bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Teaching Pennsylvania Politics: A Reference Guide and Course Syllabus
Authors: Schuster Benjamin R.
Published: May 2020

In 1981, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania will celebrate the 300th anniversary of the Charter granted to William Penn by King Charles II permitting the former to assume proprietary rights over the territory that was to encompass the Province of “Penn's Woods.” If the general euphoria and “hoopla” which is likely to characterize this celebration does not deprive everyone of energy for subsequent commemoration, citizen and scholar alike will be reminded that in 1682, the year after Penn's arrival in the territory, a governmental system began functioning in the Province and, coincidentally depositing along the way, a record of its activities and outputs. The process continued through four Basic Charters or Frames of Government and beyond 1776 when a Provincial Convention composed the first constitution for the state that had emerged simultaneously with the start of the American War for Independence. It is a process which obviously is still going on and which accounts for large quantities of documentation and records regularly being added to the stockpile started by the Provincial Council and other governmental institutions in 1682.
Teaching Texas Politics: Sources and Texts
Authors: Thomas Robert D.
Published: May 2020

In Southern Politics written during the 1940s, V.O. Key, Jr. said that the lines of political division in ten of the southern states of the old Confederacy were drawn around the issue of race. Texas was the exception. “The Lone Star State,” Key wrote, “is concerned about money and how to make it, about oil and sulfur and gas, about cattle and dust storms and irrigation, about cotton and banking and Mexicans.” Unveiling his crystal ball, Key prophetized what this meant for the future: “in Texas the vague outlines of a politics are emerging in which irrelevancies are pushed into the background and people divide broadly along liberal and conservative lines. A modified class politics seems to be evolving, not primarily because of the upthrust of the masses that compels men of substance to unite in self-defense, but because of the personal insecurity of men suddenly made rich who are fearful lest they lose their wealth.” Key also had a word to say about an emerging two-party system in Texas.
Critical Thinking and Clear Writing
Authors: Lee Anne F.
Published: May 2020

As part of an on-going effort at West Oahu College (a small, liberal arts, upper-division campus of the University of Hawaii) I am experimenting with ways to help my political science students improve their ability to think critically and communicate clearly. For some time we have been aware of a large number of students having difficulties in writing and critical thinking. We have made an informal and voluntary commitment to use writing-across-thecurriculum (WAC) with faculty participating in workshops and conferring with the writing instructor who coordinates our WAC program.1

In-coming students must now produce a writing proficiency sample which is analyzed, returned with numerous comments, and results in students being urged to take a writing class if there are serious problems. A writing lab is offered several times a week and students are free to drop in for help.
What Should Undergraduate Internships Do?
Authors: Wunch James S.
Published: May 2020

Internships are “ in.” During an era of lagging liberal arts enrollments, deans. Admission Office personnel, students, and their families, are demanding education they believe will help the undergraduate get a job on graduation. For the instructor however, usually trained in conventional academic roles, the off-campus internship program is a rather new challenge. Rather than mastering a definable body of knowledge, the student is expected to master an “experience.” Rather than controlling student workload and specific tasks, the instructor only sets general parameters, which he must depend on others to follow. Rather than containing student personalities, styles and demeanors on campus, the instructor must send them off-campus to reflect well (or ill) on the college, their program and themselves.
Ethics and Public Policy
Authors: Graham George J.
Published: May 2020

The purpose of this course is to introduce a new framework linking the humanities to public policy analysis as pursued in the government and the academy. Current efforts to link the particular contributions from the humanities to problems of public policy choice are often narrow either in terms of their perspective on the humanities or in terms of their selection of the possible means of influencing policy choice. Sometimes a single text from one of the humanities disciplines is selected to apply to a particular issue. At other times, arguments about the ethical dimensions of a single policy issue often are pursued with a single — or sometimes, no — point of access to the policy process in mind.
Using SETUPS Modifying SIMSTATE
Authors: Agor Weston H.
Published: May 2020

In 1975, the American Political Science Association published an innovative computer game called SIMSTATE. The game and accompanying data bank were designed to help undergraduate students understand the dynamics of the budgetary process in American government, particularly at the state level. The game has been used successfully all across the country at all levels of postsecondary education — particularly when students have been given individual policy roles to play in the budgetary process. Still, the present package has two severe limitations. First, except for a brief descriptive booklet, no visual materials (i.e., slides, videotape) have been prepared to describe how the simulation package works and is used to analyze/evaluate the state government decision-making process.
The Politics of Tax Reform
Authors: Pomper Gerald M.
Published: May 2020

“No representation without taxation” could easily be the motto of American democracy. Like any other government, the United States cannot operate without taxes, and the politics of taxation reveals the workings of our democratic polity. The current national debate over tax reform offers an unusual opportunity to enliven introductory courses in American government.
Integrating Women's Studies in a Political Science Curriculum
Authors: Moniz Leta A.
Published: May 2020

Integrating Women's Studies with any curriculum, political science or otherwise, is a formidable task. And like most changes in curriculum, the integration of Women's Studies material has not come about in orderly fashion. There are some dimensions to Women's Studies integration, however, that set it apart from other curriculum change.

The thrust of Women's Studies vis a vis any discipline is to revise and reinterpret that discipline from a feminist perspective. Feminist philosophy has argued that traditional methodologies, theories, and manifest analyses have contained a patriarchal bias which has excluded the impact of women from the intellectual evolution of humankind. Thus, on the discipline and on the academy itself, the very premise of Women's Studies makes demands which are far-reaching and threatening to establishment doctrine.
Men, Women and Government Violence
Authors: Stiehm Judith , St. Germaine Michelle
Published: May 2020

Governments claim to protect citizens. They claim to protect them from criminals at home and enemies abroad. A government's capacity to protect is rooted in that government's capacity to do violence — specifically, its capacity to do more violence than can criminals and/or enemies. Governments lay claim to skill, sagacity, and support, but they also claim strength and a monopoly on the legitimate use of force. Citizens may enjoy security but they also provide for security through the payment of taxes and men especially pay for it through personal service and sometimes sacrifice.

State violence is often approved by citizens. Indeed, when the state exercises or threatens violence it is often seen not as violence but as “defense” or as “law enforcement.”
Teaching Lobbying Skills
Authors: Carroll John J. , Fyock Jack W. , Moniz Rita
Published: May 2020

Political scientists can be of practical assistance to important segments of the adult population who need training to develop lobbying skills. This is an area in which the subjectmatter expertise and teaching experience of political scientists have direct application outside the traditional classroom setting.

A great many citizens’ groups, professional associations, public officials, business organizations and private citizens have occasion to contact their representatives on legislative business. Yet many, if not most, of these groups and individuals have little understanding of the process in which they are engaged. In consequence, they may approach lobbying with great trepidation, they may be unable to maximize their influence and they may hold unrealistic expectations of the ability of individual legislators to shape policy.
State Supreme Courts and Public Policy: A Bibliography
Authors: Tarr G.Alan
Published: May 2020

During the past decade political scientists have become increasingly aware that state supreme courts make major contributions to public policy. Various highly publicized decisions concerning, for example, school finance, the termination of life support systems, and plea bargaining have underlined the importance of state supreme court policymaking. Historical studies have documented that this policy involvement is not merely a recent phenomenon. However, the Burger Court's new federalism has invited state supreme courts to play a more active role, and many courts have availed themselves of this opportunity.

Yet despite the obvious importance of state supreme court activity, research on their policymaking has lagged. In part this can be attributed to the sheer volume of cases they annually decide. Numerous law journals assist the political scientist in overcoming this difficulty by publishing annual surveys of state supreme court decisions. Listed below are journals which provide such surveys.
College Research Services and P.S. Term Papers
Authors: Orman John
Published: May 2020

After grading my last batch of spring 1980 term papers, my paranoia began to strike deep. Did Michael really write that paper on intelligence oversight in Congress? And wasn't Joan's term paper remarkably better than her written exams? And didn't I get a term paper from a basketball player at Indiana University a few years ago that was 10 pages long with 81 footnotes? Hey, who really writes these papers anyway?

My general operating assumption throughout the 1970s had been that I assumed each paper turned into me was written by that person, during the semester, for my course only.
Athena Beheaded: Introducing the Study of Nuclear Weapons Technology
Authors: Hadari Saguiv A.
Published: May 2020

This essay offers a clear, nontechnical framework for introducing students to the strategic and moral dilemmas surrounding nuclear weapons technology. The acute importance of these issues appears selfevident, and the disheartening confidence exhibited by both presidential candidates in the relative ignorance of the public in these matters amply illustrates the urgent need for more accessible information.

A strict rule has governed the elaboration of this framework: avoid both the dominant modes of discourse on the nuclear question —the new scholasticism of technological complexity and the new millenialism of technological doom. Both perplexity and panic paralyze. Accordingly, no claim whatsoever is made to offer new information or new prophecies: addressing political scientists merely seems the best way to reach students. It is the latter's frightening lack of understanding of this crucial issue, which I have personally experienced, that prompted this effort.
Teaching the Politics of Aging
Authors: Drew Lyndon S.
Published: May 2020

Real satisfaction in teaching comes from former students who find the value of a course in the world of work. I have experienced this satisfaction many times since I began teaching a course on the politics of aging three years ago.

The course targets two audiences: political science students who want to learn about aging and gerontology students who want to learn about politics. The course is the only cross-listed course in the gerontology curriculum at Wichita State University and attracts a variety of graduate and undergraduate students from diverse departments. By the end of the semester, all of them have learned something practical about the politics of aging. The elements of success in the course include the text, the format of each class, and the five assignments.
The Two-Hat Debate Technique
Authors: Duncombe Herbert Sidney , Heikkinen Michael H.
Published: May 2020

What professor in his right mind would argue with himself in front of a class? The lead author of this article has done just that and found the use of the two-hat debating technique an exciting way to teach. The professor plays the role of two or more people presenting different points of view wearing a different hat for each character. The characters portrayed could be Plato and Aristotle discussing the best form of government or could be an environmentalist, rancher, and timber company executive debating the use of Forest Service land. In each case, the instructor needs to research the positions that each speaker would be likely to take, prepare a brief script, select an appropriate hat, and throw him- or herself into the part.
Expanding the Beltway: Developing a Washington Resource Center
Authors: Alpert Eugene J.
Published: May 2020

“Inside the Beltway” is the phrase most often used by observers of national politics to capital area. Apparently, according to critics, the only people who really follow or care about the “inside baseball” of Washington intrigue are the people who live within the 257 sq. miles of roadway. The rest of the country is either unconcerned or unaware, since a) theWashington Postis not available for home delivery in their area, b) they are not invited to Georgetown cocktail parties or intimate Chevy Chase dinners, c) they aren't in contact with the 40,000 plus lawyers in D.C. or d) all of the above.

Despite the difficulty of following Washington politics on a daily basis, it is something that cannot be totally avoided.
Profile of a Political Science Major: Bryn Mawr
Authors: Salkever Stephen G. , Mawr Bryn
Published: May 2020

The political science major requirements at Bryn Mawr are characterized by a great deal of flexibility. This is at first glance a good thing, but on second thought we may begin to feel a bit guilty about our relative lack of structure, as though we were getting away with something—especially in the context of the Bryn Mawr ethos in which rigidity and departmental insularity are generally taken to be the surest signs of academic excellence. (The really best, most respectable, majors are the toughest—i.e., the ones that require students to take the most courses within the department.) Is the political science major at Bryn Mawr respectable? Or does this department treat its students as the pastry cooks in Plato's Gorgias treat children, stuffing them with the yummies they foolishly desire, and so easily defeating the heroic attempts of good doctors to persuade the young to take the salutary medicine their health requires?
On the Partisanship of Political Science
Authors: Lawler Peter Augustine
Published: May 2020

Political scientists, whatever skeptical pretensions they have in theory, cannot help but believe that political knowledge is good for human beings. This belief is based on another: well-informed citizens are better citizens. Scientific enlightenment makes citizens better. Political scientists cannot help but be concerned with the education of citizens.

Consider the early survey research that seemed to show American citizens are mostly ignorant and apathetic. Its purpose was not to undermine responsible citizenship by showing that such citizenship is not possible. Instead, its purpose was to make it possible, perhaps for the first time. For some, it signaled the need for a project of citizen education to eliminate ignorance and apathy. For others, the proper conclusion was that democratic normative theory must be reformulated to make the idealism of citizens responsible and effective by locating it within the boundaries of the possible. Either way, it was clear that the significance of the research findings were not viewed as purely or even primarily theoretical. They could and were used to improve political practice, to improve the American regime in accordance with its citizens’ values.
Introducing American Government Students to Data Analysis
Authors: Crotty Patricia McGee
Published: May 2020

“The more things change, the more they remain the same.” Although this adage may apply to many aspects of politics, it certainly does not apply to the methodology used in studying this field. As a midcareer student returning to complete a Ph.D., two incidents brought the changes that have occurred in methodology to my immediate attention. First, I was not able to find one of my old research sources in the periodical section of the library. I soon discovered that the Midwest Journal of Political Science is now the American Journal of Political Science. Once I found the journal, I discovered that I could not understand at least one half of the articles in it. Fortunately, I was in a graduate program that required statistics courses and computerized data analysis for all students. After one statistics course and mastering the use of statistical packages for computers, a new approach to the study of politics became available to me.
Foreign Policy Through A Great Decisions Practicum
Authors: Chernotsky Henry I.
Published: May 2020

Many political science departments face the difficult challenge of providing practical learning experiences of use to students beyond their collegiate years. The problem is particularly pronounced in the international field, where there are fewer internship and work-credit outlets and participation in study abroad programs may be limited by financial or logistical considerations. An alternative device offering “hands on” experience is a practicum, combining classroom instruction with the opportunity to apply acquired knowledge through activity outside the traditional classroom setting.

One such effort to augment the international relations curriculum is the Great Decisions practicum. Sponsored nationally by the Foreign Policy Association (FPA), Great Decisions is a non-partisan study/discussion program intended to familiarize citizens with critical foreign policy issues facing the United States. Each year, participants are exposed to eight major policy issues by reading the Great Decisions study guide and through involvement in a community lecture and discussion series.
Futurism in Policy Analysis
Authors: Ross E. Clarke
Published: May 2020

Michael Genovese's summer 1985 article, “Politics and Science Fiction Films,” is an excellent introduction to the broader topic of futurism and forecasting as methods of public policy analysis. These methods can be an interesting and challenging aspect of a graduate public administration course in public policy analysis.

“The future does not simply happen. We create it. We can choose our future.” Accepting this assumption, I have integrated futures studies and forecasting into the Troy State University European Region graduate public administration course, “Policy and Decision Making in Government.” The course is a required component of a master's degree program offered under contract with the U.S. Air Force European Command. I have taught the course seven times, at bases in England, Turkey, Spain, Germany, and the Netherlands.
Tools for Analysis: Journals and Writing Skills
Authors: Brodsky David M. , Meagher Eileen M.
Published: May 2020

Instructors directly responsible for improving student writing skills rely on many techniques, among them student journals, to help their charges master the rudiments of written communication. Instructors in such disciplines as political science, however, may exclude the development of written communication skills from the objectives they hope students achieve. Instead they regularly bemoan their students inability to put together two or three readily understandable sentences on any topic of concern, simultaneously condemning the high schools or English department for failing to teach students how to write.
Simulations: Urban Fiscal Crisis
Authors: Pohlmann Marcus D.
Published: May 2020

Purpose

I wish to describe a role-playing simulation, as opposed to an educational game. A game normally has an elaborate set of rules and requires participants to function within the logic of its own reality. A role-playing simulation, on the other hand, allows the participants to maintain their own personalities and values as they interact within far more general roles and rules, creating a unique reality each time. The goal of this particular simulation is to overcome a public policy problem within a simulated political environment.
Using Community Resources to Teach Public Policy
Authors: Mueller Keith J.
Published: May 2020

The recent growth in policy studies curricula in political science departments affords increased opportunities for experimentation with alternative instruction modes. This article describes one innovation found to be appropriate for courses for which the instructor has access to experts in the policy being studied. In this example, community experts in health policy issues were used as resource persons to assist in discussion of specific health policy concerns. Other policy courses should be amenable to this format, including energy, environment, and economic development courses. Even without using community experts, the general format of weekly colloquiums could be replicated for other policy courses.

The courses described herein is an upper division/graduate level course in American Health Policy. It is taught for one semester every other year as one of several topical courses in the public policy track within political science.
Organizational Change: Case Studies and Analysis
Authors: Pavlak Thomas J. , Wong Molly
Published: May 2020

One continuing source of frustration in public policy and mangement education is the relative paucity of materials in empirical inquiry. Typically, instructors must borrow and adapt instructional materials originally developed for use in other fields (e.g., Political Science, Sociology). While many of these texts, laboratory manuals and other instructional resources are of excellent quality, they often are only marginally related to public policy and management concerns. Learning for skillbuilding in empirical inquiry is not content-free, however, and students frequently have difficulty applying concepts and techniques covered in these instructional materials to their own field of study—the linkages may not be readily apparent.

The problem is particularly acute when one is trying to provide students with relevant "hands on" experience in applying various analytic methods to actual data for public policy and management decision-making.
The Dover Project
Authors: Hartwig Richard E. , Atkins Ann , Bradley Darla , Mize Kathleen , Taylor Greg
Published: May 2020

As a veteran gypsy scholar who has done time in seven or eight institutions of higher learning, I thought I had seen it all. But once again, I was wrong. This time it was not a question of teachingper se— as in the university where I was ordered to teach Texas Politics within two weeks of entering the state. Now it was just a little thing: the chalk-holders on the blackboards were usually empty.

For a teacher, the situation was irritating. The standard operating procedure was to ask the departmental secretary for a piece of chalk—two if you insisted. You were then supposed to take the chalk with you from class to class because, I was told, it would disappear if you left it in the room.
Decision Making and Participation: An Exercise
Authors: Binford Michael B.
Published: May 2020

This article describes an exercise in political decisionmaking for use in introductory political science courses. Based upon participatory democratic theory, the exercise is a covert simulation project aimed at providing students with an experiential understanding of the political decisionmaking process. This activity is useful for exposing the latent political structure which underscores most social settings and for allowing a clear analysis of the exercise of power in a small, educational arena; the simulation provides a unique opportunity for combining subject matter and pedagogical technique.

The procedure will be described in some detail, the initial results generated are discussed, the topics related to the experience later in the course are examined, and suggestions for instructor preparation are made. This procedure has been successfully used in undergraduate classes of Introduction to American Government and in Introduction to Political Science over a five year period.
Race and Slavery in the American Constitutional System: 1787-1865
Authors: Fehrenbacher Don E.
Published: May 2020

For some time now, physical anthropologists have been disengaging themselves from the use of race as an objective characteristic of humankind. But historians, and especially historians of the United States, must continue to deal with race as a subjective reality — that is, with the idea or consciousness of race as a social force. Of course racial distinctions are never entirely free from cultural connections. Thus Africans brought in chains to colonial America were regarded as ideally fitted for servitude, not only because of their perceived physical characteristics (including intellect and disposition) but also because they were viewed as heathens and savages. Conversely, ethnocultural distinctions may have strong racial overtones, such as in the image and identity of twentieth-century Hispanic-Americans.
Women and American Politics "Mainstreaming" at Kent State U.
Authors: Dean Karen , Warner Charles , Steuernagel Trudy
Published: May 2020

During the Spring Semester of 1984, we had the opportunity to field test Women in the Judicial Process and Men, Women, and State Violence: Government and the Military, two of the units in the American Political Science Association's project, Citizenship and Change: Women and American Politics. We greeted the experiment with great enthusiasm. Our current undergraduate curriculum includes the course “Women and Politics“; but, like many departments, we have given consideration to “mainstreaming” the contents of this class into other courses. Some of our faculty contend that “Women and Politics” perpetuates the “ghettoization” of such material and that our students would be better served by the abandonment of “Women and Politics” in favor of the integration of its content into our more traditional offerings.
The Implication of Contemporary Education Thinking and Continental Thought for Teaching Political Science
Authors: Cherryholmes Cleo H.
Published: May 2020

The following articles come from different intellectual traditions than usually appear in NEWS for Teachers of Political Science. Previously, thoughtful NEWS pieces have ranged widely from the use of metaphors and simulations to techniques for lecturing and leading classroom discussions to reviews of current textbooks. However, two traditions have been largely missing: developments in contemporary educational thought, curriculum theory in particular, and continental philosophy. Continental philosophy has had important influence in the field of curriculum theory as well as American political science. Therefore, it seems appropriate that some of these developments explicitly be brought to the attention of teachers of political science. The articles by Whitty and Giroux deal with recent developments in pre-collegiate educational thought; Dallmayr, with developments in continental philosophy in this century; Shapiro, with implications of post-structuralist thought for teaching about politics; and I explain how developments in analytic as well as continental philosophy have shaped a graduate seminar in research methodology.
Continental Perspectives and the Study of Politics
Authors: Dallmayr Fred
Published: May 2020

Anyone attending a political science conference these days is likely to be overwhelmed by the extreme heterogeneity of viewpoints and approaches, a heterogeneity sometimes resembling a hopeless Babel of tongues. For decades there had been talk of paradigm changes and of the erosion of “mainstream” assumptions in the discipline; more recently, this ferment has been heightened by the influx of novel perspectives whose vocabulary and intellectual style bear a distinctly continental cast. Professional reaction to these perspectives has been varied: greeted by some as instant remedies they are bemoaned by others as alien intruders threatening an already fragile consensus. I perceive them as idioms in an ongoing conversation whose lines of argument are not merely whimsical and deserve the attention of political science teachers.
Murphy's Law Applied to Computer Assisted Instruction
Authors: Kerle Donald F.
Published: May 2020

In political science as well as other areas of the academic world, computer- assisted instruction is being proclaimed as an innovative teaching tool which teachers should be bringing into the classroom. Workshops on the subject are offered and short courses taught to those unfortunate enough to have missed the computer revolution in their own educational process. The proponents of C.A.I, (for some reason the computer field is devoted to acronyms) or Computer Assisted Instruction are like snake oil salesmen. They always dwell on the positive aspects but fail to warn the consumer of the negative ones.

Many of the great truths of the world have found applicability in more than one area. An illustration of this is a series of statements given the world by Murphy.
Adapting One Unit On “Women and American Politics” for an Intro. Course
Authors: Tronto Joan
Published: May 2020

If we are going to integrate the new materials on women into political science classes I believe it is important to do so in the introductory courses. Often it is only in the introductory courses that we reach nonmajors and give our potential majors a sense of the field. If we make clear to students how the new scholarship on women affects our concepts and ideas about the discipline, then our students get a sense of the questions that political scientists themselves are wondering about, and about how the discipline changes as it confronts new questions.

Nonetheless, in teaching the basic introduction to American Government course I have had what I expect is the typical experience: there is already too much to cover in a semester.
The First Amendment and The New Anti-Pornography Statutes
Authors: Grossman Joel B.
Published: May 2020

This essay seeks, in a very preliminary way, to explore the constitutional ramifications of a new wave of laws designed to combat pornography. Pornography is not new, of course; and neither are laws designed to curtail it. It has long been prohibited by federal and state statutes. The first state obscenity law was passed in Vermont in 1821, and the first federal statute, which prohibited the importation of obscene materials such as “French post cards,” was enacted in 1842. As early as 1931, in Near v. Minnesota, the Supreme Court announced that obscenity was not entitled to constitutional protection under the First Amendment.

What has changed is the economics of the sex industry, the demography of its constituency, and the nature of the materials themselves. Pornography today is flourishing as never before; by some estimates it is a $7 billion industry.
Exposing the Textbook Bias: The Need for Professional credit
Authors: Dunn Charles W.
Published: May 2020

Why is authorship of a textbook generally considered less of a scholarly contribution than authorship of a “scholarly” publication, such as a journal article or a university press book?

Certainly both are needed, but is it right for a political science department to reward faculty who author “scholarly” publications more than those who author textbooks?

Whether stipulated in the criteria for departmental evaluation of faculty performance or in other less overt ways, the bias is prevalent throughout our discipline.

This essay states five reasons why the bias should not exist: 1) ignorance of impact, 2) ignorance of values, 3) ignorance of the review process, 4) ignorance of purpose, and 5) ignorance of time and Scope.
Film and the Political
Authors: Pollack Sheldon D.
Published: May 2020

“It is extremely difficult to make a good political or social film because the issues are complex and, to some extent, abstract, and have to be embodied in human anatagonists to make them come alive… In effect, the film maker is caught between the Scylla of depersonalization and the Charybdis of oversimplification… It is much easier to make a film with political overtones or social implications, … and not confront the problems head-on.“

In the winter 1982 issue of NEWS, Professor Sidney Wise ponders the treatment of the politician by Hollywood's film makers. Wise was prompted to write in response to a previous discussion of Robert Altman's Nashville by G. Alan Tarr, who argued that such a film is “above all a commentary on political life.”
Introducing Politics to the Undergraduate A Novel Approach
Authors: Morrison Kent
Published: May 2020

What to teach the first-time student in a political science class? Perhaps more importantly, what to teach the undergraduate whose only experience with political science, and the formal study of politics, will be the introduction they receive in our classes?

Owing to the peculiarities of our discipline, the “Introduction to Political Science” class is often just that: a tour through all the major gardens in the discipline, describing to students what is done among scholars and practicioners in the various fields, giving them an overall view of what we do, how we do it, and in the process perhaps making a case for the significance of our discipline, our research, and perhaps even the subject itself — politics.
On Defining Politics and How to Take it into Account
Authors: Leiserson Avery
Published: May 2020

This essay addresses the problem of teachers and students who have reached the point of trying to find a common ground for perceiving (seeing) politics. This may occur almost any time during any social science course, but it cannot be assumed to happen automatically the first day of class in government, citizenship, or public affairs. Hopefully, the signal is some variant of the question: “What do we mean by politics, or the political aspect of human affairs?” A parade of definitions — taking controversial positions on public policy issues; running for elective office; who gets what, when and how; and manipulating people—is not a mutually-satisfying answer if it produces the Queen of Hearts’ attitude in students that the word politics means what they choose it to mean and nothing more.
Teaching Logical Thinking: Preparing Graduate Students for Comprehensive Examinations
Authors: Mead Timothy D.
Published: May 2020

The problem

A common lament among faculty members is that students cannot think clearly, do not put things in logical order, and that “they certainly did not learn to think so poorly in my class.” A manifestation of that inability is the work done on essay examinations.

In our Master of Urban Administration program, a professional course of study for persons in public administration, a source of stress between faculty and students concerns performance on the comprehensive examinations administered at the midpoint of the two year program. Faculty members complain that students do not address the question asked, only answer part of the question, or do not identify key points in their answers. On the other hand, students argue that they have never been given questions like those on the comprehensive examinations or been shown how to think through an answer in a logical or systematic fashion.
Bridging Metaphysics, Theory and Practice
Authors: Leege David C.
Published: May 2020

The thesis of this article is simple: the primary function of political scientists is to nurture civic skills and political understanding within our students and those who read our literature. The principal component of both skill and understanding is the capacity to visualize and interpret events through several quite different metaphors. Sensitivity to alternate metaphors comes through liberal education, as traditionally defined. A capacity to recognize the limitations to any given metaphor depends, first, on puzzling life experiences, secondly, on a reservoir of alternate ways of viewing the world, and thirdly, on educational experiences that cultivate deep analytical thought and build self-confidence with thinking differently than other people do If it is true that a liberal education frees people to recognize perspective, predisposition, and prejudice, and if politics is indeed the art and science that must integrate into courses of action values about nature, humanity, society, and the Divine, then political scientists have an enormous stake in the general education curricula of our universities and colleges.
Teaching Politics With Films
Authors: Genovese Michael A.
Published: May 2020

The Scene is unforgettable. Charlie Chaplin in The Great Dictator plays Adenoid Hynkel, a Fuhrer-figure, modeled comically after Adolf Hitler. Hynkel, alone in a large room, wanders over to a world-globe, picks it up, and begins to playfully bounce the world into the air, buoyantly kicking and tapping the world into the air like his little toy balloon. Suddenly, the balloon explodes.

The comical image is powerful. Here is Chaplin, the Little Tramp, holding Hitler up to ridicule, mocking his desires to do with the real world, what Hynkel does with the globe. Chaplin makes a forceful political statement through his comic talents. In this brief scene, Hitler's powerhungry drives are conveyed to the audience while Hitler is being ridiculed at the same time.
And, Simulations on the United Nations: The Security Council
Authors: Rosenberg J. Philipp
Published: May 2020

When I first began teaching an Introduction to International Relations course, I quickly saw that my students needed something more than just reading about and listening to lectures on the clashes of perception which are at the heart of international politics. How better to do this than to have them participate in a simulation in which those clashes of perception would surface. Although one could choose one of any number of international organizations to simulate, the U.N. Security Council is probably the best due to its size and geographic balance. Having decided to use a simulation, I was immediately faced with crucial decisions as to how the simulation would be run especially in terms of the complexity of the rules used and the choice of nations to be represented.
The International Component of Political Science Curricula
Authors: Jacobson Harold K.
Published: May 2020

Throughout the world, attaining peace and prosperity are clearly at the top of the agenda of human concerns; consequently, they are the most central and salient issues of politics and government. In the late twentieth century, however, no country can achieve these goals through its own actions alone. For all countries in this era of interdependence gaining peace and prosperity each require collective efforts. Thus domestic policies cannot be considered in isolation from foreign policies, and domestic politics are inextricably linked with international and ultimately world politics. Even if one were interested only in events within one's own country these would have to be put in a larger context to be properly understood, but most individuals adhere to ethical beliefs that mandate that their concerns extend certainly beyond their own countries’ borders, if not to all of humanity.
Teaching International Relations to American Students
Authors: Quester George H.
Published: May 2020

The teaching of international politics within the United States has been buffeted about a great deal in the past decade, reflecting shifting trends in social science analysis, reflecting also some major rethinkings and “moments of truth” about America's role in the world.

The end of World War II had seen a widespread acceptance ofRealpolitikanalysis, as exemplified in the writings of Hans Morgenthau, generally responding to the unprecedented degree of United States participation in world affairs in the resistance to Hitler's Germany. This new realistic interpretation contrasted itself with an original, more idealistic, liberal position attributed to Americans in general for the earlier and more naive times before 1939, an idealism attributed in an extreme form to Woodrow Wilson in his approach to the outcome of World War I.
Policy Responsiveness and Fiscal Strain in 51 American Communities
Authors: Schumaker Paul David , Getter Russel W. , Clark Terry Nichols
Published: May 2020

This manual comes with a set of data concerning some economic, political, and social characteristics of the 51 cities in the Permanent Community Sample (PCS).1 In 1967, an initial survey of 12 key informants in each of the 51 cities was conducted by interviewers from the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at The University of Chicago. Subsequently, additional data have been added to the original data archive through the involvement of many researchers. Several mail questionnaires have been sent to policymakers, administrators, and informants in the PCS cities. Documents published in recent years by various federal agencies (for example, the U.S. Bureau of the Census) and by various organizations concerned with municipal affairs (for example, the International City Management Association) have yielded additional and current data concerning the PCS cities.
Surprise in World Politics
Authors: Hastedt Glenn P.
Published: May 2020

As everyone who has taught a course on international politics can readily attest, there are few events which evoke as strong a reaction from students as does a major surprise. Surprise leaves a deep imprint upon the student, generating two simultaneous reactions which push the student in opposite directions. On the one hand, the student is impressed by the range of what can be accomplished by a skillfully undertaken course of action. At least for the moment, world politics no longer appears to him or her as an arena beset by problems totally without solutions. The strongly held desire of most students to believe that insight and vision can solve problems is reaffirmed.

Surprise also produced a second reaction. Depending upon whether the event is perceived favorably or not, student reaction ranges from moral outrage, to puzzlement, to disbelief or exhilaration.
An Essay Contest for Honors Students
Authors: Sidlow Edward I. , Henschen Beth M.
Published: May 2020

A recent grant from the National Office of Pi Sigma Alpha gave us the opportunity to provide students with an extra-curricular writing experience that proved rewarding for all involved. The honorary's Committee on Chapter Activities funded a project jointly conceived by chapters at Miami and Purdue Universities during the 1981-82 academic year.

The project consisted of a research essay contest with a cash prize awarded to the winning paper authors. Three teams of two students each were chosen from both chapters to write papers and to present them at a joint meeting. Specifically, the three “teams” from Miami were asked to write on the following topics:

1.The Reagan Administration seems committed to a lessened role for the federal government and a stronger role for the state governments in determining and implementing public policies.
Teaching the Congress and Legislative Process Courses
Authors: Maisel L. Sandy
Published: May 2020

At the APSA Convention in New York in 1981, the Presidency Research Group ran a very successful panel on “Teaching the American Presidency.” Those in attendance all were convinced that they gained useful insights into their own teaching by sharing experiences with others. In hopes of achieving the same goal, the Legislative Studies Group organized a similar panel of the 1982 meeting. This brief article served as background for the panel.

Our panel is “similar,” not “parallel.“ Those in the Presidency Research Group nearly all teach courses on the American Presidency, not on chief executives. The teaching and research interests of our group are more diverse. Some of us concentrate on the United States Congress, others on the Congress and the various state legislatures, still others on the Congress and the various state legislatures, still others on comparative legislatures. The discussants on our panel were all authors of leading texts on the Congress; however, because of the interests of members of the group, this article discusses comparative legislature courses as well.
The Constitution and Foreign Affairs: Power-Sharing in Practice
Authors: Destier I. M.
Published: May 2020

This seminar will explore the American experience in reconciling the conduct of an activist foreign policy with the constitutional requirement for power-sharing between Congress and the President. Focusing mainly on the period since World War II, it will review experiences in both economic and security issues, including war powers, arms sales, trade negotiations, and foreign aid. Particular attention will be given to the impact of “extraconstitutional“ procedural innovations, like the War Powers Resolution of 1973, the various arrangements for powersharing on trade, and the legislative veto.
An Experimental Approach to the Introductory Political Science Course
Authors: McClure William , Stohl Michael
Published: May 2020

The conventional introductory course rests upon the pedagogical assumption that the teacher's function is to transmit information (or knowledge) and that the student's function is to receive it. According to this transmitter-receiver model of the educational process, teaching begins with a “knower” who “transmits” what he knows to a “learner.” In higher education, certain euphemisms are employed to soften and furnish a color of legitimacy to this model: the teacher is a “scholar,” and “authority,” in his field; he possesses an “expert knowledge” which the student has come to school to “learn“; the student is the “learner.” The teacher's role, accordingly, is the active one of transmitting information and the student's role, accordingly, is the passive one of receiving and recording (or memorizing) this information.
Microcomputers in in “Measurement and Methodology”
Authors: Heubel E.J. , Macauley W.A.
Published: May 2020

The microcomputer is properly assuming a larger role in the academic setting just as it is in the other professions and in the world of business. Its lower cost and its convenience make it a serious competitor of the mainframe computer which we previously were dependent on for research and instructional support. Graduate and research faculties saw the need for instruction in statistical packages to process their data sets and at Oakland we believed that familiarity with computer techniques would have to begin at the undergraduate level as well. The basic methods course, required of all majors, was the logical place to try out computer techniques. In 1972 our first mainframe computer — a Burroughs 5500 — became available for academic use.
Alumni Evaluate Poly Sci Courses
Authors: Wayman Frank Whelon
Published: May 2020

The political scientists at the University of Michigan, Dearborn, concerned about what becomes of political science majors in today's job market, have completed a survey of the occupational status and quality of life of recent alumni. This paper examines the potential contributions of that survey as a model for future evaluations of political science programs and other liberal arts programs. In the paper, I will discuss the design of the study, its findings, and the lessons that might be useful to those who would wish to do such studies on their own campuses.

Design

The University of Michigan, Dearborn evaluation was done primarily by, and for the benefit of, the political science faculty. Thus, the evaluation was tailored to particular faculty interests and concerns.