POLI 100: Introduction to Government in the United States
Course StructureThe course is divided into three parts:
In Part I, we will begin with a theoretical and philosophical discussion about the purpose of government in general and the American government in particular. We will examine the historical roots of our governmental design, paying close attention to the founders' competing aims of creating a central authority that could tame the chaos of life in the thirteen original states while preserving the freedoms that citizens had come to enjoy. We will consider the constitutional design of the government, as well as ongoing attempts to secure and preserve civil liberties and civil rights for all Americans. In Part II, we will examine the role of the citizen in our representative democracy from both individual and societal perspectives. We will explore how individuals form opinions, and how pollsters and social scientists succeed and fail at measuring public opinion. We also will consider how Americans "become" citizens through a process known as political socialization. Finally, we will explore the interaction between citizens and the news media, political parties, and interest groups. In Part III, we will examine the institutions that make up American government. Courses of this nature typically examine each of the three branches of government in isolation. I will ask you to consider them in relationship to each other. A helpful, although not completely realistic, thought experiment is to consider the three branches competing for a fixed amount of power. When one branch succeeds in gaining power, the gain may come at the expense of one or both of the remaining branches. We will explore how the balance of power has tilted from one branch to another, and then back again, during our country's history. Required TextsRequired texts for this course come in two main categories: print and electronic materials. Printed materials are available from Friday Center Books & Gifts at the Friday Center either by ordering online or by printing and mailing the book order form. Printed Course MaterialsCanon, David T., John J. Coleman, and Kenneth R. Mayer, eds. The Enduring Debate: Classic and Contemporary Readings in American Politics, 4th edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2006. Ginsberg, Benjamin, Theodore J. Lowi, and Margaret Weir. We the People: An Introduction to American Politics, 5th edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2005. Waldman, Steven. The Bill: How Legislation Really Becomes Law, A Case Study of the National Service Bill. New York: Penguin Books, 1995. Electronic Course MaterialsAxelrod, Robert. The Evolution of Cooperation. (Electronic Reserve) Crile, George. "The Best Congressman." (Electronic Reserve) Graber, Doris. "Why Voters Fail Information Tests: Can the Hurdles be Overcome?" (Electronic Reserve) Putnam, Robert. Bowling Alone. (Electronic Reserve) Course Evaluation and GradingThe grade in this course will be determined by your performance on exams, the papers, and participation. Exams will make up 60 percent of your grade, the two papers 20 percent (10 percent each), and participation 20 percent. Grading is on the +/- system, and is as follows:
Although this is a straightforward formula, marginal course grades may be adjusted in rare cases when, in the instructor's evaluation, performance has steadily improved during the semester, or when participation shows development of particular interests. Normally, such changes will be increases of one third of a letter grade (e.g. from B to B+). Grades will never be revised downwards. The intent is to reward improved performance by reasonably discounting bad evaluations early on in the course. Details on the exams, paper, and participation are listed below: Exams (60%)This course will have three exams, two midterms at 20 percent each, and a final worth 20 percent of the final grade. All exams are take-home, open book, and open notes--the only limitations are that you cannot collaborate with your classmates in answering the questions, and that materials taken from reference materials (books, articles, encyclopedias) and the Internet must be properly acknowledged in a "works cited" or "references" section. Materials assigned as a part of this course should be cited when quoted directly, but need not be included in the "works cited" section. Exams will be available through a link in Blackboard on the dates noted on the schedule. Exams will be posted at 12 pm (EDT) and you have until the following day at 8 pm (EDT) to complete and return the exam to me via e-mail. I will acknowledge via e-mail by midnight that I have received your exam. I will penalize a late exam by three points for the first hour late, and by one more point each additional hour that the exam is late. Ex: 24 hours late = 26 points subtracted from grade. The nature of the online learning experience makes emphasis on rote knowledge in exams unenforceable. Therefore, I will never ask you to give me the definition of federalism, for example, as the full answer to a question. I may, however, ask you how federalism has changed over the years and the consequences of the identified trend. The first type of question is useful for an hour-long, traditional exam in a classroom where you basically do a "disk-dump" to show me that you know the material. The second type of question asks you to synthesize and develop the material you have learned, which naturally takes a longer time to complete successfully. For some, the first type of question is harder; for others the second. The second type of question certainly requires more thought on your part, with the happy result that you will likely retain the information for a longer period after the exam-- which is my purpose in this course. Papers (20%)Two papers will be assigned during the course. These papers will be 1,000-1,250 word essays (4-5 pages) on a topic distributed a week in advance of the due date on Blackboard. I expect papers to be clearly organized and argued. All papers should have an introduction that includes a thesis statement for the paper, followed by clear, methodical development of the thesis, ending with a conclusion summarizing the main argument of the paper. These papers are not creative writing exercises, but as most technical writing, a method to convey to me knowledge and insights that you have gained from the readings. If you have never been in a technical writing situation before, let me know, and I will provide you with materials that will make the new task easier. The Writing Center also offers helpful resources on its Web site about writing in political science. Participation (20%)The participation grade is divided into two sections: exercises and the discussion forum. Exercises (including short writing assignments and online quizzes) will comprise 5 percent of the final grade; the discussion forum will make up 15 percent of the final grade. ExercisesFor some weeks, you will have reading questions to answer based on the material for that week. These exercises are indicated in the lessons. E-mail your responses to me by the due dates indicated in the lessons, usually Sunday at 8 pm. For most weeks, you need to answer and e-mail to me the multiple-choice reading questions for each chapter in your We the People text by Sunday at 8 pm. These questions are available online at the textbook Web page. Once you get to the Web site, choose the relevant chapter under "Chapter Selection" on the menu at the left. Then select "Diagnostic Quiz" from the menu at the top of the page. Once you complete the quizzes, e-mail them to me. Please complete the full version of each quiz (select the highest number of questions available for each quiz). Although these are not recorded as a part of your course grade, if you receive below 70 percent, you should consider re-reading the chapter. Discussion ForumAn important part of the class will be the discussion of the materials we are reading and learning about, and I expect you to participate in our class discussion forum in Blackboard each week. One of the chief complaints about distance learning is that it fails to capture the intellectual give-and-take of the classroom. Our discussion forum is designed to address that shortcoming. We will use the forum each week to tackle some of the most provocative questions now facing our government and our society. Our jumping off point in most cases will be that week's assigned readings from The Enduring Debate: Classic and Contemporary Readings in American Politics. One of the nice features of this reader is that each chapter has at least two readings framed as a point-counterpoint debate. We will try to take the debate beyond the points that the authors raise. I will post each week's discussion questions on the discussion board one week prior to the date that they are due. (Each Sunday I will post questions to which students should respond by the following week). After you have read the assigned readings for the week, you should make at least three contributions to the discussion forum, following the guidelines below: The first contribution should address one of the questions that I will pose in the discussion forum section of that lesson. These responses are due are on the last day of the lesson, as noted in each week's lesson plan. The title of this contribution should be "Contribution 1: Question X" where X is the number of the question that you are addressing. In the week following your first contribution, you will move on to read new material and study the next week's lesson. However, you also should continue to monitor the discussion board, and sometime during the week, you should make a second contribution. This second posting should be a critical response to one of the other student's first postings from the week before (those labeled "Contribution 1") that considers the merits and problems of the student's posting. Simply saying that "I agree with Joe because his argument makes a lot of sense to me" is not sufficient. This contribution should be posted as a follow-up under the message to which you are responding. When you begin typing the body of this message, start with: "Contribution 2." The third contribution should be a follow-up on any comment or question raised in the forum. This could be your chance to respond to another student's critique of your first contribution, or it could be in defense of another student's position, or it could respond to any other type of comment in the discussion. When you begin typing the body of this third posting, type: "Contribution 3." The second and third contributions should be posted no later than one week after the first contribution (but I encourage you to get them in earlier). Note: You should expect to spend about thirty minutes to an hour thinking about your response and typing out your discussion forum posting. If you are finding that it takes only five minutes, you probably need to think more deeply about the subject, but if you are working on it for more than an hour, it might be "overkill." I will make an effort to notify students who are consistently over- or under-posting. You will receive a discussion forum grade on a ten-point scale for each lesson. To receive a grade higher than a seven for the week, you must post all three contributions on time. Above that, each posting that I consider excellent will add one point to your score for the week. Two fair responses and one excellent response will yield a grade of eight, one fair response and two excellent responses will yield a nine, three excellent responses will yield a ten. You may use notes and books to support your forum postings, but be mindful of UNC's rules on plagiarism (you must cite sources of ideas that are not your own, even if they are another student's ideas from the forums; you may use any clear and consistent format). Using the discussion forum to communicate with each other: The discussion forum also serves as one of the main ways in which you can communicate with your classmates and with me. If you have questions about the readings that you would like to pose to your classmates or to me--such as one seeking clarification on the meaning of a specific passage--feel free to post the question to the forum. As long as it does not carry the titles described above that are intended for the graded contributions, it will not be graded. Note: I reserve the right to delete any inappropriate or duplicate postings and to intervene in the discussion if the exchange becomes hostile or uncivil. In general, however, I will refrain from getting too involved in the discussion during the week. Once the lesson is finished, I will post to the discussion board summarizing the various points made, pointing out any relevant issues that might not have been addressed, assessing the general quality of the discussion, and telling you more about my opinion on the topic. As you post to the discussion board, you should always remember that this forum should feel more like a conversation between you and your peers than a series of responses to your instructor's questions. The questions are only there as a prompt to begin discussion. To achieve a quality discussion, all students MUST read and post to the discussion board regularly throughout the week. Communicating with Your InstructorI encourage you to communicate with me as questions about the course arise. I am available via e-mail or telephone. The best way to reach me is certainly e-mail and I make a concerted effort to reply to all messages within 24 hours, weekends being the exception. In the case of an urgent matter, you can call me and I will return your call as soon as possible. Using the Internet for ResearchThe Internet places a wealth of information at our fingertips. But the world's best browser cannot tell you whether the information you have found is credible or nonsense. Anyone with a server and HTML software can post a Web page. The phrase caveat emptor (let the buyer beware) applies here. Before doing any online research for this course, I recommend that you consult the following two sources. The first will help you to gauge the reliability of the information you find on the Internet, while the second will give you a format for citing such material.
Current EventsMaking sense of American government and politics is impossible unless you stay abreast of current events. I strongly encourage you to read a good national newspaper every day. Weaving "real-world" examples into your written assignments for this course will make your arguments more compelling and will result in higher grades.
Honor CodeAs a student of UNC-Chapel Hill, you are bound by the University's Honor Code: "It shall be the responsibility of every student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to obey and support enforcement of the Honor Code, which prohibits lying, cheating or stealing when these actions involve academic processes or University students or academic personnel acting in an official capacity." Plagiarism is a particularly serious Honor Code violation. If you are uncertain about what constitutes plagiarism, contact me. Course MechanicsDiscussion ForumsSome of your class components (discussion forums and exams) are accessed through a software package called Blackboard, and you will need to login to Blackboard using a unique identifier known as your UNC Onyen (Only Name You'll Ever Need) and Onyen password. If you do not already have a UNC Onyen, go to the Onyen Web site and follow the instructions for creating an Onyen. If you have an Onyen but have forgotten it (or the password), you will find help on the Onyen Web site. Use your Onyen to login to Blackboard, then click on the "POLI 100" link. You will see navigation buttons on the left taking you to the Discussion Forums, Gradebook, and so on. If you experience problems accessing Blackboard, this is what you should do:
Library Services and E-reservesStudents enrolled in Carolina Courses Online can access online library resources from the UNC Library System by linking to Library Services for Distance Education Students. This site includes information on using general online reference works as well as accessing e-reserves. If you are using an off-campus computer, you will need to consult this page for instructions on how to access the resources. The UNC library staff is available to assist any students who have difficulties accessing online library resources. All communication from your instructor will go to your UNC Onyen e-mail
address (the one that appears when you post to the discussion forum).
Off-campus users can access their UNC e-mail using Webmail.
You can have your e-mail forwarded to a different e-mail address by clicking “Forward
e-mail” at the Onyen
Web site. Submitting AssignmentsIt is extremely important for you to save copies of any work you send to me via e-mail. If I don't receive your work, you must have a duplicate copy, indicating the date sent, to prove that you submitted the assignment on time. It is your responsibility to maintain copies of your sent e-mails, as there is no way to guarantee that any e-mail message will be delivered. Please check your e-mail software to see how it manages sent and saved messages. Some software automatically deletes messages one month after they have been sent; others only save messages if they are filed in folders; others save messages received but not those sent. You may need to send yourself a copy of your e-mailed assignment at the same time you send it to me, or you may need to print a copy of the e-mail message and any attachments to keep in your paper files. No matter how your system works, make sure you know how to save a copy of all work that you submit to me and that you save the copy for several months beyond the end of the course. Other QuestionsIf you have questions regarding
Course ScheduleWe will follow the on-campus UNC calendar. You are not expected to participate in class on holidays and breaks. Each lesson has a start and an end date. You should follow the schedule closely. You should complete each week's readings within the first few days to allow ample time to complete your participation and other writing requirements for the week. Don't get behind. This class requires a lot of reading and you will not be able to complete the various components of this class successfully if you are struggling to keep pace. Successful students set aside a non-negotiable time and place each week to complete the readings and assignments. I encourage you to follow unerringly this practice. Lesson 1 |