Political Participation
Department of Political Science
Professor: Aaron Sparks
Email: [email protected]
Office: TBD
Office hours: TBD
Course Description
This is an upper-division survey course on political participation in the United States. As un upperdivision course it is reading intensive and students are expected to attend class prepared to discuss
the reading in-depth by providing critical, synthetic analysis. Readings will cover the normative
aspects of democratic participation, assess how well current participation achieves democratic ideals.
As such, the assigned readings will cover a broad range of empirical research.
Special attention will be given to the methodology applied by researcher. Research designs will be
assessed critically and students will be encouraged to think about better ways to answer the
questions posed in the readings.
Course outcomes
1. Understand normative prescriptions made by democratic theory
2. Ability to place current levels of participation within the context of democratic theory
3. Synthesize literature to identify trends and gaps in current understanding of participation
4. Apply research findings to real world scenarios
5. Conduct research project on under-studied aspect of political participation
Required books:
Putnam. 2000. Bowling Alone.
Leighley and Nagler. 2013. Who Votes Now?
Schlozman, Verba, & Brady. 2012.The Unheavenly Chorus
Sinclair. 2012. The Social Citizen
Sheingate. 2015. Building a Business of Politics
Aldrich. 1995. Why Parties?
Lawless. 2010. It Still Takes a Candidate
Garcia-Bedolla & Michelson. 2012. Mobilizing Inclusion
Bartels and Achen. 2016. Democracy for Realists
Han. 2014. How Organizations Develop Activists
Additional required articles and topical readings will be posted to the course website.
Prerequisites: Political Research Methods, American Government, Comparative Politics (suggested)
Course Policies
Students are expected and required to actively participate in class discussions. Attendance is
mandatory and will be recorded. Assigned readings should be completed in advance of lecture and
students will come prepared to discuss the concepts. Use of cellular phones or other electronic
devices, unless otherwise stated, is highly frowned upon and may result in the deduction of
participation points.
Assignments are submitted online via the course website as a Word document by the time and date
on the syllabus. Late assignments will be deducted half a letter grade per day. Word documents are
required because they allow for feedback and comments to be made using the track changes
function.
Academic honesty is taken very seriously. Plagiarism is not worth it! Cases of academic dis-honesty
will be subject to the campus judicial committee.
Writing Guidelines:
Make your writing lively and interesting. That means:
* Short, simple sentences are always better than long, complicated ones.
* In nearly every case, the active voice is preferable to the passive voice.
* Direct, concrete statements are better than vague, indirect statements.
* Make your writing specific – who are 'they' and what are 'these'?
* Write for an audience that consists of educated generalists who are unfamiliar with the
topic, not for your professor. Along those lines, avoid jargon.
* Take the time to write an outline and a draft in advance, so you have time to revise and
edit. When you’re editing, try reading your essay out loud. Eliminate unnecessary words.
* Make your topic (first) sentences and your thesis to be as strong as possible. Your topic
sentences are particularly important in your opening paragraph and conclusion. Put these
sentences into the active voice. Write your thesis, and then edit it. And then edit it again.
*Avoid dramatic writing, clichés, and overuse of metaphors. Instead, provide evidence for
your arguments (and cite it).
Grading and assignments
Midterms
This course has three ‘midterm’ exams held every 4 weeks. Exams will cover all the material
since the preceding exam. The midterm exams are not cumulative, but students should be
prepared to build material that was covered previously in the course. The format is primarily
essay-based. Students are expected to synthesize the readings and provide critical analysis.
Keep in mind the major theoretical contribution the piece makes and how it is
contextualized with the other readings. A list of citations will be provided on the exam, but
students will need to accurately match the citation with the theory and argument that is made
in the reading. Midterm #2 & 3 will ask you to apply the findings from research to the real
world.
Research Paper
Throughout the semester, students will work on a thorough and detailed research design or
original research project. Each student will decide on a topic of interest within the broad
field of political participation. A thorough review of the literature is necessary, including
sources that are not included on the syllabus, although using the course readings is
encouraged.
Based on the literature review, the paper should examine an interesting puzzle that is not
well understood by the current research on the topic. To do this, you must consider what the
literature says on the question, what gap in the literature has not been addressed, and why
that puzzle matters for advancing democracy.
Based on the research question – the puzzle – students will develop and ideally implement a
research design that is suited to answer the question. Special attention must be given to why
that research design can answer the question.
Students will be graded on the quality and originality of their work. A detailed rubric will be
provided for the research paper. Specific requirements will be discussed in class. Students
must attend office hours to get approval of their topic.
Final Exam
The final exam is comprehensive of the entire semester. Students must be able to associate
each reading with the major theoretical contribution it makes while placing it in conversation
with several others. The primary question to be considered is, ‘given what we have learned
about democracy and current levels of participation, where do we (in the US) go from here?’
You will be expected to draw from at least 10 sources and advance a polemical thesis with
evidence. More details will be provided in the weeks leading up to the exam.
Exam dates, assignment deadlines, and grade breakdown
Week, day
Assignment
Time
Date (TBD)
Percent of grade
Week 4, Tuesday
Midterm 1
In class
10%
Week 8, Thursday
Midterm 2
In class
10%
Week 12, Monday
Midterm 3
In class
10%
Week 14, Friday
Research Paper
Midnight
30%
Finals Week
Final Exam
25%
Daily
Quizzes
Exam
period
In class
Daily
Attendance &
Participation
In class
10%
5%
Sections and assigned readings
*additional readings may be assigned in each section to provide greater depth and/or context to the
concept being covered.
Section 1: Democratic Theory
Week 1 – Selections from Aristotle, Schumpeter, Rousseau, Dewey, & Habermas
Section 2: Democratic decline?
Week 2 – Putnam, 2000. Bowling Alone (entire book)
Section 3: Structure
Week 3 – Aldrich, 1995. Why Parties?
Week 4 – Sheingate, 2015. Building a Business of Politics
Section 4: Mobilization
Week 5 – Leighley & Nagler. 2013. Who Votes Now?
Week 6 – articles on GOTV
- Who is Mobiized to Vote? Arceneaux and NIckerson 2009, AJPS
- Vavreck, Enos, Fowler: meta analysis of GOTV studies
- Stephen Ansolabehere and Eitan Hersh. 2013. “Gender, Race, Age and Voting: A Research Note.”
Politics and Governance. 1 (2): 132-13
Section 5: Models of Participation
Week 7 Week 8 - SVB, 2012. The Unheavely Chorus (1st half)
Week 9 - SVB, 2012. The Unheavely Chorus (2nd half)
Week 10 - Sinclair, 2012. The Social Citizen
Week 11 – Han. 2014. How Organizations Develop Activists
- Han, H. 2016. “The organizational roots of political activism.” APSR
Section 6: Creating Power
Week 12 – Selected articles:
- Hetland and Goodwin, The Strange Disappearance of Capitalism from Social Movement Studies;
- Walder, Political Sociology and Social Movements;
- Buechler, Social Movements in Advanced Capitalism
- Selections from: Lis Clemens: The People's Lobby and Politics and Partnerships
Section 7: Elite Participation
Week 13 – Garcia Bedolla & Michelson, 2012. Mobilizing Inclusion
Week 14 – Lawless. 2010. It Still Takes a Candidate
Section 8: Comparative Participation
Week 15 – Selected articles:
Section 9: Democracy now?
Week 16 - Bartels and Achen, 2016. Democracy for Realists
- Jackman, Robert W.. 1987. Political Institutions and Voter Turnout in the Industrial
Democracies, American Political Science Review, Vol. 81, No. 2: 405-424.
- Powell, Jr., G. Bingham. 1986. American Voter Turnout in Comparative Perspective, The
American Political Science Review, Vol. 80, No. 1: 17-43.
- Blaise, Andre and R. K. Carty. 1990. Does proportional representation foster voter turnout?
European Journal of Political Research Vol. 18 Issue 2 Page 167
- Schaffer, Frederic C.. 2002. Might Cleaning Up Elections Keep People Away from the Polls?
Historical and Comparative Perspectives. International Political Science Review, 23:1, 69–84
- Mijeong, Baek. 2009. "A Comparative Analysis of Political Communication Systems and
Voter Turnout." American Journal of Political Science 53 (2):376-93.
Course Section
Democratic Theory
Democratic
decline?
Structure
Structure
Mobilization
Mobilization
Models of
participation
Models of
participation
Models of
participation
Models of
participation
Models of
participation
Creating power
Elite participation
Week
1
2
Elite participation
Comparative
participation
Democracy now?
14
15
Date
Topic
The democratic ideal
Joining and social capital
3
4
5
6
7
Interest Groups & Parties
Campaign business
Who votes?
GOTV
Rational choice
8
Civic Voluntarism
9
Civic Voluntarism
10
Social model
11
Organizational strategies
12
13
Social movements
Racial ethnic minorities in
politics
Women in politics
The US and other Western
democracies
Realist democracy
16