G53.2324: Campaigns and Elections

G53.2324: Campaigns and Elections

This is a draft syllabus. There will probably be some changes before the final syllabus is available.

Books to Buy

Professor Jonathan Nagler Spring, 2001
Office: 269 Mercer, Room 808 Phone: 992-9676

This course will examine the major theories of voting in U.S. elections, as well as the evidence for those theories. We will start with models of political socialization, then consider what could be considered its primary competitor: the standard spatial model of voting. We then consider the role of information in elections: how voters acquire it, how they process it, and how it influences them. We also consider the effects of the economy on elections: looking both at standard reward-punishment models voters could follow, as well as more modern political-economy variants considering the macro-economy more completely. We examine the roll of campaign spending. And we look at political participation and voter turnout.

This syllabus is intended as an outline of the course. It is subject to change depending upon how the class proceeds. It is your responsibility to attend class and keep abreast of changes.

Required Reading:

Alesina, Alberto, Nouriel Roubini Gerald D. Cohen. 1997. Political Cycles and the Macroeconomy. Cambridge: Massachussetts Institute of Technology Press, ISBN: 0262011611.

Alvarez, R. Michael. 1997. Information and Elections. Revised 1st edition ed. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, ISBN: 0472085751.

Campbell, Angus, Philip E. Converse, Warren E. Miller Donald E. Stokes. 1960. The American Voter. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press, ISBN: 0226092542.

Cox, Gary. 1997. Making Votes Count: Strategic Coordination in the World's Electoral System. Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 0521585279.

Hinich, Melvin J. and Michael C. Munger. 1997. Analytical Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN: 0521565677.

Nie, Norman H., Sidney Verba  John R. Petrocik. 1979. The Changing American Voter: Enlarged Edition. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Verba, Sidney, Kay Lehman Schlozman  Henry E. Brady. 1995. Voice and Equality: Civic Voluntarism in American Politics. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Wolfinger, Raymond E.  Steven J. Rosenstone. 1980. Who Votes? New Haven: Yale University Press.

Week I through III: Early (Psychological Attachment) Models of Voting

Week IV: A Retrospective Model of Party Identification

Week V : The Spatial Model



Week VI : Economic Voting

Week VII : More Economic Voting

Week VIII : Information

Week IX : More Information

Week X and XI: Participation

Week XII: Partisanship - Revised

Week XIII: Electoral Systems

Week XIV: Campaign Spending

File translated from TEX by TTH, version 2.60.
On 20 Nov 2000, 17:31.