American Society and Politics

General guidelines

1. You're expected to write four short papers (1,000-1,250 words, or about five pages each), as well as three reading responses. Each precept will be divided into three groups, with different dates for papers and responses. You will know your own due dates by the end of the first week of classes.

2. Papers and reading responses should be submitted to the preceptor electronically by 10 p.m. the evening before precept. If you bring a paper copy to hand in during precept, however, there will be no penalty for lateness. But you still should email your preceptor an electronic copy of the paper or response so that it's properly recorded.

Guidelines for papers

3. For each week, there is a general topic, as well as several broad questions to help focus your papers. You may wish to go beyond those questions, however, in developing your arguments. See below for the topics and focal questions for the semester.

4. You should refer to the readings in your papers, indicating page numbers (if they are from a print source) for direct quotations, though it is not necessary to provide full citations for any assigned reading. There is no requirement to do additional research for the papers. But if you do consult other sources, you should provide full citations, according to social science conventions, putting author and year of publication in parentheses and providing a full reference at the end of the paper.

5. Ideally, a paper should do more than summarize the readings; it should make an argument, your own argument--one that you are prepared to present and defend orally in class. Do you think the readings have important implications? Spell them out. Do you disagree with one or more of the readings? Explain why. Do you believe that one reading contradicts another and there is something to be learned from the conflict between them? Make your case.

Guidelines for reading responses

6. The reading responses are supposed to be very short takes on one of the readings -- a paragraph or two of comment, raising an issue or objection or posing a question that grows out of the material. Brevity, however, doesn’t mean that responses can just be tossed off. Give them careful thought, and be prepared to discuss them in precept.

Topics by week for papers

February 9. American national identity (readings for Feb. 9)

What is at stake in differing conceptions of American national identity? What is the relevance of those conceptions to the current debate about immigration policy?

February 16. American values and institutions (readings for Feb. 4 and 11)

What difference might it make today in American institutions and values if the British had prevailed in the American Revolution and the United States, like Canada, had remained part of the British empire into the nineteenth century?

February 23. Democracy in America: Political and civic engagement from Tocqueville to today (readings for Feb. 16, 18, and 23)

What impressed Tocqueville about civil society and democracy in the America of the 1830s, and what impresses Robert Putnam about recent trends in civic engagement? Are they talking about a society whose political culture and institutions are basically the same or utterly different?

March 2. The media and American democracy (March 2)

What has been the effect on democracy of the growth of new media, particularly the Internet?

March 9. Power and public opinion in America (readings for March 4 and 9)

Is power in America fragmented among many different interests and groupings, or is there a dominant class or elite? What is the relationship between public opinion and political change?

March 23. Capitalism, globalization, and political power (readings for March 23 and 25)

To what extent has economic and technological change in the global economy shifted the balance of political power within the United States toward business and away from labor?

March 30. The changing structure of social inequality (readings for March 30 and April 1)

For the three decades after World War II, there was hardly any change in the distribution of income. Then what happened, and why?

April 6. The color line (readings for April 6 and 8)

From a sociological and historical standpoint, why is Barack Obama thought of as black?

April 13. The politics of social security, welfare, and health care (readings for April 13 and 15)

How have recent changes in national policy affected poverty in America?

April 20. Politics and the changing relations of men and women (readings for April 20)

Are women--all women, or only some, or none at least by virtue of their gender--disadvantaged in America? And what impact, if any, does gender equality or inequality have on American politics today?

April 27. Political polarization and ideological change in American politics (readings for April 22 and 27)

Choose one of the following two: a) In what sense, if any, has the United States become more polarized? and b) What explains the rise of conservatism during the period roughly from Reagan to Obama?

Group I

Short papers due:
1. February 9
2. February 23
3. March 23
4. April 13

Reading responses due:
1. February 16
2. March 9
3. April 6

Group II

Short papers due:
1. February 16
2. March 2
3. March 30
4. April 20

Reading responses due:
1. February 23
2. March 23
3. April 13

Group III

Short papers due:
1. February 16
2. March 9
3. April 6
4. April 27

Reading responses due:
1. March 2
2. March 30
3. April 20