Building a Nation, 1776–1896
THE
FOUNDING
Jan. 12 Lecture
Jan. 14 Lecture
Jan. 17
No class
Jan. 19 Lecture
Jan. 20/21 Recitation
Paper due Jan. 18. The Constitution laid out a structure of interaction between the federal government and the states radically different from that existing under the Articles of Confederation. Indeed, one could argue that it was only with the Constitution that a true national government was established in the United States. Focusing on three characteristics—the basis of representation in Congress, the power of taxation, and the relationship of federal authority to state law—analyze the change from one system to the other. In writing this paper, be sure to draw directly on the text of the Articles and the Constitution, as well as relevant sections of the Virginia and New Jersey Plans, which were presented to the convention drafting the Constitution.
Articles
of Confederation, 1778.
Massachusetts
Constitution, 1780, selections.
United
States Constitution, 1787, with Bill of Rights, 1791.
THE
REVOLUTION OF 1800
Jan. 24 Lecture
Jan. 26 Lecture
Jan. 28 Lecture
No paper assignment this week.
Jefferson,
Opinion on the Constitutionality of a National Bank, 1791.
Hamilton,
Opinion on the Constitutionality of a National Bank, 1791.
Kernell and Smith, Principles and Practice, pp. 85-92:
[2-4]
Burns, “Showdown: The Election of 1800.”
Fallon, Dynamic Constitution, pp. 1-27.
CONSENT
OF THE GOVERNED
Jan. 31 Lecture
Feb. 2 Lecture
Feb. 3/4 Recitation
Paper due Feb. 1. According to Keyssar, how and why were voting rights extended in the first decades of the nineteenth century?
Keyssar, The Right to Vote, pp. xv-xxiv, 1-76.
CIVIL
WAR, RECONSTRUCTION, AND REDEMPTION
Feb. 7 Lecture
Feb. 9 Lecture
Feb. 10/11 Recitation
Paper due Feb. 8. The Civil War decisively altered the relationship between the federal government and the states. With the passage of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments, the federal government was empowered to protect individual rights against the encroachments of state governments. Drawing on the assigned readings, analyze the extent to which a national commitment to protect political and civil rights existed in the 1890s that had not existed in the 1850s. Discuss, too, the ways in which this commitment still did not exist in the 1890s.
Lincoln, “House
Divided” Speech, 1858.
South Carolina,
Declaration of Causes of Secession, 1860.
Lincoln, First Inaugural
Address, 1861.
United
States Constitution, Amendments XIII, XIV, and XV.
Keyssar, The Right to Vote, pp. 77-116.
Designing Institutions
COLLECTIVE
ACTION
Feb. 14
First hourly exam
Feb. 16 Lecture
Feb. 18 Lecture
No paper assignment this week.
Kernell and Smith, Principles and
Practice, pp. 1-28, 568-75:
[1-1] Olson, “From The Logic of Collective
Action.”
[1-2]
Hardin, “The Tragedy of the Commons.”
[1-3]
Jehl, “Arkansas Rice Farmers Run Dry.”
[13-2]
Wright, “The Evolution of Interest Groups.”
Industrialization and Progressivism, 1877-1933
THE
VOTE
Feb. 21 Lecture
Feb. 23 Lecture
Feb.
24/25 Recitation
Paper due Feb. 22. What explains the success of the movement for women’s suffrage, culminating in the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, after decades of frustration?
Keyssar, The Right to Vote, pp. 117-221.
THE
JUDICIARY AND CIVIL LIBERTIES
Feb.
28 Lecture
Mar.
2 Lecture
Mar.
3/4 Recitation
Paper due Mar. 1. Between the 1890s and the 1920s, in a series of landmark decisions, the Supreme Court defined free speech as well as “substantive due process.” What were these definitions, and what have been the principal changes in the Court’s understanding of these rights since that time? In answering this question, be sure to draw on Brandeis and Fallon.
Brandeis, concurring
opinion, Whitney v. California, 1927.
Fallon, Dynamic Constitution, pp. 31-105, 237-53.
Kernell and Smith, Principles and
Practice, pp. 372-83:
[9-1]
Epstein and Knight, “From The
Choices Justices Make.”
CONGRESS
Mar. 14 Lecture
Mar. 16 Lecture
Mar. 18 Lecture
No
paper assignment this week.
Charles O. Jones, “Joseph G.
Cannon and Howard W. Smith: An Essay on the Limits of Leadership in the House
of Representatives,” Journal of
Politics 30 (1968), pp. 617-46.
Joseph Cooper and David W. Brady,
“Institutional Context and Leadership Style: The House From Cannon to
Rayburn,” American Political Science Review 75 (1981), pp.
411-25.
Gerald Gamm and Kenneth A. Shepsle,
“Emergence of Legislative Institutions: Standing Committees in the House
and Senate, 1810-1825,” Legislative
Studies Quarterly 14 (1989), pp. 39-66.
The New Deal and Civil Rights, 1933-1968
PRESIDENTIAL
POWER
Mar. 21 Lecture
Mar. 23 Lecture
Mar. 24/25 Recitation
Paper due Mar. 22. What are the sources of presidential leadership and power? In answering this question, draw on the analyses of Neustadt and Kernell as well as the example of Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Polenberg, Era of Franklin D. Roosevelt, pp. 1-57.
Kernell and Smith, Principles and
Practice, pp. 274-310:
[7-1]
Neustadt, “From Presidential Power.”
[7-2]
Kernell, “From Going Public.”
POLITICAL
PARTIES
Mar. 28 Lecture
Mar. 30
Second hourly exam
Mar. 31/Apr. 1 Recitation
No paper assignment this week.
V. O. Key, Jr., “A Theory of
Critical Elections,” Journal of
Politics 17 (1955), pp. 3-18.
Kernell and Smith, Principles and
Practice, pp. 530-58:
[12-2]
Bartels, “Partisanship and Voting Behavior, 1952-1996.”
[12-3]
Maisel, “American Political Parties.”
FEDERALISM
Apr. 4 Lecture
Apr. 6 Lecture
Apr. 8 Lecture
No paper assignment this week.
Polenberg, Era of Franklin D. Roosevelt, pp. 58-64, 114-19, 126-32, 161-69,
175-83, 226-27.
Fallon, Dynamic Constitution, pp. 157-72.
Kernell and Smith, Principles and
Practice, pp. 102-17, 384-89:
[3-2]
Kettl, “Federalism: Battles on the Front Lines of Public Policy.”
[9-2]
Lazarus, “The Most Dangerous Branch?”
Red and Blue America, 1964-2005
CIVIL
RIGHTS REVOLUTION
Apr. 11 Lecture
Apr. 13 Lecture
Apr. 14/15 Recitation
Paper due Apr. 12. Since the passage of national civil rights legislation in the 1960s, what have been the main arguments regarding districting plans and affirmative action?
Polenberg, Era of Franklin D. Roosevelt, pp. 147-51.
Keyssar, The Right to Vote, pp. 244-324.
Fallon, Dynamic Constitution, pp. 106-37.
CONGRESS
AND POLITICAL PARTIES
Apr. 18 Lecture
Apr. 20 Lecture
Apr. 21/22 Recitation
Paper due Apr. 19. According to these readings, what is the relationship between the behavior of legislators in Congress and their need to attend to electoral constituencies?
Kernell and Smith, Principles and
Practice, pp. 222-73, 500-516:
[6-1]
Fenno, “The Senate in Bicameral Perspective.”
[6-2]
Mayhew, “From Congress: The
Electoral Connection.”
[6-3]
Smith, “Congressional Trends.”
[11-3]
Jacobson, “Party Polarization in National Politics.”
CULTURE
WAR?
Apr. 25
No class
Apr. 27 Lecture
Paper due Apr. 26. Why does the idea of a “culture war” persist, according to Fiorina, if there is broad agreement among Americans on most issues?
Fiorina, Culture War?, entire book.