The Vocation of the Politician: Strategy and Ethics in Election Campaigns
Political Science 318 (CRN 14164)
Chambers 3155
Monday, Wednesday, Friday
2:30 - 3:20 p.m.
Fall 2004

Course Objectives

Election campaigns attract more attention, resources, and effort than any other political event in American politics. This attention is understandable, as election outcomes often shape government policies on numerous issues and the day-to-day lives of millions of people. Despite the importance of election campaigns, they often leave the public disillusioned and discouraged from following or participating in politics. After hearing all the claims, attacks, and positioning of campaigns, many voters and political pundits conclude that candidates and their advisors are corrupt, unethical, and even evil. Do these labels fit all politicians? This course explores campaigns from an elite perspective, focusing on the decisions that candidates and their advisors must make in order to run a campaign. By considering these decisions and activities from the perspective of politicians, students in the course will better understand the difficulties involved in making campaign decisions, and better evaluate whether actual candidates' decisions and activities are good or bad.

By discussing the strategic and ethical aspects of campaigns, the course helps students understand the vocation of political candidates. We will examine why politicians run for office, how they try to win office, and whether their decisions in these areas are normatively desirable. We will explore these topics in three ways: readings on the nuts-and-bolts details of campaigns, discussions with current and former public officials, and simulations in which students work through strategic and ethical decisions in a real-world context. By combining more traditional discussions of academic readings with role-playing in simulations and the personal insights of real-world politicians, I hope to prepare students to make their own decisions in political settings after graduation.

Course Requirements

I will base each student's grade for the course on several components:

• Assignment #1 (5%). Learn how to create a web page, and describe one aspect of context of assigned U.S. Senate race.
• Assignment #2 (15%). Evaluate strengths and weaknesses of one potential candidate in assigned U.S. Senate race.
• Assignment #3 (15%). Choose one issue in assigned U.S. Senate race, and evaluate both candidates' positions and messages on that issue.
• Assignment #4 (15%). Evaluate overall message strategy of both candidates in assigned U.S. Senate race.
• Assignment #5 (15%). Assess competing explanations of outcome of assigned U.S. Senate race.
• Final exam (25%). Students will take the comprehensive exam during the self-scheduled exam period.
• Class attendance and participation (10%). Students are expected to come to class every day, prepared to discuss and write about the assigned reading.  Many discussions will incorporate recent developments about elections and other current events, particularly those reported in the New York Times.  I expect students to follow the New York Times and other newspapers closely.

Students will receive more details about each assignment in class. All assignments are due at the start of class on the assigned date (unless otherwise noted). Assignments turned in more than 10 minutes after the scheduled start of a class period will be considered late. For each 24-hour period that an assignment is late, the grade on that assignment will be penalized 10 points. I will consider exceptions to the late penalty for medical and other emergencies; computer problems are not acceptable excuses for late work.

The Honor Code binds all work in the course. In accordance with the Honor Code, all assignments (except the final exam) must provide appropriate citations for any sources or information included in the assignment; failure to provide these citations is a violation of the Honor Code. If you have questions about the appropirate format for citations, make sure that you ask me before turning in the assignment. You can also visit the Campus Writing Center for additional assistance with citations. Unless stated otherwise in class, all work for the course must be completed individually, with each student responsible for his or her own work. The group projects are an important exception to the requirement for individual work. In addition, students can often improve their assignments by getting classmates to read and comment on them. I encourage this peer review, but students must cite in their assignment the names of any other students who have read and commented on that assignment.

The numerical grade for any assignment may range from outstanding (above 90) to failing (55). Note that the failure to turn in any assignment will result in a numerical grade of 0 for that assignment. When calculating final grades, I calculate the overall numerical averages and use the following table to convert them to letter grades:

Assigned Readings

The bookstore has the 5 books listed below. In addition, I have placed a number of readings on electronic reserve at the library. These readings are denoted with an asterisk ("*").

• Fenno, Richard (1978). Home Style: House Members in Their Districts. Harper Collins.
• Shea, Daniel and Michael Burton (2001). Campaign Craft: The Strategies, Tactics, and Art of Political Campaign Management Connecticut: Praeger.
• Thurber, James and Candice Nelson, editors (2004). Campaigns and Elections American Style, Westview
• Thurber, James, Candice Nelson, and David Dulio, editors (2000). Crowded Airwaves: Campaign Advertising in American Elections, Brookings
• West, Darrell (2001). Patrick Kennedy: The Rise to Power. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Course Outline