211 Silsby Hall
HB 6108
Hanover, New Hampshire 03755
Tel: (603) 646-2544
Fax: (603) 646-2152
E-mail: Government.Department@Dartmouth.EDU
This course will enable regular or visiting faculty members to examine topics in American Politics not treated in the established curriculum. Subjects may therefore vary each time the course is offered.
This course will introduce students to the study of elections and voting behavior. Topics to be covered include partisanship in the electorate, voter turnout, nomination rules and procedures, campaign organization and strategy, and the effects of campaigns on voters. Although we will focus on the United States, throughout the course comparisons will be made with other industrialized democracies in order to better understand the peculiar features of elections in the U.S. The course will also provide a non-technical introduction to some of the methods used by political scientists to study public opinion, elections and voting behavior. Because of the timing of the course, special attention will be paid to the results of the 2004 presidential and congressional elections and the outlook for the 2006 midterm elections. Dist: SOC; WCult: NA/W.
A legal system is an integral part of a nation's political system. It provides mechanisms for implementing and reformulating public policies, for resolving individual and group conflicts, and for holding political and economic processes to certain standards of fairness. This course will examine selected features of the American legal system and the ways it deals with basic social problems, e.g., regulating criminal law enforcement, controlling physical and environmental hazards that stem from industrial technology, and regulating the struggle for economic power. Readings and lectures will explore how the American legal system's approach to these problems has changed over time. Dist: SOC; WCult: W.
Political institutions are the rules, laws, and organizations that structure political life. This course examines the political institutions that form the foundation of democracy in general and American democracy in particular. American political institutions vary significantly over time, including the Albany Congress, the Articles of Confederation, and, of course, the US Constitution. The US states also differ in their legislative, executive, judicial, and electoral institutions. Most of the course will focus on electoral rules, legislatures, courts, the president and governors. We will also study extra-governmental institutions such as political parties, interest groups, and labor unions as well as policy institutions such as taxation, Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, and other spending programs.
This course explores the influence of domestic politics on U. S. foreign policy. It begins with theories in international relations on how domestic institutions and political elites affect statecraft, particularly with respect to war. The remainder of the course applies the theories to the U.S. case. We examine changes in the constitutional system brought about by the creation of the national security state, as well as the role of Congress and the Supreme Court in overseeing the executive. We then turn to public opinion, the media and advocacy groups as sources of support and constraint on presidential decisions.
This course will investigate the U.S. federal budget. Students will come to understand the history of, contemporary practices in and future trajectory of U.S. expenditure and revenue generating policies. The course will also cover the process by which policymakers pass an annual budget including what is supposed to happen and what actually happens in pursuit of a budget compromise. Substantial course time will be spent considering possible reforms that can be made to the federal budget.
Although most Americans believe that environmental protection should be a policy priority, environmental regulation is routinely criticized for delivering only modest benefits at an exorbitant cost. This course provides an overview of the development and current state of environmental law and policy in the United States, with special attention to the recurring technical and political challenges that frustrate policymakers' attempts to solve environmental problems. Dist: SOC.
Many critics see judges as "policy makers in robes" while others, perhaps naively, would never think of judges as "policy makers." In this course we will investigate the role that legal institutions, particularly courts, play in public policy making. We will think about the similarities and differences between courts and other political institutions in the policy making process. The course considers questions such as: What role do practical policy considerations play in judicial decision making? How can groups use courts to pursue public policy change? How much impact do courts and judges have on policy outcomes on the ground? Do courts have the capacity to make good public policy, and is judicial policy making desirable? We will address these questions by looking at the U.S. Supreme Court as well as lower courts, and will examine a variety of substantive applications including educational funding, tobacco regulation, and campaign finance. The class is open to students who have taken PBPL 5, and counts toward the Law and Public Policy track of the Public Policy Minor. Prerequisite: PBPL 5. Distr: SOC. WCult: W.
This course explores the shifting relationship between private corporations and government policy in the networked world. As advanced technologies reshape business architectures and transform the terms of competition, the actions of government agencies must change correspondingly. We shall analyze the knowledge economy in microcosm—especially evolving network effects—and ask the urgent questions. What public infrastructure and standards are necessary to facilitate growth? What are the limits of established notions of intellectual property—patents, for example? What new metrics might be used to account for corporate performance and valuable assets? What are the implications of peer networks for the delivery of the services—from healthcare to education—that citizens have come to expect in a democracy? Distr: SOC. WCult: W.
This is a course on the interaction between the president and the public. We will explore different theories about when and why the president might seek to alter policy in response to public attitudes as compared to when the president will seek to change public opinion. We will analyze the various techniques and strategies presidents use to understand public opinion in the current era, and the strategies they use to affect public views. We will examine whether the president is more or less responsive to public opinion in different issue areas, including: war and conflict, international trade, domestic social policy, and macroeconomic policy. Throughout the course, we will compare the approach that President Barack Obama has taken towards the public with that of previous presidents. Distr: SOC. WCult: W.
Pollsters in politics and marketing researchers in business all devote a great deal of energy to discovering the attitudes of the public, regarding public policies and politicians for the former and products and services for the latter. In this course, we will explore the general techniques that political pollsters and marketing researchers use to discover how the public thinks, and we will compare how this information is used in different contexts. We will discuss questions such as: can similar techniques be used to introduce unfamiliar politicians and products to the public? does "brand strategy" apply to politicians and products in similar ways? how is advertising used to improve the market share of candidates and products? can negative advertising be applied with equal effect to harm competitors in the business and political realms? how will politicians and businesses seek to understand and influence the preferences of the public as technological changes produce new opportunities and challenges regarding interactions with the public?
Do campaigns change election outcomes? When do they matter and when do they not? How should campaigns be conducted for optimal results on Election Day? This course will seek to answer these questions from both academic and practical perspectives. Particularly, it will investigate campaign strategies; issues, money and communications in political races; the behavior of voters; and possible election reforms. Students should leave this class with a deep understanding of political campaigns for elective office.Dist: SOC; WCult: NA/W.
A study of the American federal system of government in which authority is distributed between the national and state governments. Readings, lectures, and discussions will focus specifically on likely explanations of the origins, maintenance, and/or changes in public policies in the states. Specific topics include the original and changing federal relationship, cooperative, competitive, and `free rider' relationships among the states, public policy preferences of the public in the states, and similarities and differences among major political institutions in the states. Prerequisite: Government 3, or permission of the instructor. Dist: SOC; WCult: NA/W.
This course introduces students to the analysis of public policymaking in the U.S. Congress. Special attention is paid to the evolution of the House and Senate as institutions, to elections and to the interactions among elections, institutional arrangements, and policymaking. Prerequisite: Government 3, or permission of the instructor. Dist: SOC; WCult: NA/W.
This course highlights central themes in the development, organization, and functioning of the American Presidency. It combines the study of presidential behavior with an analysis of its complex and evolving institutional framework. Since the office requires the President to play multiple political roles simultaneously, the course will assess the institutional and behavioral components of these roles. It will present an integrated theoretical and empirical conception of presidential governance.
Prerequisite: Government 3 or by permission of the instructor. Dist: SOC; WCult: NA/W.
This course examines the process through which public policy is made in the United States. Topics covered include the nature and goals of public policy, the various stages of the policy process, and the different models of and factors involved in policy making. The course seeks to explain why policy making in the U.S. is mostly `incremental' in character, i.e., involves only marginal departures from the status quo. The course also explores the conditions under which non-incremental change is feasible or even likely. Prerequisite: Government 3, or permission of the instructor. Dist: SOC; WCult: W.
This course examines the connection between public opinion and political behavior, primarily in the contemporary American setting. The first part of the course focuses on the nature and origins of public opinion. The second part explores the links between public opinion and political behavior with particular attention paid to election outcomes, policy making, and issues of tolerance. Prerequisite: Government 3 or permission of the instructor. Dist: SOC; WCult: NA/W.
Government and business are inextricably linked, each exerting a great deal of influence over the other. This course examines their interrelationship, focusing in particular on economic and political theories of regulation and subsidization; foreign trade, free trade and protectionism; the power of corporate interests in the policymaking process; and business within the American legal system. Prerequisite: Government 3, or permission of the instructor. Dist: SOC; WCult: NA/W.
