Department of Political Science Public Opinion PSC 319/519 Dr. Joel Lieske Spring 2019 Office: RT 1751 Class Meetings: MC 327 M-W-F 10:15-11:05 AM Phone: (216) 687-4547 Office Hours: M-W 11:30 AM-12:30 PM and by Appt. Email: j.lieske@csuohio.edu This course is designed as a broad introduction to American public opinion and politics. Major topics include: democratic theory, opinion polls, the nature and distribution of public opinion, political belief systems, political culture, the learning of political attitudes, group opinions, the print and broadcast media, elections and voting behavior, elite opinions, and the making of public policy. In addition, we will examine how social, economic, and cultural changes are transforming political and social attitudes in the United States, and assess their implications for democratic self-government, the party system, and the quality of American democracy. In particular, we will focus on what is behind two opposite but complementary trends in American politics. The first is making American voters more cognitively mobilized and politically dealigned. The second is making them more polarized and sorted along ideological and partisan lines. The major objectives of this course are to provide: (1) a broad knowledge of American public opinion and how it impacts our political processes, governmental institutions, and public policies; (2) a rigorous understanding of the assumptions and evidence that undergird different theoretical interpretations of public opinion and voting behavior; (3) a critical appreciation of the research methodologies employed by pollsters; and (4) the opportunity to conduct independent research. Course Responsibilities The required readings have been organized by class meeting on the Spring calendar schedule. The readings for each topic should be completed prior to their discussion in class. Daily class attendance is expected, and class participation is encouraged. Written assignments will consist of three midterm examinations, a research proposal, and a research paper. There is no final examination. Guidelines for the research proposal and report can be found at the end of the syllabus. A final requirement is to submit a PowerPoint slide show to the instructor and then use it to present an oral report to the class that summarizes the results of the research paper. Grades The three midterm examinations will each count 20 percent of the final grade. The research proposal will count five percent. The research paper will count 20 percent. The PowerPoint 1
presentation will be worth another five percent. Class attendance and participation will count a final ten percent. Exceptional and sustained class participation can raise your final grade by as much as one letter. All of your grades will be posted on Blackboard Learn. To access them, use your CSU ID and password. If you have any problems navigating Blackboard, please contact the elearning Center (X3960). Your final grade will be determined by where you fall on the following grade distribution: A 94+ A- 90-93 B+ 85-89 B 80-84 B- 75-79 C+ 70-74 C 65-69 C- 60-64 D 50-59 F <50 University grading policies require instructors to attach minuses and pluses in the A to C range. After that, only whole letter grades are recorded. Plagiarism Plagiarism can be defined as the improper citation of reference materials. You can use an author's words verbatim as long as you put them in quotation marks and attribute the source of your information. If you paraphrase an author's ideas, you only need to cite the source. But if you lift entire passages or sentences from a source without giving due credit, you may be guilty of plagiarism. To help you guard against this common pitfall, I have established a class account with www.turnitin.com. You will need to register and establish your own personal account. The class ID is "19941761". The enrollment key is "Diogenes". In addition to the hard copy of your term paper that I receive, you are required to submit an electronic copy to this web site. Since you have been granted access to the originality reports, you can see the percentage of all words that have been drawn from other sources as well as a breakdown of the percentage that is drawn from each source. This information should help you to insure the integrity of your written work. It should also act as an incentive to keep the amount of quoted remarks to a bare minimum. You should keep running these checks until you turn in your completed type-written paper. Fulfilling the University s WAC Requirements The CSU Undergraduate Catalog states: Students must demonstrate satisfactory performance (C or better) in the writing required to receive a C in the course and satisfactorily complete that 2
portion of the WAC requirement. This means that you must attain a C average in the writing assignments to receive a C in the course and WAC credit. During the semester, you will be graded on five writing assignments three midterm examinations, a research proposal, and a term paper. Your grade for each assignment will be based not only on the substance and content of your work but also on the quality of your analysis and writing. With the exception of the final midterm examination, I will try to provide written comments and feedback on each assignment, generally no more than one week after the due date. Required Texts There are two required texts: Robert Erikson and Kent Tedin, American Public Opinion, 9 th ed. New York: Taylor and Francis, 2015 (E&T) Alan Abramowitz, The Polarized Public? New York: Pearson, 2013 (Abramowitz) They may be purchased at the University Bookstore. Other reading assignments will be placed on Blackboard Lean and library course reserve. The reserve password is 6815. COURSE OUTLINE Date Topic Assigned Readings January 14 Introductions and Overview of the Course January 16 &18 Public Opinion in Democratic Societies E&T, Ch. 1. January 21 Martin Luther King Day: No Class January 23 & 25 & Polling: The Scientific Assessment of E&T, Ch. 2. 28 & 30 Public Opinion and the Pitfalls Of Analyzing Poll Data Ronald Busch and Joel Lieske, Does Time of Voting Affect Exit Poll Results? Public Opinion Quarterly 49 (Spring 1985): 94-104. (Blackboard Learn under Content) Joel Lieske, Inadvertent Empirical Theory: A Critique of the J-Curve Theory and the Black Urban Riots, Political Methodology Vol. 6, No. 1 (February, 1979), 29-62. (Blackboard Learn under Content) February 1 & 4 Microlevel Opinion: The Psychology of E&T, Ch. 3. 3
Opinion Holding February 6 & 8 Macrolevel Opinion: The Flow of E&T, Ch. 4. Political Sentiment February 11 & 13 Political Socialization and Political E&T, Ch. 5. Learning February 15 & 20 Public Opinion and Democratic Stability E&T, Ch. 6. February 18 February 22 President s Day: No Class First Examination February 25 & 27 Group Differences in Political Opinions E&T, Ch. 7. Research Proposal Due March 1 & 4 The News Media and Political Opinions E&T, Ch. 8. March 6 & 8 Elections as Instruments of Popular E&T, Ch. 9. Control March 10-17 Spring Break March 18 & 20 The Public and Its Elected Leaders E&T, Ch. 10. March 22 & 25 Public Opinion and the Performance of E&T, Ch. 11. Democracy March 27 Second Examination March 29 The Polarized Public Abramowitz, Preface & Ch. 1. April 1 The Racial Divide Abramowitz, Ch. 2. April 3 The Ideological Divide Abramowitz, Ch. 3. April 5 Work on your term paper: No Class April 8 The Cultural Divide Abramowitz, Ch. 4. April 10 The Geographic Divide Abramowitz, Ch. 5. 4
April 12 The Polarized Public and the Rise of Abramowitz, Ch. 6 the Tea Party Movement. April 15 Polarization Continues: The 2012 Abramowitz, Ch. 7. Elections and Beyond April 17 April 19 April 22 Third Examination Term Paper Due April 24 April 26 April 29 May 1 May 3 * * * GUIDELINES FOR RESEARCH PROPOSAL Your proposal should include a statement of the problem, i.e. the problem or issue conflict that you want to study, as well as a thesis or research hypothesis, an outline, a preliminary conclusion, and at least 10-12 references. It should be about 2-3 pages long. The outline should lay out and develop your thesis, supporting arguments, and supporting evidence. The arguments and supporting evidence should follow one another in the order that you want them to appear in your research paper. See, for example, my 1991 article in PS: Political Science and Politics titled Cultural Issues and Images in the 1988 Presidential Election: Why the Democrats Lost Again! The outline should be written in complete sentences. This will allow me to comment on the strength and logic of your arguments and evidence. It will also help you to organize your material and construct well-developed arguments that do not fall apart at the end. This outline will constitute the preliminary stage to writing the text of your term paper. The preliminary conclusion should bring the paper to closure by stating what you expect to find. In the proposal, this can be done in one or two sentences. In the finished term paper, your 5
conclusion should review what you set out to study, the thesis and/or theoretical hypotheses you examined, and the conclusions that can reasonably be drawn from the evidence and/or results. GUIDELINES FOR RESEARCH PAPER Your paper should be no longer than 8-10 double-spaced, typewritten pages including references and footnotes. It should follow the conventions and protocols outlined in the Style Manual for Political Science (http://www.ipsonet.org/data/files/apsastylemanual2006.pdf). Content Your paper should focus on some aspect of American public opinion or voting behavior and how it relates to an issue conflict in American politics. Your report may be a critical analysis of some dispute in the public opinion literature, a secondary analysis of an archived data set (e.g. American National Election Studies, General Social Surveys, or World Values Surveys) that tests some hypothesis or theory about American public opinion or voting behavior, or even a combination of the two. Most students choose to do a critical analysis because it is less risky and can be brought to closure sooner. For those of you who have taken PSC 251 (Introduction to Data Analysis) or its equivalent in another department and want to develop your research skills, I would encourage you to write a report that tests some theory or hypothesis about American public opinion or voting behavior. But analyzing and interpreting the exit poll data for a recent presidential election would also give you a chance to develop and apply your statistical skills. Organization The report should be organized according to the following format. 1. A title page bearing the title and your name. 2. An executive summary or abstract, no longer than one page, which summarizes your paper. 3. The text or main body of the report. 4. Footnotes (digressionary information that was removed from the main body of the report). 5. References (by last name of author, in alphabetical order). Make sure these are complete and follow the Style Manual for Political Science. 6. Tables and figures only if needed, most often for a secondary analysis of some data set. Suggestion 6
Get started on this project at once, and finish it as soon as possible. Do not procrastinate. Begin now and remember to spend as much time writing your report as you do researching it. Good luck. 7