Class Meetings:
Final Exam:
You can find this syllabus and links to useful web sites on the worldwide web at http://cac.psu.edu/~dxd22/amnats1.html or by linking through my homepage, which is under "faculty homepages" on the campus homepage.
Imagine that the year is 2004. The president is running for reelection. One month before election day, the polls are showing that he is trailing by 22 points. He calls together his most important supporters, who happen to include a good number of military officers and convinces them to support him in postponing the elections indefinitely.
Could it ever happen? Why, why not? How do you know? Would you consider supporting the president's action if he was a Democrat? If he was a Republican? What if you are a person who isn't interested in politics, would you pay more attention to the news if this happened? What, if anything would you be willing to do to get this president out of office?
The situation described above or something like it has happened in many countries in the past and it will happen in some countries in the future. It has also occurred in some of the American states. However, nothing like it has happened in the United States for a long time because the United States has been a stable constitutional democracy for many years.
One of my purposes in this course is to present you with a variety of ideas, including my own, about what a stable constitutional democracy is, the extent to which the United States remains one, and some of the factors that strengthen or undermine the stability of our political system.
My other purpose is to help you develop the skills that are required for an active study of this and any other significant intellectual question. Those skills are reading comprehension, clear and concise writing, articulate public speaking, data analysis, how to formulate an important question that can be answered with information, and how to identify, acquire, and use information to answer the question.
You will read three books by people with clear and strongly held ideas about what kind of government the United States has and how it might be improved. Two of the books are by people who are actively engaged in American politics, Newt Gingrich and Robert Reich. In addition to their recommendations for improving America, their books provide a (perhaps biased) insider's view of the operations of American government and they reveal something about the types of people who are in the eye of the hurricane of American politics.
The other book is by Thomas Dye. In addition to providing a view of American constitutional democracy which I find largely plausible, but which no participant in American politics will openly express, Dye's book summarizes the essential research on American politics and government.
You will also have an opportunity to look at some of the best sites on the worldwide web for learning about American politics.
Twelve multiple choice quizzes, some announced, some unannounced, and short essay questions on the readings, the websites and on information presented in class will sharpen your reading comprehension and writing skills. Each quiz will count for three percent of your semester grade. I will give you the essay questions and some of the mulitple choice questions ahead of time. If you miss a quiz, you will not be able to make it up.
You will have a term project that will relate American government to the profession that you will be pursuing or that you think you may wish to pursue. The term project will consist of five parts:
1. An annotated bibliography, due February 17 . Click getting started for help getting started finding research materials. You need to request books from interlibrary loan by February 3 at the latest.
2. A debate in class about whether the government should be more or less involved in regulating your future profession. You should not read your remarks in the debate. You will have a partner. Each of you will have about five minutes to make remarks and a few minutes to question to debaters on the other side and to respond to questions. Part of your grade will be based on your performance as an individual. Part of your grade will be based on the success of your team. The debates will start on March 19.
3. While your colleagues are debating, you will fill out a form that I will give you evaluating the substance and presentation of the debates.
4. A research paper. , due March 17. Resubmit the annotated bibliography along with the research paper.
5. A revision of the paper, due April 14. Resubmit the previous draft and the annotated bibliography along with the revision.
Altogether, this project will count for twenty-five percent of your grade. I will not accept any late assignments.
You may have noticed that people who make claims about politics and government (and many other matters) refer to statistics. In this course, you will gain some familiarity with statistics, how they can be misused, and how they can be used to answer well-formulated questions about poltics and government. To achieve this goal, you will do ten assignments in a data analysis workbook, "American Government: An Introduction Using Explorit." Each assignment will count for one percent of your grade. I will not accept any late ones. You will also have a short essay that poses an interesting question about American politics and answers it by analyzing data in one or more of the Explorit data files. This essay will count for seven percent of your grade.
Aristotle, an ancient Greek philosopher, said that we engage in politics because we want to excel in the presence of our peers. During the course of the semester, you will have plenty of chances to do this. In addition to your oral reports on your research projects, you will be part of an e-mail discussion group that will permit you to express well-reasoned, and well-informed opinions about American politics and govenment and to evaluate the comments of your colleagues. These contributions will count for ten percent of your grade. In order to participate, you must have an e-mail account. If you do not have one, go the the desk at the CLRC and ask for one. I will ask you to tell me your e-mail address on January 27. You will send four e-mail messages during the course of the semester. In the first message you will evaluate Newt Gingrich's view of America's problems and the solutions he offers. In the next message, you will evaluate the comments of one of your colleagues. In the third message, you will compare Newt Gingrich's views with Robert Reich's view of America's problems and the solutions he offers. In the final e-mail message, you will respond to the third message of one of your colleagues.
The final exam will be on Thursday, May 7 at 1:00pm in this room. It will count for 10% of your grade. It will consist of multiple choice and essay questions that you have already had. If you miss it, you will not have another chance to take it unless you have another exam at the same time and have made arrangements with the registrar. If you make plans to leave Altoona, or if you take a job that prevents you from taking the exam, you will get a zero on the exam.
I realize that you may miss class from time to time or be unable to complete assignments on schedule because of unavoidable circumstances that are beyond your control. Therefore I will give you twelve bonus points to make up for the points that you may lose by missing class or the final exam or being unable to complete an assignment on time due to unavoidable circumstances. There will be no opportunities to make up any of the work or retake any quizzes or the final exam. If the time scheduled for this exam conflicts with another exam that you have, be sure to visit the registrar and fill out the appropriate form for an exam conflict.
All written assignments must by typed, using one inch margins and print approximately the same size as the print that you are reading now. If it is more than one page long, the pages must be numbered and attached with a staple in the upper left-hand corner. I don't want any folders or envelopes or binders. Just the pages of the paper.
In all of your written work, including your research project, data analysis exercises and essay quizzes and exams, spelling and grammar count. Be sure not to confuse "affect" with "effect." An Effect is a rEsult. To Affect is to chAnge. Be sure not to confuse "there" with "their," "except" and "accept," or "to", "too," and "two." When discussing the political parties or someone or something pertaining to them, be sure to capitalize the initial "D" for the Democratic party and the initial "R" for the Republican party. Don't leave out "to be" when it is necessary. For example, don't write "The way we elect our Senators needs reformed" when you should write "The way we elect our Senators needs TO BE reformed." Don't use the word "populace." Perhaps I am being picky, but if you make these mistakes, some people will think that you are poorly educated. I don't want anyone to think that someone who has taken this class is poorly educated.
Don't plagiarize. I take plagiarism very seriously. I caught a student last year, and he paid a heavy price. Plagiarism is dishonest. It shows disrespect for serious scholarship. Since that is the purpose of the University, Penn State takes it very seriously and imposes heavy penalties. Since scholarship is a very important part of my life, I take plagiarism personally.
Be sure not to commit plagiarism by mistake. If you use ideas or information in your paper that you found in a book, article, in a radio or television program, the internet, or from a lecture or conversation with someone, be sure to indicate the source of the information or idea, EVEN IF YOU HAVE PUT IT INTO YOUR OWN WORDS.
I will not accept any late assignments for any reason.
Please come see me during my office hours if you would like to discuss or ask about something pertaining to the course, and especially if you have any questions about an assignment. If my hours are not convenient for you, please make an appointment with me. If you have a relatively clear or simple question, send an e-mail to dxd22@psu.edu or call my voice mail at x-5284. If you are willing, I would like to receive an message from you in the next few weeks telling me where you are from, what you like most and least about PSU Altoona, and (if you wish), what you think about the course so far. I will be very interested in seeing what you have to say.
You and I both have a lot of work ahead of us. After we do it you will be a more effective writer, a more careful reader, and a much better researcher. You will also have a deeper appreciation of the impact that American government and politics have on the field that may become your life's work. Most importantly, you will become a wiser and more effective citizen, more capable of recognizing and shaping some of the forces that affect you and the people you care about.
Reading assignments should be completed by the date indicated. Data analysis exercises must be turned in on the date indicated. I will refer to "American Government: An Introduction Using Explorit" as "Explorit."
You may find these useful for your research projects in this course or in some other course that you take.
Internet Sources
How do we decide whether information that we get from a website is reliable? How does a student or a researcher know whether it is reasonble to use for a paper? Click for criteria developed by UCLA's Library
How to cite internet sources.
I have decided to include a link to Altavista because people occasionally ask me how to find some kind of information on the web. I tell them to use the Altavista search engine and type in a few good key words. For access to this search engine, click on ALTAVISTA
Student Web Pages that describe the effects of government on various professions