Syllabus+-+GOVT+2301+-+spring+2010+-+3+week+mini

Kevin Jefferies Office: D-225 Office Phone: 281-756-3736 email: kjefferies@alvincollege.edu class blog: []
 * Government 2301**


 * GOVT 2301-M3 (Spring 2010)**


 * Course Description:** This is the first of two required courses designed to familiarize you with the nature of national, state, and local government. I focus principally on the factors which led to the development of the Constitution (both U.S. and Texas), and the nature of the institutions which have evolved in the Constitution’s wake. This will involve an analysis of the basic terminology of government and politics, readings of the founding documents (The Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, The U.S. and Texas Constitutions, and the Federalist Papers). We will also cover civil liberties and civil rights, outline the election system and the evolution and design of political parties, as well as the impact of public opinion, interest groups and the media on politics.


 * Readings:** All of the readings in this class are available online. If you wish to use a traditional textbook, the following two are available in the bookstore:

//Lowi, Theodore, Benjamin Ginsberg and Kenneth Shepsle. American Government. 11th Edition. New York: W.W. Norton. Brown, Lyle et al. Practicing Texas Politics. 13th Edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.//

You will notice that I also maintain a blog -- note the link above -- where I post, more or less, daily items pertaining to the subject matter of the class. This will be the principal way I will communicate with you about the material we will cover in the class. Everyday we will spend time discussing how current events illustrate the principles we cover in class. The blog features a large number of links to the various institutions we will come to understand in this class. In order to better communicate, I want you to go to the page and subscribe to it, you will notice a subscription widget on the right of the page. By subscribing, you will receive daily information regarding not only what we will cover in the class, but also various other notices such as whether class will be cancelled.

Here some online resources that should be useful:

- [|The Founders' Constitution] - [|U.S. Constitution: FindLaw]. - [|From Revolution to Reconstruction and Afterwards].


 * Grading:** A = 89.5 - 100; B = 79.5 - 89.5; C = 69.5 - 79.5; D = 59.5 - 69.5; F 59.5 - 0

Your grade will be based on the following:

Cumulative Final (20%) Written Assignment #1: The Health Bill (10%) Written Assignment #2: Citizens United v FEC (10%)
 * Daily Quizes (60%)

Daily Quizes**: At the beginning of each day we will have a quiz on the material we covered the previous day. This is meant not only to evaluate your understanding of the material but to give me an idea about how well I am communicating it. The questions will be multiple choice and will be pulled primarily from the power point lectures we will cover the previous day. I will feel free to ask questions about current events as well as lecture material. Thsi means that you are to bring scantrons with you every day. These can be purchased at the campus bookstore.


 * Cumulative Final**: On the last day of class I will give you a cumulative exam which will cover the range of material we covered in the previous lectures. It will be composed mostly of the questions asked in the previous quizes.


 * Written Assignments**: Using our collective brainpower, I want us all to write out an overview of two of the more interesting recent events, the passage of the heath care bill (the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act) and the Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. The Federal Election Commission. By Tuesday May 18th, I want you to commit to write 500 words on some aspect of each of these events. I have a list of these prepared, though may well have better ideas about what to cover. My goal is for everyone to commit to write a section which, together, will form a document which demonstrates how each event illustrates some aspect of the material we will cover in class. We will spend time each day discussing these, so you wont bear the burden of this alone. I also want you to post your written work on each of the pages I've created for the occasion. You will have to sign up for this site in order to have permission to post to the site, but once you do, you have the ability to add whatever you want to the page.

Click here for the page on the Health Care Bill. Click here for the page on Citizens United v. the Federal Elections Commission.


 * I want these posted to each page by the start of class on June 2nd. We will review these together prior to taking our final exam.**


 * Calendar:**

-** Introduction
 * Monday, May 17
 * - Preliminary Discussion of each written assignment.

Tuesday, May 18 Short multiple choice test on previous day's work** - Natural Rights and the Declaration of Independence.

Short multiple choice test on previous day's work -** The United States and Texas Constitutions.
 * Wednesday, May 19

Short multiple choice test on previous day's work -** Federalist 10 and the Violence of Faction;
 * Thursday, May 20

Short multiple choice test on previous day's work -** Federalist 10 and the Violence of Faction;
 * Friday, May 21

Short multiple choice test on previous day's work -** Federalist 51 and the Separation of Powers.
 * Monday, May 24

Short multiple choice test on previous day's work -** Civil Liberties and the Bill of Rights.
 * Tuesday, May 25

Short multiple choice test on previous day's work -** Federalism
 * Wednesday, May 26

Short multiple choice test on previous day's work**.
 * Thursday, May 27
 * -** Civil Rights and The Equal Protection Clause.

Work on Paper Assignments - post work to the wiki pages by noon.
 * Friday, May 28

Monday May 31 - No Class

Tuesday, June 1 Short multiple choice test on Thursday -** Elections.
 * -** Political Parties.

- Review, Dscussion of Projects and Final**
 * Wednesday, June 2