Government 510

American Government and Politics

Professor Robert Dudley

Research 1 331

703-993-1412

Office Hours: Prior to class or by appointment

rdudley@gmu.edu

Course Description

This course serves as an advanced examination of American government and politics.

Obviously it is impossible to cover the entire field in a single semester, so we have to

make some choices. We will cover the major topics in American government/politics

with an effort to provide an array of research approaches and significant themes.

This class will be run as a reading seminar. The reading load is moderately heavy, and

you are expected to do the weekly readings. Indeed you must do the assigned readings

before class each week. You should be able to discuss and analyze the literature.

Course Requirements:

You will be responsible for five short papers. The papers should be a critical

review of one of the assigned books/papers for that topic—2 to 3 pages. You

must submit your paper no later than the evening of that topic’s discussion.

There will be a final exam (take-home) for this course.

Each student will also prepare an end of term paper, that clearly states a research

question to be answered, accompanied by a literature review that supports the

importance of the question. Finally, the paper must contain a description of the

process and methods that the student would use to answer the question.

Finally, because this is a reading seminar, you will be graded on your

participation in class discussion. Emphasis will be placed on the quality of this

participation and the extent to which participation demonstrates a command of the

literature.

Grades Participation 10%

Short topic papers 15%

Paper 30

Final Exam 40%

Academic Integrity

The integrity of the University community is affected by the individual choices made

by each of us. GMU has an Honor Code with clear guidelines regarding academic

integrity. Three fundamental and rather simple principles to follow at all times are

that: (1) all work submitted be your own; (2) when using the work or ideas of others,

including fellow students, give full credit through accurate citations; and (3) if you are

uncertain about the ground rules on a particular assignment, ask for clarification. No

grade is important enough to justify academic misconduct. Plagiarism means using the

exact words, opinions, or factual information from another person without giving the

person credit. Writers give credit through accepted documentation styles, such as

parenthetical citation, footnotes, or endnotes. Paraphrased material must also be cited,

using MLA or APA format. A simple listing of books or articles is not sufficient.

Plagiarism is the equivalent of intellectual robbery and cannot be tolerated in the

academic setting. If you have any doubts about what constitutes plagiarism, please see

me.

Disability Accommodations

If you have a documented learning disability or other condition that may affect

academic performance you should: 1) make sure this documentation is on file with

Office of Disability Services (SUB I, Rm. 4205; 993-2474;http://ods.gmu.edu) to

determine the accommodations you need; and 2) talk with me to discuss your

accommodation needs.

Required Texts

Aldrich, John H. Why Parties? The Origins and Transformation of Party Politics in

America

Robert Dahl, Who Governs

David Howell, Power Without Persuasion

David Mayhew, Congress, The Electoral Connection

E.E. Schattschneider The Semi-Sovereign People

Lee, Frances, Beyond Ideology

Angus Campbell, The American Voter Wiley & Sons

Prior, Markus, Post Broadcast Democracy: How Media Choice Increases Inequality

in Political Involvement and Polarizes Elections.

1. Foundational Beliefs

Readings:

U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence

Federalist Papers, #’s 10, 11 and 51 (Can be found on the Library of Congress website.)

Kenyon, Cecelia. 1955. “Men of Little Faith: The Anti-Federalists on the Nature of

Representative Government.” The William and Mary Quarterly, 12(1): 3-34 (JSTOR).

Morgan, Robert J. 1974. “Madison’s Theory of Representation in the Tenth Federalist.”

The Journal of Politics, 35(4): 852-885. (JSTOR)

Marbury v. Madison. (edited version will be handed out)

McCulloch v. Maryland. (Available on-line through Lexus-Nexus.)

Dahl, Robert A. 1977. “On Removing Certain Impediments to Democracy in the United

States.” Political Science Quarterly, 92(1): 1-20. (JSTOR)

Further Readings

Buchanan, James, and Gordon Tullock. The Calculus of Consent.

Burns, James MacGregor. The Vineyard of Liberty.

Countryman, Edward. The American Revolution.

Dahl, Robert A. How Democratic Is the American Constitution?

Dahl, Robert A. A Preface to Democratic Theory

Dinan, John J. The American State Constitutional Tradition.

Elkins, Stanley and Eric McKitrick. The Age of Federalism: The Early American

Republic, 1788-1800.

Farber, Daniel. Lincoln’s Constitution.

Farrand, Max. The Framing of the Constitution of the United States.

Gutmann Amy and Dennis Thompson. Democracy and Disagreement: Why Moral

Conflict Cannot be Avoided in Politics, and What Should be Done About It.

Lane, Robert E. The Loss of Happiness in Market Democracies.

Levison, Sanford. Constitutional Faith.

McDonald, Forrest. Novus Ordo Seclorum: The Intellectual Origins of the

Constitution.

Morgan, Edmund. Inventing the People: The Rise of Popular Sovereignty in

England and America.

Pocock, J.G.A. The Machiavellian Moment.

Rakove, Jack N. Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making of the

Constitution.

Riker, William H. Liberalism Against Populism: A Confrontation Between the

Theory of Democracy and the Theory of Social Choice.

Schudson, Michael. The Good Citizen, A History of American Civic Life.

Skocpol, Theda. Diminished Democracy: From Membership to Management in

American Civic Life.

Smith, Rogers. Civic Ideals: Conflicting Visions of Citizenship in the U.S.

Sunstein, Cass R. The Partial Constitution.

Sunstein, Cass R. Legal Reasoning and Political Conflict.

Sunstein, Cass R. Designing Democracy: What Constitutions Do.

Whittington, Keith E. Constitutional Construction: Divided Powers and

Constitutional Meaning. See Also Constitutional Interpretation: Textual Meaning,

Original Intent, and Judicial Review.

Wood, Gordon S. The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787.

2. Power and the Meaning of Power in American Politics

Readings:

Dahl, Robert A. Who Governs?

Polsby, Nelson W. 1960. “How to Study Community Power: The Pluralist Alternative.”

The Journal of Politics,” 22: 474-484. (JSTOR)

Sniderman, Paul M, Joseph F. Fletcher, Peter H. Russell, Philip Tetlock, and Markus

Prior. 2000 “The Theory of Democratic Elitism: A Response to Venfroff and Morton.”

(JSTOR)

Bachrach, Peter and Morton Baratz. 1966. “The Two Faces of Power.” American

Political Science Review, 56: 947-952. (JSTOR)

Bachrach, Peter and Morton Baratz. 1963 “Decisions and Nondecisions: An Analytical

Framework.” American Political Science Review, 57: 632-642. (JSTOR)

Further Reading

Bell, Daniel. 1958. “The Power Elite—Revisited,” American Sociological Review,

54: 238-250.

Bentley, A. F. The Process of Government.

Dahl, Robert A. Who Governs?

Dahl, Robert A. Modern Political Analysis

Dahl, Robert A. Dilemmas of Pluralist Democracy: Autonomy vs. Control.

Dahl, Robert A. and Charles E. Lindblom. Politics, Economics, and Welfare.

Diamond, Martin. 1976. “The Separation of Powers and the Mixed Regime,” Publius,

8: 33-43.

Easton, David. Varieties of Political Theory.

Freud, Sigmund. Civilization and Its Discontent.

Hunter, F. Community Power Structure.

Key, V.O. Public Opinion and American Democracy.

Lane, Robert E. Political Life: Why and How People Get Involved in Politics.

Lipset, Seymour Martin. Political Man.

Lowi, Theodore J. The End of Liberalism.

Lowi, Theodore J. Arenas of Power.

Michels, Robert. Political Parties.

Mills, C. Wright. The Power Elite.

Mosca, Gaetano. The Ruling Class.

Pareto, Vilfredo. The Mind and Society.

Community Power and Democratic Theory: The Logic of Political Analysis.

Pareto, Vilfredo. The Rise and Fall of Elites: An Application of Theoretical

Sociology.

Parry, Geraint. Political Elites.

Pennock, J. Roland. Liberal Democracy: Its Merits and Prospects.

Polsby, Nelson. Community Power and Political Theory.

Ricci, David. Community Power and Democratic Theory: The Logic of Political

Analysis.

Schumpeter, Joseph. Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy.

Sabine, George. A History of Political Theory.

Truman, David. The Governmental Process.

Wolfinger, Raymond. 1960. “Reputation and Reality in the Study of Community

Power,” American Sociological Review, 25: 636-644.

Wolin Sheldon. Politics and Vision.

3. Congress as a Representative Institution

Readings:

Mayhew, David. Congress: The Electoral Connection

Gilens, Martin and Benjamin Page, “Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites,

Interest Groups, and Average Citizens.” Perspectives on Politics, Vol 12, No

3(September 2014), pp564-581.

Cox, W. Gary and Johnathan N. Katz. 1996. “Why Did the Incumbency Advantage in

U.S. House Elections Grow?” American Journal of Political Science, 478-497.

(JSTOR)

Fiorina, Morris P. 1977. “The Case for the Vanishing Marginals: The Bureaucracy Did

It,” American Political Science Review, 71: 180- (JSTOR)

Prior, Markus. 2006 “The Incumbent in the Living Room: The Rise of Television and

the Incumbency Advantage in U.S. House Elections.” The Journal of Politics 68:

pp657-673. (JSTOR)

Cover, Albert. 1977. “One Good Term Deserves Another: The Advantage of

Incumbency in Congressional Elections,’ American Journal of Political Science, 21:

523-541. (JSTOR)

Parker, Glenn. 1980. “Sources of Change in Congressional District Attentiveness,”

American Journal of Political Science, 24: 115-124. (JSTOR)

Further Readings:

Arnold, R. Douglas. The Logic of Congressional Action.

Butler, David and Bruce Cain. Congressional Redistricting: Comparative and

Theoretical Perspectives.

Brady, David W., John F. Cogan, and Morris P Fiorina. Continuinty and Change in

House Elections.

Cain, Bruce, John Ferejohn, and Morris Fiorina. The Personal Vote: Constituency

Service and Electoral Independence.

Carmines, Edward B. and James A. Stimson. Issue Evolution: Race and the

Transformation of American Politics.

Dodd, Lawrence c. and Bruce I. Oppenheimer, eds. Congress Reconsidered. Various

editions.

Fenno, Richard. Home Style: House Members in their Districts.

Fiornia, Morris. Congress: Keystone of the Washington Establishment.

Jacobson, Gary. The Politics of Congressional Elections.

Jacobson, Gary and Samuel Kernell. Strategy and Choice in Congressional Elections.

Mann, Thomas and Norman Ornstein. The Broken Branch: How Congress is Failing

American and How to Get it Back on Track.

______________________________ It’s Worse that You Think.

Miller, Warren E. and Donald Stokes. 1963.“Constituency Influence in Congress,”

American Political Science Review, 57: 45-57.

Pitkin, Hanna. The Concept of Representation.

4. Congress as a Policymaker

Readings:

Lee, Frances. Beyond Ideology

Binder, Sarah. “The Dynamics of Legislative Gridlock, 1974-1996,” 1999. American

Political Science Review, 93: 519-533.

Polsby, Nelson et al. “The Institutionalization of the House of Representatives,”

American Political Science Review, 787-807. (JSTOR)

Further Readings:

Clausen, Aage. How Congressmen Decide: A Policy Focus.

Cox, Gary W. and Matthew D. McCubbins. Legislative Leviathan: Party

Government in the House.

Fenno, Richard. Congressmen in Committees.

Fenno, Richard. 1962. “The House Appropriations Committee as a Political System,”

American Political Science Review, 56: 310-324.

Galloway, George B. History of the House of Representatives.

Kingdon, John W. Congressmen’s Voting Decisions.

Krehbiel, Keith. Information and Legislative Organization.

MacRae, Duncan. Issues and Parties in Legislative Voting.

Matthews, Donald R. and James A. Stimson. Yeas and nays: Normal Decision

Making in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Polsby, Nelson ed. Congressional Behavior.

Polsby, Nelson. How Congress Evolves: Social Bases of Institutional Change.

Rhode, David. Parties and Leaders in the Post-Reform House.

Schickler, Eric. Disjointed Pluralism: Institutional Innovation and the Development

of the U.S. Congress.

Wilson, Woodrow. Congressional Government: A Study in American Politics.

5. The Presidency

Readings:

Howell, William G. Power Without Persuasion: The Politics of Direct Presidential

Action.

Allison, Graham. 1969. “Conceptual Models and the Cuban Missile Crisis,” American

Political Science Review, 63: 689-718. (JSTOR)

Sullivan, Terry. 1990. “Bargaining with the President,” 84: 1167-1196. (JSTOR)

Neustadt, Richard E.2001 “The Weakening White House, “British Journal of Political

Science. 31: 1_11.

Hart, John. 1998. “Neglected Aspects of the Study of the Presidency,” Annual Review

of Political Science, 1: 379-399. (Available on-line through the Library’s Electronic

Database.)

Bowels, Nigel. 1999. “Studying the Presidency,” Annual Review of Political Science,

2: 1-23. (Available on-line through the Library’s Electronic Database.)

Further Readings:

Brace, Paul and Barbara Hinckley. Follow the Leader: Opinion Polls and the

Modern Presidency.

Cooper, Phillip J. By Order of the President: The Use and Abuse of Executive

Direct Action.

Corwin, Edward S. The President, Office and Powers, 1787-1948: History and

Analysis of Practice and Opinion.

Edwards, George. The Strategic President.

Edwards, George. On Deaf Ears.

Greenstein, Fred I. The Hidden Hand Presidency: Eisenhower as Leader.

Hess, Stephen. Organizing the Presidency.

Kernell, Samuel. Going Public: New Strategies of Presidential Leadership.

Light, Paul C. The President’s Agenda.

Lowi, Theodore. The Personal President: Power Invested, Promise Unfulfilled.

Mueller John E. War, Presidents and Public Opinion.

Nathan, Richard P. The Administrative Presidency.

Nelson, Michael. ed. The Presidency and the Political System. (There are various

editions of this work.)

Neustadt, Richard. Presidential Power. (The classic which everyone responds to.)

Pfiffner, James P. The Strategic Presidency: Hitting the Ground Running.

Pfiffner, James P. and Roger H. Davidson. eds. Understanding the Presidency. (Again

there are various editions.)

Popkin, Samuel. The Candidate: What it Takes to Win—and Hold—the White

House.

Posner, Eric and Adrian Vermeule. The Executive Unbound: After the Madisonian

Republic.

Ragsdale, Lynn. Presidential Politics.

Rose, Richard. The Postmodern President.

Rossiter, Clinton. The American Presidency: 1917-1940.

Rudalevige, Andrew. Managing the President’s Program: Presidential Leadership

and Legislative Policy Formation.

Skowronek, Stephen. The Politics Presidents Make: Leadership from John Adams

to George Bush.

Wildavsky, Aaron. The Presidency.

Yoo, John. The Powers of War and Peace: The Constitution and Foreign Affairs

After 9/11.

6. Courts

Readings:

Baum, Lawrence. Judges and Their Audiences. (You may purchase the book,

although it is not in the bookstore. Alternatively, you can download the chapters

from JSTOR. There are 5 chapters.)

Baum, Lawrence, Pages 89-124 in The Puzzle of Judicial Behavior. This book chapter

can be found in JSTOR.

Baum, Lawrence. 2003.“The Supreme Court in American Politics,” Annual Review of

Political Science, 6: 161-180. (Available on-line through Library Electronic Database.)

Horowitz, Donald L. 1977. “The Hazards of Judicial Guardianship,” Public

Administration Review, 37: 148

Binder, Sarah A. 2008 “Consequences for the Courts: Polarized Politics and the Judicial

Branch.” In Nivola, Pietro’s and David Brady eds. Red and Blue Nation?

Consequences and Corrections of America’s Polarized Politics.

Further Readings:

Davis, Richard. Decisions and Images: The Supreme Court and the Press.

Ducat, Craig R. and Robert L. Dudley. 1987. “Dimensions Underlying Economic

Policymaking in the Early and Later Burger Courts,” Journal of Politics, 49: 521-539.

Dudley, Robert L. and Craig R. Ducat. 1986. “The Burger Court and Economic

Liberalism,” Western Political Quarterly. 39: 236-249.

Epstein, Lee and Jack Knight. The Choices Justices Make.

Epstein, Lee and Jeffrey Segal. Advice and Consent: The Politics of Judicial

Appointments.

Epstein, Lee. ed. Contemplating Courts.

Gates, John B. and Charles A. Johnson. The American Courts a Critical Assessment.

Gibson, James. Electing Judges: The Surpring Effects of Campaigning on Judicial

Ligitimacy.

Hirschl, Ran. Towards Juristocracy: The Origins and Consequences of the New

Constitutionalism.

Kramer, Larry D. The People Themselves: Popular Constitutionalism and Judicial

Review.

McGuire, Kevin T. 2002. “The Least Dangerous Branch Revisited: New Evidence on

Supreme Court Responsiveness to Public Preferences,” Journal of Politics, 66: 1018-

1035.

Murphy, Walter F. and C. Herman Pritchett. Courts, Judges and Politics.

Peretti, Terri Jennings. In Defense of A Political Court.

Posner, Richard A. How Judges Think.

Rohde, David W. and Charles S. Bullock. Law and Social Change: Civil Rights Laws

and their Consequences.

Rosenberg, Gerald N. The Hollow Hope: Can Courts bring About Social Change?

Schubert, Glendon. The Judicial Mind.

Schubert, Glendon. The Judicial Mind Revisited.

Schubert, Glendon. Human Jurisprudence.

Segal, Jeffrey A. and Harold J. Spaeth. The Supreme Court and the Attitudinal

Model. And the same authors with The Supreme Court and the Attitudinal Model

Revisited.

Segal, Jeffrey A and Harold J. Spaeth. Majority Rule and Minority Will: Adherence

to Precedent on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Shklar, Judith N. Legalism: An Essay on Law, Morals and Politics.

Sunstein, Cass R. Are Judges Political?

7. Organized Interests in American Politics

Readings:

Gray, Virginia and David Lowery. 1996. “A Niche Theory of Interest Representation.”

Journal of Politics, 58: 91-111. (JSTOR).

Salisbury, Robert. 1984. “Interest Representation: The Dominance of Institutions,”

American Political Science Review, 81: 64-67. (JSTOR)

Walker, Jack L. 1983. “The Origins and Maintenance of Interest Groups in America,”

American Political Science Review, 77:390-406. (JSTOR)

Schlozman, Kay Lehman. 1984. “What Accent the heavenly Chorus? Political Equality

and the American Pressure System,” Journal of Politics, 46: 1006-32. (JSTOR).

Schattschneider, E. E. The Semisovereign People Chapters 1-4.

O’Connor, Karen and Lee Epstein. 1983 “The Rise of Conservative Interest Group

Litigation.” Journal of Politics 45, pp 478-489.

Further Readings:

Austen-Smith, David, and John Wright. 1994. “Counteractive Lobbying,” American

Journal of Political Science, 38: 24-44.

Bauer, Raymond A., Ithiel de Sola Pool, and Lewis Anthony Dexter. American Business

and Public Policy.

Baumgartner, Frank, and Beth Leech. Basic Interests: The Importance of Groups in

Politics and Political Science.

Berry, Jeffrey. Lobbying for the People: The Political Behavior of Public Interest

Groups.

Browner, William P. Private Interests, Public Policy, and American Agriculture.

Conlan, Timothy J., Margaret T. Wrightson, and David R. Beam. Taxing Choices: The

Politics of Tax Reform.

Danielson, Lucig, and Benjamin I. Page. “The Heavenly Chorus: Interest Group Voices

on TV News,” American Journal of Political Science, 38: 1056-1078.

Gais, Thomas. Improper Influence.

Gray, Virginia, and David Lowery. The Population Ecology of Interest Groups.

Heinz, John P, Edward O. Laumann, Robert L. Nelson, and Robert Salisbury. The

Hollow Core.

Hojnacki, Marie, and David Kimball. 1998.“Organized Interests and the Decision of

Whom to Lobby in Congress.” American Political Science Review, 92: 775-90.

Jacobson, Gary C. 1998. “The Effect of the AFL-CIO’s Voter Education Campaigns on

the1996 House Election.” Journal of Politics, 61: 185-194.

Lowery, David, and Holly Brasher. Organized Interests and American Government.

Lowi, Theodore J. The End of Liberalism.

Moe, Terry. The Organization of Interests.

Olson, Mancur. The Logic of Collective Action.

Olson Mancur. The Rise and Decline of Nations.

Schattschneider, E. E. The Semisovereign People.

Truman, David. The Governmental Process.

Walker, Jack L. Mobilizing Interest Groups in America: Patrons, Professionals, and

Social Movements.

8. Political Parties

Readings:

Aldrich, John. Why Parties?

APSA Committee on Political Parties. 1950. “A Report of the Committee on Political

Parties,” American Political Science Review, 44: 1-99.

Schlesinger, Joseph. 1984. “On the Theory of Party Organizations,” Journal of Politics,

46(2): 369-400. (JSTOR)

Schlesinger, Joseph. 1985. “The New American Political Party,” American Political

Science Review, 79(4) 1152-1169. (JSTOR)

Stokes, S. C. 1999. “Political Parties and Democracy,” Annual Political Science

Review, Vol 2: 269-295. (Available on-line through the Library Electronic Database.)

Key, V. O. 1955. “A Theory of Critical Elections,” Journal of Politics, 17(1): 3-18.

(JSTOR)

Campbell, Angus, Philip Converse, Warren E. Miller, and Donald E. Stokes, The

American Voter, Chapters 6 and 7.

Clarke, Harold C. and Marianne C. Stewart. 1998. “The Decline of Parties in the Minds

of Citizens,” Annual Review of Political Science, 1: 357-378. (Available on-line

through the Library Electronic Database.)

Further Readings:

Burnham, Walter Dean. Critical Elections and the Mainsprings of American Politics.

Broder, David S. The Party’s Over: The Failure of Politics in America.

Conlan, Timothy J. 1990. “Politics and Governance: Conflicting Trends in the 1990s?”

Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 509: 128-138.

Cox, Gary w. and Mathew D. McCubbins. Legislative Leviathan: Party Government

in the House.

Crotty, William. American Political Parties in Decline.

Downs, Anthony, An Economic Theory of Democracy.

Duverger, Maurice. Political Parties: Their Organization and Activities in the

Modern State.

Eldersveld, Samuel J. Political Parties: A Behavioral Analysis.

Epstein, Leon D. Political Parties in the American Mold.

Gillespie, J. David. Politics at the Periphery: Third Parties in Two Party America.

Green, Donald, Bradley Palmquist, and Eric Schickler, Partisan Hearts and Minds.

Hofstadter, Richard. The Idea of a Party System: The Rise Legitimate Opposition in

the United States.

Key, V. O. Southern Politics.

Key, V. O. Politics, Parties, and Pressure Groups.

Kleppner, Paul, et al. The Evolution of American Electoral Systems.

Ladd, Everett Carl and Charles Hadley. Transformations of the American Party

Systems.

Mayhew, David R. “Electoral Realignments,” Annual Review of Political Science, 3:

449-474.

Mayhew, David R. Electoral Realignments: A Critque of an American Genre.

Milkis, Sidney M. Political Parties and Constitutional Government: Remaking

American Democracy.

Pomper, Gerald M. Party Renewal in America: Theory and Practice.

Schattschneider, E. E. Party Government.

Sundquist, James L. Dynamics of the Party System.

Wattenberg, Martin P. The Decline of American Politics.

:

9. Public Opinion, Knowledge and Preferences: An Ideological Nation?

Readings:

Campbell, Angus, Philip E, Converse, Warren E. Miller, and Donald E. Stokes, The

American Voter. Chapter 2.

Barber, Michael and Nolan McCarty. 2016 “Causes and Consequences of Polarization.”

In Political Negotiation. Ed. Jane Mansbridge and Cathie Jo Martin, (JSTOR)

Lapinski, John S. 2013 The Substance of Representation: Congress, American

Political Development, and Lawmaking. Chapter 3.(JSTOR)

Lupia, Arthur. Uninformed: Why People Know So Little About Politics and What

We Can Do About It.

McCarty, Nolan, Keith Poole and Howard Rosenthal. 2013 Political Bubbles :

Financial Crises and the Failure of American Democracy. Chapter 2. (JSTOR)

Converse, Philip E. 2000. “Assessing the Capacity of Mass Electorates,” Annual

Review of Political Science, 3:331-353. (Available on-line through the GMU Library’s

Electronic Database.)

10 Are We Really Polarized? Or Measuring Polarization: A Debate

Fiorina, Morris P. Disconnect: The Breakdown of Representation in American

Politics. Or Abramowitz, Alan. The Disappearing Center: Engaged Citizens,

Polarization, and American Democracy.

Conover, Pamela Johnston and Stanley Feldman. 1981. “The Origins and Meaning of

Liberal-Conservative Self-Identifications,” American Journal of Political Science, 25:

617-645. (JSTOR)

Brady, David W. and Hahrie C. Han. 2006. “Polarization Then and Now: A Historical

Perspective” In eds. Nivola, Pietro S. and David W. Brady Red and Blue Nation?

Characteristics and Causes of America’s Polarized Politics. (JSTOR)

Further Readings:

Abramason, Paul, John Aldrich, and David Rhode. Change and Continuity in the 1992

Election. This is where the series starts; it goes on with a volume for each election since.

Aldrich, John, John Sullivan and Eugene Borgida. 1989. “Foreign Affairs and Issue

Voting: Do Presidential Candidates Waltz Before a Blind Audience? American

Political Science Review, 83: 123-141. (JSTOR).

Almond, Gabriel a., and Sidney Verba. The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and

Democracy in Five Nations. (Dated, but a highly influential classic.)

Apter, David. Ideology and Discontent.

Berelson, Bernard R., Paul Lazarsfeld, and William N McPhee. Voting: A

Study of Opinion Formation in a Presidential Campaign.

Campbell, Angus, Phillip Converse, Warren Miller, and Donald Stokes. The American

Voter.

Delli Carpini, Michael X. and Scott Keeter. What Americans Know About Politics

and Why It Matters.

Fiorina, Morris P. Retrospective Voting in American National Elections.

Fiorinia, Morris P. Culture War” The Myth of a Polarized America.

Miller, Warren E. and J. Merrill Shanks. The New American Voter.

Niemi, Richard, et. el. Controversies in Voting Behavior.

Page, Benjamin I. and Robert Y. Shapiro. The Rational Public: Fifty Years of Trends

in Americans’ Policy Preferences.

Popkin, Samuel. The Reasoning Voter: Communication and Persuasion in

Presidential Campaigns.

Robinson, Paul John. Measure of Political Attitudes.

Shenkman, Rick. Just How Stupid Are We? Facing the Truth About the American

Voter.

Sears, David O., Richard 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.

Stimson, James A. Public Opinion in America: Moods, Cycles, and Swings.

Zaller, John The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion.

11. Public Opinion, Elections and Electoral Behavior

Readings:

. Campbell, Angus, Philip E. Converse, Warren E. Miller, and Donald E. Stokes. The

American Voter. Chapters 2, 5,10, 11,19 and 20

Verba, Sidney, Kay Lehman Schlozman, Henry Brady, Norman Nie. 1993. “Citizen

Activity: Who Participates? What Do they Say?” American Political Science Review,

87: 303-318. (JSTOR)

Schattschneider, E. E. The Semisovereign People. Chapter 6.

Further Readings:

Berelson, Benard R., Paul Lazarsfeld, and William N. McPhee. Voting a Study of

Opinion Formation in a Presidential Campaign.

Campbell, Angus, Phillip Converse, Warren Miller, and Donald Stokes. The American

Voter.

Caplan, Bryan. The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad

Policies.

Chute, Marchette. The First Liberty: A History of the Right to Vote in America,

1619-1850.

Crigler, Ann N., Marion R. Just, and Edward J. McCaffery. eds. Rethinking the Vote:

The Politics and Prospects of American Electoral Reform.

Dudley, Robert L. and Alan R. Gitelson. American Elections.

Dummett, Michael. Principles of Electoral Reform.

Erikson, Robert and Christopher Wlezien. The Timeline of Presidential Elections.

Fiornia, Morris P. Retrospective Voting in American National Elections.

Gelman, Andrew. Red State, Blue state, Rich State, Poor State.

Hasen, Richard. The Voting Wars.

Hill, Steven. Fixing Elections: The Failure of Americas’ Winner Take All Politics.

Keith, Bruce E., et al. The Myth of the Independent Voter.

Keyssar, Alexander. The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the

United States.

McDonald, Michael P. and Samuel L. Popkin. 2001. “The Myth of the Vanishing

Voter,” American Political Science Review, 95: 963-974.

McDonald, Michael P. and John Samples. eds. Electoral Competition and American

Politics.

Mayhew, David R. Electoral Realignments: A Critique of an American Genre.

Morone, James A. The Democratic Wish: Popular Participation and the Limits of

American Government.

Nie, Norman H., Sidney Verba, and John r. Petrocik. The Changing American Voter.

Norris, Pippa. Electoral Engineering: Voting Rules and Political Behavior.

Page, Benjamin and Robert Y. Shapiro. 1983. “Effects of Public Opinion on Policy,”

American Political Science Review, 77: 175-190. (JSTOR)

Popkin, Samuel. The Candidate: What It Takes to Win—and Hold—The White

House.

Powell, Bingham G. 1986. “American Voter Turnout in Comparative Perspective,”

American Political Science Review, 80: 17-43.

Powell, Bingham G. Elections as Instruments of Democracy.

Rubin, Aviel D. Brave New Ballot: The Battle to Safeguard Democracy in the Age

of Electronic Voting.

Teixeria, Ruy A. The Disappearing American Voter.

Thompson, Dennis. Just Elections: Creating a Fair Electoral Process in the United

States.

Tufte, Edward. 1973. “ The Relationship Between Seats and Votes in Two-Party

Systems,” American Political Science Review, 67:540-554.

Verba, Siney and Norman Nie. Participation in America: Political Democracy and

Social Equality.

Wolfinger, Raymond E. and Steven J. Rosenstone. Who Votes?

12. The Old and the New Media

Readings:

Kuklinski, James H. and Lee Sigelman. 1992 “When Objectivity Is Not Objective:

Network Television News coverage of the U.S. Senators and the Paradox of Objectivity,”

Journal of Politics, 54: 810-833. (JSTOR)

Iyengar, Shanto, Mark Peters, and Donald R. Kinder, “Experimental Demonstrations of

the Not-so-Minimal Consequences of Television News Programs,” American Political

Science Review, 76: 848-858. (JSTOR)

Schudson, Michael. 2002 “The News Media as Political Institutions,” Annual Review

of Political Science, 5: 249-269. (Available on-line though the Library Electronic

Database.)

Prior, Markus. 2009. “The Immensely Inflated News Audience: Assessing Bias in Self-

Reported News Exposure.” The Public Opinion Quarterly, 73: pp. 130-143.

Further Readings:

Allen, Craig M. 2001. News is People, The Rise of Local TV News and the Fall

Bennett, W. Lance. News: The Politics of Illusion.

Althaus, Scott L. 1998. “Information Effects in Collective Preferences,” American

Political Science Review, 92: 545 58.

Althaus, Scott L. 2002. “ American News Consumption During Times of National

Crisis,” PS: Political Science and Politics, 35(3): 517-520.

Ansolabehere, Stephen and Shanto Iyengar. Going Negative: How Attack Ads Shrink

and Polarize the Electorate.

Arnold, R. Douglas. Congress, the Press and Political Accountability.

Baum, Matthew A. 2002. “Sex, Lies, and War: How Soft News Brings Foreign Policy

to an Inattentive Public,” American Political Science Review, 96(1): 91-110.

Baum, Matthew A. 2003. “Soft News and Political Knowledge: Evidence of Absence or

Absence of Evidence,” Political Communications, 20(2): 173-190.

Baum, Matthew A. Soft News Goes to War.

Baum, Matthew A. 2005. “Talking the Vote: What Happens When Presidential

Candidates Hit the Talk Show Circuit,” American Journal of Political Science, 49(2):

213-234.

Baum, Matthew A. and Samuel Kernell. 1999. “Has Cable Television Ended the Golden

Age of Presidential Television? American Political Science Review, 93: 99-114.

Davis, Richard. The Web of Politics: The Internet’s Impact on the American

Political System.

Farnsworth, Stephen J. and S. Robert Lichter. The Nightly News Nightmare: Network

Television’s Coverage of U.S. Presidential Elections, 1988-2000.

Gans, Herbert J. Deciding What’s News: A Study of CBS Evening News, NBC

Nightly News, Newsweek, and Time.

Graber, Doris. Mass Media and American Politics.

Grossman, Michael Baruch and Martha Joynt Kuman. Portraying the President: The

White House and the News Media.

Iyengar, Shanto. Is anyone Responsible? How Televison Frames Political Issues.

Iyengar, Shanto and Donald Kinder. News that Matters.

Mutz, Diana. 1992. “Mass Media and Depoliticization of Personal Experience,”

American Journal of Political Science, 36: 483-508.

Paletz, David L. The Media in American Politics.

Patterson, Thomas E. and Robert D. McClure. Unseeing Eye: The Myth of Television

Power in National Politics.

Patterson, Thomas E. Mass Media Election: How Americans Choose Their

President.

Patterson, Thomas E. Out of Order.

Ranney, Austin. Channels of Power.

Schudson, Michael. Discovering the News: A Social History of American

Newspapers.

West, Darrell M. Air Wars: Television Advertising in Election Campaigns.

Wu, Tim. The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires.

13. The Future of Democracy

Foa, Stephen Roberto and Yascha Mounk.”The Danger of Deconsolidation.” Journal of

Democracy vol. 27 #3, July 2016 ( For this and any other articles listed for this journal,

Google The Journal of Democracy and. There you will find a series of articles that can be

down-loaded.)

Howe, Paul. “Eroding Norms and Democratic Deconsolidation.” Journal of

Democracy. vol. 228, #4, October 2017.

Persily, Nathaniel. “Can Democracy Survive the Internet?” Journal of Democracy. vol.

28, #2, April 2017.

Berman, Sheri. “The Pipe Dream of Undemocratic Liberalism.” Journal of

Democracy. vol. 28, #3, July 2017.

Mounk, Yascha. “Pitchfork Politics: The Populist threat to Liberal Democracy.”

Council on Foreign Affairs vol.93, # 5, Sept./Oct 2014 pp. 27-36.

Galston, William. “Is Democracy at Risk in the United States?” (This is a chapter from

a book titled Anti-Pluralism. The chapter can be found on JSTOR.)

Further Readings:

Mounk, Yascha. The People v. Democracy.

Riker, William, Liberalism Against Populism.

Fukuyama, Francis. The End of History and the Last Man.

Beard, Mary. SPQR: A History of Modern Rome.

Judis, John, The Populist Explosion.

Galston, William. Anti Pluralism.

Levilsky, Steven. How Democracies Die.

Eichengreen, Barry. The Population Temptation.

Diamond, Larry and Marc Platter eds. Democracy in Decline.

______________________________ Authoritarianism Goes Global.

Albright, Madeleine. Fascism: A Warning.

Livingston, Mark. The Shifting Tides of Global Politics.

Runciman, David. How Democracy Ends.