Political Science 210: Political Behavior

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An online version of this syllabus is available at http://www.reed.edu/~gronkep/pol210-f02. 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, "Political Behavior," is one of four gateway courses into the study of political science at Reed College. The course is targeted at first and second year students, although more advanced students are welcome. Pol210 exposes you to the major approaches used by political scientists to understand individual political action, what is often called "political behavior." This stands in contrast to approaches that focus on comparative political systems, international relations, or philosophical and normative studies.

We focus on the dominant analytical approach in behavioral political science--rational or social choice --and its implications for how we understand politics. Rational choice, imported from economics, remains controversial in some quarters, but it is the approach that you will encounter most frequently in your political science readings and research. If rational choice is the the dominant paradigm, then survey statistis are the dominant analytical tool. Therefore, we also spend a signficant amount of time learning how to analyze survey data.

Our shared goal is to get each student to a point where, by the end of the semester, he or she will have sufficient familiarity with rational choice and social choice theory so that they can used to critically analyze some basic puzzles in political science such as: Why don't more people vote? Why do people choose the candidates that they do? Why are political campaigns often bland and vague? Why are successful public policies those that seem to satisfy no one? The exposure to statistics is intended to allow you to easily access quantitative data which will let you test those theories that you derive from your theoretical approaches, be they rational choice, psychological, or something else; and also allow you to more easily comprehend quantitative material in your other courses.

This class covers a significant amount of material which does not lend itself well to conference based discussion. I have made specific provisions in the syllabus for sessions devoted to discussion. The class is small enough that participation should be possible even at other times, but there will be sections of the course where I will be lecturing.

Guide to Assignments

• Books: The following books have been ordered from the Reed College Bookstore. Five copies of each are available at the library reserve. If you wish to save money, you need not purchase the Johnson book.
  
  
  1. Rosenstone, Steven J. and John Mark Hansen. 1993. Mobilization, Participation, and Democracy in America. Macmillan.
  2. Shepsle, Kenneth A. and Mark S. Bonchek. 1997. Analyzing Politics: Rationality, Behavior, and Institutions. New York: W.W. Norton.
  3. Johnson, Joslyn, and Reynolds. 2001. Political Science Research Methods. CQ Press. I have listed this book as "recommended" because we read six chapters, but it is relatively expensive. If you eventually decide to write a political science thesis, you may find this book helpful.
     
     
• Additional Readings: Additional reserve books, book chapters, and articles are at printed reserve. Those articles which are available through the JSTOR electronic journal archive must be accessed via that method. You will need to learn this system. See http://www.jstor.org for more information. At present, this is available from on-campus connections only.

Grading Policy

You will be evaluated on the basis of a midterm, final, short assignments, and class participation. Because all deadlines are announced well ahead of time, I will not accept late assignments. It is also very important that you turn in the problem sets, since they account for 1/3 of your grade. Grades are calculated as follows:

• Essays (2): 33%
• Final exam: 33%
• Short assignments and problem sets: 33%
• Class participation: 1% plus or minus

Schedule of Class Meetings

1. Sept. 4: Introduction to Political Analysis: Individuals and Institutions
   
   
• Shepsle and Bonchek, Chs. 1-2
  
  
2. Sept. 6: Conference Day: Was It rational to vote for Ralph 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
• 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
• 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
  
  
3. Sept. 9: Explaining Human Action, Rationality and Other Motivations
   
• Jon Elster, Nuts and Bolts for the Social Sciences Chs. 1-4
  
  
4. Sept. 11: Take Home Assignment, No Class Today.
   
• Larry Diamond, "What Political Science Owes the World." Available at http://www.apsanet.org/PS/post911/diamond.cfm
• Essay Assignment: write a one page research proposal to analyze the causes of, the impact of, or the success or failure of the US response to the events of September 11. Due in class on Monday.
  
  
5. Sept. 13: The Rational Actor Model: A Light Technical Introduction
   
• Dixit and Skeath, Games of Strategy, Chs. 1-2.
• Shepsle and Bonchek, Chs. 3-4
  
  
6. Sept. 16: Social Choice Theory and Arrow's Paradox
   
   • Shepsle and Bonchek, Chs. 3-4
     
   • Essay assignment due in class
     
     
7. Sept. 18: Spatial Models of Voting, with applications to vote choice
   
• Shepsle and Bonchek, Ch. 5, p. 82-91; p. 103-115
• Paul R. Abramson, John H. Aldrich, Phil Paolino, David W. Rohde. "Third-Party and Independent Candidates in American Politics: Wallace, Anderson, and Perot" Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 110, No. 3. (Autumn, 1995), pp. 349-367. Can be found on www.jstor.org
  
  
8. Sept. 20: Conference Day: Political Science and 9/11
   
• Discuss research proposals from last week.
• Discuss rational choice and voting
  
  
9. Sept. 23: Spatial Models of Voting, with applications to legislative organization and budgeting
• Shepsle and Bonchek, Ch. 5, p. 115-136
  
  
10. Sept. 25: The Individual and Institutional Logic of Political Participation
• Rosenstone and Hansen, Chs. 1-3
  
  
11. Sept. 27: Conference Day: The Logic of Political Participation, A Spatial Approach
• Hinich, Melvin and Michael Munger. "The Voting Decision and Collective Action." Chapter 7 in Analytical Politics.
• Barry, Brian. Sociologists, Economists, and Democracy. Ch. 2
• In class problem sets
  
  
12. Sept 30, Oct 2: Conference Day: Spatial Modeling: Applications
• Dixit and Skeath, Games of Strategy, Ch. 14 (good review chapter)
• Jeffrey Jenkins. "Examining the Bonding Effects of Party: A Comparative Analysis of Roll-Call Voting in the U.S. and Confederate Houses". American Journal of Political Science, Vol. 43, No. 4. (Oct., 1999), pp. 1144-1165. Available at www.jstor.org
• Jeffery A. Jenkins, Brian R. Sala. "The Spatial Theory of Voting and the Presidential Election of 1824." American Journal of Political Science, Vol. 42, No. 4. (Oct., 1998), pp. 1157-1179. Available at www.jstor.org
• Benjamin I. Page, Richard A. Brody. "Policy Voting and the Electoral Process: The Vietnam War Issue" The American Political Science Review, Vol. 66, No. 3. (Sep., 1972), pp. 979-995. Available at www.jstor.org.
  
  
13. October 4: In-class exercise on game theory
    
• Game theory simulation
  
  
14. October 7: Game Theory: The Prisoner's Dilemma
    
• Shepsle and Bonchek, 197-206
• Dixit and Skeath, Games of Strategy, 79-89
• Distribution of First Essay Assignment
  
  
15. October 9: Solving the Dilemma? The Emergence of Cooperation
    
• Shepsle and Bonchek, Ch. 8, p. 207-219
• Axelrod, Robert. The Evolution of Cooperation. Chs. 1-2, 4
  
  
16. October 11: Conference Day: Acting Strategically
    
    • Dixit and Nalebuff, Thinking Strategically. Chs. 1, 2, 4
    • In class problem sets
      
      
17. October 14: Research Applications of the Prisoner's Dilemma
    
    • S. Plous. "The Nuclear Arms Race: Prisoner's Dilemma or Perceptual Dilemma?"
      Journal of Peace Research, Vol. 30, No. 2. (May, 1993), pp. 163-179. Available at www.jstor.org
    • Russell Hardin. "Hobbesian Political Order" Political Theory, Vol. 19, No. 2. (May, 1991), pp. 156-180. Available at www.jstor.org
      
      
18. October 16: 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
    • Shepsle and Bonchek, Ch. 10
      
      
19. October 18: Olson's "Logic of Collective Action" and possible solutions
    
    • Shepsle and Bonchek, Ch. 9
    • Rosenstone and Hansen, Ch. 4
    • First Essay Due
      
      
20. October 28-30: New Institutionalism: Political Science's Solution to Social Choice Problems
    • Shepsle and Bonchek, Ch. 11-12, 14
    
    
21. November 1: Conference Day: Political Participation, Individual Motivations, and the Role of Institutions
    • Aldrich, John. 1993. "Rational Choice and Turnout." American Journal of Political Science. 37(1): 246-278. Available on JSTOR
    • Rosenstone and Hansen, Ch. 6-8
      
      
22. November 4: Introduction to Behavioral Research
    
• Johnson, Joslyn, and Reynolds. Political Science Research Methods. Ch. 1-3
  
  
23. November 6-8: Class Computer Session: Introduction to the SDA Analysis System
    
• Class handouts
  
  
24. November 11-13: Basic Introduction to Statistics
    
• Johnson, Joslyn, and Reynolds, Ch. 11
• Handout Second Essay Assignment
  
  
25. November 15: Introduction to Bivariate Analysis
    
• Johnson, Joslyn, and Reynolds, Ch. 12
• In class problem sets
  
  
26. November 18: Univariate Regression and Correlation Analysis
    
• Johnson, Joslyn, and Reynolds, Ch. 12 (369-388)
  
  
27. November 20-22: Class Computer Sessions: Understanding Voting Turnout
    
• No readings; active participation in computer sessions will be critical to your second paper
  
  
28. November 25: Presenting Your Results
    
• Johnson, Joslyn, and Reynolds, Ch. 14
• Second essay due by noon, November 27
  
  
29. December 2: Increasing Political Participation, Institutions or Individuals?
    
• Rosenstone and Hansen, Chs. 7-8
  
  
30. December 4: What is Political Science? Reflections from A Philosopher
• Root, Michael. "The Liberal Ideal." Chapter 1 in Philosophy of the Social Sciences
  
  
31. December 6: 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.)
    • In class problem sets
      
      
32. December 9 Continuing Divisions Within the Discipline
• Almond, Gabriel. A Discipline Divided. Ch 1: "Separate Tables, Schools, and Sects in Political Science."
• Articles from PS: Political Science and Politics symposium titled: "Shaking Things Up? Thoughts about the Future of Political Science."
  
  
33. December 11 Concluding Thoughts