AMERICAN POLITICAL CULTURE SEMINAR
Political Science 469
Spring 1998

Dr. Susan Roberts

"The Declaration lends itself to that myth in ways the Articles or the Constitution could never do. They are messier enterprises, with the stamp of compromise upon them. To This the Articles add a note of failure and the Constitution adds a note of illegality. The convention that drew up our Constitution went far beyond its mandate; in effect, smuggled a ndw nation in upon the continent rather than bringing it forth by intellectual impregnation."
- Gary Wills, Inventing America, 1978, p., xvii

"Exceptionalism did constitute the predominant language of politics. It became a presumptive consensus, if not a consensus in fact, deriving its normative force both from its dominant position in political discourse and from its national ideology."
- Ross, The Origins of American Social Science, 1991, p. 29

"The genius of American democracy comes not from any special virtue of the American people but from the unprecedented opportunities of this continent and from a peculiar and unrepeatable combination of historical circumstances. These circumstances have given our institutions their character and their virtues. . . They explain our lack of interest in political theory, and why we are doomed to failure in any attempt to sum up our way of life in slogans and dogmas."
- Boorstin, The Genius of American Politics

"The story we tell about ourselves as an exceptional nation exempt from history (from the lessons of other peoples' stories) is a perfect representation of what it means for a nation to have a defining story as well as of why defining stories need to be contested. For the exceptionalist story is not merely a retrospective ideology foisted on the past by arrogant moderns or a product of nineteenth-century imperialist reading its own ambitions back onto the past. Exceptionalism was a concomitant of the American founding -- indeed, one of the principles by which was justified."
- Barber, An Aristocracy of Everyone, 1992, p.55-56

This course addresses the distinctiveness of American political culture and the civil religion it has fostered. We will investigate questions of national character and culture and the context this provides politics. As Samuel Huntington has written: "The basic ideas of the American Creed -- equality, liberty, individualism, constitutionalism, democracy -- clearly do not constitute a systematic ideology, and they do not necessarily have any logical consistency." We will examine these questions concerning the experiment of democracy and the problems with the myth and reality of a society so designed. We will begin with a historical examination of the origins of American political culture and proceed to examine contemporary debate and dilemmas concerning these "self-evident truths."

Boorstin's observation that Americans have an antipathy to political philosophy is not unique. Alexis de Tocqueville observed in Democracy In America that "I think that in no country in the civilized world is less attention paid to philosophy than in the United States" (Part 2, Book 1, 1835). While such remarks may appear cynical, they are integral to understanding American political culture, a culture that is often more reactive than reflective.

TEXTBOOKS

Mason and Baker, Free Government In The Making, 4th ed

Franklin, The Autobiography & Other Writings

Tocqueville, Democracy In America

Hamilton, The Federalist Papers

Hochschild, Race, Class and the Soul of the Nation: Facing Up To The American Dream

Etzioni, The New Golden Rule

Tabor & Gallagher, Why Waco?

Sowell, The Vision of the Anointed

Bell, Faces At The Bottom of the Well

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

This course is a seminar. As such, much of the success of the course will be a direct result of the preparation, discussion, deliberation and participation on the part of the members of the seminar. There will be no formal examinations. In the unlikely event that seminar members are unprepared, the possibility of quizzes exist. There will be three papers and one group project. There may be outside of class assignments, such as hearing speakers and viewing movies.

The discussion grade will be comprised of instructor evaluation, peer evaluation, evidence of class preparation (having read and done a bit of thinking prior to class, timely submission of reading questions).

The "reading questions" grade will consist of your submission at the beginning of each class of at least one question with a preface/rationale on the reading assigned for that day. It might be on the entire section of readings or on a certain aspect of one or several readings. It might deal with a question raised by a reading. It should involve some original thinking on your part, not merely an fact question on what the author/authors said. Reading questions will be read and briefly noted (not formally graded initially) and returned to the student. Students should keep all questions. Life is short and some of you will no doubt play hard and have to confront the terrible abyss of not having finished your entry prior to class. Once or twice and that is okay, but more than that will hurt your grade.

Papers will deal with a variety of topics. Paper #1 will deal with a reflection of the Declaration of Independence on American political culture. Paper #2 will deal with an historical section of the course or an examination of certain questions as reflected in works such as Democracy In America. Paper # 3 will deal with a contemporary aspect of American political culture such as liberalism or egalitarianism or a related tenant. It involves your selection of works for an updated Mason & Baker for the period of the the 1980s and the 1990s. In addition to selection of the works and their excerpt, you must provide justification and explanation as to how they fit into American political thought/culture.. It could also focus on contemporary manifestations of self- evident truths found in one work or author. The Group Project, with details to be distributed later, will allow seminar members working in groups of two or three to explore American political culture in more creative ways, resulting in a presentation,a paper or other formats.

OFFICE HOURS

Office: 329 C Chambers
Office Phone: #2458
Home Phone: 892-9874 (no calls after 9pm)
Office Hours: MWF 9:30-10:20, M 1 - 2:45, Th 1:30-3

I will be available to go to lunch with students on Mondays on a regular basis and other times with advance notice. I am often in my office and students are welcome to stop in without appointments if I am free.

All work in this seminar is bound by the Honor Code.

TOPICS AND ASSIGNMENTS

January 14 Introduction

"Cultural myths are no more `truth' than an architect's sketches are buildings. Their function is to explain events and guide decisions. Thus while it is pointless to challenge myths as unrealistic, it is entirely valid to say that a culture's mythology serves it well only to the extent it retains its connection to the reality the culture faces." - Reich, Tales of A New America, 1987, p.40

January 21 Myths:Introduction of Our Idea
Lecture: Readings on Reserve

Philosophical and Jurisprudential Origins of the Commonwealth
Readings (from Mason & Baker)
John Locke, Second Treatise on Civil Government
James Harrington, The Commonwealth of Oceana
Montesquieu, The Spirit of the Laws

Theological Foundations: Puritans, Quakers & Dissenters
Readings (from Mason & Baker)
Nathaniel Ward, Simple Cobbler of Aggawam
John Winthrop, Little Speech on Liberty
John Cotton, Limitation of Government
Roger Williams, The Bloudy (sic) Tenent...
John Wise, A Vindication of the Government
Jonathan Mayhew, A Discourse...Powers

January 29 Colonial and Revolutionary Thought: Franklin & Jefferson

Reserve Readings:
Wills, Inventing America Ch 14, 27, Epilogue
Ellis, American Sphinx, Selected excerpts
Franklin, The Autobiography & Other Writings,Introduction & various sections, Pp 89-112, Pp 313-336

Readings (from Mason & Baker)
Benjamin Franklin, Letter to Lord Kames
James Otis, The Rights of the British Colonies
James Wilson, Considerations. . . Parliament
Alexander Hamilton, A Full Vindication
Jefferson, The Unanimous Declaration....America

February 5 American Constitutionalism: Birth of American Hagiography

Readings (from Mason & Baker)
John Adams, Thoughts on Government
George Washington, Letter to Governor Livingston
Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia
John Adams, A Defence of Constitutions
James Madison, Letter to Edmund Randolph
Benjamin Franklin, The Federal Convention
The Federalist Papers 1,6,9,10,14,15,23,37,38,39,47,51,57, 62,67,68,70,78

Readings (from Mason & Baker)
Richard Henry Lee, Letters from the Federal Farmer
James Wilson, State House Speech
George Mason, Objections
Thomas Jefferson, Letter to James Madison (December), Letter to James Madison (March)
James Madison, Letter to Thomas Jefferson, Speech June 8, 1789
Anti-Federalist Lenoir, Speech to N.C. Ratifying Convention

February 11 Concepts of Nation Building & Jeffersonian Revolution

Reserve Readings:
Ellis, American Sphinx, Selections

Readings (from Mason & Baker)
Alexander Hamilton, First Report on Public Credit
John Marshall, Marbury v. Madison
John Marshall, MuCulloch v. Maryland
Thomas Jefferson, Readings 1-11 in Section 9

February 18 The Concept of Jacksonian Democracy

Tocqueville, Democracy In America

Readings (from Mason & Baker)
Joseph Story, Mass. Const. Convention
Daniel Webster, Speech in Mass. Const. Convention
James Kent, New York Const. Convention
Andrew Jackson, First Annual Message to Congress Veto of Bank Bill
Commager, Tocqueville 100 Years Later

February 25 Intellectual Democracy & Individualism

Reserve Readings:
Putnam, from "Bowling Alone"
Various, "Bell Curve" controversy

Readings (from Mason & Baker)
Ralph W. Emerson, Politics
Henry D. Thoreau, Civil Disobedience
Margaret Fuller, Woman in Nineteenth Century
Walt Whitman, Democratic Vistas

On Reserve:
Hofstadter, Anti-Intellectualism excerpt

March 11 Slavery and Challenges to Inequality

Readings (from Mason & Baker)
E. Cady Stanton, Seneca Falls
W. Lloyd Garrison, Declaration of Sentiments
Frederick Douglass, Lecture on Slavery
John C. Calhoun, Disquisition on Government (nos. 12.6 & 13.4)
George Fitzhugh, Cannibals All
Abraham Lincoln, Fragments on Slavery, Reply to Douglas Speech in Springfield, First Inaugural Address

March 18 Democracy Reexamined: Social Darwinism & Gospel of Wealth

Readings (from Mason & Baker):
William Graham Sumner, What Social Classes Owe Each Other
Lester F. Ward, Plutocracy and Paternalism
Russell Conwell, Acres of Diamonds
Andrew Carnegie, Wealth

Whither Reform? Progressivism, Pragmatism & Jurisprudence

Readings (from Mason & Baker)
Herbert Croly, The Promise of American Life
Eugene Debs, Unionism and Socialism
Booker T. Washington, Atlanta Exposition Express
Thorstein Veblen, The Theory of Business Enterprise
Walter Lippmann, Drift and Mastery
Woodrow Wilson, The New Freedom
W.E.B. DuBois, Souls of Black Folk

March 25 Disillusionment & Democracy: Reappraised & Restructured

Readings (from Mason & Baker)
Randolph Bourne, Unfinished Fragment
H. L. Mencken, Notes on Democracy
John Dewey, Does Human Nature Change?
Walter Lippman, The Public Philosophy
Hannah Arendt, Civil Disobedience
Justice Earl Warren, Brown v. Board of Education
Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from a Birmingham Jail
Justice Lewis Powell, U. of California Regents v. Bakke
Justice Thurgood Marshall, (dissent) in U. of California Regents v. Bakke

April 1 Whither the American Dream?

Hochschild, Race, Class And The Soul of The Nation: Facing Up To The American Dream

April 8 Race: Realties or Reactions

Sowell, The Vision of The Anointed
Bell, Faces At The Bottom of the Well

April 15 Which City on the Hill?

Tabor & Gallagher, Why Waco?

April 22 Citizenship Rediscovered: Renewal of Community?

Etzioni, The New Golden Rule

April 29 = optional day