POLISCI1 FINAL READINGS

Steven Lukes’ Dimensions of Power

1. prevailing in open conflict. One party influences another to do something they wouldn’t have done otherwise.

2. constraining scope. shaping the agenda and influencing what issues are considered or excluded from political discourse.

3. shaping field of play. shaping people’s thoughts, desires, and ideologies.

significance: comprehensive analysis of power dynamics

Scalia: A Matter of Interpretation

textualist and originalist approach to the Constitution.

• original intent

• critiques judicial activism (judges making decisions on personal policy rather than following constitution)

• judges interpret law, not shape or alter it to own’s preference

Breyer: Active Liberty

Commitment to democratic participation and self government

• Constitution is adaptable to modern society

• judiciary should consider the constitution but ultimately interpret it based on modern values

• balance between individual rights and collective goods

Coates: The Case for Reparations

Wealth gaps between whites and african americans when advocating for reparations

• inability to properly own a home due to federal housing admin

• lack of payment for work, failed mortgages, or losing sentimental values as result of living in the South in the 1920’s

• FHA: marked black neighborhoods as unstable, cut african americans off from sources to prohibit them from gaining home ownership profit

• unfulfilled promises from civil war reconstruction

Lizza: Return of the Nativist

Rise of nativism in the 1920’s

• lack of strong leadership to guide party

• was a leading issue for republicans

• concern of increasing Hispanic population

• talk radio and conservative media in support of immigration policies

Kuo: Asian American Partisanship

Social Exclusion Hypothesis

• not picking the party that is less likely to be in support of their group’s interests

• asians most likely to be dem

• partisanship is linked to social identity

Tesler: Race and Education Gap

college-educated voters are more likely to be dem and non-college-educated are more likely to be rep

• educated are less likely to be racist and less likely to vote for trump

Tesler: racist working class whites flee democratic party

working-class white individuals without higher education tend to be more racist

• college educated individuals saw dems as more supportive of federal aid to african americans

• lower education were more likely to oppose obama

Tesler: race views matter more in trump election than obama

trump’s election was more based on race than obama’s

• raised significant questions about the role of race and identity in political messaging

Jardina: The New American Minority

US becomes increasingly diverse, though some whites resist this through immigration laws, ethnic studies, and using birth certificate as evidence

• racial tension after 2016 election and policies that targeted immigrants and minorities under trump

• whites with strong racial identity holds exclusionary views

Taud and Nyhan: Why people continue to believe objectively false things

partisan polarization affects the way people consume information

• confirmation bias

Demsas: Americans Vote Too Much

too many elections for different offices on different days

• voters dont care about voting for smaller office roles like county commissioner

• high information cost (takes too much time to inform oneself)

• too much to lose when voting (i.e needs to take time off of work, too hard to get to voting place, etc.)

Popkin: The Reasoning Voter

Voters make decisions based on limited or biased information

• info shortcuts, though not always reliable

• gut feeling over educated logic

• less voter unity and more diverse ranges of alliegence

Hall and Deardorff: Lobbying as Legislative Subsidy

lobbyists provide valuable information to strategically selected legislators who already follow their beliefs

• budget centered theory: lobbying operates on legislators budget line rather than utility function (gift not trade)

• uneven distribution of resources; business interests prioritized

• power of interest groups are exaggerated and not so much as a threat to democracy

• does work for the legislators, not persuade them