January 22: Why do parties form?; How many parties should we expect to form? Aldrich. Chapter 2. (pp. 27-64). Riker, William. 1982. “The Two Party System and Duverger’s Law: An Essay on the History of Political Science.” American Political Science Review 76(4):753-66 (Available at http://www.jstor.org/stable/1962968?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents) January 25: American Parties through Jackson Aldrich. Prologue for Part II and Chapters 3 and part of 4. (pp. 67-111). January 27: Jacksonian Democrats; The Whig and Republican Parties Aldrich. Part of Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 (pp. 111-159). January 29: Party Activists and Parties Aldrich. Prologue to Part III and Chapter 6. (pp. 163-201). Galston, William. “The Tea Party and the GOP crackup.” (Available at http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303376904579135231053555194) February 1: The Iowa Caucuses Cohn, Nate. 2015. “How a Tiny Corner of Iowa Packs Such a Fierce Conservative Punch.” The New York Times Upshot Blog. (Available at . Redlawsk, David, Carolina Tolbert and Todd Donovan. 2011. Why Iowa? How Caucuses and Sequential Elections Improve the Presidential Nominating Process. Chapter 3: “Iowa Caucus Rules.” (Available at Be prepared for an in-class simulation of the Iowa Caucuses; additional details will be provided on the course Sakai page close to the date of the class. Paper Proposal Due in class. February 3: Political Parties and Governance Aldrich, Chapter 7 (pp. 202-254). Discussion of Iowa Caucus Results
McDonald, Michael. 2008. “The Return of the Voter: Voter Turnout in the 2008 Presidential Election.” The Forum 6(4): Article 4. (Available online at April 1: Social Forces and Vote Choice; Black Lives Matter and the 2016 Election Abramson et al. Chapter 5. (pp. 116-145) Eligon, John. 2015. “One Slogan, Many Methods: Black Lives Matter Enters Politics.” New York Times. Look over 2012 presidential exit poll results at http://elections.nytimes.com/2012/results/president/exit-polls. April 4: The Science of Winning Elections Issenberg, Sasha. 2012. “The Victory Lab: The Secret Science of Winning Campaigns” Prologue Chapter 1: “Blinded by Political Science” and Chapter 7: “When Shame Pays a House Call.” ERES Leonhardt, David. 2011. “Rick Perry’s Scientific Campaign Method.” The Caucus Blog for the New York Times. (Available at April 6: Money and Elections in a Post-Citizens United World Currinder, Marian. 2013. “Campaign Finance: Campaigning in a Post-Citizens United Era.” In The Elections of 2012. Michael Nelson ed. (pp. 119-144; Available as an E-book at http://knowledge.sagepub.com/view/the-elections-of-2012/n6.xml) Jacobson, Gary. 2013. The Politics of Congressional Elections. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson. Part of Chapter 4: “Congressional Campaigns.” (pp. 64-90 on campaign money.) (Available online as a sample chapter at April 8: No Class, time for individual work on papers. Instructor at Midwest Political Science Association in Chicago. April 11: Congressional Elections: Broad Overview of Trends Abramson et al. Chapters 9 and 10 (pp. 225-280)
April 13: Congressional Elections: 2014 and Redistricting/Gerrymandering Abramson et al. Chapter 11 (pp. 281-316) Jacobson, Gary. 2013. The Politics of Congressional Elections. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson. Part of Chapter 2: “The Context.” (pp. 7-20.) ERES Sides, John and Eric McGhee. 2013. “Redistricting didn’t win Republicans the House.” Washington Post. (Available at Wang, Sam. 2013. “The Great Gerrymander of 2012.” New York Times. (Available at http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/03/opinion/sunday/the-great-gerrymander-of 2012.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0) We will have an in-class activity related to The Redistricting Game (Available at http://redistrictinggame.org/) April 15: Congressional Wave Elections/ Discussion of Jacob and Anthony’s Research Goldfarb, Zachary A., 2006. “How Many Wins Make a Wave?” Washington Post (Available at ) Smith, Jacob and Neil Weinberg. 2015. “How an Elevator can be Key to a Candidate’s Electoral Success.” LSE USAPP Blog. Something written by Anthony Chergosky; to be made available on Sakai page in advance of this class. April 18: State and Local Elections Carsey, Thomas. 2001. Campaign Dynamics: The Race for Governor. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Chapter 9 “Voter Response to Gubernatorial Campaigns.” (pp. 148-167 Available as an E-Book at http://site.ebrary.com/lib/uncch/reader.action?docID=10356842&ppg=1) Oliver, J. Eric, Shang Ha, and Zachary Callen. 2012. Local Elections and the Politics of Small Scale Democracy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Chapter 1: “Size, Scope, and Bias: What Differentiates Local Electoral Politics.” (pp. 12-52) ERES Wilson, Reid. 2014. “Republican Sweep Extends to State Level.” Washington Post. (Available at