Download My Fall 2022 Syllabus

Course Description

While our attention is most often drawn to the political happenings in Washington, D.C., a great deal of the policymaking that impacts our daily lives occurs in statehouses across the 50 states. Indeed, state governments legislate on issues including welfare, healthcare, social policies, education, infrastructure, and many others. Understanding how state institutions and behavior shape policy outcomes is substantively interesting, but the states also provide political scientists with leverage over larger questions, including power, representation, and responsiveness. They do so by providing a comparative context for testing how variation in institutions and political behavior relate to these broader concepts. This course will address both how the states themselves are substantively interesting, as well as how they are used to understand broader issues in political science.

Course Schedule

Week 1: Introduction

• August 23: Introduction to the Class and Each Other (Slides)
  • No Reading
• August 25: Sustainable Governance (Slides)
  • Simon Chapter 1
• August 27: Last Day of Add/Drop

Week 2: Federalism

• August 30: Federalism (Slides)
  • Simon Chapter 2
• September 1: Federalism Today
  • Konisky, David M. and Paul Nolette. 2022. “The State of American Federalism 2021-2022: Federal Courts, State Legislatures, and the Conservative Turn in the Law.” Publius: The Journal of Federalism 52(3): 353-381.
  • Federalism Questions Due by Class

Week 3: Trust, Social Capital, and Political Culture

• September 6: Concepts and Sustainability (Slides)
  • Simon Chapter 3
• September 8: Application
  • Pew Research Center. “Public Trust in Government: 1958-2022.”
  • Sawhill Isabel V. 2020. Social Capital: Why We Need It and How We Can Create More of It. Brookings Institution.
  • Policy Topic Due
  • Sustainability Questions Due by Class

Week 4: APSA

• Sept 13: Trust and Social Capital Catch Up
  • Carry over from September 8
• September 15: APSA
  • No in-person class
  • Work on comparative policy research

Week 5: Key Actors and Constitutions

• September 20: Key Actors and Constitutions (Slides)
  • Simon Chapter 4 and Chapter 5
• September 22: Stigma Research Conference
  • No in-person class
  • Actors and Constitutions Questions Due by Class

Week 6: Legislatures

• September 27: Comparing Legislatures (Slides)
  • Simon Chapter 6
• September 29: Legislative Challenges (Slides)
  • FiveThirtyEight. 2022. “What Redistricting Looks Like in Every State.”
  • Thomson-DeVeaux, Amelia and Nathaniel Rakich. 2022. “What It Would Mean if the Supreme Court Embraces an Extreme Legal Theory.” FiveThirtyEight. July 7.
  • Herenstein, Ethan and Thomas Wolf. 2022. “The Independent State Legislature Theory Explained.” The Brennan Center for Justice. June 6.
  • Legislatures Questions Due by Class

Week 7: Executives

• October 4: Direct Democracy (Slides)
  • Listen to this When the People Decide Podcast and complete the questions on Canvas before Thursday’s class.
• October 6: Comparing Governors (Slides)
  • Simon Chapter 7

Week 8: Courts

• October 11: Courts of Last Resort (Slides)
  • Simon Chapter 8
  • Comparative Policy Paper Due
• October 13: Courts Debate
  • Bonneau, Chris. 2018. The Case for Judicial Elections. The Federalist Society.
  • Lambda Legal. “The Problem with Judicial Elections.”
  • Shephard, Joanna and Michael S. Kang. “Partisan Justice: How Campaign Money Politicizes Judicial Decisionmaking in Election Cases.” American Constitution Society.

Week 9: Public Administration

• October 18: Comparing Administration (Slides)
  • Simon Chapter 9
• October 20: Contemporary Challenges (Slides)
  • National Academy of Public Administration. Read about each of the “Grand Challenges in Public Administration.”
  • Administration Questions Due by Class

Week 10: Budgeting

• October 25: The Budget Task (Slides)
  • Simon Chapter 10
• October 27: The California Budget Challenge
  • We will complete in class

Week 11: Entitlements

• November 1: Entitlements (Slides)
  • Simon Chapter 11
  • Kaiser Family Foundation. 2022. “Status of State Medicaid Expansion Decisions: Interactive Map.” July 21.
• November 3: Traditional and Visible Services (Slides)
  • Simon Chapter 12
  • Entitlements Questions Due by Class

Week 12: Other Services

• November 8: Election Day
  • No class – Go Vote!
• November 10: Mass Incarceration (Slides)
  • Sawyer, Wendy and Peter Wagner. 2022. “Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie.” Prison Policy Initiative. March 14.

Week 13: Pulling It All Together

• November 15: Marijuana Politics (Slides)
  • Zhang, Mona and Paul Demko. 2022. “Where Cannabis Legalization Efforts Stand Across the Country.” Politico. August 3.
• November 17: Marijuana Politics
  • Cannabis Questions Due by Class

Week 14: Thanksgiving

• November 22 and 24: No Class

Week 15: Choose Your Own Adventure

• November 29: Women’s Health (Slides)
  
  • Kaiser Family Foundation. State Profiles for Women’s Health.
  • Institute for Women’s Policy Research. Status of Women in the States.
• December 1: Climate Change
  
  • States at Risk. Pennsylvania.
  • Center for Climate and Energy Solutions. State Climate Policy Maps.
  • McCarthy, Elizabeth. 2022. “Pennsylvania Reaches the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative Starting Line.” Utility Dive. April 26.

Week 16: Legislative Hearings

• December 6: Hearing Day 1
  • Read Smith Chapter 9 (see Canvas) to prepare
  • See Canvas for the schedule
• December 8: Hearing Day 2
  • Read Smith Chapter 9 (see Canvas) to prepare

Week 17:  Finals Week

• December 13: Policy Brief due by 5pm via Canvas dropbox