PLS 105 syllabus

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SYLLABUS

Course: Political Science 105, section 3, Introduction to American Government (Fall, 2008)

Instructor: Craig Curtis (Bradley Hall 486) ph. 677-2492, e-mail: rcc@bradley.edu
Home Page: http://hilltop.bradley.edu/~rcc/

Required Texts: Lowi, Theodore J., Benjamin Ginsberg, and Kenneth A. Shepsle. American Government: Power and Purpose (10th ed. 2008) W. W. Norton & Company, New York.

Class meeting times: Tuesday, Thursday, 9:00 to 10:15 am, Bradley Hall 125

Instructor's Office Hours: Mon, Wed. 9:00 to 11:00 am, 2:00 to 3:00 pm

Description: This is an introductory course in the American political system. It is designed to provide a thorough understanding of the institutions and processes of American politics. As such, daily events in the news will provide fuel for the class. The functioning of a democracy depends upon the existence of a well informed populace, and open discussion of current issues will be a regular part of the course. The daily reading of a newspaper is strongly urged, and regular access to some reputable source of news is required for this class. I will assume basic knowledge of current events, and, where class lecture or discussion covers current events, such discussion will be incorporated into the examinations.

Grading: The final grade will be based on the following:

1) 1 take home assignment, given during the course of the semester, worth 30% of the final grade.
2) 3 short current politics essays, of approximately 600 words, each worth 10% of the final grade.
3) A comprehensive final exam, given as a take home assignment, worth 40% of the final grade.

The final letter grade will be assigned according to the following scale:

A 90-100%	D 60-69%
B 80-89%	F below 60%
C 70-79%

Guidelines for the completion of all of the assignments will appear later in the syllabus. Note that high quality class participation is likely to have a positive impact on one's final grade.

Class Philosophy: Paramount to the conduct of this class shall be intellectual curiosity and the security provided by academic freedom. Intellectual curiosity drives us to understand as much about the world as we can. Consequently, all students are strongly encouraged to ask questions about any aspect of American government at any time. It is frequently a good way to begin a class session. Students are required to have read the assigned readings before the class sessions for which an assignment has been made. Students are also required to be familiar with the significant news stories of that week.

Academic freedom means we may question virtually any idea and that we many say virtually anything so long as we say it in the quest for knowledge. All I ask is that personal attacks be avoided. Criticism of ideas is essential; personal criticism of colleagues is unnecessary and counterproductive. I will make every effort to protect those who advocate unpopular ideas in this class.

Frequently I will use words and introduce concepts with which you are not familiar. Stop me if you do not understand! It is likely that others are also confused, and you will help all of us if you interrupt to ask questions. I urge you to force me to define words and explain concepts in ways that you understand. After all, our purpose in being here is to learn as much and as well as we can. I am here to help, but the ultimate responsibility for your education rests with you.

Class policies:

All students are required to have read this syllabus.
All students are required to follow current events in the news. It is part of the assigned reading and I will assume that this knowledge exists in creating the take home assignments.
All students must access the Sakai course management website for this course. I will post lecture notes and assignments to you via this medium, as well as send e-mails and announcements that may be of use to you.
Late assignments will be penalized at the rate of 10% of the grade for each day late, unless prior arrangements have been made with the instructor. Please note that the final take home assignment must be turned in on time. Per university policy, there can be no exceptions to this rule.
All and due dates for assignments listed on the syllabus are subject to change if the needs of the class so indicate; any changes will be made by the instructor in consultation with the class.
Individual variances from class policies can be granted under certain circumstances if the student makes advance arrangements, especially if needed to accommodate religious holidays. I do understand that students occasionally have a real and unforeseeable emergency. In such situations, variances can be made after the fact if the emergency is well documented.

Course Outline

What follows is the order in which we will proceed. As is obvious from the outline, we will usually follow the order suggested by the authors of our main text.

Day I (Th 8-28) Introduction

Day II (Tu 9-2) Philosophical Basis of Government – Five Principles of Politics, Text, Ch. 1

Day III (Th 9-4) The Founding and Structure of the Nation, Text, Ch. 2

Day IV (Tu 9-9) Separation of Powers, Text Ch. 3

Day V (Th 9-11) Policy discussion – what do the terms “conservative” and “liberal” mean?
Practice take home assignment due.

Day VI (Tu 9-16) How State and Local Governments Work

Day VII (Th 9-18) Structure and Function of the Judiciary – Appellate Courts, Text, Ch. 8.
First Current Politics Essay due

Day VIII (Tu 9-23) Civil Liberties, Text, Ch. 4

Day IX (Th 9-25) Civil Rights

Day X (Tu 9-30) Film – “Kennedy v. Wallace”

Day XI (Th 10-2) Policy discussion – The legacy of the Civil Rights Era

Day XII (Tu 10-7) Congress, Main Text, Ch. 5

Day XIII (Th 10-9) More on the Congress

Fall Break

Day XIV (Th 10-16) The Presidency, Main Text, Ch. 6

Day XV (Tu 10-21) More on the Presidency

Day XVI (Th 10-23) The Executive Branch: the Bureaucracy, Text, Ch. 7

First take home assignment due

Day XVII (Tu 10-28) More on the Bureaucracy

Day XVIII (Th 10-30) Revisit the Judiciary: The Trial Courts

Day XIX (Tu 11-4) Election Day

Day XX (Th 11-6) Public Opinion, Main Text, Ch. 9

Second current politics assignment due

Day XXI (Tu 11-11) How to Make Sense of a Public Opinion Poll

Day XXII (Th 11-13) Elections, Text, Ch. 10

Day XXIII (Tu 11-18) Political Parties, Main Text, Ch. 11

Day XXIV (Th 11-20) Interest Groups, Text Ch. 12

Day XXV (Tu 11-25) The Media, Text Ch. 13

Thanksgiving Break

Day XXVI (Tu 12-2) The Economy, Ch. 14

Day XXVII (Th 12-4) Political Culture and the Welfare State, Text, Ch. 15

Day XXVIII (Tu 12-9) Foreign Policy, Text, Ch. 16.

Third current politics essay due

Day XIX (Monday, 12-15) Final take home assignment due at 11:00 am, in my office. No late exams will be accepted.

Summary of Due Dates

Take Home Assignments	Current Politics Essays
Practice Essay due on Thurs., 9-11	First essay due on Thurs., 9-18
First Assignment due on Thurs., 10-23	Rewrites of First essay due on Thurs., 10-2
Final Assignment due on Monday, December 15, 2008 at 11:00 am, no late assignments can be accepted.	Second essay due on Thurs., 11-6
	Third current politics essay due on Tues., 12-9

Guidelines for Completing the Take Home Assignments

The true test of whether a person knows something is their ability to apply that knowledge to solve a problem. Analytical skills, so very vital to remaining competitive in today's information age economy, are necessary to apply existing theory to novel situations. Additionally, analytical skills are not innate, they must be developed through training and practice. These are the principles that have guided my choice of evaluation technique for the take home projects.

For each of the take home assignments, you will receive a set of problems from which you will choose items to which to respond. Each assignment will require you to write two essays, each of two to four pages in length. The essays must be printed on a word processor. Because the type of skills required to succeed in this type of assignment must be honed by practice, I will offer a practice exam. It is already posted on the course website in Sakai. If you choose to avail yourself of this opportunity, you must write an essay of approximately 500 words and turn it in to me in class on Thursday, September 11. I will grade it, and make detailed comments with an eye towards helping you improve your work. Of course, I will be glad to meet with you to discuss your essay while you are preparing it, or after you have received my feedback. You are strongly urged to take advantage of this opportunity.

It is my firm belief that anyone of average intelligence can memorize details. What separates the good students from the ordinary ones, and those who are successful in later life from those who merely survive, is the ability to manipulate knowledge of concepts in creative ways to solve complex problems. In order to do that, you must use the concepts to solve a problem, describe and explain a real or hypothetical political situation, or predict what will happen given a specified set of events. You are required to apply concepts to meet the goal of political science, which is to describe, explain and predict human behavior in the political arena. Thus, in grading essay items on exams, I assume knowledge of basic facts and concepts, and look for the ability to use those facts and concepts.

Your opinion and analysis are not equivalent. Political science is based on rational, dispassionate analysis of qualitative and quantitative data, informed by theory. I want your opinions to be informed by rational political science analysis, but experience has taught me that they are not always so informed. Your opinion is what you feel. It is informed by emotion as well as by rational analysis. Your opinion is important to me as a citizen. It is irrelevant to me when I grade your work. What matters is the quality of your analysis.

One final thought: Although this is not an English class, the only tool you have to convince me of your skills and knowledge is the English language. As such, I will mark a paper down for having obvious errors of grammar and usage. Common errors include, among others, misspelled words, subject-verb disagreement, sentence fragments or run-on sentences, misuse of homonyms, failure to use the apostrophe to signify the possessive, ending of sentences with a preposition, failure to use proper punctuation (e.g., failure to place a question mark at the end of an interrogatory sentence, or failure to properly use quotation marks), and use of the four letters "A," "L," "O," and "T" taken together as a word. I do this because I assume a college student knows the rules of grammar and usage and take the appearance of obvious errors of grammar and usage to be evidence of lack of effort. Please take the time to edit your work and use a spell check. Because anyone, including myself and the authors of your textbook, can overlook a typographical error or two during proofreading, the first three errors will not count against you. Please edit your work carefully.

Guidelines for the Current Politics Essays

During the course of the semester you will expected to turn in a total of three essays of about 2 pages each. Each essay will be written in response to a news story and associated focus question that I will post on Sakai a minimum of one week before it is due.

All essays must be printed on a word processor. My previously stated policy on errors of grammar and usage applies. I will mark you down for failure to follow the rules of grammar and usage of the English language. Plagiarism will be punished as severely as university rules allow.

You will have the opportunity to rewrite your first essay (but not the second or third). I will grade it, make comments in the margins, and return the essay to you. You may choose to keep the grade as assigned, or you may choose to rewrite the essay for a better grade. In no instance will a revised essay be scored lower than the first draft. You will have one week after I return the essays to you to revise the first essay. The second essay will be final as turned in.