Instructor: Craig W. Allin
office: South 307
office phone: (319) 895-4278
home phone: (319) 895-8103; fax (319) 895-4284
office e-mail: callin@cornellcollege.edu
home e-mail: allin.craig@worldnet.att.net
web site: http://www.cornellcollege.edu/~callin/.

Classrooms and Schedule: We'll meet in Room 302 of South Hall for discussion and simulation sessions and in Room 125 of the Library for video sessions. Class generally meets four hours per day, but the schedule is irregular. For a detailed schedule of meetings and reading assignments, see the last page of the printed syllabus or follow the link to Course Calendar and Assignments .

Books: The following are available for purchase in the bookstore. You'll need all three immediately.

• Core Text: Thomas E. Patterson, We the People: A Concise Introduction to American Politics, 2^nd edition (McGraw-Hill, 1998)
• Readings: Robert E. DiClerico & Allan S. Hammock, Points of View: Readings in American Government and Politics, 7th edition (McGraw-Hill, 1998)
• Simulations: Gump & Woodworth: Atlantis (Nelson-Hall, 1987).

Internet Resources: The Home Page for the Politics Department is at http://www.cornellcollege.edu/politics. It contains a wealth of valuable information including programs and requirements of the Department of Politics; information about Politics Courses; the on-line version of this syllabus (where the elements you see underlined in the print version are functional hyperlinks); and research links for politics, government, and law. There are also free Internet News Services that can be very helpful if you have your own computer connected either to the Cornell Network or to an Internet Service Provider. I recommend in particular Excite's News Tracker: http://nt.excite.com . You can customize a news search for your research topic.

Synopsis: This course offers a survey of the theory and practice of contemporary government and politics in the United States. It may be taken profitably as a first course in political science or following Politics 111. It is a prerequisite for advanced courses in American Politics.

This course emphasizes the practical consequences of established institutions and procedures for policy outcomes. Who wins, and who loses? To whom is the American government responsive? Its objective is to provide each student with a sophisticated understanding of why the system produces the kinds of policies that it does.

A variety of materials will be used to achieve this general objective. Our core text emphasizes the political culture, fragmentation of authority, competing interests, individual rights, and separation of economic and political spheres that characterize American government. It also contains some readings. Our reader is based on the debate model, pairing essays representing different points of view on important issues of American politics today. American mass media provide a third important source of information for this course. Each student should make daily contact with the world of American politics. Read a daily newspaper or tune in National Public Radio. Make a date with "The News Hour" or "Nightline." Surf the Internet. (InfoBeat or the New York Times will deliver news to you by e-mail at no charge!) Each of these information sources should provide a foundation for discussion and debate. Reading materials will be supplemented by a series of simulations and occasional videos. Taken together, these materials will provide a variety of ways to learn as well as competing viewpoints regarding what should be learned in an introductory American politics course.

A brief synopsis of topics to be covered can be gleaned from the Course Calendar & Assignments on the final page of this syllabus.

• READING AND CLASS PARTICIPATION: Class attendance is important. I appreciate your letting me know when you will not be there. You should complete all reading assignments prior to the class period for which they are listed in the syllabus. In addition, you should follow news relevant to the course in the daily media. You should come to class each day prepared to share information and insights and raise questions based upon your formal and informal reading assignments. You can expect to get out of most classes about what you put into them. To give you an incentive to contribute to this one, a portion of the course grade will be determined by my assessment of your preparation and contribution to the course.
• EXAMINATIONS & QUIZZES: There will be no final examination. There will be four quizzes designed to test your mastery of the assigned reading. Consult the Course Calendar & Assignments on the last page of the syllabus for quiz dates.
• POLICY PAPER: The research and writing component of Politics 262 is a policy paper described in excruciating detail under the heading Policy Paper Assignment
• ROLE-PLAYING SIMULATIONS: Simulations provide an opportunity for participants to learn about politics by participating in political decision-making without screwing up the real world. This course includes six role-playing simulations in a variety of political settings. Consult the Course Calendar & Assignments on the last page of the syllabus for simulation dates.

Extra Credit Opportunity: Of course, this is a class devoted to politics, but it is also a class devoted to critical reading, cogent writing, and analytical thinking--invaluable skills for living and for working in every field of endeavor. One way to improve your writing as you read is to become more conscious of the writing of others. With that in mind, I will provide you the opportunity to earn extra credit in my continuing contest: "In Search of Bad Writing."

Rules:

• Contestants search out examples of incorrect grammar, punctuation, mechanics, spelling, or usage in formally published sources. However, no points will be awarded for finding errors in the Cornellian or other student publications. It's just too easy!
• Errors in grammar and usage are worth 15 points. Errors in punctuation and mechanics are worth 10 points. Spelling and typographical errors are worth 5 points. Point values are doubled for errors found in this course's general circulation handouts and assigned readings.
• Contestants may want to amass huge scores to impress the prof or intimidate the competition, but the number of points that may be counted toward your course grade is limited to 50.
• Points are awarded only to the first contestant identifying any specific error.
• All entries must be submitted in writing on official entry forms.
• Craig Allin is sole judge of all entries, and you will be notified in writing of the disposition of every entry. This contest is not supervised by Price-Waterhouse or any other reputable organization.
• People who don't like these rules should get their own contest.
  

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PUBLIC POLICY PAPER ASSIGNMENT

OBJECTIVES: This assignment has three major objectives. The first is to increase your familiarity with an issue of public policy importance and the arguments that surround that issue. The second is to increase your familiarity with relevant sources of information like professional journals and government documents. The third is to help you improve an important intellectual skill: writing a clear and convincing argument supported by reliable evidence. This is a complex and difficult assignment, and I would like each of you to do it well. To that end, I have broken the assignment down into pieces and provided explicit instructions about how you can maximize your success. Please read all the information that follows and do your best to master this task one step at a time. I have tried to answer the most obvious questions here in writing, but obviously I have not answered all the possible questions. Please feel free to ask me for help along the way.

ASSIGNMENT: Your job is to write a public policy paper of 1,500 to 2,500 words exclusive of title page, abstract, illustrations, notes, bibliography, appendices, etc. Your paper must deal with a matter of public policy within the Constitutional power of American NATIONAL government. If in doubt, ask me.

PUBLIC POLICY & POLICY PAPERS: A "policy" is a clear course of action. (E.g., it is the policy of Cornell College to issue grades once a month.) A "public policy" is a policy adopted by a government. (E.g., it is the policy of the United States to intervene militarily wherever America's national interests are threatened.) A "public policy paper" is a written document that recommends a public policy and argues for the adoption of that policy. Your public policy paper will be developed through four stages. Consult the Course Calendar & Assignments on the last page of the syllabus for deadlines associated with this project.

Stage I -- TOPIC DEVELOPMENT: You must submit (a) a typed paragraph describing your research topic and (b) a working bibliography for that topic. Selecting a topic requires only that you identify an area appropriate for inquiry and susceptible to a public policy recommendation. Your working bibliography should be sufficient to demonstrate that you have located and have access to the information that will be necessary to research your topic. In most cases your bibliography should include some mix of scholarly books, articles in scholarly journals, and government documents. If the bulk of your information comes from journalistic sources, then your bibliography is pretty weak, and you should seriously consider changing topics. A paper that is overly reliant on popular magazines, newspapers, and their web equivalents is not appropriate at the college level.

Stage II -- THESIS DEVELOPMENT: You must submit (a) your public policy recommendation (your paper's thesis) and (b) a list of the arguments you intend to make for it. You must recommend a policy within the legal power of some officer, agency or institution of the national government in the United States. Topics of global concern are welcomed, but your thesis must be stated in terms of American national policy. Articulating a good public policy recommendation and listing the arguments will require you to have already completed most of the research on your chosen topic. (Please submit typed copy.)

Thesis development is the stage at which trouble most often arises, so before you submit your policy recommendation and list of arguments, examine them carefully using the criteria set forth in the following paragraphs.

• Your policy recommendation: The public policy recommendation is your paper's thesis, and it differs fundamentally from the topic I asked you to submit in Stage I. Selecting a topic requires only that you identify an area appropriate for inquiry and susceptible to a public policy recommendation. Stating a public policy recommendation takes you an important step further: you must determine, with some considerable degree of specificity, what policy ought to be adopted with respect to your topic. For example, "abortion" is a topic. "Congress should pass, and send to the states for ratification, a constitutional amendment prohibiting all abortions except those medically necessary to save the life of the mother" is a public policy recommendation (thesis). Please notice the grammatical difference between the example topic and the example thesis above. A topic is essentially a name; grammatically it is a noun, possibly with some modifying adjectives or phrases. A thesis is necessarily a complete thought; grammatically it is a sentence.
  
  
• A public policy recommendation is one kind of thesis. It involves prescription or advocacy with regard to some aspect of public policy. Logically every policy recommendation must be a complete sentence communicating that something ought to be done by some agent of government. Read your policy recommendation carefully. Is it a complete sentence? Does the sentence state that something ought to be done? Is the individual or institution that must act a governmental actor or body? If you can answer all three questions "yes," you have a public policy recommendation. If the answer to any question is "no," then you need to write a public policy recommendation before going on to the next step.
  
  
• Having a public policy recommendation is not the same thing as having a good public policy recommendation. Good public policy recommendations are distinguished primarily by specificity. Read your public policy recommendation again. Make sure that what you are proposing is clear and precise, not something vague like "reform." "Congress should reform abortion policy" is a bad public policy recommendation. Compare it to the good one in the previous paragraph. If what you are proposing is specific and unambiguous, then you probably have a good public policy recommendation.
  
  
• Your list of arguments: The key terms here are "list" and "argument." A list is a series of items written or printed together. Hey, you probably knew that. Here the items to be listed are arguments. In the sense it is used here, argument means a statement of fact for or against a proposal. Here the proposal in question is your public policy recommendation. Each argument, therefore, is a statement of fact for (in favor of or on behalf of) your public policy recommendation. Since a sentence is the smallest grammatical unit that is capable of making a statement, it follows that your arguments must be sentences.
  
  
• Read the first of your arguments. Is it a complete sentence? Is it a statement of fact? (In other words, does it assert that something is true?) Is it in favor of your proposal? (In other words, does the truth asserted strengthen the case for your policy recommendation?) You should be able to answer "yes" to each of these questions. All statements of fact have approximately the same form. They don't ask questions. They don't merely identify topics to be covered. They assert a truth. E.g.: "[My public policy recommendation] would reduce the rate of illegitimate births." "[My public policy recommendation] would be easily enforced." "The benefits [of my public policy recommendation] would outweigh the costs." "[My public policy recommendation] is consistent with the First Amendment to the Constitution." "The spotted owls will all die anyway." "There is no record of wolves eating children in the United States." "Those already rich will receive 85 percent of the benefits." "Opponents are wrong to argue that the benefits of Head Start can't be measured past second grade."
  
  
• Repeat this analysis for each argument on your list. Edit your arguments until each of them meets the test. Notice that listing the arguments does not involve presenting the evidence in support of those arguments. One sentence should be sufficient to set forth each of your arguments.
  
  
• Give this your best shot, then come see me if you're having difficulty.

Stage III -- POLICY PAPER: Your recommendation and supporting arguments will be presented in a formal paper with appropriate manuscript format, proper citations, etc. Remember, you are being asked to take a position and make a case for it. Papers that take a position and argue a case are very common at all levels in law, business, journalism, and government. They may be called briefs (law), decision memoranda (business), editorials (journalism), or policy papers (government). Whatever they are called, good ones have certain characteristics:

They state a conclusion and back that conclusion with reasoned argument. The purpose is to convince the reader, and the better the argument, the higher the probability of success.

They are firmly rooted in careful research. You must have a command of the relevant facts. You must understand your own position and the positions of those with whom you disagree.

They are not always short, but they must be concise. That means no padding and no B.S. Papers such as these are meant for the eyes of very busy decision makers: the judge, the corporate executive, and the high government official. If you want to convince such a person, you must not waste her time.

IMPORTANT DETAILS:

The policy paper must be typewritten or word-processed and double spaced. Any customary typewriter typeface is acceptable. Any customary word-processor or printer typeface is acceptable so long as it is 12 points, i.e., three lines of text per vertical inch when double spaced.

Papers must be on 8.5 by 11 inch pages with one inch margins all around.

Please number your pages.

Please do not submit papers with justified right margins. Justified right margins may look neat, but they make text harder to read.

Please do not divide words at the end of lines.

Please put your name only on the back of the final page.

Please use parenthetical citations in one of the approved styles and identify the manual of style upon which you have relied.

Begin with a title page that includes title (but NOT author) and states which of the approved style manuals you have used.

Your paper is to be accompanied by an abstract or executive summary not to exceed 100 words. The abstract or executive summary is your paper in brief. It must contain your policy recommendation and a synopsis of your case for it. Logically, you cannot write the abstract until the paper has been completed. The abstract is not part of the paper. Neither the abstract nor the paper should refer to the other. Each should make sense apart from the other. Convention dictates that the abstract should appear on a separate page labeled "Abstract" or "Executive Summary" and located between the title page and the main body of the paper.

Follow the abstract with the body of the paper. Please be sure your policy recommendation appears in the first paragraph of the paper and that everything else in the paper serves to support it. Each argument (assertion of fact) is a mini-thesis. Be sure to present and document the evidence that supports each assertion.

Please insert figures and tables as close as practicable to the point in your text where you make reference to them. Figures and tables should be carefully designed so as to provide a large amount of information in a compact and readily understandable form. Each table and figure should have a title and be understandable in its own right independent of the text. The text should call attention to each table and figure and explain its importance to the purposes of the manuscript. If a table or figure merely repeats information already contained in the text, it is superfluous and should be excised. Each table or figure must contain a full bibliographic reference, typically following the word "Source:" If such a source note is already part of the table or figure, you must still supply full bibliographic information indicating where you found it.

Follow the body of the text with appendices (if any) and your bibliography or reference list. Remember to list all sources upon which you relied whether or not you have cited them formally in the text.

Do not submit papers in binders or folders of any kind. Do not staple. Use a paper clip.

Deliver your paper to me or to my office. (Do not use campus mail.) If you deliver a late paper, be sure to record the time of delivery. If you don't, I'll write down the time I find it.

Further information and requirements concerning paper writing in general.

I am available to help you when difficulties arise. Don't be shy about asking me! I am reasonably harmless, and I actually know some stuff.

Stage IV -- REWRITE: After receiving a written critique of your policy paper, you will rewrite and resubmit the paper making as many improvements in substance and presentation as you can manage. An additional 10% of the course grade will depend on your rewrite. The rewrite should be better than the original paper. After all, you will have had the benefit of expert editorial advice. As a practical matter, a conscientious effort to address the technical problems that have been identified in your paper will preserve your grade. More substantive improvements will enhance your grade.

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Additional Links that Form Part of the Syllabus

Grades

Miscellaneous Red Tape: the Rules of the Game

Common Sense for College Students: How to Do Better than You Thought Possible

Course Calendar & Assignments