Political Behavior Seminar (University of Florida)

POS 6207 (Spring 2009)

Seminar in Political Behavior
Section 6078
Seminar meets Mondays 8-10 (3 pm to 6 pm)

Professor Martinez

phone (352) 273-2363
email martinez@ufl.edu
Office: 234 Anderson
Office Hours: W 2 - 4:15 pm and F, 1 - 4:15 pm

The goal for the seminar is to review the literature on political behavior and behavioralism generally with a view toward formulating questions for further research in the field. Each week, the seminar will review and discuss selected readings on various topics, and evaluate how well this group of readings answers basic scientific questions about political behavior. Much of the literature is based on the US case, but each week also includes readings that will address comparative research, as well.

Requirements:

1. Attendance and Participation. The weekly meetings of the seminar should be viewed as opportunities for the exchange of ideas among scholars. You may, on occasion, be able to tell that I am the leader of the seminar, but its overall success depends on the informed participation of everyone. Each student is expected to have completed the readings for the week, and to have something to say about those readings when seminar begins. Students are required to submit via E-Learning by 9 am on the day of the seminar a 400-500 word essay that either

(a) provides a theoretical overview linking several (though not necessarily all) of the week's readings,
(b) provides a methodological critique of one or more readings,
(c) discusses the lessons learned from US political behavior in a comparative context; and/or applies the lessons learned from comparative context to the US case, or
(d) does a quickie data analysis that updates or extends some of the empirical findings in one or more of the readings to another setting (using contemporary data or data from another setting).

Participation in seminar, including the weekly essays, will contribute 33% toward your final grade for the course.

In addition to attendance and participation, each student will be required to do two of the following (each of which contributes another third to your grade).

2. Complete a term paper. This paper will review some literature on a topic of political behavior of your own choosing (in consultation with me), and will provide some data analysis (commensurate with your level of preparation) that tests empirical propositions suggested by the literature. You may want to review relevant materials from the Conduct of Inquiry Seminar in conjunction with this assignment. This paper will be due Monday, April 27 by close of business. Further guidelines are available here.

3. Complete an exam. The final exam will be a 24-hour open notes exam consisting of two questions, that will be comparable to questions that students might see on a Ph.D. field prelim in Political Behavior or a comprehensive exam in Political Campaigning. Exams will be evaluated on how well the essays answer the questions, using literature in the field of Political Behavior as evidence in support of your arguments. Selection of appropriate evidence is vital to your success in these types of exams. The exam will be from noon,Wednesday, April 29, to noon, Thursday, April 30, unless another time is agreed upon by all participants (including me).

4(a). Teach a seminar (open to Ph.D. wannabes). Success will be evaluated by all participants in the seminar, based on clarity, thoroughness, and insights in your explanation of the material. Students who wish to pursue this option need to declare by January 26 which seminar they would like to lead.

4(b). Write a campaign memo (open to Campaigning students). This option entails writing a seven to nine page memo that explains in laymans' terms (that a candidate will understand) how some subset of literature in Political Behavior informs some aspect of a campaign plan or strategy. The memo should include a brief paragraph introducing the candidate's strategic position, and outlining the basic question that you are going to answer. The basic idea is to tell the candidate how the literature helps you (and her/him) to better

understand or predict how a block of voters may vote, or
understand or predict voter turnout, and how that may affect his/her campaign;
act or react to something in a campaign, or
understand how his or her current strategic position affects her or his likelihood of success (eg., partisanship, incumbency, issues).

The campaign memo will be due Monday, April 27 by close of business.

Books

Based on my previous experience, the local bookstores may or may not make the following books available for your purchase:

Abramson, Paul R., John H. Aldrich, and David W. Rohde. 2007. Change and Continuity in the 2004 and 2006 Elections. Washington: CQ Press.

Niemi, Richard G., and Herbert Weisberg. 2001. Controversies in Voting Behavior. Washington: CQ Press. 4th edition.

Popkin, Samuel L. 1991. The Reasoning Voter: Communication and Persuasion in Presidential Campaigns. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Zaller, John R. 1992. The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion. New York: Cambridge.

Fiorina, Morris P. , with Samuel J. Abrams, and Jeremy C. Pope. 2006. Culture War? The Myth of a Polarized America. 2nd Edition. New York: Pearson Longman.

Dalton, Russell J. and Hans-Dieter Klingemann (Editor). 2007. The Oxford Handbook of Political Behavior. Oxford University Press.

Some of these books are pricey, and some students may prefer to read the assigned chapters in the comfort of Library West, where they are also on reserve.

These books are on an Amazon.com wishlist accessible here.

Other readings will be available on at the Course Reserve Desk in Library East, or electronically on JSTOR. (See http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/access.html for access guidelines, and please do NOT print JSTOR articles in the Political Science Datalab. The problem here is really a tragedy of the commons, as it is VERY costly to the department in ink (especially) and paper for us to allow multiple printouts of assigned articles. You are certainly welcome to download and save these articles as pdf files for printing at home or elsewhere, or you may xerox a friend's printout at a local copy center at your own expense. You also have access to JSTOR and other electronic libraries at the CIRCA labs, where you can pay to print articles.)

The following is a tentative calendar for the course. Readings for January 12 are fixed. Subsequent readings may be updated over the break.

(*) Starred items should be on reserve at Library West.
Students leading particular seminars and I reserve the right to change readings from required to optional, or vice-versa, or to substitute other readings with advance notice.
Optional review essays may help you make sense of the readings as a whole.

January 12 Introduction to the Seminar (no essay due)

* Dalton, Russell J. and Hans-Dieter Klingemann. 2007. "Citizens and Political Behavior." Pp. 4-26 in Oxford Handbook of Political Behavior, edited by R. J. Dalton and H.-D. Klingemann. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press.

Niemi, Richard G. and Herbert F. Weisberg. The Study of Voting and Elections. In Controversies.

* Abramson, Paul R., John H. Aldrich, and David W. Rohde. 2007. Change and Continuity in the 2004 and 2006 Elections. Washington: CQ Press. Preface (xv to xviii) and Introductions to Parts I (pp. 1-14) and II (pp. 73-78).

Optional review essays

Kinder, Donald R. 1998. "Opinion and Action in the Realm of Politics." Pp. 778-867 in The Handbook of Social Psychology, vol. 2, edited by D. T. Gilbert, S. T. Fiske, and G. Lindzey. Boston: McGraw Hill.

Dalton, Russell J. and Martin P. Wattenberg. 1993. "The not so simple act of voting." In Political science : the state of the discipline II. Ada W. Finifter. (Ed.) Washington, DC : American Political Science Association.

Sniderman, Paul M. 1993. "The new look in public opinion research." In Political science : the state of the discipline II. Ada W. Finifter. (Ed.) Washington, DC : American Political Science Association.

Heath, Anthony, Stephen Fisher, and Shawna Smith. 2005. "The Globalization of Public Opinion Research." Annual Review of Political Science 8:297-333.

National Election Studies. NES Contributions to Scholarship: A Review.http://www.umich.edu/~nes/resources/papers/sapiro.pdf

January 19: Martin Luther King Holiday

optional

Kinder, Donald R. and Nicholas Winter. 2001. "Exploring the racial divide: Blacks, whites, and opinion on national policy." American Journal of Political Science 45:439-456.

January 26: How Much (or Little) Does Joe the Plumber Understand about Politics?

* Converse, Philip E. 1964. "The Nature of Belief Systems in Mass Publics." Pp. 206-261 in Ideology and Discontent, edited by D. E. Apter. New York: Free Press.

* Delli Carpini, Michael X. and Scott Keeter. 1996. What Americans Know About Politics and Why It Matters. New Haven: Yale University. Press. Introduction and Chapters 2 and 4.

Althaus, Scott. 1998. "Information Effects in Collective Preferences." American Political Science Review 92 (3, September): 545-558. In Controversies: 114-138.

Sullivan, John L., James E. Piereson, and George E. Marcus. 1978. "Ideological Constraint in the Mass Public: A Methodological Critique and Some New Findings." American Journal of Political Science 22 (2, May): 233-249.

Gordon, Stacy B. and Gary M. Segura. 1997. "Cross-national variation in the political sophistication of individuals: Capability or choice?" Journal of Politics 59:126-147.

Taber, Charles S. and Milton Lodge. 2006. "Motivated Skepticism in the Evaluation of Political Beliefs." American Journal of Political Science 50:755-769.

Bartels, Larry M. 2005. "Homer Gets A Tax Cut: Inequality and Public Policy in the American Mind." Perspectives on Politics 3 (1): 15-31.

Optional review essays

Kinder, Donald R. 2003. "Belief Systems after Converse." in Electoral Democracy, edited by M. B. MacKuen and G. Rabinowitz. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Galston, William A. 2001. Political Knowledge, Political Engagement, and Civic Education. Annual Review of Political Science 4: 217-234.

Converse, Philip E. 2000. Assessing the Capacity of Mass Electorates. Annual Review of Political Science. 3: 331-353.

Kuklinski, James H. and Buddy Peyton. 2007. "Belief Systems and Political Decision Making." Pp. 45-64 in Oxford Handbook of Political Behavior, edited by R. J. Dalton and H.-D. Klingemann. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press.

optional

Converse, Philip E. 1970. Attitudes and Non-Attitudes: Continuation of a Dialogue. In The Quantitative Analysis of Social Problems, edited by E. R. Tufte. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley.

Lupia, Arthur et al. 2007. "Were Bush Tax Cut Supporters 'Simply Ignorant?' A Second Look at Conservatives and Liberals in 'Homer Gets A Tax Cut'". Perspectives on Politics 5 (4): 773-784.

Bartels, Larry M. 2007. "Homer Gets A Warm Hug: A Note on Ignorance and Extenuation" Perspectives on Politics 5 (4): 785-790.

Lau, Richard R. and David P. Redlawsk. 1997. "Voting Correctly." American Political Science Review 91 (3, September): 585-598. In Controversies: 139-163.

February 2: Is Ideology the Hob-Goblin of Little Minds?

* Klingemann, Hans-Dieter. 1979. "Measuring Ideological Conceptualizations." in Political action : mass participation in five Western democracies, edited by S. H. Barnes and M. Kaase. Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage Publications.

* Zaller, John R. 1992. The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion. New York: Cambridge. Chapters 1-4.

Zaller, John R., and Stanley Feldman. 1992. "A Simple Model of the Survey Response: Answering Questions versus Revealing Preferences." American Journal of Political Science 36: 579-616.

Page, Benjamin I. and Robert Y. Shapiro. 1992. The Rational Public: Fifty Years of Trends in American' Policy Preferences. In Controversies: 164-179.

Hurwitz, John and Mark A. Peffley. 1987. "How Are Foreign Policy Attitudes Structured? A Hierarchical Model." American Political Science Review 81:1099-1120.

Jacoby, William G. 1995. "The Structure of Ideological Thinking in the American Electorate," American Journal of Political Science. (2, May): 314-335.

Huckfeldt, Robert, Jeffrey Levine, William Morgan, and John Sprague. 1999. "Accessibility and the Utility of Partisan and Ideological Orientations." American Journal of Political Science 43 (3, July): 888-912.

* Converse, Philip E. 2007. "Perspectives on Mass Belief Systems and Communication." Pp. 144-158 in Oxford Handbook of Political Behavior, edited by R. J. Dalton and H.-D. Klingemann. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press.

optional

Popkin, Samuel. 1991. The Reasoning Voter. Chicago: University of Chicago. Chapters 1-4.

February 9: Is it dumb to vote? Is it dumb to riot?

Riker, William and Peter Ordeshook. 1968. "A Theory of the Calculus of Voting." American Political Science Review 62:25-42.

* Green, Donald P. and Ian Shapiro. 1994. Pathologies of Rational Choice Theory: A Critique of Applications in Political Science. New Haven: Yale University Press. Chapter 4.

Finkel, Stephen E. and Edward N. Muller. 1998. "Rational Choice and the Dynamics of Collective Political Action." American Political Science Review 92 (1, March): 37-49.

Bendor, Jonathan, Daniel Diermeier, and Michael Ting. 2003. A Behavioral Model of Turnout. American Political Science Review 97 (2, May): 261-280.

Fowler, James H. 2006. "Altruism and Turnout." Journal of Politics 68:674-683.

* Verba, Sidney, Kay Lehman Schlozman, and Henry E. Brady. 1995. Voice and Equality: Civic Voluntarism in American Politics. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. Chapters 4, 9-12.

Optional review essays

Rucht, Dieter. 2007. "Turnout in Elections." Pp. 708-723 in Oxford Handbook of Political Behavior, edited by R. J. Dalton and H.-D. Klingemann. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press.

Fiorina, Morris P. 1990. "Information and Rationality in Elections." Pp. 329-342 in Information and Democratic Processes, edited by J. A. Ferejohn and J. H. Kuklinski. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

Theiss-Morse, Elizabeth and John R. Hibbing. 2005. "Citizenship and Civic Engagement." Annual Review of Political Science 8:227-249.

optional

Campbell, Andrea Louise. 2002. "Self-Interest, Social Security, and the Distinctive Participation Patterns of Senior Citizens." American Political Science Review 96 (3, September): 565-574.

Opp, Karl-Dieter. 1989. The rationality of political protest : a comparative analysis of rational choice theory. Boulder : Westview Press.

February 16: If it is dumb to vote, can we make the dummies vote?

* Wolfinger, Raymond and Steven J. Rosenstone. 1980. Who Votes? New Haven: Yale. Chapters 1-4.

* Abramson, Paul R., John H. Aldrich, and David W. Rohde. 2007. Change and Continuity in the 2004 and 2006 Elections. Washington: CQ Press. Chapter 4.

Powell, G. Bingham. 1986. "American Voter Turnout in Comparative Perspective." American Political Science Review 80 (1, March): 17-44.

* Franklin, Mark N. 2002. "The Dynamics of Electoral Participation." in Comparing Democracies 2 : New Challenges in the Study of Elections and Voting, edited by L. LeDuc, R. G. Niemi, and P. Norris. London ; Thousand Oaks: Sage.

McDonald, Michael P. and Samuel L. Popkin. 2001. "The Myth of the Vanishing Voter." American Political Science Review 95 (4, December): 963-974.

Putnam, Robert D. 1995. Tuning In, Tuning Out: The Strange Disappearance of Social Capital in America. PS: Political Science and Politics 38 (4, December). Reprinted in Controversies, pp. 33-68.

Berinsky, Adam J. 2005. "The Perverse Consequences of Electoral Reform in the United States." American Politics Research 33:471-491.

Solt, Frederick. 2008. "Economic Inequality and Democratic Political Engagement." American Journal of Political Science 52 (1, January) :48-60.

Optional review essays

Blais, Andrė. 2007. "Turnout in Elections." Pp. 621-635 in Oxford Handbook of Political Behavior, edited by R. J. Dalton and H.-D. Klingemann. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press.

Blais, André. 2006. "What Affects Voter Turnout?" Annual Review of Political Science 9:111-125.

Lijphart, Arend. 1997. "Unequal Participation: Democracy's Unresolved Dilemma." American Political Science Review 91 (1, March): 1-14.

Leighley, Jan E. 1995. "Attitudes, Opportunities and Incentives - A Field Essay on Political Participation." Political Research Quarterly 48:181-209.

Gronke, Paul, Eva Galanes-Rosenbaum, Peter A. Miller, and Daniel Toffey. 2008. "Convenience Voting." Annual Review of Political Science 11:437-455.

Martinez, Michael D. 2009. "Why Is American Turnout So Low, and Why Should We Care?" in Oxford Handbook of American Political Behavior, edited by J. E. Leighley. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press.

Optional

Timpone, Richard J. 1998 Structure, Behavior, and Voter Turnout in the United States. American Political Science Review 92 (1, March): 145-158.

Martinez, Michael D. 2000. "Turning Out or Tuning Out? Electoral Participation in Canada and the United States." In Canada and the United States: Differences That Count. Ed. David M. Thomas. Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview. pp. 211-228.

February 23: Mobilization and demobilization

(to be led by Michael Belle)

* Rosenstone, Steven J. and John Mark Hansen. 1993. Mobilization, Participation, and Democracy in America. New York: MacMillan. Chapters 6 and 7. (Chapter 7 reprinted in Controversies)

Ansolabehere, Stephen et al. 1994. Does Attack Advertising Demobilize the Electorate? American Political Science Review 88 (4, December): 829-838.

Finkel, Steven E., and John G. Geer. 1998. A Spot Check: Casting Doubt on the Demobilizing Effect of Attack Advertising. American Journal of Political Science 42 (2, April): 573-595.

Gerber, Alan S. and Donald P. Green. 2000. "The Effects of Canvassing, Telephone Calls, and Direct Mail on Voter Turnout: a Field Experiment." American Political Science Review 94 (September): 653-663.

Gerber, Alan S., Donald P. Green, and Christopher W. Larimer. 2008. Social pressure and voter turnout: Evidence from a large-scale field experiment. American Political Science Review 102 (1, February):33-48.

Dalton, Russell J. 2007. The Good Citizen: How a Younger Generation is Reshaping American Politics. Washington: CQ Press. Chapters 1 and 4.

Martinez, Michael D. and Jeff Gill. 2005. "The Effects of Turnout on Partisan Outcomes in U.S. Presidential Elections, 1960-2000." Journal of Politics 67 (4, November): 1248-1274.

(optional)

* Franklin, Mark N. 2004. Voter Turnout and the Dynamics of Electoral Competition in Established Democracies Since 1945. Cambridge, UK ; New York: Cambridge University Press. Chapters ?

Plutzer, Eric. 2002. "Becoming a Habitual Voter: Inertia, Resources, and Growth in Young Adulthood," American Political Science Review 96 (1, March): 41-56.

March 2: Am I Just a White Middle Class Catholic?

(to be led by Scott Feinstein)

* Rossi, Peter. 1959. Four Landmarks in Voting Research. In Eugene Burdick and Arthur Brodbeck (eds). American Voting Behavior. Glencoe, IL: Free Press.

Nieuwbeerta, Paul and Wout Ultee. 1999. "Class voting in Western industrialized countries, 1945-1990: Systematizing and testing explanations." European Journal of Political Research 35:123-160.

* Dalton, Russell. 2002. Political Cleavages, Issues, and Electoral Change. In Lawrence LeDuc et al. (Eds.) , Comparing Democracies 2. Thousand Oaks: Sage.

* Wald, Kenneth D. and Allison Calhoun-Brown. 2007. Religion and Politics in the United States. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Chapter 7.

Stanley, Harold and Richard G. Niemi. 1999. "Party Coalitions in Transition: Partisanship and Group Support, 1952-1996." Reprinted in Controversies, pp. 387-404.

Huckfeldt, Robert, Eric Plutzer, and John Sprague. 1993. "Alternative Contexts of Political Behavior: Churches, Neighborhoods, and Individuals." Journal of Politics 55 (2, May): 365-381.

Abramson, Paul R., John H. Aldrich, and David W. Rohde. 2007. Change and Continuity in the 2004 and 2006 Elections. Washington: CQ Press. Chapter 5.

Optional review essays

Knutsen, Oddbjørn. 2007. "The Decline of Social Class?" Pp. 457-480 in Oxford Handbook of Political Behavior, edited by R. J. Dalton and H.-D. Klingemann. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press.

Wald, Kenneth D. and Clyde Wilcox. 2006. "Getting Religion: Has Political Science Rediscovered the Faith Factor?" American Political Science Review 100:523-529.

Wald, Kenneth D., Adam L. Silverman, and Kevin S. Fridy. 2005. "Making Sense of Religion in Political Life." Annual Review of Political Science 8:121-143.

March 9: Gimme a (Spring) Break!

March 16: How would you know a yellow-dog if you saw one?

* Abramson, Paul R., John H. Aldrich, and David W. Rohde. 2007. Change and Continuity in the 2004 and 2006 Elections. Washington: CQ Press. Chapter 8.

* Campbell, Angus, Philip E. Converse, Warren E. Miller, and Donald E. Stokes. 1960. The American Voter. New York: John Wiley and Sons. Chapters 1, 2, 6 and 7.

* Lewis-Beck, Michael S., William G. Jacoby, Helmut Norpoth, and Herbert F. Weisberg. 2008. The American Voter Revisited. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Chapters 6 and 7.

* Holmberg, Sören. 1994. "Party Identification Compared Across the Atlantic." in Elections at Home and Abroad: Essays in Honor of Warren E. Miller, edited by M. K. Jennings and T. Mann. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Rahn, Wendy. 1993. "The Role of Partisan Stereotypes in Information Processing about Political Candidates." American Journal of Political Science 37: 472-496.

Bartels, Larry M. 2000. "Partisanship and Voting Behavior, 1952-1996." American Journal of Political Science 44 (1, January): 35-50.

* Green, Donald et al. 2002. Partisan Hearts and Minds: Political Parties and the Social Identities of Voters. New Haven: Yale University Press. Chapters 1,2,8.

Erikson, Robert S., Michael B. MacKuen, and James A. Stimson. 2001. Macropartisanship: The Permanent Memory of Partisan Evaluation. Controversies, pp. 364-370.

Optional review essays

Johnston, Richard. 2006. "Party Identification: Unmoved Mover or Sum of Preferences?" Annual Review of Political Science 9:329-351.

Fiorina, Morris P. 2002. Parties and partisanship: A 40-year retrospective. Political Behavior 24 (2): 93-115.

Holmberg, Sören. 2007. "Partisanship Reconsidered." Pp. 557-570 in Oxford Handbook of Political Behavior, edited by R. J. Dalton and H.-D. Klingemann. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press.

Optional

Blais, André, Elisabeth Gidengil, Richard Nadeau, and Neil Nevitte. 2001. "Measuring Party Identification: Britain, Canada, and the United States." Political Behavior 23 (1, March): 5-22.

MacKuen, Michael B., Robert S. Erikson, and James A. Stimson. 1989. "Macropartisanship." American Political Science Review 83: 1125-1142.

Franklin, Charles H., and John E. Jackson. 1983. "The Dynamics of Party Identification." American Political Science Review 77 (4): 957-973.

Keith, Bruce E., David B. Magleby, Candice J. Nelson, Elizabeth Orr, Mark C. Westlye, and Raymond E. Wolfinger. 1986. "The Partisan Affinities of Independent Leaners." British Journal of Political Science 16 (April): 155-185.

Miller, Warren E. 1992. "Generational Changes and Party Identification." Political Behavior 14 (3, September): 333-360.

March 23: Issues and Voter Choice

* Abramson, Paul R., John H. Aldrich, and David W. Rohde. 2007. Change and Continuity in the 2004 and 2006 Elections. Washington: CQ Press. Chapter 6.

* Downs, Anthony. 1957. An Economic Theory of Democracy. Chapters 1, 2, 3, 8.

* Popkin, Samuel. 1991. The Reasoning Voter. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Ch. 3-5.

Fiorina, Morris P. , with Samuel J. Abrams, and Jeremy C. Pope. 2006. Culture War? The Myth of a Polarized America. 2nd Edition. New York: Pearson Longman. Chapters 1, 2, 4, and 5.

Abramowitz, Alan I., and Kyle L. Saunders. 1998. Ideological realignment in the US electorate. Journal of Politics 60 (3): 634-652.

Petrocik, John R. 1996. "Issue ownership in presidential elections, with a 1980 case study." American Journal of Political Science 40: (3, August) 825-850.

Carmines, Edward G. and James A. Stimson. 1980. "The Two Faces of Issue Voting." American Political Science Review 74:78-91.

Aldrich, John H., John L. Sullivan, and Eugene Borgida. 1989. "Foreign-Affairs and Issue Voting - Do Presidential Candidates Waltz before a Blind Audience?" American Political Science Review 83:123-141.

Optional Review Essays

Carmines, Edward G. and Michael W. Wagner. 2006. "Political Issues and Party Alignments: Assessing the Issue Evolution Perspective." Annual Review of Political Science 9:67-81.

Optional

Krosnick, Jon A. 1990. "Government Policy and Citizen Passion: A Study of Issue Publics in Contemporary America." Political Behavior 12 (1): 59-92.

Miller, Warren E. and J. Merrill Shanks. 1996. The New American Voter. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Excerpts reprinted in Controversies, pp. 221-239.

Abramowitz, Alan I. 1995. "It's Abortion Stupid: Policy Voting in the 1992 Presidential Election." Journal of Politics 57: 176-186.

Hillygus, D. Sunshine and Todd G. Shields. 2005. "Moral issues and voter decision making in the 2004 presidential election." PS-Political Science & Politics 38:201-209.

March 30: It's the economy, stupid.

* Fiorina, Morris P. 1981. Retrospective Voting in American National Elections. New Haven: Yale University Press. Chs.1, 2, 5, 8, 9 (3 is optional)

Alvarez, R. Michael and Jonathan Nagler. 1998. "Economics, Entitlements, and Social Issues: Voter Choice in the 1996 Presidential Election." American Journal of Political Science 42:1349-1363.

Mutz, Diana C. and Jeffery J. Mondak, 1997. "Dimensions of Sociotropic Behavior: Group-Based Judgments of Fairness and Well-Being," American Journal of Political Science (1, January): 284-308.

Anderson, Christopher J. 2000. "Economic Voting and Political Context: A Comparative Perspective." Electoral Studies 19:151-170.

Berry, Christopher R. and William G. Howell. 2007. "Accountability and Local Elections: Rethinking Retrospective Voting." Journal of Politics 69 (3, August): 844-858.

Campbell, James E. 2008. "Editor's Introduction: Forecasting the 2008 National Elections." PS-Political Science & Politics 41:679-681.

Abramowitz, Alan I. 2008. "Forecasting the 2008 Presidential Election with the Time-for-Change Model." PS-Political Science & Politics 41:691-697.

Erikson, Robert S. and Christopher Wlezien. 2008. "Leading Economic Indicators, the Polls, and the Presidential Vote." PS-Political Science & Politics 41:703-707.

Optional review essays

Lewis-Beck, Michael S. and Mary Stegmaier. 2007. "Economic Models of Voting." Pp. 518-537 in Oxford Handbook of Political Behavior, edited by R. J. Dalton and H.-D. Klingemann. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press.

Anderson, Christopher J. 2007. "The End of Economic Voting? Contingency Dilemmas and the Limits of Democratic Accountability." Annual Review of Political Science 10:271-296.

Optional

James E. Campbell and James C. Garand. 2000. Before the Vote: Forecasting American National Elections. Thousand Oaks, Calif. : Sage Publications. Intro and Chapter 1.

Remmer, Karen L. 1991. "The Political Impact of Economic Crisis in Latin America in the 1980s." American Political Science Review 85 (3, September): 777-800.

Powell, G. Bingham and Guy D. Whitten. 1993. "A Cross-National Analysis of Economic Voting: Taking Account of the Political Context." American Journal of Political Science 37 (2, May): 391-414.

April 6: Vote for the Crook: It's Important

(to be led by David Painter)

Mann, Thomas and Raymond Wolfinger. 1980. "Candidates and Parties in Congressional Elections." American Political Science Review 74 (3, September): 617-632.

Mondak, Jeffrey J. 1995. "Competence, Integrity, and the Electoral Success of Congressional Incumbents," Journal of Politics (4,November): 1043-1069.

Welch, Susan and John R. Hibbing. 1997. "The Effects of Charges of Corruption on Voting Behavior in Congressional Elections, 1982-1990," Journal of Politics (1, February): 226-239.

Cox, Gary W. and Jonathan N. Katz. 1996. "Why Did the Incumbency Advantage in U. S. House Elections Grow?" American Journal of Political Science (2, May): 478-497.

Hall, Melinda G. and Chris W. Bonneau. 2006. "Does Quality Matter? Challengers in State Supreme Court Elections." American Journal of Political Science 50:20-33.

Canache, Damarys, Jeffrey J. Mondak, and Ernesto Cabrera. 2000. "Voters and the Personal Vote: A Counterfactual Simulation." Political Research Quarterly 53:663-676.

Rosenberg, Shawn, Lisa Bohan, Patrick McCafferty, and Kevin Harris. 1986. "The Image and the Vote: The Effect of Candidate Presentation on Voter Preference." American Journal of Political Science 30: 108-27.

optional

Jacobson, Gary C. 2004. The Politics of Congressional Elections. New York: Pearson Longman.

McCurley, Carl and Jeffrey J. Mondak. 1995. "Inspected by #1184063113: The Influence of Incumbents' Competence and Integrity in U.S. House Elections." American Journal of Political Science 39: 864-85.

Matland, Richard E. 1994. "Putting Scandinavian Equality to the Test - an Experimental Evaluation of Gender Stereotyping of Political Candidates in a Sample of Norwegian Voters." British Journal of Political Science 24 (2, April): 273-292.

April 13: Changing the System

* Stimson, James A. 1991. Public Opinion in America : Moods, Cycles, and Swings. Boulder: Westview Press. Chapters 5 and 6.

Dalton, Russell J. 1984. "Cognitive Mobilization and Partisan Dealignment in Advanced Industrial Democracies." Journal of Politics 46 (1): 264-284.

Aldrich, John H. and Richard G. Niemi. 1995. "The Sixth American Party System, 1952-1992." Reprinted in Controversies, pp. 405-426.

Carmines, Edward G. and James A. Stimson. 1986. "On the Structure and Sequence of Issue Evolution," American Political Science Review (3, September): 901-920.

Stoker, Laura and M. Kent Jennings. 2008. "Of time and the development of partisan polarization," American Journal of Political Science 52 (3):619-635.

Miller, Gary and Norman Schofield. 2003. "Activists and Partisan Realignment in the United States." American Political Science Review (2, May): 245-260.

Hetherington, Marc J. 1998. "The Political Relevance of Political Trust." American Political Science Review 92:791-808.

Optional

Karen M. Kaufmann and John R. Petrocik. 1999. "The Changing Politics of American Men: Understanding the Sources of the Gender Gap," American Journal of Political Science (3, July): 864-887.

Geoffrey C. Layman and Edward G. Carmines. 1997. "Cultural Conflict in American Politics: Religious Traditionalism, Postmaterialism, and U. S. Political Behavior." Journal of Politics (3, August): 751-777.

April 20: Is anyone out there listening?

Miller, Warren E. and Donald E. Stokes. 1963. "Constituency Influence in Congress." American Political Science Review 57: 45-56.

Achen, Christopher. 1978. "Measuring Representation. " American Journal of Political Science 22: 475-510.

Stimson, James A., Michael B. MacKuen, and Robert S. Erikson. 1995. "Dynamic Representation." American Political Science Review 89: 543-565.

Hill, Kim Quaile and Tetsuya Matsubayashi. 2005. "Civic Engagement and Mass-Elite Policy Agenda Agreement in American Communities." American Political Science Review 99 (2, May): 215-224.

* Powell, G. Bingham. 2000. Elections as instruments of democracy : majoritarian and proportional visions. New Haven: Yale University Press. Chapters ?

* Bartels, Larry M. 2008. Unequal democracy : the political economy of the new gilded age. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Chapters ?

Martin, Paul S. 2003. "Voting's rewards: Voter turnout, Attentive Publics, and Congressional Allocation of Federal Money." American Journal of Political Science 47:110-127.

Optional review essay

Wlezien, Christopher and Stuart N Soroka. 2007. "The Relationship between Public Opinion and Public Policy." Pp. 799-817 in Oxford Handbook of Political Behavior, edited by R. J. Dalton and H.-D. Klingemann. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press.

Optional

Craig, Stephen C. 1993. The Malevolent Leaders. Boulder: Westview.

* Erikson, Robert S., Gerald C. Wright, and John P. McIver. 1993. Statehouse Democracy: Public Opinion and Policy in the American States. New York: Cambridge. Ch. 1,2, 4.

Bartels, Larry M. 1991. "Constituency Opinion and Congressional Policy Making: The Reagan Defense Buildup." American Political Science Review 85 (2): 457-474.

Griffin, John D. and Brian Newman. 2005. "Are Voters Better Represented?" Journal of Politics 67:1206-1227.

Anderson, Christopher J., and Christine A. Guillory. 1997. "Political Institutions and Satisfaction with Democracy: A Cross-National Analysis of Consensus and Majoritarian Systems." American Political Science Review 91 (1, March): 66-81.

Hill, Kim Quaile and Tetsuya Matsubayashi. 2008. "Church engagement, religious values, and mass-elite policy agenda agreement in local communities." American Journal of Political Science 52: 570-584.