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Government Kevin Jefferies Alvin Community College kjefferies@alvincollege.edu 281-756-3736

Sept. 12-Dec. 12 Monday: 2 - 3:30pm


 * Course Description**: This class will introduce you to the basic principles of government in the United States. It will closely follow the curriculum established by the Texas Board of Education and outlined in the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for social studies. Look under "Calendar" for more specific information about content.


 * Readings:** All the readings for this class will be made available on this website. You may either read it all online or print it out. There is no required textbook.

You may wish to use a traditional textbook. If so, 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.

I also maintain a blog -- [|http://theweakerparty.blogspot.com] -- where I post items, usually on a daily basis, that pertain to the subject matter of the class. Every class - for lecture students - 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.

Regarding Wikipedia: You will also 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, but the site has become increasingly reliable, especially with relatively non-controversial or historical 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, this way you can follow controversies about how different topics ought to be covered.

Regardless, since this is an introductory class and we will not be doing high level in-depth research, the pages suit our purposes well. Here are some links that touch on controversies associated with Wikipedia: - [|Study: Wikipedia as accurate as Britannica]. - [|Reliability of Wikipedia], from Wikipedia itself. - Carleton College: [|Using Wikipedia].


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


 * Assignments**: Each week you will be assigned a set of readings and will be expected to turn in, at the very least, a 250 word answer to a question I pose to you. The readings will be available online. When you come in class I also want you to be prepared to answer a small handful of questions (of varying types) on the material. Each of these will be worth 30% of your final grade. There will also be a cumulative final that will be worth 40% of your final grade.

//Here's how it all breaks down://

Weekly written assignments (30% of your final grade): Every week you will be presented with a topic based on that week's readings. I want you to address the question in at least 250 words. I expect it to be your own work and I want it to be grammatically solid and coherent. This is intended to test your ability to think rationally and explain your reasoning to someone else. Be prepared to discuss your work with others in the class.

Weekly objective quizzes (30% of your final grade): We will also want you to begin each class with a brief objective test on the material covered the previous week. This is to ensure that you actually read the material. The questions will be presented in a variety of formats.

Cumulative Final (40% of your final grade): On the last day of class we will have a cumulative final


 * Calendar and Links to Readings**

September 12 - Week One: Background The first week will come to terms with why the state of Texas wants you to take a course in government to begin with. What's the point? The Founders assumed that an educated electorate was necessary for a fully functioning democratic republic. But why? And once is is established that people ought to educated, what ought the nature of that education be? Hopefully after looking through this week's readings we will have general understanding of the why's and what's of this class.

These links take you to a range of readings that I want you to look through to get comfortable with this topic.

Readings: - Thomas Jefferson: [|A Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge] (Read the Preamble) - [|Texas Declaration of Independence](notice the fourth grievance). - [|Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills] (read the subchapters on elementary and middle school in order to answer the written assignment) - [|Pew Research Center - Political Knowledge Quiz] (I'd like you to take the quiz - for fun - to see how much you get right and wrong) - [|Texas State Board of Education] (these are the people who are responsible for the TEKS) -

Written Assignment. Now that you are taking a high school class, it is assumed that you have covered some of this material before in previous classes, piched at a somewhat lower level.

September 19 Week Two: Political Ideas and Classic Form of Government - The Role of Government - Political Ideas -- natural law -- natural rights -- divine right of kings -- social contract theory - Classic forms of government -- absolute monarchy -- authoritarianism -- classical republic -- despotism -- feudalism -- liberal democracy -- totalitarianism. - Relevant Authors -- Thomas Hobbes -- John Locke -- Charles De Montesquieu

September 26 Week Three: Who were the Founders? - Virginia Company - Plymouth Company - Signers of the Declaration of Independence - Signers of the Constitution - The Authors of the Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers

October 3 Week Four: The Declaration of Independence

October 10 Week Five: Predecessors to the United States and Texas Constitutions - Magna Carta - Petition of Right - British Bill of Rights - Albany Plan - Articles of Confederation - Northwest Ordinance

October 17 Week Six: Principles within the Constitution - Principles -- republicanism -- separated powers -- checks and baances -- federalism -- popular sovereignty -- individual rights

October 24 Week Seven: The Design of the Constitution and the Debate over Ratification - Design - Support and Opposition

October 31 Week Eight: Civil Liberties and Civil Rights

November 7 Week Nine: Elections and Political Parties

November 14 Week Ten: Citizenship

November 21 Week Eleven: Culture

November 28 Week Twelve: Economics

December 5 Week Thirteen: Review

December 12: Week Fourteen: Cumulative Final