PSCI 344
State & Local Government Syllabus
PSCI 344 / Fall 2012
T/Th 3:40 p.m. - 5 p.m. / Location: LA 105
Professor: Jeffrey Greene / updated October 11, 2012
TEXTS
Primary: State and Local Government, 8/e (Ann Bowman and Richard Kearney)
You can also use The Essentials version of this textbook, 5/e. This is a much shorter version of the main text.
The Bowman & Kearney text is available as an e-book from Cengage. Go to the Student Website Link for the 8/e to purchase this book as an e-Textbook.
Supplements: The State of The States 4/e (Charles Van Horn; not required)
COURSE DESCRIPTION
State Government is one of the most exciting areas in political science. This course examines the evolution and development that has taken place in the states since the founding period. It focuses on the basic institutions as well as a broad spectrum of public policy issues that affect governing in the states. The theme of this course is built on one primary question: Has there been a resurgence of the states? That is, have states increased their capacity to govern, manage change, and innovate in various areas of public policy?
The primary objective of the course is to acquaint students with the complexities of state government and state politics. Upon successful completion of the course students should acquire considerable knowledge about comparative state government and politics in the states. Assessment is based on students' performance on two exams. Additional learning objectives are provided at PSCI 344 Learning Objectives.
GRADE WEIGHTS
Midterm Exam ............30% (October 25, Thursday)
Final Exam .................30% (November 29, Thursday)
Presentation/Paper......30% (Papers are due December 6; presentations are also on December 6)
Participation..............10%
PROFESSOR: Jeffrey D. Greene
OFFICE: LA 356
Telephone: 243-6181
E-mail: jeffrey.greene@umontana.edu
Office Hours: T/R 2 - 2:30 p.m. M 3-4 p.m.
The University of Montana now uses a version of the Plus/Minus grading system and a Credit/No Credit system (the CR/NCR replaces the Pass/Fail system used in the past). General education courses must be taken using the traditional letter grade to count toward one's general education requirements.
To accommodate the Plus/Minus system the grading scale shown below will be
used. In PSCI 344 grades will be assigned based on the following grading
scale. This scale and system is more complex than the system used in the past
but rewards As only to those students whose
performance in the class is "exceptional."
|
Grade |
Point Scale |
Point Range |
GPA |
|
A |
93-100 |
8 points |
4.00 |
|
A- |
90-92 |
3 points |
3.67 |
|
B+ |
87-89 |
3 points |
3.33 |
|
B |
83-86 |
4 points |
3.00 |
|
B- |
80-82 |
3 points |
2.67 |
|
C+ |
77-79 |
3 points |
2.33 |
|
C |
73-76 |
4 points |
2.00 |
|
C- |
70-72 |
3 points |
1.67 |
|
D+ |
67-69 |
3 points |
1.33 |
|
D |
63-66 |
4 points |
1.00 |
|
D- |
60-62 |
3 points |
.067 |
|
F |
59 or lower |
N/A |
0.00 |
ATTENDANCE: Students are encouraged to attend class. Poor attendance may affect one's final grade.
WEB PAGE: Students can visit the Political Science Department Web Page at: http://www.cas.umt.edu/polsci
REQUIREMENTS: There are two exams, which will be given in class. Students are expected to take the exam during the scheduled time. The exam will be subjective (terms and essays). All students will be expected to write a 10 page research paper and/or make a 10-15 minute oral presentation on a topic related to state and local government and provide a written bibliography. Typically, public policy areas are the most popular. All topics must be approved by the instructor. The last weeks of class will be used for presentations. A sign-up sheet will be passed out in class. All papers are due the last day of class prior to exam week. Please note that the option of writing a paper or doing a short presentation is up to each student but you must sign up to do a presentation in lieu of a paper. Students taking PSCI 400 do not have the option of a presentation.
EXAM: There will be two exams. Each exam is comprised of four parts: Part I is terms and concepts (very short answers); Part II is a required essay about federalism in the states (a long essay); Part III provides a choice of a number of short essays (students only have to answer one of these essays); and, Part IV is extra credit items (this section is optional for students). The dates are October 13 and November 22.
Political Science 400: Students can take this class as PSCI 400 -- the writing class option. You MUST be a political science major to take PSCI 400. This is a one credit hour class that can be used to fulfill the university writing requirement. It is required for all political science majors. If you opt to sign up for PSCI 400, you must get the approval of the instructor; fill out the appropriate paperwork, then turn the completed paperwork to the department secretary in LA 350 during the first week of class. It is the discretion of the instructor to allow more than 10 PSCI 400 students in any political science class. The requirements to complete PSCI 400 are described below.
All students using PSCI 344 as a writing class must be properly signed up for PSCI 400. Students taking this option are required to write a 10 page research paper on a topic related to state and local government. The topic must be approved by the instructor in advance (before beginning the paper). These papers will be graded more rigorously than for students not taking PSCI 400. Students will be allowed one re-write for their research papers. There is not a universally accepted writing style format to follow; writing styles vary from discipline to discipline. The political science department tends to use Kate Turabian's, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. You do not have to use this writer's manual for this class, but you will likely have to use it for other writing classes with other professors in the political science department. Thus, it is advisable to use the Turabian model. All papers are expected to contain a cover sheet, a bibliography, and appropriate citations.
The first draft of the paper is due on Tuesday, November 27. The papers will receive two letter grades; one for content (the quality of the research) and separate grade for writing (composure, grammar, writing style, and clarity). The second grade is a technical grade and the standard that will be used is based on the technical writing style of social science research. That is, sentence structure should be clean, clear, and concise. The goal is to write a short, well-crafted, organized paper that is easy to read. After the first draft is graded, the papers will be returned and students will make any corrections and re-submit the paper by the last class of regular classes (the last day prior to exam week, which is December 7). The papers will be re-graded. The final grade for PSCI 400 will be based solely on the average of the content/writing grade for the final paper. For example, if the final grade on the paper is A/C (92/75), the student will receive a grade of a "B" (the average is 83.5).
Holidays at UM during the Fall Semester
September 3 (Labor Day)
November 6 (Election Day)
November 12 (Veteran's Day)
November 21, 22, and 23 (Thanksgiving Break)
Exam Week is December 10 – 14
COURSE OUTLINE and READINGS
Introduction
Bowman and Kearney: Chapter 1
Van Horn: Chapter 1, "Power, Politics, and Public Policy in the States," by Van Horn
Political Culture
Bowman and Kearney: Chapter 1
Federalism
Bowman and Kearney: Chapters 2
State Constitutions
Bowman and Kearney: Chapter 3
Participation in the States
Bowman and Kearney: Chapter 4
Van Horn: Chapter 2, "The State of State Elections," by Dautrich and Yalof
Political Parties in the States
Bowman and Kearney: Chapter 5
Van Horn: Chapter 4, "The Transformation of State Electoral
Politics," by Salmore and Salmore.
State Legislatures
Bowman and Kearney: Chapter 6
Van Horn: Chapter 3, "Legislators and Legislatures," by Rosenthal.
Midterm Exam – October 25 (Thursday) Exams will be returned on Tuesday
Governors
Bowman and Kearney: Chapter 7
Van Horn: Chapter 4, "Being Governor," by Beyle.
The Bureaucracy
Bowman and Kearney: Chapter 8
Van Horn, Chapter 6, "Accountability Battles in State
Administration," by Gormley.
The Judiciary
Bowman and Kearney: Chapter 9
Van Horn: Chapter 5, "State Courts and Their Political Environment,"
by Lawrence Baum.
Local Government
Bowman & Kearney, Chapters 10, 11
State-Local Relations and Taxing and Spending
Bowman and Kearney: Chapters 12, 13
Van Horn: "State Government
Finances: A Review of Current Conditions and the Outlook," Henry
Coleman
Public Policy in the States (The class will cover as many policy topics as time permits)
Education, Economic Development, Criminal Justice, The Environment
Bowman and Kearney: Chapters 14,15,16,17,18
Van Horn: Chapters 8, 9, and 10 (Education Policy, Welfare Policy, and Health
Policy).
Van Horn: "State Education
Policy in the New Millennium," Margaret E. Goertz; "State
Welfare Policy," Irene Lurie; "State Health Policy," Joel
Cantor
Exam 2 – Thursday, November 29. Exams will be returned on December 4.
Presentations will be on December 6 (one day of presentations and all
papers are due).
Federalism
Time Line Transparency (Adobe Acrobat format. This version is printer
friendly)
Learning
Objectives
Link to the
Montana State Constitution
Link to Governing.com, one of the
best sources of information about the state and local arena available.
Council of State Governments, the
leading professional organization for the states.
Link to City Journal, one of the most interesting sources about urban politics and issues.
State Budget Paper and Information
Paper about Montana's State Budget
For anyone interested in the state budget, this is an annual paper written for
the Western Political Science Association about Montana's budget.
Some additional links to materials
ELITE
AND PLURALISM MODELS (In Microsoft Word)
SOCIAL
STRATIFICATION MODEL (In Adobe Acrobat format)
SOURCES
OF VALUES (In Adobe Acrobat format)
New Orleans, the Gulf Coast, and Hurricane Katrina dominated the news in 2005 and continue to be important issues about federalism. Many claimed that it was a perfect example (and case study) about the weaknesses of federalism and intergovernmental relations. Below is an interesting article about New Orleans before and after Hurricane Katrina.
This article, from City Journal, is an interesting account of New Orleans. It is called "Who is killing New Orleans," by
The article is about the communication breakdown among various levels of government and between agencies. "THE KATRINA BREAKDOWN," by Jonathan Walters & Donald Kettl.
Another very interesting website is located in Montana. It is called Project Vote Smart. It contains
detailed information about candidates in all 50 states at the national and
state level.
Houghton Mifflin (now owned by Cengage) provides excellent online resources for
the Bowman and Kearney text, including exams, outlines, and many links to
state-local web sites. Click
here to access these resources. (This website is for The Essentials
edition). For the 8/e, Cengage has made it a little harder to access. You will
need to click on the long link (URL) at the bottom of the syllabus. To use some
of the features you will have to register and use the code that came with your
book. Also, Stateline.org is a great
website dedicated entirely to news and information about the states and their
local governments. Another website is Piperinfo.com,
which contains information about state and local governments.
Since state nicknames are often mentioned in class as trivia, click here to read more about the origin of the Tar Heel State (North Carolina). State mottos are also interesting. For example, the state motto for North Carolina, "Esse Quam Videri" is Latin for "to be rather than to seem." Click here for a humorous version of the 50 state mottos. Click here for a list of official state slogans and official nicknames.
Rankings for "happiest states" for 2009
Student Website for the Bowman & Kearney text, 8/e (You can purchase this book as an e-Textbook at the following link)
Table of Contents for Van Horn, 4/e – This book is OPTIONAL
1. Power, Politics, and Public Policy in the States, Carl
E. Van Horn
2. The State of State Elections, Kenneth Dautrich and David A. Yalof
3. Legislators and Legislatures, Alan
Rosenthal
4. Being Governor, Thad L. Beyle
5. State Courts in Their Political Environment, Lawrence
Baum
6. Accountability Battles in State Administration, William
T. Gormley, Jr.
7. State Government Finances: A Review of Current Conditions and
the Outlook, Henry Coleman
8. State Education Policy in the New Millennium, Margaret
E. Goertz
9. State Welfare Policy, Irene Lurie
10. State Health Policy, Joel Cantor
Image
of Bowman & Kearney, 8/e 
Image of The
Essentials edition, 4/e