Politics 3: Introduction to American Politics
Pomona College, Fall 2026
Prof. David Menefee-Libey
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 9:00 - 9:50 am in Carnegie 109
Office: Carnegie 4
Office Hours: Mondays 1:30-3:30, Tuesdays 10:00 - noon, and by appointment
e-mail: DJML4747@pomona.edu or DML@pomona.edu (Mail sent to either of these goes to the same inbox.)
Access a live version of this syllabus online at https://DML.sites.pomona.edu/IntroAmerican.html
Table of Contents for This Syllabus:
Go to Course Requirements, Evaluations, and Deadlines
Go to Class Schedule and Assignments
Course Description and Goals
This is a challenging time for you to be systematically studying US politics and government for the first time in a college course. Americans disagree deeply about what's happening - and what should happen - in this country and in the world right now. Our current president says we're living in a time of American greatness. A 2024 survey of young Americans reported many of them saw their country as "a dying empire run by bad people ." Americans give widely divergent answers to questions like:
- How important is majority rule in a democracy?
- Should the federal government guarantee citizens the right to vote?
- How important are political and/or economic equality?
- Does the Constitution require that all persons born in the United States are recognized as citizens?
- Should the United States be a Christian country?
- Should the President of the United States be immune from criminal prosecution?
- Do I want the United States to become more demographically diverse?
- What should happen to people present in the United States without legal status?
- What is the condition of the economy in the United States and what can or should governments do about it?
- Is crime increasing or decreasing, and what can or should governments do about it?
- Should troops be deployed inside the United States to fight crime and enable deportations?
- Should Americans have an unconditional right to bear arms?
- Should the US government reduce its support for provision of vaccines and cancer research?
- Is climate change happening, are humans responsible and, if so, what should we do about it?
- Should we support Ukraine in its war with Russia?
- How should we respond to the war in Israel/Palestine?)
Political institutions, norms, and practices in the US feel to many of us like they're unstable. There are historical patterns in how this has happened in the US, and we are in a period of disruption with no way to predict whether and how this disruption will shake out. Scholars studying and writing about politics are doing research about all this in new ways, and publishing our findings through new channels. It's a lot, and this will be an introduction, not a comprehensive course covering everything in that list.
Most of the practices and institutions described and explained in this course's core textbook were established by the middle of the 20th century, and for decades they drew general acceptance from Americans of most political stripes. The political "establishment" they built was never stagnant, however. Congress, presidents, and courts began modifying it rapidly in the 1960s and 1970s, and even more rapidly in the 1990s and after the turn of this century. The elections of 1994, 2000, and especially 2024 brought a figurative assault on that establishment, and the 2020 election and its aftermath brought a literal assault. After the 2024 election, the return of Donald Trump to the presidency and Republican control of Congress and the courts triggered a dramatic shift in American government and policy that will continue throughout this semester and long after. We will do our best to study this brave new world together, and I hope you continue your study, discussion, and engagement beyond the walls of this classroom and campus.
This course has three goals. One is to introduce you to some of the major political ideas, institutions, practices, and behaviors in the United States, especially those at the national level. We will talk -- and you will read, take tests, and write -- about a variety of views on what they are, where they came from, what they are for, how they have developed, how they work (or don't), how we might evaluate them, and how they are currently changing. You will learn about, among other things:
- Liberal and illiberal views about the legitimate purposes of politics, collective action, and governments;
- The evolving constitutional structure and institutions of American governments (primarily at the national level);
- Different modes of collective action in relation to governments, civil society, and commercial life;
- Public opinion and voting, campaigns and elections, political parties, interest groups, several public policies, and a number of non-institutional political practices; and
- Competing views about what is happening in the United States right now.
The second goal of this course is to introduce you to several ways scholars of politics investigate and analyze American politics:
- Normatively: a systematic consideration of ultimate purposes for Americans' (or even humans' in general) political life together. For example, ought we to use politics or governments to seek freedom or happiness, establish democracy, serve God, protect patriarchy, protect traditions, make money, favor a particular ethnic or racial group, or pursue other goals? If so, can we agree on what those goals really mean and when their conditions are more or less present? Alternatively, are we obligated to create and sustain public institutions and practices that can be legitimate when evaluated by how well they achieve these goals?
- Social Scientifically: working to create and agree on clear descriptions of empirical reality and investigating alternative, testable explanations of that reality. For example, we will consider the realities of and competing explanations for the political behavior of individuals, groups, social movements, organizations, and a variety of institutions and governments.
- Legally: exploring the doctrines and rules that may guide and constrain political practice in the United States. For example, most American governments have stable constitutions and charters, and the Jillson textbook tells us that policy makers enact laws and ordinances within the boundaries of those constitutions and charters. We often say that we in America must abide by "the rule of law," but what does that mean in real life? To what degree does Jillson's claim still hold? The textbook will introduce you to valuable approaches to this and other analytical challenges, and I will regularly supplement that text with additional readings from the political science research literature so you hear a variety of voices in the discipline.
The third goal of this course is to provide an introduction to the study of politics in the United States as a foundation for other things that may matter to you. You may learn to empower yourself to participate in public life during this fraught moment in American history. You may use the course as a gateway to one of several majors at Pomona College. This course counts toward the American politics requirement of a Politics major and several interdisciplinary majors, including Public Policy Analysis (PPA); Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE); and American Studies. I encourage students to bring their interests in these majors into our class discussions, and to remember this course as you continue your work in these majors.
In the context of those course goals, I also have goals for you as students. By the time the semester ends, I hope you have made progress in answering three questions for yourself:
- What do I think is happening?
- How do I know? In other words, what rigorous, reliable tools can I use to get information about what's happening?
- So what? Do my answers to the first two questions connect to interests or values I care about, or that my community or communities care about (however you define "community")?
I want to note at the beginning of our work together that you will likely care about interests or values that are different from mine. That's fine with me. You may also care about interests or values different from those of other students in the class, and that's fine, too. The point of liberal education is liberation - as much as possible to enable and empower you to live the life you choose more fully. As you reflect on that this semester, you may also develop answers to two more questions that carry beyond the scope of this course:
- Do I want to engage in political action based on my answers to the first three questions?
- What actions are likely to be more and less effective in advancing interests and values important to me?
Book and Materials:
I have ordered only one textbook for the course through the Huntley Bookstore:
-
Cal Jillson, American Government: Political Development and Institutional Change, 13th ed., Routledge, 2025. ("Jillson" in the syllabus). Because most of you will be reading a digital copy, I'll try to refer to book sections by their titles rather than by page numbers.
I will often upload supplemental readings (which I'll mark with an *asterisk) on the Claremont Colleges Canvas site or through web links, and I will continue to adapt the syllabus as the semester goes on. I will expect you to mark up those supplemental readings and have them available to refer to during class.
If I assign a refereed journal article, I will show you how to access it using the Claremont Colleges Libraries pages, where you should also download and print them. All of these materials may be considered by Politics majors as candidates for inclusion in their senior "book lists."
Because we will talk about current politics, it would be helpful to you if you regularly read news from diverse and reliable sources. We'll talk about what that means, but you can start with the Associated Press, which is online at https://apnews.com/. You can access The New York Times free when you're online through the Pomona or Claremont Colleges domains. Policy junkies can also access The National Journal from within those domains, and elections junkies can find The National Journal Hotline there as well. I *think* elections junkies can also get access to The Cook Political Report here.
Back to Table of Contents
Politics 3: Introduction to American Politics
Pomona College, Fall 2026
Prof. David Menefee-Libey
Requirements, Evaluations, and Deadlines
Assignments and Grading: This course requires that you complete a variety of assignments, and I will evaluate you in a variety of ways throughout the semester.
1. Class participation (ungraded). The success of the course will depend in part on active participation in our discussions. I want you to do the assignments and prepare yourself to discuss them in class. Being a student in a liberal arts college means you have a responsibility not only to learn for yourself, but to engage and teach each other through observation, questions, comments, constructive criticism and analysis. I will therefore especially value contributions to our discussions which:
- show clear understanding of the readings and subject at hand;
- help to make connections among ideas or readings under consideration, or in some other way focus our analysis of the topic under discussion; or
- help to get us unstuck.
2. Daily questions (20% of the total semester grade). At the beginning of most classes I will ask a question about the readings for the day, then hand out slips of paper for you to write and submit an answer. You'll earn 3 points for simply writing your name, 4 for a minimal or long-winded answer to the question, and 5 for an on-point answer in 50 words or less. Each person can choose two days during the semester when they take a free 5-point pass by writing their name and "pass" on the paper. Daily questions cannot be made up after absences, but I will excuse students for legitimate reasons and give them their semester-average score for days when I've excused them.
3. Quizzes on Canvas (40%). I'll post on Canvas a brief "open book" quiz on each Jillson chapter (and some other readings), which you must complete by the end of the day we discuss that assignment. There will be no final exam.
4. Two short essays (each 20%). You'll write two short (750-word max) essays in which you make a claim related to a specific course reading or two, then provide evidence to support your claim. I'll provide detailed prompts and instructions at least a week before each paper is due.
Academic collaboration and academic honesty: You'll get more out of this class (and every class, tbh) if you study with other people and talk with them about it. I encourage you to do that any time except during the times you do the quizzes.
As always, I also encourage you to read Pomona College's Academic Honesty Policy, which (I hope) you learned about in your ID1 class and which you can find online in the college catalog. We actually do have an honor code, and it's important. Note that #1 on this list is "In projects and assignments prepared independently, students never represent the ideas or the language of others as their own." This applies to generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) apps like ChatGPT and Claude. AI offers fascinating tools that we'll talk about in class, but you should know that they're dumb as a brick about politics and they write shallow papers that tend to get bad grades.
Milestones:
Paper 1 due: Friday, October 9
Paper 2 due: Friday, November 20
There will be no final exam.
Extensions and Grace Days: The quiz and paper deadlines are real. I am, however, generous with extensions. I will only grant them only in advance, so if you need an extension, ask for one. Beyond that, you have three grace days this semester. That is, you have three unconditional extension days (including weekend and break days) to use at any time you want during the term as a quiz or paper deadline extension. For quizzes, you'll have to let me know when you are taking one or more grace days so I can change the deadline setting for you in Canvas.
Resources
1. Friday Afternoon Study Space: I have reserved Carnegie 110 from 2:00 to 4:00 on Friday afternoons for the whole semester starting in Week 2 and ending during Reading Days, and I'll try to be there most Fridays. Partly, it's a help session for one-on-one conversations with Politics and Public Policy Analysis students about their papers, research, thesis projects, and internship issues. Partly, it's just a supportive study space: students are welcome to stay any or all of that time to work on their projects and classes with other PPA and Politics students. It might also turn into a space where we talk about current events and politics - we'll see what students want to do with it.
2. The Library: I'll encourage you to look into course-related issues on your own when you're interested. Though most students do most of their research online alone and unassisted, the Claremont Colleges actually has a library with amazing resources and a staff of trained research librarians who can be of tremendous assistance to you in your work. One of these librarians, Mary Martin, has kindly created an entire resource page on U.S. government at
https://libguides.libraries.claremont.edu/government. Dieter Mackenbach, another librarian there, has created one resource page on public policy at
https://libguides.libraries.claremont.edu/PublicPolicyAnalysis, and another for political science courses at
https://libguides.libraries.claremont.edu/PoliSci.
If you're ever interested in doing research on US politics, I urge you to start there, and to make an individual appointment with Ms. Martin, Mr. Mackenbach, or one of their colleagues. They can help you find things you would never otherwise find, and they can save you countless hours of unnecessary wandering on the Internet. Librarians can also help you with Zotero and with citation challenges.
3. The Sage Fellows Program is available in SCC 228 to help all Pomona students become more effective and efficient learners. This program offers individual academic coaches, weekly drop-in office hours (no appointment required), and workshops designed to help students achieve academic success. Sage Fellows can assist students with: time management; organization; study habits and strategies; reading and note-taking skills; motivation and procrastination; stress management and wellness strategies; and more fully accessing campus resources. Pomona College students may apply to meet with a Sage Fellow by completing the Sage Fellow Meeting Request Form. The Sage Fellow website is: https://www.pomona.edu/administration/sage-fellows-peer-academic-coaches.
4. Accommodations: I welcome every student into my classes, and am committed to the full inclusion of anyone who may need an accommodation based on the impact of disability including mental health, chronic or temporary medical conditions. I recognize that the challenges facing students are different and student accommodation needs may change. I encourage Pomona students who may need some accommodation in order to fully participate in this class to contact Pomona College's Accesibility Resources and Services office, or call the Dean of Students office at (909) 621-8017. (Students from the other Claremont Colleges should contact their home college's disability resources officer.) The Dean will review your concerns and determine, with you, what accommodations are necessary and appropriate. All discussions, information, and documentation of disability are confidential.
Back to Table of Contents
Politics 3: Introduction to American Politics
Pomona College, Fall 2026
Prof. David Menefee-Libey
Class Schedule and Assignments
Note 1: Readings for each day are listed below the date.
Note 2: Readings with an *asterisk are posted in the Files folder on the course Canvas site. Refereed journal articles should be accessed through the Claremont Colleges Library web pages, where you should download them (and enter them into your Zotero bibliographic database!).
Note 3: I may modify this schedule as we go along. If I do, I will post updates online, so you should always check the online syllabus before you start reading.
- Week 1: August 31-September 4
-
Monday: Opening day: Overview of the course, assignments, PERMs, etc
- » This syllabus
-
Wednesday: Class norms
- » *DML, Class Discussion Norms
- » *Bartholomae & Petrosky, "Reading With and Against the Grain," Adapted from David Bartholomae and Anthony Petrosky, eds., Ways of Reading, 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2008, 10-12.
-
Friday: Something is happening in the US right now. How can you figure out what you think it might be and how you might respond to it?
- » *DML, "Intro to American Politics, Opening Day" PowerPoint (I'll walk through this in class.)
- » Jedediah Britton-Purdy & David Pozen, "What Are We Living Through? Three competing narratives of the second Trump administration," The Boston Review, October 15, 2025. Online at https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/what-are-we-living-through/
- Week 2: September 7-11
-
Monday: Labor Day. No class meeting
- » If you're curious, there's a brief article about the holiday (and why the US has been celebrating it in September instead of May Day since 1894) at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_Day
-
Wednesday: What is Artificial Intelligence? How will we engage it in this course?
- » Inie, Emily M. Bender, Nanna. “We Need to Talk About How We Talk About ‘AI.’” Tech Policy Press, January 7, 2026. Online at https://techpolicy.press/we-need-to-talk-about-how-we-talk-about-ai.
- » Bandam, Rambabu. “Cognitive Offloading: How AI is Quietly Eroding Our Critical Thinking.” IEEE Computer Society, July 28, 2025. Online at https://www.computer.org/publications/tech-news/trends/cognitive-offloading.
-
Friday: Starting in on the Jillson textbook: the authors' core interests, especially the notion of "American Political Development" or APD.
- » Jillson, preface and Ch. 1, “The Origins of American Political Principles”
- » Be sure to do the chapter quiz on Canvas before the end of the day!
- Week 3: September 14-18
-
Monday: Thinking "comparatively" about the United States and its governments
- » *Dickovick, J. Tyler, Jonathan Eastwood, Robin M. LeBlanc, and Zoila Ponce de León Seijas. “Chapter 3: The State.” In Comparative Politics: Integrating Theories, Methods, and Cases, Fourth edition. Oxford University Press, 2023, 54-65.
- » Be sure to do the chapter quiz on Canvas before the end of the day!
-
Wednesday: "The Founding" as a central idea and narrative in the United States
- » Jillson, Ch. 2, “The Revolution and the Constitution”
- » Be sure to do the chapter quiz on Canvas before the end of the day!
-
Friday: Americans disagree about the meaning of the United States
- » *Schmitt, Eric [Missouri State Senator]. “What Is an American? Remarks as Prepared for the National Conservatism Conference in Washington, DC.” The Daily Signal, September 2, 2025. https://www.dailysignal.com/2025/09/02/schmitt-what-is-an-american/.
- » *Edsall, Thomas B. “Opinion | ‘Gut-Level Hatred’ Is Consuming Our Political Life.” Opinion. The New York Times, July 19, 2023. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/19/opinion/polarization-nationalism-patriotism-history.html.
- » [Optional, but important because Vance gave these remarks as Vice President of the United States] *Vance, J.D. “Statesmanship Award Acceptance Speech, The Claremont Institute.” My source for this document is a transcription by S. Pangambam in The Singju Post, July 10, 2025. You can find it online at https://singjupost.com/transcript-jd-vances-speech-at-the-claremont-institutes-statesmanship-award-event/, but the document on Canvas includes my corrections to mistakes in the transcription.
- » [Optional, by an academic historian.] *Zimmer, Thomas. “What Is America, and for Whom?” Substack newsletter. Democracy Americana, July 26, 2025. https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/what-is-america-and-for-whom.
- Week 4: September 21-25
-
Monday: Civic nationalism and ethno-nationalism
- » *Dickovick et al, Chapter 13, "Nationalism and National Identity," 341-351.
- » *PRRI. "Christian Nationalism Across All 50 States: Insights from PRRI’s 2024 American Values Atlas." Public Religion Research Institute, 2025. https://prri.org/research/christian-nationalism-across-all-50-states-insights-from-prris-2024-american-values-atlas/.
- » Be sure to do the chapter quiz on Canvas before the end of the day!
-
Wednesday: Federalism as one of the defining features of the US governmental system
- » Jillson Ch. 3, “Federalism and American Political Development”
- » Be sure to do the chapter quiz on Canvas before the end of the day!
-
Friday: An important but unsuccessful reworking of federalism after the Civil War
- » *Foner, Eric. 2019. "Introduction: Origins of the Second Founding." In The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution, 1-20. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company.
- » *Foner, "Toward Equality: The Fourteenth Amendment." Chapter 2 of ibid, 55-92. (Note: this is a lot of reading, but it's worth it.)
- » [A very good recent book on the violent 1865-1977 struggle over and collapse of Reconstruction, if you want to pursue this topic further on your own. It's absolutely not assigned.] Daly, John Patrick. The War After the War: A New History of Reconstruction. The University of Georgia Press, 2022.
- Week 5: September 28-October 2
-
Monday: Limits on governmental power: Civil Liberties
- » Jillson, Ch. 13, “Civil Liberties: Ordered Liberty in America”
- » Be sure to do the chapter quiz on Canvas before the end of the day!
-
Wednesday: Three different kinds of political "power"
- » *Gaventa, John. 1982. “Power and Participation.” In Power and Powerlessness. Quiescence and Rebellion in an Appalachian Valley, 3–32. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press. Especially pp. 3-20.
-
Friday: Instructions for Paper 1
- » No readings assigned. I'll hand out the paper prompts in class.
-
Week 6: October 5-9
-
Monday: Obligations of government: Civil Rights
- » Jillson, Ch. 14, “Civil Rights: Where Liberty and Equality Collide”
- » Be sure to do the chapter quiz on Canvas before the end of the day!
- » For a good current exemplar, see this from Donald Trump's first term as president: *Lind, Dara. “Denaturalization, Explained: How Trump Can Strip Immigrants of Their Citizenship | Vox.” Vox, July 18, 2018. https://www.vox.com/2018/7/18/17561538/denaturalization-citizenship-task-force-janus.
- » [Optional, from the document commonly known as "Project 2025"] *Dans, Paul, and Steven Groves, eds. Mandate for Leadership 2025: The Conservative Promise. The Heritage Foundation, 2023, pp. 138-153. https://ia600505.us.archive.org/23/items/project-2025-mandate-for-leadership-full_202309-manifesto/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf.
-
Wednesday: Looking beyond an elite-focused approach to the US political system and how it has changed over time
- » *Francis, Megan Ming. 2018. “The Strange Fruit of American Political Development.” Politics, Groups, and Identities 6 (1): 1–10.
-
Friday: What do Americans know, think, believe about politics and government and why?
- » Jillson, Ch. 4, “Political Socialization and Public Opinion”
- » Be sure to do the chapter quiz on Canvas before the end of the day!
- » DEADLINE: Paper 1 due to be uploaded by the end of the day.
- Week 7: October 12-16
-
Monday: Some recent interesting research on public opinion
- » *Thorson, Emily A. Ch. 1, "Introduction: Misperceptions that matter" and Ch. 2, "The contours of the invented state" from The Invented State: Policy Misperceptions in the American Public. Oxford University Press, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197512326.001.0001.
- » [Optional] *Oreskes, Naomi, and Erik M. Conway. “From Anti-Government to Anti-Science: Why Conservatives Have Turned Against Science.” Daedalus 151, no. 4 (2022): 98–123. https://doi.org/10.1162/daed_a_01946.
- » [Optional] *Holliday, Derek E., Yphtach Lelkes, and Sean J. Westwood. “Why Depolarization Is Hard: Evaluating Attempts to Decrease Partisan Animosity in America.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 122, no. 39 (2025): e2508827122. Available online at https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2508827122.
-
Wednesday: How does and APD scholar think about the media?
- » Jillson, Ch. 5, “Mass Media and the Political Agenda”
- » Be sure to do the chapter quiz on Canvas before the end of the day!
-
Friday: Are we in a period of "democratic backsliing?"
- » *Druckman, James N. “How to Study Democratic Backsliding.” Political Psychology 45, no. S1 (2024): 3–42. https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12942.
- » Look at the indicators of democratic resilience and backsliding developed by Bright Line Watch here: https://brightlinewatch.org/ "A multi-university initiative called Bright Line Watch was established in late 2016 to monitor democratic practices, their resilience, and potential threats. It is housed at the Chicago Center on Democracy, and is collaboratively run by political scientists at the University of Chicago, Dartmouth College, the University of Michigan, and the University of Rochester." You can find their reports at https://democracy.uchicago.edu/blw/. (Full disclosure: I have participated as an expert in these surveys from the first one in February 2017.)
- » *Berlatsky, Noah. “‘Competitive Authoritarianism’ and America’s Slide toward It.” July 10, 2025. https://www.publicnotice.co/p/competitive-authoritarianism-trump-orban. Offers a compararative view.
- Week 8: October 19-23
-
Monday: Fall Break - no class
- » no readings assigned
-
Wednesday: The institutions of the US Constitution, part 1: Congress
- » Jillson, ch. 9, "Congress: Partisanship, Polarization, and Gridlock"
- » Hold off on doing the chapter quiz until the next class
-
Friday: Thinking about politics as strategic: people solving problems or seeking goals (but pay attention to *which* people!)
- » *Schattschneider, E. E. 1960. Ch. “The Contagiousness of Conflict.” In The Semisovereign People: A Realist’s View of Democracy in America, 1–19. Hinsdale, Ill: Dryden Press. [If you want more, Ch. 4, "The Displacement of Conflicts," is also famous.]
- » *López, Gerardo R. 2003. “The (Racially Neutral) Politics of Education: A Critical Race Theory Perspective.” Educational Administration Quarterly 39 (1), especially pp. 77-82.
-
Week 9: October 26-30
-
Monday: Congress as a collection of politicians
- » Jillson, ch. 9, "Congress" again
- » Be sure to do the chapter quiz on Canvas before the end of the day!
-
Wednesday: The textbook version of "The Presidency" and presidential power
- » Jillson Ch. 10: “The President: Executive Power in a Separation of Powers Regime”
- » Hold off on doing the chapter quiz until after the next class
-
Friday: Donald Trump as an unusually - but not uniquely - ambitious president in his use of power
- » *Edsall, Thomas B. “Opinion | The Mind-Boggling Intrusiveness of Donald J. Trump.” The New York Times, August 19, 2025. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/19/opinion/trump-intrusion-lincoln-roosevelt.html.
- » *French, David. “One Sentence in the Constitution Is Causing America Huge Problems.” Opinion. The New York Times, August 21, 2025. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/21/opinion/trump-constitution-unitary-executive.html. Though he objects to it, French offers a good terse overview of the "unitary executive" interpretation of the Constitution that Trump administration officials use to justify the president's expanded powers.
- Week 10: November 2-6
-
Monday: The presidency as an evolving institution
- » Jillson, Ch. 10, "The President"
- » Be sure to do the chapter quiz on Canvas before the end of the day!
-
Wednesday: Much of the "permanent government" and "deep state" are in the executive branch
- » Jillson, Ch. 11, “Bureaucracy: Redesigning Government for the Twenty-First Century”
- » Be sure to do the chapter quiz on Canvas before the end of the day!
- » [Optional, Davies' insight that while bureaucracies can build capacity for governments (and companies and civil society organizations) to solve problems, they can also be built to prevent accountability.] *Davies, Dan. The Unaccountability Machine: Why Big Systems Make Terrible Decisions-and How the World Lost Its Mind. The University of Chicago Press, 2025.
- » Be sure to do the chapter quiz on Canvas before the end of the day!
-
Friday: "The Deep State" and its nemesis.
- » *MacGillis, Alec. “The Man Behind Project 2025’s Most Radical Plans.” ProPublica, August 1, 2024. Available free on line at https://www.propublica.org/article/project-2025-trump-campaign-heritage-foundation-paul-dans.
- » Readings TBA
- » [Optional] Moynihan, Don. “Your Government Is Breaking: EPA Edition.” Substack newsletter. Can We Still Govern?, September 3, 2025. Available free online at this link: https://donmoynihan.substack.com/p/your-government-is-breaking-epa-edition.
- Week 11: November 9-13
-
Monday: What is a court? How do they work at the federal level?
- » Jillson, Ch. 12, “The Federal Courts: Bulwark of the Constitution?”
- » Hold off on doing the chapter quiz until after Wednesday's class
-
Wednesday: Federal courts as interpreters of the Constitution
- » Jillson, Ch. 12, "The Federal Courts"
- » Be sure to do the chapter quiz on Canvas before the end of the day!
-
Friday: Paper 2 assignment discussion
- » I'll post the paper prompts on Canvas by today.
- Week 12: November 16-20
-
Monday: Institutionalized collective action
- » Jillson, Ch. 6, “Interest Groups”
- » Be sure to do the chapter quiz on Canvas before the end of the day!
-
Wednesday: People talk about the rise of White supremacy. What's that?
- » *Beltrán, Cristina. "Introduction: Immigration, Latinos, and the Politics of the White Racial Imaginary" in Cruelty as Citizenship: How Migrant Suffering Sustains White Democracy. Project Muse, 2020, 1-32. [For her view of the Founding and territorial expansion, see Ch. 1, "Freedom on the Frontier: White Democracy and America’s Revolutionary Spirit," 33-64.]
-
Friday: Parties and partisanship in the electorate
- » Jillson, Ch. 7, "Political Parties"
- » Wait to do the chapter quiz on Canvas before until next Monday.
- » DEADLINE: Paper 2 due to be uploaded by the end of the day today.
- Week 13: November 23-27
-
Monday: Parties in the US political system; Parties as mediators of the US election system
- » Jillson, Ch. 7, “Political Parties: Winning the Right to Govern”
- » Be sure to do the chapter quiz on Canvas before the end of the day!
-
Wednesday and Friday: Thanksgiving Break - No class
- » no readings assigned, of course
- Week 14: November 30-December 4
-
Monday: Elections and legitimacy
- » Jillson, Ch. 8, "Voting, Campaigns, and Elections"
- » Wait until Friday to do the chapter quiz on Canvas
-
Wednesday: People talk about corruption. How do we define that? Is this it?
- » *Baker, Paula, Mary Berry, Daniel Czitrom, et al. “Interchange: Corruption Has a History.” Journal of American History 105, no. 4 (2019): 912–38. [Skim, looking for how much these historians struggle to define what corruption *is*. Look at how different their examples are.]
- » Reading TBA.
-
Friday: Elections in the US political system
- » Jillson, Ch. 8, “Voting, Campaigns, and Elections”
- » Be sure to do this last chapter quiz on Canvas before the end of the day!
-
Week 15: December 7-11
-
Monday: Reflection on the big questions
- » Identify a single reading you found most helpful or interesting, and come to class ready to discuss it.
-
Wednesday: Reflections on the semester, and how to make the course better next time.
- » Readings: this syllabus
Back to Table of Contents
Last modified: August 30, 2026