1: Friday, October 14

IV. CANDIDATES AND CAMPAIGNS

Monday, October 17: The Incumbency Factor in Congressional Elections

• Paul S. Herrnson, Congressional Elections (2011): Preface, Introduction, and Chapters 1-4.

Wednesday, October 19: The Candidate-Center Campaign

• Paul S. Herrnson, Congressional Elections (2011): Chapters 5-9.

Friday, October 21: 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.
• Seth E. Masket, Jonathan Winburn, and Gerald C. Wright, “The Gerrymanderers are Coming! Legislative Redistricting Won’t Affect Competition or Polarization Much, No Matter Who Does It,” PS: Political Science & Politics (January 2012).

Monday, October 24: Decoding Midterm Elections

• Robert S. Erikson, “The Puzzle of Midterm Loss,” Journal of Politics, 50 (November 1988): 1011-1029.

Wednesday, October 26: Reforming Congressional Elections

• Paul S. Herrnson, Congressional Elections (2011): Chapters 10-11.

Friday, October 28: A History of Presidential Campaigns

• Stephen J. Wayne, The Road to the White House 2016 (2015): Chapter 9.

Monday, October 31: The Electoral College

• Stephen J. Wayne, The Road to the White House 2016 (2015): Chapter 1.
• Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., "Not the People’s Choice: How to Democratize American Democracy," The American Prospect (March 25, 2002): 23-27.

Wednesday, November 2: The Presidential Nomination Process: Caucuses and Primaries

• Marty Cohen, David Karol, Hans Noel, and John Zaller, The Party Decides Presidential Nominations Before and After Reform (2008): Chapter 7.
• William Saletan, “The Primaries Aren’t Democratic? They’re Not Supposed to Be Democratic,” Slate (April 20, 2016).
• Lee Drutman, “Why are all our Presidential Candidates So Bad?" Vox (September 25, 2015)

Friday, November 4: Party Conventions

• Jill Lepore, “A Tale of Two Conventions,” The New Yorker (August 8, 2016) [online].
• Jill Lepore, “How to Steal an Election,” The New Yorker (July 4, 2016) [online].

Monday, November 7: Presidential Debates

• Theodore White, The Making of the President, 1960 (1961): Chapter 11.
• David Greenberg, “Torchlight Parades for the Television Age: The Presidential Debates as Political Ritual,” Daedalus, Vol. 138, No. 2 (Spring 2009): 6-19.

Wednesday, November 9: Post-Election Discussion

• To be announced.

Friday, November 11: From Broadsides to Broadcasts: The Changing Role of the Media

• Stephen J. Wayne, The Road to the White House 2016 (2015): Chapter 8.
• Mary E. Stuckey, "Here We Go Again: Presidential Elections and the National Media," Perspectives on Political Science (Spring 2000): 99.
• Evgenia Pertez, "Going After Gore," Vanity Fair (October 2007).
• Paul Waldman, “Why the Media Treats Donald Trump Differently,” The Week (August 9, 2016).

Monday, November 14: "I Approve This Message:" Campaign Advertising in the Modern World

• Stephen J. Wayne, The Road to the White House 2016 (2015): Chapter 6.

Wednesday, November 16: The War Room: Campaign Organization and Strategy

• Stephen J. Wayne, The Road to the White House 2016 (2015): Chapter 7.
• Sasha Issenberg, The Victory Lab: The Secret Science of Winning Campaigns (2012): Excerpt.

Friday, November 18: Pundits vs. Pollsters: The Art and Science of Forecasting Elections

• Stephen J. Wayne, The Road to the White House 2016 (2015): Chapter 9.
• Zeynep Tufekci, “In Defense of Nate Silver, Election Pollsters, and Statistical Predictions,” Wired (November 2, 2012).
• Josh Katz and Kevin Quealy, “When Should You Start Worrying About the Polls?” The New York Times (May 25, 2016).

  THANKSGIVING RECESS: November 21-25

Monday, November 28: Show Me the Money: The Politics of Campaign Finance

• Stephen J. Wayne, The Road to the White House 2016 (2015): Chapter 2.

Wednesday, November 30: 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).
• Jeffrey Toobin, “Money Unlimited: How Chief Justice John Roberts Orchestrated the Citizens United Decision,” The New Yorker (May 21, 2014).

  EXAM #2: Friday, December 2

V. PARTIES IN GOVERNMENT

Monday, December 5: Gridlock and Divided Government

• Brian F. Schaffner, Politics, Parties and Elections in America (2011): Chapter 9.
• David R. Mayhew, "Divided Party Control: Does It Make a Difference?" PS: Political Science and Politics (December 1991): 637-640.

Wednesday, December 7: Partisanship and Polarization

• Marc J. Hetherington and Thomas J. Rudolph, Why Washington Won’t Work (2015): Chapters 1-2.
• Jonathan Chait, “What’s So Great About Bipartisanship?" The New Republic (January 15, 2001): 17.

Friday, December 9: Fixing Elections

• Paul S. Herrnson, Congressional Elections (2011): Chapters 10-11.
• Stephen J. Wayne, The Road to the White House 2016 (2015): Chapter 10.
• Morris P. Fiorina, "The Decline of Collective Responsibility in American Politics," Daedalus, 109 (1980): 25-45.
• Andrew Sullivan, “Democracies End When They Are Too Democratic,” New York (May 1, 2016) [online].

   FINAL PAPER DUE: Monday, December 12 by 1:30 PM