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Ken Burns: There is no other country on Earth that is configured like ours. Every other nation is there because of race, religion, language, ethnicity or geography. We are here only because we agreed to subscribe to the words on four pieces of paper— the U. S. Constitution.

Orientation: In open societies discussions occur about a wide variety of things, policies, behaviors, etc. The primary discussion in America was first voiced by Hector St. John de Crevecoeur in the eighteenth century: "What then is the American, this new man?" Was that figure actually a "new man" with unique traits that distinguished him from his Old World ancestors? Or was he merely a transplanted European? America is an immigrant nation which must discuss and develop the answers. Other nations have those questions defined long before history was written; who and what they are largely givens. Because of the extreme liberalism of America, these questions are always up for debate. This class introduces students to that debate. The primary focus of the class is on issues of theoretical and substantive importance to the study of how America thinks about politics. More specifically, the course focuses on the tension between the individual American and the community of America.

Given the theoretical and substantive focus of this class, students should be made aware that this is not a course on current affairs or history. It is a course in ideas. Nevertheless, current events will be incorporated in to the class to illustrate theoretical points. Therefore, I strongly encourage students to keep up with current affairs through the newspaper, the radio, and/or the television news. By remaining current, students will be able to make substantive contributions to class discussion, and aid themselves in concretizing concepts that, at times, may seem abstract.

Policies: All University policies are in effect for this course. The University Honor Code (http://www.colorado.edu/academics/honorcode/Home.html) is the most important policy in this class. It is taken, by me, with the utmost seriousness. Familiarize yourself with these policies especially in regards to incompletes, drops/add, withdrawal, etc. Students are expected to attend all classes, do all reading prior to the class and take all exams at the appointed times. No make-up exams will be given. No ‘extra credit' is ever given.
If you have specific physical, psychiatric, or learning disabilities and require accommodations, please let me know early in the semester so that your learning needs may be appropriately met. You will need to provide documentation of your disability to the Disability Services Office in
Willard 322 (phone 303-492-8671).
If you have any problems with the college, the course, the material or me, please come see me. If there is anything I can help you with please come see me. I am here to help.

Required Readings: Students are required to purchase these ( ) books for this course. These books are available in the UMC bookstore and the Colorado Bookstore on the Hill:

H. Mark Roelofs The Poverty of American Politics: A Theoretical Interpretation, 2nd edition, 1998, Temple Univ Press; ISBN: 1566396069

Louis Hartz The Liberal Tradition in America, 1991, Harcourt Brace; ISBN: 0156512696

Allan Levite, Guilt, Blame and Politics Stanyan Press, San Francisco: 1998

Gertrude Himmelfarb, 2001, One Nation, Two Cultures : A Searching Examination of American Society in the Aftermath of Our Cultural Revolution Vintage; ISBN: 0375704108

Alan Wolfe, 1999 One Nation, After All : What Americans Really Think About God, Country, Family, Racism, Welfare, Immigration, Homosexuality, Work, The Right, The Left and Each Other, Penguin ; ISBN: 014027572X

John Micklethwait, Adrian Wooldridge. 2004, The Right Nation: Conservative Power in America, Penguin Press, 2004 ISBN: 1594200203

Thomas E. Woods Jr., 2004, The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History Regnery Publishing, Inc.; ISBN: 0895260476 (suggested)

Philip Abbot Political Thought in America: Conversations and Debates, 2nd Rev edition 1998, Waveland Press; ISBN: 1577660277  (suggested)

 Advanced Readings

Course Requirements: Attendance is mandatory. All students are required to complete the assigned reading before class, and contribute to class discussion. There is a substantial amount of reading since the reason you are here is to learn. Legitimate concerns will not be the amount of reading, the heat, the hard chairs, skiing, etc. Please adapt to the situation.

Grades: The class grade will be determined by two exams, a journal, kept throughout the semester, and an 8 page paper comparing and contrasting two books. Each is worth 25% of the total grade. Lateness is not an excuse for any exam or paper.
The first exam, the week of February 22, will be on all the material surrounding the founding, Roelofs and Hartz. The second exam, the week of April 12, will be on American Political institutions and the Civil War. The week of February 17 we will discuss Alan Levite’s book, Guilt, Blame and Politics. You will keep a journal, on your computer, evaluating Levite’s argument in your daily life. The final paper is a ‘compare and contrast’ of the works of Gertrude Himmelfarb and Alan Wolfe, focusing on the tension between the individual American and the community of America (details below). This paper is due at the beginning of class April 28. Details will follow separately.
Journal: A relatively new phenomenon on the internet is blogging, verb: to blog. The term is derived from ‘weblog’, to log one’s thought on the web. This has created a virtual universe termed the blogoshpere. What a blogger does is react to the days political events, analyze the events and publish his reactions. I say this only to, hopefully, illuminate your charge because it is, essentially, what I want you to do, only in a limited sense.
First, you need to become very familiar with the theory and argument of Alan Levite in “Guilt, Blame and Politics.” Keeping his ideas in your mind , go about your life and see either the validity or falsity of his contention. Make an entry in your journal beginning with the date, the context and the people involved; NO NAMES!! Then, write a description of the event. Lastly, what are your conclusions in this particular case, what is your evidence, your proof, deductions. This is worth 25% of your grade! It is due April 5.
 The remaining 10% is from participation, which I take seriously.

    University of Colorado grading criteria:
Superior/Excellent ................A
                A-
                B+
Good/Better than Average.....B
                B-
                C+
Competent/Average...............C
                C-
                D+
                D
Minimum Passing..................    D-
                F

E-mail: all students must subscribe to the class E-mail roster.
For more info visit: http://www.colorado.edu/ITS/emaillists/faq.html


                                               Outline of Course Topics
                                                          Part I

I.    Introduction: American Political Thought
        A.    Theories, Models and Political Science
        B.    Power
        C.    American Political Thought
II.    The American Political Culture:
        A.    Liberalism: The Theory and Concept of Liberalism
        B.    Dual citizenship
        C.    Locke on Justice
            1.    Bizarre and isolated
        D.    Hartz and American Exceptionalism
        E.    American Liberalism
            1.    Tocqueville
III.    The American Founding
        A.    The Founding Era
            1.    What went before?
            2.    What happened?
            3.    What resulted?
        B.    The Federalist approach
            1.    Madison
                a.     Federalist #10 & #51
        C.    The Anti–Federalists:
            1.    Where did they come from?
            2.    Which way did they go?
        D.    Republicanism:
        E.    Synthesis? The Bifurcated Republic
IV.    American Constitutionalism
    A.    Separation of Powers:
        1.    the Ideal type
            a.     Declaration of Independence
                (1)     Components and Premises
                    (a)     Freedom
    B.    Mixed government:
        1.    the Ideal type
            a.     Aristotle's concept; Polybius
                (1)     Components and premises
                    (a)     Order
    C.    "Separated Institutions sharing Power" ??
        1.    Madison's system of government: ambition counters ambition
            a.     "tastes great" ...?
            b.     "less filling ..."

                                                                Part II
V.    Institutions through Bifocals
    A.    The President
        1.    Power broker or errand boy?
        2.    Patriot King
    B.    The United States Congress
        1.    Bicameralism?
        2.    Leadership and committees
        3.    Congressional Change
    C.    The States
        1.    Federalism
        2.    The Bureaucracy
    D.    Modeling Institutions
        1.    Honesty & Efficiency
VI.    Cycles of American History
        1.    Key "Critical Elections"
        2.    Burnham "Mainsprings of American Politics"
    A.    After the Federalists America Returns to Democracy?
    B.    Jeffersonian Democracy
    C.    Jacksonian Democracy
        1.    John C. Calhoun
    D.    The Civil War
        1.    ‘There's no lime in the water!'
        2.    Slavery
            a.     The Constitution of the Confederate States of America
            b.     Lincoln— Gettysburg Address
    E.    Reconstruction
        1.    Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address
        2.    Dealing for presidents:
            a.    A Democratic, Southern President?
    F.    The Progressive Era
        1.    Honesty and Efficiency redux
    G.    A ‘New' Deal?
        1.    Lowi "The Second Republic"
        2.    Hofstadter "The Paranoid Style of American Politics"
    H.    Generational Change?:
        1.    The 60s
            a.     The Port Huron Statement
VII.    How does modern America form its thoughts about politics? Allan Levite, Guilt, Blame and Politics

Approximate Calendar for Spring Semester 2005

Readings in [brackets]

January 11: Administration; Introduction; America [Roelofs— Ch. 1 & Introduction] The American Citizen & Liberalism: [Abbot "Three American Languages"]
January 17 Martin Luther King Day. Be sure to read his "Letter from the Birmingham Jail."
January 18: Competing Views of American Political Thought [F.J. Turner; L. Lapham, etc]
January 25: Liberalism— Hartz and American Liberalism: [Hartz Ch. I]; Locke in an isolated environment
February 1: The Founding (1): [Hartz Ch. II & III; Abbot "Revolution" "Founding"]; The Declaration of Independence
February 8: Reassessing Hartz; Citizenship; Constitutionalism [Roelofs pp. 68-85 & Ch. 5]
February 15: [Roelofs: Ch 2, 3, 4]; A Bifurcated America—Part II
February 22: Exam on Part 1; Levite, "Guilt, Blame and Politics"
March 1: Institutions: The Presidency in Bifocal Vision: [Roelofs Ch. 6]; The Congress in Bifocal Vision: [Roelofs Ch. 7] — Federalism, the States and the Bureaucracy: [Roelofs Ch. 8 & 9]
March 8: Cycles of American History and Realignments: [Key, Burnham]
March 15:The Civil War I: The Constitution of the Confederate States; [Hartz Ch. IV, VI & VII]
March 17 No Class
March 23-26: Spring Break
March 29: The Civil War II; The Gettysburg Address; Civil War III: The Aftermath- Dealing for Presidents
April 5: Journal on "Guilt, Blame and Politics" due; liberalism v conservatism
April 12: Second Exam
April 19: Discussion of final paper on Himmelfarb and Wolfe
April 28: Final Exam Due at the beginning of class.
 

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