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PS360 Syllabus - Political Parties and Voting Behavior
Professor Russell Renka - Fall 1999

Introduction
PS360 Course Books and Readings
Course Requirements
Course Expectations
Journal Resources
Reaching me
Weekly Topics and Readings

Introduction                     Top          

            This is a mainline upper-division political science course on topics at the very core of the practice of democratic politics:  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 start with answers to that, emphasizing the peculiar 160-year 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 fairly 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 other political entities such as interest groups, factions, and ad hoc political coalitions.  We look at parties as organizations, which run elections, including the complicated American national primary system.  We look at the byzantine financing arrangements of parties and candidates.  We look directly at national and state elections, with intensive review of recent national results.  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.

Course Books and Readings:                    Top

The text, available through Textbook Service, is:  Beck, Paul Allen.  1997.  Party Politics in America, 8th ed. New York: Addison Wesley Longman.  In Readings list, this is labeled "Beck".

The reader, available at Southeast Bookstore, is:  Maisel, L. Sandy, ed.  1998.   The Parties Respond:  Changes in American Parties and Campaigns, 3d ed.  Boulder, CO:  Westview Press.  In Readings list, this is labeled "Maisel."

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

PS360 Course Requirements                     Top

 One can earn up to 500 credit points in the course.  These divide among three categories:

            300 points - three exams, including a final that is exam no. 3 (at 100 points each)

            100 points - term paper

            100 points - classroom assignments, classroom participation, roundtables

 Examinations:  Each examination has two 50-point sections.  First is an in-class objective type of exam consisting of multiple-choice questions derived from readings and class lecture/discussion.  Second is a take-home essay of some two and a half to three pages on a specified topic.  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 300 points.

 Term Papers:  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 20 (start of Week 5):  due date for topic selection (Note:  This is Yom Kippur.  If that intervenes, turn it in ahead of time.)

            Monday, October 18 (Week 9):  deadline for topical outline plus sources (with a minimum of ten separate sources).      

            Monday, November 22 (Week 14):  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!)

            Monday, November 29:  final paper deadline (Seem far away?  It really isn’t!)

 In-class assignments: I do evaluate class participation, usually by posing a problem or question derived from readings and asking you to respond.  I illustrate something using websites and ask for judgment about it in the next session.  There’s no substitute for being on hand when this happens.

PS360 Course Expectations:             Top

Attendance:     You are expected to attend each class session unless there’s a valid reason to miss (i.e., personal illness or ill child, death in immediate family, motorcycle wreck, full blown Midwestern blizzard, New Madrid Fault disturbance of 6.0 or greater magnitude on Richter Scale).  We often use class discussion for short writing assignments and/or assignments to find relevant information from journals, the library, or websites.  Some of these are impromptu, and it’s often difficult or impossible to compensate by asking later that I email you the assignment details.  Use email or telephone voice mail to advise me if you will miss or have missed class.  On being late: just come on in.  I don’t encourage deliberate lateness, but traffic, weather, and professors in earlier classes all can cause you to arrive at six after the hour.

 On plagiarism:  You should review the Student Handbook on the problem of plagiarism.  Most of you are familiar with the chronic problem of someone passing off another’s work as his or her own, yet it still crops up with distressing regularity.  I cannot accept any work except your own.  In academic circles, proper recognition of authorship is the coin of the realm.  We are all required to maintain the currency.  Distinguish what’s yours from what is borrowed from and attributed to someone else.

Journal Resources:        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.  Chief among them 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.

            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 Report (for stuff from the Hill, chiefly), and National Journal (especially useful for stuff “downtown” in the executive agencies and White House).  All are on KL open shelves except CQWR, which is behind the KL counter.

Reaching me:                Top

    I have an open door policy, and can very often be found at or near my office computer.  My office is located in the new A.J.S. Carnahan Social Science Building, in Room 211-L. The Department of Political Science is also located at SS211; you can leave messages for me there if I am absent. In general, I can be reached as follows: