Last Study Group of the YEAR!!!!!

Tommorrow, 1pm, Library, 1st floor is where we're meeting up

4th Floor People!!!!

It' ONNNNNNN

Now, 400 S.....COME


p.s. BYOB

Study Group

If anyone wants to come, several of us are going to meet in the library (1st floor) on Sunday around 12:30

Reading List and Exam Time

Here is the syllabus and a complete reading list, just in case you want a copy while you study for the exam.

The exam is on Thursday, December 10th, from 3 to 5 pm in our usual room in Tureaud.

!Happy Turkey Day!

Since we we've been talking citizen engagement recently, I thought this article appropriately addressed an assortment of solutions to the so-called problems raised by the decline of duty-based participation....(not good grammar i know, but check out that 'a'lliteration!)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/don-tapscott/the-dubai-summit-on-redes_b_371730.html

Pew Internet data

Tedesco references the Pew Internet and American Life Project. It's a goldmine of interesting descriptive statistics and useful datasets.

The Day The Earth Stood Still

Cloture.
60-39.
Debate Begins.
There's a new "Mad-Hatter" in the building (Barack Hussein Obama).

New York Times Article

I thought this article from the New York Times was interesting especially since we were talking about education yesterday. I hate to say I do not think we will see an increase in civics education anytime soon.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/20/education/20berkeley.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&ref=us&adxnnlx=1258746959-JFlDTveJ/b5b0sLM5u9vlg

Told Ya So

elephantpolo.com

Civics education

The Galston reading for today discusses the role of civics education in the creation of capable and engaged citizens. Here is an update on the data the article reports: 2006 NAEP Civics Report Card

Here are some example questions that were used to gather the data:
Example Questions for 12th Grade

Reflect on the civics civics curriculum at your primary and high schools.

Senate Health Care Bill

Hey! If anybody wants to read this 2000+ page epic, I have posted the link here!

thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:SN01796

Ya know, it's not as hard as I thought...anti-healthcare websites say that it's longer than "War&Peace", but definitely NOT as difficult to comprehend.

Which leads me to-- Maybe we could have direct Democracy by providing an essay or multiple choice exam on the bill! Would'nt that be something huh? "Whaddya do last night?" "Oh, studied for the vote tommorrow...pulled an all-nighter!"

Of course you'd have to worry about who exactly grades the test...judges? Nahhh, they're to busy readin' other stuff...Def could be a works project (Infrastructure anyone???) paid for by the government to those unemployed, so long as they have completed the courses...so IDK, who would teach the teachers?!! dammm, that bill would prolly be even longer the healthcare bill...

Omina Fausta Cano

Not all participation is good participation

We've been talking all semester about the democratic benefits of political participation. Today we will make the point that this is not always true. My examples of requests for normatively undesirable participation:

The Weather Underground
a WWII-era Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses (The fifth poster down on this page)

http://www.yclusa.org/article/archive/6/

Really?

This is the ADL (Anti-Defamation League) offical website. They believe in exposing extremist groups, but I view this site as free promotion for these anti-government groups.

http://www.adl.org

Bad Participation?

This is a group that is standing up for their side of the issue and taking action because they feel the government has not acted. However, their actions are borderline vigilante. Now they are branching out and not only taking up arms but also lobbying congress. Two different groups acting on the same basic issue:

http://www.minutemanhq.com/

http://www.minutemanproject.com/

Pro-Drug website

This is pretty crazy. Check out the part about ecstacy. Apparently they're trying to find "therapudic" reasons for people to take it.

http://csdp.org/

You can also check out this one: Possibly a bit more blatant:

www.stormfront.org/forum/showthread.php?t=27217

Making Work Pay tax credit

There is no such thing as free money!!! Sorry tax payers!!! It sucks when you think that you are doing your civic duty for this country and bam!!!! you have to give it all back!!!


http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2009/11/16/2009-11-16_15m_taxpayers_could_unexpectedly_owe_taxes_due_to_govt_mistake.html

November 17th assignment

http://moveon.org/

The Confederacy Project

These guys want to divide the union up again...

soo good luck with that

http://members.cox.net/polincorr1/inconpro.htm

Everyone Remembers This...Seemed Like A Great Idea...In My Opinion, It Really Backfired

The Vote or Die Campaign.

It seemed like a great way to use celebrity limelight to encourage participation, to get youth active. Everyone's intentions were great. However, it was surrounded by scandal and appauling truths. Many of the celebrities who were advocates of this weren't even registered to vote and accusations like this one... http://media.www.thecaupanther.com/media/storage/paper292/news/2005/12/05/Nationworld/Diddys.Vote.Or.Die.Campaign.Under.Investigation-1120221.shtml against P. Diddy... also popped up.

I think that this really added to disillusionment and distrust in the political process and, instead of making participation seem like "the cool thing to do", it just showed young people that politics was exactly what they thought it was all along...a fluke, full of unnecessary partisan competition and not truly embodying democratic ideals.

11/17

this is still around? i feel gross looking for this stuff on my computer.

http://www.americannaziparty.com/

11/17

this is still around? i feel dirty searching for this stuff on my computer.

http://www.americannaziparty.com/

Negative Political Activism

http://www.kkk.bz/

11/17/09 assignment

http://www.zazzle.com/i_love_my_country_i_hate_my_government_tshirt-235085101181166807
I like this one better...

A Great Post by on Conservadem's imaginary anxiety problems about Reelection!

Being a moderate worth about 2% of the vote so maybe being a conservadem want save you after all!

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/11/politicians-have-lot-of-leeway-in-how.html

http://www.antiobama.net/anti-obama-websites.html

Negative Political Participation

Texas Secede! with blog, info, shop and facts. It says texassecede.org on the top of the site but texassecede.com goes to it too. http://www.texassecede.com/faq.htm

The fact that people buy into this is sad!

http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=3778

Just because I found it interesting....

RNC employee health insurance plan covers abortion.

Negative Political Participation

Why the American People Must Disband Congress

http://www.naturalnews.com/027439_Congress_democracy_America.html

11/17/09 assignment

http://oathkeepers.org/oath/2009/03/03/declaration-of-orders-we-will-not-obey/

WILD!

Whoa!

Get it Milkman!! around minute 3ish, I think!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynHM6UJ3Y2I

Negative Political Activism

Negative Activism Assignment:

Following the recent events at Fort Hood, this Conservative Group is advocating changes in the U.S. military policy and suggests purging Muslims from the U.S. army calling it "Islamo-realism"...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/09/conservative-group-time-t_n_350945.html

I would be really interested in hearing what people have to say about this... Possibly not everyone thinks this to be negative?

I know this seems a bit out of left field, but I found this PDF rather interesting.

A Portrait of Louisiana

What did Conservative Democrats get out of the HC Vote?

I was wondering who was shocked besides me that one Republican voted in the House of Representatives voted for Health Care Reform? I looked at the numbers and the majority of those 39 Democrats that voted against HC Reform all but 8 had districts in which McCain won in 2008. I looked at those Democrats as being pretty much screwed anyway because if reform fails they will pay the price. I don't see Democrats representing major cities on the GOP list of targets for 2010 it is the few Southern and rural Democrats that are left in the caucus. What Wed. night showed in my opinion is that no matter how far you try to separate yourself from the President at the end of the day as a Dem. you are linked to him. The President is a much better friend than enemy in the Democratic Party because he can fund raise, draw a crowd to your dull events (Creigh Deeds), and is more popular than any elected official in America and probably the world. At the end of the day who wants to be on the wrong side of history? The GOP has been on the wrong side of history for Social Security, Unemployment insurance, the creation of the SEC, Medicare, Medicaid, Brown v. Board of Education, Civil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights act of 1965, the financial crisis of 2008, Climate Change, and today they still don't quite believe in equality for all people. I ask why does the Conservadems want to put their names on that list with them? Rep. Cao decided not to join them to bad his chances of winning next time are slim to none and one less Republican that's going to be available for bi-partisanship HA! All those Democrats could lose and Speaker Pelosi is still Speaker of the House of Representatives.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/most-important-number/the-most-important-number-in-p-62.html#more

Taxed Enough Already Party..errr, rally

heres the link...it's on Sunday

greaterneworleansteaparty.com/CalendarRSVP.cfm?EventID=48

A variety of interesting links

Wow, this blog has been an interesting place lately thanks to your contributions.

Here are some links for class today on the topic of grassroots activism:
- CNN article about Wal-Mart astroturfing
- A strategic communication consulting firm that conducts "sophisticated coalition and grassroots campaigns"
- CBS News video coverage of a Tea Party demonstration in Chicago

Here is an optional link I thought you might enjoy:
New York times article about de Tocqueville's letters home

Retrospective EvAlUaTiOn

So there's talk online about why Democrats lost Virginia and New Jersey. Some suggest that Obama played a role in these defeats due to his lack of progress on the Economic front.
I'm wondering if it's too early to call, and if so can we really blame Obama or was there a spurious C?

Maybe I'm just framing this question cuz this is how the Media frames it.
Maybe...

November 17th assignment:
Is participation always good? Assignment: find a website asking you to participate in
politics in a way that is unambiguously bad for society (or a news article about a person or organization requesting your participation in a normatively undesirable way).

http://washingtonindependent.com/65120/how-to-burn-pelosi-and-reid-and-effigy

Readings for the rest of the semester

Tu Oct 20: Voter behavior- No reading; lecture and discussion re: cohort disillusionment and trust eg Watergate and 9/11

Th Oct 22: Is politics dirty? No required reading. Watch the "Curator's Choice" campaign ads at The Living Room Candidate

Tu Oct 27: Issue publics- No required reading. Optional- Kinder & Kiewiet

Th Oct 29: Rational choice- Anthony Downs AND Feddersen

Tu Nov 3: Activism and social movements- Brady, Schlozman & Verba (1999)

Th Nov 5: Activism and social movements- no required reading.

Tu Nov 10: Civic participation- Dalton

Th Nov 12: Civic participation- Xenos & Moy

Tu Nov 17: Is participation always good? Assignment: find a website asking you to participate in
politics in a way that is unambiguously bad for society (or a news article about a person or organization requesting your participation in a normatively undesirable way). Post the website on the blog, or email it Prof. Scholl before class.

Th Nov 19: Young people and participation- Galston

Tu Nov 24: New media- Tedesco

Th Nov 26: Happy Thanksgiving!

Tu Dec 1: Political Consumption: Stolle, Hooghe & Michelleti AND Shah et al

Th Dec 3: Summing up and review- Schudson

Th Dec 10: Final exam from 3 to 5 pm

three new political blogs on NOLA.com

NOLA.com, the homepage of the Times Picayune (or times Pick-On-You as some would say) introduced three new political blogs to their website this morning: Pelican Briefs, City Hall Insider and Eye on Jefferson city.

Pelican Briefs will focus on State and National politics.
City Insider will be New Orleans city news.
And Eye on Jefferson City will focus on Jefferson parish politics, both East and West Bank.


Pelican Briefs contributors will include Robert Scott, who published an article last week entitled "David Vitter leads Charlie Melancon in latest poll on Senate race".
The article made reference to a poll comissioned by Baton Rouge business man and Republican candidate bankroller Lane Grisby and conducted by Southern Media and Opinion Research.

I contacted the reporter, Robert Scott about getting a copy of the poll (I called him on the phone number published with the article 225.342.4197 ) and he directed me to Southern Media for a copy. I called the Southern Media office at 225.383.4509 and left a message with a secretary Wednesday. I gave her my name and phone number and email, but never heard anything back.

I'm planning to call tomorrow. Hopefully I'll get a copy emailed to me, or a link to it somewhere on the web... If yall want to try calling Southern Media too, we might have better luck getting a copy. I made sure to tell them I was a student from LSU, studying political science so hopefully they will share it with us in the name of education :-)
If they blow me off again, I'm calling back Robert Scott, and asking him for a copy.

I'll try to post it on here when I get it, but until then check out the new NOLA blogs.

New Orleans' Tea Party Exclusive!!!!

MiLkMaN comin @cha straight outta Middleton!

I found this on nola.com's website.
What's up with all the Tea Party gatherings?
Oh, this event actually costs money because of the speaker, Star Jones...j/k
she's on the View...I mean Star Parker.
According to the website, she's a social activist, etc. However, like
the Verba, Brady, and Schlozmann article points out, Parker's stances on certain issues
do not represent the whole of those surveyed (she's African American).
Her books include "Pimps, Whores, and Welfare Brats," "Uncle Sam's Plantation" and , "White Ghetto." lol...wait, that's not funny...

http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2009/10/star_parker_to_speak_at_metair.html



http://www.greaterneworleansteaparty.com/CalendarRSVP.cfm?EventID=34



Oh, the website also says there's a rally at the capitol for 11am on the 9th of November,
so if anyone wants to protest with me, then LET'S DO IT

Participation Oppurtunity!!

Congressman Bill Cassidy is having a public meeting TONIGHT @ 6 p.m. at the Marriot Hotel off Corporate.

Upcoming readings

There are no required readings for class tomorrow, Tuesday Oct 20. Readings for Thursday and later meetings coming soon.

Participation Opportunity

If any of yall would like to join me on Friday November 6th, Senator David Vitter will be hosting an informational session in Baton Rouge at the Marriot at 5500 Hilton Ave. You have to reserve a seat, it is free!! The session will be on Louisiana loosing a seat in the House in the 2010 census.

http://lagopredistrictingseminar.eventbrite.com/

Syllabus with up to date reading list

Click for a syllabus (update 10/26 to a .doc file for students with computers that can't read .docx files) that includes full citations to all the readings so far in this course. For links to the files of the actual readings, please refer to my prior posts labeled 'Readings' and the like.

Lost notebook

Someone left a blue spiral notebook with class notes inside in the Tureaud Hall classroom today. I didn't want a student in another class to take it just for the paper. I rescued it and left it with Judy Roberts in the main political science department office on the second floor of Stubbs Hall. Please pick it up there.

Just FYI

Today I read in the New York Times that President Barak Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize for diplomacy. There have been only three other presidents who have won the prize. The first was Theodore Roosevelt who won the award for his work ending the Russo-Japanese War in 1905. Woodrow Wilson was awarded the prize for his efforts to start the League of Nations. The third president to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize was Jimmy Carter. He is the only president to receive the award after he had left office. According to the article, Barak Obama joins the group “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.” I just thought this was some interesting news from this morning.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/10/world/10nobel.html?_r=1&hp

Getting the News

If you're like me, you don't like listening to highly inflammatory pundits. Although they do have good points, I don't like listening to yelling, and I feel like they perpetuate the culture of fear, that populates much of the media.

That being said, I'd like to offer up NPR (National Public Radio) as an alternative source for news. Reading can be time consuming, but NPR is radio broadcast that you can listen to in the car, or stream live from the web. It's relatively non-partisan...

Just thought I'd make this suggestion as staying abreast of the news is so important to poli sci major!

here's a link to stream NPR on the web.
http://www.npr.org/audiohelp/progstream.html

enjoy!

FIlm and Politics

I am taking a Film and Politics class with Professor Regina Lawrence, wherein we study how film affects our views on politics and how politics affect the business and art of film making.
The genre of film in relations to politics is not one that has been widely studied, and there is little research on the relationship...
This bring to my question: How does film potentially affect our political participation.
We have studied participation patterns in youth, but it is difficult to determine what determines their level of participation. There is a general presumption that younger people view films more often (I love going to the movies!) however youth participation is significantly lower... my grandparents love going to movies both often walk out of the movies (if they don't like the story the 'picture' is taking).
In my film and politics class we are also studying the differences between politically explicit and politically implicit films....

But what does this all mean?
We are trying to figure out in Film and Politics how film affects how we think about politics, but can we tell how film affects how much we participate.

What do yall think? Does film affect participation? Could it potentially inspire more participation? Does the medium then delineate to propaganda?
I personally don't know the answer to these questions... but what's your opinion?

For those of you especially interested in Film and Politics Wag the Dog, will be showing Monday Oct. 5th at 6:00 in the Holliday Forum of the Journalism Building sponsored by the Manship School.

How Healthy is our current Democracy?

We recently read about Ambivalent Social Networks and that caused me to start to think about the health of our democracy. I have been reading a bunch of Op-Ed opinions about the tone of our political discourse and how dangerous it is. Thomas Friedman recently wrote about this reminds him of the environment leading up too the assignation of Israel Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Friedman talked about how Rabin's political opponents did not discourage the violent rhetoric against him. His opponents really helped to create this environment in which the assassinator believed he was doing the country a favor by getting rid of this guy. I think about our current political debate about HC and the opponents of President Obama are doing the exact same thing. I must ask myself what will this lead too? The President's critics simply do not criticize his policies but suggest the guy is something "different". Members of Congress question his legitimacy as if to say this guy should be picked up like some illegal immigrant. David Brooks of the NY Times recently made a great point about the criticism from the opponents of the President. Brooks thought the race of the President is simply not driving the opposition as President Carter suggests, but the fact that this President has Hollywood and Silicon Valley friends and the idea of big change. Brooks is one of the smartest conservatives in the country. I think he right partially because race is too simplistic of answer to the question of what is driving the opposition. If Clarence Thomas was President I do not believe these same folks would be taking to streets to question his legitimacy and policies. Clarence Thomas would have a much different agenda and vision of the future of America. I think it is the combination of liberalism, race, and change that is driving the opposition to the President. I think some people are uncomfortable with idea that America will really change and there children want have the same advantages they did. The important question is can we solve problems if one side is simply determined to see the President's policies fail? We have American problems that need American solutions. Is this achieve able if all the solutions the President propose is painted as simply far left winged solutions? I would go on the NY Times web page or any other news site and the most popular stories are always opinions. As a society we seek out information from sources that we agree with agree or disagree? The most popular television programs are all opinion and either liberal or conservative. The question is if we are so dug in as a society can the President really move anyone? I worry about the fact that if one sides goal is to see the other side lose what about the country? The article talks about how healthy disagreement is in society but, what about when there is no consensus on anything? I think people should be free to criticize the Presidents policies without being deemed a racist or unamerican. I think to say race is not a factor in the oppostion is a bit unrealistic. I think the elected officials in the GOP have a responsibility to separate themselves from the lunatics and don't encourage violence by not discouraging it. Even as a liberal I believe two viewpoints are great for the country, but the current GOP is going the way of the whigs. I think the people are being deprived there is only one solution being proposed to many problems we face. I also believe people fear government in this country to much. Can we continue down this path without huge consequences?

On not bothering to vote

Meg Whitman, former CEO of EBay and candidate for governor of California, didn't vote in a whole lot of elections according to this Slate article. The article gives the standard rational choice argument regarding no one vote ever deciding the election. Whitman apologized. Do you think California voters should care about this when they decide whether to vote for Whitman?

South African youths' political participation

Here is a (perhaps naively sunny) article about the effectiveness of South African youths' political participation:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/25/world/africa/25safrica.html?hp

Equation 2

I know that Equation 2 provided great confusion in class today and I believe that I figured out the reason why. I believe we were misinterpreting the scale. From what I understand now after working several examples and then rereading the paragraph explaining the what the results mean, I believe we were mistaken in what the scale from -2 to +2 meant. In the essay she says:

Note that this measure is not identical to disagreement; it emphasizes not to the sheer volume of counter attitudinal information, but the mix of pro- and counter-attitudinal information.

This means that the it is not measuring if your group is totally supportive at one of the scale and the other end of the scale is not a group that is totally against your views. In other words the scale means that -2 is for groups that are completely homogeneous (either the whole group agrees or disagrees with your position). The +2 rating is representative of a group that is a 50:50 ratio between agreeable and disagreeable.

So since the max sample size is 4 people:

4:0 ratio = -2
3:1 ratio = 0
2:2 ratio = +2

Readings

Reading for Tuesday 9/29: Cho and McLeod on Knowledge Gap

Fall break on Thursday 10/1: no reading

Reading for Tuesday 10/6: Elmira study

Reading for Thursday 10/8: Read as much of the material on Robert Putnam's website and connected websites as you can.

Answer to Question about Sampling Weights

In class on Thursday, someone asked a question about footnote 11 on page 235 of Chapter 8 of Voice and Equality by Verba, Schlozman & Brady. I deferred because you all did not have copies of Appendix A, which describes the procedure. Here's the answer to the question regarding the meaning of that footnote:

Sometimes a sample does not reflect the underlying population. For instance, very slightly over half of people in the U.S. are female. But in many surveys, more women than men agree to be interviewed. (Why do you think this is the case?) If we count all the people who respond to such a survey equally, the results will reflect the answers of women more than a random sample of the U.S. population should. It would overcount women because men are underrepresented in the sample. To compensate, we might statistically given more weight to the answers of the men we were able to interview. In essence, this technique overcounts the answers of men to make up for the fact that men were under-counted in the sampling.

Footnote 11 tells you that the authors faced this problem with respect to racial groups. They *purposely* interviewed more Latinos and African-Americans than percentages in the population would suggest. They wanted to make sure they weren't using too few people in each group to represent the group. But then, when they wanted to make a complete picture of the US, there were too many interviewees from minority groups compared to the number of Caucasian people they interviewed for the whole sample to represent the proportions of each group that exist in the U.S. So they mathematically corrected for this.

Because the survey was done by a respected research facility (NORC), and the analysis was done by a respected group of authors, and the book and related articles have undergone peer review, I can tell you that we can trust these procedures. They are standard. However, since the book was written, better, or at least more complicated, statistical procedure have become more common. The method the authors used neglects some problems with variance, but this is outside the topic of this class. In short, merely over-counting the under-represented group doesn't address problems of estimating the spread of answers to the survey questions.

Readings

For Tuesday (9/22): Moy et al on antecedents to participation
For Thursday (9/24): Nir on ambivalent networks

Obama's Address to Congress

With all the hullaballoo surrounding that outburst of "YOU LIE!!!!" during the speech, I think we need to focus on what the President said and not Joe Wilson R-S.C. I mean, Barack spent like 48 minutes addressing the health care debate and the so-called "myths" inflaming the left & right wingers. Will any actual reform make its way to the President's desk? If so, can there be any bipartisanship besides tort reform? Tort reform and lawsuits and such seemed to be the only area of concensus, when both sides of the aisle rose and applauded heartily.

I like all the drama. Reminds me of the open-ballot days of the 1800's. Nothing gets me more excited (well almost) than when the President gets heckled as if this is some bad standup or laughter for that matter. Most of all, did anyone notice that whenever the Democrats applauded, stood up, yelled, etc. all those sitting down were Caucasian men sprinkled with a couple women???

Tigers 35
Commodores 24

Next week's readings

Next week our readings discuss social inequality and participation.

Reading for meeting 6 (Tu Sept 15) :
Beyond SES: A Resource Model of Political Participation

There are two readings for meeting 7 (Th Sept 17):
Women and Political Participation
Chapter 8 in Verba, Schlozman & Brady

French government at the time of deTocqueville's trip to the U.S.

I didn't do a very good job in class setting the scene for deTocqueville's tour of the U.S. that resulted in his book "Democracy in America."

In short, Charles X had been the King with the support of the Catholic church but overstepped, drawing the ire of public opinion when he tried to curtail rights too strictly. He fled to England as a result of the "July Revolution" of 1830, which led to revolutions elsewhere in Europe . Activism in France led to a constitutional monarchy: not exactly a democracy, but certainly a government with more rights protections than that of Charles and Louis 18. Here is an encyclopedia entry with more detail.

These were the home eyes through which deToqueville saw America when he began his trip in 1831.

The flu

If you're feeling unwell, please stay home and protect your own health and that of your classmates! I deliberately designed the class so that it's possible to miss a reasonable number of meetings without adverse effects on your grade. In light of how many people have reported a flu diagnosis (2, and counting), I am now further extending that permission:
* I will give 14 readings quizzes over the course of the semester and count only the best 10. This means you can miss up to 4 classes with no effect on your grade, even if those classes happen to fall on days I give a readings quiz.*
So if you think you might have the flu, stay home! There is no need to contact me. Just ask someone from class for the notes, check this blog, and stay current with the reading. You can write response papers from home if you feel up to it. You don't want me to grade while sick; I would be grumpy.
Good luck staying well; if you're feeling ill, I hope you recover in time for Seattle!

Readings links

These links were broken earlier, but they work now. Please contact me (rscholl@lsu.edu) if you have any trouble accessing these readings or future readings.
For meeting 5: Verba et al Chapters 2 and 3
For meeting 6: Masuoka

Readings links

Full cites are on syllabus:
Link to meeting 2 reading (for Thursday Aug 27!)
Link to meeting 3 reading

Syllabus

Click here to download the syllabus
To put up a document to share with the class, first post that document on the web somewhere, like Tigerbytes in your PAWS account. Then right-click the link to copy the url. Come back to this blog, click "New Post," type and then highlight the name of the document you want to link to, and then click the little icon above the text box that looks like the earth with a chain link above it. Paste your document's URL into the box that pops up.

Welcome to PS 4034, Political Participation!

I'm looking forward to meeting you on T/Th from 3 to 4:30 in 213 Tureaud Hall. This will be a seminar-style class. That means that in Political Participation, class participation is order of the day.
This blog is a forum that may be helpful when you can't wait for class or want to float an idea before saying it out loud. Post whenever you want, and feel free to comment on the posts of your classmates. Posting your response and reflection papers (or the best parts of them) is encouraged! You can also use the forum to complain about the class, but keep in mind that I read it.