AN EXAMINATION OF AMERICAN GOVERNMENT SYLLABI AND AMERICAN POLITICS
SYLLABI VIA GOOGLE
June 5, 2005
Reading Material Assigned On American Government Syllabi
Reading Material
Assigned On American Politics Syllabi
Separate Report On Syllabi For Introduction To Political Science Classes
Separate Report On Syllabi For Introduction To Comparative Politics Classes
Introduction
The purpose of this report is to find out what books and articles are being assigned to students in American Government classes at the undergraduate level. In late May 2005 Google.com’s advance search feature was used to conduct a separate analysis of American Government syllabi and American Politics syllabi on the internet.[1] At the undergraduate level of American Government it seems that books are often selected by the department or college administration, but instructors are allowed to supplement the textbook with their personally selected material. How and why books are selected at this level of academia is far more complicated than that.[2] Even so, finding out how often and what supplementation is being done is a secondary objective in this analysis.
In a Google search, there is clearly a difference between the terms “American Government” and “American Politics.” Using the latter term in a Google search brings more works written by women and for Latinos into the results returned by Google. The second portion of this analysis addresses American Politics separately due to the overwhelming number of supposed syllabi links in Google (n = 15,000). American Government syllabi are examined here first. This separation of terms and searches makes the analysis more accurate, especially in regards to which reading material is being assigned.
Aside from the central method of content analysis, two secondary techniques were used to ensure that only government syllabi were being examined. First, search parameters were set to exclude results that mentioned the word “politics” in the heading of the webpage; second, the results were taken from only websites that had the .edu domain. Less significant search parameters were that the search was set to look for pages that had been updated in the last year and were written in English. Obviously if this search parameter was increased to 3 years instead of 1, more syllabi would be found. However, the plan is to assess the reading material assigned on American Government syllabi and American Politics syllabi, so 1 year should produce more than enough reading material to form a good comparison. A screen shot of the exact search and its parameters is provided in Appendix A.
This search method brought the search results for Government syllabi down to a manageable 4,600 links. Google only displayed 998 of these, and it is unknown why Google will not allow a user to go past this number. One questions why Google initially reports that 15,000 syllabus links exist but presents only the first 1,000? The assumption is that going past 1,000 brings many more duplicate links into the results. Google sorts the results by relevance, and the number of actual syllabi—that is, the accuracy of the relevant and specific documents for which one is searching—dwindles considerably after the first 100 links. By the time 250 links, or Page 6, were reached, almost half of the links on each page were being discarded. At 550 supposed syllabus links, or Page 12, almost none of the links went to actual syllabi. Many of the links went to catalog descriptions of American Government instead. If a search parameter had been used to exclude the word “catalog,” 815 links would have been returned instead of 4,600. An examination of these 815 links showed that all of the professors’ syllabi in the original search appeared in the 815 links. This was very easy to see because the hyperlinks had changed colors to indicate that the site had already been visited. The same search parameters were also used for a comparative search in Yahoo.com. Yahoo returned 753 results. Accordingly, not knowing what these other 3,600 unobserved links on Google go to is considered to be insignificant.
After the 7th page of results, Google began to hide links that it thought were the same as the ones that had already been shown. This feature has been found to be very accurate, so it was not disabled. The final search parameter was set to have 50 results, or links, displayed per page. Every link on each of these pages was personally examined to ensure that a syllabus of American Government was being presented.
The syllabi were examined to record the names of all authors of articles and books that students are expected to read in the class. Duplicate syllabi—that is, syllabi from the same professor and that are used for the class in different sections or semesters—were discarded from the coding. Some professors did not list the book titles on their syllabus and gave instructions to “buy the one listed in the bookstore.” Those syllabi were discarded. Classes that were not specifically American Government were discarded. For example, syllabi for classes named American Political Thought and American Presidency were discarded. This was deemed necessary because the central focus in this investigation is American Government syllabi rather than syllabi in general. The number of links that were not used—those that did not go to actual syllabi—were counted in order to see just how many of the 998 links did not go to syllabi.
The number of times that an author’s name was repeated from syllabi to syllabi was recorded. Many authors had multiple works, so the article and book titles were recorded also. Again, from each syllabus, the author’s name and article title or book title were collected.
The coding sheet was rather simple. The name of authors and the titles to their reading material were copied and pasted into a Microsoft Word document in alphabetical order. The professor’s name, and course number, if possible, were listed on another sheet in alphabetical order. Doing that helped keep track of who had already been recorded so that the same syllabus was not considered twice. After all the webpages were examined, the authors and their titles that had been saved in a Microsoft Word document were assessed to see how many times they were assigned. The exact link that goes to the 998 results is provided in the notes.[3] Google Scholar was not used because the same search on Scholar.Google.com produced only 63 results and not one of them went to a syllabus.
Limitation
Obviously the main
limitation is the small number of syllabi used for the analysis (n = 186). The small n
occurred because only Government and Politics syllabi available on the internet for the past
year were collected. Consequently, the small population makes the rankings meaningless in the
true sense of the word rank. In fact, the ranking of the reading material is
presented for visual purposes rather than popularity purposes.
Results
American Government Syllabi
By the time the coding was complete, 146 actual syllabi from 145 different professors were selected for the final analysis. This means that out of Google’s 998 supposed American Government links to syllabi, only 146 turned out to be actual Government syllabi and 852 links were discarded.
In 15 of the 146 syllabi, it was clear that professors would be supplementing the main textbook with journal articles, but only 3 of these professors listed the article titles in the syllabus. The other 12 said they would provide this information in class.
Some newspaper
reading was incorporated into 17 of the syllabi. Of these, 6 professors
required students to subscribe to the New
York Times. Another required a subscription to the Washington Post. Another allowed a subscription to any national or
local newspaper of the student’s choice, and another professor required a
subscription to “a quality newspaper.” The
New York Times and Washington Post
were used for extra
credit assignments by 2 other professors.
The subscription requirement seems a little antiquated because almost
all of the New York Times and Washington Post
are online for free. Only 1 professor specified that students could
use the New York Times on the
internet.
The
Federalist Papers were assigned in parts
by 10 professors, but no attempts were made to record which portions were
assigned. No professor assigned the whole collection. Numbers 10 and 15 appeared more
often than not though.
There were 11 telecourses. Although just a small part of the 146, this discovery was still surprising. No telecourses for American Government had been anticipated. Telecourses are college classes that have been predesigned by some educator and sold to the school that uses them. The use of videotape comprises most of these courses, and actual class attendance is minimum—the standard number of meetings being no more than 5 times per course. Speculatively speaking, the videotapes are supposed to take the place of orthodox lectures. For these telecourses, the Cummings and Wise Democaracy Under Pressure was the standard. It was sometimes supplemented with Eileen Lynch’s Telecourse Guide For Voices In Democracy: United States Government.
American Politics Syllabi
The search for American Politics syllabi was conducted almost the same way as the search for the government syllabi. Only two minor changes were made in the search parameters. The word "government" was excluded and the search phrase "American Politics" was used instead of "American Government." Google reported 5,450 supposed links to syllabi of American Politics.[4] However, it displayed only 830 of those links. Out of the 830 supposed syllabi links, just 40 turned out to be actual syllabi as defined in this report. Syllabi that were not specifically and exclusively named American Politics were discarded. For examples, the syllabus for Women, Gender, and American Politics and the syllabus for American Politics and Public Law were not counted. About a quarter of the results on the first page went to syllabi titled Asian Politics, African American Politics, Latin American Politics, or Minority Politics. Throughout the analysis, syllabi such as these were discarded. All the classes from the actual American Politics syllabi were examined to make sure they went to an undergraduate course, which was important because of the few seminars that appeared in the results. Seminars with titles like “Contemporary Issues in American Politics” were considered in the analysis.
As far as reading material is concerned, there were no significant differences between the syllabi to American Government and the syllabi to American Politics. In fact, the main differences were that 4 of the Politics syllabi went to seminar classes and there were no syllabi for telecourses; there were no Government syllabi for seminars but there were Government syllabi to 11 telecourses. The few seminars did bring more works on minorities into the analysis, as shown in the Articles and Chapters section. There were 7 professors of the 40 who were clearly supplementing the books on their syllabus with other reading materials but did not list the material on the syllabus. Regarding current affairs, 5 professors assigned newspaper reading on a daily basis. In addition to the New York Times and Washington Post that were assigned in the Government syllabi, the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Los Angeles Times, and Wall Street Journal--all online-- were allowed to be the news choice in the Politics syllabi.
Although a Top 10
List is presented below, the full rankings of all the reading material can be
found in the appendices. An X# in bold shows the number of times a particular
work appeared in the syllabi population (n = 186). For the Top 10 List, works are presented in
descending order and reflect both the Government syllabi and the Politics
syllabi. The full list of reading material from the
Government syllabi, organized by category, appears
in Appendix B; for the Politics syllabi, in Appendix C. The categories in
Appendices B and C are Main Reading Material, State Books, Other Material, Articles And
Chapters, and Legal Cases.
When counting the number of times a book appears, there will often be different editions of the book. Regardless of the edition used, if the first 3 author’s names were the same but in a different order, the books were considered to be the same book. The different editions were only troublesome with Burns’ book, Lowi’s book, and Patterson’s book. Publication dates of the reading material reflect the dates on the syllabi rather than the current edition of the books. Although the publication date of some of the material is dated, the Google search was set to find only pages that had been updated in the last year.
Some of the
citations to the articles and chapters are incomplete because professors often
place this material on physical or electronic reserve in the library. Nevertheless, this reading material was counted in the analysis.
Top 10 Reading Material In Descending Order
(Government Syllabi and Politics Syllabi, n=186,
X# = number of times item appeared in syllabi)
O’Connor, Karen and Larry Sabato. American Government: Continuity and Change. Pearson Longman, 2004. X20
Wayne, Stephen and Calvin Mackenzie
and David O’Brien. The Politics of
American Government. St. Martin’s Press,
2000. X13
Lowi, Theodore and Benjamin Ginsberg
and Kenneth Shepsle. American Government: Power and Purpose. WW Norton, 2004. X13
Cummings, Milton Jr. and David Wise. Democracy Under Pressure: An Introduction to the American Political System. Wadsworth, 2003. (This is the book typically used with the telecourses.) X12
Lowi, Theodore and Benjamin Ginsberg. We the People. WW Norton, 2001. OR Ginsberg, Lowi, Weir, Champagne, Forshee, and Harpham. We the People: An Introduction to American Politics, Texas Edition. WW Norton, 2001. X11
Patterson, Thomas. We The People.
McGraw Hill, 2004. X8
Burns, James MacGregor and J.W. Peltason and Thomas E. Cronin and David B. Magleby and David M. O'Brien and Paul C. Light. Government By The People. Prentice Hall, 2004. X8
Bardes, Barbara and Steffen Schmidt and Mack Shelley. American Government and Politics Today: The Essentials. Wadsworth Publishing, 2003. X6
Patterson, Thomas. American Democracy. McGraw-Hill, 2003. X6
Fiorina, Morris, and Bertram Johnson and D. Stephen Voss and Paul E. Peterson. New American Democracy. Longman. 2004. OR America’s New Democracy, 2003. X5
*Only specific works assigned in full were considered for the Top 10 list. That means newspapers (X21) and the Federalist Papers (X12) were not included in this list even though they had a high appearance rate on the syllabi.
Appendix A
Search Parameters For Google
Appendix B
Reading Material From
Government Syllabi By Category
Main Reading Material
Barbour, Christine & Gerald C.
Wright. Keeping the Republic. Houghton-Mifflin,
2003. X2
Bardes, Barbara and Steffen Schmidt
and Mack Shelley. American Government and Politics Today: The Essentials. Wadsworth Publishing, 2003. X6
Berman, Larry and Bruce Allen
Murphy. Approaching Democracy. Prentice Hall, 1998. X1
Brudney, Kent and John Culver and
Mark Weber. Critical Thinking and American Government. Wadsworth, 2003. X1
Burns, James MacGregor and J.W.
Peltason and Thomas E. Cronin and David
B. Magleby and David M. O'Brien and Paul
C. Light. Government By The People. Prentice Hall, 2004. X7
Cigler, Allan and Burdett
Loomis. American Politics: Classics
& Contemporary Readings. Houghton Mifflin, 2002. X1
Constitution of the United States. X2
Corbett, Michael and Barbara Norrander
and Clark Baxter. American Government: Using Microcase Explorit. Wadsworth,
2002. X1
Cummings, Milton Jr. and David
Wise. Democracy Under Pressure: An
Introduction to the American Political System. Wadsworth, 2003. (This is the
book typically used with telecourses.) X11
Declaration of Independence. X1
DiClerico and Hammock, Points of View: Readings in American Government &
Politics. Mcgraw-Hill College, 1995. X1
Dye, Thomas R. and Harmon Ziegler. The Irony of Democracy.
Harcourt Brace, 2003. X2
Dye, Thomas.
Politics In America. Prentice
Hall, 2002. X3
Edwards, George C. Government in America: People, Politics, and
Policy. Pearson Custom Publishing, 2004.
X2
Falcon, Dennis and Victor Obasohan
and Thomas Patterson and Bryan Reece. American Democracy: Myth and
Reality. McGraw Hill, 2002. X3
Fenno, Richard F. Jr. Learning to Govern. Brookings Institution,
1997. X1
Fiorina, Morris, and Bertram
Johnson and D. Stephen Voss and Paul E. Peterson. New American Democracy. Longman. 2004. OR America’s
New Democracy, 2003. X4
Gitelson, Alan and Robert L. Dudley
and Melvin J. Dubnick. American
Government. Houghton Mifflin, 2001. X4
Greenberg, Edward and Benjamin Page,
The Struggle for Democracy. Pearson
Longman, 2004. X1
Hinckley, Barbara. The Experiment
in Government (this book is completely online and there is no charge to use it
at http://lab.pava.purdue.edu/pol101/Text/. Being written in 1995 probably
explains the availability of this book.) X1
Howard, Philip. The Death of Common
Sense: How Law is Suffocating America Random House, 1994. X1
Ingraham, Patricia Wallace, The
Foundations of Merit: Public Service in American Democracy. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995. X1
Jacobson, Gary C. and Samuel
Kernell. The Logic of American Politics. CQ Press, 2003. X1
Janda, Kenneth and Jeffrey M. Berry
and Jerry Goldman. Challenge of
Democracy. Houghton Mifflin, 2002. X2
Jillson, Cal. American Government: Political Change and Institutional
Development, Wadsworth Press, 2002. X2
Johnson, Paul and Gary Miller and
John Aldrich. American Government: People, Institutions, and Policies. Houghton
Mifflin, 1994. X1
Katznelson, Ira, et al. The
Politics of Power: A Critical Introduction to American Government, 4th ed.,
2002. X1
Kingdon, John W. America the Unusual. St. Martin's Press, 1999.
X1
Landy, Marc and Sidney Milkis.
American Government: Balancing Democracy and Rights. McGraw Hill, 2003. X2
Lasser, William. American Politics:
The Enduring Constitution. Houghton Mifflin, 1999. X1
Lowi, Theodore J. and Benjamin
Ginsberg. Readings For American
Government: Freedom and Power. WW Norton, 2000. X3
Lowi, Theodore and Benjamin
Ginsberg. We the People. WW Norton,
2001. OR Ginsberg, Lowi, Weir, Champagne, Forshee,
and Harpham. We the People: An
Introduction to American Politics, Texas Edition. WW Norton, 2001. X7
Lowi, Theodore and Benjamin Ginsberg
and Kenneth Shepsle. American Government: Power and Purpose. WW Norton, 2004. X9
Martin, Janet. Lessons From the Hill. St. Martin’s, 1993. X1
Microcase Corporation. American Government: An Introduction Using
Explorit. Microcase, 1998. X1
McClenaghan, William. Magruder’s American Government. Prentice Hall, 2001. X2
Nye, Joseph, Jr. and Philip D.
Zelikow and David C. King. Why People
Don’t Trust Government. Harvard
University Press, 1997. X1
O’Connor, Karen
and Larry Sabato. American Government:
Continuity and Change. Pearson Longman, 2004. X17
Okafor, Goodwin and Grier
Stephenson and Robert Bresler and Friedrich Karlesky. Understanding American Government. Horizon
Textbook Publishing, LLC., 2004. X1
Osborne, David and Ted Gaebler.
Reinventing Government. Plume, 1992. X1
Osborne, David and Peter Plastrik. Banishing Bureaucracy: Five Strategies for Reinventing Government. Wesley Publishing, 1996. X1
Paine, Thomas. Common Sense. X2
Patterson, Thomas. We The People. McGraw, 2004. X8
Patterson, Thomas. American Democracy. McGraw-Hill, 2003. X3
Rodgers, Harrell. Institutions, Policy, and American Government.
Pearson, 2003. X1
Serow, Ann and Everett G. Ladd. American Polity. Lanahan, 2000. X3
Sidlow, Edward and Beth Henschen. America At Odds. Wadsworth, 2003. X2
Sloan, John American Political Institutions, Policy and
Democratic Government. Pearson Publishing, 2004. X1
Stinebrickner, Bruce. Annual Editions: Readings in American Government. McGraw-Hill/Dushkin, 2003. X1
Stone, Bob. Confessions of a Civil
Servant: Lessons in Changing America’s Government and Military. Lanham, Rowman and Littlefield Publishers,
2003. X1
Turner, Mary Jane and Kenneth Switzer and Charlotte Redden. American Government, Principles and Practices. Merrill Publishing Company, 1991. X1
Volkomer, Walter. American
Government. Prentice Hall, 2003. X4
Wasserman, Gary. The Basics of American Politics. Longman,
2002. X1
Wayne, Stephen and Calvin Mackenzie
and David O’Brien. The Politics of
American Government. St. Martin’s Press,
2000. X12
Welch, Susan and John Gruhl and
John Comer and Susan Rigdon.. American
Government. Wadsworth, 2003. X1
Wilson, James Q. and John
DiIulio. American Government: The Essentials.
Houghton Mifflin, 2004. OR Wilson, James Q. and John J., Jr. DiIulio. American Government Institutions and
Policies. Houghton Mifflin, 2003. X1
Woll, Peter, American Government: Readings and Cases. Pearson Longman, 2002. X2
State Books
The following
books were assigned with one or even two of the more broad books listed above.
Fleischmann, Arnold and Carrol Pierannunzi. Georgia’s Constitution and Government. University of Georgia Press, 2003. X1
Gerston, Larry and Terry Christensen. Recall: California's Political Earthquake. M.E. Sharpe, 2004. X1
Janiskee, Brian P. and Ken Masugi.
Democracy in California, Post-Recall Edition.
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2004. X2
Korey, John. California Government.
Houghton Mifflin, 2000. X1
Kramer, Richard and Charldean
Newell and David Prindle. Essentials of
Texas Politics. Wadsworth Group, 2001. X1
Maxwell, William and Ernest Crain. Texas Politics Today. Addison Wesley Longman, 2003. X1
Schrag, Peter. Paradise Lost: California’s Experience,
America’s Future. University of
California Press, 2004. X1
Squire, Peverill and James Lindsay and Cary Covington
and Eric Smith.. Dynamics of Democracy.
AtomicDog, 2003. X1
Tannahill, Neal. Texas Government: Policy and Politics.
Pearson Longman,
2003. X2
Other Material
The following
books were used in a Government seminar or in conjunction with one of the
more broad books above.
Baker, Ross K. House and Senate. W.W. Norton, 2000. X1
Baum, Lawrence. The Supreme Court. CQ Press, 2000. X1
Bonser, Charles. American Public
Policy Problems. Prentice Hall, 2000. X1
Cain, Louis and Jonathan
Hughes. American Economic History. Addison Wesley, 2002. X1
Canon, David T. and Kenneth Mayer
and John Coleman. Readings for American Government. W.W. Norton, 2002. OR David
Canon and James Coleman and Kenneth Mayer. The Enduring Debate: Classic and
Contemporary Readings in American Politics.
Norton, 2002. X2
Contested Terrain: An American
Politics Reader. McGraw Hill, 2004. X1
Dahl, Robert. Who Governs? Democracy and Power in an American City. Yale University Press, 2001. X1
Downs, Anthony. An Economic Theory of Democracy. HarperCollins, 1957. X1
Evers, Myrlie. For Us,
the Living. Banner Books, University Press of Mississippi: Jackson, MS, 1996. X1
Fiorina, Morris. Congress: Keystone of the Washington Establishment. Yale University Press, 1989. X1
Genovese, Michael. The Presidential Dilemma: Leadership in the
American System. Addison Wesley, 1997. X1
Goodsell, Charles. The Case for Bureaucracy. Chatham House, 2003. X1
Hudson, William. American Democracy
in Peril: Eight Challenges to America’s Future. CQ Press, 2004. X2
Kernell, Samuel and Steven Smith. Principles and Practice of American Politics. CQ Press, 2000. X1
Lindsay, James. American Politics
After September 11th reader. AtomicDog,
2002. X1
Lynch, Eileen and Linda Keith and
Sue Lee and Ted Lewis and Milton Cummings. Telecourse Guide For Voices In
Democracy: United States Government. Harcourt College Pub, 2001. X2
Mason, Alpheus. The New Deal. Harvard University, 2000. X1
Mayhew, David. Congress: The Electoral Connection. Yale University Press, 1975. X1
McKenna, George and Stanley Feingold.
Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial
Political Issues. McGraw Hill, 2003. X3
Miroff, Bruce and Raymond Seidelman
and Todd Swanstrom. Debating Democracy:
A Reader in American Politics. Houghton
Mifflin, 2003. X3
Neustadt, Richard. Presidential Power. Free Press, 1990. X1
Nisbet, Lee. Gun Control Debate: You Decide. Prometheus Books, 2001. X1
Paletz, David. The Media in American Politics: Contents and Consequences. Longman, 2002. X1
Rosenthal, Alan and Burdett A.
Loomis and John R. Hibbing and Karl T. Kurtz.
Republic On Trial: The Case For Representative Democracy. CQ Press, 2003. X1
Shea, Daniel. Mass Politics: The Politics of Popular Culture.
Wadsworth, 1999. X1
Tocqueville, Alexis de. Democracy in America, either in part or in whole. X7
Waldman, Steven. The Bill: How Legislation Really Becomes Law:
A Case Study of the National Service Bill.
Penguin Books, 1995. X2
Woolley, Peter and Albert R. Papa. American Politics: Core Argument/Current Controversy. Prentice Hall, 2002. X1
Articles And Chapters
Because professors often put articles and chapters on physical reserve or electronic reserve in the library, the full citation is seldom found in the syllabus. The works below make that obvious. The author’s name and title of the article or chapter was available, so they were counted nonetheless in the analysis.
Newspaper, such as New York Times or Washington Post, X17
Douglas, Frederick, “What to a Slave is the Fourth of July” X1
Federalist Papers by either Hamilton, Madison, or Jay. X12
Gingrich & Breslow, “Has the Welfare State Failed America’s Poor?” X1
Greenblatt, Alan, “Media Bias: Are the Major Sources of News Trustworthy?” (I believe this comes from CQ Researcher, October 2004.) X1
Light, Paul, “Government’s Greatest Achievements,”
(Brookings Institution). X1
Light, Paul, “Government’s Highest Priorities,”
(Brookings Institution). X1
Nixon & Clarke, “Must America Be the World Leader?” X1
Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, “Declaration
of Sentiments” X1
Turner, Frederick Jackson, The Frontier in American History. X1
Wilson, James, “The Bureaucracy
Problem” in Nivola and Rosenbloom, Classic
Readings in American Politics. X1
Legal Cases
Barron v. Baltimore X1
Brown v. Board of Education X2
McCulloch v. Maryland X3
Roe v. Wade X3
Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg
Board of Education X2
Appendix C
Reading Material From
Politics Syllabi By Category
Main Reading Material
Newspaper reading, such as the New York Times and Washington Post, X4
Bennett, Lance. News: The Politics of Illusion. Longman, 2004. X1
Bianco, William. American Politics: Strategy and Choice. WW Norton, 2000. X1
Bickel, Alexander. The Least Dangerous Branch. Yale University Press, 1986. X1
Brady, David. Critical Elections and Congressional Policy Making. Stanford University Press, 1991. X1
Burns, James MacGregor and J.W. Peltason and Thomas E. Cronin and David B. Magleby and David M. O'Brien and Paul C. Light. Government By The People. Prentice Hall, 2004. X1
Campbell, Angus and Philip Converse and Warren Miller and Donald Stokes. The American Voter. University of Chicago Press, 1980. X1
Canon, David T. and Kenneth Mayer and John Coleman. Readings for American Government. W.W. Norton, 2002. OR David Canon and James Coleman and Kenneth Mayer. The Enduring Debate: Classic and Contemporary Readings in American Politics. Norton, 2002. X1
Carter, Stephen. The Confirmation Mess. Basic Books, 1994. X1
Clift, Eleanor and Tom Brazaitis. Madam President: Shattering the Last Glass Ceiling. Scribner, 2000. X1
Constitution. X1
Cummings, Milton Jr. and David Wise. Democracy Under Pressure: An Introduction to the American Political System. Wadsworth, 2003. X1
Dahl, Robert. Who Governs? Yale University Press, 1963. X1
Diclerico, Robert and Allan S. Hammock. Points of View: Readings In American Government And Politics. McGraw Hill, 2001. X1
Downs, Anthony. The Economic Theory of Democracy. Harvard University Press, 1997. X2
Fenno, Richard Jr.. Learning to Govern: An Institutional View of the l04tb Congress. Brookings Institution Press, 1997. X3
Fiorina, Morris, and Bertram Johnson and D. Stephen Voss and Paul E. Peterson. New American Democracy. Longman. 2004. OR America’s New Democracy, 2003. X1
Fiorina, Morris. Culture War? Longman, 2004. X2
Gitelson, Alan and Robert L. Dudley and Melvin J. Dubnick. American Government. Houghton Mifflin, 2001. X1
Gilovich, Thomas. How We Know What Isn’t So. Free Press, 1993. X1
Greenberg, Edward and Benjamin Page, The Struggle for Democracy. Pearson Longman, 2004. X3
Hoover, Kenneth and Todd Donovan. The Elements of Social Scientific Thinking. St. Martin's, 2000. X1
Hudson, William. American Democracy in Peril. CQ Press, 2004. X1
Isaac, Katherine. Ralph Nader Presents Practicing Democracy: A guide to student action. Wadsworth, 1996. X1
Jamieson, Kathleen and Paul Waldman. The Press Effect: Politicians, Journalists and the Stories that Shape the Political World. Oxford University Press, 2003. X1
Jacobson, Gary. The Logic of American Politics in Wartime. CQ Press, 2004. X1
Janda, Kenneth and Jeffrey Berry and Jerry Goldman. The Challenge of Democracy. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2001. X1
Kann, Mark and Todd Belt and Gabriela Cowperthwaite and Steve Horn. Getting Involved: A Guide to Student Citizenship. Allyn & Bacon, 2000. X1
Kennedy, Robert. Thirteen Days. Mass Market Paperback, 1993. X1
Kernell, Samuel and Gary Jacobson. The Logic of American Politics. CQ Press, 2003. X3
Kernell, Samuel and Steven Smith. Principles and Practice of American Politics. CQ Press, 2004. X1
Krehbiel, Kieth. Pivotal Politics. University of Chicago Press, 1998. X1
Levine, H. M. Point-Counterpoint: Readings in American Government. Wadsworth, 2004. X1
Lewis, Anthony. Gideon’s Trumpet. Vintage Books, 1964. X2
Lipset, Seymour Martin. American
Exceptionalism: A Double Edged Sword. WW Norton, 1997. X1
Little, Daniel. Varieties of Social Explanation. Westview Press, 1991. X1
Lowi, Theodore and Benjamin Ginsberg and Kenneth Shepsle. American Government: Power and Purpose. WW Norton, 2004. X4
Lowi, Theodore and Benjamin Ginsberg. We the People. WW Norton, 2001. OR Ginsberg, Lowi, Weir, Champagne, Forshee, and Harpham. We the People: An Introduction to American Politics, Texas Edition. WW Norton, 2001. X4
Mayhew, David. Congress: The Electoral Connection. Yale University Press, 1993. X1
Mayhew, David. Divided We Govern. Yale University Press, 1975. X1
McGinniss, Joe. The Selling of the President. Penguin Books, 1988. X1
Miroff, Bruce and Raymond Seidelman and Todd Swanstrom. Debating Democracy: A Reader in American Politics. Houghton Mifflin, 2003. X2
Miroff, Bruce and Raymond Seidelman and Todd Swanstrom. The Democratic Debate. Houghton Mifflin, 2001. X2
Muir, William. Power: Its Nature, Exercise, And Consequences. Unpulished manuscript. X1
Neustadt, Richard. Presidential Power. Free Press, 1991. X1
O’Connor, Karen and Larry Sabato. American Government: Continuity and Change. Pearson Longman, 2004. X3
Olson, Mancur. The Rise and Decline of Nations. Yale University Press, 1982. X1
Paine, Thomas. Common Sense. X1
Paletz, David. The Media in American Politics. Longman, 2001. X1
Parenti, Michael. Democracy for the Few. Wadsworth, 2001. X1
Patterson, Thomas. The American Democracy. McGraw Hill Publishing Company, 2003. X3
Patterson, Thomas. The Vanishing Voter: Public Involvement in an Age of Uncertainty. Vintage, 2003. X1
Popkin, Samuel. The Reasoning Voter: Communication and Persuasion in Presidential Campaigns. University of Chicago Press, 1994. X1
Potter, David. A People Of Plenty. University of Chicago Press, 1958. X1
Redman, Eric. Dance of Legislation. University of Washington Press, 2002. X1
Rosenberg, Gerald. The Hollow Hope: Can Courts Bring about Social Change? University of Chicago Press, 1993. X1
Rosenstone, Steven and John Mark Hansen. Mobilization, Participation, and Democracy in America. Longman, 2003. X1
Rozell, Mark and John Kenneth White. Contemporary Readings in American
Government. Prentice Hall, 2002. X1
Shafritz, J. and L.S. Weinberg. Classics in American Government. Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, 2000. X1
Skowronek, Stephen. The Politics Presidents Make. Harvard University Press, 1993. X1
Squire, Peverill and James Lindsay and Cary Covington and Eric Smith.. Dynamics of Democracy. AtomicDog, 2003. X1
Stinebrickner, Bruce. Annual Editions: Readings in American Government. McGraw-Hill/Dushkin, 2003. X1
Streb, Matthew. The New Electoral Politics of Race. University of Alabama Press, 2002. X1
Tocqueville, Alexis de. Democracy in America (either in part or in whole) X4
Volgy, Thomas. Politics in the Trenches. University of Arizona Press, 2001. X1
Wasserman, Gary. The Basics of American Politics. Harper Collins, 2004. X1
Wayne, Stephen. Is This Any Way to Run a Democratic Election? Houghton-Mifflin Co., 2003. X2
Wayne, Stephen and Calvin Mackenzie and David O’Brien. The Politics of American Government. St. Martin’s Press, 2000. X1
Welch, Susan and John Gruhl and John Comer and Susan Rigdon. American Government. Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, 2003. X1
Wilson, Graham. Only In America? Chatham House Publishers, 1998. X1
Wilson, James. Bureaucracy Problem. Irvington, 1993. X1
Wolfinger, Raymond and Steven J. Rosenstone. Who Votes? Yale University Press, 1980. X1
Zaller, John. The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinions. Cambridge University Press, 1992. X1
State Books
The following books were assigned with one or two of the more broad books listed above.
Bowers, Michael. The Sagebrush State: Nevada's History, Government, and Politics. University of Nevada Press, 2002. X1
Fleischmann, Arnold and Carrol Pierannunzi. Georgia’s Constitution and Government. University of Georgia Press, 2003. X1
Articles And
Chapters
(All sources below were assigned on the syllabi once unless
indicated otherwise.)
Henry Abraham. 1999. Justices, Presidents, and Senators. New York: Rowman Littlefield. Chapters 12-13 (p. 291-330) and Chapters 1-4.
David Adler. 2000. “The Law: The Clinton Theory of the War Power,” Presidential Studies Quarterly 30(1):155-168.
John H. Aldrich and David W. Rohde. January, 2000. “The Republican Revolution and the House Appropriations Committee,” Journal of Politics.
Alberto Alesina and Howard Rosenthal. 1995. Partisan Politics, Divided Government, and the Economy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Chapters 1, 6, 9 (Pages 1-15, 137-160, 204-240).
Graham Allison. 1969. “Conceptual Models and the Cuban Missile Crisis,” American Political Science Review 63:689-718.
Gabriel A. Almond and Sidney Verba. "An Approach to Political Culture," in The Civic Culture, Little, Brown, 1965.
James Barber. 1992 (1972). Presidential Character: Predicting performance in the White House. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall. Chapters 1, 2, 5.
Charles A. Beard. An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States (excerpts), Macmillan, 1954 [1913].
Michael Benedict. 1998. “From our archives: a new look at the impeachment of Andrew Johnson.” Political Science Quarterly Fall 1998 v113 n3 p493(19).
Judith Best. 1996. The Choice of the People? Roman Littlefield. Chapters 2 & 3.
Alexander Bickel. 1962. “Establishment and General Justification of Judicial Review.” A selection from The Least Dangerous Branch reprinted in Classic Readings in American Politics. 1990. Nivola and Rosenbloom, eds. New York: St. Martin’s.
Joan Biskupic. “Justices Reject Lawsuits for Rape” Washington Post Online May 16, 2000 p. A01.
Jon Bond and Richard Fleisher. 2000. Polarized Politics. Washington: CQ Press. Chapters 1 and 9.
Fred Block. "Beyond Relative Autonomy: State Managers as Historical Subjects," in Revising State Theory, Temple University Press, 1987 [1980].
David Brady and Barbara Sinclair. 1984. “Building Majorities for Policy Changes in the House of Representatives.” Journal of Politics 46:1033-1060.
Henry Brady, Sidney Verba and Kay Lehman Schlozman. 1995. “Beyond SES: A Resource Model of Political Participation.” American Political Science Review, 89, 271-294 OR Verba, Sidney, Key Lehman Schlozman, and Henry E. Brady. 1995. Voice and Equality: Civic Voluntarism in American Politics. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. Part III
Gregory Caldeira and John R. Wright. 1988. “Organized Interests and Agenda Setting in the U.S. Supreme Court.” American Political Science Review 82:1109-1127.
Angus Campbell, Philip E. Converse, Warren E. Miller, and Donald E. Stokes. "Theoretical Orientation," in The American Voter, University of Chicago Press, 1960.
Angus Campbell and Philip E. Converse and Warren E. Miller and Donald E. Stokes. 1960. The American Voter. New York: John Wiley, Chapters 6 and 7, “The Impact of…” and “The Development of Party Identification,” respectively (pp. 120-167).
Edward Carmines and James A. Stimson. 1989. Issue Evolution: Race and the Transformation of American Politics. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. Chapters 1, 7, 8. (Pages 3-26, 159-197).
Susan J. Carroll and Linda M.G. Zerilli. "Feminist Challenges to Political Science," in Political Science: The State of the Disipline II, ed. Ada W. Finifter, American Political Science Association, 1993.
Jonathan Casper. 1976. “The Supreme Court and National Policy Making.” American Political Science Review 70(March):50-63.
Stanley Collender. 1999. The Guide to the Federal Budget Fiscal 2000. Chapters 1 & 2.
Kenneth Collier. 1997. Between the Branches: The White House Office of Legislative Affairs. University of Pittsburgh Press. Chapters 1 & 10.
Philip Converse. 1964. “The Nature of Belief Systems in Mass Publics.” In David Apter. Ed. Ideology and Discontent. New York: The Free Press. Pages 206-261. (Skip 249-261).
Timothy Cook. 1998. Governing with the News: The News Media as a Political Institution. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Chapters. 4-5. Pages 63-115.
Cuomo. Reason to Believe, Chs. 4, 6.
Otto Davis, Melvin Hinich, and Peter Ordeshook. 1970. “An Expository Development of a Mathematical Model of the Electoral Process.” American Political Science Review 64: 426-448.
F. James Davis. Who is Black? One Nation’s Definition. (University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1991) Chapters 1 & 2.
Julie Dolan. "Support for Women's Interests in the 103rd Congress: The Distinct Impact of Congressional Women," Women and Politics 18:81-94 (1997).
G. William Domhoff. "Who Governs America Today?" in Primis Sociology database, eds. Craig Calhoun and George Ritzer, McGraw-Hill, 1997.
Anthony Downs. "An Economic Theory of Political Action in a Democracy," Journal of Political Economy 65:135-150 (1957).
Anthony Downs. 1967. Inside Bureaucracy. Boston: Little Brown. Chapters 9, 11, 12.
David Easton. "The Future of the Postbehavioral Phase in Political Science," in Contemporary Empirical Political Theory, ed. Kristen Renwick Monroe, University of California Press, 1997.
Ronald Elling. 1995. Conflict and Compromise. New York: Touchstone. Chapters 1 & 13.
Robert Erikson, Michael B. MacKuen, and James A. Stimson. In Cambridge University Press, 2000. The Macro Polity. Chapter 1 and 4. Ch. 9 “A Governing System.” And Ch. 10 “American Macro Politics: A System Model.”
Robert Erikson and Gerald C. Wright. 1997. “Voters, Candidates, and Issues in Congressional Elections.” In Lawrence C. Dodd and Bruce I. Oppenheimer (eds.), Congress Reconsidered. 6th ed. Washington: CQ Press.
Federalists by either Madison, Jay, or Hamilton. X2
Richard F. Fenno, Jr.. "U.S. House Members in Their Constituencies: An Exploration," American Political Science Review 71:883-917 (1977).
Richard Fenno. “The United States Senate: A Bicameral Perspective,”
Richard Fenno. 1978. Home Style: House Members in Their Districts. Boston: Little, Brown. (excerpt from McCubbins and Sullivan reader)
Richard Fenno. 1973. Congressmen in Committees, Boston: Little Brown. Chapters 3-4.
Morris P. Fiorina. "An Outline for a Model of Party Choice," American Journal of Political Science 21:601-625 (1977).
Morris Fiorina. 1980. “The Decline in Collective Responsibility in American Politics.” Daedalus 109 (3) (Summer):25‑45.
Louis Fisher. 1991. Constitutional Conflicts Between Congress and the President. (3rd edition) Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas Press. Chapter 5 (p. 115-152).
Richard Fleisher and Jon R. Bond. 1988 “Are There Two Presidencies? Yes, But Only for Republicans” Journal of Politics Vol. 50, No. 3. (Aug., 988), pp. 747-767.
James S. Fleming. “The House Member as Teacher”
John Gates and Glenn A. Phelps. 1996. “Intentionalism in Constitutional Opinions.” Political Research Quarterly 49:245-262.
John Gaventa. "Power and Participation," in Power and Powerlessness: Quiescence and Rebellion in an Appalachian Valley, University of Illinois Press, 1980.
Andrew Gelman and Gary King. 1993. “Why Are American Presidential Election Polls So Variable When Votes Are So Predictable.” British Journal of Political Science 23: 409-451.
James Gibson. 1992. “The Political Consequences of Intolerance: Cultural Conformity and Political Freedom.” American Political Science Review, 86, 338-356.
Goldwater. Conscience of a Conservative, Chs. 1, 2
Kenneth Gormley. 1998. “An Original Model of the Independent Counsel Statute.” Michigan Law Review Dec. 1998 v97 i3 p.601(1).
Linda Greenhouse. “The Court Rules, America Changes” New York Times Online July 2, 2000.
Linda Greenhouse. “Battle on Federalism” New York Times Online May 17, 2000.
Richard L. Hall and Frank W. Wayman. "Buying Time: Moneyed Interests and the Mobilization of Bias in Congressional Committees," American Political Science Review 84:797-820 (1990).
G. Hardin. “The Tragedy of the Commons” Science 162 (December 13, 1968) pp.
1243-48.
Louis Hartz. "The Concept of a Liberal Society," in The Liberal Tradition in America, Harcourt, Brace, 1955.
Melvin Hinich and Michael Munger. 1997. Analytical Politics. Cambridge University Press. Chapters 1-3, Chapter 5.
Marie Hojnacki. 1997. “Interest Groups’ Decisions to Join Alliances or Work Alone.” American Journal of Political Science. 41 (1): 67-87.
Eric Hyer. "Values Versus Interests: The U.S. Response to the Tiananmen Square Massacre," Pew Case Studies in International Affairs 170-96-N (Georgetown University: Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, 1996).
Gary Jacobson. 1997. The Politics of Congressional Elections. Fourth Edition Chaps. 3, 6.
Charles Jones. 1995. “The Constitutional Balance.” Chapter 7 (pp. 128-160) from Separate but Equal Branches. New York: Chatham House.
VO Key, Jr.. 1955. “A Theory of Critical Elections.” Journal of Politics 17 (1) (February):3‑18.
Nancy Kassop. 2000. The Law: The Clinton Impeachment: Untangling the Web of Conflicting Considerations. Presidential Studies Quarterly June 2000 v30 i2 p359.
Samuel Kernell. 1986. Going Public: New Strategies of Presidential Leadership. Washington: CQ Press. Chapters 2, 3.
Lewis M. Killian. "Social Movements," in Handbook of Modern Sociology, ed. Robert E.L. Faris, Rand McNally, 1964.
Hyojoung Kim and Peter S. Bearman. 1997. “The Structure and Dynamics of Movement Participation.” American Sociological Review, 62, 70-93.
John Kingdon. 1989. Congressmen’s Voting Decisions. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Chapters 9-12.
Gerald H. Kramer. "Political Science as Science," in Political Science: the Science of Politics, ed. Herbert F. Weisberg, Agathon Press, 1986.
Gerald Kramer. 1983. “The Ecological Fallacy Revisited: Aggregate versus Individual-Level Findings on Economics and Elections and Sociotropic Voting.” American Political Science Review 77:92-111.
Keith Krehbiel. "Informational Theories of Legislative Organization," in Information and Legislative Organization, University of Michigan Press, 1991. and Chapters 3 and 6.
Paul Krugman. 1994. Peddling Prosperity: Economic Sense and Nonsense in the Age of Diminished Expectations. New York: W.W.Norton. Pages 1-103.
James H. Kuklinski, and Lee Sigelman. 1992. “When Objectivity Is Not Objective: Network Television News Coverage of U.S. Senators and the ‘Paradox of Objectivity.’” Journal of Politics 54:810-833.
Timur Kuran. “Now out of Never: The Element of Surprise in Eastern Europe in1989” World Politics, vol. 44, No. 1, Oct., 1991.
William Leuchtenburg. 1995. “FDR’s ‘Court-packing’ Plan” Chapter 5 from The Supreme Court Reborn. Oxford University Press.
Milton Lodge, Marco R. Steenbergen, and Sawn Brau. 1995. “The Responsive Voter: Campaign Information and the Dynamics of Candidate Evaluation.” American Political Science Review 89(2):309-326.
John B. Londregan. "Deliberation and Voting at the Federal Convention of 1787," (1999).
Lawrence Longley and Neal R. Pierce. 1999. The Electoral College Primer 2000. New Haven: Yale University Press. Chapters 1, 2 & 6.
David Lowery and Virginia Gray. 1995. “The Population Ecology of Gucci Gulch, or the Natural Regulation of Interest Group Numbers in the American States.” American Journal of Political Science, 39 (February): 1-29.
Theodore J. Lowi. "The State in Political Science: How We Become What We Study," American Political Science Review 86:1-7 (1992).
Harvey Mansfield and Delba Winthrop. “What Tocqueville Says to Liberals and Conservatives Today”
Gregory Markus and Philip Converse. 1979. “A Dynamic Simultaneous Equation Model Of Electoral Choice.” American Political Science Review 73: 1055-1070.
Roger D. Masters. "Why Bureaucracy?" in The Nature of Politics, Yale University Press, 1989.
David Mayhew. 1974. Congress: The Electoral Connection. New Haven: Yale University Press. (excerpt from McCubbins and Sullivan reader)
David Mayhew. 1991. Divided We Govern New Haven, CT: Yale. Chapters 2 and 4.
Doug McAdam. "The Political Process Model," in Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency, 1930-1970, University of Chicago Press, 1982.
Tim McKeown. 1994. “The Epidemiology of PAC Formation, 1975-84.” Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. 24: 153-168.
Paula D. McClain and John A. Garcia. “Expanding Disciplinary Boundaries: Black, Latino, and Racial Minority Group Politics in Political Science.” In Ada W. Finifter, Political Science: The State of the Discipline, II. Washington, D.C.: American Political Science Association, 1993.
Paula D. McClain and Albert K. Karnig. 1990. “Black and Hispanic Socioeconomic and Political Competition.” American Political Science Review 84:535-545.
Mathew McCubbins. Roger Noll, and Barry Weingast. “Administrative Procedures as Instruments of Political Control.” Journal of Law, Economics, and Organizations. 3:243-77.
Kevin McGuire, Charles E. Smith, Jr., and Gregory A. Caldeira. 1999. “Ambiguities in Measuring and Modeling the U.S. Supreme Court.” Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association.
William Mitchell and Michael C. Munger. 1991. “Economic Models of Interest Groups.” American Journal of Political Science 35 (2): 512-546.
Terry Moe. 1984. “The New Economics of Organizations.” American Journal of Political Science 739-777.
Michael Munger. 2000. “Political Science and Fundamental Research.” PS: Political Science and Politics.
Richard Neustadt. 1976. Presidential Power: The Politics of Leadership with reflections on Johnson and Nixon, Chapter 3, New York: John Wiley and Sons.
William Niskanen. 1971. Bureaucracy and Representative Government. Chicago: Aldine, Atherton. Chapters 4, 14.
Douglass North. 1990. Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Chapters 1-2, 4 9-14 (Pages 1-16, 27-35, 73-140).
Mancur Olson. "The Logic," in The Rise and Decline of Nations: Economic Growth, Stagflation, and Social Rigidities, Yale University Press, 1982.
Mancur Olson. The Logic of Collective Action. Harvard University Press, 1991. Chapter 3.
Mancur Olson. “Dictatorship, Democracy, and Development,” American Political
Science Review September 1993.
David Paletz. 1999. The Media in American Politics. New York: Longman. Chapter 15.
Richard Pious. 1998. “The Constitutional and Popular Law of Presidential Impeachment.” Presidential Studies Quarterly Fall 1998 v28 i4 p806(1).
Nelson Polsby. "How to Study Community Power: The Pluralist Alternative," Journal of Politics 22:474-484 (1960).
Nelson Polsby et al. 1968. “The Institutionalization of the House of Representatives.” American Political Science Review 787-807.
Samuel Popkin. 1991. The Reasoning Voter: Communication and Persuasion in Presidential Campaigns. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Prologue, Chapters 1-3 (Pages 1-71).
Bingham Powell. 1986. “American Voter Turnout In Comparative Perspective.” American Political Science Review 80: 17-43.
Robert D. Putnam. "Bowling Alone: America's Declining Social Capital," Journal of Democracy 6:65-78 (1995).
Robert Putnam. 1995. “Tuning In, Tuning Out: The Strange Disappearance of Social Capital in America.” PS: Political Science and Politics, 28, 664-83.
George Rabinowitz and Stuart Elaine Macdonald. 1989. “A Directional Theory of Issue Voting.” American Political Science Review 83: 93-121.
John P. Roche. "The Founding Fathers: A Reform Caucus in Action," American Political Science Review 55:799-816 (1961).
David Rohde. 1991. Parties and Leaders in the Post-Reform House, Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Chapters 3,4.
Mark Rozell. 1999. “Executive Privilege: Definition and Standards of Application.” Presidential Studies Quarterly 29(4):918-930.
Mark Rozell. 1998. Executive Privilege in the Lewinsky Scandal: Giving a Good Doctrine a Bad Name.” Presidential Studies Quarterly 28 (4): 816.
Scheck, Neufeld and Dwyer. Actual Innocence, Ch. 10.
Joseph A. Schlesinger. 1984. “On the Theory of Party Organization.” Journal of Politics 46 (2) (May):369‑400.
David O. Sears, Richard R. Lau, T.R. Tyler and H.J. Allen. 1980. “Self-Interest vs. Symbolic Politics in Policy Attitudes and Voting.” American Political Science Review 74:670-684.
Robert Salisbury. 1969. “An Exchange Theory of Interest Groups.” Midwest Journal of Political Science 13 (1): 1-32.
David O. Sears, Jim Sidanius, and Lawrence Bobo. Racialized Politics: The Debate about Racism in America. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), Chapter 1.
Jeffrey Segal and Harold J. Spaeth. 1993. The Supreme Court and the Attitudinal Model. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Chapters 2, 6.