Michael D. Martinez
208 Anderson
(352) 273-2363
martinez@ufl.edu
Undergraduate Courses
POS 4734 Research Methods in Political Science
Fall 2009
Why do we call our discipline "political science"? What kinds of research do political scientists do, and how do they communicate that knowledge to one another? How do we know what we think we know? How do we measure political phenomena? How would we know if a new public policy "worked"? How do we analyze data, and what are good data to analyze? Are ethics as hard to define in "political science" as they are in "politics"? This course is open to all Political Science majors, and is required for students in the Department Honors Program.
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POS 3204 Political Behavior
How much do ordinary citizens know about politics, and does it matter if some people don't know very much? Why do some people participate a lot in politics, and other people never even bother to vote? Does political participation really matter, and if so, what could be done to encourage more people to participate? How similar is Americans' political behavior to that of citizens in other western democracies?
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POS
2041 American Federal Government
What is political power, and how concentrated is it in the United States? How resistant to change is the United States Constitution, relative to other national constitutions? What influences some people to be political gladiators and others to be political spectators? If more people favor gun control than oppose it, why is the NRA so powerful? How influential can Chief Justice Roberts be in shaping the Supreme Court? This course satisfies a Social and Behavioral Science (S) General Education requirement, and is required of all College of Journalism majors. It is also a prerequisite to many other courses in American politics in the Department of Political Science.
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CPO 4133 Politics in Canada
Canada consistently ranks very high in the United Nations Human Development Index, but its political system faces important challenges to constitutional foundations, Canadian nationalism, federalism, parliamentary supremacy, and its party system. At the heart of these challenges are demands from Québécois nationalists for sovereignty, demands for greater representation from the West, and aboriginal claims for self-government. The principal goal of the course is to survey the political culture, constitutional foundations, public opinion and participation, and political institutions in Canada, so as to gain a better understanding of the ature of these challenges.
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POS
4936 (Spring 1998 Senior Colloquium)
This course was offered as a joint distance education course
with a class at the University of Calgary. It examined the causes and
consequences of divided
government in the United States. We explored the electoral and
institutional
origins of divided government, as well as its effects on budgetary and
welfare policy. We also examined some ideas for participation reform
in the United States. The provided students at Calgary and Florida an
opportunity to explore some topics of current interest in U.S. politics.
POLI 320
(UBC) Government and Politics of the United States
