Week of

Jan. 25-30  Introduction and Overview of the Course

Feb. 4  Establishing a Constitutional Democracy

                      Reading: G&P, Ch. 2, Appendix, A2-A13
                                       

• Lecture Notes: Lecture 2 - Constitution

• Historical Document Search Engine: U.S. Constitution, Declaration of Independence, and the Federalist Papers provided by the U.S. Congress Thomas site
• U.S. Constitution: Text of the articles with link to the amendment

   

 

Feb.11    American Federalism: Federal, State and
              and  Local Government

                               Reading: G & P, Ch. 3;      

California

• California State Assembly -- information about legislation and Assembly members and districts.
• California State Senate -- information about legislation and Senators and districts.
• California Government and Public Policy -- links various state government web sites from UC Berkeley.
• California State Home Page -- from the governor's office.
• California State and Local Government -- resources from UC Davis.

Reading: G & P, Ch. 4; 

•  Lecture 4 - Political Culture

                     Reading: G & P , Ch. 7 and 8; 
               

VIDEO: 

Lecture Notes: Lecture 8 - Interests Groups

 

 

California News

• Los Angeles Times
• San Francisco Chronicle/Examiner
• Sacramento Bee
• San Diego Union-Tribune
• San Jose Mercury-News
• Santa Rosa Press Democrat

National News

• AJR NewsLink Search
• New York Times
• Washington Post
• Boston Globe
• Chicago Tribune
• Denver Post
• Houston Chronicle
• Miami Herald
• Wall Street Journal
• AllPolitics
• MSNBC
• NewsHour With Jim Lehrer
• National Public Radio
• Turn Left: The 'Home of Liberalism on the Web'
• 'The Right Side of the Web'
• An Unfettered Press: U.S. Information Agency compilation of essays on the rights of the media

Mar. 17  Political Parties

                           Reading: G & P, Ch. 9;  How the Caucus  System Works 

Lecture Notes: Lecture 6 - Political Parties;

                    The major parties

The Democratic National Committee

The Republican National Committee

• Third parties
• Democratic Socialists of America
• Libertarian Party
• Reform Party
• Green Party

Campaign Expenditures

             Video: "Washington's Other Scandal

• Tabb's Campaign 2004 Website

  	The Federal Election Commission
  	Project Vote Smart
  	All Politics
  	The Electoral College
  	The Democracy Project
  	The Vanishing Voter
  	Latino Vote
  	Freedom Channel
  	League of Women Voters
  	Politics1.com
  	Voter.com
  	Rock the Vote
  	Center for Responsive Politics

 Apr.4  Mid-Term Essay Exam due                        

Apr. 9 Congress

Reading:  G & P, Ch. 11;  Flippen, The Best Political Writing , 2007, Pt. .2 pp. 61-128

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?031208fa_fact

 

Lecture Notes:  Lecture 9 - Congress

 

• Thomas: Legislative information on the internet - excellent service provided by the U.S. Congress
• U.S. House of Representatives home page
• U.S. Senate home page
• How our laws are made: Overview of the process of how a bill becomes a law provided through Thomas
• Rate Your Rep: Congressional Quarterly polls you on your policy preferences toward 10 issues debated by and voted on in Congress and then shows how much you agree and disagree with your members of Congress
• Representative Update: Get up to date information on what your representative is doing
• C-SPAN Online
• http://www.senate.gov/~dpc/crs/index.html. Congressional Service Reports. Updated policy studies by Congress. 

• Lecture Notes:  Lecture 10 - Presidency

13 Days

• Welcome to the White House: Official White House site with excellent links throughout the executive branch.

·        White House history and virtual tours

·        White House Offices and Agencies

·        The President's Cabinet

·        Independent Federal Agencies and Commissions: links to a large number of the agencies

·        Executive Branch Summaries: U. S. Information Agency summaries of what the various offices and agencies do

Apr. 23 The Federal Courts

Reading: G & P, Ch. 14; 

• U.S. Federal Judiciary
• U.S. Supreme Court Decisions: Court decisions easily accessed from Cornell
• U.S. Supreme Court oral argument archives: Listen to recorded oral arguments before the Supreme Court to cases such as Roe v. Wade (1973) and Texas v. Johnson (1989) - requires RealAudio player

• ACLU Freedom Network: Excellent site with numerous links dealing with civil liberties and civil rights by the American Civil Liberties Union
• U.S. Civil Liberties and Human Rights: Links to many sites on the web pertaining to liberties and rights
• National Civil Rights Museum: Virtual Tour of the museum in Memphis Tennessee
• U.S. Civil Liberties and Human Rights: Links to many sites on the web pertaining to liberties and rights

Apr. 30 Civil Liberties and   Rights

  Reading: Ch. 15 and 16; 

         Reading: G & P, Ch. 17;  Health Care Politics

• Citizen's Guide to the Federal Budget
• 1997 Budget of the United States government
• Reinventing America II: An online game and experimental forum where you decide how to allocate the budget of the U.S. government
• STAT-USA: Economic, Trade and Business Information
• Social Security Online: Official web site of the Social Security Administration

• Other Government Data
  	U.S. Census Bureau
  	Statistical Abstracts of the United States
  	Fedstats
  	Thomas
  	Government information sharing project
  	Social Statistics Briefing Room
  	United Nations Statistics Division
  	CIA World Factbook
  	Eurostat
  	Center for Policy Alternatives (links to State-level resources)

May 14 Foreign Policy and National Defense

Final Exam,  May 23rd. 8:00-10:30