This course has a number of goals. One is to introduce you to some of the central issues of politics and political science. One central question will be who participates in politics, and how and why they do so. A second focus will be on collective action, or the role of groups in politics. While these two foci will utilize heavily materials from American politics, a third focus, will be on international variations in the character of political institutions. Another, extremely vital, purpose of the course is to examine competing ways of thinking about and answering these topics.

The emphasis of the course will be on your development of both new perspectives and new analytic skills. To promote the former goal, we will read authors whose positions differ greatly from each others' and, probably, from those you hold. You will be forced to confront arguments which challenge your existing understanding of how politics work and how they should work. Hopefully that will make the course more stimulating. It will certainly make it more unsettling.

Your analytic skills can be exercised only after very careful reading of the assigned texts. It will not be enough to merely understand the general thrust of an author's arguments. You will have to also understand the logic of the argument and the character of the supporting evidence. That understanding will be demonstrated in (and improved by) class discussion, in which we will carefully articulate and critique the author's arguments, and by two papers. There will also be two take-home exams, a mid-sem and a final.

The reading assignments and all written work are due on the date specified in this syllabus. Written work turned in late will be lowered a grade for each day late. The two papers and the mid-sem exam will each count twenty percent of the final grade, with the final counting the remaining forty percent. Given the emphasis on class discussion, I reserve the right to reward class participation.

BOOKS TO BUY

Course Packet

W. Phillips Shively, Power and Choice: an Introduction to Political Science

WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS

Two papers, the first, due Sept. 4, the second due November 15.

Two take-home exams, the mid-sem due on Oct. 13 , the final due on the scheduled exam date.

ASSIGNED READINGS-

Aug. 25	-Introduction: Government: What is it (for)?
POLITICS AND POWER
Aug. 28	-Shively, Ch.1
Aug. 30	-Bachrach and Baratz, Packet 1-5
Sept. 1	-No Class
COMPETING IDEOLOGICAL POSITIONS ON GOVERNMENT, POLITICS AND POWER
Sept. 4	-Digeser, Packet 7-10, through first 2 paragraphs, 2nd page, of 10 FIRST PAPER DUE,
Sept. 6	-Shively, Ch.2
Sept. 8	-Conservatism, reading to be distributed
Sept. 11	-Schumaker, Kiel, and Heilke, Packet 33-36
Sept. 13	-Schumaker, Kiel, and Heilke, Packet 1, 37-42
Sept. 15	-Communism, reading to be distributed
Sept. 18	-Schumaker, Kiel, and Heilke, Packet 1, 25-28
Sept. 20	-Schumaker, Kiel, and Heilke, Packet 1, 43-48
Sept. 22	-Wiebe, Packet 49-52
THE STATE AS THE UNIT OF ANALYSIS
Sept. 25	-Shively, Ch. 3
Sept. 27	-Kaplan, Packet 53-63
Sept. 29	-Greider, Packet 65-74
THE STATE AS A DOMESTIC ACTOR
Oct. 2	-Shively, Ch. 4
Oct. 4	-Shively, Ch. 5
Oct. 6	-Shively, Ch. 6
TYPES OF STATE
Oct. 9	-Shively, Ch. 7
Oct. 11	-Shively, Ch. 8
Oct. 13	-MID-SEM EXAM DUE
Fall Break
Oct. 23	-Shively, Ch. 9
Oct. 25	-Shively, Ch. 11
CITIZEN PARTICIPATION
Oct. 27	-No Class
Oct. 30	-Lijphart, Packet 76-82
Nov. 1	-Shively, Ch. 12
Nov. 3	-Shively, Ch. 13
Nov. 6	-Putnam, Packet 83-88
Nov. 8	-Inequality of Interests-reading to be distributed
Nov. 10	-No Class
POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS
Nov. 13	-Shively, Ch. 10
Nov. 15	-SECOND PAPER DUE
Nov. 17	-Shively, Ch. 14
Nov. 20	-Shively, Ch. 15
Nov. 22	-Reading on the Presidency-to be distributed
Nov. 27	-Shively, Ch. 16
Nov. 29	-Shively, Ch. 17
THE STATE AS AN INTERNATIONAL ACTOR
Dec. 1	-Shively, Ch. 18
Dec. 4	-Catch-up
Dec. 6	-Catch-up
Dec. 8	-Catch-up