Exam 2 Study Guide

Our second exam will be in class on Thursday. We will have a review session in class on Tuesday. The study guide is here.Please look over the guide carefully as the format of the exam will be somewhat different.

481 In Class Actvity

We'll be working with state-level presidential election data from 2008 today. You may download them here.

JayZ's 99 Problems and the 4th Amednment

A law professor at St. Louis University has turned JayZ's classic "99 Problems" into a great 4th Amednment teaching tool.

Here is the article.

Here is the abstract:

This is a line-by-line analysis of the second verse of 99 Problems by Jay-Z, from the perspective of a criminal procedure professor. It’s intended as a resource for law students and teachers, and for anyone who’s interested in what pop culture gets right about criminal justice, and what it gets wrong.

The whole things is great. Enjoy.

Model Exam Answers

Here is a set of model exam answers for POLS 353's first exam.

Pols 353 Exam Preparation

The study guide is here.

A model exam answer from an prior section of this class is here.

A law professor at Columbia University has posted a series of old constitutional law exams and model answers here.

Also, don't forget, we will have our review session in class on Tuesday.

Game On

My jury trial was cancelled. Class is go.

"The Perils of Going to Law School"

Those of you considering law school should read this.

Class Tomorrow, Tuesday, September 25

This is for both classes. I have been called for jury duty for College Station Municipal Court for Tuesday. As of now, the trial is scheduled to proceed. I will know after 6:00PM tonight I will be able to confirm. If so, I will have to cancel classes.

Please check back tonight for further announcements.

Real Life Establishment Clause

In class, I mentioned that our extensive treatment of the First Amendment's religion clauses reflects my personal belief that issues of free exercise and religious establishment will be increasingly important elements of our national and local political debates. A news report today on recent remarks made by Governor Perry tends to support that claim. Here is the lede:

Rick Perry, speaking on a conference call with Christian conservatives Tuesday, called the separation between church and state a false premise that is advanced by the devil.

He also said that the Obama Administration and court system are working to remove religious references from the American way of life and that is it up to “Christian warriors, Christian soldiers,” to prevent it from happening.

Agenda-Setting in Two-Dimensional Policy Spaces

Here is an old extra credit assignment I offered to students in my Intro to American Politics class. Sadly, there is no credit (extra or otherwise) for you to work the problem, but I will talk about this in class tomorrow. So, working it ahead of time might be useful.

Link to Onassis v. Christian Dior Inc.

Here is a link to the opinion in Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis v. Christian Dior-New York, Inc.

Federalist Papers Video Contest Winners

Here are the winning and runner-up entries in the Federalist Papers Video Contest. First place goes to Mason Badger, Andrea Richardson, Ben Gothman, and Kate Rowland.





Second place goes to Nathan Gutekunst, Sarah Shaffer, and Heather Fox.





I was unable to whittle the set of finalists to just five, so there are four other entries in this category.

Finalist 1: Sarah Camba, Elizabeth Tindle, Natalie Mitchell, and Natalie Marshall

Finalist 2: Hussain Al-Ismail and Ameer Al-Dagher

Finalist 3: Feliper Flores and Luis Flores

Finalist 4: Misty Canet, Luke Pyburn, Payton Duvall-Freymuller, and Jacob Ledbetter

Congratulations to you all. The entries were very good this year, and making selections was very difficult.

I am also grateful to everyone else who entered the contest. It takes a great deal of thought and effort to produce a video, and, as a group, you all showed an incredible amount of work and talent.

Extra Credit

I will conduct course evaluations in class on Tuesday. If at least 50% of the students enrolled in a section complete a course evaluation, I will award one point of extra credit on the final grade of every student in that section. The extra credit opportunity is available to both sections.

Extra Credit Opportunity for Exam 3

So, this semester, I have placed new emphasis on The Federalist in the course. In the hope of inspiring you all to improve your understanding of that material and commit it to long-term memory (and to try to harness your creativity to help me come up with a better way to teach this stuff), students who produce a video explaining and demonstrating an original way to remember the arguments in Federalists 10, 46, 51, and 78 can win extra credit that may be applied to your third exam.

Here are the rules:

1. An entry may be no longer than 5 minutes.
2. Each entry must provide instruction on the four Federalist essays described above.
3. Entries may be the work of individual students or teams. (Students may collaborate across sections.)
4. Teams may be no larger than 4 students.
4. No student may be involved in more than one entry.
5. Entries must be burned onto a CD-ROM in a common video file format (e.g. .mpg, .mov, etc.).
6. All entries are must be physically turned in to me no later than the start of the entrant or entrants' class on Monday, April 30. Be sure to write the names of all students' responsible for the video on the physical disc.

I will select up to five finalist entries on the basis of three criteria: the usefulness of the video for helping future students learn the assigned Federalist essays (60%), creativity (25%), and production values (15%). I will choose one winning video and one runner-up from among the finalists.

• Individuals or teams who produce the three finalist videos will receive 4 points of extra credit (per person). 
• The person or team who produces the runner-up video will receive 8 points of extra credit (per person). 
• The person or team who produces the winning video will receive 12 points of extra credit (per person).

All extra credit will be applied to grades for the third exam prior to any curves or other adjustments I may make. By submitting a video, entrants agree to assign to me the nonexclusive right to publish and distribute their video (including posting it online, making it available for others to download, and showing it in present and future classes) and to incorporate ideas and material from the videos into lectures and other teaching products. Lastly, and as always, I am the dictator of the extra credit assignment. My interpretation of the rules is final, and I reserve the right to alter or amend its terms at any time with reasonable notice.

Please let me know if you have any questions about this opportunity. Good luck.

Office Hours Cancelled Today, April 18

I am *very* sorry for this last minute change, but I will not be able to make my office hours today in order to attend to a family medical situation.

I will hold extra office hours tomorrow from 2:00PM-400PM in my office on West Campus (in addition to my usual office hours from 10-00AM-12:00PM) and also on Friday afternoon from 1:00PM-4:00PM in Evans Library.

Again, I am very sorry for any inconvenience this may cause, and I hope you will be able to attend one of these makeup times. If not, please let me know, and I can schedule individual appointments as necessary.

SMD Video

Today, we talked about the relationship between a country's electoral rules and the number of political parties that enjoy significant levels of electoral support. This video may help you get a handle on the SMD system, which the video refers to as "first past the post," which refers to deciding elections by plurality rule.

Marbury v. Madison Lives

Though, as we discussed in class, the history of judicial review in the United States cannot reasonably be reduced to "John Marshall created in in Marbury v. Madison," the myth of Marbury remains a persistent part of the country's political folklore. For example, David Franklin (Associate Professor of Law and Vice Deal at DePaul University) invokes Marbury in this article arguing that the Supreme Court should decide not to decide the health care cases by declaring that it has no jurisdiction to do so. Leaving aside the merits of the author's claims about the Court's jurisdiction in the health care cases, here is how he describes Marbury:

More than 200 years ago, the Supreme Court handed down a decision that was destined to change the landscape of American politics and send generations of befuddled first-year law students scurrying to their legal dictionaries. Everyone knows Marbury v. Madison as the case in which the court first asserted the power to declare acts of Congress and the president unconstitutional. What’s less well known is that the defendants in Marbury (Secretary of State James Madison and, by extension, President Thomas Jefferson) got off on a technicality. In its first great clash with the president, the court concluded that it had no jurisdiction—no power, in other words, to award relief to the plaintiff. Marbury promised sizzle and ended with fizzle.

But all of this was by design. John Marshall, the brilliant but unassuming chief justice, always intended to use Marbury to hand his cousin and arch-foe Jefferson a narrow legal victory while dealing him a long-lasting political blow. By lecturing Jefferson about his legal duties, Marshall put the president in his place. (Ours is “a government of laws, and not of men.”) And by laying the foundation for judicial review, Marshall carved out a prominent new place for the court. Most important, Marshall did all of this without ordering Madison or Jefferson to actually do anything. No wonder historian Robert McCloskey called Marbury “a masterwork of indirection.”

Like I told you all in class, when someone says Marbury v. Madison, the easiest thing to do is to nod knowingly and say, "Ah yes, John Marshall, judicial review, I know it well." You are also welcome, though, to join me in my personal crusade to put Marbury in its proper place and explain to your learned friends about the Repeal Act, Stuart v. Laird, and ongoing politics of constructing judicial independence.

Class Cancelled Monday, March 26

I am very sorry for the late notice, but I am sick and cancelling class for today. We will have our review session for the second exam on Wednesday, and the exam is still on for Friday.

Free Stanford Game Theory Class

A theme of our class so far has been how institutions help people "do better" in situations in which uncoordinated activity can lead to inefficient outcomes. Many of the concepts I have referred to in our lectures or that you (should) have read about in the text deal with these kinds of situations and how to analyze them---collective action problem, prisoners' dilemma, Nash equilibrium, etc. We have encountered these ideas as part of our effort to understand American national politics. However, the field of "game theory" systematically develops these and other concepts to help understand individuals' strategic interactions with one another more generally.

If you are interested in these ideas, there are, of course, several undergraduate game theory courses offered here at Texas A&M, including classes in the Political Science and Economics departments. However, a pair of professors at Stanford University are offering a free introductory game theory course online starting this coming week. All of the details are here: https://www.coursera.org/gametheory/auth/welcome.

I know. You are all on spring break, and taking on an extra course for fun is probably the last thing on your agenda, which is fair enough. For now, let me just point you to this really great opportunity, though, and invite anyone who is interested in taking the course to come and speak with me about it when we get back in session on Monday.

Grades are up and available.

I'll discuss averages and whatnot tomorrow.

The Small Scale of Most Congressional Campaigns

This video shows Elizabeth Warren, a candidate for the United States Senate in Massachusetts, making a campaign speech to a group of supporters.

For the purposes of studying congressional campaigns (and thinking about how electoral imperatives shape the behavior of members of Congress and institutions created by members of Congress, like parties and committees), the important thing about this video is the setting. Elizabeth Warren is giving this speech to maybe a couple of dozen people packed into someone's living room, and she is an unusually high-profile and well-funded candidate seeking a United States Senate seat. Congressional campaigns are dominated by these kinds of small-scale events.

As for the substance of here remarks, you can read favorable commentary here and some criticism here and here. These are not required for class, though.

Congress is a "They"

It's easy to talk about Congress as an "it," but Congress is really a "they." The 435 members of Congress must make social choices about how their institution will operate and what policies will be enacted. Those choices are animated by the individuals members. As a starting point for our discussion of Congress, look over the website of Congressman Bill Flores, who represents the 17th District of Texas, which includes Texas A&M.

What kind of information does he provide? What is political? What is personal? What is focused on legislation? What is focused on other services offered by his office? What overall impression is his website designed to create? What might his website tell you about what's important to members of Congress.

Bill of Rights Videos

You can find the Bill of Rights video I showed in class last week and another helpful video here.

On Valentine's Day, for those of you now secretly in love with political science...

I am happy to share with you the opportunity to apply for a set of *free* summer seminars on politics, journalism, economics, and philosophy operated by the Institute for Humane Studies (IHS) at George Mason University. The sessions cover a variety of topics, last about two weeks each, and are held at several different locations all over the country. The IHS has a great website with lots of information about these opportunities. If you have any questions, you are welcome top talk to me about the program, also.

Late Notice: Another Office Hours Change

I apologize for the late notice (again), but I have to reschedule my main campus office hours due to another change in a meeting time. I will try to schedule some extra office hours next week and will announce those later. I apologize for the further inconvenience. In the meantime, please feel free to e-mail me any questions you may have.

Another Extra Credit Opportunity

I will award 4 points of extra credit on our first exam to each student in each of my sections of POLS 206 who completes this assignment.

Rules:

1. Hard copies of the assignment must be turned in to me by the start of each class this Monday, February 13. Late work will not be accepted. E-mailed work will not be accepted.

2. Diagrams must be hand-drawn. Photocopies, etc., will not count.

3. The assignment must be completed correctly and in accordance with these rules and the requirements indicated on the assignment sheet. I am the sole judge of the acceptability of diagrams and all other aspects of the administration of this extra credit opportunity. My decisions are final.

Good luck.

Office Hours Rescheduled

I need to attend a faculty meeting today that was rescheduled from Monday afternoon. To accommodate this, I am moving my main campus office hours from this afternoon until Friday afternoon. The time (1:00-4:00PM) and place (Evans Library) are unchanged.

Extra Credit Opportunity 1 Results

Section 502 (9:10-10:00AM) returned 37 completed problem sets. Section 503 (10:20-11:10AM) returned 72 problem sets. Obviously, neither class met the required threshold, so no extra credit will be awarded to either at this time.

Office Hours Cancelled Today

As you may have noticed in class today, I am fighting off a cold. I am canceling my office hours today to try to get better or at least keep it to myself. I apologize for any inconvenience.

Extra Credit Opportunity

I will award 4 points of extra credit on our first exam to all students in each of my sections of POLS 206 if any 100 students in that section (about 40% of each class) complete this assignment.

Rules:

1. Hard copies of the assignment must be turned in to me by the start of each class this Monday, February 6. Late diagrams will not count toward the total. E-mailed diagrams do not count toward the total.

2. Diagrams must be hand-drawn. Photocopies, etc., will not count.

3. Extra credit may be awarded to the number of students in each class who complete the assignment. No individual extra credit (or other points) will be awarded to students for completing the assignment.

4. Students who turn in diagrams will not receive additional credit in addition to any points awarded to the class.

5. Diagrams from each section of the class count separately.

6. The assignment must be completed correctly and in accordance with these rules and the requirements indicated on the assignment sheet. I am the sole judge of the acceptability of diagrams and all other aspects of the administration of this extra credit opportunity. My decisions are final.

Good luck.

Class Scheduling

Due to the flood in the Blocker Building, section 503 (10:20-11:50) was cancelled on Monday. morning. That leaves section 502 one day ahead. To re-synchronize the sections, I am cancelling Section 502 (9:10-10:00) for this Friday, February 3. We will resume with our normal class schedule on Monday, February 6 for both sections.

Twitter

What do Texas A&M University, Rick Perry, The New York Times, Barack Obama, and Joe Ura all have in common? We are all on Twitter.

Twitter is a social networking website. Users may post updates or "tweets" of up to 140 characters, which are delivered to followers and included in a web-searchable index of all tweets. As a user, you can, of course, follow your friends and use the website to deliver messages to one another. More importantly, though, you can follow publications, public figures, and other people and institutions, which will allow you to connect to a world of interesting ideas and information that is customized to your interests. In other words, you can use Twitter to help content you are likely to use or enjoy find you rather than you're having to find content.

You can create an account here. You are not required to do so for the class, nor is there any kind of credit (extra or otherwise) available for doing so. This is just a thing you might find useful.

I should caution you, though, that anything you post on Twitter may be made available to others online. As with all other social networking websites, including Facebook, you should take some time to adjust your account's privacy settings to meet your own needs and exercise careful judgment about what you post online.

SI Facebook Group

Here is a link to this semester's (Spring 2012) SI Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/175876615853944/

SI Times

SI sessions for both of my sections of POLS 206 will be held on:

Sunday   7-8  BLOC 105
Wednesday   7-8  BLOC 106
Thursday 7-8  BLOC 105

Your SI leader, Abigail, has also set up a Facebook group for students in the class. She tells me you can find it just by searching "Ura POLS 206." You must make a request to join, but she promises to add folks promptly.

Rules and Social Choice in the Republican Party Nomination Process

This article describes some the arcane rules used in various states to select delegates through caucuses and other "non-primaries" for the Republican National Convention and Ron Paul's efforts to take advantage of those rules to maximize the number of delegates he will lead to the Convention this summer. The article emphasizes the importance of rules or institutions. In this case, the article illustrates how the Republican Party's nomination process is very much influenced by the rules used in the states to select delegates and the rules governing how those delegates may vote at the Republican national Convention.

Put more generally, the same group of people might end up making very different choices in response to the same question under different rules. This is one of the most basic and important insights of modern political science.

Life Lesson: E-Mailing Professors and Other Professional Contacts

Here are a handful of useful primers from:

1. Chris Blattman (Professor of Political Science and Economics, Yale University)
2. Michael Leddy (Professor of English, Eastern Illinois University)
3. The Wellesley College Social Media Project

The key point of all of these is that an e-mail sent to your professor (advisor, employer, prospective employer, etc.) is a professional communication. You should treat it as such. Be thoughtful, be polite, and be concise.

If nothing else, these are good habits to develop. You will be writing to people to people for help, advice, information, appointments, and jobs, among other things, for the rest of your life. Beginning to develop good habits as a correspondent now will pay dividends for a very long time to come.

Dimensions and Understanding

Today in class I discussed the primary conceptual "dimensions" of democracy, which I represented as axes on a plane. I will make frequent use of this kind of geometric or spatial representation of concepts or preferences over the course of the semester. However, you should be aware that there are many critiques of using a geometric model to represent abstract phenomena. Not least of which, many people believe that reducing complex concepts, like political ideologies, to points, lines, and planes, leaves out a lot of important information and nuance. Saying that Rick Santorum is a 9 on a social conservatism index, for example, doesn't tell us what social policy positions he holds exactly, why he holds them, why he has different views than Mitt Romney or Barack Obama, or whether his views are good or bad (or at least better than those of other candidates).

This is essentially the idea Robin Williams's character in Dead Poets Society shares with his students as he gleefully assaults an essay proposing a geometric representation of poetic "greatness" by J. Evans Pritchard, Ph.D.



The scene is great, and it appeals to an easy intuition that the social world--which is to say the world of people and our decisions and actions--is hopelessly subjective and disorganized.

If our goal is appreciation or self-discovery, the Dead Poets' intuition might be right on. If we are studying literature, history, politics, or philosophy for aesthetic purposes, to help us discover what we like or what we find inspiring in some way, then scaling poems or politicians on a Cartesian plane may not be so useful. In the movie, the Dead Poets read a lot of great poems and use them as inspiration to discover and pursue their hidden passions. Awesome.

They never really learn much, systematically, about poetry, though. They might have read Byron and Shakespeare, and they might appreciate the fact that they react more strongly to one than the other, but never stop to ask the question, why? Why is Shakespeare better than Byron? Even if we are able to recognize greatness, what makes a poem great and what does that tell us about ourselves?

Categorizing, ranking, scoring, and scaling are not obviously romantic or important things. And yet, making comparisons between things, differentiating between things of different quality and value, is a first step toward being able to understand what makes things and ideas valuable or not, good or bad.

The Dead Poets just want you to be able to say, "I like Shakespeare better than Byron," or, moving to politics, that, "I am a conservative, not a liberal."

This class asks more of you.

I, of course, want you to have opinions about the ideas described in assigned readings and lectures, and I definitely want you to have opinions about current events and contemporary debates. I also want you to know why you like the things you like and to understand why you believe the things that you do. These deeper goals of the class require us to do more than just feel our way through politics. We will have to think systematically about politics, and that means that we will have to describe, compare, and measure things that seem to defy easy description, apt comparison, or careful measurement--like democracy.

The process may not be as much fun as some of the alternatives, but the result will be a much more fulfilling for those of you who put the work in.

Welcome

You have successfully found the class website for Professor Ura's sections of Introduction to American Politics. You may find links to the syllabus and lecture slides as the semester progresses along the right sidebar.