PURPOSE AND PHILOSOPHY:

Who really governs modern industrial nations like the United States? The people? Interest groups? Multinational corporations? A power elite? Come to think of it, does anyone govern? And here is another issue: who should govern? It's easy to say, "The people, of course." But are average citizens really knowledgeable and responsible enough to do so? Wouldn't everyone be better off if matters of state were to those relatively few individuals who possessed the necessary experience, expertise, wisdom and temperament?

These questions obviously raise innumerable additional ones and present enormous difficulties. But since our lives are inescapably affected by political power, it behooves us to attempt to at least try to supply some answers.

The purpose of this reading and research seminar is to understand and evaluate theories of democracy, political power and governance in industrial nations.

REQUIREMENTS:

Two midterm examinations (25 percent each)

A final examination (30 percent)

Faithful class attendance and participation (20 percent)

The tests will cover the readings and class discussions. You will be asked to identify and explain various concepts and theories (e.g., "pluralism") and to use your understanding of the them to respond to general questions (e.g., "What evidence is there that corporations unduly influence decision making in the United States?" or "What theory--state autonomy or corporate liberalism--best explains current American politics?")

CURRENT EVENTS:

Any serious student of political science needs to keep informed of what is happening in Washington, New York, Moscow, London, Tokyo, and the rest of the world. Therefore, an important implicit requirement is familiarity with national and international affairs. Consequently every participant is expected to read the New York Times on a daily basis. Cut-rate subscriptions are available at the Newark Newsstand on Main Street. This store, I might add, contains hundreds of newspapers and opinion magazines. Browsing through the Newsstand's collection of publications will help you understand many of the course's key concepts.

In addition, you should watch programs such as "The News Hour With Jim Lehrer" (PBS), "This Week" (ABC), "Face the Nation, (NBC)" and listen to National Public Radio (NPR). You are also expected to watch one of the evening network news programs and read a local daily newspaper.

ELECTRONIC MAIL:

Each person in the class is required to use electronic mail or E-mail. Using computer terminals, which are located in many academic buildings as well as dormitories, you can send and receive messages to me or anyone else in the class. (Indeed, you can receive information from all parts of the world.) This means of communication is very fast, reliable, flexible, and (for many purposes) far superior to the telephone. It does not of course replace face-to-face contact. But if you have a short question or want to leave a message, please use E-mail.

READINGS:

The readings are or will be available in the University Bookstore, at the Newark Newsstand on Main Street, a shop with which you should be come familiar, and the reserve room of the Library. Most of the articles (see below) are available on line from "Jstor," an extremely useful source of scholarly journals. Reach it through the University of Delaware's Library and in particular its Networked Electronic Data Bases

The required readings are:

*C. Wright Mills, The Power Elite.

*Clyde Barrows, Critical Theories of the State.

*Timothy Cook, Governing with News.

*Thomas Dye, Who's Running America, 6^th Edition.

*Robert Dahl, Democracy and Its Critics.

*Cox and others, Business and the State.

*John Scott, Corporate Business and Capitalist Classes.

• Samuel Levin, Shades of Meaning.

*A daily (Monday to Friday) subscription to the New York Times. Incidentally, as previously indicated, the Newsstand stocks a vast number of politically relevant magazines and newspapers that are very helpful for understanding some of the issues we will be discussing during the course of the semester.

*Other required and optional readings will be discussed later.

You may find some of the readings difficult, but rest assured we'll work through them sufficiently carefully and slowly so that you come to appreciate their insights.

OFFICE:

My office is in 434 Smith Hall where I will be Tuesdays (5 to 6 p.m.), Wednesday (4 to 5 p.m.), and Thursday from approximately 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. I look forward to meeting each person individually. Please do not hesitate to contact me at any time if you have questions or wish to discuss any topic in more detail.

NOTE: AN EXCELLENT WAY TO CONTACT ME, ESPECIALLY IF YOU HAVE SHORT OR STRAIGHT-FORWARD QUESTIONS IS BY E-MAIL. My mail address is

htr@udel.edu.

TOPICS:

Note: Each topic will take roughly a week. You will always be told where you should be in the readings.

E = "everyone"; R = "recommended or some in the class"

Articles are available through: JStor You should probably access data base by going through the University of Delaware's "Library Networked Data Bases".

• Note: here's how I retrieve the articles.
  • Go to the first page (or any page) of the article.
  • Find and click the print button on the left.
  • When the print page appears, scroll down to the Adobe section.
  • Put the cursor over either print option (high or low resolution).
  • Right click the mouse to produce a menu of options. Pick Save As and click.
  • In the dialog box that appears pick a place to store the file. Note: high resolution files take a lot of space and can be slow to "download."
  • Once the file has been saved start Adobe and open the file.
  • Use the File menu to find the print option and print the document or pages of it.
  • This is much faster than viewing a page on your screen and printing it.
  • Don't simple click the high or low resolution option on the jstor print page. It's too slow. As noted above right click and save as a file.

Topic I:Democratic Theory

E Robert Dahl, Democracy and Its Critics, Chapters 1 to 8.

Topic II:"The Importance of Importance": Types of Public Policies

H. T. Reynolds, "The Importance of Importance" (Unpublished); E Peter Bachrach, Morton S. Baratz "Decisions and Nondecisions: An Analytical Framework," The American Political Science Review, Vol. 57, No. 3. (Sep., 1963), pp. 632-642; E Peter Bachrach, Morton S. Baratz, "Two Faces of Power," The American Political Science Review, Vol. 56, No. 4. (Dec., 1962), pp. 947-952.

Topic III: State Theory: Pluralism - Old and New

Reading: E Robert Dahl, Democracy and Its Critics, Chapters 15 to 23; E John F. Manley, "Neo-Pluralism: A Class Analysis of Pluralism I and Pluralism II," The American Political Science Review , Vol. 77, No. 2. (Jun., 1983), pp. 368-383; E Philip Green, "Science, Government, and the Case of RAND: A Singular Pluralism," World Politics, Vol. 20, No. 2. (Jan., 1968), pp. 301-326; E Charles E. Lindblom, "The Market as Prison," The Journal of Politics, Vol. 44, No. 2. (May, 1982), pp. 324-336; R Joel A. Devine, "State and State Expenditure: Determinants of Social Investment and Social Consumption Spending in the Postwar United States," American Sociological Review, Vol. 50, No. 2. (Apr., 1985), pp. 150-165.

Topic IV:State Theory: The Power Elite

Reading: E C. Wright Mills, The Power Elite, entire; E Robert A. Dahl, "A Critique of the Ruling Elite Model," The American Political Science Review, Vol. 52, No. 2. (Jun., 1958), pp. 463-469; R Robert A. Dahl, "Further Reflections on 'The Elitist Theory of Democracy,'" The American Political Science Review, Vol. 60, No. 2. (Jun., 1966), pp. 296-305; E Michael Useem, "Corporations and the Corporate Elite," Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 6. (1980), pp. 41-77; R Davita Silfen Glasberg and Michael Schwartz, "Ownership and Control of Corporations," Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 9. (1983), pp. 311-332.

Topic V:State Theory: Marxism and Corporate Liberalism

Reading: E Clyde Barrow, Critical Theories of the State, Chapter 1; E Robert C. Grady, "Reindustrialization, Liberal Democracy, and Corporatist Representation," Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 101, No. 3. (1986), pp. 415-432. R Jill S. Quadagno, "Welfare Capitalism and the Social Security Act of 1935," American Sociological Review, Vol. 49, No. 5. (Oct., 1984), pp. 632-647; R Theda Skocpol, Edwin Amenta, "Did Capitalists Shape Social Security?" American Sociological Review, Vol. 50, No. 4. (Aug., 1985), pp. 572-575; R Jill Quadagno, Two Models of Welfare State Development: Reply to Skocpol and Amenta," American Sociological Review, Vol. 50, No. 4. (Aug., 1985), pp. 575-578.

Topic VI:State Theory: Neo- and Post Marxism, Structualism and Functionalism

Reading: E Clyde Barrow, Critical Theories of the State, Chapters 2 to 4; Adam R Przeworski, Michael Wallerstein, "Structural Dependence of the State on Capital," The American Political Science Review, Vol. 82, No. 1. (Mar., 1988), pp. 11-29; R Duane Swank, "Politics and the Structural Dependence of the State in Democratic Capitalist Nations," The American Political Science Review, Vol. 86, No. 1. (Mar., 1992), pp. 38-54.

Topic VII:State Theory: The Autonomous State

Reading: E Clyde Barrow, Critical Theories of the State, Chapter 5; R J. Craig Jenkins, Barbara Brents"Capitalists and Social Security: What Did they Really Want?," American Sociological Review, Vol. 56, No. 1. (Feb., 1991), pp. 129-132; J. Craig Jenkins, Barbara G. Brents, "Social Protest, Hegemonic Competition, and Social Reform: A Political Struggle: Interpretation of the Origins of the American Welfare State,"American Sociological Review, Vol. 54, No. 6. (Dec., 1989), pp. 891-909; R Edwin Amenta and Sunita Parikh, "Capitalists Did Not Want the Social Security Act: A Critique of the 'Capitalist Dominance' Thesis" American Sociological Review, Vol. 56, No. 1. (Feb., 1991), pp. 124-129; R Theda Skocpol, Edwin Amenta, "States and Social Policies," Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 12. (1986), pp. 131-157; R Jess Gilbert, Carolyn Howe, "Beyond "State vs. Society": Theories of the State and New Deal Agricultural Policies," American Sociological Review, Vol. 56, No. 2. (Apr., 1991), pp. 204-220.

Topic VIII:The Mass Media

Reading: E Timothy Cook, Governing With the News, entire; E William A. Gamson, David Croteau, William Hoynes, Theodore Sasson, "Media Images and the Social Construction of Reality," Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 18. (1992), pp. 373-393; R William A. Gamson, Andre Modigliani, "Media Discourse and Public Opinion on Nuclear Power: A Constructionist Approach," American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 95, No. 1. (Jul., 1989), pp. 1-37.

• Assignment on the Media
• Assignment in PDF format

Topic IX:Public (And Private) Education

Reading: R Samuel Bowles and Herbert Ginitis, Schooling in Capitalist America; R D. W. Livingstone, "Class, Educational Ideologies, and Mass Opinion in Capitalist Crisis: A Canadian Perspective," Sociology of Education, Vol. 58, No. 1 (Jan., 1985), pp. 3-20; R David H. Kamens, "Education and Democracy: A Comparative Institutional Analysis," Sociology of Education, Vol. 61, No. 2. (Apr., 1988), pp. 114-127.

Topic X:Political Parties and Interest Groups

Reading: E Michael J. Hogan, "Corporatism," The Journal of American History, Vol. 77, No. 1. (Jun., 1990), pp. 153-160.

Topic XI:Stratification in "Post Industrial" Societies

Reading: Seymour Martin Lipset, "Radicalism or Reformism: The Sources of Working-class Politics," The American Political Science Review, Vol. 77, No. 1. (Mar., 1983), pp. 1-18.

Topic XII:Public Opinion, Elections, and Legitimation

Reading: E George A. Kourvetaris, Betty A. Dobratz, "Political Power and Conventional Political Participation," Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 8. (1982), pp. 289-317; E Murray Edelman, "Symbols and Political Quiescence," The American Political Science Review, Vol. 54, No. 3. (Sep., 1960), pp. 695-704.

Topic XIII:Policy Making: Domestic Economic and Social Policy

Reading: R Richard L. Hall, Frank W. Wayman, "Buying Time: Moneyed Interests and the Mobilization of Bias in Congressional Committees," The American Political Science Review, Vol. 84, No. 3. (Sep., 1990), pp. 797-820; R Allen W. Imershein, Philip C. Rond III, Mary P. Mathis, "Restructuring Patterns of Elite Dominance and the Formation of State Policy in Health Care," American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 97, No. 4 (Jan., 1992), pp. 970-993..

Topic XIV:Policy Making: National Security

Reading: E G. John Ikenberry, David A. Lake, Michael Mastanduno, "Introduction: Approaches to Explaining American Foreign Economic Policy," International Organization, Vol. 42, No. 1, The State and American Foreign Economic Policy. (Winter, 1988), pp. 1-14; E Michael Mastanduno, " Trade as a Strategic Weapon: American and Alliance Export Control Policy in the Early Postwar Period," International Organization, Vol. 42, No. 1, The State and American Foreign Economic Policy. (Winter, 1988), pp. 121-150; R G. John Ikenberry, "Market Solutions for State Problems: The International and Domestic Politics of American Oil Decontrol," International Organization, Vol. 42, No. 1, The State and American Foreign Economic Policy. (Winter, 1988), pp. 151-177; R G. John Ikenberry, "Conclusion: An Institutional Approach to American Foreign Economic Policy," International Organization, Vol. 42, No. 1, The State and American Foreign Economic Policy. (Winter, 1988), pp. 219-243.

Topic XV:Policy Making: The Military Industrial Complex

Reading: R Melvyn P. Leffler, "National Security," The Journal of American History, Vol. 77, No. 1. (Jun., 1990), pp. 143-152; Christopher Jencks, "Methodological Problems in Studying "Military Keynesianism","American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 91, No. 2. (Sep., 1985), pp. 373-379; Alexander Hicks, Alex Mintz, "Theoretical Insights and Oversights in "Methodological Problems"" American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 91, No. 2. (Sep., 1985), pp. 379-384; Larry J. Griffin, Joel Devine, Michael Wallace, "One More Time: Militarizing the U.S. Budget: Reply to Jencks" American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 91, No. 2. (Sep., 1985), pp. 384-391; Stanley Lieberson, " An Empirical Study of Military-Industrial Linkages," American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 76, No. 4. (Jan., 1971), pp. 562-584; R Edward Gross, "On Lieberson's Study of Military-Industrial Linkages: A Fan Letter with Implications," American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 77, No. 1. (Jul., 1971), pp. 131-133; R Paul Stevenson, "American Capitalism and Militarism: A Critique of Lieberson," American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 77, No. 1. (Jul., 1971), pp. 134-138; R Stanley Lieberson, " Lieberson Replies to Stevenson," American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 77, No. 1. (Jul., 1971), pp. 138-142.

COURSE GUIDELINES:

In the interests of making the course as successful as possible for everyone concerned, I insist that these guidelines and rules be followed:

ATTENDANCE: PLEASE READ THIS PARAGRAPH CAREFULLY

Attendance is always required. There are no make-up tests or reissuing of handouts except for specifically documented medical or other reasons. If you are sick, seek medical care and do not return to class until you feel well enough. Similarly, if you have a family emergency or face some other personal crisis, attend to it. When you are better or the problem is resolved, see me about making up missed work. Note, however, that you will need a written excuse from your dean explaining exactly why you could not be in class on the specific days and times you were absent. Please have this material with you BEFORE asking to make up work. Unsigned and non-specific notes are not acceptable. If you are forced for reasons beyond your control to miss an assignment important enough to request a "make up," you have to contact your dean for the appropriate documentation. This statement reflects University policy approved by the Faculty Senate. Make sure you have proper written documentation. Verbal or e-mail explanations are not satisfactory.

Please also note that we simply cannot always keep extra copies of class handouts so if you miss a class for some non-excused reason, you will have to rely on your own resources to obtain copies.

I cannot stress strongly enough the importance of class attendance. Do everyone a favor, especially yourself. Do Not Cut Class.

HONESTY: The presence of your name on a test or assignment is, in effect, a statement that the work is yours and yours alone. It is a serious breech of academic honesty to represent someone else's thoughts or efforts as your own. Make sure that you work completely alone. If you need help, see me or the teaching assistant, but do not ask your friends for assistance, even to check your work.

Furthermore, if you borrow or use an idea from a book or article or other source, the author or creator of the information must be formally and completely acknowledged. Direct quotes must be clearly and fully identified. Even if you paraphrase a passage make sure that the author receives full credit. If you are in doubt about how to cite something, ask for help.

Make sure that you have read and understand the relevant portions of Student Guide to Policies that explain academic honesty and plagiarism.

The general point is that a university community ultimately depends on truth and honesty. It is your responsibility to live up to that principle. Failure to adhere to it is, in my opinion, a major wrongdoing and will not be tolerated.

BEHAVIOR: In the interest of fairness and respect to all, please do not engage in any activity that disturbs the classroom learning process. This includes among other things:

*Coming to class late or leaving early. These kinds of comings and goings are very disruptive. So please cooperate.

*Bringing pets or children to class.

*Eating.

*Reading newspapers or magazines.

*Talking out of turn, especially when someone is asking a question.

H. T. Reynolds page

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