Government 320: Public Opinion and Public Choice

Spring 2006
Tuesday, Thursday 2:55-4:10 (MG 165)
Professor: Walter R. Mebane, Jr.
Office: 217 White Hall (255-3868); email wrm1@cornell.edu
Office hours: Monday 3-5, Tuesday 4:30-5:30 or other times by appointment.
Course web page: http://macht.arts.cornell.edu/wrm1/gov320.html

Assignment Due Dates
due date	description	weight
March 16	midterm exam	25%
April 18	final paper proposal	5%
May 15	final paper	35%
May 17 (7-9:30pm)	final exam	35%

Reading Availability

The following books have been ordered through the campus store. Almost all the books are to be read in their entirety, or otherwise heavily used, so you probably want to buy them if you can. But the books should also (soon) be on reserve at Uris library.

Althaus, Scott L. 2003. Collective Preferences in Democratic Politics. Cambridge.

Aldrich, John H. 1995. Why Parties? Chicago.

Cox, Gary. 1996. Making Votes Count: Strategic Coordination in the World's Electoral System. Cambridge UP.

Craven, John. 1992. Social Choice: A Framework for Collective Decisions and Individual Judgements. Cambridge UP.

Gumbel, Andrew. 2005. Steal This Vote. Nation Books.

Monmonier, Mark. 2001. Bushmanders and Bullwinkles. Chicago.

Riker, William H. 1986. The Art of Political Manipulation. Yale UP.

Class schedule

Items with a bullet ($\bullet$) are required. Others are recommended.

1. Political Manipulation (Jan 26-Feb 21)
   • Riker. Art.

   • Craven. Social Choice. Chapters 1-3, 5.

   • Hinich, Melvin J., and Michael C. Munger. 1997. Analytical Politics. Cambridge UP. Chapters 1-3.

   Mackie, Gerry. 2003. Democracy Defended. Cambridge UP.

   Ordeshook, Peter C., and Thomas Schwartz. 1987. ``Agendas and the Control of Political Outcomes.'' American Political Science Review 81: 179-199.

   Riker, William H. 1982. Liberalism Against Populism: A Confrontation Between the Theory of Democracy and the Theory of Social Choice. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland.

2. Parties, Strategic Voting and Party Systems (Feb 23-Mar 14)
   • Aldrich, John. 1995 Why Parties? Chicago. Chapters 1-2, 6.

   • Cox. Making Votes Count. Chapters 1-7.

   Snyder, James M., Jr., and Michael M. Ting. 2002. ``An Informational Rationale for Political Parties,'' American Journal of Political Science 46 (Jan.): 90-110.

3. Midterm Exam (Mar 16)

4. Gerrymanders (Mar 28-Apr 6)
   • Monmonier. Bushmanders.

   • Cox, Gary W., and Jonathan N. Katz. 1999. ``The Reapportionment Revolution and Bias in U.S. Congressional Elections,'' American Journal of Political Science 43: 812-841.

   • Grofman, Bernard, and Chandler Davidson. 1994. ``The Effect of Municipal Election Structure on Black Representation in Eight Southern States,'' in Davidson and Grofman, Quiet Revolution in the South, chapter 10.

   Balinski, Michel L., and H. Peyton Young. 2001. Fair Representation: Meeting the Ideal of One Man, One Vote, 2d ed. Brookings.

   Butler, David, and Bruce Cain. 1992. Congressional Redistricting: Comparative and Theoretical Perspectives. Macmillan.

   Cox, Gary W., and Jonathan N. Katz. 2002. Elbridge Gerry's Salamander: The Electoral consequences of the Reapportionment Revolution. Cambridge.

   Davidson, Chandler, and Bernard Grofman, eds. 1994. Quiet Revolution in the South: The Impact of the Voting Rights Act, 1965-1990. Princeton.

   Cameron, Charles, David Epstein, and O'Halloran, Sharyn. 1996. ``Do Majority-Minority Districts Maximize Substantive Black Representation in Congress?'' American Political Science Review 90:794-812.

   Lublin, David. 1997. The Paradox of Representation: Racial Gerrymandering and Minority Interests in Congress. Princeton.

   Rehfield, Andrew. 2005. The Concept of Constituency: Political Representation, Democratic Legitimacy, and Institutional Design. Cambridge.

5. Election Frauds (Apr 11-25)
   • Gumbel. Steal.

   • House Judiciary Committee Democratic Staff. 2005. Preserving Democracy: What Went Wrong in Ohio.
     http://www.house.gov/judiciary_democrats/ohiostatusrept1505.pdf

   • Democratic National Committee. 2005. Democracy At Risk: The 2004 Election in Ohio. Section II. http://www.democrats.org/a/2005/06/democracy_at_ri.php or
     http://macht.arts.cornell.edu/wrm1/Ohio2004/OhioReportCover2Cover.pdf

   • How to Have Fun With Elections; A Primer for Screwing Democrats.
     http://www.democraticunderground.com thread 203x398460

   • Ten Good Reasons to Believe that the 2004 Presidential Election Was Stolen
     http://www.democraticunderground.com thread 132x2052179

   Plausible deniability & Election eTheft
   http://www.democraticunderground.com thread 203x397259

   How Can We Verify What Happened in Cleveland on Election Day 2004?
   http://www.democraticunderground.com thread 203x405858

   `Caterpillar Ballot' cost Kerry more than 1000 Cuyahoga votes
   http://www.democraticunderground.com thread 172x5139

   Was Kerry Cheated out of Almost 100,000 Votes in Cleveland Alone?
   http://www.democraticunderground.com thread 104x4998616

   The Ohio Election Fraud Blog and its Website, ``Ohio Election 2004''
   http://www.democraticunderground.com thread 203x391058

6. The Clueless Public? (Apr 27-May 4)
   • Althaus. Collective Preferences. Chapters 1-4, 8.

   Alvarez, R. Michael, and John Brehm. 2002. Hard Choices, Easy Answers. Princeton.

   Hutchings, Vincent L. 2003. Public Opinion and Democratic Accountability. Princeton.

   Zaller, John R. 1992. The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion. Cambridge UP.

   Zaller, John, and Stanley Feldman. 1992. ``A Simple Theory of the Survey Response: Answering Questions versus Revealing Preferences,'' American Journal of Political Science 36 (Aug.): 579-616.