Course Syllabus ~ Political Science 1/American Government & Institutions
Last updated 5/15/2019
Scroll down/click here for the latest assignments/updates.

* All slide lectures posted & schedule updated! Final exam on 5/22; paper due 5/22 at Turnitin.com! *

Semester/Instructor: Spring 2019 with Kaliopi Pappas, J.D.
When: MW 7:16-8:49am
Where: Chavez High, Room A304
Final Exam: Last class meeting (5/22)
Course Registration Number: 54625
Instructor Email: kpappas@deltacollege.edu.

Required Texts:

1. Kenneth Janda, Jeffrey Berry, Jerry Goldman, and Kevin Hula. 2014. The Challenge of Democracy, Brief Edition, 9th edition. Mason: Cengage Learning. Provided by your school and available via Ms. Staples.
2. Required course web supplements (and copy of this syllabus) are located here at the course website. Remember, website readings are required IN ADDITION to textbook readings.

Course Syllabus:

This is the same information I passed out to you on the first day of class. It includes class policies, important dates, the essay assignment prompt, and more. Make sure you've read this syllabus carefully. I recommend that you keep a hard copy handy throughout the semester.

• Download Course Syllabus in .pdf format
  

Powerpoint Lectures:

These presentations are made available for registered course students only, and should not be distributed to anyone else, anywhere else, for any reason. These slides were jointly created by the instructor and the textbook publisher. Note that these slides are NOT a substitute for attending class. Additionally, some slides come with update caveats, which were mentioned in class.

The slides are password-protected; I'll provide the login credentials in class.

• To be posted as we complete each unit
• Lecture One
• Lecture Two
• Lecture Three
• Lecture Four
• Lecture Five
• Lecture Six
• Lecture Seven
• Lecture Eight
• Lecture Nine
• Lecture Ten
• California Lecture 1
• California Lecture 2
• Civil Liberties
• Civil Rights
• Policymaking

California Ballot Initiative Paper Assignment:

This will be due on the last day of class via Turnitin.com. See the updated course online syllabus for the prompt and instructions. :)

 

Schedule:

This is a list of topics, by class meeting, and the assignments to be discussed during each period. This is tentative. We may extend discussions, contract them, or add additional reading materials as we go along.

• January 16 - Class Intro.
  
  
• January 21 - MLK Day - NO CLASS
  
  
• January 23 & 28 - Dilemmas of Democracy: Freedom, Order, and Equality/Majoritarian or Pluralist Democracy (Janda, Chapter 1)
  
  
• January 30, February 4 & 6 - The United States Constitution (Janda, Chapter 2, and Hobbes, Locke, and Federalist Papers on website - required)
  • Leviathan - Thomas Hobbes - Part One, Chapters XIII and XIV - The laws of nature, and reasonings behind the Social Contract. Where does government authority come from? Why do we organize ourselves into societies under the power of a sovereign government?
  • John Locke, Second Treatise of Civil Government - Chapters 9 and 19 - The purposes of representative government are discussed. What rights do the people maintain in the face of civil authority? Locke's writings heavily influenced our Declaration of Independence, as well as the framers of our Constitution.
  • Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence (linked from main page)
  • Carol V. Hamilton asks, "Why did Jeffersion change 'property' to the 'pursuit of happiness'? (in the Declaration of Independence)"
  • Federalist 10 & 51 - James Madison
    
    
• February 13 & 20 (NO CLASS 2/11 - PRESIDENTS' DAY HOLIDAY) - Federalism (Janda, Chapter 3)
  
  
• February 25 & 27 & March 4 ( NO CLASS 2/18 - PRESIDENTS' DAY HOLIDAY) - Public Opinion, Political Socialization, and the Media (Janda, Chapter 4; LBJ's "Daisy" campaign commercial from 1964, courtesy of PBS.org and The 30 Second Candidate on website; Hillary Clinton's "3 am" campaign commercial from 2008 at YouTube; EJ Dionne column from Washington Post)
  • Here is a link to LBJ's "Daisy" presidential campaign commercial from 1964, courtesy of PBS.org and The 30 Second Candidate.
  • Here is a link to Hillary Clinton's "3 am" primary campaign commercial from 2008.
  • WaPo columnist EJ Dionne on the media's role in politics in the age of Trump and social media: "The media's bias should be toward democracy"
    • What's wrong with media's current approach to politics, according to Dionne?
    • How does he feel media coverage of politics and political personalities need to change?
    • Why? What's at stake if they don't?
      
      
• March 4, 6 & 13- Participation & Voting (Janda, Chapter 5) (Class cancelled on March 11 due to instructor illness)
  
  
• NO CLASS MARCH 18, 20, 25, 27 & APRIL 1 - SPRING BREAKS
  
  
• April 3 - MIDTERM EXAM - Bring stapled packet of binder paper (or bluebook), your textbook, your notes, and a blue or black ballpoint ink pen.
  
  
• April 8 & 10 - Political Parties, Nominations, Elections, & Campaigns...and the Majoritarian Ideal (Janda, Chapter 6)
  
  
• April 15 - Interest Groups (Janda, Chapter 7; Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America excerpt on website - required)
  • Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Part One, Chapter 12: Political Associations in the United States
    
    
• April 17 & 24 (SCHOOL HOLIDAY ON 4/22) - Congress (Janda, Chapter 8)
  
  
• April 29 - The Presidency/Executive Branch (Janda, Chapters 9 & 10)
  
  
• May 1 - The Courts (Janda, Chapter 11; Benjamin Cardozo, The Nature of the Judicial Process excerpt on website - required)
  • Benjamin Cardozo, The Nature of the Judicial Process, Lecture I
    Justice Cardozo, who served on the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1930s, explains how judges decide - or SHOULD decide - a case. What are the logical, Constitutional, social, and moral considerations that should contribute to court opinion? Do you agree, considering how strongly court opinions often affect policy and the law in general?
    
    
• May 6 - California: California as a microcosm...and more; State Constitution; CA State Government Structures; CA Direct-Democracy Mechanisms (we're pausing the Civil Liberties/Civil Rights stuff to concentrate on California; help you prep a bit more for your papers!)
  
  
• May 8 - California: California issues, campaigns, and elections; Local Government; California wrap-up
  
  
• May 13 - Order and Civil Liberties (Janda, Chapter 12; Proposition on website - required)
  • Read and consider the following information concerning 2008's Proposition 4 (this is an archived overview provided by an independent source) and Proposition 85, a similar initiative which was on the California ballot in November, 2006. It sough to require parental notification (but not consent) in the case of minors seeking abortions. It didn't pass, but it brought up interesting wrinkles in the ongoing debate on civil liberties, particularly the 14th Amendment "Substantive Due Process " foreshadowed in Griswold v. Connecticut in the 1960s and fully established by Roe v. Wade in 1973. What do you think? Was the decision in Roe "right"? Was it constitutional? Is there a difference? Do you think policy ideas like the ones proposed in Prop. 85 are constitutional? Are they fair? Whose rights/freedoms and needs must be balanced here? What compelling state interests might slant the balance one way or another?
    
    
• May 15 - Equality and Civil Rights (Janda, Chapter 13; Bollinger Cases and Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School Dist. No. 1 section on website - required)
  • Gratz v. Bollinger (Syllabus and Decision) - Affirmative action and U. Mich. undergraduate admissions policy.
  • Grutter v. Bollinger (Syllabus and Decision) - Affirmative action and U. Mich. law school admissions policy.
  • Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School Dist. No. 1 (Syllabus) - Applied Gratz/Grutter "standard" to K-12 Schools.
    
    
• May 20 - Policymaking (Janda, Chapter 14) & review
  
  
• May 22 - FINAL EXAM in class; Paper assignment DUE on Turnitin.com.

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