Syllabus
 
 

Pol370 - The Internet and Politics

Paul Gronke 

Phone: 771-1112 x 7393 

408 Eliot Hall email: gronke@reed.edu 
Office Hours: Tuesday, 1-3 pm and appt. URL: http://www.reed.edu/~gronkep

 

Course Description:

What is the impact of the Internet on politics? Figuring out the answer to this question is akin to grabbing the tail of a tiger. It's moving so fast that you can't get a good grip. Our job in this course is to try. Our approach will be to take what we already know about society and politics, and try to understand and predict how computers, technology, and the Internet may change things.

The potential topic areas for this course are tremendous, including but not limited to:
  • Will the Internet serve as an avenue for individual empowerment or will it increase corporate, governmental, and bureaucratic control over information?
  • Is the "digital divide" a national problem, an international problem, or something that we really don't need to be concerned about? Is American dominance over the Internet a good or a bad thing?
  • Will our ability to "narrowcast" our news, entertainment, and personal contacts balkanize the citizenry, or will the Internet allow far flung individuals to create "virtual communities" and find new areas of common concern?
  • Pornography is the most common and most profitable form of Internet communication. So what?
  • Do computer mediated interactions in chat rooms, forums, and even civic actions like voting, carry new potential for enhancing democratic participation, or will they only hasten the decline of American civic life?
  • Internet speech is more extreme, even violent, than any of us would commonly encounter in social and political life. Is this a problem, and if so, are there any solutions?

We'll address each of these questions to some degree during this semester. We have to start somewhere, so we begin with some basics of political participation. We know--or you'll soon learn--that political participation is highly skewed, by education, income, interest, and information. Participation seems to be driven by an individual cost-benefit calculation, something I will refer to as the "equation" of political participation. During the first few weeks of the semester, we will "unpack" this equation, seeing how the Internet may change costs, benefits, and other features of political participation.

In the second half of the course, we will survey a wider array of topics. Given the small size of this course, we will act similar to a book club, reading a different book on the Internet and politics each week, supplementing this material with news and magazine articles. Each of you will be responsible for guiding discussion on one of these texts.

We'll close by asking some normative questions about American politics generally, and the Internet specifically. Is it acceptable when less than 50% of the population votes for President? Should we be concerned over what some have called the "sound of money" that dominates the interest group system? How can we reconcile these empirical realities with the ideal of our democracy? And, of course, does the Internet promise to change how we evaluate our democratic system in the future?

Because this is a small course, I have purposely left the syllabus a bit unstructured. This will allow us the chance to entertain additional topics and readings that you may find interesting. Feel free to suggest something else!

Your "Job"

Website Maintanance

This is a course in political science, but I also intend to teach you the basics of setting up a web site. Our task is to maintain a publicly accessible website that provides a good overview of the questions we have raised in the course. I will require you to take on specific tasks, and complete these when the site demands it. This is a fundamental part of the course.

You can view the website at http://www.webofpolitics.com. We own this domain.

At least four times in the semester, you will have to bring to class a current news story or set of websites (with a link) dealing with the Internet and Politics and with the current readings. You should be prepared to display and discuss these in class. You should mail me the link and a short paragraph describing the story so that I can post it on the website.

Discussion Leadership

You will write three (1-2 page max) "thought pieces" that comment on that week's reading. These need to be given to me in electronic (HTML format) by Monday at 5 pm the week that we are reading that work. For this purpose, the course will generally move on a Wednesday-Monday schedule.

You will also need to write one one (2-3 page) book review on a book not in this syllabus. I must approve this book ahead of time. You need to provide me with an HTML ready copy of these documents for posting on the web site. I will provide you a template for these documents.

Final Project:

You will have to prepare a web based final report. You will present the web project to the class in the last week and must have it ready to post on the web site.

Final Examination:

There will be a take home final exam.

Class participation:

It goes without saying that in a class of this size, regular attendance and participation is crucial.

Grading:

  • News events / links10%
  • Thought pieces and discussion leadership 20%
  • Book review 10%
  • Final project 25%
  • Take home final: 25%
  • Class participation 10%

Readings:

All books should be available at the Reed Bookstore.

  • Davis, Richard. 1999. The Web of Politics. New York: Oxford.
  • Lessig, Lawrence. 2000. Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace.
  • Rosenstone and Hansen. 1993. Mobilization Participation, and Democracy in America. New York: Allyn and Bacon.
  • Shapiro, Andew. 1999. The Control Revolution. New York: The Century Foundation.
  • Sunstein, Cass. 2001. Republic.com. New York: Princeton University Press.

There are also readings available at the reserve room and many online readings, linked from this syllabus.

 

  1. Introduction, What is the world wide web?

    • A Very Current Affair: Privacy and Public Records
      • Harmon, Amy. Aug 26, 2001. "Exploration of the World Wide Web Tilts From Eclectic to Mundane." New York Times.
      • --------. Aug 24, 2001. "As Public Records Go Online, Some Say They're Too Public." New York Times.
      • --------. Aug 25, 2001. "Group Deletes Some Data About Voters From the Internet." New York Times.
      • Who Gives Money to Candidates? The "Political Moneyline" Database Demonstration (http://www.tray.com)

    • History of the Net

  2. The Basics of Political Action

    • Rosenstone and Hansen, Chs. 1-3
    • Hinich and Munger, "The Voting Decision and Collective Action" Ch. 7 in Analytical Politics.
    • Dye and Ziegler. "The Irony of Democracy." From The Irony of Democracy: An Uncommon Introduction to American Politics Available online here: Dye_Reading.pdf
  3. The Basics of the Internet and Politics

    • Davis, Introduction and Ch. 1
    • Hill, Kevin and John Hughes. 1998. Cyberpolitics: Citizen Activism in the Age of the Internet. Introduction and Ch. 1.
    • Bimber, Bruce. 1999. "Information and the Evolution of Representative Democracy in America: From The Federalist to the Internet." Unpublished paper.

  4. Who Tries to Influence Government? Who Lobbies on the Web?

    • Rosenstone and Hansen, Ch. 4
    • Davis, Ch. 3

  5. Who is On the Web? Is there a Digital Divide?

  6. Who participates? Do the Digitial Divide and the Participation Divide Look Similar?

    • Rosenstone and Hansen, Chs. 5,7
    • Texeira, Ruy. The Vanishing American Voter. Chs ONE and TWO (note two separate documents)
    • Bimber, Bruce. 2001. "Information and Political Engagement in America: The Search for Effects of Information Technology at the Individual Level." Political Research Quarterly 54:1 (March).

  7. What do people do online? Online Chatting, Cyberidentities

  8. The Internet as a Tool of Individual Empowerment?
    • Shapiro, The Control Revolution, entire book
    • Rosen, Jeffrey. 2001. "Being Watched: A Cautionary Tale for an Age of Surveillance." New York Times Magazine, October 7, 2001. Available here: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/07/magazine/07SURVEILLANCE.html
    • Romero, Simon. September 24, 2001. "A NATION CHALLENGED: THE SURVEILLANCE; Bigger Brother in the Wireless World." New York Times. Available on Lexis Nexis (Academic Universe) or this link:
    • Berkman Center for Internet and Society. Undated. Policy Statements on "Open Code" and "Open Governance"

  9. The Internet as a Tool of Corporate Control?

    • Lessig, Lawrence. Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace, entire book.

  10. Application 1: Internet Voting

  11. Application 2: Campaigning on the Internet

  12. The Internet, Individual Autonomy, and Democracy

    • Sunstein, Cass. Republic.com, entire book
    • Davis, Ch. 7.
    • Rosenstone and Hansen, Ch. 8.

  13. Final Readings: Recent Political Science and other Social Science Research

  14. Final Week: Completion and Presentation of Web Projects