This course surveys major themes in theory and research on political participation, with some emphasis on voting and elections. Students will be expected to evaluate the readings critically in our class discussions and in their weekly papers. Students are responsible for reading all of the required pieces and participating in our discussions. Half of your course grade will be based on your papers; the other half will be based on your contributions to our discussions.

Papers are due in class each week. (Email is fine.) Provide a brief overview of the main points of the key readings for that week and offer some critical commentary. Maximum length, 800 words. The length restriction is intended to motivate you to make tough decisions about what is absolutely essential to include (and remember) and what is not. These papers are not expected to be literary masterpieces, although they should be organized and coherent. Please don't agonize over these short papers. Bang 'em out, and turn 'em in.

All of the required readings (marked with an asterisk) are available online, usually through CTools. Core readings are probably best read in the order in which they are listed. Most of the optional readings are also available online. For journal articles, I suggest that you go to MIRLYN and search for the journal by title.

Jan. 7. INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW

Leighley, Jan E. 1995. Attitudes, opportunities and incentives: a field essay on political participation. Political Research Quarterly, 48: 181-209.

Leighley, Jan E. 2008. Commentary on "Attitudes, Opportunities and Incentives: A Field Essay on Political Participation". Political Research Quarterly, 61 (1): 46-49.

Shapiro, Ian. 1994. Three ways to be a democrat. Political Theory, 22 (1): 124-151.

Pateman, Carole. 1970. Participation and Democratic Theory. Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge University Press.

Jan. 14. POLITICAL PARTICIPATION, EQUITY, AND POWER, PART 1

* Macedo, Stephen et al. 2005. Democracy at Risk. Washington, DC: Brookings Pres. Chapter 1, "Toward a Political Science of Citizenship."

* Brady, Henry E., Sidney Verba, and Kay Lehman Schlozman. 1995. Beyond SES: a resource model of political participation. APSR, 89 (2): 271-294.

* Markus, Gregory B. 2002. Civic participation in American cities. Ann Arbor: Ann Arbor: ISR, University of Michigan. Read Sections 1-4 (pp. 1-13).

* Arnstein, Sherry R. 1969. A ladder of citizen participation. Journal of the American Institute of Planners, 35 (July): 216-224.

Cornwall, Andrea. 2008. Unpacking 'participation': models, meanings and practices, Community Development Journal, 43 (3): 269-283.

Cornwall, Andrea, and John Gaventa. 2001. From users and choosers to makers and shapers: repositioning participation in social policy. Brighton, UK: Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex.

Cleaver, Frances. 1999. Paradoxes of participation: questioning participatory approaches to development. Journal of International Development, 11 (4): 597-612.

Jacobs, Lawrence R., and Theda Skocpol. 2005. American democracy in an era of rising inequality. In Lawrence R. Jacobs and Theda Skocpol, eds. Inequality and American Democracy: What We Know And What We Need To Learn. New York: Russell Sage.

Cook, Bill, and Uma Kothari, eds. Participation: The New Tyranny. London: Zed Books.

Jan. 21. POLITICAL PARTICIPATION, EQUITY, AND POWER, PART 2

* Dietz, Thomas, and Paul C. Stern, eds. Public Participation in Environmental Assessment and Decision Making. Washington, DC: National Academies Press. Chapter 2, The promise and perils of participation.

* Verba, Sidney, Kay Lehman Schlozman, Henry E. Brady, and Norman H. Nie. 1993. Citizen activity: Who participates? What do they say? APSR, 87 (2): 303-318.

* Brady, Henry E., Kay Lehman Schlozman, and Sidney Verba. 1999. Prospecting for participants: rational expectations and the recruitment of political activists. APSR, 93 (1): 153-168.

* Huntington, Samuel P. 1975. The democratic distemper. Public Interest, 41 (Fall): 9-38.

Verba, Sidney. 2003. Would the dream of political equality turn out to be a nightmare? Perspectives on Politics, 1 (4): 663-679.

Burns, Nancy, Kay Lane Schlozman, and Sidney Verba. 1997. The public consequences of private inequality: family life and citizen participation. APSR, 91 (2): 373-389.

Eliasoph, Nina. 1997. 'Close to home': the work of avoiding politics. Theory and Society, 26 (5): 605-647.

Hibbing, John R., and Elizabeth Theiss-Morse. 2002. Stealth Democracy: Americans' Beliefs About How Government Should Work. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Rosenstone, Steven J. and John Mark Hansen. 1993. Mobilization, Participation, and Democracy in America. New York: Macmillan.

Verba, Sidney, and Norman Nie 1972. Participation in America. New York: Harper & Row.

Verba, Sidney, Kay Lehman Schlozman, and Henry E. Brady. 1995. Voice and Equality: Civic Voluntarism in American Politics.   Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Jan. 28.  COLLECTIVE ACTION, PART 1

* Oliver, Pamela E. 1993. Formal models of collective action. Annual Review of Sociology, 19: 271-300.

* Ostrom, Elinor. 1998. A behavioral approach to the rational choice theory of collective action. APSR, 92 (1): 1-22.

* Bianco, William, and Robert Bates. 1990. Cooperation by design: leadership structure and collective dilemmas. APSR, 84 (1): 133-48.

Granovetter, Mark. 1978. Threshold models of collective behavior. American Journal of Sociology, 83 (6): 1420-1443.

Moore, Will H. 1995. Rational rebels: overcoming the free-rider problem. Political Research Quarterly, 48 (June): 417-454.

Whiteley, Paul F. 1995. Rational choice and political participation--evaluating the debate. Political Research Quarterly, 48: 211-233.

Macy, Michael. 1990. Learning theory and the logic of critical mass. American Sociological Review, 55 (6): 809-826.

McAdam, Doug. 1986. Recruitment to high-risk activism: the case of Freedom Summer. American Journal of Sociology, 92 (1): 64-90.

Morris, Aldon. 1981. Black Southern student sit-in movement: an analysis of internal organization. American Sociological Review, 46: 744-767.

Chong, Dennis. 1991. Collective Action and the Civil Rights Movement. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Downs, Anthony. 1957. An Economic Theory of Democracy. New York: Harper and Row.

Hirschman, Albert O. 1970. Exit, Voice, and Loyalty. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Olson, Mancur. 1965. The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Ostrom, Elinor. 1990. Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Feb. 4.  COLLECTIVE ACTION, PART 2

* Riker, William H., and Peter C. Ordeshook. 1969. A theory of the calculus of voting. APSR, 63 (1): 11-30.

* Meehl, Paul. 1977. The selfish voter and the thrown away vote argument. APSR, 71 (1): 11-31.

* Verba, Sidney, Kay L. Schlozman, and Henry E. Brady. 2000. Rational action and political activity. Journal of Theoretical Politics, 12 (3): 243-268.

Schlozman, Kay Lehman, Sidney Verba, and Henry E. Brady. 1995. Participation's not a paradox: the view from American activists. British Journal of Political Science, 25 (1): 1-36.

Schuessler, Alexander A. 2000. Expressive voting. Rationality and Society, 12 (1): 87-119.

Verba, Sidney. 2001. Culture, calculation, and being a pretty good citizen: alternative interpretations of civil engagement. University of California, Irvine: Center for the Study of Democracy.

Harris, Fredrick C. 1994. Something within: religion as a mobilizer of African-American activism. Journal of Politics, 56 (1): 42-68.

Green, Donald P., and Ian Shapiro. 1994. Pathologies of Rational Choice Theory. New Haven: Yale University Press, ch. 4, 5, 7.
 

Feb 11. ORGANIZING POLITICAL ACTION

* Warren, Mark R. 1998. Community building and political power: a community organizing approach to democratic renewal. American Behavioral Scientist, 42: 78-92.

* To be shown in class: Mahan, Leah and Mark Lipman. 1996. "Holding Ground: The Rebirth of Dudley Street."

* Fausset, Richard. 2008. Community organizers have deep roots in democracy. Los Angeles Times (Sept. 18).

* Speer, Paul W., et al. 2003. The intentional exercise of power: community organizing in Camden, New Jersey. Journal of Community and Applied Psychology, 13: 399-408.

Skocpol, Theda, Marshall Ganz, and Ziad Munson. 2000. A nation of organizers: the institutional origins of civic voluntarism in the United States. APSR, 94: 527-546.

Faris, Robert, and Bruce Etling. 2008. Madison and the smart mob: the promise and limitations of the Internet for democracy. Cambridge, MA: Berkman Center, Harvard University.
 

Feb. 18. SOCIAL CAPITAL, CIVIL SOCIETY, AND POLITICAL ACTION

* Foley, Michael W. and Bob Edwards. 1996. The paradox of civil society. Journal of Democracy. 7: 38-52.

* Woolcock, Michael, and Deepa Narayan. 2000. Social capital: implications for development theory, research, and policy. World Bank Research Observer, 15 (2): 225-249.

* Sampson, Robert J., Doug McAdam, Heather MacIndoe, and Simon Weffer-Elizondo. 2005. Civil society reconsidered: the durable nature and community structure of collective civic action. American Journal of Sociology, 111 (3): 673-715.

* Putnam, Robert D. 2007. E Pluribus Unum: diversity and community in the twenty-first century. Scandinavian Political Studies, 30 (2): 137-174.

Berman, Sheri. 1997. Civil society and political institutionalization. American Behavioral Scientist, 40 (5): 562-574.

DeFilippis, James. 2001. The myth of social capital in community development. Housing Policy Debate, 12 (4): 781-806.

Fung, Archon. 2003. Associations and democracy: between theories, hopes, and realities. Annual Review of Sociology, 29: 515-539.

Fung, Archon, and Erik Olin Wright. 2001. Deepening democracy: innovations in empowered participatory governance. Politics and Society, 29 (1): 5-41.

Krishna, Anirudh. 2002. Enhancing political participation in democracies: what is the role of social capital? Comparative Political Studies, 35 (4): 437-460.

Levi, Margaret. 1996. Social and unsocial capital: a review essay of Robert Putnam's Making Democracy Work. Politics and Society, 24 (1): 45-55.

Putnam, Robert D. 1993. Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Putnam, Robert D. 2000. Bowling Alone. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Skocpol, Theda, and Morris P. Fiorina, eds. 1999. Civic Engagement in American Democracy. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.

Wong, Janelle. 2006. Democracy's Promise: Immigrants and American Civic Institutions Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Knight, Jack, and James Johnson. 1994. Aggregation, deliberation: on the possibility of democratic legitimacy. Political Theory, 22 (2): 277-296.

Nadeau, Richard, and Michael S. Lewis-Beck, 2001. National economic voting in U.S. presidential elections. Journal of Politics, 63 (1): 159-181.

Apr 15. ECONOMICS AND ELECTIONS, PART 2

* Bartels, Larry. 2005. Homer gets a tax cut: inequality and public policy in the American mind. Perspectives on Politics, 3 (1): 15-31.

* Hacker, Jacob S., and Paul Pierson. 2005. Abandoning the middle: the Bush tax cuts and the limits of democratic control. Perspectives on Politics, 3 (March): 33-53.

Lupia, Arthur, Adam Seth Levine, Jesse O. Menning, and Gisela Sin. 2005. Were Bush tax cut supporters "simply ignorant?": a second look at conservatives and liberals in "Homer Gets a Tax Cut." Ann Arbor: ISR, University of Michigan.