UCSB
Poli. Sci. 195
Spring 2003
Prof.
Bruce Bimber
Class
Time &
Location:
W
2:00-4:50
Changed to Collaborative
Technologies Laboratory,
Trailer 932
May 14
May 21
May 28
Jun. 4
Monday 1:30-3:00
and by appointment
x3809, bimber@polsci.ucsb.edu
Ellison 3809
Description
This course is intended
for students with Junior standing who have been invited to participate
in the Political Science Department’s Honors Program. It is the first
in a four-quarter sequence leading to the student’s production of an Honors
Thesis.
The course has two objectives. The first is to provide students an opportunity
for intensive learning in a setting similar to that encountered in small
classes for graduate students. Rather than the typical lecture format
of most undergraduate classes, this course will be organized as a seminar,
in which students participate in a small-group discussion in class each
week, and in which they occasionally make brief presentations to their
peers and the instructor. There are no examinations or traditional term
papers.
The subject of the course is Contemporary Problems in American Government.
The seminar examines three scholarly debates about the operation of the
American political system. The course is organized around issues of research
design relevant to these problems. In each case, the reading and discussion
will focus on how scholars have approached research projects on these
phenomena.
The second objective of the course is to introduce students to the Honors
Program process. Students will begin preparing for their Senior-year thesis.
During this quarter, students will discuss the framing of research problems
of interest to them and will begin exploring potential thesis topics and
thesis advisers. Their final assignment in this course will be the preparation
of a short, draft research proposal for next year.
After accepting the invitation to join this course, students should simply attend the first class meeting where they will receive an enrollment code that permits formal enrollment with the UCSB Registrar. Please note that it is not possible to enroll in PS 195 with the Registrar's office without the code.
Students are expected to adhere to the highest standards of ethical behavior in this course. Plagiarism and other forms of cheating will result in failure in the course and referral to the Dean of Students for disciplinary action. It is the student's responsibility to become familiar with and abide by UCSB regulations and standards of conduct regarding academic work.
1. Regular attendance and participation in discussion of the readings: 20% of course grade.
2. Four written assignments averaging ~5-8 pp. each: 20% of the course grade each.
Reader:
Reader:
Required articles are located in a reader available for purchase from The Alternative in Isla Vista. There are no reserve readings.
Required Books for Purchase:
Stephen Ansolabehere and Shanto Iyengar, Going Negative: How Political Advertisements Shrink and Polaralize the Electorate (New York: Free Press, 1995).
David Mayhew, Divided We Govern: Party Control, Lawmaking, and Investigations, 1946-1990 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991).
Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000).
Shanto Iyengar, Is Anyone Responsible? (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1991)
icons throughout the web site
for links to the video page.Schedule of Reading
Schedule
of
Reading & Assignments:
Apr. 2
No reading assignment.
II.
Divided Control: Mayhew's Thesis <<<ASSIGNMENT
#1 DUE >>>
Mayhew, David. Divided We Govern.
III.
Divided Control: A Closer Look at the Dynamics of Legislating
Jones, David. "Party Polarization and Legislative Gridlock," Political Research Quarterly 54:1 (2001), pp. 125-141.
Bowling, Cynthia and Margaret Ferguson. "Divided Government, Interest Representation, and Policy Differences: Competing Explanations of Gridlock in the Fifty States," Journal of Politics 63:1 (2001), pp. 182-206.
Howell, William, Scott Adler, Charles Cameron and Charles Riemann. "Divided Government and the Legislative Productivity of Congress, 1945-94," Legislative Studies Quarterly 25: 2 (2000), pp. 285-312.
Jones, Bryan D, Tracy Sulkin, and Heather A. Larsen, Policy Punctuations in American Political Institutions," American Political Science Review, 97:1 (2003), pp. 151-169.
IV.
Social Capital: Putnam's Argument
Putnam, Robert. Bowling Alone.
V. Social
Capital: A Broader Look
Shah, Dhavan V., Nojin Kwak, and R. Lance Holbert. "Connecting and Disconnecting with Civic Life: Patterns of Internet Use and the Production of Social Capital," Political Communication 18 (2001), pp. 141-162.
Hooghe, Marc. "Television and the Erosion of Social Capital: Disentangling the Causal Mechanism," Paper presented at the 2001 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, San Francisco.
Marsh, Christopher. "Social Capital and Democracy in Russia," Communist and Post-Communist Studies 22 (2000), pp. 183-199.
Whiteley, P.F.,"Economic Growth and Social Capital." Political Studies 48:3 (2000), pp. 443-466.
VI.
Social Capital: A Closer Look <ASSIGNMENT
#2 DUE 5PM MAY
6 by E-mail>
Wuthnow, Robert. "The United States: Bridging the Privileged and the Marginalized?" Ch. 2. in Robert D. Putnam, ed., Democracies in Flux: The Evolution of Social Capital in Contemporary Society (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), pp. 59-102.
Brehm, John and Wendy Rahn. "Individual-Level Evidence for the Causes and Consequences of Social Capital," American Journal of Political Science 41:3 (1997), pp. 999-1023.
Berman, Sheri. "Civil Society and Political Institutionalization," in Edwards, Bob, Michael W. Foley and Mario Diani, eds. Beyond Tocqueville: Civil Society and the Social Capital Debate in Comparative Perspective (Hannover, NH: Tufts University Press, 2001), pp. 32-55
Paxton, P. "Is social capital declining in the United States? A multiple indicator assessment." American Journal of Sociology 105:1 (1999), pp. 88-127.
VII.
Overview of Media: Framing Effects, Commercialism & Entertainment
in News
Iyengar, Shanto. Is Anyone Responsible? (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1991).
Patterson, Thomas. "The United States: News in a Free-Market Society," in Richard Gunther and Anthony Mughan, eds., Democracy and the Media: A Comparative Perspective (Cambridge: Cambridge University, 2000), pp. 241-265.
Delli Carpini, Michael X. and Bruce Williams. "Let Us Infotain You: Politics in the New Media Environment," in W. Lance Bennett and Robert M. Entman, eds. Mediated Politics: Communication in the Future of Democracy (Cambridge: Cambridge University, 2001), Ch. 8, pp. 160-181.
May 21
VIII.
Negative Advertising: The Ansolabehere and Iyengar
Claim
Ansolabehere, Steven D. and Shanto Iyengar. Going Negative: How Political Advertisements Shrink and Polarize the Electorate (New York: Free Press, 1995).
IX.
Negative Advertising: The Response to A & I
<ASSIGNMENT #3 DUE 5PM May 27
by E-mail>
Wattenberg, Martin P. and Craig Leonard Brians. "Negative Campaign Advertising: Demobilizer or Mobilizer?", American Political Science Review 93:4 (1999), pp. 891-899.
Ansolabehere, Stephen D., Shanto Iyengar, and Adam Simon, "Replicating Experiments Using Aggregate and Survey Data: The Case of Negative Advertising and Turnout," American Political Science Review 93:4 (1999), pp. 901-909.
Kahn, Kim Fridkin and Patrick J. Kenney, "Do Negative Campaigns Mobilize or Suppress Turnout? Clarifying the Relationship Between Negativity and Participation," American Political Science Review 93:4 (1999), pp.877-889.
X. Conclusion
& Presentations of Research Proposals <ASSIGNMENT
#4 DUE 5PM June 3 by E-mail>
no new reading