Final Exam: Necessary Items

I thought I had made myself clear.

In order to take your final exam you will need an Exam Book (or two) and  your choice of a writing implement.  Exam Books may be purchased at the college bookstore.  I recommend that you purchase two of the larger sized books.

In no circumstance will you need to bring a Scantron.

For those of you in my POLSC 1 classes, do not forget your 3" x 5" card.

Questions?  E-mail me.

FYI: Final Exam Schedule

Final Exam Study Guide: LBCC POLSC 1

Final Exam Study Guide: LBCC POLSC 1

Final Exam Study Guide: Cerritos College POL 101

Follow the link for the Final Exam Study Guide: Cerritos College POL 201

POLSC 201-Cerritos

Please print out, read, and bring with you to class:

Public Opinion by Walter Lippmann

The Massless Media by William Powers

Language and Politics by George Orwell

Final Exam Schedule

Long Beach City College (Final Exam Schedule):

• Class #73689 (T/Th 10:30-11:45 AM) POLSC 1
• Paper Due: December 9, 2010
• Final Exam: Friday, December 17, 2010, 10:40-1:15 PM
• Class #70100 (Th 4:00-6:50 PM) POLSC 1
• Paper Due: December 9, 2010
• Final Exam, Thursday, December 16, 2010, 4:00-6:50 PM
• Class #72159 (T/Th 12:30-1:45 PM) POLSC 11
• Paper Due: December 9, 2010
• Final Exam: Friday, December 17, 2010, 1:20-3:50 PM

Cerritos College (Final Exam Schedule):

• Class #20592 (T/Th 8:00-9:30 AM) POL 101
• Paper Due: December 9, 2010
• Final Exam: Thursday, December 16, 2010, 8:00-10:00 AM
• Class #20989 (M/W 12:30-2:00 PM) POL 201
• Paper Due, December 8, 2010
• Final Exam: Wednesday, December 15, 2010, 12:00-2:00 PM

Isarithmic History of the Two Party Vote

Isarithimc history of the two-party vote by David B. Sparks.

Research Paper Prompt

Research Paper Prompt
Fall, 2010
Adjunct Instructor Frederick M. Hemker IV

Political science, as a social scientific discipline, uses facts to evaluate theories.  One theory, borrowed from David R. Mayhew’s Congress: The Electoral Connection, is that politicians are primarily self-interested seekers of re-election.  What this means is that that re-election seeking behavior is the most effective means of evaluating a politician’s past behavior and predicting their future behavior.  According to Mayhew, if you want to know why a politician votes the way she votes, takes the positions she takes, or makes the statements she makes, all you have to do is determine whether she thinks that doing so will help or harm her chances at re-election.

Your assignment is to do a case study, 10 to 15 pages in length, evaluating whether political behavior is in fact best explained by self-interested, vote-seeking behavior.  You may look at a single politician, multiple politicians, and/or single or multiple issues.

A case study is a kind of research project, so you are expected to use multiple sources.  Please cite your sources appropriately (I use the Chicago Manual of Style).  Plagiarism will result in an automatic failing grade.  Please see http://lib.lbcc.edu/handouts/writing.html for more information.

"Clarity, Simplicity, Brevity, and Humanity."

Please read "Writing English as a Second Language" by William Zinsser at AmericanScholar.org.

Zinsser writes,

So what is good English—the language we’re here today to wrestle with? It’s not as musical as Spanish, or Italian, or French, or as ornamental as Arabic, or as vibrant as some of your native languages. But I’m hopelessly in love with English because it’s plain and it’s strong. It has a huge vocabulary of words that have precise shades of meaning; there’s no subject, however technical or complex, that can’t be made clear to any reader in good English—if it’s used right. Unfortunately, there are many ways of using it wrong. Those are the damaging habits I want to warn you about today.

Political Theory, LBCC Fall 2010

Syllabus, Political Theory

Study Guide: Cerritos POL 101 (9-week)

Study Guide for Final Exam October 13, 2010

Cerritos, POL 201

GIBBONS v. OGDEN, 22 U.S. 1 (1824)

Syllabus Update: Cerritos POL 201 (2010)

Please follow this link to find the updated syllabus: Updated Syllabus POL 201

President Obama's Speech Extra-Credit

Please type your answers and bring them with you to class on Tuesday, September 7, 2010.

1. How long have we been at war?
2. Who announced the beginning of combat operations in Iraq?
3. What is President Obama announcing?
4. How many U.S. troops have been removed from Iraq?
5. What will be the mission of the U.S.’s transitional force?
6. Who is delivering a message on President Obama’s behalf to the Iraqi people?
7. What country did we invade because they harbored those who attacked us on 9/11?
8. What organization did that country harbor?
9. Who is the commander of that war?
10. After the wars, what is the U.S.’s main responsibility, especially with regard to our returning veterans?
11. How many members of the Fourth Stryker Brigade made the ultimate sacrifice?
12. How many soldiers in total?
13. What battles constitute President Obama’s “unbroken line of heroes”?

Syllabus, Fall 2010

Syllabus for POLSC 1, Fall 2010

Holiday

No class on Monday, July 5, 2010.

Week 2: Readings

For Week 2, please make sure you have read Chapters 3, 4, and 10 from Dye.

Also, make sure you read The Federalist Papers #1 and #51.  If we make good progress, then you'll also need to read The Federalist Papers #10, but don't worry about it until I let you know.

Syllabus: Summer, 2010

Please review: Syllabus, Summer 2010

Questions to Consider During Your Preparation for the Final Exam

1. What is my definition of a politician?
2. Can you describe the political history of California?
3. What do The Federalist Papers #1, #10, #51, #52, #62, and #70 say?
4. How does the U.S. Constitution describe the separate institutions of the Federal Government? What are their powers?  How are those powers divided among the branches?
5. How does direct democracy work in California?

Make sure that you read the very helpful summary notes at the end of each chapter of Dye's textbook.

Please bring two, three, or more (depending on how much you write and how large your handwriting is) Long Beach City College green-colored Examination Books. I would recommend that you purchase the 11" x 8.5" version, with 16 pages. You may write your essay in ink or pencil, whichever happens to be your preference.

Office Hours, April 20, 2010

I will not hold office hours on Tuesday, April 20, 2010. If you have any problems or questions, please write to me at fhemker@lbcc.edu.

Lippmann, Walter: Public Opinion, The World Outside and the Pictures in Our Heads

Please read Water Lippmann's Public Opinion: "The World Outside and the Pictures in Our Heads" (1921).

George Orwell: Language and Politics

Please read George Orwell's Language and Politics

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Mid-Term Exam Questions (UPDATED)

Please follow this link to access your mid-term exam: http://tinyurl.com/hemker2010.

Because so many people asked, in addition to all of the other formating requirements, your mid-term should be double spaced.

If you have questions, please e-mail me at fhemker@lbcc.edu

Next Week: Political Parties, Elections, and Interest Groups

For next week, please skip ahead in the syllabus and begin reading Dye's Chapter #7, "Political Parties: Organizing Politics" and Chapter #8, "Campaign and Elections: Deciding Who Governs".

Marbury v. Madison

Please read Chief Justice John Marshall's opinion in Marbury v. Madison (1803).

The decision can be tough sledding so Findlaw has a summary and explanation.

Another brief summary.

Senate Parliamentarian

Faye Fiore and Janet Hook of the L.A. Times have written a very interesting article about the Senate Parliamentarian.

Mid-Term Exam

You will be given your mid-term exam the week of March 29, 2010. It will be a take-home exam. You will turn it in to me the week of April 12, 2010 during the first five minutes of our first class meeting.

LBCC Academic Calendar 2009-2010

Readings (March 8-12, 2010)

1. The Federalist Papers #70

Readings, February 22-26, 2010

1. The Federalist Papers #52
2. The Federalist Papers #62

Office Hours:

I am available to see students from 2:00 until 4:00 PM on Tuesday afternoon. During those hours I will be in one of the following offices (adjuncts are not assigned permanent offices): 2322, 2323, or 2324.

If you need to see me at some other time, please send me an e-mail (fhemker@lbcc.edu) to make an appointment. I am not on campus on Monday or Wednesday.

Extra-Credit Opportunity: The State of the Union Address

On January 27, 2010, at approximately 6:00 PM PST, President Barack Obama will give his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress. By answering questions about the speech you can earn extra-credit. I will update this post with links to video and text transcriptions of the speech.

Follow this link for text transcriptions of previous State of the Union addresses.

UPDATE:

State of the Union 2010 (Courtesy CBS and Youtube.com)

Questions:

1. What is the one thing that has unified Democrats and Republicans (that they all hated)?
2. For how many Americans were unemployment benefits extended?
3. How much cheaper was COBRA health insurance?
4. How many tax cuts were passed?
5. Whom does President Obama mention as a group whose taxes were decreased?
6. How many people saw their income taxes increased?
7. How many people are working now who would otherwise be unemployed?
8. What is the name legislation that allowed this recovery?
9. What is the number one focus for President Obama in 2010?
10. How much money will President Obama give banks to make loans to small businesses?
11. What area of the economy is most ripe for innovation?
12. What kind of power plants does President Obama want to see built?
13. How much does President Obama want to increase America’s exports? How many jobs will this increase support?
14. What countries were the key partners in trade agreements that President Obama mentioned?
15. What’s the best anti-poverty program, according to President Obama?
16. What health problem is First Lady Michelle Obama tackling?
17. How much does the Congressional Budget Office estimate that President Obama’s health reforms will bring down the deficit?
18. When does President Obama’s spending freeze take effect? How long will it stay in effect?
19. Whose tax cuts will not be extended?
20. What does President Obama want Congress to publish on a single website before there is a vote?
21. Which issue tends to unify our country?
22. What is the false choice President Obama references?
23. When will our troops start coming home from Afghanistan?
24. How many Americans are working in Haiti to help them rebuild?

Readings (2)

For week three (January 25-29, 2010), please download, print, and read the following items:

1. The Federalist Papers #1
2. The Federalist Papers #10
3. The Federalist Papers #51
4. The Constitution of the United States (also in the textbook)

ISBN Numbers

A number of students have asked for the textbooks' ISBN numbers. Here they are:

Politics in America: ISBN 0136027180

California (Longman State Politics Series): ISBN 020567979X

Assigned Readings (1)

Please print out the following readings and bring them with you to class.

Declaration of Independence

An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution by Charles Beard

The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions: Address Before the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois by Abraham Lincoln

UPDATE:

Link to An Economic Interpretation... added. Link to Lincoln's Lyceum Address added.

Remember, please print these documents and bring them with you to class.

Textbooks

This class will use the following textbooks:

1. Dye, Thomas R. and Bartholomew H. Sparrow, Politics in America, 8th ed. (New York, New York: Pearson Education, Inc.), 2009.
2. Fiber-Ostrow, Pamela, Longman State Politics Series: California, 7th ed. (New York, New York: Longman), 2009.

Copies of these books may be found for purchase at the Viking bookstore, on Amazon.com, or for rent on site like Chegg.com (among other places). This list is not intended to be complete.

UPDATE: ISBN numbers added.

Introduction to American Government, Spring 2010

Students,

Welcome to the blog that we'll be using to keep in touch with you over the course of the coming semester. This will be the first time that I use a blog, so it will begin very minimally, but will develop as we move forward.

Thanks,

Adjunct Instructor Frederick Hemker