GVPT 772

AMERICAN POLITICAL THOUGHT

W 3:30-6:15 p.m.
TYD 1111

Fall08

Wayne McIntosh
3140 Tydings
This course will explore questions of social and political relations and institutional
powers in American Politics. Students will consider diverse theories of social order and
institutional change in the context of political, economic, social, and intellectual currents.
The course will place a special focus on development from the late nineteenth century to
the present. Although we will discuss theories of change throughout the semester, the
course, is structured as a survey of American Political Thought.
We will begin with a discussion of frameworks for understanding American political
thought and build toward general theories toward the end of the semester. The hope is
that by structuring the course as a substantive survey that addresses seminal literature,
students will by introduced to a broad field and find a range of research questions that
you will find engaging.
The aim of this course is to introduce graduate students to the assessment of seminal
literature in American Political Thought. The seminar has two basic purposes: to
understand basic theories of American Politics and to develop a strategy for engaging in
publishable quality research within the broader field. The first part of the semester we
will examine critically a variety of research approaches to the central problems. The final
portion of the term will be devoted to research and writing.
ORGANIZATION AND PROCEDURE
Reading and Discussion: I believe that teaching is a dialectical process in which everyone
plays a major role. This requires careful preparation and active participation by me and
by all seminar members. The format of the seminar will be open discussion. Readings are
assigned in advance, and I will expect you to come to class sessions prepared to discuss
them. Students will make regular class presentations on the readings, lead seminar
discussions on them, and contributions by all should be the norm. Classroom
participation, including oral presentations, will be taken into account when determining
final grades (20%). Hence, it is very much in your individual interest to participate in our
collective consideration of the literature.
REQUIRED TEXTS
Available at the bookstores:
Robert A. Dahl. A Preface to Democratic Theory. University Of Chicago Press.
DuBois, W.E.B. The Souls of Black Folk. Barnes & Noble Classics.
Huntington, Samuel. American Politics: The Promise of Disharmony. Harvard U. Press.
Lowi, Theodore J. End of Liberalism. W. W. Norton & Company.

Mills, C. Wright. The Power Elite. Oxford University Press.

Pitkin, Hanna F. The Concept of Representation. University of California Press.
Schattschneider, E.E. Party Government, Transaction Publishers.
Storing, Herbert J. What the Anti-Federalists were For: The Political Thought of the
Opponents of the Constitution. University of Chicago Press.

Recommended:
Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America. University of Chicago Press.
Louis Hartz, The Liberal Tradition in America: An Interpretation of American Political
Thought Since the Revolution.
Readings:
As you read each of the assigned materials, you should ask certain questions of each, and
approach them with the primary aim of answering these questions:

What are the central questions that motivate the arguments?

What is the model of inquiry designed to resolve the questions?
What is the central argument?
What scholarly debates does the author engage?
What evidence does the author use to support his/her arguments?
What is the authors understanding of the nature of stability and change (in
institutions, in political power and authority, and the like) and the relationship
between them?
How does the authors model of stability and change differ from the models
advanced by other authors?
Does the model or approach speak to other assigned readings?
Does the author ask important or interesting questions?
Does the author provide persuasive answers?
What are the books chief virtues?
What are the books chief weaknesses?
What would you identify as questions for further research that arise from the
readings?

Research Papers
General Statement. Each seminar member will write a research paper on a particular set
of questions related to issues we are addressing in the course curriculum. With my help
you will select a general problem, and we will then narrow it down to a manageable
research question. I will have more to say about this in class. I strongly suggest that you
make an appointment by mid-October to discuss this with me.

Specific Instructions.
Within the first three weeks of the semester you should turn in a one page proposal,
describing what you want to look at and how you plan to do so. At the end of week 6, you
must turn in a 7-10 page detailed research design. A first draft of the completed paper
must be turned in at the end of week 12; I will comment on and return the first drafts
within one week (hopefully quicker). My intention is to reserve our last couple of
meetings to paper presentations and discussion.
A final, revised version of the paper is due at the end of the examination week. I will give
an automatic extension through the end of December to students who so desire it;
however, extensions beyond that date will be given only for extra-ordinary reasons.
Your paper will take the form of an article-length manuscript, suitable for publication in a
political science or socio-legal journal. The following components are, thus, required:
1. general introduction, a section containing a research question and a statement of
significance;
2. a theoretical account, a section containing a theoretically-driven answer to your
question and demonstrating your knowledge of the existing literature;
3. expectations, a section proposing specific hypotheses you propose to test or a model
you plan to assess;
4. measurements/data, a section explaining how you plan to assess the literature's answer
and the data sources from which you plan to derive your assessment;
5. analyses/results, a section presenting your findings; and,
6. conclusion, a section summarizing your findings and how they are/are not compatible
with the literature, and some suggestions for future research.

Course Outline/Readings
Introduction, September 3-10
Required:
Samuel Huntington, American Politics: The Promise of Disharmony.
Rogers M. Smith, Beyond Tocqueville, Myrdal and Hartz: The Multiple Traditions in
America, American Political Science Review 87: 549-566 (1993).
Recommended:
Louis Hartz, The Liberal Tradition in America: An Interpretation of American Political
Thought Since the Revolution.
J. David Greenstone, Political Culture and American Political Development: Liberty:
Union, and the Liberal Bipolarity, Studies in American Political Development 1
(1986): 1-49.

September 17
Required:
Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of Independence.
US Constitution
Federalist Papers: at least 1, 10, 14, 45, 46, 49, 51, 70, 78, 79
Storing, Herbert J. What the Anti-Federalists were For: The Political Thought of the
Opponents of the Constitution.
Recommended:
Jonathan Edwards, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, July 8, 1741.
Thomas Paine, Common Sense (1776).

September 24
Required:
Tocqueville, Chapters 3-8, 10, 12-17
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self Reliance. 1841.
Henry David Thoreau, On Resistance to Civil Government. 1849.
John C. Calhoun, A Disquisition on Government.
Dred Scott v. Sanford, 60 U.S. 393 (1857).
Recommended:
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Divinity School Address. 1838.
Frederick Douglas, What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? 1852.
George Fitzhugh, A Sociology for the South. 1854.
Gary Wills. Lincoln at Gettysburg. 1993.

Mark Graber, Dred Scott and the Problem of Constitutional Evil (Cambridge, 2006).

October 1
Required:
DuBois, W.E.B., The Souls of Black Folk.
Booker T. Washington, Atlanta Exposition Address.
Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896).
William Jennings Bryan, Cross of Gold Speech.
Recommended:
Adolph Reed, W.E.B. DuBois and American Political Thought. 1997.
Richard Bensel, The Political Economy of American Industrialization: 1877-1900
(Cambridge, 2000).
Elizabeth Sanders, The Roots of Reform: Farmers, Workers, and the American State
(Chicago, 1999).
Stephen Skowronek, Building a New American State: The Expansion of National
Administrative Capacities, 1870-1920 (Cambridge, 1982).
Arthur Bentley. The Process of Government. 1908.
Eric Foner, Reconstruction: Americas Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877.
Elizabeth Sanders, Roots of Reform: Farmers, Workers, and the American State, 18771917.
Joseph Schumpeter. Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy. 1942.

October 8
Required:
*Initial draft of paper due.
Dahl, Robert A. A Preface to Democratic Theory.
Peter Bachrach and Morton S. Baratz. 1962. Two Faces of Power. 56 American
Political Science Review 94752.
Recommended:
Dahl, Robert A. Who Governs?
Dahl, Robert A. Democracy and its Critics.
David Truman. The Governmental Process. 1951.
Anthony Downs. An Economic theory of Democracy. 1957.
Steven Lukes. Power: A Radical View. 1974.
Brian Barry, Democracy, Power and Justice. 1989.

October 15
Required:

Lowi, Theodore J. End of Liberalism.

Recommended:
William Riker. Liberalism Against Populism (1982).
William Riker. The Theory of Political Coalitions. 1962.

October 22
Required:
Mills, C. Wright. The Power Elite.
Recommended:
Hibbs, Douglas. 1987. The American Political Economy: Macroeconomics and Electoral
Politics.
Tufte, Edward. 1978. Political Control of the Economy.
Nordhaus, William. 1975. The Political Business Cycle. 42 Review of Economic
Studies 169-190.

October 29
Required:
Schattschneider, E.E. Party Government.
Recommended:
James L. Sundquist. Dynamics of the Party System. 1983.
Richard Hofstadter. The Idea of a Party System. 1969.
David R. Mayhew. Realignment: A Critique of an American Genre. 2002.

November 5
Required:
Pitkin, Hanna F. The Concept of Representation.
Baker v. Carr, 369 U. S. 186 (1962).
Recommended:
Ronald Dworkin, Laws Empire.
Jeremy Waldron, Liberal Rights.
John Rawls, A Theory of Justice.
John Rawls, Political Liberalism.
Carl Schmitt, The Crisis of Parliamentary Democracy.

November 12

November 19
*Paper draft due
November 26 (Thanksgiving)

December 3
Paper discussions
December 10
Paper discussions
December 17
Final draft of papers due