COURSE
SYLLABUS
POLITICAL SCIENCE 111(D)---AMERICAN GOVERNMENT
A distance learning course
CRN #1248, 3 credits, Spring 2007-January 22 through May 21
Instructor: Professor Richard Patrick, Social Sciences Division
COURSE OVERVIEW
I. Scope of course
Scope of course: This course examines our society’s politics and its patterns in the Constitution, congress, judiciary, and presidency. Topics of study include political ideologies, interest group pluralism, elite influence, citizen alienation, elections, institutional power, democracy’s requirements, and others. Present-day issues will be analyzed from the framework of these concepts.
Course
paperback text: The Irony of Democracy, 13th edition, by T.
Dye and H. Zeigler
Course prerequisites: none,
additionally, this course, has been deemed as transferable to most colleges. It
fulfills a general education and/or liberal arts requirement for several
majors. As a designated “D” or diversity course, completing the course will
fulfill a graduation requirement of study in this area.
II. Welcome
As your instructor and facilitator of your learning, I welcome
each of you to this course. I have constructed the course to be supportive and
encouraging of your interest in the study of society’s politics and its effects
both nationally and globally. Whatever advice you may want to communicate to me
at any time which will enhance your success in the course will be taken into
consideration.
This course has been constructed to foster discovery and learning
about range of topics and issues. It requires individual effort from each of
you. Please recognize and remember that there is an ongoing expectation
that you are willing and able to be an independent learner within the unique
circumstances of an on-line distance learning course. Let me assure you,
however, that I will be regularly communicating with you as to how you should be
self initiating for achievement in the course.
III. General Learning Objectives
This course is part of a foundation for an individual’s liberal
arts education which endeavors to nurture a person’s
intellectual growth and responsible citizenship for participation in a
democratic society. Critical thinking , open-minded
discovery, creative generalizations, and shared learning are some of the traits
of intellectual growth which will be encouraged in the learning exercises of
our course. This on-line course potentially enables everyone to become part of
a community of learners, but, to re-emphasize, you
must be self-initiating and self-responsible in undertaking the study
requirements of the course.
In other words, you not let yourself fall into a habit of being
late in doing the assignments.
More specifically, the learning activities of the course are designed to develop your skills in thinking and analyzing current, political events and issues. You will need to regularly read newspapers and devote a lot of regular attention to television news as well as particular Internet sources towards becoming more aware and informed of American politics and government.
Some advice: You will soon realize that politics is extremely
complicated and confusing. Some of the confusion and difficulties in the course
occur because you are moving beyond just a general awareness of political
events in the news to their systematic study. It’s all right to be confused,
and the course provides ideas and terms to help you sort things out. So
jump right in the flow of information
and knowledge, paddle a lot in keeping your above water by conscientiously
doing the assignments, and ask questions by email of me and by posing questions
on the Discussion Board, as I am supposed to help you keep your head above
water and actually achieve academic success.
IV. A community of learners
Beyond your independent studying, we are also a community of
learners. Even though we won’t be together in the typical college classroom, it
is my expectation that we will be engaging each other via threaded discussions
on a web site Discussion Board and by e-mails about the topics of the course. I
encourage each of you to be honest and candid about the issues of the
course. I truly believe we have a lot to learn from each other. As a practical
consideration, your discussion participation and comments in shared learning
will be accorded a grade value for each required activity towards your overall
grade.
While we will be learning from each other, it is my expectation
that we each should always endeavor to be considerate and respectful of each
other’s views---even as we analyze, discuss, and advocate positions on the
issues confronting the
country and its citizens. I encourage candor in your communications, but you
should do so in a civil
manner. Very likely there will be some “stressing” in
this sort of course which involves differing views regarding politics; but
everyone is expected to abide by the norms of tolerance for open expression of
ideas. No one should be targeted for hurtful messages by someone due to
his or her views. Please be mindful that this is a college level of learning
and we must be responsible in our academic freedoms.
V. Grading Procedures and Standards
Recognition by me of your learning occurs in a variety of ways: e-mail
feedback from me, exams, and our interactive discussions via the Discussion
Board will be my feedback on the quality of your learning. Grades for specific
activities are useful and necessary. The following is the grading schema for
the various assigned activities indicated throughout the syllabus. Overall, there are four
areas for grades: Discussion board comments/analyses and three (3) exams.
Exams do not cover the whole semester's concepts; however, there will be a
connecting or integrating of ideas between sections of material.
Each of these areas will be given the standard "A" through "F" grade with corresponding numerical points of “100” to “0.” Each area is 25% of your course grade and the points will be added and averaged by 4. Thus, if you received four “100’s” for a total of 400 points which are then divided by 4, your average will be a 100 or an “A” for the course. I will be scoring your required, posted comments from 10 to 0 points. Then I will add them up for your accumulated points for that requirement and the total will be 1/4th of your final grade average.
More on Discussion Board activities
and grading.
I will be assessing and scoring each of your commentaries and
reports that appear on the Discussion Board. Discussion questions requiring
comments on the Discussion Board are indicated in an Instructor’s Notes
posting on the Discussion Board each week.
Discussion Board Criteria
1.
As
you respond to a particular question, your comments should connect with the assigned
reading material or ideas you have obtained from another significant source,
such as from the Internet which must be cited.
2.
Try
to be concise and stay on topic as to the question posed. If the question
logically leads to another area, make the connection clearly as you develop
your position.
3.
Try
not to ramble or sermonize a bit too much. I know we
each may feel strongly about various issues, but endeavor to develop your
position logically, and based on facts or data, that can be verified.
4. Be a critical thinker. Ask yourself if you’re being somewhat detached and
objective about the topic. Your moral or normative orientations are relevant, but you
need to decide how much they should shape your position on a particular
question or issue. The critical thinker is able to recognize one’s own
subjectivities as well as others’ biases. A normative orientation can help
crystallize discussion, but should not contaminate clear, valid reasoning.
5.
Overall,
I will be assessing your comments as to a. reflecting that you accurately read
the assigned material that is related to the question, b. your inclusion of
facts that make for sound generalizations, c. the logic of your position, and
d. independent
and original thoughts brought to the discussion question for all of us to
be challenged by as a community of learners. When questioning your discussion
scores, ask yourself if your posting really does include all the required
elements listed about in situations where you might want to appeal a grade
score from me.
6. As to grade points which will be allotted to each posted
commentary, the following are other considerations and criteria in my grading
your discussion analyses. You are to refer to these considerations when I
report to you that your comments are rated a 7 or a 9, etc. I will not be given
any further explanation as to each of your Discussion Board comments and it is
usually very informative and helpful to compare your analysis in terms of
quality to others which are posted. It is usually very obvious which comments
are really fully and deeply thought about and that some extra research or
reading might even have been undertaken. Everyone should work at improving the
quality of details and logic in each one’s weekly discussion contributions.
A discussion analysis that receives a 10 or 9, which is an “A”
does what I spelled out above. It references terms from the assigned readings,
and from news events---and especially the information I provide in my lectures
in the Lecture file that are related to the discussion topics. An “A” comments has details and logically and more fully develops
ideas. It also contributes new and independently thought-out ideas in response
to the topic or questions.
Analysis which is rated an 8 or “B” includes some terms, but may
also have errors in what is said and is not entirely accurate as to what is
described. Some of the generalizations may not be adequately developed and thus
is less informative and persuasive. A “C” rated discussion comment is rather general
and displays only sketchy information about the topic. Comments less than a 7
lack elements of these 3 types of answers and is thus very weak and typically
underdeveloped in constructing generalizations or statements regarding the
questions being discussed. Lower grades may also be because the required
discussion was posted very late or not at all.
And by the way, I always encourage valid and considerately made
corrections to anyone's comments made in the posted discussions. I certainly am
not infallible and if I state something that is erroneous, or anyone else for
that matter, then, please make your contribution in correcting any
misinformation
As to your concerns about your grades, I will, of course, discuss
any of your questions via e-mail and, if there are generalized concerns, I will
post any clarifications on the Discussion Board. While grades are an
understandable concern for each student, please be reassured that I am open to
constructive and confidential e-mail discussions as to a fair grade for your
various efforts; so try not to stress over them too, too much. While most of
our email will occur through the email file, more confidential matters can be
communicated via my other email address: Richard.Patrick
@ snet.net.
Paper Assignments
The course requires a short paper on your political orientation as a self profile that is an application of our study of political ideologies. Student papers are to be posted on the Discussion Board and I will announce in advance the specific due dates.
The
guidelines indicated above for Discussion Board comments concerning critical
thinking, logic, facts, etc. also apply to the paper assignments.
Extra credit---While I prefer students to focus more on putting
the time in to do well on the assigned activities and thus get maximum
points, some are interested in extra credit and there are activities which can
be undertaken. For example, you might view a relevant film such as “Nixon” or
you may regularly watch the national Sunday morning talk show
which review the week’s significant political events. From these or
other sources you may be able to connect course concepts and analyses which
further our shared understanding by posting a summary on the Discussion Board.
Also, refer to item 5.b as to another possibility from Chapter 15 in
investigating civil rights issues.
In undertaking extra credit exercises, approval is required from
the instructor who will offer questions to be explored concerning the bonus work.
Students will need to be in email communication with me on such exercises.
VI. On keeping informed
I want to strongly emphasize that this distance education course
really assumes and requires that you are regularly, if not daily, accessing
valid, useful Internet sources in making yourself informed about current
political events and issues. All the major newspaper and T.V. news sources
provide abundant information over the Internet and you should bookmark some of
the web sites. For example, http://www.washingtonpost.com/
has links to “Politics,” “Congress,” etc. which contains tons of news reports
and analyses. Similarly http://www.pbs.org/
has a link to the “OnLine News Hour” of the Jim
Lehrer news program and you can download useful information from that
television news source which is on Public T.V.,
usually channels 16 and 24.
Our open society provides for an abundance of other news sources
such as magazines and journal such at http://www.thenation.com/ which is a source of “progressive” political
reports and analyses. The conservative magazine, The National Review, is a
contrasting source for your thinking. In short, as a self-initiating,
independent learner, you are required to seek out information, cite the
sources, and make timely information part of your posted discussion comments.
Since we are not together in a real-time classroom, you cannot pickup info from
classroom discussion and thus must do a lot on your own and at your own pace.
You will discover that there are a lot of lively, controversial sources such a http://www.moveon.org/ and others, but
refrain from relying too much on extremely partisan, ideological sources.
VII. Other Standards
The following provisions are required by the college for your
notification.
Academic Standards. "At
VIII. College Internet Access
You may look for journal articles in electronic databases from the college or from home. To use computers at the college, you must set up a computer account. You will need your student ID number, also known as your Banner number. Ask a staff person the library or the computer lab about how to do this. When using a computer from outside the college, you will gain access to the databases through a Proxy Server. All the information you need on how to do that can be found at this site: http://www.mxcc.commnet.edu/distance/Library/ocaccess/ocaccess.html
You will find many excellent and useful databases listed there. Two databases which may be most useful are MasterFile Premier and Advanced Academic ASAP. Each database includes online help.
Persons at the library are available for assistance on questions
in using the databases and can be reached there or at 343-5830. Also the
distance learning director can be of assistance at (860) 343-5822. The director
is helpful regarding computer and software questions towards getting you
operational into the course.
.
IX. Other Standing Operating Procedures
1. Each week you must regularly check the “Announcements,”
"Assignment," “Discussion Board,” and "Lecture" links
of the course's web site for your assigned study activities, related readings,
and due dates. This is a must; so regularly check the
"Announcements" as it will contain updates and reminders
regarding our weekly activities.
2. You will notice that in my Instructor’s Notes comments and
lectures in the Lecture file, I intersperse references and citations of
material from the course text, cited as Dye and Zeigler. The text is very
informative and I emphasize additional topics and questions which sometimes
necessitates referencing material from various other sections of the
book.
3. You should also notice that I may intersperse Discussion Board
questions throughout my
lecture notes on the assigned reading and specific assignment
topics. Be aware that some of the ideas of discussion comments will later
reappear in some variation in the exam questions. Taking notes from other
student comments of our shared discussion exercises can be useful
information for more fully
formed answers in the exams.
4. On-line
study is an active work–in-progress. There will be occasional
modifications due to emerging newsworthy items and issues that are relevant to
our study. Rest assured that notice of modifications will be given in advance
and will not deviate significantly from the general learning activities
5. Also, I want to alert you in advance that sometimes a
particular article may be difficult to read due to formatting or other screen
presentations features of your
computer. You may have to enlarge the print on some articles for better
readability and attempt other adjustments to the transmitted material. I
suggest that you call the DL director for assistance in these technical
difficulties. But hang in there and you'll improve in dealing with these
factors.
X. Instructor Communication and Contact
Most weekly course communication should be through the vista email
link. But exams will be through my e-mail address which is
Richard.Patrick@snet.net. I will endeavor to respond to your general
messages within 24 hours. Graded assessment on assignments, and particularly
exams, will likely take longer.
COURSE TOPICS AND TEXT
READING ASSIGMENTS
1. A. Focussing on politics
B.
Political orientation self sketch
Learning
objective: a. develop a working
definition of politics
b. apply to current issues such as affirmative action in education and employment
2. Political ideologies and ideologues
Chapter 7, pp.181-190, especially
Learning
objective: a. identify main beliefs of two contrasting
political ideologies and
b. apply
ideology to family socialization
3.
A.Principles and requirements of democracy
B. Democratic and authoritarian personalities
Learning
objective: a. identify core principles of democratic
societies
b. examine a current issue in which a democratic principle is at issue
c.
explain how group pluralism fosters and
impedes democratic outcomes
4. Beliefs and politics in constitution-making
Learning
objective a. identify the key beliefs of the Founding
Fathers
b. explain the beliefs’ limitations in terms of democracy’s ideals
c. describe early constitutional effects on women, slaves, the lower class
5. Democracy’s irony: elitism and
semi-democratic masses
Reading: Chapters 1 & 5, esp.128-142
5.b.
Optional credit assignment: Chapter 15-Civil Rights
Learning
objective: a. differentiate the politics
of elites from the
masses
b. explain why the masses can foster democratic outcomes
6. The Functions of elections and voting
Learning
objective: a. describe
the campaign politics of the 2004
presidential
election
b. identify the critical role of minority groups in
elections
Exam # 1
7. Congress’s structures and procedures
Learning
objective: a. identify the major political forces in
lawmaking
b. explain the
positive functions of legislative
politics
8.
Legislative determinants: the officialdom, iron triangles, etc.
Learning
objective: Describe the caucuses in the
identity politics of Congress.
Research exercise utilizing internet search engines;
read guidelines entitled “Researching the Patriot Act” in the Lecture file.
9. The president as co-legislator
Exam
#2
10. The politics of presidential leadership
Learning
objective: a. describe the politics of presidential leadership
in lawmaking
b. specify
requirements of presidential leadership in democratic foreign policy
making/implementation
11. Presidential role: figurehead and ideologue
Learning
objective: Compare and contrast
presidents’ leadership
in democratic
symbolism and its deviation
12. Presidents in warmaking
and diplomacy: President Reagan’s
Central American war
Learning
objective: Compare and contrast the military
interventionism
of Presidents Reagan and
Bush, Jr.
Final
Exam