APLS 201b web American Nataional Government

1. To give you an opportunity to learn how the American political system actually works, as opposed to how you are often told it should work. To do this, there are many facts you should know, but they are not worth knowing unless you understand the forces that tie them together in a meaningful way. For example, understanding how a bill becomes law is a series of facts that helps us understand why the status quo is so hard to change, and that in turn helps us understand why we are so cynical about politics and politicians. Yet at the same time Congress plays other less obvious roles that explain why we elect and reelect most members.

2. To understand your role in our political system. You really have no choice in this matter because you have a role whether you like it or not. Even if you refuse to pay taxes you will play a role—in the courts and in the federal prison system. You might as well know what your role is.

3. To understand the possibilities and limits on your own personal political activity. You can make a difference, although most of you would rather exercise your right to be a passive citizen. But to make any difference at all you must know the rules of the game. You must know how most things do get done in American politics.

4. To understand the relationship between the current issues of public debate and the biases that are built into our political system and how these biases could prove fatal to up all. Many issues that seem new and hot and new to you (tax reform? ethics in government? military spending? economic planning? balancing the budget? reducing the size of government? health care reform? welfare reform? abortion? prayer in schools? Global warming, energy, and the environment? Involvement in other nations?) are really old issues that arise in new forms because our political system is unable to solve those issues in any permanent way. In fact, that is part of the genius of the design of the system. It was made to allow evolving answers to difficult questions, answers to allow those on the losing side today to hope they can win tomorrow. On the other hand, our system poses a problem from the tendency to change things so slowly. Suppose fundamental change is needed in an area, change so important that it is a matter of survival, change that needs to happen quickly before it is too late, change that may not be obvious to everyone until it is too late. Can our system deal with this kind of situation? Hopefully you will fully understand this question by the end of the course.

5. To learn the fundamental values and ideas in the important documents that lay the foundation for our political system: The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Federalist Papers. One of the most interesting aspects of these famous documents is how much conflict and ambiguity are built into them. They are also filled with paradoxes. They do not lay out clear guidelines that tell us how to answer the political questions that face us today. Much political conflict is over how to apply and prioritize conflicting principles built into the Constitution. Why are these conflicting and ambiguous principles important? As citizen leaders of tomorrow, your job will be to interpret and apply the fragile principles of democracy for the next generation. My generation won't be around to do it. In a single generation, democracy can be lost. That's a heavy responsibility. In a mere 40 years, virtually all the teachers and leaders of the nation will be gone. Those who are the young adults and children of today will be in charge. Think about it.

6. To learn why politics is so much fun to learn about, think about, talk about, and even write about. Every issue will have at least two answers, usually more. It's a lot less precise than mathematics, and that's what makes it frustrating and fun (two sides of the same coin). In fact, the ability to make political issues seem all very clear and simple is a powerful political weapon that people who are skilled at the art of political communication are always using on you. Hopefully, after this course, they'll have a more difficult audience. Hopefully you will also be interested enough to keep up with public events by looking at a newspaper every day as well -- that should be a habit of all educated people!

7. To improve your own communication skills. Comprehending, writing, and using the Web. Improved communication should be a goal of every college course. Communication may be the most important quality of an educated person. It is certainly a requirement for a viable democracy, whether it be a republic or a popular democracy. It is no accident that typewriters were not allowed to be owned by private citizens in Rumania or Albania before their rulers were overthrown. Communist leaders in China try to limit access to the internet. Your performance on the assignments you complete will tell us how well you are achieving most of these communications objectives. When we see your evaluations of this course, we'll know how good a job we did in communicating the excitement of politics to you.

How Your Grades Will be Determined:

1. Exams (33%). Many on-line distance education (called "ode") courses require that students come to the campus or to some meeting point to take regular exams. We are building this course so that you can do almost the entire course in your own home or wherever you have access to a computer and an internet connection. You will have two tests, a midterm and a final. Both will be take-home essay exams. On the dates announced in the course schedule, I will post an essay test that you will have a set period of time to complete. Your grade will depend upon how well the essay used the factual information in the assigned reading material to provide a logical, well organized, and well written answer. Yes, grammar will count--even on the internet in this case. In many ways this is far more realistic than so-called "objective" testing. In the real world of politics, leaders and citizens must produce reasoned arguments and strategies in order to further their causes. And no one says they have to go without factual resources or answer some true/false question to succeed in real-life politics! You must do the essay entirely on your own! All plagiarism rules apply – and believe me, I can tell when you violate these rules.

2. Reading Mastery Questions on the text using Blackboard tests (33%). Each chapter in the text will have about 30 questions for you to answer using Blackboard tests. Your grade will be the percentage of these questions you get correct at the end of the semester. You may want to make a copy of the questions and have them in hand as you look for answers in the text. Hopefully, if you read the chapter before you try the test, as you should do, you may not even have to look them up. Alternatively you can print a copy of the text and then answer the questions on-line with the text in hand. Whatever works for you is ok. You are to do this on your own, not with help from anyone else except me! Everyone will have a slightly different set of questions in random order chosen by Blackboard from a large pool of questions for each chapter. I am allowing each of you to try taking each Reading Mastery Test THREE times (with slightly different questions using a random draw from a test pool) and then allow you to count the highest grade.

3. Class discussions, short essays, and other written assignments (33%). For every chapter you will have at least two things to do here. First you will have a discussion question that you will comment on using the Blackboard discussion feature. You will also have one or two short essays or internet assignments to complete and post as a discussion using Blackboard. A lot of emphasis will be on finding current events in newspapers (see the links in the frame to the left) that illustrate things we are studying. To get full credit, you have to post your answers and/or comments on time. Your grade is the percentage of satisfactory responses you make on-time. Marginal responses will only be given half credit. Everyone gets TWO free drops on this part of the course. So save those for emergencies. Just saying I agree with what someone else said is not a satisfactory response!

All Reading Mastery Question answers and Web assignments and initial replies to the discussion questions are due on midnight of the posted dates. This keeps all students together so no one falls behind.

To protect yourself from electronic glitches and crashes, save electronic and hard copies of all your work. Then if all else fails, you can bring them to me and I can then give you the credit you so richly deserve for your hard work!

Contact me at any time to find out how you are doing. You can email me or give me a call, or better yet, visit me in my office so that we can actually look at each other.

Grading Scale:

I will use a 10 point grading scale that works as follows: A: 90-100; B+: 85-89; B: 80-84; C+: 75-79; C: 70-74; D+: 65-69; D: 60-64; and F: less than 60.

Plagiarism:

Rules regarding PLAGIARISM apply to all written work. Depending on the nature of the work and the precise offense, the penalty for plagiarism may be as light as a failing grade for the work or as heavy as an F for the course. If you're not sure what this means, e-mail me! The one exception to required notation in this class is that if the material you write is obviously based on what is in the text, you don't need to reference it. However, if you do quote directly from the text or from something on the Internet, you must use quotation marks and tell me the chapter you got it from, for example (text, chapter 5). Other than this, you must cite sources (author, title, where you found it by the url).

Honor Code:

The USCA Honor code (On my honor as a USCA student, I have neither given nor received any unauthorized help on this work) is in effect for this course on all written assignments and exam. Anyone who uses the work of others on any of the take-home exams or homework assignments will be in violation of the honor code, and I will not only give you a zero on the exam or homework, but I will also send a letter detailing your violation to the Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs that will become part of your permanent record. I am really really serious about this because this course only works if students do ALL their own work.

Disability Policy:

If you have a physical, psychological, and/or learning disability which might affect your performance in this class, please contact the Office of Disability Services, 126A B&E, (803) 641-3609, as soon as possible. The Disability Services Office will determine appropriate accommodations based on medical documentation.

Junior Writing Portfolio Requirement:

Please remember that the written work that you produce in this class can be included in your rising junior writing portfolio. For further information on the portfolio requirement, please consult your USCA Undergraduate and Graduate Studies Bulletin or visit Dr. Lynne Rhodes (lynner@aiken.sc.edu), Director of Writing Assessment, or Karl Fornes (karlf@aiken.sc.edu), Director of the Writing Room.

Cell Phone Policy: Not relevant in an on-line course