Political Science 342 Howard Reiter

Political Parties and the Electorate Fall 2006

If you would like to see me in my office, please talk to me during the class break or contact Jennifer Fontanella at 486-2440. My phone number is 486-2440, my e-mail address is howard.reiter@uconn.edu, and my website is http://www.polisci.uconn.edu/Pages/People/Faculty%20Pages/Reiter/Reiter.htm.

If there are any students in this class who have special needs because of learning disabilities or other kinds of disabilities, please feel free to come and discuss this with me.

The following paperbacks are in the Co-op and are required for purchase. Other required readings are on WebCT Vista.

Russell J. Dalton and Martin P. Wattenberg, eds., Parties without Partisans

Anthony Downs, An Economic Theory of Democracy

Bruce E. Keith et al., The Myth of the Independent Voter

Theodore J. Lowi and Joseph Romance, A Republic of Parties?

David R. Mayhew, Electoral Realignments

Sidney M. Milkis, Political Parties and Constitutional Government

Joel H. Silbey, The American Political Nation 1838-1893

Martin P. Wattenberg, The Decline of American Political Parties 1952-1996

I. General Overview

September 6: Approaches and Rationales for Party

Leon D. Epstein, "The Scholarly Commitment to Parties," in Ada W. Finifter, ed., Political Science: The State of the

Discipline, pp. 127-153

James Madison, excerpts from two essays on parties

Giovanni Sartori, Parties and Party Systems, pp. 24-29

V. O. Key, Jr., Southern Politics, pp. 15-18, 298-311

Anthony King, "Political Parties in Western Democracies," Polity II (Winter 1969), 111-141

Two Approaches to Party

Thomas Ferguson, "Deduced and Abandoned," in Golden Rule, pp. 377-419

John H. Aldrich, Why Parties?, pp. 3-27

September 13: The Rational Actor Approach

Anthony Downs, An Economic Theory of Democracy

September 20: The Normative Debate

"Toward a More Responsible Two-Party System," Supplement to the American Political Science Review XLIV

(September 1950), pp. 1-14 (and skim the rest)

Evron M. Kirkpatrick, "Toward a More Responsible Two-Party System," American Political Science Review LXV

(December 1971), 965-990

Edward C. Banfield, "In Defense of the American Party System," in Robert A. Goldwin, ed., Political Parties,

U.S.A., pp. 21-39

James Q. Wilson, The Amateur Democrat, pp. 1-4, 340-360

James L. Sundquist, "Party Decay and the Capacity to Govern," in The American Assembly, The Future of

American Political Parties, pp. 42-69

Lawrence B. Joseph, "Neoconservatism in Contemporary Political Science," Journal of Politics XLIV (November

1982), 955-982

Theodore J. Lowi and Joseph Romance, A Republic of Parties?, pp. 3-76

II. The Development of American Political Parties

September 27: Nineteenth Century Origins

Walter Dean Burnham, "The Changing Shape of the American Political Universe," American Political Science

Review LIX (March 1965), 7-28

William Nisbet Chambers, "Party Development in the American Mainstream," in William Nisbet Chambers and

Walter Dean Burnham, eds., The American Party Systems, pp. 3-32

Joel H. Silbey, The American Political Nation 1838-1893

October 4: Twentieth Century Developments

Sidney M. Milkis, Political Parties and Constitutional Government

October 11: Realignment or What?

Walter Dean Burnham, "Party Systems and the Political Process," in William Nisbet Chambers and Walter Dean

Burnham, eds., The American Party Systems, pp. 277-307

David Mayhew, Electoral Realignments

(DON'T FORGET TO PRESENT YOUR TOPIC TODAY)

III. Mass Attitudes and Behavior

October 18: Party Decline: Pro

Martin P. Wattenberg, The Decline of American Political Parties 1952-1996

October 25: Party Decline: Con

Bruce E. Keith et al., The Myth of the Independent Voter

Marc J. Hetherington, "Resurgent Mass Partisanship: The Role of Elite Polarization," American Political Science

Review XCV (September 2001), 619-631

IV. Other Subjects

November 8: Party Organization

Maurice Duverger, Political Parties, pp. 17-40

Joseph A. Schlesinger, "Introduction: A Theory of Political Parties," in Political Parties and the Winning of Office,

pp. 1-31

M. Margaret Conway, "Republican Political Party Nationalization, Campaign Activities, and Their Implications for

the Party System," Publius XIII (Winter 1983), 1-17

Cornelius P. Cotter and John F. Bibby, "Institutional Development of Parties and the Thesis of Party Decline,"

Political Science Quarterly XCV (Spring 1980), 1-27

Cornelius P. Cotter et al., Party Organizations in American Politics, pp. 13-60

David Mayhew, Placing Parties in American Politics, pp. 17-23, 238-307

Paul S. Herrnson, Party Campaigning in the 1980s, pp. 1-29, 47-83,120-130

John Aldrich, Why Parties?, pp. 241-296

November 15: Young Scholars on Other Topics

One of the following:

Paul Frymer, Uneasy Alliances (race and party)

John Gerring, Party Ideologies in America, 1828-1996

Scott James, Presidents, Parties, and the State (regulatory policy and elections)

Kira Sanbonmatsu, Democrats, Republicans, and the Politics of Women's Place

November 29: The Comparative Approach

Russell J. Dalton and Martin P. Wattenberg, eds., Parties without Partisans

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

There are three components of the grade in this course: class participation (40% of final grade), a take-home final essay (30%), and a short research paper (30%).

The paper will be due in class on December 6, and it will be an original work of empirical research. This means that it will not be a summary of what others have written on a subject, or a theoretical piece, but instead will involve your own research into primary sources. This might involve such sources as legislative votes, party platforms, campaign debates, speeches, campaign finance data, media coverage of events, election returns, public opinion surveys, interviews with political actors, party convention activities, judicial decisions, primary and caucus returns, etc. The subject can be anything of pertinence to this course, but it must be discussed with me by the end of September.

The paper need not be long, but like any good work of empirical research it must include the following: (1) a statement of why the subject is significant (and especially why it is of interest to people who are interested in politics but not necessarily American political parties), (2) one or more hypotheses -- statements of what you started out expecting to find, and why, (3) how and why the particular body of material was selected (and shortcomings in the data), (4) the findings (presented clearly), and (5) implications both for the issues raised under (1), and for future research. A brief review of what others have found on this or related subjects would be useful, if such research exists.

On October 13, be prepared to present a brief (no more than five minutes!) summary of your topic to the class.

On Tuesday, October 31, a draft of the paper, comprising items (1) and (2) above, and a review of the literature, must be placed in my mailbox in room 137 by 4 PM.

SUGGESTED TOPICS

These are presented only as possibilities, to get your mind going. Within each paragraph, any one question would be adequate as a topic. Please present your own ideas, if they grab you more.

(1) Have the parties split on roll-call votes on a particular issue in Congress or the Connecticut legislature? Has the partisan nature of an issue changed over time? Is one issue more partisan than another?

(2) Have party platforms been far apart on a particular issue? Has the partisan nature of an issue changed over time? Is one issue more partisan than another?

(3) Is campaign money spent on different purposes by different partisans, in Congressional or state legislative elections? Do the sources of funds differ by party? Does incumbency affect these patterns? Have these patterns changed over time?

(4) Do the mass media -- newspapers, news magazines, broadcast media (if you can get the data for the latter) -- cover parties and campaigns differently from the past? Do different media show different degrees of bias?

(5) What patterns can we find in election returns, in terms of ticket-splitting, turnout, or how well each party does? Are there identifiable geographic patterns? Have they changed over time? (These questions can be applied to any historical period.)

(6) What do public opinion surveys tell us about attitudes toward parties, candidates, the electoral process, etc.? How do social groups differ on these questions? How have attitudes changed over time? (Such topics are to be chosen only if you are familiar with the methodology of survey analysis.)

(7) How have the courts handled issues related to parties and elections?

(8) Do the same states line up similarly over the years in presidential primaries, caucuses, or at the national convention? What kinds of states are in each group?