GOVT 120



US Politics: Research Topics:

I. Constitution:

• Is the Constitution a Living Document? (Scalia/Breyer Debate)

• The Constitutionality of Health Care Reform (The Affordable Care act)

• The Obamacare Mandate

• Madison’s Theory of Faction (Hofstadter)

• Framers’ Theory of Constitutional Government (Hofstadter)

• Race, Class and Democracy: The Constitution and the Disenfranchised

• The History of Voting Rights

• Is the Constitution an Economic Document? (Beard/Brown Debate)

• Federalism: States’ rights debate (Elazar)

• The Courts and Redistricting

II. Political Institutions:

• Congress and the NSA: Wiretaps and the Constitution (Rosen)

• Congressional Polarization: Are we divided politically? (Sinclair)

• Declared and Undeclared Wars: Congress and the Decision to Invade Iraq

• Who is the “Decider?: Bush and the Unitary Theory of Executive Power (Ravagan)

• Presidential Power, Obama and the Drone War (Neustadt)

• Politics of the Intelligence Community

• The Politics of the Courts: Federalist 78 and Life Tenure for Judges (Hamilton)

• The Supreme Court and Social Policy: From Brown v. Board to Bush v. Gore to Citizens United

• Patriot Act: Necessary or Unnecessary? (Pearlstein/McCarthy Debate)

• Obama’s Campaigns: How did he win reelection?

• Gender and the Presideny: Why did Hillary Clinton Lose

• Obama’s Presidency

• Trump’s First Year

• Trump and Twitter: How Social Media is changing politics in the US

• Financial Crisis and Regulation

• The Clean Energy Debate

• Campaign Finance Laws

• Dodd-Frank bill (regulation of Wall Street)

• The politics of repealing Obamacare: Who opposes the law and why? (Skocpol)

• Lobbying and Congress: How is influence exercised?

• Politics of Polarization in Congress (Brownstein)

III. Political Participation:

• Who Votes, Who Doesn’t, and Why? (Johnson, Rosenstone and Hansen)

• Elections and Citizens United

• The Rise of Super PACs

• Social Movements and the Collection Action Problem

• Are Parties in Decline in the US? (Burnham)

• Is Civic Engagement (or “Social Capital”) in Decline in the US? (Putnam/Ladd)

• Same-Sex Marriage and the 2004, 2006, 2010, 2012 Elections (PS articles)

• Facebook and the 2008, 2012, 2016 Elections: Explaining Rising Youth Political Involvement

• The Politics of the Tea Party Movement

• The Politics of the Occupy Movement

• The socio-economic of the Trump Base

• “Big Data” and the 2016 Election

• Voter ID Laws

• The Politics of Trolling

• The Politics of Redistricting

• The History and Evolution of political parties

IV. American Political Culture:

• Equality and Inequality in US History: Multiple Traditions Theory (Smith)

• Women and Politics (Swers)

• Race and Politics (West, Reed)

• Race and the 2016 Election

• Gender and the 2016 Election

• Why is there no Socialism in the US? (Sombart/Foner Debate)

• Red v. Blue America: Are we divided culturally?

V. Power:

• Who Governs in the United States? (Dahl)

• The “Faces” of Political Power (Gaventa)

• The Phantom Public: Media, Propaganda and Public Opinion (Lippmann)

• Is the Media Liberal? (Goldberg, Alterman)

• The Politics of Cable News

• Russia and the 2016 Election

• The Politics of Katrina, Irene, Sandy (PS articles)

• Media Coverage of the Invasion of Iraq

• Financial Crisis: Wall Street versus Main Street

• Housing Bubble: Who was at fault?

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