American Society and Politics

Where to find the readings:

Free: = Firestone Reserve (paper). = Electronic reserve/Blackboard course documents.
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Part I. American Society and Politics: The Big Questions

September 15. Introduction

September 20. Is America sui generis? The question of "American exceptionalism."

Seymour Martin Lipset, Continental Divide: The Values and Institutions of the United States and Canada (Routledge, 1990), xiii-xviii (preface), 1-41 (Chs. 1-2), 90-116 (Ch. 6).

September 22. Freedom, power, and the founding: The disputed meaning of the American Revolution

Gordon Wood, The Radicalism of the American Revolution (Random House, 1991), 1-8, 11-56, 109-14, 169-89.
David Hackett Fischer, Liberty and Freedom (Oxford University Press, 2004), 19-36, 75-89.

September 27.Where are we from, and who are we? The problem of American national identity

John Higham, “Immigration,” in C. Vann Woodward, ed., The Comparative Approach to American History (Oxford University Press, 1997), 91-105.
Lipset, Continental Divide, Chs. 10-11.
Samuel Huntington, Who Are We? The Challenges to America's National Identity (Simon & Schuster, 2004), Chs. 1-4.
T. Alexander Aleinikoff, "A Multicultural Nationalism?," The American Prospect no. 36 (January-February 1998), 80-86.

Part II. Power and American Democracy

September 29 and October 4.Civil society and the state in America: the classic picture

Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, vol. 2, Sec. 2, Ch. 2 ("Of Individualism in Democratic Countries"), Ch. 4 ("That the Americans Combat the Effects of Individualism with Free Institutions"), Ch. 5 ("Of the Uses which the Americans Make of Public Associations").
Stephen Skowronek, Building a New American State (Cambridge University Press, 1982), 3-33 (Chs. 1-2).
Alex Keyssar, The Right to Vote, xv-xxiv, 67-76

October 6. Civil society and the formation of American religion

Lipset, Continental Divide, Chs. 5.
Roger Finke and Rodney Stark, The Churching of America, 1776-1990 (Rutgers University Press, 1992), 1-60, 87-92.

October 11 and 13. Is American civic life in decline?

Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone (Simon and Schuster, 2000), Chs. 1-15

October 18. Power: Conceptual and methodological problems

Nelson W. Polsby, "How to Study Community Power: The Pluralist Alternative," Journal of Politics 22 (Aug., 1960), 474-484.
John Gaventa, Power and Powerlessness: Quiescence and Rebellion in an Appalachian Valley (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1980), 3-32.

October 20. Classes and elites

New York Times series "Class Matters"

Janny Scott and David Leonhardt, "Class in America: Shadowy Lines that Still Divide," May 15, 2005;
Janny Scott, "Life at the Top in America Isn't Just Better, It's Longer," May 16, 2005;
David Cay Johnston, "Richest Are Leaving Even the Rich Far Behind," June 5, 2005.
Terry N. Clark and Seymour Martin Lipset, "Are Social Classes Dying?" International Sociology 6 (December 1991): 397-410; reprinted, with responses, in Clark and Lipset eds., The Breakdown of Class Politics (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001).
Lipset, Continental Divide, Chs. 9.
Alan Wolfe, "The Power Elite Now," The American Prospect, (May-June 1999), 90-96.

October 25. Public opinion and politics

James A. Stimson, Tides of Consent: How Public Opinion Shapes American Politics (Cambridge University Press, 2004), 23-95 (Chs. 2-3).
Larry M. Bartels, "Homer Gets a Tax Cut: Inequality and Public Policy in the American Mind," Perspectives on Politics, 3: 15-31.

October 27. Midterm exam.

Fall Break

Part III. The Changing Context of Politics

November 8 and 10. Capitalism, globalization, and political power

Joseph Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, 3d ed. (Harper & Row, 1950 [orig. ed. 1942]), Ch. 7 (81-86), Ch. 11-12 (120-55).
Robert B. Reich, The Work of Nations (Alfred A. Knopf, 1991), Chs. 1-12, 14, 17-19, 23-25.
Thomas L. Friedman, "It's a Flat World After all," New York Times Magazine , April 3, 2005
Dan Clawson and Mary Ann Clawson, "What Has Happened to the U.S. Labor Movement? Union Decline and Renewal?" Annual Review of Sociology (1999) 25: 95-119.

November 15, 17 and 22. The evolution of social security, health insurance, and welfare

Paul Starr, The Social Transformation of American Medicine (Basic Books, 1983), 235-89.
Jacob S. Hacker, "Privatizing Risk Without Privatizing the Welfare State: The Hidden Politics of Social Policy Retrenchment in the United States," American Political Science Review 98 (May 2004): 243-60.


November 22. Classroom Debate: Should Social Security have private accounts?

November 29. The color line

Douglas S. Massey and Nancy A. Denton, American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass (Harvard University Press, 1993), 17-59 (Ch. 2), 115-85 (Chs. 5-6).
James F. Davis, Who Is Black? One Nation's Definition (Pennsylvania State University Press, 1991), 1-80.

December 1. Classroom Presentations and Debate: The Political Sociology of Disaster--Learning from Katrina.

December 6 and 8. Gender and the family

Ronald Inglehart and Pippa Norris, “The Developmental Theory of the Gender Gap: Women’s and Men’s Voting Behavior in Global Perspective,” International Political Science Review 21 (2000): 441-462.
Barbara Norrander, “Evolution of the Gender Gap.” Public Opinion Quarterly 63 (Winter 1999): 566-576.
Ann Crittenden, The Price of Motherhood (Metropolitan Books, 2001), Introduction, Chs. 1-2, 5-10, 13.


December 8. Classroom Debate: Should government reduce the cost of bearing and raising a child in America and, if so, how?

December 13. The media and politics

Paul Starr, The Creation of the Media (Basic Books, 2004), 1-19 (Introduction), 327-46 (Ch. 10).
Franklin D. Gilliam, Jr. and Susan Nall Bales, "Strategic Frame Analysis: Reframing America’s Youth" Social Policy Report 15 (2001), 3-12.

December 15. Accounting for change in American society and politics
Final review and discussion.