Purpose and Objectives

While national and international politics generally receive the lion's share of attention in the classroom and the media, for most Americans the bulk of interactions with government will come at the state and local levels. From obtaining a driver's license, to the maintenance of police and fire services, to the public provision of healthcare and education—many of the most elementary and critical functions of government in the United States are operated by the country's subnational governments. No study of American politics and public policy is complete without a serious consideration of the behavior of individuals and institutions in the states.

The purpose of this course is to familiarize you with the politics of state and local governments. The course material will also serve as an important foundation for students who pursue more advanced studies in political science. At the course’s conclusion, you should be able to identify and discuss the major political actors and institutions in the American states and their constituent subdivisions. Students should also develop a reasonably comprehensive framework for continued analysis of political systems and information beyond the scope of this course. By helping you develop this framework, this course provides a basic introduction to the field of political science.

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Required Textbooks

There are two primary texts for this course:

• Politics in the American States: A Comparative Analysis (9th edition, 2008). Eds. Virginia Gray and Russell L. Hanson. Washington, DC: CQ Press.

This text is a comprehensive introduction to the major debates and fields of inquiry in political science relevant for the study of the American states. The essays in the book are substantially focused on introducing students to the major problems facing scholars and policymakers engaged in state politics. I will refer to the book as PAS.

• School Board Battles: The Christian Right in Local Politics. 2004. Melissa Deckman. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.

This book is a study of the motivations and behavior of conservative Christians seeking election to and serving on local school boards. The book combines the analysis of original survey data with in-depth case studies to provide a window into an important topic related to an understudied but critical set of local governmental institutions.

The primary texts are available from Friday Center Books & Gifts at the Friday Center. You can order the books online, or you can print out the book order form to fax or mail with payment for texts as indicated on the form.

Also, there will be several required readings from other sources. These will be available as Web links or downloadable files through the course Web site.

As in any class, but especially in an online class that requires more independent effort, reading is a critical element of learning and understanding this subject. The readings will frequently be the basis for class discussions and assignments. Also, substantial portions of the exam material will be based on reading assignments. In short, reading is a critical component of this course’s design and will be an important part of earning a high grade for the class.

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Grading

Grades in this course will be assigned on the basis of four components, weighted as follows:

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 (such as 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.

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Exams

This course will have two exams, one midterm at 20 percent and a final worth 30 percent of the final grade. Each exam has a multiple choice section and an essay section. The essay sections 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.  For more see section below titled " Using the Internet for Research."

Exam multiple choice sections and essay prompts will be available through a link in Blackboard on the dates noted on the schedule. Once you open the multiple choice sections in Blackboard, you will have one hour to complete them. The essay prompts will be available at the time and date indicated on the course schedule and you will have the full exam period window to complete your essay responses. Essay responses are to be sent 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.

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Discussion Forum

An important part of the class will be discussion of the materials we are reading and learning about, and I will 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.

Discussion Assignments

Each lesson contains at least one discussion question designed to help you think about the week's readings and lesson notes. After you have completed the assigned readings for the week, you should make at least three contributions to the discussion forum, following the guidelines below.

Contribution 1: I will pose one or more questions in the Discussion Assignment section of each lesson. Your first weekly contribution is the response to one of these questions and is typically due by 10 pm on the third day of each lesson. The title of this contribution should be "Contribution 1.” You may also add a headline that indicates the post’s topic or argument. For example, you may post “Contribution 1: Federalism is Bad.”

Contribution 2: The second contribution should be a critical response to one of your fellow student's first postings (those labeled "Contribution 1") that considers the merits and problems of the student's posting. Simply saying, "I agree with Joe because his argument makes a lot of sense to me" is not sufficient. This contribution is typically due by 10 pm on the fifth day of the lesson as a follow-up under the message to which you are responding. When you begin typing the body of this message, type "Contribution 2."

Contribution 3: The third contribution should be a follow-up on any comment or question raised in the forum. This could be a response to another student's critique of your first contribution, or it could be in defense of another student's position, or it could be a response to any other type of comment in the discussion. This contribution should be posted by 10 pm of the last day of the lesson. When you begin typing the body of this third posting, type "Contribution 3."

Forum Contribution Guidelines

• Quality matters. My experience with discussion forums has been that students sometimes treat them as an obligation, where they simply bang something out about that week's topic, then move on to the next task in their schedule. That undermines the aim of a forum, which is to stimulate conversation. Imagine being in a group of people at a party. Someone you don't know very well comes up to the group, blurts out something, and then moves on. The conversation stops dead in its tracks (or shifts to a discussion of that odd character who just left). Neither outcome is very productive. Each post you make to the forum ought to consider what has been said previously, and ought to advance the discussion in some way. In posting to the forum, follow threads where possible. In other words, don’t start a new topic if the issue is already in discussion on the board. Post your answer as a reply to the topic already started. This makes it easier to read through what others have said, and to reply to their arguments.
  
  
• Quantity matters. Simply offering your opinion on the discussion forum topics in the lessons represents a minimum standard for forum participation. After you post your opinion, check back in a day or two and see how others have responded to your opinion, and offer your own reply. In this way, the forum becomes a discussion forum, rather than simply a bulleted list of unconnected opinions. Also, you are encouraged to introduce new topics each week. Does some event in the news resonate with the topics covered in the readings? Did the readings raise other interesting points that you would like to hear others’ opinions on? Or is there some news headline generally that you would like to discuss?
  
  
• Be timely. It is important to keep up with the forum and check it regularly so that we might have the most fruitful discussion. "Backfilling" your posts to the forum is counterproductive and easy to detect because each post has the date and time attached to it.
  
  
• Be civil. You can be argumentative and challenge others’ views. At the same time, avoid name calling and other such nastiness.

Response Paper

Your Response Paper Assignment is based on your reading of School Board Battles, by Melissa M. Deckman. You will need to read this text before beginning to write your paper. Your response paper is due by 8 pm on July 14.

You are encouraged to read the assignment details closely now and work on this assignment throughout the term. I am available, in the discussion forums and via e-mail, to discuss your papers. I am particularly inclined to review mid-level progress on the paper—after the reading and thinking have been done, but before you have done much writing. For example, e-mailing a completed outline to me to see what might be missing or organized more effectively is an especially good idea.

A late paper will lose 10 points for every day it is late. I will only accept papers for five days after the due date. Please notify me in advance of the due date if you face circumstances that prevent you from turning the paper in on time and I will determine what accommodations to make.

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Using the Internet for Research

The 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.

• Kirk, Elizabeth E. 1997. "Evaluating Information Found on the Internet."
• Modern Language Association. (See "Frequently Asked Questions" under the section on "MLA Style.")

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Honor Code

Students will abide by the University’s established Honor Code. Any cheating or plagiarism will be punished according to the sanctions outlined in the Honor Code.

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Course Mechanics

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Course Schedule

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Lesson 1