APLS 458 South Carolina and State and Local Politics

Bob Botsch (bobb@usca.edu), C-7 HSS Building

 

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  Course Schedule and Assignments

   Resources

  1.Publications

  2. SC Government

  3. Governing Magazine

  4. The State

 

Tentative Schedule of Readings and Assignments
Spring 2012

Note: Under construction--I will be adding daily assignments a little ahead of time as we go through the semester

 

Text:  Magleby et al., State and Local Politics (called "text" in assingments listed below)

                        

Monday, Jan 9. Course Introduction and Overview--what do you know?

            Key Issues facing SC Legislative in 2012 -- The State (January 8, 2012) A-9   

 

Wednesday Jan 11. The Cultural Context of South Carolina Politics.

·        I have created a reading for this on-line for you. You should read it for today’s class  Here is the link for the reading:  Political Culture and South Carolina.

·        Writing Assignment: Thinking about the three cultures in their pure forms, in which of these three cultures would you place yourself and most of your friends. Explain why. Be prepared to share your thoughts with the rest of the class. 

      A look at regional self-identification among USCA Students based on the 2011 USCA Student Socialization Survey.

 

Monday Jan 16. M.L King Day—No Classes

 

 

   Wednesday, Jan 18. Federalism -- the intergovernmental context

·         Reading: text, Chapter 1. American Federalism

      Write a paragraph that begins with the following sentence for homework and be prepared to present it in class: "No one can understand state and local politics unless they understand the federal system in which state and local governments exist."

Also Wednesday Jan 18. State of the State address -- 7 pm on SCETV

·        Writing assignment: Pick one of the governor's proposals for the state next year and explain why you think it is a good or bad idea. This will be turned in and graded on as one of your daily writing assignments. This is due next Monday! Be prepared to share it with the class. Pay particular attention to issues involving federalism. 

·        Link to text of State of the State Address

 

Monday, Jan 23. Federalism -- the Health Care Reform Act and the Supreme Court as a case study of the politics of federalsimcontinued 

·         Read the CNN article in the upcoming Supreme Court case and write a paper which 1) lists and explains the  the four questions the Court will answer, and 2) gives your position on what you think the court should do on each question and why you think it should take that position

 

Wednesday, Jan 25. Overview of State and Local Politics: Who has the power?  

·         Reading: text, Chapter 2. State and Local Politics

        Discussion of the SC primary -- PowerPoint: Religion and the results  And Press Release

       Asignment: none--just read the chapter!

 

  Thursday Jan 26. EXTRA CREDIT OPPORTUNITY

   Thursday, January 26, 2012, 5:30pm-7:00pm

   USCA Campus Business and Education Building, Room 122  

    Guest Speaker: Curtis M. Loftis, Jr., SC Treasurer

    “Transparency and Accountability in State Government”

     This may or may not be useful to us, but hs is one of the independently Executive Branch officials who are independently elected in SC. His powers may be greatly curtailed if the BCB is abolished and he would then of course lose his vote that he currently has on the board. If possible, you might ask him about this as well as proposals to eliminate his position as an independently elected official and turn the office into an appointed one controlled by the governor. Write a summary of what he says this is relevant to our course for up to 5 points extra credit on the first test.

 

Monday, Jan 30. Power of Interest Groups in SC 

·         Powerpoint outline by Bob Botsch 

 

Wednesday, Feb 1. State Constitutions  

·         Reading: text, Chapter 3. State Constitutions. 

      Assignment. Answer the following question as a writing assignment that is due at the beginning of class. If you email it to me, please include it in the body of the email. Is having an initiative process to amend state constitutions like California a good idea or bad idea and why?

    

 

Monday, Feb 6. South Carolina's Many Constitutions

·         SC's many different constitutions by Bob Botsch

      

 

Wednesday, Feb 8. Looking at the SC Constitution in some detail  

·        Here are links to on-line copies of the Current SC Constitution and the United States Constitution. If you look at them you can see many similarities. For example, both have bills of rights (though in the S.C. Constitution, they are at the beginning rather than added as amendments – the Bill of Rights) that look very similar. However, the S.C. Constitution is more than twice as long as the U.S. Constitution, mainly because it has a lot of things about local government and some “deadwood,” i.e. things that are outdated and not enforced, in come cases because of federal court decisions that do not allow them to be enforce

Assignment: Look at the SC Constitution (link above) and the US Constitution (link above) and find one thing that is very different than in the US Constitution--do NOT use the general things I mentioned above. Focus on something very specific . Write this point up and bring it to class.

Monday, Feb 13. Parties and Elections  

·         Reading: text, Chapter 4.  

      Assignment: tba

 

Wednesday, Feb 15. Parties and Elections in SC

·         Powerpoint outline by Bob Botsch

Monday, Feb 20. State Legislatures 

·         Reading: text, Chapter 5.

       Office that you will do your term paper due today  Email it to me with name of office and the person!  

       Assignment: tba

 

Wednesday, Feb 22. The SC General Assembly 

·         Powerpoint outline by Bob Botsch

Monday, Feb 27. Review for Midterm Exam 

 

Wednesday, Feb 29. Midterm Exam--mixed format

March  5-9. Spring Break!!

 

Monday, Mar 12. State Governors 

·         Reading: text, Chapter 6.  

 

 

Wednesday, Mar 14. The SC Governor

·        Powerpoint Outline by Bob Botsch

Historical Battles between the governor and legislature--Scoppe editorial in The State

Increasing gubernatorial power and legislative oversight--ending the BCB and replacing it with an Administration Department--op-ed piece by Vincent Sheheen in The State

Monday, Mar 19.   Judges and Justice in the States

·         Reading: text, Chapter 7.  

 

 

Wednesday, Mar 21.  Court System in SC: from chaos to a unified system 

·         Powerpoint outline by Bob Botsch

 

Monday, Mar 26.  Local Governments and Metriopolitics 

·         Reading: text, Chapter 8.  

 

 

Wednesday, Mar 28. Local Government in SC 

·        Powerpoints for Counties, Municipalities and SPD's/schools.

 

Monday, Apr 2. No class--work on your research papers 

 

Wednesday, Apr 4. No class--work on your research papers

Monday, Apr 9. Making State and Local Policy 

·         Reading: text, Chapter 9.  

      Powerpoint on planning and SC

Research Papers Due -- late papers lose 10 points per calendar day late

 

Wednesday, Apr 11. Staffing and Financing State and Local Governments 

·         Reading: text, Chapter 10.  

 

 

Monday, Apr 16. Policy and Finance in SC--Part I 

·        Reading: Education in SC by Bob Botsch -- read this for homework

      Powerpoint on Human Resource Management in SC  

 

Wednesday, Apr 18. Policy and Finance in SC -- Part II

       Powerpoint on Local Government Finance in SC

      Powerpoint on Criminal Justice system in SC

Monday, Apr 23. Review for final Exam 

Wednesday, May 2, 2 pm.  Final Exam

 

 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

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