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Government 510
American Government and Politics
Professor Robert Dudley
Research 1 331
703-993-1412
Office Hours: Prior to class or by appointment
rdudley@gmu.edu
Course Description
This course serves as an advanced examination of American government and politics.
Obviously it is impossible to cover the entire field in a single semester, so we have to
make some choices. We will cover the major topics in American government/politics
with an effort to provide an array of research approaches and significant themes.
This class will be run as a reading seminar. The reading load is moderately heavy, and
you are expected to do the weekly readings. Indeed you must do the assigned readings
before class each week. You should be able to discuss and analyze the literature.
Course Requirements:
You will be responsible for five short papers. The papers should be a critical
review of one of the assigned books/papers for that topic—2 to 3 pages. You
must submit your paper no later than the evening of that topic’s discussion.
There will be a final exam (take-home) for this course.
Each student will also prepare an end of term paper, that clearly states a research
question to be answered, accompanied by a literature review that supports the
importance of the question. Finally, the paper must contain a description of the
process and methods that the student would use to answer the question.
Finally, because this is a reading seminar, you will be graded on your
participation in class discussion. Emphasis will be placed on the quality of this
participation and the extent to which participation demonstrates a command of the
literature.
Grades Participation 10%
Short topic papers 15%
Paper 30
Final Exam 40%
Academic Integrity
The integrity of the University community is affected by the individual choices made
by each of us. GMU has an Honor Code with clear guidelines regarding academic
integrity. Three fundamental and rather simple principles to follow at all times are
that: (1) all work submitted be your own; (2) when using the work or ideas of others,
including fellow students, give full credit through accurate citations; and (3) if you are
uncertain about the ground rules on a particular assignment, ask for clarification. No
grade is important enough to justify academic misconduct. Plagiarism means using the
exact words, opinions, or factual information from another person without giving the
person credit. Writers give credit through accepted documentation styles, such as
parenthetical citation, footnotes, or endnotes. Paraphrased material must also be cited,
using MLA or APA format. A simple listing of books or articles is not sufficient.
Plagiarism is the equivalent of intellectual robbery and cannot be tolerated in the
academic setting. If you have any doubts about what constitutes plagiarism, please see
me.
Disability Accommodations
If you have a documented learning disability or other condition that may affect
academic performance you should: 1) make sure this documentation is on file with
Office of Disability Services (SUB I, Rm. 4205; 993-2474;http://ods.gmu.edu) to
determine the accommodations you need; and 2) talk with me to discuss your
accommodation needs.
Required Texts
Aldrich, John H. Why Parties? The Origins and Transformation of Party Politics in
America
Robert Dahl, Who Governs
David Howell, Power Without Persuasion
David Mayhew, Congress, The Electoral Connection
E.E. Schattschneider The Semi-Sovereign People
Lee, Frances, Beyond Ideology
Angus Campbell, The American Voter Wiley & Sons
Prior, Markus, Post Broadcast Democracy: How Media Choice Increases Inequality
in Political Involvement and Polarizes Elections.
1. Foundational Beliefs
Readings:
U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence
Federalist Papers, #’s 10, 11 and 51 (Can be found on the Library of Congress website.)
Kenyon, Cecelia. 1955. “Men of Little Faith: The Anti-Federalists on the Nature of
Representative Government.” The William and Mary Quarterly, 12(1): 3-34 (JSTOR).
Morgan, Robert J. 1974. “Madison’s Theory of Representation in the Tenth Federalist.”
The Journal of Politics, 35(4): 852-885. (JSTOR)
Marbury v. Madison. (edited version will be handed out)
McCulloch v. Maryland. (Available on-line through Lexus-Nexus.)
Dahl, Robert A. 1977. “On Removing Certain Impediments to Democracy in the United
States.” Political Science Quarterly, 92(1): 1-20. (JSTOR)
Further Readings
Buchanan, James, and Gordon Tullock. The Calculus of Consent.
Burns, James MacGregor. The Vineyard of Liberty.
Countryman, Edward. The American Revolution.
Dahl, Robert A. How Democratic Is the American Constitution?
Dahl, Robert A. A Preface to Democratic Theory
Dinan, John J. The American State Constitutional Tradition.
Elkins, Stanley and Eric McKitrick. The Age of Federalism: The Early American
Republic, 1788-1800.
Farber, Daniel. Lincoln’s Constitution.
Farrand, Max. The Framing of the Constitution of the United States.
Gutmann Amy and Dennis Thompson. Democracy and Disagreement: Why Moral
Conflict Cannot be Avoided in Politics, and What Should be Done About It.
Lane, Robert E. The Loss of Happiness in Market Democracies.
Levison, Sanford. Constitutional Faith.
McDonald, Forrest. Novus Ordo Seclorum: The Intellectual Origins of the
Constitution.
Morgan, Edmund. Inventing the People: The Rise of Popular Sovereignty in
England and America.
Pocock, J.G.A. The Machiavellian Moment.
Rakove, Jack N. Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making of the
Constitution.
Riker, William H. Liberalism Against Populism: A Confrontation Between the
Theory of Democracy and the Theory of Social Choice.
Schudson, Michael. The Good Citizen, A History of American Civic Life.
Skocpol, Theda. Diminished Democracy: From Membership to Management in
American Civic Life.
Smith, Rogers. Civic Ideals: Conflicting Visions of Citizenship in the U.S.
Sunstein, Cass R. The Partial Constitution.
Sunstein, Cass R. Legal Reasoning and Political Conflict.
Sunstein, Cass R. Designing Democracy: What Constitutions Do.
Whittington, Keith E. Constitutional Construction: Divided Powers and
Constitutional Meaning. See Also Constitutional Interpretation: Textual Meaning,
Original Intent, and Judicial Review.
Wood, Gordon S. The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787.
2. Power and the Meaning of Power in American Politics
Readings:
Dahl, Robert A. Who Governs?
Polsby, Nelson W. 1960. “How to Study Community Power: The Pluralist Alternative.”
The Journal of Politics,” 22: 474-484. (JSTOR)
Sniderman, Paul M, Joseph F. Fletcher, Peter H. Russell, Philip Tetlock, and Markus
Prior. 2000 “The Theory of Democratic Elitism: A Response to Venfroff and Morton.”
(JSTOR)
Bachrach, Peter and Morton Baratz. 1966. “The Two Faces of Power.” American
Political Science Review, 56: 947-952. (JSTOR)
Bachrach, Peter and Morton Baratz. 1963 “Decisions and Nondecisions: An Analytical
Framework.” American Political Science Review, 57: 632-642. (JSTOR)
Further Reading
Bell, Daniel. 1958. “The Power Elite—Revisited,” American Sociological Review,
54: 238-250.
Bentley, A. F. The Process of Government.
Dahl, Robert A. Who Governs?
Dahl, Robert A. Modern Political Analysis
Dahl, Robert A. Dilemmas of Pluralist Democracy: Autonomy vs. Control.
Dahl, Robert A. and Charles E. Lindblom. Politics, Economics, and Welfare.
Diamond, Martin. 1976. “The Separation of Powers and the Mixed Regime,” Publius,
8: 33-43.
Easton, David. Varieties of Political Theory.
Freud, Sigmund. Civilization and Its Discontent.
Hunter, F. Community Power Structure.
Key, V.O. Public Opinion and American Democracy.
Lane, Robert E. Political Life: Why and How People Get Involved in Politics.
Lipset, Seymour Martin. Political Man.
Lowi, Theodore J. The End of Liberalism.
Lowi, Theodore J. Arenas of Power.
Michels, Robert. Political Parties.
Mills, C. Wright. The Power Elite.
Mosca, Gaetano. The Ruling Class.
Pareto, Vilfredo. The Mind and Society.
Community Power and Democratic Theory: The Logic of Political Analysis.
Pareto, Vilfredo. The Rise and Fall of Elites: An Application of Theoretical
Sociology.
Parry, Geraint. Political Elites.
Pennock, J. Roland. Liberal Democracy: Its Merits and Prospects.
Polsby, Nelson. Community Power and Political Theory.
Ricci, David. Community Power and Democratic Theory: The Logic of Political
Analysis.
Schumpeter, Joseph. Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy.
Sabine, George. A History of Political Theory.
Truman, David. The Governmental Process.
Wolfinger, Raymond. 1960. “Reputation and Reality in the Study of Community
Power,” American Sociological Review, 25: 636-644.
Wolin Sheldon. Politics and Vision.
3. Congress as a Representative Institution
Readings:
Mayhew, David. Congress: The Electoral Connection
Gilens, Martin and Benjamin Page, “Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites,
Interest Groups, and Average Citizens.” Perspectives on Politics, Vol 12, No
3(September 2014), pp564-581.
Cox, W. Gary and Johnathan N. Katz. 1996. “Why Did the Incumbency Advantage in
U.S. House Elections Grow?” American Journal of Political Science, 478-497.
(JSTOR)
Fiorina, Morris P. 1977. “The Case for the Vanishing Marginals: The Bureaucracy Did
It,” American Political Science Review, 71: 180- (JSTOR)
Prior, Markus. 2006 “The Incumbent in the Living Room: The Rise of Television and
the Incumbency Advantage in U.S. House Elections.” The Journal of Politics 68:
pp657-673. (JSTOR)
Cover, Albert. 1977. “One Good Term Deserves Another: The Advantage of
Incumbency in Congressional Elections,’ American Journal of Political Science, 21:
523-541. (JSTOR)
Parker, Glenn. 1980. “Sources of Change in Congressional District Attentiveness,”
American Journal of Political Science, 24: 115-124. (JSTOR)
Further Readings:
Arnold, R. Douglas. The Logic of Congressional Action.
Butler, David and Bruce Cain. Congressional Redistricting: Comparative and
Theoretical Perspectives.
Brady, David W., John F. Cogan, and Morris P Fiorina. Continuinty and Change in
House Elections.
Cain, Bruce, John Ferejohn, and Morris Fiorina. The Personal Vote: Constituency
Service and Electoral Independence.
Carmines, Edward B. and James A. Stimson. Issue Evolution: Race and the
Transformation of American Politics.
Dodd, Lawrence c. and Bruce I. Oppenheimer, eds. Congress Reconsidered. Various
editions.
Fenno, Richard. Home Style: House Members in their Districts.
Fiornia, Morris. Congress: Keystone of the Washington Establishment.
Jacobson, Gary. The Politics of Congressional Elections.
Jacobson, Gary and Samuel Kernell. Strategy and Choice in Congressional Elections.
Mann, Thomas and Norman Ornstein. The Broken Branch: How Congress is Failing
American and How to Get it Back on Track.
______________________________ It’s Worse that You Think.
Miller, Warren E. and Donald Stokes. 1963.“Constituency Influence in Congress,”
American Political Science Review, 57: 45-57.
Pitkin, Hanna. The Concept of Representation.
4. Congress as a Policymaker
Readings:
Lee, Frances. Beyond Ideology
Binder, Sarah. “The Dynamics of Legislative Gridlock, 1974-1996,” 1999. American
Political Science Review, 93: 519-533.
Polsby, Nelson et al. “The Institutionalization of the House of Representatives,”
American Political Science Review, 787-807. (JSTOR)
Further Readings:
Clausen, Aage. How Congressmen Decide: A Policy Focus.
Cox, Gary W. and Matthew D. McCubbins. Legislative Leviathan: Party
Government in the House.
Fenno, Richard. Congressmen in Committees.
Fenno, Richard. 1962. “The House Appropriations Committee as a Political System,”
American Political Science Review, 56: 310-324.
Galloway, George B. History of the House of Representatives.
Kingdon, John W. Congressmen’s Voting Decisions.
Krehbiel, Keith. Information and Legislative Organization.
MacRae, Duncan. Issues and Parties in Legislative Voting.
Matthews, Donald R. and James A. Stimson. Yeas and nays: Normal Decision
Making in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Polsby, Nelson ed. Congressional Behavior.
Polsby, Nelson. How Congress Evolves: Social Bases of Institutional Change.
Rhode, David. Parties and Leaders in the Post-Reform House.
Schickler, Eric. Disjointed Pluralism: Institutional Innovation and the Development
of the U.S. Congress.
Wilson, Woodrow. Congressional Government: A Study in American Politics.
5. The Presidency
Readings:
Howell, William G. Power Without Persuasion: The Politics of Direct Presidential
Action.
Allison, Graham. 1969. “Conceptual Models and the Cuban Missile Crisis,” American
Political Science Review, 63: 689-718. (JSTOR)
Sullivan, Terry. 1990. “Bargaining with the President,” 84: 1167-1196. (JSTOR)
Neustadt, Richard E.2001 “The Weakening White House, “British Journal of Political
Science. 31: 1_11.
Hart, John. 1998. “Neglected Aspects of the Study of the Presidency,” Annual Review
of Political Science, 1: 379-399. (Available on-line through the Library’s Electronic
Database.)
Bowels, Nigel. 1999. “Studying the Presidency,” Annual Review of Political Science,
2: 1-23. (Available on-line through the Library’s Electronic Database.)
Further Readings:
Brace, Paul and Barbara Hinckley. Follow the Leader: Opinion Polls and the
Modern Presidency.
Cooper, Phillip J. By Order of the President: The Use and Abuse of Executive
Direct Action.
Corwin, Edward S. The President, Office and Powers, 1787-1948: History and
Analysis of Practice and Opinion.
Edwards, George. The Strategic President.
Edwards, George. On Deaf Ears.
Greenstein, Fred I. The Hidden Hand Presidency: Eisenhower as Leader.
Hess, Stephen. Organizing the Presidency.
Kernell, Samuel. Going Public: New Strategies of Presidential Leadership.
Light, Paul C. The President’s Agenda.
Lowi, Theodore. The Personal President: Power Invested, Promise Unfulfilled.
Mueller John E. War, Presidents and Public Opinion.
Nathan, Richard P. The Administrative Presidency.
Nelson, Michael. ed. The Presidency and the Political System. (There are various
editions of this work.)
Neustadt, Richard. Presidential Power. (The classic which everyone responds to.)
Pfiffner, James P. The Strategic Presidency: Hitting the Ground Running.
Pfiffner, James P. and Roger H. Davidson. eds. Understanding the Presidency. (Again
there are various editions.)
Popkin, Samuel. The Candidate: What it Takes to Win—and Hold—the White
House.
Posner, Eric and Adrian Vermeule. The Executive Unbound: After the Madisonian
Republic.
Ragsdale, Lynn. Presidential Politics.
Rose, Richard. The Postmodern President.
Rossiter, Clinton. The American Presidency: 1917-1940.
Rudalevige, Andrew. Managing the President’s Program: Presidential Leadership
and Legislative Policy Formation.
Skowronek, Stephen. The Politics Presidents Make: Leadership from John Adams
to George Bush.
Wildavsky, Aaron. The Presidency.
Yoo, John. The Powers of War and Peace: The Constitution and Foreign Affairs
After 9/11.
6. Courts
Readings:
Baum, Lawrence. Judges and Their Audiences. (You may purchase the book,
although it is not in the bookstore. Alternatively, you can download the chapters
from JSTOR. There are 5 chapters.)
Baum, Lawrence, Pages 89-124 in The Puzzle of Judicial Behavior. This book chapter
can be found in JSTOR.
Baum, Lawrence. 2003.“The Supreme Court in American Politics,” Annual Review of
Political Science, 6: 161-180. (Available on-line through Library Electronic Database.)
Horowitz, Donald L. 1977. “The Hazards of Judicial Guardianship,” Public
Administration Review, 37: 148
Binder, Sarah A. 2008 “Consequences for the Courts: Polarized Politics and the Judicial
Branch.” In Nivola, Pietro’s and David Brady eds. Red and Blue Nation?
Consequences and Corrections of America’s Polarized Politics.
Further Readings:
Davis, Richard. Decisions and Images: The Supreme Court and the Press.
Ducat, Craig R. and Robert L. Dudley. 1987. “Dimensions Underlying Economic
Policymaking in the Early and Later Burger Courts,” Journal of Politics, 49: 521-539.
Dudley, Robert L. and Craig R. Ducat. 1986. “The Burger Court and Economic
Liberalism,” Western Political Quarterly. 39: 236-249.
Epstein, Lee and Jack Knight. The Choices Justices Make.
Epstein, Lee and Jeffrey Segal. Advice and Consent: The Politics of Judicial
Appointments.
Epstein, Lee. ed. Contemplating Courts.
Gates, John B. and Charles A. Johnson. The American Courts a Critical Assessment.
Gibson, James. Electing Judges: The Surpring Effects of Campaigning on Judicial
Ligitimacy.
Hirschl, Ran. Towards Juristocracy: The Origins and Consequences of the New
Constitutionalism.
Kramer, Larry D. The People Themselves: Popular Constitutionalism and Judicial
Review.
McGuire, Kevin T. 2002. “The Least Dangerous Branch Revisited: New Evidence on
Supreme Court Responsiveness to Public Preferences,” Journal of Politics, 66: 1018-
1035.
Murphy, Walter F. and C. Herman Pritchett. Courts, Judges and Politics.
Peretti, Terri Jennings. In Defense of A Political Court.
Posner, Richard A. How Judges Think.
Rohde, David W. and Charles S. Bullock. Law and Social Change: Civil Rights Laws
and their Consequences.
Rosenberg, Gerald N. The Hollow Hope: Can Courts bring About Social Change?
Schubert, Glendon. The Judicial Mind.
Schubert, Glendon. The Judicial Mind Revisited.
Schubert, Glendon. Human Jurisprudence.
Segal, Jeffrey A. and Harold J. Spaeth. The Supreme Court and the Attitudinal
Model. And the same authors with The Supreme Court and the Attitudinal Model
Revisited.
Segal, Jeffrey A and Harold J. Spaeth. Majority Rule and Minority Will: Adherence
to Precedent on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Shklar, Judith N. Legalism: An Essay on Law, Morals and Politics.
Sunstein, Cass R. Are Judges Political?
7. Organized Interests in American Politics
Readings:
Gray, Virginia and David Lowery. 1996. “A Niche Theory of Interest Representation.”
Journal of Politics, 58: 91-111. (JSTOR).
Salisbury, Robert. 1984. “Interest Representation: The Dominance of Institutions,”
American Political Science Review, 81: 64-67. (JSTOR)
Walker, Jack L. 1983. “The Origins and Maintenance of Interest Groups in America,”
American Political Science Review, 77:390-406. (JSTOR)
Schlozman, Kay Lehman. 1984. “What Accent the heavenly Chorus? Political Equality
and the American Pressure System,” Journal of Politics, 46: 1006-32. (JSTOR).
Schattschneider, E. E. The Semisovereign People Chapters 1-4.
O’Connor, Karen and Lee Epstein. 1983 “The Rise of Conservative Interest Group
Litigation.” Journal of Politics 45, pp 478-489.
Further Readings:
Austen-Smith, David, and John Wright. 1994. “Counteractive Lobbying,” American
Journal of Political Science, 38: 24-44.
Bauer, Raymond A., Ithiel de Sola Pool, and Lewis Anthony Dexter. American Business
and Public Policy.
Baumgartner, Frank, and Beth Leech. Basic Interests: The Importance of Groups in
Politics and Political Science.
Berry, Jeffrey. Lobbying for the People: The Political Behavior of Public Interest
Groups.
Browner, William P. Private Interests, Public Policy, and American Agriculture.
Conlan, Timothy J., Margaret T. Wrightson, and David R. Beam. Taxing Choices: The
Politics of Tax Reform.
Danielson, Lucig, and Benjamin I. Page. “The Heavenly Chorus: Interest Group Voices
on TV News,” American Journal of Political Science, 38: 1056-1078.
Gais, Thomas. Improper Influence.
Gray, Virginia, and David Lowery. The Population Ecology of Interest Groups.
Heinz, John P, Edward O. Laumann, Robert L. Nelson, and Robert Salisbury. The
Hollow Core.
Hojnacki, Marie, and David Kimball. 1998.“Organized Interests and the Decision of
Whom to Lobby in Congress.” American Political Science Review, 92: 775-90.
Jacobson, Gary C. 1998. “The Effect of the AFL-CIO’s Voter Education Campaigns on
the1996 House Election.” Journal of Politics, 61: 185-194.
Lowery, David, and Holly Brasher. Organized Interests and American Government.
Lowi, Theodore J. The End of Liberalism.
Moe, Terry. The Organization of Interests.
Olson, Mancur. The Logic of Collective Action.
Olson Mancur. The Rise and Decline of Nations.
Schattschneider, E. E. The Semisovereign People.
Truman, David. The Governmental Process.
Walker, Jack L. Mobilizing Interest Groups in America: Patrons, Professionals, and
Social Movements.
8. Political Parties
Readings:
Aldrich, John. Why Parties?
APSA Committee on Political Parties. 1950. “A Report of the Committee on Political
Parties,” American Political Science Review, 44: 1-99.
Schlesinger, Joseph. 1984. “On the Theory of Party Organizations,” Journal of Politics,
46(2): 369-400. (JSTOR)
Schlesinger, Joseph. 1985. “The New American Political Party,” American Political
Science Review, 79(4) 1152-1169. (JSTOR)
Stokes, S. C. 1999. “Political Parties and Democracy,” Annual Political Science
Review, Vol 2: 269-295. (Available on-line through the Library Electronic Database.)
Key, V. O. 1955. “A Theory of Critical Elections,” Journal of Politics, 17(1): 3-18.
(JSTOR)
Campbell, Angus, Philip Converse, Warren E. Miller, and Donald E. Stokes, The
American Voter, Chapters 6 and 7.
Clarke, Harold C. and Marianne C. Stewart. 1998. “The Decline of Parties in the Minds
of Citizens,” Annual Review of Political Science, 1: 357-378. (Available on-line
through the Library Electronic Database.)
Further Readings:
Burnham, Walter Dean. Critical Elections and the Mainsprings of American Politics.
Broder, David S. The Party’s Over: The Failure of Politics in America.
Conlan, Timothy J. 1990. “Politics and Governance: Conflicting Trends in the 1990s?”
Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 509: 128-138.
Cox, Gary w. and Mathew D. McCubbins. Legislative Leviathan: Party Government
in the House.
Crotty, William. American Political Parties in Decline.
Downs, Anthony, An Economic Theory of Democracy.
Duverger, Maurice. Political Parties: Their Organization and Activities in the
Modern State.
Eldersveld, Samuel J. Political Parties: A Behavioral Analysis.
Epstein, Leon D. Political Parties in the American Mold.
Gillespie, J. David. Politics at the Periphery: Third Parties in Two Party America.
Green, Donald, Bradley Palmquist, and Eric Schickler, Partisan Hearts and Minds.
Hofstadter, Richard. The Idea of a Party System: The Rise Legitimate Opposition in
the United States.
Key, V. O. Southern Politics.
Key, V. O. Politics, Parties, and Pressure Groups.
Kleppner, Paul, et al. The Evolution of American Electoral Systems.
Ladd, Everett Carl and Charles Hadley. Transformations of the American Party
Systems.
Mayhew, David R. “Electoral Realignments,” Annual Review of Political Science, 3:
449-474.
Mayhew, David R. Electoral Realignments: A Critque of an American Genre.
Milkis, Sidney M. Political Parties and Constitutional Government: Remaking
American Democracy.
Pomper, Gerald M. Party Renewal in America: Theory and Practice.
Schattschneider, E. E. Party Government.
Sundquist, James L. Dynamics of the Party System.
Wattenberg, Martin P. The Decline of American Politics.
:
9. Public Opinion, Knowledge and Preferences: An Ideological Nation?
Readings:
Campbell, Angus, Philip E, Converse, Warren E. Miller, and Donald E. Stokes, The
American Voter. Chapter 2.
Barber, Michael and Nolan McCarty. 2016 “Causes and Consequences of Polarization.”
In Political Negotiation. Ed. Jane Mansbridge and Cathie Jo Martin, (JSTOR)
Lapinski, John S. 2013 The Substance of Representation: Congress, American
Political Development, and Lawmaking. Chapter 3.(JSTOR)
Lupia, Arthur. Uninformed: Why People Know So Little About Politics and What
We Can Do About It.
McCarty, Nolan, Keith Poole and Howard Rosenthal. 2013 Political Bubbles :
Financial Crises and the Failure of American Democracy. Chapter 2. (JSTOR)
Converse, Philip E. 2000. “Assessing the Capacity of Mass Electorates,” Annual
Review of Political Science, 3:331-353. (Available on-line through the GMU Library’s
Electronic Database.)
10 Are We Really Polarized? Or Measuring Polarization: A Debate
Fiorina, Morris P. Disconnect: The Breakdown of Representation in American
Politics. Or Abramowitz, Alan. The Disappearing Center: Engaged Citizens,
Polarization, and American Democracy.
Conover, Pamela Johnston and Stanley Feldman. 1981. “The Origins and Meaning of
Liberal-Conservative Self-Identifications,” American Journal of Political Science, 25:
617-645. (JSTOR)
Brady, David W. and Hahrie C. Han. 2006. “Polarization Then and Now: A Historical
Perspective” In eds. Nivola, Pietro S. and David W. Brady Red and Blue Nation?
Characteristics and Causes of America’s Polarized Politics. (JSTOR)
Further Readings:
Abramason, Paul, John Aldrich, and David Rhode. Change and Continuity in the 1992
Election. This is where the series starts; it goes on with a volume for each election since.
Aldrich, John, John Sullivan and Eugene Borgida. 1989. “Foreign Affairs and Issue
Voting: Do Presidential Candidates Waltz Before a Blind Audience? American
Political Science Review, 83: 123-141. (JSTOR).
Almond, Gabriel a., and Sidney Verba. The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and
Democracy in Five Nations. (Dated, but a highly influential classic.)
Apter, David. Ideology and Discontent.
Berelson, Bernard R., Paul Lazarsfeld, and William N McPhee. Voting: A
Study of Opinion Formation in a Presidential Campaign.
Campbell, Angus, Phillip Converse, Warren Miller, and Donald Stokes. The American
Voter.
Delli Carpini, Michael X. and Scott Keeter. What Americans Know About Politics
and Why It Matters.
Fiorina, Morris P. Retrospective Voting in American National Elections.
Fiorinia, Morris P. Culture War” The Myth of a Polarized America.
Miller, Warren E. and J. Merrill Shanks. The New American Voter.
Niemi, Richard, et. el. Controversies in Voting Behavior.
Page, Benjamin I. and Robert Y. Shapiro. The Rational Public: Fifty Years of Trends
in Americans’ Policy Preferences.
Popkin, Samuel. The Reasoning Voter: Communication and Persuasion in
Presidential Campaigns.
Robinson, Paul John. Measure of Political Attitudes.
Shenkman, Rick. Just How Stupid Are We? Facing the Truth About the American
Voter.
Sears, David O., Richard lau, T.R. Tyler, and H.J. Allen. 1980. “Self Interest vs.
Symbolic Politics in Policy Attitudes and Voting,” American Political Science Review,
74: 670-684.
Stimson, James A. Public Opinion in America: Moods, Cycles, and Swings.
Zaller, John The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion.
11. Public Opinion, Elections and Electoral Behavior
Readings:
. Campbell, Angus, Philip E. Converse, Warren E. Miller, and Donald E. Stokes. The
American Voter. Chapters 2, 5,10, 11,19 and 20
Verba, Sidney, Kay Lehman Schlozman, Henry Brady, Norman Nie. 1993. “Citizen
Activity: Who Participates? What Do they Say?” American Political Science Review,
87: 303-318. (JSTOR)
Schattschneider, E. E. The Semisovereign People. Chapter 6.
Further Readings:
Berelson, Benard R., Paul Lazarsfeld, and William N. McPhee. Voting a Study of
Opinion Formation in a Presidential Campaign.
Campbell, Angus, Phillip Converse, Warren Miller, and Donald Stokes. The American
Voter.
Caplan, Bryan. The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad
Policies.
Chute, Marchette. The First Liberty: A History of the Right to Vote in America,
1619-1850.
Crigler, Ann N., Marion R. Just, and Edward J. McCaffery. eds. Rethinking the Vote:
The Politics and Prospects of American Electoral Reform.
Dudley, Robert L. and Alan R. Gitelson. American Elections.
Dummett, Michael. Principles of Electoral Reform.
Erikson, Robert and Christopher Wlezien. The Timeline of Presidential Elections.
Fiornia, Morris P. Retrospective Voting in American National Elections.
Gelman, Andrew. Red State, Blue state, Rich State, Poor State.
Hasen, Richard. The Voting Wars.
Hill, Steven. Fixing Elections: The Failure of Americas’ Winner Take All Politics.
Keith, Bruce E., et al. The Myth of the Independent Voter.
Keyssar, Alexander. The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the
United States.
McDonald, Michael P. and Samuel L. Popkin. 2001. “The Myth of the Vanishing
Voter,” American Political Science Review, 95: 963-974.
McDonald, Michael P. and John Samples. eds. Electoral Competition and American
Politics.
Mayhew, David R. Electoral Realignments: A Critique of an American Genre.
Morone, James A. The Democratic Wish: Popular Participation and the Limits of
American Government.
Nie, Norman H., Sidney Verba, and John r. Petrocik. The Changing American Voter.
Norris, Pippa. Electoral Engineering: Voting Rules and Political Behavior.
Page, Benjamin and Robert Y. Shapiro. 1983. “Effects of Public Opinion on Policy,”
American Political Science Review, 77: 175-190. (JSTOR)
Popkin, Samuel. The Candidate: What It Takes to Win—and Hold—The White
House.
Powell, Bingham G. 1986. “American Voter Turnout in Comparative Perspective,”
American Political Science Review, 80: 17-43.
Powell, Bingham G. Elections as Instruments of Democracy.
Rubin, Aviel D. Brave New Ballot: The Battle to Safeguard Democracy in the Age
of Electronic Voting.
Teixeria, Ruy A. The Disappearing American Voter.
Thompson, Dennis. Just Elections: Creating a Fair Electoral Process in the United
States.
Tufte, Edward. 1973. “ The Relationship Between Seats and Votes in Two-Party
Systems,” American Political Science Review, 67:540-554.
Verba, Siney and Norman Nie. Participation in America: Political Democracy and
Social Equality.
Wolfinger, Raymond E. and Steven J. Rosenstone. Who Votes?
12. The Old and the New Media
Readings:
Kuklinski, James H. and Lee Sigelman. 1992 “When Objectivity Is Not Objective:
Network Television News coverage of the U.S. Senators and the Paradox of Objectivity,”
Journal of Politics, 54: 810-833. (JSTOR)
Iyengar, Shanto, Mark Peters, and Donald R. Kinder, “Experimental Demonstrations of
the Not-so-Minimal Consequences of Television News Programs,” American Political
Science Review, 76: 848-858. (JSTOR)
Schudson, Michael. 2002 “The News Media as Political Institutions,” Annual Review
of Political Science, 5: 249-269. (Available on-line though the Library Electronic
Database.)
Prior, Markus. 2009. “The Immensely Inflated News Audience: Assessing Bias in Self-
Reported News Exposure.” The Public Opinion Quarterly, 73: pp. 130-143.
Further Readings:
Allen, Craig M. 2001. News is People, The Rise of Local TV News and the Fall
Bennett, W. Lance. News: The Politics of Illusion.
Althaus, Scott L. 1998. “Information Effects in Collective Preferences,” American
Political Science Review, 92: 545 58.
Althaus, Scott L. 2002. “ American News Consumption During Times of National
Crisis,” PS: Political Science and Politics, 35(3): 517-520.
Ansolabehere, Stephen and Shanto Iyengar. Going Negative: How Attack Ads Shrink
and Polarize the Electorate.
Arnold, R. Douglas. Congress, the Press and Political Accountability.
Baum, Matthew A. 2002. “Sex, Lies, and War: How Soft News Brings Foreign Policy
to an Inattentive Public,” American Political Science Review, 96(1): 91-110.
Baum, Matthew A. 2003. “Soft News and Political Knowledge: Evidence of Absence or
Absence of Evidence,” Political Communications, 20(2): 173-190.
Baum, Matthew A. Soft News Goes to War.
Baum, Matthew A. 2005. “Talking the Vote: What Happens When Presidential
Candidates Hit the Talk Show Circuit,” American Journal of Political Science, 49(2):
213-234.
Baum, Matthew A. and Samuel Kernell. 1999. “Has Cable Television Ended the Golden
Age of Presidential Television? American Political Science Review, 93: 99-114.
Davis, Richard. The Web of Politics: The Internet’s Impact on the American
Political System.
Farnsworth, Stephen J. and S. Robert Lichter. The Nightly News Nightmare: Network
Television’s Coverage of U.S. Presidential Elections, 1988-2000.
Gans, Herbert J. Deciding What’s News: A Study of CBS Evening News, NBC
Nightly News, Newsweek, and Time.
Graber, Doris. Mass Media and American Politics.
Grossman, Michael Baruch and Martha Joynt Kuman. Portraying the President: The
White House and the News Media.
Iyengar, Shanto. Is anyone Responsible? How Televison Frames Political Issues.
Iyengar, Shanto and Donald Kinder. News that Matters.
Mutz, Diana. 1992. “Mass Media and Depoliticization of Personal Experience,”
American Journal of Political Science, 36: 483-508.
Paletz, David L. The Media in American Politics.
Patterson, Thomas E. and Robert D. McClure. Unseeing Eye: The Myth of Television
Power in National Politics.
Patterson, Thomas E. Mass Media Election: How Americans Choose Their
President.
Patterson, Thomas E. Out of Order.
Ranney, Austin. Channels of Power.
Schudson, Michael. Discovering the News: A Social History of American
Newspapers.
West, Darrell M. Air Wars: Television Advertising in Election Campaigns.
Wu, Tim. The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires.
13. The Future of Democracy
Foa, Stephen Roberto and Yascha Mounk.”The Danger of Deconsolidation.” Journal of
Democracy vol. 27 #3, July 2016 ( For this and any other articles listed for this journal,
Google The Journal of Democracy and. There you will find a series of articles that can be
down-loaded.)
Howe, Paul. “Eroding Norms and Democratic Deconsolidation.” Journal of
Democracy. vol. 228, #4, October 2017.
Persily, Nathaniel. “Can Democracy Survive the Internet?” Journal of Democracy. vol.
28, #2, April 2017.
Berman, Sheri. “The Pipe Dream of Undemocratic Liberalism.” Journal of
Democracy. vol. 28, #3, July 2017.
Mounk, Yascha. “Pitchfork Politics: The Populist threat to Liberal Democracy.”
Council on Foreign Affairs vol.93, # 5, Sept./Oct 2014 pp. 27-36.
Galston, William. “Is Democracy at Risk in the United States?” (This is a chapter from
a book titled Anti-Pluralism. The chapter can be found on JSTOR.)
Further Readings:
Mounk, Yascha. The People v. Democracy.
Riker, William, Liberalism Against Populism.
Fukuyama, Francis. The End of History and the Last Man.
Beard, Mary. SPQR: A History of Modern Rome.
Judis, John, The Populist Explosion.
Galston, William. Anti Pluralism.
Levilsky, Steven. How Democracies Die.
Eichengreen, Barry. The Population Temptation.
Diamond, Larry and Marc Platter eds. Democracy in Decline.
______________________________ Authoritarianism Goes Global.
Albright, Madeleine. Fascism: A Warning.
Livingston, Mark. The Shifting Tides of Global Politics.
Runciman, David. How Democracy Ends.