Sociology 357
Political Sociology
Fall 2007
Alexandra Hrycak
hrycak@reed.edu
503-517-7483
Office Vollum 223
Course objectives: The absence of universal health care and other state guarantees of social welfare sets the US apart from other Western countries. So does the high percentage of its citizens that are incarcerated. How did we get here, and what is the likelihood that our political system will change? The major goal of this course is to master debates regarding how various key policies and political tendencies developed in the US (regarding health care, welfare, imprisonment and abortion), and why they took the form they did.
Requirements: This course involves a lot of reading and active class participation. There will be two short written assignments (a research proposal and a literature review, each ranging from 5 to 7 pages). Each short assignment will be used to refine your understanding of a research problem that extends class materials to a case of interest to you. Your work will culminate in a final research paper twelve to fifteen pages in length, due December 9. Late work will be accepted only in the event of serious medical emergency or personal crisis.
The following books are available for purchase at the Reed College bookstore:
Course prerequisite: Sociology 211, Introduction to Sociology, is required for this course. This requirement is necessary because course readings have been chosen under the assumption that you already have a background in classical sociological theory and its modern applications; that you have been introduced to basic theories of social stratification, political sociology and social movements; and that you possess a familiarity with some elementary analytical concepts, in particular approaches to the core concepts of Marxian and Weberian classical "class-based" analysis as well as sociological theories of norms and their role in shaping social action, boundaries and roles (e.g. Goffman's symbolic interactionist studies of micro-interaction-based status orders, Durkheim and Durheimian approaches to social order, Berger and Luckman).
Part I:
How did we get here? Contemporary US political puzzles in search of an explanation
Week 1
Monday Aug. 27
Introduction
Wednesday Aug. 29
Frank, What's The Matter With Kansas? How Conservatives Won The Heart Of America, Part I [Reserve], paying particular atttention to the following selections:
Introduction (all), ch. 2 (pp. 30-55), ch. 5 (all)
Listen to the following NPR broadcast on Kansas:
“Route 50 Political Conversations in Kansas”: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6709272
“Democrats Seek Advantage in GOP Strife”:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4952177
Week 2 Sep. 3, 5
Monday
No class: spend Labor Day holiday finishing Frank’s discussion of US labor politics
Part II: 4 alternative paradigms and models:
Pluralism, power elite theory, historical institutionalism and constructionism
Wednesday
Dahl, Who Governs? (pp. 1-8, 89-103, 305-325) [Reserve]
Finish discussing Frank, Part II
(pay particular atttention to the following: ch. 6 (pp. 113-137), ch. 9 (pp. 179-190, ch. 10 (pp. 200-214)
Week 3 Sep. 10, 12
Power structure theory
Monday
Domhoff, Who Rules America? Chs. 1-4 [Reserve]
Review: http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/
Read: “Interlocking Directorates in the Corporate Community,”
http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/corporate_community.html
Wednesday
Domhoff, Who Rules America? Chs. 5-7
Review: Who Rules? An Internet Guide to Power Structure Research
http://www.uoregon.edu/~vburris/whorules/
Week 4 Sep. 17, 19
Historical Institutionalism and the polity centered approach
Monday
Neuman, Power, State & Society, chapter 3
Amenta, Bold Relief, chs. 1-3 [Reserve]
Wednesday
Skocpol, Protecting Soldiers and Mothers, “Conclusion: America’s First Modern Social Policies and Their Legacies,” pp. 525-539 [Reserve]
Amenta, chs. 5-6
Week 5 Sep. 24, 26
Constructionism I: Assessing multiple models
Quadagno, One Nation, Uninsured
Monday
Quadagno, “Introduction,” plus chs. 1-3, 5
Listen to:
“Moore's 'Sicko' Lands Blows on U.S. Health Care”
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11285514
Wednesday
Quadagno, chs. 6-8
Listen to:
“President Threatens to Veto Child Healthcare Program”
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12167195
Week 6 Oct. 1, 3
Constructionism II: Moral panics and public policy
Eric Schlosser, visitor
Michael Tonry, Thinking about Crime, chs. 1-4
Eric Schlosser, The prison-industrial complex. Atlantic Monthly (1072-7825), Dec. 1998, Vol. 282 Issue 6, pp. 51-72 (Ebscohost)
Recommended:
Eric Schlosser, Marijuana and the law. Atlantic Monthly (1072-7825), Sep1994, Vol. 274 Issue 3, pp. 84-93 (Ebscohost)
Week 7 Oct. 8, 10
Monday
Tonry, chs. 5-8
Review and analysis of the first weeks of class
Wednesday
Paper due in class
Wrap up session
Week 8 Oct. 15, 17
Fall Break
Part III: The rise of contemporary political identities, solidarities and issues
Week 9 Oct. 22, 24
Why are unions so weak?
Richard Oestreicher, “Urban Working-Clas Political Behavior and Theories of American Electoral Politics” Journal of American History (1988) (JSTOR)
Watch one of the following documentaries on unions:
Harlan County, USA [videorecording], a film by Barbara Kopple (director), 2006
Instructional Media Ctr. HD6490.O7 H37536 2006 DVD
Unions in crisis [videorecording written and narrated by Henry Bass] Instructional Media Ctr HD6508 .U5465 1992 video
Rick Fantasia, Cultures of Solidarity: Consciousness, Action, And Contemporary American Workers (HD8072.5 .F36 1988), selections
Week 10 Oct. 29, 31
Why is abortion a key political issue? Physicians, feminists & abortion
Kristin Luker, Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood
Monday
Luker, Chs. 1, 4-6
Wednesday
Luker, Chs. 7-9
Week 11 Nov. 5, 7
The Influence of the Constitution, Federalism, Civic Associations on Equality of Opportunity
Jane Mansbridge, Why We Lost The ERA, Chs. 1, 2, 11, 12, and 13
Part IV: Understanding future trends in civic participation and nonparticipation
Week 12 Nov. 12, 14
Nonparticipation and elections
Neuman, Power, State & Society, chapter 5
Piven & Cloward, Why Americans Don't Vote, selections
Thomas E. Patterson, “Young Voters and the 2004 Election”
www.ksg.harvard.edu/presspol/vanishvoter/Releases/Vanishing_Voter_Final_Report_2004_Election.pdf
Class meeting with Jefferson Smith, Executive Director and Founding Member of the Oregon Bus Project (see http://www.busproject.org)
Week 13 Nov. 19, 21
Theda Skocpol, Diminished Democracy: From Membership To Management In American Civic Life
Nov. 22-25 Thanksgiving vacation
Week 14 Nov. 26, 28
Student presentations
Week 15 Dec. 3
Final class
TBA