Political Science 210: Empirical Political Theory

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An online version of this syllabus is available at http://www.reed.edu/~gronkep/pol210. Please check this page regularly for any updates and course announcements. Copies of all course materials, including assignments, will be distributed via this web site.

Description

Political Science 210, "Empirical Political Theory," is designed as a gateway course into the study of politics, government, and political science at Reed College. My job is to expose you to the major empirical approaches in the study of politics. Your job is to learn the various approaches, reflect upon them, and apply in a series of short assignments and a midterm and final examination. For now, we will all ignore the obvious paradox that almost everything we do as students of politics, in the broadest sense, is "empirical." "Methodology," writ large, is part and parcel of almost any academic's work, from the physicist to the economist to the philosopher. The possible scope of this course is tremendous, and I had to make some hard choices regarding coverage. Hopefully I made the right ones.

The course primarily focuses on a few dominant "paradigms" in political science. We begin by very briefly reviewing some basic tenets. What is our field of study? Is political science appropriately called a "science"? How do we discriminate political science from other social sciences? This review will be both historical (how political science evolved as a discipline) and substantive (what is the self-understanding of the modern political scientist). Next, we will walk through the major empirical approaches used by political scientists: rational choice, institutionalism, and quantitative analysis. The prejudice of this course is towards approaches that are popular in the study of American politics and in quantitative and formal theoretic studies of politics. This is a particular "flavor" that is undeniably dominant in the profession, but one which many find unsatisfying. Finally, we will close with a look back at political science as a "science" and as a profession, wrestling with a set of articles, essays, and letters that have been circulating among political scientists regarding the state of the discipiline..

Guide to Assignments

• Books: The following books have been ordered from the Reed College Bookstore, and are also available at the library reserve. If you can afford them, I recommend that you purchase them.
  
  
  1. Berry, William D. and Mitchell D. Sanders. 2000. Understanding Multivariate Research. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
  2. Shepsle, Kenneth A. and Mark S. Bonchek. 1997. Analyzing Politics: Rationality, Behavior, and Institutions. New York: W.W. Norton.
     
     
  3. Past offerings of this course have relied on Michael Root, Philosophy of Social Science and Bernard Susser, Approaches to the Study of Politics. These are listed as "recommended" at the bookstore, but we read only a small portion this semester, and there are sufficient copies in the library that you may not need to purchase them. The Root book may be useful for majors who are more philosophically inclined; the Susser reader provides a useful overview of various theories in political science.
     
     
• Additional Readings: Additional reserve books (noted in the syllabus by an R) or reserve copies of articles or chapters (noted as RC) are available. Online copies of articles and books may be made available at some point in the term and if so, will be hot linked from the online syllabus.

Grading Policy

You will be evaluated on the basis of a midterm, final, short assignments, and class partcipation. Because all deadlines are announced well ahead of time, I will not accept late papers. Grades will be allocated as follows:

• Midterm: 20%
• Final: 30%
• Short Assignments: 50%
• Class participation: wiggle room

Schedule of Class Meetings

1. August 27: Introduction to the Course
   
   
• No assignments
  
  
2. August 29: The Behavioral Revolution in the Social Sciences
   
• Susser, Bernard. "From Burgess to Behavioralism and Beyond" and "The Behavioral Ideology: A Review and Retrospect." In Susser, Approaches, R and RC.
  
• Recommended for Majors: Roy Macridis, "Characteristics of the Traditional Approach" and Robert Dahl, "The Behavioral Approach in Political Science" (both in the Susser reader)
  
  
3. August 31: No Class: American Political Science Association Meetings
   
   
4. September 3: What is Political Science? Reflections from Two Practitioners NO CLASS MEETING, LABOR DAY. MAKEUP TO BE ANNOUNCED.
   
   • Lindblom, Charles. "Political Science in the 1940s and 1950s"
   • Smith, Rogers. "Still Blowin' in the Wind"
     (both in American Academic Culture in Transformation, R and RC).
     
     
5. September 5: Political Science as a Science
   
• Shepsle and Bonchek, Ch. 1
• Weisberg, Herbert. "Introduction: The Science of Politics and Political Change"
  (Ch 1 of Political Science: The Science of Politics 1986, Agathon. RC.)
  
  
6. September 7, 10: Approaches, Theories, and Theory Testing
   
• Almond, Gabriel. A Discipline Divided Ch. 1, "Separate Tables, Schools, and Sects in Political Science." R and RC.
• Van Evera, Guide to Methods for Students of Political Science, Chapter 1, "Hypotheses, Laws, and Theories: A User's Guide." R and RC.
  
  
7. September 12: The Rational Actor Model
   
• Shepsle and Bonchek, Ch. 2
  
  
8. September 14: In Class Presentations: Political Science Research Journals
   
• Written and oral versions of Assignment One due in class.
  
  
9. September 17-19: Social Choice and Arrow's Paradox
   
• Shepsle and Bonchek, Chs. 3-4
  
  
10. September 21: In Class Exercise: Was It rational to vote for Nader?
    
• Hentoff, Nat. October 4-10, 2000. "Ralph Nader -- Not a Wasted Vote." The Village Voice. Online copy available at http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0040/hentoff.php or RC
• Maxwell, Bill. October 22, 2000. "Serious blacks know that a vote for Nader is a waste." St Petersburg Times. Online copy available here: http://www.sptimes.com/News/102200/Perspective/Serious_blacks_know_a.shtml or RC
• Tomorrow, Tom. This Modern World. September 5, 2000. Cartoon is visible here: http://www.salon.com/comics/tomo/2000/09/05/tomo.
• Majoo, Farhad. Oct. 31, 2000. "Vote Trade: The American Way?" Wired Magazine. Available here: http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,39860,00.html or RC
  
  
11. September 24: Spatial Models of Voting, with Applications
    
• Shepsle and Bonchek, Ch. 5, p. 82-91; p. 103-136
  
  
12. September 26: Strategic Behavior and Voting
• Shepsle and Bonchek, Ch. 6
  
  
13. September 28: Electoral Rules: How we count matters!
• Shepsle and Bonchek, Ch. 7
  
• Lijphart, Arend. Patterns of Democracy: Government Forms and Performance in 36 Countries. (Yale University Press, 1999). Selections on reserve.
  
  
14. October 1-3: Game Theory: The Prisoner's Dilemma
• Shepsle and Bonchek, Ch. 8, p. 197-206
• Colman, Andrew M. 1992. "Two Person, Zero Sum Games", Ch 4 in Game Theory and Experimental Games: The Study of Strategic Interaction. Pergamon Press. RC and available online here: http://www.reed.edu/~gronkep/pol210-f01/Colman-Reading.pdf
• Schelling, Thomas. "What is Game Theory." In Susser reader (R) or available online here: http://www.reed.edu/~gronkep/pol210-f01/Schelling-Reading.pdf
  
  
15. October 5: In Class Exercises on rational choice
• Assignment Two due today in class: What is a fair electoral law?
• Midterm Essay Assignment made available on the course website and distributed in class
  
  
16. October 8: The Emergence of Cooperation: Repetition, Practice, and Reputation
    
• Shepsle and Bonchek, Ch. 8, p. 207-219
• Axelrod, Robert. The Evolution of Cooperation. Chs. 1-2, 4. R and RC.
  
  
17. October 10: Mancur Olson's "Logic of Collective Action"
    
• Shepsle and Bonchek, Ch. 9
  
  
18. October 12: Midterm Essay Due. Have a good break!
    
• No assignments for today. Turn in midterm by 4 pm. to Lois Hobbs or Paul Gronke
  
  
19. October 22: Why do people litter? The Tragedy of the Commons
    
    
• Hardin, Garrett. "The Tragedy of the Commons," Science, 162(1968):1243-1248. Available all over the web. Try this link: http://www.dieoff.org/page95.htm, also RC.
• Shepsle and Bonchek, Ch. 10
  
  
20. October 24: New Institutionalism: Political Science's Solution to Collective Action Problems
    • Shepsle and Bonchek, Ch. 11-12
    
    
21. October 26: Application 1, Legislative Action. Does Control over Choices = Control over Outcomes?
• Birnbaum, Jeffrey and Alan Murray. 1987. Showdown at Gucci Gulch: Lawmakers, Lobbyists, and the Unlikely Triumph of Tax Reform. Vintage. Selections at reserve.
• West, Darrell M. and Burdett A. Loomis. 1999. The Sound of Money: How Political Interests Get What They Want. Chs. 1-2.
• Handouts in class.
  
  
22. October 29: Application 2, Turnout. Why does anyone vote?
    
• Hinich, Melvin and Michael Munger. Analytical Politics , Ch. 7, RC.
• Aldrich, John. 1993. "Rational Choice and Turnout." American Journal of Political Science. 37(1): 246-278. Available on JSTOR and RC.
  
• Recommended for those interested and for majors: Barry, Brian. Sociologists, Economists, and Democracy, Ch 2, R and RC.
  
  
23. October 31-November 2: To Count or Not to Count? Sorting the Social World into Categories
    
• Johnson, Janet, Richard Joslyn, and H.T. Reynolds. 2001. "The Building Blocks of Social Scientific Research: Hypotheses, Concepts, and Variables; and Measurement". Chs. 3-4 in Political Science Research Methods. Washington, DC: CQ Press. R and RC.
• Root, Michael. "Collecting Data in the Social Sciences." Ch 6 in Philosophy of Social Science. R and RC.
  
• Recommended for majors: Root, Ch. 7, "Sorting the Data into Kinds."
  
  
24. November 5-7: Two Days of Math?? Basic Introduction to Regression Analysis
    
• Berry and Sanders, Chs. 1-2
  
  
25. November 9: No Class, Attend one introductory session "Introduction to ICPSR and GSSDIRS"
    
• Handouts at makeup sessions, offered between November 5th and November 16.
  
  
26. November 12: MORE MATH?! Mulitvariate Regression Analysis
    
• Berry and Sanders, Ch. 3
  
  
27. November 14: Interpreting Regression Results
    
• Berry and Sanders, Ch. 4
  
  
28. November 16: In Class Exercise, Examples of Regression in Political Science
    
• Berry and Sanders, Ch. 5
• Handouts in class
  
• Recommended for majors and those with previous statistical training: Ch. 6 in Berry and Sanders.
  
  
29. November 19: Application 1, Congressional elections. Why do House incumbents who raise more money lose more often?
• Jacobson, Gary. 2001. The Politics of Congressional Elections 5th Edition. New York: Addison Wesley Longman. Pgs 110-125; pgs. 141-159. RC.
  
  
30. November 21: Application 2, Presidential elections. Forecasting the presidential election outcome.
    
• Third assignment due in class. Quantitative analysis using survey or Census data.
• Handouts in class.
• "Al Gore and George W. Bush's Not-So-Excellent Adventure." Various authors comment on the failure of forecasting in 2000. In the March, 2000 edition of PS: Political Science and Politics. All articles are available online: http://www.apsanet.org/PS/march01/election2000.cfm
  
  
31. November 26: Application 3, Race and Politics. Is opposition to affirmative action racist?
    
• Sniderman, Paul and Thomas Piazza. 1993. The Scar of Race. Chs. 2-3. R and RC.
• Sniderman, Paul and Edward Carmines. 1997. Reaching Beyond Race. Ch. 5. R and RC.
  
  
32. November 28 Assumptions, Theories, and Models. A Classical View.
    
• Plato. The Republic , "The Allegory of the Cave" (Book VII, Stanzas 514A-521C) available here and here and R.
• Aristotle. Politics. Book IV available here (even in Greek!) and R.
• Hobbes. The Leviathan Chs. 5-11, 13, 17-19, available online here and R.
• Rousseau. The Social Contract Book I (all), Book II (Chs 1-4), available online here or here and R.
  
  
33. November 30: Can Political Science be Value Free?
    
• Root, Michael. Philosophy of the Social Sciences. Ch 1 "The Liberal Ideal." R and RC.
• Susser, Bernard. Approaches to the Study of Politics. "The Behavioral Ideology: A Review and a Retrospect." p. 76-100. R and RC.
  
• Recommended for majors: Susser, Bernard. "The Traditionalist Protest of Leo Strauss." Ch. 8 in the Susser reader.
  
  
34. December 3: What is Political Science? Reflections from Two Practitioners
• Kramer, Gerald. "Political Science as Science."
• MacRae, Duncan. "The Science of Politics and its Limits."
  (Chs 2-3 of Political Science: The Science of Politics 1986, Agathon. RC.)
  
  
35. December 5: Final Day of Class. Your Views of Political Science