PS 5316: Elections and Elections Administration Web-Based Course or Tuesdays at 6pm in Lawrence Hall 201

Transcription

1 Web-Based Course or Tuesdays at 6pm in Lawrence Hall 201 Professor: Dr. Amy Moreland Office: Lawrence Hall 202 Office Phone: (432) Office Hours: MTWR 2-3pm, and by appointment Website: Our course Blackboard page includes important information for this course, including the course readings, discussion board, assignments, notes, grades, and announcements. Course Purpose: A national political campaign is better than the best circus ever heard of, with a mass baptism and a couple of hangings thrown in Democracy is the art of running the circus from the monkey cage. - - Henry Louis Mencken are arguably the most important part of democracy. Compelling campaigns can often grab the attention of the media, organized interest groups, and average citizens who rarely pay attention to politics. Moreover, elections are a key tool that citizens have to voice their opinions and hold representatives accountable. However, American campaigns and elections differ in many important and interesting ways from campaigns and elections from around the world. Therefore, this course will attempt to answer the following questions: How do the strategies of campaign professionals affect election outcomes? How do long-term factors, like the economy, affect election outcomes? How do voters make their choices? How are voters choices affected by campaigns? What influence do electoral rules have on campaigns, political parties, and voter participation? Who is responsible for administering elections to ensure fairness and equality in election outcomes? What can the study of elections around the world tell us about electoral reform in the U.S.? Course Learning Outcomes and Assessments: Upon completion of this course, students should be able to: 1. Analyze administrative processes in the implementation of local government policy. *How will we meet this goal? Readings and Activities for s 5-9 *How will we assess whether this goal is achieved? Strategy Paper 2, Election Profile, Final Exam 2. Identify significant theories of public administration of local governments. *How will we meet this goal? Readings and Activities for s 1-4, 9-13 *How will we assess whether this goal is achieved? Strategy Papers 1 and 3, Election Profile, Final Exam 3. Apply methods of qualitative and quantitative research to questions about modern issues in policy. *How will we meet this goal? Readings and Activities for s 1-14 *How will we assess whether this goal is achieved? Strategy Papers, Election Profile, Final Exam Required Readings: There is one required book for this course. The book can be purchased online, for less than $20, or through the Sul Ross Bookstore. It is perfectly acceptable to purchase used copies, but make sure you buy the correct edition. If you are unable to acquire the books, you may arrange in advance to borrow my copy. Craig, Stephen C. and David B. Hill The Electoral Challenge: Theory Meets Practice, Second Edition. Washington, DC: CQ Press. ISBN Additional readings are posted on our course Blackboard page. The schedule of readings begins on page 5. 1 P age

2 Course Requirements: Course grades will be based on completion of the following assignments: Discussion Board Participation: 30 points Class Discussion Leader: 10 points Strategy Papers: 30 points total (3 papers, worth 10 points each) Election Profile: 10 points Final Exam: 20 points Grades from these assignments will be totaled and assigned according to the following scale: A= points B=80-89 points C=70-79 points D=60-69 points F=0-59 points *Discussion Board Participation: To encourage class participation, you will complete the following assignments, which should be posted to the class discussion board on Blackboard by 5pm on Tuesday of each week. Answer a question about the readings on the Discussion Board. For each week, I will post a question about the week s readings. You should post a word answer to the question. Post 3 discussion questions related to the assigned readings for each unit of the class. At the end of your answer to the week s question (see above), you should post 3 of your own questions about the readings. o There are 13 weeks for which readings are assigned. You should post for 10 out of 13 weeks. (You have 3 bye weeks, to be used whenever you choose.) Respond to at least 20 postings from other students. Your responses should be thoughtful, courteous, and 1-2 paragraphs. Your responses can be posted at any time in the semester, by the day of the final exam. You will receive one point for every post or response. Your participation will count for 30% of your grade. *Class Discussion Leader: In addition to posting questions online, you will be required to contribute to class discussion by leading discussion in a class meeting. This assignment is designed to help you gain experience with leading class as well as to encourage thought and discussion about the readings before our meetings. During the first week of class, you will sign up to lead a class. During your week as discussion leader, you will be required to: Construct a summary of the week s assigned readings. o Your summary should not simply be an essay about the readings. Instead, you should use outline format, graphs, or PowerPoint to synthesize the readings. Examples are posted on Blackboard. o Summaries must be posted on the Blackboard Discussion Board no later than 5pm on the Friday prior the week for which the readings are assigned. Respond to each of the student postings that are posted on Blackboard for your week. o You must respond to each student within one week of his or her posting. o These responses do not count toward the 20 responses you are required to post as part of your discussion board participation grade (see above). Your turn as discussion leader will count 10% of your final course grade. 2 P age

3 *Strategy Papers: You will also be required to three strategy papers over the course of the semester. These essays should be 4-5 pages typed (double spaced, standard formatting). Your strategy papers will count for 10 points each, or 30% of your final course grade. Additional details about the strategy papers can be found on our course Blackboard page. and Election Reform Proposal: Imagine you are working for a legislator who is interested in election reform. Propose a single reform to the electoral system (for example, to the Electoral College, campaign finance, voter registration, or any other aspect of American campaigns and elections), drawing on the theories discussed in class. Due Date: Thursday, September 27 at 5pm. Strategy Memo: Imagine you are working as a campaign strategist. Write a memo to one of the current presidential candidates. Provide them with a basic strategy for their campaign, drawing on information about political issues, public opinion, and theories discussed in class. Due Date: Thursday, October 25 at 5pm. Comparing Electoral Systems Presentation: Imagine you are working for an interest group who is interested in election administration. Create a presentation for a group of legislators and lobbyists about the electoral rules of a foreign country. Provide your audience with information about the country s electoral system, comparing it to the American system, and discuss the merits and demerits of each system. Due Date: Tuesday, November 20 at 5pm *Election Profile: Because this is an election year, you will be required to follow a current campaign throughout the semester. At the beginning of the semester, you will choose an election race to follow. Then, you will complete the following assignments: Choose a current 2012 Congressional race to follow. You can choose any race, with two exceptions. First, the campaign you follow must be a Congressional race (for the U.S. House or U.S. Senate). Second, the race you follow must not be from a district or state in which you currently reside. (In other words, you can t choose a campaign for which you will have the opportunity to cast a vote.) Each week leading up to the election, write a 1-page summary of current events related to that campaign, in response to a list of questions provided in the Blackboard discussion board. Your weekly summaries should report on any important events related to the campaign and provide links to media coverage about the campaign. Your weekly summaries should also attempt to relate these current events to readings and discussion from the course. o These weekly posts must be submitted by 5pm on Friday of each week. Read other students postings and follow along with their campaigns. At the end of the semester, compile the information about the race you followed into a 5-page profile of the election, paying particular attention to how the race connected to theories from course readings and discussion. Election profiles must be submitted to the Blackboard Discussion Board by Friday, November 30 th. *Final Exam: The final exam will be an open-book/open-note essay exam conducted during the final week of class. The exam will cover material from the entire semester and will consist of two questions. Your answers to these questions should be pages total. The final exam will open on Blackboard on Tuesday, December 4th at 8am. Exams must be submitted on Blackboard by 6pm on Tuesday, December 11 th. The final exam will count as 20% of your final course grade. 3 P age

4 Course Policies: *Students with Special Needs: Any student who may require special arrangements in order to meet course requirements should contact the instructor as soon as possible to make any necessary accommodations. It is SRSU policy to provide reasonable accommodation to students with disabilities. If you would like to request such an accommodation, please contact Grace Duffy (Ferguson Hall 112), the coordinator for the Center for Counseling and Accessibility Services at (432) *Religious Observance: Any student who is absent from classes for the observance of a religious holy day will be allowed to take an examination or complete an assignment scheduled for that day. Arrangements for missing class due to religious observance must be made with the instructor prior to the absence. *Academic Integrity: Any instance of academic misconduct such as turning in an identical written assignment for another course without approval, cheating and plagiarizing written assignments, collusion, or misrepresenting facts will be punished to the full extent of the university's disciplinary policy. You are responsible for reading the statement on Academic honesty in the Sul Ross State University Rules and Regulations Supplement to the Student Handbook. The faculty considers academic dishonesty to be a serious matter and will act accordingly. Students caught cheating will receive no credit for assignment/test and more severe penalties may be pursued. List of Readings: ACE Project Encyclopedia: Electoral Systems Index. ACE Project: The Electoral Knowledge Network. (July 24, 2012). Alvarez, R. Michael and Thad E. Hall Building Secure and Transparency through Standard Operating Procedures. Public Administration Review 68 (5): Anstead, Nick and Andrew Chadwick Parties, Election ing, and the Internet: Toward a Comparative Institutional Approach. In The Routledge Handbook of Internet Politics, eds. Andrew Chadwick and Philip N. Howard. New York: Routledge, Bartels, Larry M Partisanship and Voting Behavior, American Journal of Political Science 44: Baek, Mijeong A Comparative Analysis of Political Communication Systems and Voter Turnout. American Journal of Political Science 53 (2): Carey, John M. and Matthew Soberg Shugart Incentives to Cultivate a Personal Vote: A Rank Ordering of Electoral Formulas. Electoral Studies 14 (4): Craig, Stephen C. and David B. Hill The Electoral Challenge: Theory Meets Practice, 2nd Edition. Washington, DC: CQ Press. Doyle, Scott Practitioner Commentary: Vote Centers, Voting Equipment, and Uncertainty in Election Administration. Public Administration Review 68 (5): Geer, John G The News Media and the Rise of Negativity in Presidential s. PS: Political Science (July): Gerber, Alan S. and Donald Green The Effects of Canvassing, Telephone Calls, and Direct Mail on Voter Turnout: A Field Experiment. American Political Science Review 94: Hawkins, Ernest Practitioner Commentary: Observations on the Changing Job of the Local Election Official. Public Administration Review 68 (5): 850. Huang, Taofang and Daron Shaw Beyond the Battlegrounds? Electoral College Strategies in the 2008 Presidential Election. Journal of Political Marketing 8: Lawless, Jennifer L. and Richard L. Fox Why are Women Still Not Running For Public Office? Governance Studies 16: Mayhew, David Congress: The Electoral Connection. Second edition. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. McKinney, Mitchell S. and Leslie A. Rill Not Your Parents Presidential Debates: Examining the Effects of the CNN/YouTube Debates on Young Citizens Civic Engagement. Communication Studies 60 (4): Montjoy, Robert S. 2008b. The Public Administration of. Public Administration Review 68 (5): Moynihan, Donald P. and Carol L. Silva The Administrators of Democracy: A Research note on Local Election Officials. Public Administration Review 68 (5): Panagopoulos, Costas and Peter L. Francia Grassroots Mobilization in the 2008 Presidential Election. Journal of Political Marketing 8: Shaw, Daron R The Methods Behind the Madness: Presidential Electoral College Strategies, Journal of Politics 61 (4): Shea, Daniel M. and Alex Sproveri The Rise and Fall of Nasty Politics in America. PS: Political Science (July): Sides, John, Daron Shaw, Matt Grossmann, and Keena Lipsitz s and : Rules, Reality, Strategy, Choice. New York: W.W. Norton. Stone, Geoffrey R Explaining Citizens United. The Huffington Post, January May 26, 2012). 4 P age

5 Course Schedule: Topic Date Readings Assignments The American Electoral Tuesday, 9/4 Sides: Chapter 2 1 Process Final Exam Presidential Congressional Strategy Swing Voters & Voter Choices Internet & Grassroots Mobilization Finance Advertising & Communication Election Administration Election Administration Comparative Comparative Tuesday, 9/11 Tuesday, 9/18 Tuesday, 9/25 Tuesday, 10/2 Tuesday, 10/9 Tuesday, 10/16 Tuesday, 10/23 Tuesday, 10/30 Tuesday, 11/6 Tuesday, 11/13 Tuesday, 11/20 Sides: Chapter 8 Shaw 1999 Huang and Shaw 2009 Sides: Chapter 9 Mayhew: Chapter 1 Craig and Hill: Chapters 1-2 Shea and Sproveri 2012 Craig and Hill: Chapters 3-4 Bartels 2000 Craig and Hill: Chapters 8 &10 Gerber and Green 2000 Panagopoulos and Francia 2009 Craig and Hill: Chapter 5 Stone 2010 Craig and Hill: Chapter 6 Geer 2012 HAVA Fact Sheet Montjoy 2008a Montjoy 2008b Doyle 2008 Moynihan and Silva 2008 Hawkins 2008 ACE Project Index Electoral Systems Guide Carey and Shugart 1995 Anstead and Chadwick 2009 Baek 2009 *Post to Discussion Board by Tuesday, 9/4 *Election Profile Summary 1 by Friday, 9/7 *Post to Discussion Board by Tuesday, 9/11 *Election Profile Summary 2 by Friday, 9/14 *Post to Discussion Board by Tuesday, 9/18 *Election Profile Summary 3 by Friday, 9/21 *Post to Discussion Board by Tuesday, 9/25 *Strategy Paper 1 Due Thursday, 9/27 *Election Profile Summary 4 by Friday, 9/28 *Post to Discussion Board by Tuesday, 10/2 *Election Profile Summary 5 by Friday, 10/5 *Post to Discussion Board by Tuesday, 10/9 *Election Profile Summary 6 by Friday, 10/12 *Post to Discussion Board by Tuesday, 10/16 *Election Profile Summary 7 by Friday, 10/19 *Post to Discussion Board by Tuesday, 10/23 *Strategy Paper 2 Due Thursday, 10/25 *Election Profile Summary 8 by Friday, 10/26 *Post to Discussion Board by Tuesday, 10/30 *Election Profile Summary 9 by Friday, 11/2 *Post to Discussion Board by Tuesday, 11/6 *Election Profile Summary 10 by Friday, 11/9 *Post to Discussion Board by Tuesday, 11/13 *Post to Discussion Board by Tuesday, 11/20 *Strategy Paper 3 Due Tuesday, 11/20 Election Profile Tuesday, 11/27 None *Election Profile Due 11/30 s and in the 21 st Century Tuesday, 12/4 Lawless & Fox 2008 McKinney and Rill 2009 Final Exam due by 6pm on Tuesday, December 11 th *Post to Discussion Board by Tuesday, 12/4 5 P age