Carnahan Hall    Russell Renka

° Renka's Home Page
° Department of Political Science, Philosophy & Religion
OIS sites:
    ° Forum
    ° Gradebook
    ° Drop Box
    ° Checker
° My Southeast
° Southeast Portal
° Professor Renka's PS360 Links on parties, voters, and elections
°POP - The APSA Organized Section on Political Organizations and Parties
°Voting in Cape Girardeau:  Refer to Election Information from the Cape Girardeau County Clerk's Office
°Kent Library Homepage; or register at Missouri First Vote 2004 Voting In College
    °JSTOR - Journal Resources; JSTOR Journals Browser#Political Science
    ° Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe
    ° Essay 3 (optional) - due Friday, December 9

PS360 Syllabus - Political Parties and Voting Behavior
Professor Russell Renka - Fall 2005

PS360 Syllabus Sections - Fall 2005:
    °Introduction
    °On-line Instructor Suite
    °Course Books and Readings
    °Course Requirements
    °Standards of Conduct
    °Journal and On-line Resources
    °Reaching me
    °Weekly Topics and Readings

Introduction                       Next down; Top

    This course addresses topics at the very core of the practice of American democratic politics:  the behavior of voters and non-voters, the creation and maintenance of political parties, and the conduct of competitive elections for public office.  These are not separate topics, for parties are essential in every democracy (but not in non-democracies) to running elections and governing the polity.  Parties are currently regarded with great suspicion by most middle-class Americans, yet we have found no alternative to them.

    First up is why political parties are essential parts of a democracy.  We answer that with theory from political science filtered through the uniquely American tradition of having just two national political parties with a realistic chance for each to elect a President and control the national Congress.  It is unusual among democracies to do this, as we shall see.  We take a comparative look at party systems (contrasting American to foreign systems) and a historical one (evaluating past American party practices).  We distinguish parties from interest groups, political factions, and political coalitions.  We look at parties as organizations, which run elections, including the complicated American national primary system.  We look at the strange current system of financing parties and candidates.  We look directly at national and state elections, with intensive review of recent national results including the bizarre doings last year in Florida.  We study voters and nonvoters, together with the business of polling by which we learn about it.  We look at parties-in-government, as the central organizing entity of the national legislature and most state assemblies.  Finally, we look closely at the current and future relevance of political parties in the American polity.

On-line Instructor Suite                    Next down; Top

    OIS gives you access to a class bulletin board (Forum), locale to post for posting papers and assignments (Drop Box), and personal grade and assignment record (Gradebook).  OIS is run by Center for Scholarship in Teaching and Learning.  To ensure that your off-campus PC does work with OIS, use Checker to confirm that.

PS360 Course Books and Readings:              Next down; Top

    The text, at Textbook Service, is:  Maisel, L. Sandy, and Kara Z. Buckley.  2005.  Parties and Elections in America:  The Electoral Process, 4^th edition.  Lanham, MD:  Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.   In the Itinerary, this is labeled "Text."  The publisher's website (Rowman & Littlefield, Inc. Study Guide for Parties and Elections in America) includes a chronicle of 2004 election events plus reviews of each chapter with a Glossary of key terms used there.

    The Reader, at Southeast Bookstore, is:  L. Sandy Maisel, ed.  2002.  The Parties Respond:  Changes in American Parties and Campaigns, 4^th edition.  Boulder, CO:  Westview Press.   In the Itinerary, this is labeled "Reader."

    Additional readings come from reserve readings at Kent Library, website materials, journal articles, and occasional in-class handouts.

PS360 Course Requirements                  Next down; Top

One can earn up to 1000 credit points in the course.  These divide among four categories:
            600 points - three exams worth 200 points each (100 in class, 100 via take-home essay)
            200 points - term paper
            100 points - classroom assignments, roundtables
            100 points - Forum

Examinations:  Each examination has two 100-point sections.  First is an in-class objective type of exam consisting of multiple-choice questions derived from readings and class lecture/discussion (100 points).  Second is a take-home essay of some two and a half to three pages on a specified topic (also 100 points).  The final is not comprehensive; rather, it is really exam no. 3 on the third and last section of the course.  Total valuation of exams is 600 points.

Term Paper (200 points):  Follow the "ten and ten" rule:  a term paper should be an honest 10-pager with ten or more sources.  Shorter papers and those with few sources are typically the result of casual or last minute efforts.  No one could use that approach to successfully perform in a play, run well in a distance race, maintain a great love relationship, or rise to a new and higher job in the work world.  Neither can a good paper be written that way.  I expect you to select a topic and clear it with me.  You can start this at any time not later than times outlined below.  Here are dates for steps toward completion of the term paper:
             °Monday, September 12 (start of Week 5):  due date for topic selection
            °Monday, October 17 (Week 9):  deadline for topical outline plus sources (with a minimum of ten separate sources).
            °Friday, November 18 (Week 13):  deadline for submitting drafts (I will review and amend a draft if you choose to turn one in.  This is not required and does not involve a grade, but is just about guaranteed to make for a better final paper!)
            °Friday, December 2 (end of Week 15):  final paper deadline (Seem far away now?  It really isn’t!)

In-class assignments- "The Great Divide":   There has never been a modern period with such division of partisans as now in America.  We'll explore why this is so with a classroom discussion.  Each of you will " choose a side" for this in-class exercise.  Details will be forthcoming on the Forum and in later versions of this syllabus.  Background is shown now in Week 11 of the Itinerary at end of October.  Value of participation:  100 points.

Forum participation:  Everyone should read the on-line Forum and make periodic postings there.  This site will include material I covered in class, and any related political or public happenings and news.  It's an ideal place to post queries about what lecture or readings are about.  I'll inventory participation and periodically post it on an entry slot in theGradeA gradebook.  Credit applies only to meaningful participation, that is, saying something that contributes to furtherance of a conversation on one or more appropriate topics.    Board Value is 6 points per meaningful posting, up to 100 points total.

Grades:  The online Gradebook posts interim grades and the eventual course grade, to let you keep up with your assignments and grades.  It includes the criteria for A, B, C, and D level performances so you can track your performance whenever you wish.

Standards of Conduct                  Next down;Top

    This section refers to disabilities, class attendance, cell phones, text messaging, guns, personal disruptions, cheating, plagiarism, and paper citations.  Some of this isn't fun for me to say or you to read, but it's all important.  I ask every student to carefully read this section.  Once classes commence, I'll assume you have read this and are responsible for heeding it.

    Any student with a disability that may require special accommodation should contact me about that as soon as the need is recognized.  I will take all reasonable measures to assist you so long as they're within the law and not an undue burden on me or on other students.  Experience shows that many special needs can readily be met, but only if I know about them.  So please visit with me about that.  I'll hold our discussion in strict confidence and will do what I can.

    Good students regularly attend classes, while poor ones often don't.  You're expected to attend all regularly scheduled classes within reasonable time of their start.  Each session you'll have a sign-in sheet based on your classroom seat.  I use those to call names and make queries.  I keep an open door as a rule and do understand delays on entry due to other classes, inclement weather, and gossip time; but be reasonable and don't plan on habitual late entry.   If you know you'll need to leave a class early, just advise me in advance of that.  If it's sudden and necessary to leave, then do so but let me know next time what's happened.

    Cell phones may also attend my classes, but only when turned off.  Experience teaches that otherwise they act very rudely during class.  Should one somehow manage to ring, please silence it immediately and avoid any repeat misbehavior by the offending implement.  If you must be on phone alert, use only its visual signaler for that purpose.  If you must take the call, kindly leave class to do so--and only for emergency, at that.

    And now on text messaging:  as with Nancy Reagan on illegal drugs, I just say no.  There are two reasons why.  One is that I don't buy into the general belief that this generation is adept at multi-tasking so that they can pay attention in class and send messages to and fro at the same time.  Automobile drivers are dangerous when a cell phone is attached to one hand and ear, because they pay no damned attention to other drivers.  This summer I saw someone texting while driving 75mph on a Dallas urban freeway.  Not good.  As for the second reason, it's cheating during exams.  Messaging invites a modern version of whispering an answer or glomming your neighbor's paper; it's a new variant on old-fashioned cheating.

    I'm not trying to be anti-tech.  Laptops are A-OK in class, as are tape recorders.  I encourage both.

    But I discourage guns.  Real weapons may not attend any of my classes.  The State of Missouri passed a 'concealed carry' gun statute in 2003, leaving many unanswered questions on when and where it's permissible to pack concealed heat.  My rule is very simple:  no firearms of any kind are permitted in any of my classes, or in my office, under any circumstances.  Should there be a violation, I will not confront the offender.  Instead I will contact the university's legal authorities and have them press action to ensure that the offender may not continue this practice.  There are no exceptions to this rule unless the student is:  a) a law enforcement authority authorized to carry a gun in the normal performance of duties, and b) this student gets my advance clearance to carry in class.  Note:  None of this refers to minor weapons such as Swiss Army knives, Gerber tools, nail files, or the like.  I refer to guns.

    I've never had a seriously disruptive student in a class, but hear from others that some problems exist along this line.  If someone is seriously disruptive during class in such manner as makes you or others uncomfortable with being there, please advise me of that.  We have lively conversations that address politics, so I don't refer to strongly worded opinions or even an occasional shout.  I mean personal behavior that seriously offends you or others.  That might include sexual harassment.  My policy is to directly ask the party to cease the offending behavior.  Should that fail, then I bring the university legal authority in to resolve the issue.  I can't be more specific than that, for the moment.

    I can be very specific about cheating.  See Southeast's Academic Honesty brochure on this subject.  I had a certain nasty little cheater in 2003, haven't forgotten that, and have since studied some methods for catching and docking offenders.  If a student cheats on an assignment, it's an automatic zero grade on that work.  If there's evidence of cheating on more than one assignment, it's a zero on each affected assignment.  Once I have documented evidence, then I first confront the offender to elicit an explanation of the behavior, after which I file a report with the Department chair.  If I catch the evidence post hoc and cannot confront the offender, I proceed directly to the report.

    Plagiarism is a common form of cheating and a chronic plague of the academic community.  It refers, of course, to someone taking the work of others and passing it off as his or her own.  It can be as simple as taking a quotation and failing to show it properly, to lifting an entire piece verbatim and pasting it to one's own paper or exam.  The common element of this noxious practice is always the same, namely that of falsely claiming for oneself that which another person has created.  In the commercial world, plagiarism brings lawsuits for copyright violation.  In the academic world, it brings verdicts of both moral and academic failure on the offender.  For insight on what it is, see Southeast's Academic Honesty brochure, or Professor Hamner Hill's Policy on Plagiarism.  Each has helpful links.

    I do not tolerate plagiarism.  I check for it--and know from bitter experience and plenty of web-smarts how to find it.  If the plagiarism is intentional, I report that as a violation of the University's academic integrity policy while assigning that paper or exam an irreversible grade of zero.  If it is not, I return the paper without a grade to its creator for immediate and thorough correction.

    The best method of avoiding plagiarism is to acquire the habit of properly citing your source material as you go along.  I do so above on the listed books for this course.  The books do so as well. I do not stipulate a particular source guide, but will expect you to cite one in your References section of any term paper.  See Kent Library's final touches - tools for citing sources for proper use of MLA, APA, Chicago Style, and others.  I employ APA myself, but any of them are fine.  The core rule is simple:  cite your stuff so that anyone who reads your paper can easily track its sources.  So give full citation to all sources, including names of all authors, the book/article/website file name or name and position of an interviewee, and all publication information (publisher's location, publisher's name, year of pub, volume and issue of journal, URL of a website plus date of its access).  If you got specific information from one page of a 900-page tome, do the reader the courtesy of citing that page so they can avoid poring through 899 superfluous pages.  Simple.

    Websites are a special problem with citations.  When using one, do not cite the URL alone.  URLs are easy to lose and hard to find.  If I cannot find the source, then it doesn't count as one.  Cite the author, the filename, the URL, and the date or dates it was accessed.  Then I am almost sure to find it.  A general guide on separating good from crappy websites is Evaluating Websites from Donnelley and Lee Library in Chicago.  On use of blogs:  better establish why that person is authoritative.  Some are, but others are just rants.  As a professional skeptic, I won't assume a blog is valid; you have to establish that it is.

    For local writing help, see The Online Writing Lab at Southeast.  A sophisticated general guide for source use is Gordon Harvey's Writing with Sources at Harvard.  For how-to guidance on writing by political science students, see Excerpts-Van Evera at web.mit.edu/17.423/www/writingtips.html.  There is always Strunk and White:  see Bartleby's Strunk, William, Jr. 1918. The Elements of Style for on-line use.  And for the godmother of all sources, confer the Chicago Manual of Style - Q&A.  Splendid.

    To do a web search now, look below:

Journal and On-line Resources:                 Next down; Top

   The best work on political parties and elections is in the broadly defined political science journals.  These are filled with articles on topics relevant to us.  Among these are American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, British Journal of Political Science, American Politics Quarterly, and Political Research Quarterly.  Also see Parties and Elections.  Access the first three of these via JSTOR Journals Browser#Political Science.   You'll find nine major journals there.

    Among monthly magazine journals, nuts-and-bolts practice of politics by campaign professionals is shown in Campaigns and Elections.  Weekly journals of considerable value for regular Washington watchers are Congressional Quarterly Weekly (for Capitol Hill, chiefly), and National Journal (especially useful for stuff "downtown" in the executive agencies and White House).  All are on Kent Library's open shelves.

    For other on-line resources, see my PS360 Links - Russell D. Renka.

Reaching me:                       Next down; Top

   I have an open door policy, and I normally lurk very near my office computer in Room 211L of the Political Science office suite on Floor 2 of the Carnahan Building.   You can leave messages for me there if I am absent.  In general, I can be reached as follows:
    a) Leave a message at my Department mailbox or with the department office.
    b) Leave a message at the drop outside my door at Carnahan 211L.
    c) Place a voice mail message at 573-651-2692.
    d) Email me at rdrenka@semo.edu.
    e) If you're out of town and cannot send a paper or assignment by email, then FAX it to 573/651-2695.
    f) Consult my website at Home Page (or cstl-cla.semo.edu/renka) for other details about myself and my courses, including this syllabus.

PS360 Weekly Topics and Readings - Fall 2005                Top

°Master Calendar - click at upper left corner for Academic Calendar

Week 1 - August 22-26, 2005     What are parties? Why are they essential in democracies?
Readings:
    °Maisel and Buckley text (Text), Ch. 1 - Elections and Political Parties, pp. 2-28
    °Silbey in Reader, Selection 1 - "The Rise and Fall of American Political Parties, 1789-2000"

Week 2 - August 29 - September 2     Creation and growth of the American two-party system
Note:  I will participate in the American Political Science Association annual meeting this week.  I'll be here only on Monday.  We'll have a guest presentation from Professor Holzhauer on W, August 31.  Class won't be held on Friday; but be sure to do the reading.  We'll discuss it all in Week 3 on Wednesday after the Labor Day holiday.
    °Text Ch. 2 - American Political Parties and Party Organizations, pp. 30-56 (first part of chapter 2)
    °Comparative perspective on political parties in democracies - Duverger's law - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    °Duverger, Maurice.  1972.   "Factors in a Two-Party and Multiparty System" - The Technical Factor
    °"mechanism behind Duverger's law":  Erik Moberg's A Theory of Democratic Politics, 6.1 - The Number of Parties
    °optional assignment (for those intending to pursue this stuff in a paper): William H. Riker, The Two-party System and Duverger's Law: An Essay on the History of Political Science (from JSTOR)

Week 3 - September 7, 9     Political parties as organizations
Note: Monday, September 5, is Labor Day.  No classes are held.
    °Text Ch. 2 - American Political Parties and Party Organizations, pp. 57-70 (second part of chapter 2)
    °Herrnson in Reader, Selection 3 - "National Party Organizations at the Dawn of the Twenty-First Century"
    °Bibby in Reader, Selection 2 - "State Party Organizations ..."

Week 4 - September 12-16     Participation by the Citizenry - The Voters and Nonvoters
    °Text Ch. 3 - Voting and Other Forms of Political Participation, pp. 71-121
    °Cain and Mullin in Reader, Selection 5 - "Competing for Attention and Votes ..."
    °VEP over VAP:  Voter Turnout from United States Election Project; Michael McDonald, Turnout Rates for Voting (VEP atop VAP); and 2004 Voting-Age and Voting-Eligible Population Estimates and Voter Turnout (last update:  6/7/05)

Week 5 - September 19-23     Participation ...    **
    °Miller in Reader, Selection 4 - "Party Identification and the Electorate ..."
**Friday, September 23 - Examination no. 1**

Week 6 - September 26-30     Organized Interests
    °Text, Ch. 4 - Organized Groups in the Political Process, pp. 123-152

Week 7 - October 3-7     Campaign Money
    °Text, Ch. 5 - Campaign Finance, pp. 154-198
   °Franz and Goldstein, in Reader, Selection 7 - Following the (Soft) Money:  Party Advertisements
   °La Raja, in Reader, Selection 8 - Political Parties in the Era of Soft Money

Week 8 - October 10-14     Elections other than the presidency
Note: October 13-14:  Fall Break, no classes
   °Text, Ch. 6 - State and Local Nominations, pp. 199-232
   °Text, Ch. 7 - State and Local Elections, pp. 234-276

Week 9 - October 17-21     Elections other ...; and Presidential Nominations
   °Maisel, Maestas, and Stone in Reader, Selection 6 - The Party Role in Congressional Competition
   °Text, Ch. 8 - Presidential Nominations, pp. 278-332

Week 10 - October 24-28     **
   °Text, Ch. 9 - Presidential Elections, pp. 334-355 (start)
   °review Cain and Mullin in Reader, Selection 5 - "Competing for Attention and Votes ..." - section on front-loading of primaries, pp. 107-120
   °Reading:  Jacobson Paper:  The Bush Presidency and the American Electorate (in pdf) - on polarization of the vote in 2000 election

Week 11 - October 31 - November 4     The Great Divide:  presidential elections and a split electorate
    **Monday, October 31 - Examination no. 2**
   °Text, Ch. 9 - Presidential Elections, pp. 356-388 (completion)
   °Renka, Russell D., The Election of 2004 and table:  Presidential Elections through 2004
   °website:  Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections and its 2004 Presidential Election Results, including the 2004 county by county map
    °Gary Jacobson's 2004 Tables and Figures - evidence on the cultural and partisan "Great Divide"

Week 12 - November 7-11    Florida in Election 2000
   °The Butterfly Did It: The Aberrant Vote for Buchanan in Palm Beach County, Florida (18 pages in pdf) - Jonathan Wand, Kenneth Shotts, Jasjeet Sekhon, Walter Mebane, Jr., Michael Herron, and Henry Brady.  2001.  American Political Science Review, 95:4 (December), pp 793--810; source site:  Jonathan Wand -- Research
   °website reference sources: Florida Ballots Project, released 12 November 2001; New York Times articles located at Examining the Florida Vote; also see my PS360 Links and Elections 2000 - "Florida election recount"
   °website:  U.S. Supreme Court's Bush v. Gore (00-949) decision of 12 December 2000; background on the case is at Cornell Law School's LII's Focus on Election 2000

Week 13 - November 14-18       The Media in Politics
    °Text, Ch. 10 - The Media and the Electoral Process, pp. 390-418
    °Kerbel in Reader, Selection 9 - Political Parties in the Media ...

Week 14 - November 21    The Elite in Washington
Note:  Thanksgiving Recess:  No class is held on Wednesday through Friday, November 23-25.
   °Sinclair in Reader, Selection 10 - Congressional Parties and the Policy Process
   °Brady and Buckley in Reader, Selection 11 - Governing by Coalition:  Policymaking in the Congress
   °Keith Poole of UCSD:  The Ideological Structure of Congressional Voting, 1927-2000; and Keith Poole's NOMINATE Roll Call Data, 1st to 108th Congresses (Thanks to Keith for these ultra-cool sites!)

Week 15 - November 28 - December 2     Partisanship and Governing from Washington
   °Text, Ch. 11 - Party in Government, pp. 420-466
   °Mackenzie in Reader, Selection 12 - Partisan Presidential Leadership:  The President's Appointees
   °Renka, Russell D., Presidents and Congresses

Week 16 - December 5-9    The Future of Parties in a Candidate-centered Democracy
   °Text, Ch. 12 - The Role of Political Parties at the Dawn of the Twenty-first Century, pp. 467-486
   °Shribman in Reader, Selection 13 - Subtle Shifts, Dramatic Days ...

Final Examination Week - December 12-15  
    The Final Examination is Wednesday, 10:00 a.m., December 14.  Remember that this is "exam no. 3" rather than a comprehensive 16-week exam.

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Monday, August 25, 2008 09:32:06 AM
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