Oberlin College
Department of Politics
Politics 103: Political Change in America
Fall Semester, 1997 Mr. Kahn, Rice 232
Office Hours: MW: 3:30-4:30 Phone Numbers: (O) 775-8495;
F: 3:30-5:00 (H) 774-1670
Lecture Classes: MW 11:00-12:15 Discussion Sections on Friday;
King 106 10:00-10:50, Wilder 211
fkahn@alpha.cc.oberlin.edu 11:00-11:50, Griswold Lounge
2:30- 3:20, Griswold Lounge
The primary objective of this course is to gain an understanding of the institutions of the American political and legal systems and their impact on political, social, and economic change. In so doing we will study the ability of interest groups, Congress, the Presidency, politics and political parties, bureaucracies, and the states to define and meet the major problems facing our nation. Special emphasis will be placed on the role of the Supreme Court and constitutional law on political and social change.
In order to fulfill this primary objective, we must explore the major perspectives (interpretations) that are held by scholars, public officials, and the informed citizenry about the role of political institutions and courts in our political system. These include pluralist and critical pluralist interpretations of American politics and a constitutive approach to the Supreme Court and legal change. These changing perspectives influence the standards for evaluating American politics, institutions, and courts, the definition of problems in our society, and proposals to solve these problems. They also inform how elected officials, judges, and citizens interact with each other and whether their actions are viewed as legitimate.
We also explore how interpretations of American politics differ with regard to their view of the important relationship between economics and government, as compared with pluralist, critical pluralist, and constitutive interpretations of American politics and courts. As a secondary concern we ask to what degree does an understanding of economics and politics-- a political economy approach inform our knowledge of American politics and political change.
The format of classes will be lectures (with discussions) on Mondays and Wednesdays from 11:00 to 12:15 in King 106. On Fridays, starting on September 12, the class will be divided into three discussion sections. These will meet at times during which I can get informal meeting space, in Wilder and or Stevenson lounges. Discussions will center on new topics and readings. As with lecture classes, attendance is expected of all students at discussion sections.
On Friday, September 5, I will distribute forms on which you can indicate which discussion sections you can attend. I know you can attend the 11:00 PM section. I urge students to leave open 9:00 and 10:00 ( or possibly 2:30) time slots on Friday so we can schedule your discussion section and I can equalize the size of the three discussion sections.
Written work for the course consists of two essays (approximately 8-10 typed double-spaced pages) and a final examination. The first essay will be due prior to fall vacation, on Friday, October 17. The second essay will be due Wednesday, December 3. The final examination, which will be based primarily on materials in sections VI and VII of the syllabus, understood in light of materials in Sections I-V of the course, will be on a comparison of Critical Pluralist, Political Economy, and Constitutive/New Institutional analyses of American Politics, Political Institutions, and Courts. Review questions for the final examination will be handed out at least one week prior to the time scheduled for the final examination, which is Monday, December, 15, 1997, 9:00- 11:00 AM. An Important Note: Please make sure that you make a copy of your essays before handing them in. Also, if you use computers for word processing, please back-up or save your work (the files your working on) at short intervals to a diskette to guard against a hard drive crashing or your deletion of the file by mistake. Also, at longer intervals backup your work to a second diskette.
My office is in Rice Hall, Room 232 (on the second floor). Office hours will be Wednesdays and Fridays, 4:30-6:00. If students cannot meet with me during these regular office hours, please make an appointment for another time. My office phone number is 775-8495. My home number is 774-1670. I usually come to class five minutes early to answer questions. I have a sign-up sheet on my door for students who wish to make an appointment. This reduces your waiting time and allows me to be out of my office if no students have chosen to see me at a specific time.
Reading Assignments
I urge all students to buy (at the Coop Bookstore) the required readings and a packet of photo-duplicated readings which each student will purchase from me. It will be sold to you at cost. It be under $15.00. The following required readings are recommended for purchase at the Coop:
Ronald Kahn, The Supreme Court and Constitutional Theory, 1953-1993 (Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1994).
David M. Kotz, Terrence McDonough, and Michael Reich, Social Structures of Accumulation: The Political Economy of Growth and Crisis (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1994)
Theodore J. Lowi, The End of Liberalism: The Second Republic of the United States, Second Edition (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1979).
Gillian Peele, Christopher J. Bailey, Bruce Cain, and B. Guy Rogers, Developments In American Politics 2 (Chatham, NJ.:Chatham House Publishers, 1995).
Edward A. Purcell, Jr.,The Crisis of Democratic Theory: Scientific Naturalism & the Problem of Value (Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 1973).
Stephen Skowronek, The Politics Presidents Make: Leadership from John Adams to George Bush (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993).
Laurence Tribe, Abortion: The Clash of Absolutes (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1990).
For students who wish to read materials on basic American political institutions and politics see Theodore J. Lowi and Benjamin Ginsberg, American Government: Freedom and Power, Fourth Edition(New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1996). (On reserve)
I. Standards for Evaluating the American Political System
Class
1 Organizational Meeting
2. A. Evaluating American Politics I: Foundational Political Institution (or Polity Principles (photocopy)
The Constitution of the United States (1787).
George Mason, Objections to the Proposed Constitution (1787).
James Madison, et.al., The Federalist. (1787-1788).
Federalist No.10 (Madison).
Federalist No.78 (Hamilton).
3. B. Evaluating American Politics II: The Performance of the Economic System as It Structures the Political System and Life Chances of Citizens: Is There Enough Jobs and Food for All?
David M. Kotz, Terrence McDonough, and Michael Reich, Social Structures of Accumulation: The Political Economy of Growth and Crisis (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1994)
David Gordon, Richard Edwards, and Michael Reich, Long Swings and Stages of Capitalism: 11-28.
II. The Rise of Apologetic Pluralism In the Twentieth Century
4. A. The Undermining of Democratic and Constitutional Theory: The Search For A Science of Social Relations
Edward A. Purcell, Jr., The Crisis of Democratic Theory: Scientific Naturalism & the Problem of Value.
Chapter 1, Scientific Naturalism in American Thought, 3-12.
(An Overview)
Chapter 2, Naturalism & Objectivism in the Social Sciences, 15-30.
Chapter 3, Methodology & Morals, 31-46. (A Belief in a Science of Social Relations)
5. B. The Rise of Empiricism and the Rejection of Foundational Principles,
Logic, and Absolutes as Knowledge and Standards for Evaluating and
Studying American Politics and Law
Edward A. Purcell, Jr., The Crisis of Democratic Theory: Scientific
Naturalism & the Problem of Value.
Chapter 4, Non-Euclideanism: Logic and Metaphor, 47-73.
(An Attack of Absolutes, Law, and Deduction as Social Science). Chapter 5, The Rise of Legal Realism, 74-95. (Law as What Judges Do Versus Law as a Set of Oughts or Thou Shalt Nots)
Chapter 6, The New Study of Politics, 95-114.(A Decline in a Belief in the Rationality of Man and the Practical Possibility of a Government Of and By the People).
6. C. The Crisis of Democratic and Constitutional Theory:
7. Totalitarianism and The Questioning of Narrow Empiricism
Edward A. Purcell, Jr., The Crisis of Democratic Theory: Scientific Naturalism & the Problem of Value.
Chapter 7, America & the Rise of European Dictatorships, 117-138.
(How to Justify Democracy in the Age of Totalitarianism)
Chapter 11, Towards a Relativist Theory of Democracy, 197-216. (America as Set of Special Cultural Values)
Chapter 13, Relativist Democratic Theory & Postwar America, 235-266.
Chapter 14, America as a Normative Concept, 267-272
(Democracy as Description of Government As Good, Not as a Set of Standards for Citizen Participation)
8. D. Relativism and the Rise of Apologetic Pluralist Interpretations of American Politics: David Truman's Pluralist Theory of American Politics
David B. Truman, The Governmental Process: Political Interests and Public Opinion. (An Example of a Relativist Theory of American Politics) (photocopy)
Chapter 2, Groups and Society, 14-44.
Chapter 16, Group Politics and Representative Democracy, 501-535.
Isaac D. Balbus, The Concept of Interest in Pluralist and Marxian Analysis, Politics and Society, Vol. 1, Number 2, (February, 1971), 151-177. (photocopy)
III. Responses To Apologetic Pluralist Interpretations of American Politics
9. A. Responses to Apologetic Pluralist Visions of American
10. Politics I: Critical Pluralist Analysis of Group Politics
Critical Pluralist Constituency Theory of American Politics: The Relationship of The Size and Heterogeneity of Political Arenas to Politics, Power, and Political Change: A Critique of Truman's Apologetic Pluralist Assumptions.
Grant McConnell, Private Power and American Democracy (photocopy)
Introduction, 3-8.
Chapter 4, The Constituency, 91-118.
Chapter 5, Private Government, 119-154.
Chapter 10, The Quest of the Public Interest, 336-368. (Think about McConnell in context of Federalist 10)
Ronald Kahn, Reactive Policy-making, Chapter 5, in J. David Greenstone, ed., Public Values & Private Power in American Politics, 139-170. (Testing McConnell's Constituency Theory (photocopy)
11. B. Responses to Apologetic Pluralist Visions of American Politics II:
Lowi's Historical Institutional Approach--Institutions, History, Economy, Ideas, and the Explanation of Political Change
From Capitalism, To Pluralism, To Interest Group Liberalism as a Public Philosophy or Way of Thinking About and Behaving in Politics
Theodore J. Lowi, The End of Liberalism: The Second Republic of the United States, Second Edition, 1979.
Chapter 1, The Old Public Philosophy: Capitalist Ideology and the Automatic Society, 3-21.
Chapter 2, Pluralism and the Transformation of Capitalist Ideology, 22-41.
Chapter 3, The New Public Philosophy: Interest Group Liberalism, 42-63.
12. The Consequences of Interest Group Liberalism: The Decline in Planning,
13. Presidential Power, The Rule of Law, and Respect for Politics and Political Institutions (The Consequences of Thinking in Relative Democratic Terms) Theodore J. Lowi, The End of Liberalism: The Second Republic of the United States, Second Edition, 1979.
Chapter 4, The Origin and First Consequences of Pluralist Government, 67-91. (The Inability to Plan)
Chapter 5, Liberal Jurisprudence: Policy Without Law, 92-126.
Chapter 9, Federal Urban Policy: What Not To Do and What to Do About Apartheid, 237-268.
Chapter 10, The Second Republic of the United States: The State of Permanent Receivership, 271-294.
Chapter 11, Towards Juridical Democracy, 295-313.
C. Responses to Apologetic Pluralist Visions of American Politics IV: The New
or Historical Institutional Approach to Politics In the 1990s--Using Constitutive (Not Relative or Instrumental) Analyses Assumptions About Human Behavior and Political Change)---The Case of Presidential Power
Constitutive Analyses of Political Change: Some General Guideposts
14. 1. Stephen Skowronek, Order and Change, Polity Vol. 28:91-96.
(Photocopy)
Thinking About Presidential Power: The Politics That Presidents' Make Stephen Skowronek, The Politics Presidents Make: Leadership from John Adams to George Bush (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993)
Chapter 1, Rethinking Presidential History, 3-15.
Chapter 2, Power and Authority, 17-32.
Chapter 3, Structure and Action, 33-58.
15. 2. The Republican Era: Lincoln To Hoover
.Stephen Skowronek, The Politics Presidents Make: Leadership from John Adams to George Bush (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993)
Chapter 6, Republican Leadership: Stiffening Crosscurrents, 197
Part One: Abraham Lincoln's Reconstruction, 198-227.
Part Two: Theodore Roosevelt's Articulation, 228-259.
Part Three: Herbert' Hoover's Disjunction, 260-285.
16. 3. The Liberal Era
Chapter 7, Liberal Leadership: Fraying Boundaries, 287
Part One: Franklin Roosevelt's Reconstruction, 288-324.
Part Two: Lyndon Johnson's Articulation, 325-360.
Part Three: Jimmy Carter's Disjunction, 361-406.
17. 4. Reagan, Bush, and Clinton--Compared to Prior Presidents, Times:
Constitutive Compared to Pluralist/Critical Pluralist Approaches
Chapter 8, Reagan, Bush, and Beyond (The Waning of Political
Time), 409-446.
ESSAY I
Studying and Evaluating Change In American Politics: Relativist/Pluralist, Critical
Pluralist, and Historical Institutional Approaches
DUE FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17 1997
(Before Fall Break)
IV. Explaining the Development of Individual Rights: The Supreme Court and the Rights of Subordinated Groups
18. A. Apologetic Pluralist Visions of the Supreme Court and Legal Change
Robert A. Dahl, Decision-making in a Democracy: The Supreme Court as National Policy-Maker, Journal of Public Law, 657):279-295. (photocopy)
Martin Shapiro, The Supreme Court From Warren to Burger, in Anthony King, ed. The New American Political System (Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise Institute, 1978): 179-211.
B. Constitutive Compared To Instrumental Approaches to Supreme Court Decision-making and Constitutional Change
19. 1. The Warren Court (1953-1969)
Ronald Kahn, The Supreme Court and Constitutional Theory, 1953-1993
Chapter 1, Introduction: Supreme Court Decision-making and Doctrinal Change, 3-29.
Chapter 2, Equal Protection on the Warren Court, 30-67.
Chapter 3, Misperceiving the Warren Court: The Limits of Instrumentalism, 67-104.
20. 2. The Burger Court (1969-1986)
Ronald Kahn, The Supreme Court and Constitutional Theory, 1953- 1993.
Chapter 4. Constituting the Separation of Church and State, 107-138.
Chapter 5, Equal Protection on the Burger Court, 139-178
Chapter 6, The Burger Court and Constitutional Theory, 179- 208.
V. Rights of Subordinated Groups I: Gender and the Right of Abortion Choice
21. A. Historical Evolution of The Right of Privacy and Abortion Choice
Lawrence H. Tribe, Abortion: The Clash of Absolutes
Chapter 3, Two Centuries of Abortion in America, 27-51.
Griswold v. Connecticut (1965)(Photocopy)
Roe v. Wade (1973) (Photocopy)
22. B. The Right of Abortion Choice After Roe v. Wade: The 1970s and 1980s
1. Abortion Funding for the Poor
Maher v. Roe (1977)
Harris v. MacRae (1980)
2. The Politics of Abortion Choice
Laurence H. Tribe, Abortion: The Clash of Absolutes
Chapter 2, From Roe to Webster, 10-26.
Chapter 7, The Politics of Abortion: From a New Right to the New Right, 139-160.
Chapter 8, The Politics of Abortion: The Pro-Life Advocates in Power, 161-196.
23. C. The Rehnquist Court Reaffirms the Rights of Abortion Choice: Explaining Casey and Thinking About Abortion Rights in the Future
Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey(1992) (Photocopy)
Ronald Kahn, The Supreme Court and Constitutional Theory, 1953-1993. Chapter 8, The Rehnquist Court and the Future, 250-266.
Laurence H. Tribe, Abortion: The Clash of Absolutes
Chapter 9, In Search of Compromise, 197-228.
24. D. Should The Supreme Court Have Granted A Right to Abortion Choice?:
25. Conflicting Assumptions About Individual Rights and the Power of Courts and Elected Institutions
1. John Hart Ely: Polity Rather Than Rights-Based Constitutional Theory
John Hart Ely, The Wages of Crying Wolf: A Comment on Roe v. Wade, 82 The Yale Law Review 920-947. (photocopy)
2. Lawrence Tribe: Rights-Based Constitutional Theory
Laurence H. Tribe, Abortion: The Clash of Absolutes Chapter 1, Approaching Abortion Anew, 3-9.
Chapter 5, Finding Abortion Rights in the Constitution, 77-112.
Chapter 6, The Equation's Other Side: Does It Matter Whether the Fetus Is a Person?, 113-138.
3. Catharine MacKinnon: Privacy Rights and Gender Inequality
Catharine A, MacKinnon, Feminism Unmodified: Discourses On Life and Law, 1987.
Chapter 8, Privacy and Equality: Beyond Roe v. Wade (1983), 93-102. (Photocopy)
26. E. The Rehnquist Court and Homosexual Rights: Explaining Bowers v.
Hardwick (1986) and Romer v. Evans (1996) (Cases are Photocopied)
Bowers v. Hardwick (1986)
Romer v. Evans (1996)
Second Essay On The Supreme Court and the Rights of Subordinated Groups
(Due Wednesday, December 3, 1997)
VI. Comparing American Institutions as Venues For Political, Social, and Economic Change in the Clinton Years--Institutions, Economics, and Presidential Power
Gillian Peele, Christopher J. Bailey, Bruce Cain, and B. Guy Rogers, Developments In American Politics (Chatham, NJ.:Chatham House Publishers, 1995).
27. A. The Possibility of Leadership in the 1990s and the 21st Century
Chapter 1, Introduction, 1-16.
Chapter 2, The 1992 Presidential Election, Voting Behavior and Legitimacy. 18-44.
Chapter 3, Racial and Ethnic Politics, 45-66.
B. The Power of Political Parties, Interest Groups, Women, and Media
Chapter 4, American Political Parties: Growth and Change, 67-84.
Chapter 5, Interest Groups and Policy making, 85-108.
Chapter 17, Women in American Politics, 325-334.
Chapter 18, The Changing Media, 335-347.
28. C. The Presidency and Congress as Forums for Change
Chapter 6. The Presidency in the 1990s, 110-133.
Reread Skowronek, Chapter 8, Reagan, Bush, and Beyond (The Waning of Political Time), 409-446.
Chapter 7, Congress In Crisis... Once Again, 134-151.
Chapter 9, Reinventing the Federal Government, 172-199.
30. D. The Political System and Public Policy
Chapter 10, Governing the American States, 200-217.
Chapter`11, The Politics of Urban Policy, 220-236.
Chapter 12, Economic Policy, 237-252.
Chapter 13, Social Policy, 253-270.
Chapter 14, Environmental Policy, 271-288
Chapter 16, Health Policy: The Analytics and Politics of Attempted Reform, 312-324.
31. E. The Supreme Court and Lesser Federal Courts
Gillian Peele, Christopher J. Bailey, Bruce Cain, and B. Guy Rogers, Developments In American Politics (Chatham, NJ.:Chatham House Publishers, 1995).
Chapter 8, The Supreme Court and the Constitution, 152-171.
Ronald Kahn, The Supreme Court and Constitutional Theory, 1953-1993. Chapter 8, The Rehnquist Court and the Future, 250-266.
VII. Politics and the Economy: An Alternative Vision of Change
32 A. Politics and Economic Change I: A Neo-Marxist/Political Economy Approach
Kahn, Katznelson, and Kesselman, "Capitalism and American Politics,"
(Photocopy)
33. B. Economic, Political, and Social Change: Social Structures of Accumulation
34.35. David Kotz, Terrence McDonough, and Michael Reich (eds.) Social
Structures of Accumulation: The Political Economy of Growth and Crisis
(New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994)
Introduction, 1-7.
Chapter 1, Long Wings and Stages of Capitalism, 11-26.
Chapter 2, How Social Structures of Accumulation Decline and Are Built, 29-46.
Chapter 3, Interpreting the Social Structure of Accumulation Theory, 50-67.
Chapter 4, Social Structures of Accumulation, Contingent History, and Stages of Capitalism, 72-82.
Chapter 5, The Regulation Theory and the Social Structure of Accumulation Approach, 85-96.
Chapter 6, The Construction of Social Structures of Accumulation in US History. 101-126.
Chapter 7, The Financial System and the Social Structure of Accumulation, 133-142.
Chapter 9, The Politics of the US Industrial Policy Debate, 1981-1984 (With a Note on Bill Clinton's Industrial Policy), 173-188.
Chapter 10, Shopfloor Relations in the Postwar Capital-Labor Accord, 193-207.
Chapter 11, Towards a Broader Vision: Race, Gender, and Labor Market Segmentation in the Social Structure of Accumulation Framework, 212-229.
Chapter 15, The Global Economy: New Edifice Or Crumbling Foundations,
292-302.
Monday, December, 15, 1997, 9:00 AM- 11:00 PM.
File: 103syl97