LEC #
TOPICS
READINGS
Part 1: Introduction and Preliminariesa
1
What is the Role of Government?
Wilson, James. Bureaucracy: What Government Agencies Do and Why They Do It. New York: Basic Books, 1989. Chapter 19.
Part 2: Institutions and American Politics
2
Understanding Institutions: The Median Voter Theorem
Stewart, Charles. Analyzing Congress. New York: Norton, 2001. Chapter 1.
3
Agenda Setting: The Committee Model
Krehbiel, Keith. Pivotal Politics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998. Chapters 1-2.
Fenno. Congressmen in Committees. Boston: Boston, Little, and Brown, 1973. Chapter 1.
4
Making Legislation: Veto Players
Cameron, Charles. Veto Bargaining. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Chapters 1, 3, 5, 8 and 9.
5
Making Legislation: Ideas and Policy Entrepreneurs
Kingdon, John. Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies. New York: Longman, 2003. Chapters 1, 4, 8 and 9.
6
The Preferences of Policymakers: Elections and Responsiveness
Fiorina, Morris. “The Decline of Collective Responsibility in American Politics.” Daedalus Summer, 1980:25-46.
Ansolabehere, Steve, Jim Snyder, and Charles Stewart. “Candidate Positions in Congressional Elections.” American Journal of Political Science 45: 136-159.
Part 3: Public Opinion, Elections, and Democracy
7
Campaigns and Elections
Larry, Bartels. “Candidate Choice and the Dynamics of the Presidential Nominating Process.” American Journal of Political Science 31: 1-30.
Gellman, Andrew, and Gary King. “Why Are American Presidential Election Campaign Polls so Variable When Votes Are so Predictable?” British Journal of Political Science 23:409–451.
8
The Measure and Meaning of Public Opinion
Brady, Henry, and Gary Orren. Media Polls in American Politics. Edited by Mann, and Orren. Washington, D.C. : Brookings Institution, 1992. Chapter 4.
Zaller, John. The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992. Chapters 2-4.
9
The Structure of Public Opinion
Kinder, Donald. “Opinion and Action in the Realm of Politics.” in Handbook of Social Psychology, 4th Edition. Edited by Daniel Todd Gilbert, Susan T. Fiske, and Gardner Lindzey, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1988. pp. 778-867.
10
Understanding Public Opinion and American Politics: War and Race
Mueller, John. “Trends in Popular Support for the Wars in Vietnam and Korea.” The American Political Science Review , 65 (June, 1971), 358-375.
Zaller, John. The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992. Chapter 9.
Kinder, Donald R. and Lynn M. Sanders. Divided by Color. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996. Chapters 4 and 7.
Part 4: Personal Interests and Political Equality
11
Mobilization of Interests
Olson, Mancur. The Logic of Collective Action. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971. Chapters 1 and 2.
Kritzer. “The Government Gorilla: Why Does Government Come Out Ahead?” in In Litigation: Do the ‘Haves’ Still Come Out Ahead? Edited by Herbert M. Kritzer and Susan S. Silbey, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2003. pp.342-370.
12
Participation and the Political System
Rosenstone, Steven and John Mark Hansen. Mobilization, Participation, and Democracy in America. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Education, 1996. Chapters 4-6.
Dahl, Robert. Who Governs. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979. Chapters 1, 19, 24, 27 and 28.
Part 5: American Politics: Bringing it all Together
13
The Welfare Implications of Government
Dahl, Robert. How Democratic is the American Constitution? Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 1980. (Entire)
14
Conclusions
