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.
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.
This course examines two major areas of American politics: the behavior of voters in elections and the behavior of candidates in campaigns. The first few weeks of the course focuses on the fundamental questions of voting behavior. Why do people vote in elections? Does Party affiliation mean anything to voters? Do issues matter in elections? Do candidate traits make a difference to voters? Which of these things matters most? Finally, do campaigns matter to election outcomes? This question motivates the second portion of the course. Campaign institutions such as debates, advertisements, media coverage, polls, nominations, voting rules, and financing are discussed. Potential reforms are debated. Prerequisite: Government 6 or 3 or permission of the instructor. 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.
