Most political scholars express concern over the current state of American politics and the increasing "disconnect" between institutional processes and citizens, most pronounced for those under the age of 30. Much of this lack of interest and participation is attributed to the "citizen gap"-the feeling of the average citizen that the workings of government are disconnected from his/her concerns. What seems most puzzling is that this malaise of civic involvement is occurring in an era in citizens seem to have the potential to have more of an impact upon the political process than ever before; communication technology gives citizens immediate access to news and information, public polling almost continuously seeks to gauge the attitudes of the electorate, election laws have been refined to make it easier to participate, and campaigns are beginning earlier and are more sophisticated in the marketing techniques they use to persuade voters. Despite these concerted efforts to reach out to voters, member of the public turn out in fewer and fewer numbers every election cycle at a time in which public policy choices have far-reaching implications and impacts on the lives of citizens.
In this class, we will explore some of the dimensions that underlie
this
disjuncture between the mass public and the institutions and
policy-makers
designed to serve them and represent the public interest. We will also
examine
the implications for the workings of a political system which no
longer
operates with a mass public mandate as well as look into the
types
of political behaviors which have become more frequent in this
political
context. One thing that seems very clear is that we need to
re-think
our conventional views of political activity and attitudes in light of
the
structural changes our political system is undergoing.
Week 1 (January
21,2009)
The crisis of American democracy d
PBS 2004. NOW
Report- How We Vote.
Owens, Rod. 2003. Apathy? Not Quite.
Week 2 (January
28,2009)
Civil Society, Social capital, & "virtual" communities
Socialization & Connection to Political Institutions
Putnam, Robert. 1996. The Strange
Disappearance of Civic America
London, Scott. 2000. Civic Networks:
Building Community on the Net
Boyd,
Danah. 2006. Facebook's
Privacy Trainwreck: Exposure, Invasion, Drama.
Expressions of Public Opinion
Polling vs. deliberation
Yankovitch, Daniel. 1992. The Seven Stages of
Public Opinion
Civics Practices
Network 1999. Deliberative Democracy
notes for
week 3- public opinion and its formation
first set
of response questions- due 2/11/09
Week 4 (February
11, 2009)
Generational
Differences & Effects
Keeter, Scott. 2006 Politics
and the Dotnet Generation
Sullivan,
Lisa. 1999. Shock
the Vote
Broder, John. 2007. Shushing
the Baby Boomers
notes for
week 4, generational effects
Week 5 (February
18, 2009)
Merging of
Politics/Culture hh
Jameson 1999. Post-Modernism
or the
Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism
Theroux, Paul. 2005. The
Rock Star's Burden
Vargas. 2007. Obama
making Friends on the Web
Media
Access Project: 2004. Media
Access Overview- Diversity and Ownership
Excerpts: McChesney, Robert. 1998. Rich Media, Poor
Democracy
AJR. March 2009. Investigative Teem
Copps, Michael. 2009. Time
to Include the Internet in Public Interest Dialogue
notes for
week 7- media consolidation
response
questions, set 2, due 3/11/09
week 8 (March 11, 2009)
broadband policy and digital democracy
December 2008. New
Coalition Works on National Broadband Policy
Week (
March
18, 2009)
Government Censorship & Regulationd
Heins, Marjorie. 2003.The
Strange Case of Sarah Jones
Rich, Frank. 2005. The Paradox of
the Indecency
Campaign
Free Expression Project 2006. FCC Faces
Judicial Challenges to "Indecency" Regime
spring break, 3/25/09
Week 12 (April 15, 2009)
Political
Persuasion
and Political Campaigns
Sanes,
Ken. 2000. Faking It
Snow, Nancy. 2005. Ten
Things Everyone Should Know About Propaganda
The Role
of Money in
Politics: the merging of market/political
Bi-Partisan Campaign Reform
Act 2002 (text)
Gora, Joel and Peter J. Wallison. 3/2001. If Soft Money
Goes, Then So Does Free Speech
Mann, Thomas. 2004. So Far, So
Good on Campaign Finance Reform
Kidder, Rushworth. 2007. Toothpick Ethics
NYTIMES. 2007. Running For Dollars
Political
Participation: Conventional & Unconventional:
2004.
Academic Turns City Into Social Experiment
notes on
political participation
response
questions, due 4/29/09
Week 14
(April 29, 2009)
Unconventional
Behavior-Social Movements & Extremist groups
Martin Luther King,
Jr. 1964. Letter
From a
Birmingham Jail
Burke,
Barry and Mark
Smith. 2001. Gramsci
and Informal Education
Barcott,
Bruce.
4/7/02. From
Tree-Hugger to Terrorist
notes for
4/29/09
Week 14 (May 6,
2009)
Uniting the insiders with
the outsiders