Sociology 201
American Society and Politics
Professor Paul
Starr
Spring 2009. MW 10 a.m.
Professor Paul
StarrSpring 2009. MW 10 a.m.
Where to find the readings:
= Available at Firestone Library Reserve Room
= World Wide Web. (Click on the link on the reading list.) 
= Electronic Reserve/Blackboard course documents
February 2. Introduction
February 4. 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). Rogers M. Smith, "Beyond Tocqueville, Myrdal, and Hartz: The Multiple Traditions in America." American Political Science Review (1993),
87: 549-554 [rest of article optional]. February 9.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. Samuel Huntington, Who Are We? The Challenges to America's National Identity
(Simon & Schuster, 2004), 21-80 (Chs. 2-4). T. Alexander Aleinikoff,
"A Multicultural Nationalism?," The American Prospect no. 36 (January-February 1998), 80-86.
February 11. 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, 11-24, 109-14, 169-89. Paul Starr, Freedom's Power (Basic Books, 2007), 29-32, 41-52
(from Ch. 2, "The Creative Reluctance of Liberal Statecraft").February 16 and 18.Civil society, religion, 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"). Roger Finke and Rodney Stark,
The Churching of America, 1776-1990 (Rutgers University Press, 1992), 1-60. Stephen Skowronek, Building a New American
State (Cambridge University Press, 1982), 3-33 (Chs. 1-2).Alex Keyssar, The Right to Vote (Basic Books, 2000), xv-xxiv.February 23. Is American civic life in decline? (1): Identifying the changes
Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone (Simon and Schuster, 2000), Chs. 1-9.
February 25. Is American civic life in decline? (2): Explaining the changes
Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone (Simon and Schuster, 2000), Chs. 10-15. Robert Putnam, "
E Pluribus Unum: Diversity and Community in the Twenty-first Century,"
Scandinavian Political Studies 30 (2007), 137–174. March 2. The media and American democracy
Todd Gitlin, Media Unlimited (Henry Holt, 2001), 1-53. 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. Paul Starr, "Goodbye to the Age of Newspapers (Hello to a New Era of Corruption)," The New Republic (March 4, 2009).March 4 and 9. Power and public opinion in America
Nelson W. Polsby, "How to Study Community Power: The Pluralist Alternative," Journal of Politics 22 (Aug., 1960), 474-484.Martin Gilens, “Inequality and Democratic Responsiveness.” Public Opinion Quarterly 69(2005): 778-896. James A. Stimson, Tides of Consent: How Public Opinion Shapes American Politics (Cambridge University Press, 2004), 23-95 (Chs. 2-3). Larry Bartels, "The Irrational Electorate,"
The Wilson Quarterly (Fall 2008).
March 11. Midterm exam.
March 23 and 25. 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.
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.
Thomas L. Friedman, "It's a Flat World After all," New York Times Magazine , April 3, 2005
March 30 and April 1. The changing structure of social inequality
Janny Scott and David Leonhardt, "Class in America: Shadowy Lines that Still Divide," New York Times May 15, 2005. Douglas S. Massey, Categorically Unequal: The American
Stratification System (Russell Sage Foundation, 2007), 1-50 (Chs. 1-2).
Larry Bartels, Unequal Democracy: The Political
Economy of the New Gilded Age (Princeton University Press, 2008), 1-63 (Chs. 1-2).
April 6 and 8. The color line
F. James Davis,
Who Is Black? One Nation's Definition (Pennsylvania State
University Press, 1991), 1-30, 51-58.
Massey, Categorically Unequal, 51-157 (Chs. 3-4).
April 13 and 15. The politics of social security, welfare, and health care
Massey, Categorically Unequal, 158-210 (Ch. 5). Bartels, Unequal Democracy, 223-251 (Ch. 8,
"The Eroding Minimum Wage"). Christopher Jencks, “Liberal Lessons from Welfare Reform,” The American Prospect (July 15, 2002). April 20. Politics and the changing relations of men and women
Massey, Categorically Unequal, 211-241 (Ch. 6).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.Ann Crittenden, The Price of Motherhood (Metropolitan Books, 2001), Introduction, Chs. 1-2.April 22. Political polarization in America
Morris Fiorina, Culture War? The Myth of a Polarized America (Pearson, 2005).April 27. From Reagan to Obama: Conservatism, liberalism, and political power
Thomas Frank, What’s the Matter with Kansas: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America (Metropolitan Books, 2004),
1-27. John Mickelthwait and Adian Wooldridge, The Right Nation: Conservative Power in America (Penguin Press, 2004), 5-21, 291-313, 334-353. Bartels, Unequal Democracy, 64-161 (Chs. 3-5), 283-303 (Ch. 10).
April 29. Accounting for change in American society and politics