Course Syllabus ~ Political Science 1/American Government & Institutions
Last updated 12/10/2010.
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Semester/Instructor: Fall, 2010, with Dr. Kaliopi Pappas.
When: Tuesdays, 6:30pm-9:30pm. Final exam: Tuesday, December 14, 6-7:50pm.
Where: Mountain House 102.
Course Registration Number: 21620
Instructor Email: kpappas@deltacollege.edu.
Required Texts:
1) Kenneth Janda, Jeffrey Berry, Jerry Goldman, and Kevin Hula. 2009. The Challenge of Democracy, Brief Edition, 7th edition. Mason: Cengage Learning. BUNDLED WITH: John L. Korey. 2009. California Government, 5th edition. Mason: Cengage Learning.BOTH the Janda and Korey segments are required, so make sure your edition includes BOTH of them. The textbook is available at the Delta College Bookstore, on main campus. Also available through http://bookstore.deltacollege.edu.
2) Required course web supplements (and copy of this syllabus) are located here at the course website: http://civ.strangegirl.com/polisci/ . 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.
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.
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. CA readings: make sure the Korey supplement is finished by the last class meeting.*
- Week 1 - August 17 - Class Intro.
- Week 2 - August 24 - Dilemmas of Democracy: Freedom, Order, and Equality/Majoritarian or Pluralist Democracy (Janda, Chapter 1)
- Week 3 - August 31- The United States Constitution (Janda, Chapter 2, and Hobbes, Locke, and Federalist Papers on website - required)
Leviathan - Thomas Hobbes - Chapters XIII and XIV - The laws of nature, and reasonings behind the Social Contract. Where does civil power come from? Why do we organize ourselves into civil societies?
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.
- Week 4 - September 7- Federalism (Janda, Chapter 3)
- Week 5 - September 14 - 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)
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.
- Week 6 - September 21- Participation & Voting (Janda, Chapter 5)
How Americans Perceive the American Political System and Their Roles Within It - A short piece from 2007 on how contemporary Americans have approached politics in the recent past. Have things changed much in over three years?
- Week 7 - September 28 - Political Parties, Nominations, Elections, & Campaigns...and the Majoritarian Ideal (Janda, Chapter 6)
- Week 8 - October 5 - Interest Groups (Janda, Chapter 7; Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America excerpt on website - required)
- Week 9 - October 12 - Interest Groups, Continued
- Week 10 - October 19 - Congress (Janda, Chapter 8)and REVIEW for Midterm
- Week 11 - October 26 - MIDTERM EXAM and The Presidency (Janda, Chapter 9) and The Bureaucracy (Janda, Chapter 10)
- Week 12 - November 2 - CLASS CANCELLED
- Week 13 - November 9 - Election Review/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?
- Week 14 - November 16 - Order and Civil Liberties (Janda, Chapter 12; Props. 4 and 85 section 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?
- Week 15 - November 23 - 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.
- Week 16 - November 30 - Policymaking (Janda, Chapter 14) and California as a microcosm...and more; State Constitution; CA State Government
Structures* (Korey Supplement)
- PAPER DUE November 30!
- Week 17 - December 7 - California issues, campaigns, and elections; Local Government; California wrap-up* (Korey Supplement) and REVIEW for final exam
- Week 18 - Final Exam - Tuesday, December 14, 6-7:50pm. This is a half-hour earlier than our usual meeting time! Last chance to pick up graded assignments.
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