POLI 105
Web-Based
American National Government
Dr. L. T. Farley
Summer 2008
Note: This course satisfies the General Education requirement for Government/Economics.
Visit Dr. Farley's homepage at http://www.lhup.edu/lfarley/home.htm
Upon completion of the course students will be able to:
1. Demonstrate an understanding of the major concepts needed to describe and explain the role and function of American governments.
2. Discuss the role of democracy as the defining concept of our era.
3. Trace the problems inherent in the measurement of the will of the people through elections.
4. Identify the functions of the principal institutions of American government..
Students will:
Complete reading assignments from a range of sources.
Participate in discussions and group activities.
Write papers based upon original research.
Take a quiz, a mid-term and a final exam.
This is an online course--you do not sit in a classroom and you need never come to Lock Haven. There are no scheduled "class times."
Several weeks before the course begins you will be given access to the eCollege online courseware. You will receive the access instructions and the access codes via e-mail sent to your official Lock Haven University e-mail account--make sure that you are able to get into this e-mail account and that you have cleaned-out your Inbox. You must log-in to the courseware to participate in the course.
There will be threaded discussions where you can interact with your fellow students. All written assignments will be submitted to Professor Farley as e-mail attachments and in the format of Microsoft Word. Exams will also be conducted online.
It is important that you have (1) acquired the textbook prior to the start of the course and (2) that you have successfully logged-in to the courseware (and worked-out any technical bugs) prior to the start of the course.
Note: This course satisfies the General Education requirement for Government/Economics.
COURSE MATERIALS
Required Reading:
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David B. Magleby, David M. O'Brien, Paul C. Light, James Mac Gregor Burns, Jack W. Peltason, Thomas E. Cronin, Government by the People-Basic Version 21st Edition ISBN: 0-13-192158-4 -- Order from LHU Bookstore (they will mail) or from online vendors. |
| or | |
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Burns, Peltason, et. al. Government by the People--Basic Version 20th Edition (although the 19th Edition is acceptable) Order from online vendors. |
Recommended Readings:
Ehrlichman, J. The China Card
Hoffer, E. The Ordeal of Change
Hofstadter, R. The American Political Tradition
White, T. The Making of the President 1960
Netiquette
The same rules apply online as they do in person. Be respectful of other students. Foul discourse will not be tolerated. Please take a moment and read the following link concerning "netiquette".
http://www.albion.com/netiquette/
Materials used in association with this course may be subject to copyright protection.
Here is a link to the LHU Library website: http://www.lhup.edu/library/
May 19 Introduction to Course
Required Readings: Burns, Part 1 begin; examine the "Politics" and "Political Legitimacy" PP Lectures
May 21 Required Readings: Burns, Part 1 continue; Basic Concepts 1 start; First Threaded Discussion opens
May 23 Required Readings: Basic Concepts 1 continue; examine the "Federal Unitary" and the "Absolute Constitutional" PP Lectures
May 26 Start Court House Research Project
Required Readings: Burns, Part 1 finish; Second Threaded Discussion opens
May 28 Required Readings: Basic Concepts 2 start; QUIZ
May 30 Required Readings: Basic Concepts 2 finish; Burns, Part 2 begin; Start Vote Smart Project; examine the "Head of State - Head of Government" and the "Democracy" PP Lectures
June 2 Review for Mid-Term Exam
Required Readings: Burns, Part 2 finish
June 4 Mid-Term Exam
Required Readings: Burns, Part 3 begin; Third Threaded Discussion opens; examine the "Elections" and the "Gerrymander" PP Lectures
June 9 Projects Work Week
June 11
Required Readings: Burns, Part 3 finish; Fourth Threaded Discussion opens
June 13 ConCon Preparatory
Required Readings: Burns, Part 4 start
June 16 - 17 ConCon
Required Readings: Burns, Part 4 finish; ConCon agenda and other ConCon materials
Courthouse and Vote-Smart Projects due no later than June 19
June 18 - 20 Final Exam
Welcome to the Court House Project where you will do a research project using primary sources--original public documents available to you in your local county courthouse. Your task is to write a history of a property that you have chosen. You will start your research with the deed of title for the current owners and will work back in time for as far as the records go. If you are lucky you might find a chain of deed records dating back to the 1800s. Then, when you write your history of the property you will start with the oldest information and work up to the present.
Here's what you do:
1. Choose a piece of property to research. It could be a house or a commercial building--just as long as there is a structure on it. I would recommend that you choose a house. It could be the interesting house down the street or even the house where you live now.
2. Get the street address of the property.
3. Pay a visit to your local county courthouse--not city hall or the municipal building--it must be the county government's office building which is usually located in a building called the County Courthouse.
4. Go the county Tax Assessor's office and (a) introduce yourself and tell them about this assignment and (b) find out the current owner of the property you have chosen to research and the number and page of the Deed Book that has the record of the title of ownership of the current owner. You may need to consult one of the Tax Assessor's maps to find the name of the current owner and then, with this name, the office staff will be able to help you to find the Deed Book number and page number. Write down the Deed Book number and the page number and any other information about the current owner--like how much they paid for the property, when they purchased it, etc.
5. Walk down the hall to the Register and Recorder's office and (a) introduce yourself and (b) ask to see the deed books. Show a staff member the deed book number and the page number that you are looking for. The staff member will show you how to access the deed books and from then you will be largely on your own.
6. Read the deed in the deed book for the current owner and write down pertinent information from the deed.
7. Look in the deed for the "being" clause--this is very important. In every deed there is a clause the starts out with the words "That being the . . ." The "being" clause will refer you to the previous sale of the property and will tell you the deed book and page number you will need to take your research to the deed of the previous owner--the person(s) who sold the property to the current owner. Thus, each deed contains a reference to the previous deed. In this fashion you can trace the story of the property back in time.
8. As you read the deeds write down pertinent information -- who, when, how much, etc. Be sure to copy the down the legal description of the property--you need only do this once since it rarely changes. You will find that the most common purchase price for a property is $1.00--that's right, one dollar. When a family member wants to give a property to a family member they are required to sell the property--no contract is valid unless there is "consideration." So the payment of the one dollar makes the transfer of ownership legally valid.
9. Look for the words "testate" and "intestate." If someone dies who has a written a will the person is said to have died "testate." When this happens you will see in the deed a reference to either a Probate Court or an Orphan's Court record--a book and page number in the Probate or Orphan's Court record books. You must go to that record and record what you learn about the will. Wills are a wonderful source of information about the life and times of people. If someone dies without having written a will the person is said to have died "intestate." When this happens the Probate Court or the Orphan's Court applies state law to determine who receives the person's property.
10. Keep going back in time from deed to deed until the records run out. When you get back to the 1800s the deeds will have been handwritten by clerks so you will have to work hard to read their writing. Remember: the key is to find the "being" clause that contains the reference to the previous deed. Eventually, the the records will run out--either because your county had been carved out of another county or because the records are being kept in the state capital. You may have chosen a property with a nice, clean history where ownership passed smoothly from buyer to seller every time. Other properties may have very complicated histories and require lots of unraveling and detective work.
11. When you have researched the records as far as they will go then it is time to write up your history. Start with the legal description of the property and then tell its story from earliest times up to the present. Some properties with clean, simply histories may only require five pages. Other properties may require twenty-five pages to tell the story. If it is convenient you may wish to provide a current photograph of the property or a map showing its location.
Remember all those nasty negative campaign spots that appear on TV around election time? For many voters those annoying attack ads are their only source of information about the candidates.
Most voters are unaware that there is a huge amount of useful and relevant information available online about their elected officials. There is no longer any excuse to be an uninformed voter.
So I want you to learn how to use the information available online to assess and evaluate your member of Congress -- the member of the U.S. House of Representatives in the district where you are registered. (If you're not registered to vote, call your county courthouse and get registered. If you are underage or are not a citizen, pretend that you are registered to vote in a particular congressional district--use your zip code to learn which congressional district you are in.)
A powerful portal into the information that can be found online is Project Vote-Smart. I want you to get comfortable with Project Vote-Smart. It will be the principal source for the information you will need to do this assignment. It also provide links to other online sources that you will need to use.
So, first thing to do is to click on the link to Project Vote-Smart (PVS) below and, if you don't already know, use PVS to find the name of your member of the U.S. House of Representatives --your Congressman--for your district. Then come back to his page to learn more about the assignment itself.
Now, for the assignment. I want you to focus on four areas: Issue Positions (NPAT), Campaign Finances, Special Interest Groups, and Voting Record. There are links to each of these on the PVS page for your particular congressman. (PVS will have more information about some members of congress than for others. Some congressmen have refused to take the NPAT. If your congressman has refused to take the NPAT you should contact your congressman's office by e-mail to find out why.)
Issue Positions (NPAT): Run down the list of issue positions taken by your member of congress. Identify several positions with which you agree and several with which you do not agree. Discuss.
Campaign Finances: Check out where your member of congress gets his/her campaign money. Do you see any connections between the sources of campaign funding and the positions taken by your congressman (I use the expression "congressman" generically here--refering to both congressmen and congresswomen) on the NPAT? Discuss.
Special Interest Groups: Identify several Special Interest Groups with which you share a common perspective or interest. (For example, if you are a gun collector you might be interested in the ratings that the National Rifle Association gives to your congressman.) How do they rate your congressman? Discuss.
Identify several Special Interest Groups with whom you probably do not share a common perspective or point of view. How do they rate your congressman? Discuss.
Voting Record: Take a look at your congressman's voting record on issues that are relevant to your special interests. Discuss what you find.
Submit your paper to me by attaching it to an e-mail message sent to me.
Finally, remember that you will not vote for or against your congressman in the next election. Rather, you will have to choose between your congressman and the candidate of another party who is challenging your incumbent congressman.