This course looks at the nature of public opinion and its translation into political action. Political parties and interest groups are investigated as mechanisms which link the citizen to the policy-making system. Attention will be given to elections and the bases upon which individuals make their decisions at the polls. We will also consider the conflicting arguments about the decline, decomposition, and realignment of parties in the 1980s and 90s as well as the rise of the single issue group. A survey of the institutions, actors, and processes involved in the governing of states, cities, and other local jurisdictions.
Attention is given to intergovernmental relations as well as to the analysis of individual units.
Field work is required. The survey or political theory will use selected political theorists to examine a series of major questions which are central to political theory, e.g., power, authority, justice, and liberty. An examination of the concepts of law considered historically or thematically. Attention will be given primarily to the common law experience in the Western world with consideration of such concepts as freedom and the law, sources of law, nature of law, property and contract. Not recommended for freshmen and sophomores.