Syllabus+-+GOVT+2302+-+Spring+2010+Mini+2

Kevin Jefferies Office: D-225 Office Phone: 281-756-3736 email:** **kjefferies@alvincollege.edu**
 * Government 2302
 * class blog:** [|**http://theweakerparty.blogspot.com/**]


 * GOVT 2302 - IM2**

//**Note:**// //Though textbooks are available at the bookstore (see below) all readings are available online. This requires you to have a reliable internet connection. Talk to me if this poses problems for you. Also be sure to let me know if links no longer work.


 * Also Note:** I do not use Blackboard. All your correspondence, including paper submissions, will be through my email address above.//


 * Course Description**: This is the second of the two required classes designed to familiarize you with the nature of national state and local government. This section focuses primarily on the institutions established in the U.S. and Texas Constitutions, as well as local city charters. We will look indepth at the nature of legislative, executive and judicial power as well as the relationships that exist between them. We will look at all aspects of these institutions, including the history behind each, their constitutional design, the internal organization and current issues associated with them. We will attempt to spend equal amouns of time looking at the national, state, and local institutions.


 * Readings**: All of the readings in this class are available online. Look at the calendar below and you will notice a variety of subjects listed next to dates. Click on the appropriate subject and you will be taken to a separate page that will contain some basic text, plus a variety of links taking you to additional information about the subject matter. You will also see a variety of study guide questions and the appropriate assignment, which will vary depending on whether you are a lecture or online student.

You'll notice that I often link to Wikipedia pages, the open-sourced web based encyclopedia. Wikipedia is often criticized as being unreliable and subject to manipulation. In some cases entries are edited by people who wish to bias the information contained in the article for self interested reasons. In some cases this is true, but the site has become increasingly reliable, especially with relatively non-controversial or hisltorical topics. I have found the range of articles available to be impressive. There is easily accessible information available there, that simply cannot be found elsewhere. I have found it to be very useful for my purposes. Perhaps its best feature is that it records all edits and allows for discussions of controveries associated with how subjects are discussed. Here are some links that touch on controversies associated with Wikipedia:

- [|Dean's World]. - [|EDUCAUSE]. - [|Reliability of Wikipedia, from Wikipedia itself].

Most of the material you are required to read in this class is either in this wiki, or in a link I direct you to. I also also have available **two textbooks that I recommend you purchase** in order to fill any gaps I might have in these pages. These are:

//Lowi, Theodore, Benjamin Ginsberg and Kenneth Shepsle. American Government. 10th 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 where I post, more or less, daily items pertaining to the subject matter of the class. I want you to go to the page and subscribe to it. That way you will be able to recive information regarding not only what we will cover in the class, but also notices about the class itself.


 * 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:

Paper #1: Political Autobiography (15%) Paper #2: (15%)**
 * Weekly Quizes and/or Written Assignments (70%)


 * Weekly Quizes and/or Written Assignments**: Lecture students will have a quiz, almost always a series of multiple choice questions, every Monday on the material covered the previous week. **You must come to class with a scantron**. I will not provide one to you. Unless you make arrangements ahead of time (by email, so we have a record) I will not give make-ups. If you are an internet student, each week you are assigned four short answer questions The due dates for each are listed below. These quizes and written assignments are meant not only to evaluate your understanding of the material but to give me an idea about how well I am communicating it.


 * 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.

I want you to write at least 1000 words on this subject and email it to me by midnight April 29.
 * Paper #1: Who Represents Me? How?** One of the tasks of this class will be to familiarize you with the complex, decentralized nature of American governing system. In a federal system we are represented in the legislatures of several layers of government from the national (two Senators, and a member of the House of Representative), to the state (one Senator and One member of the House of Representatives) down to the local (city council, State Board of Education, independent school districts, etc...). Using your home address, I want you to discover how many people represent you at different levels of government and what specific things they to to represent your interests (assuming they do of course). Use the following website as a starting point: []. You will find some, but not all of your representatives. I want you to use available online resources to discover the rest. Depending on where you live, you might find yourself in a navigation or community college district or not. When you locate these people, find out how much information is avaliable about them, national and state representatives will have the most. Investigate what their priorities are and whether there is some similarity with the positions taken from top to bottom.

I want you to write at least 1000 words and email this to me by midnight April 29.
 * Paper #2: The Checks and Balances Today (10%):** As stated in Federalist #51, the separated powers are kept separate by a variety of powers tied into the interests of the people who hold those positions. They are all assumed to be ambitious. The only issue is how that ambition is channeled. The ambitious President keeps the ambitous Congress in check, but is in turn checked by an ambitious Judiciary, and so on. This is the heart of the checks and balances. Each institution checks the other two, and the result is a balance between the three branches. The more they are balanced, the less likely a tyranny can emerge with the consolidation of these three powers into the hands of one person, party or movement. That's the theory anyway. Your task is to uncover the reality. How in fact is the system of checks and balances working today? How are each of the three branches checking the powers of the other two? Are they in fact balanced? Is one stronger than the other two? You might want to reread Federalist #51 first, and then monitor the news regularly to answer this question well.


 * Student Behavior:** You are adults and will be expected to act accordingly. This is true whether you are in my lecture or online classes. Lecture students, do not sleep or engage in idle chatter in the classroom. Unruly students will be asked to leave. I encourage active discussion, so be prepared to state your opinions and justify them. I also expect you to come to class prepared to discuss the material at hand. Be ready to be called on at any moment to answer questions about the subject matter. Online students, I expect you to do your own work. This means that you will not ask anyone else to write papers for you, or you will not simply copy text from various sources and tell me you did it. Among the Founders, proper behavior was considered to be a necessary mark of a civilized person and a requirement for political participation. Read through Washington's [|Rules for Civility and Decent Behavior] are a great example. Consider adopting a few.

//Please Note: If you have any disabilities or other special needs that will affect your ability to learn in this class, please inform me of them. Appropriate steps will be taken to make reasonable accomodations and assist you with your needs.//


 * Scholastic Dishonesty:** If you cheat in any way in this class and are caught, you will fail the course. Do not download items from the internet and pass them off as your own.

The links below will take you to the readings and assignments for each week.


 * Calendar:**

Classes begin March 4th.


 * Please note: The readings you will be directed to are also used by my 16 week classes. They are required to answer four questions for each week. Since you have less time, you are to answer any three of these questions -- as clearly stated below. You are also to select these questions from the "Spring 2010" questions. This means that each week you are send me six 150 answers to which ever questions you select to answer. If you need me to make these instructions even simpler, please let me know. **

Week One (March 4 - 7) - **Introduction** (select any three short answer questions) - **The Legislature: Historical Background**. (select any three short answer questions) //Written work must be sent to me by midnight March 7.//

Week Two (March 8 - 14) - **The Legislature - Constitutional Design**. (This week I want you only to answer all four questions from this section) //Written work must be sent to me by midnight March 14.//

Week Three (March 15 - 21) - **The Legislature - Evolution and Organization**. (select any three short answer questions) - **The Legislature - Individual Members and the Flow of Interests in the Legislature**. (select any three short answer questions) //Written work must be sent to me by midnight March 21. Note: Since these were posted late, you can turn these in March 28th.//

Week Four (March 22 - 28) - **The Executive - Definition and Historical Background**. (select any three short answer questions) - **The Executive - Constitutional Design**. (select any three short answer questions) //Online Student's Written Work must be sent to me by midnight// March 28//.//

Week Five (March 29 - April 4) - The Executive - Institutional Evolution. (Answer all four questions) - The Executive: Contemporary Issues. (You can ignore this section) //Written work must be sent to me by midnight April 4.//

Week Six (April 5 - April 11) - The Judiciary - Definition and Historical Background. (select any three short answer questions) - The Judiciary - Constitutional Design. (select any three short answer questions) //Written work must be sent to me by midnight April 11.//

Week Seven (April 12 - April 18) - The Judiciary - Judicial Review and the Current Supreme Court. (select any three short answer questions) - The Judiciary - Contemporary Issues. (You only have to answer one 500 word question) //Written work must be sent to me by midnight April 18.//

Week Eight (April 19 - April 25) - Issue Networks and Public Policy (one question is asked, answer it) //Written work must be sent to me by midnight April 25.//

//Both papers are due midnight April 29.//