Sociology 201
American Society and Politics
Professor Paul
Starr
Fall 2006. TuTh 11 a.m.
Professor Paul
StarrFall 2006. TuTh 11 a.m.
Where to find the readings:
= Firestone Reserve (paper).
= Electronic reserve/Blackboard course documents.
= World Wide Web (hyperlink). 
= University Store
= course packet
September 14. Introduction
September 19. 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).September 21. 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. David Hackett Fischer, Liberty and Freedom (Oxford University Press, 2004), 19-36, 75-89.September 26.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, 172-86, 193-99.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.
September 28 and October 3.Civil society and early American political development
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.Roger Finke and Rodney Stark, The Churching of America, 1776-1990 (Rutgers University Press, 1992), 1-60.
October 5. Is American civic life in decline? (1): Recent trends
Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone (Simon and Schuster, 2000), Chs. 1-9.
October 10. Is American civic life in decline? (2): The role of the media and other possible causes
Paul Starr, The Creation of the Media (Basic Books, 2004), 83-94. Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone (Simon and Schuster, 2000), Chs. 10-15.Markus Prior, "News vs. Entertainment: How Increasing Media Choice Widens Gaps in Political Knowledge and Turnout," American Journal of Political
Science 49 (July 2005), 577-592.
October 12. Power in America: alternative perspectives
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.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).
Janny Scott and David Leonhardt, "Class in America: Shadowy Lines that Still Divide," New York Times May 15, 2005.October 17 and 19. 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).Thomas Frank, What’s the Matter with Kansas: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America (Metropolitan Books, 2004),
1-27.Larry M. Bartels, “What’s the Matter with What’s the Matter with Kansas?”
Quarterly Journal of Political Science 1 (2006), 201-226.
October 24.Political polarization in America
Morris Fiorina, Culture War? The Myth of a Polarized America (Pearson, 2005), Chs 1-3, 6-8.October 26. Midterm exam.
November 7 and 9. 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 14, 16, and 21. The politics of social security, welfare, and health care
Martin Gilens, Why Americans Hate Welfare: Race, Media, and the Politics of Antipoverty Policy (University of Chicago Press, 1999), 1-30, 204-16.Christopher Jencks, “Liberal Lessons from Welfare Reform,” The American Prospect (July 15, 2002). Jonas Pontusson, Inequality and Prosperity: Social Europe vs. Liberal America
(Cornell University Press, 2005), Introduction, Chapter 7. Paul Starr, The Social Transformation of American Medicine (Basic Books, 1983), 235-89.November 28 and 30. 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), 1-29, 51-58.December 5. Politics and the changing relations of men and women
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.Morris Fiorina, Culture War?, Chs. 4-5.Ann Crittenden, The Price of Motherhood (Metropolitan Books, 2001), Introduction, Chs. 1-2.December 7. The politics of wealth
David Cay Johnston, "Richest Are Leaving Even the Rich Far Behind," New York Times June 5, 2005. Larry M. Bartels, "Homer Gets a Tax Cut: Inequality and Public Policy in the American Mind," Perspectives on Politics, 3: 15-31.
December 12. The conservative turn in American politics: Two accounts
John Mickelthwait and Adian Wooldridge, The Right Nation: Conservative Power in America (Penguin Press, 2004), 5-21, 291-313, 334-353. Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson, Off Center: The Republican Revolution and the Erosion of American Democracy (Yale University Press, 2005), Introduction, Ch. 1, 4. December 14. Accounting for change in American society and politics