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*Course Titles Link to Syllabus

Undergraduate Courses

This course provides an overview of American politics: its political culture, the attitudes
and political behavior of its citizens, the operation of its key institutions, and its enduring
debates. We will cover the three main branches of government — executive, legislative,
and judicial — and other important political actors. We will be concerned with several
themes, especially the nature and distribution of political power and the role of elections.
Among the questions we will address are: Who has power in American politics and how
is that power used? We will consider this question with reference to citizens, elected
officials, appointed officials in the bureaucracy, and unelected power-holders outside the
government such as journalists and lobbyists. What political beliefs that shape our
participation in the political process? Do “special interest” groups wield too much power?
What informal and formal powers do the three branches have? What factors limit their
ability to achieve their goals? How do the three branches work together or against each
other? To what extent do electoral concerns motivate elected officials?

The problem of unethical behavior involving elected officials is a perennial
concern in American politics. Since the early days of the Republic, policy makers and
ordinary citizens have sought to control unethical conduct such as bribery and treason.
In recent decades, the focus of concern about political ethics has shifted to the problem of
“conflicts of interest” between elected officials’ private interests and their public duties,
and to the regulation of campaign finance. This course will examine theories of political
ethics, important episodes of corruption, and the regulation of political ethics through
elections and legislation. The main focus will be on the ethics of legislators, but we will
also look at presidents, governors, and other public officials.
Some of the main questions the course will address include: How does political
ethics differ, if at all, from private ethics? What causes corruption? What have been the
aims of good-government reformers? What sorts of ethical issues does the American
campaign finance system pose? Should unethical behavior be addressed at the ballot box
rather than through new laws? What are the limits of ethics regulation? What defenses
of politicians can be mounted against the various criticisms that are often made of them,
for example that they are overly concerned with winning reelection, that they are too
partisan, and that they are overly ambitious and dishonest? What constitutes political
courage, and what other virtues are important for public officials to have?

How powerful is the American media and what forms does its power take? How has the
media evolved over time? How do newspapers, TV, talk radio, and the Internet influence
the political opinions and political behavior of citizens and the actions of the
government? Is the media biased in a liberal or a conservative direction? How does the
media cover political institutions, campaigns, domestic politics, and foreign policy? How
do journalists write about the president, Congress, the Supreme Court, and American
military interventions in places like Afghanistan and Iraq? Why is the media criticized
for the way it covers politics, and what might be done differently?

Graduate Courses

This seminar in American political institutions is designed to provide an introduction to
the field. The course is concerned with the design of American national institutions and
their interaction with one another, and with the effects of American institutions on policy
outcomes. We will cover some of the major literature, but far from everything, in a wide
range of sub-fields. These sub-fields include–but are not limited to–Congress, the
Presidency, the bureaucracy, and the Court. In addition to studying these institutions, we
will also study parties and interest groups.

The subfield of American political development (APD) is a relatively new subfield
in American politics, dating back roughly to the early 1980s. It has several
distinguishing features. First, political scientists working within this tradition often use a
methodological approach that is historical and comparative to assess both continuity and
change in American politics. Some use conventional quantitative methods such as
multivariate regression to explain phenomena of interest, but many–arguably, most–do
not. Works in APD tend to provide detailed historical accounts, through the use of
primary and secondary source material, in order to explain policy outcomes and political
puzzles. APD scholars also tend to emphasize the role of political institutions as an
explanatory variable. Compared to behavioral political scientists, they devote substantial
attention to the state, as both an independent and dependent variable. Many works in
APD focus on questions of state development, especially the development of bureaucratic
and regulatory capacity. Another important question that links the different research
efforts within the APD tradition is the question of American “exceptionalism.” Many of
the important works in the APD literature seek to explain why and how the American
state and American policies differ from the states and policies of other advanced
industrialized democracies.

This course addresses the history, development, nature, power, and influence of the
media, with a focus on the coverage of politics. “Media” includes traditional forms of
political communication such as the New York Times, Washington Post, and network
news, but also newer, less mainstream/alternative forms of media such as the Internet,
blogs, talk radio, and “soft news” TV. The course will examine the major questions that
have been addressed by political communications scholars; in so doing, we will read texts
written not only by political scientists but also by sociologists and by journalists
themselves. The questions we will address are both empirical and normative. They
include: How does the media cover government and campaigns? How has the conception
of the media’s role in American democracy changed over time? What factors have driven
changes in how the media covers politics? What impact does the media have on the
political opinions and behavior of citizens and public officials? What are the differences
across types of media in terms of how they shape the formation of political opinions and
knowledge and other political behavior? How powerful is the media, and what are the
limits to this power? Is the media biased, and if so, in what way? What are the
similarities and differences with regard to coverage of domestic politics versus foreign
affairs? How does the media cover war and what are the implications for democracy of
this coverage?