{"id":8,"date":"2012-09-05T11:20:01","date_gmt":"2012-09-05T15:20:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/template\/?page_id=8"},"modified":"2026-03-19T08:21:35","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T12:21:35","slug":"courses","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/rosenson\/courses\/","title":{"rendered":"Courses"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<section class=\"fullwidth-text-block\">\r\n\t<div class=\"container px-0 pt-5\">\r\n\t\t<div class=\"row align-items-start\">\r\n\t\t\t<div class=\"col-12\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Courses<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">*Course Titles Link to Syllabus<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>\n<h3><a href=\"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/rosenson\/content-removed\/\">American Federal Government<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>This course provides an overview of American politics: its political culture, the attitudes<br>\nand political behavior of its citizens, the operation of its key institutions, and its enduring<br>\ndebates. We will cover the three main branches of government \u2014 executive, legislative,<br>\nand judicial \u2014 and other important political actors. We will be concerned with several<br>\nthemes, especially the nature and distribution of political power and the role of elections.<br>\nAmong the questions we will address are: Who has power in American politics and how<br>\nis that power used? We will consider this question with reference to citizens, elected<br>\nofficials, appointed officials in the bureaucracy, and unelected power-holders outside the<br>\ngovernment such as journalists and lobbyists. What political beliefs that shape our<br>\nparticipation in the political process? Do &#8220;special interest&#8221; groups wield too much power?<br>\nWhat informal and formal powers do the three branches have? What factors limit their<br>\nability to achieve their goals? How do the three branches work together or against each<br>\nother? To what extent do electoral concerns motivate elected officials?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>\n<h3><a href=\"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/rosenson\/content-removed\/\">Ethics in American Politics<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The problem of unethical behavior involving elected officials is a perennial<br>\nconcern in American politics. Since the early days of the Republic, policy makers and<br>\nordinary citizens have sought to control unethical conduct such as bribery and treason.<br>\nIn recent decades, the focus of concern about political ethics has shifted to the problem of<br>\n&#8220;conflicts of interest&#8221; between elected officials&#8217; private interests and their public duties,<br>\nand to the regulation of campaign finance. This course will examine theories of political<br>\nethics, important episodes of corruption, and the regulation of political ethics through<br>\nelections and legislation. The main focus will be on the ethics of legislators, but we will<br>\nalso look at presidents, governors, and other public officials.<br>\nSome of the main questions the course will address include: How does political<br>\nethics differ, if at all, from private ethics? What causes corruption? What have been the<br>\naims of good-government reformers? What sorts of ethical issues does the American<br>\ncampaign finance system pose? Should unethical behavior be addressed at the ballot box<br>\nrather than through new laws? What are the limits of ethics regulation? What defenses<br>\nof politicians can be mounted against the various criticisms that are often made of them,<br>\nfor example that they are overly concerned with winning reelection, that they are too<br>\npartisan, and that they are overly ambitious and dishonest? What constitutes political<br>\ncourage, and what other virtues are important for public officials to have?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>\n<h3><a href=\"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/rosenson\/content-removed\/\">Media and Politics<\/a>\u00a0(PDF)<\/h3>\n<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>How powerful is the American media and what forms does its power take? How has the<br>\nmedia evolved over time? How do newspapers, TV, talk radio, and the Internet influence<br>\nthe political opinions and political behavior of citizens and the actions of the<br>\ngovernment? Is the media biased in a liberal or a conservative direction? How does the<br>\nmedia cover political institutions, campaigns, domestic politics, and foreign policy? How<br>\ndo journalists write about the president, Congress, the Supreme Court, and American<br>\nmilitary interventions in places like Afghanistan and Iraq? Why is the media criticized<br>\nfor the way it covers politics, and what might be done differently?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>\n<h3><a href=\"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/rosenson\/content-removed\/\">Seminar in American Politics<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>This seminar in American political institutions is designed to provide an introduction to<br>\nthe field. The course is concerned with the design of American national institutions and<br>\ntheir interaction with one another, and with the effects of American institutions on policy<br>\noutcomes. We will cover some of the major literature, but far from everything, in a wide<br>\nrange of sub-fields. These sub-fields include&#8211;but are not limited to&#8211;Congress, the<br>\nPresidency, the bureaucracy, and the Court. In addition to studying these institutions, we<br>\nwill also study parties and interest groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>\n<h3><a href=\"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/rosenson\/content-removed\/\">American Political Development<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The subfield of American political development (APD) is a relatively new subfield<br>\nin American politics, dating back roughly to the early 1980s. It has several<br>\ndistinguishing features. First, political scientists working within this tradition often use a<br>\nmethodological approach that is historical and comparative to assess both continuity and<br>\nchange in American politics. Some use conventional quantitative methods such as<br>\nmultivariate regression to explain phenomena of interest, but many&#8211;arguably, most&#8211;do<br>\nnot. Works in APD tend to provide detailed historical accounts, through the use of<br>\nprimary and secondary source material, in order to explain policy outcomes and political<br>\npuzzles. APD scholars also tend to emphasize the role of political institutions as an<br>\nexplanatory variable. Compared to behavioral political scientists, they devote substantial<br>\nattention to the state, as both an independent and dependent variable. Many works in<br>\nAPD focus on questions of state development, especially the development of bureaucratic<br>\nand regulatory capacity. Another important question that links the different research<br>\nefforts within the APD tradition is the question of American \u201cexceptionalism.\u201d Many of<br>\nthe important works in the APD literature seek to explain why and how the American<br>\nstate and American policies differ from the states and policies of other advanced<br>\nindustrialized democracies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>\n<h3><a href=\"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/rosenson\/content-removed\/\">Political Communications<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>This course addresses the history, development, nature, power, and influence of the<br>\nmedia, with a focus on the coverage of politics. \u201cMedia\u201d includes traditional forms of<br>\npolitical communication such as the New York Times, Washington Post, and network<br>\nnews, but also newer, less mainstream\/alternative forms of media such as the Internet,<br>\nblogs, talk radio, and \u201csoft news\u201d TV. The course will examine the major questions that<br>\nhave been addressed by political communications scholars; in so doing, we will read texts<br>\nwritten not only by political scientists but also by sociologists and by journalists<br>\nthemselves. The questions we will address are both empirical and normative. They<br>\ninclude: How does the media cover government and campaigns? How has the conception<br>\nof the media\u2019s role in American democracy changed over time? What factors have driven<br>\nchanges in how the media covers politics? What impact does the media have on the<br>\npolitical opinions and behavior of citizens and public officials? What are the differences<br>\nacross types of media in terms of how they shape the formation of political opinions and<br>\nknowledge and other political behavior? How powerful is the media, and what are the<br>\nlimits to this power? Is the media biased, and if so, in what way? What are the<br>\nsimilarities and differences with regard to coverage of domestic politics versus foreign<br>\naffairs? How does the media cover war and what are the implications for democracy of<br>\nthis coverage?<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n<\/section>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":405,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"featured_post":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-8","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/rosenson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/rosenson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/rosenson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/rosenson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/405"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/rosenson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/rosenson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":969,"href":"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/rosenson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8\/revisions\/969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/rosenson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}