Political Ideas  --  Fall Semester 2009  --  Syllabus

Professor Tom Atchison                                

Office:  320 St. John’s Hall, St. Paul Campus
Phone:  651-793-1493
E-mail: Thomas.Atchison@Metrostate.edu           
Office hours: M 1-4, T 11-2, W 11-3

Class website:  I maintain my own website (not part of D2L) where I post course handouts and information at:  http://www.woldww.net/classes

Course Objectives:

1.  To learn something about a variety of approaches to politics -- including some that are outside the 'mainstream' of U.S. political culture.   This involves:

a. Learning about different ways of interpreting important political value terms like 'democracy', 'equality', 'liberty', 'justice', etc.

b. Learning some of the arguments that political thinkers have used to try to justify their political beliefs and proposals

 2.  To get better at analyzing and evaluating political institutions, policies and issues. This involves:

a.   Paying attention to the techniques and strategies of reasoning used by participants in political debate and discussion
b.  Getting some practice in articulating your own political ideas and in defending and criticizing political principles, institutions, policies, reforms, etc.

Texts:

Issues in Political Theory,  edited by Catriona McKinnon  (Oxford, 2008)
Political Thought (Oxford Reader), edited by Michael Rosen and Jonathan Wolff (Oxford, 1999)

Other readings will be photocopied and handed out in class or will be made available on the Internet.  Some assignments for this class will require access to the Internet – Metro State provides access in its computer labs and library.

Please make sure your Metro State Netmail account is working and check regularly for class related emails

Please bring the assigned readings to class each week

Please keep copies of all the work you hand in.

Please be aware that the University now requires students to complete 2/3 of the courses they attempt.  If you withdraw from this course after the drop deadline (August 30) you may run afoul of this requirement.  Decide quickly whether this is the right course for you.

Coursework

 Reading assignments

I expect you to find time (several hours) to do the reading for each class and to come prepared to discuss it.  Come to class ready to say what you found interesting, what you found confusing, silly, or just plain wrong, what seemed to you to be the most important claims made, and what arguments or justifications were offered for those claims.

Reading response papers

20 % of your grade will be earned by submitting brief (1/2 to 11/2 pages, typed, double-spaced) responses to the readings for each class.  These must be turned in at the beginning of the class period to be counted.  (If you must miss class, send in your response paper by e-mail.) They can contain questions, objections, observations and/or reactions to the reading for that class.  I will not grade these (or even return them consistently), but I will reject any that do not seem to be based on a reasonably conscientious reading of the assignment for that week.  You can miss one of these and still earn an ‘A’ for this part of the course work, but missing more will be penalized on the following schedule: 85% completed = A; 70% = B; 60% = C; 50% = D; less than 50% = F.  I will also notice and reward particularly perceptive or thoughtful response papers.

Class discussion

Most weeks we will have guided small group discussion projects.  The purpose of these projects is to open discussion and to focus it on particular issues. They are also intended to be "mini-labs" in which to practice the skills of careful reading and evaluation of reasoning.  The projects are done in class in groups of 3-5 and take roughly 20-45 minutes to complete.  Each group should keep notes on its discussion, sign the notes and hand them in at the end of each class session.  Often groups will also report orally on their discussions.
If you miss a discussion project, you should get hold of the instructions, write out responses to the questions on your own, and hand them in as soon as you can.  10% of your grade will be determined by the number of discussion projects you complete satisfactorily (on the same schedule as the response papers above.)
10% of your grade will also be determined by my evaluation of the quality of your participation in class discussions.  Just showing up and paying attention earns a C for this component; occasionally making helpful contributions earns a B; regularly making helpful contributions earns an A.  Helpful contributions include: asking pertinent questions, answering questions asked by the instructor or by other students, expressing your views about the texts or topics we are discussing, responding (relevantly and respectfully) to the views expressed by others.

Exams                        

Three times during the course (the 6th, 10th, and 15th weeks) we will have an exam.  The exams will focus on the themes and readings discussed during the preceding segment of the course, but they will also ask you to develop your own views and arguments on the issues.  Each exam will take place in the second half of the class period to allow for discussion of that week’s reading material before the exam. Each will count for 20% of your grade.

Grading criteria

I try hard to base my evaluation of your work on your understanding of the reading, the quality of your reasoning and questioning, and the clarity and effectiveness of your expression of your thoughts, not on whether I agree with your political ideas and positions.

Time commitment outside of class

In accordance with Metropolitan State University guidelines, I've designed this course with the expectation that students will do 2-3 hours of course-related work outside of class for every hour spent in class.  In other words, you should expect to spend 6-9 hours a week outside of class working on this course. 

Needed reading and writing skills

Although there are no prerequisites for this course, it is an upper-division course.  This means I assume you have the following reading and writing skills, and assignments are made with this expectation in mind:

• Ability to read and summarize the main points of analytical, abstract material such as Supreme Court decisions and academic essays;
• Ability to include appropriate citations of quoted and paraphrased sources in academic writing;
• Ability to construct short, analytical essays including stating and supporting a thesis, presenting and addressing objections to your thesis, and drawing conclusion
• Ability to edit written work well enough to eliminate most errors in grammar, punctuation and spelling.

Course Policies

                       
Attendance                

I do not require attendance per se, but part of your grade is determined by discussion projects and general class discussion.  So, when you are in class, contribute to the discussion and please be sure your name is on your small group's discussion report and that the report gets turned in.  When you miss a class, get the instructions for the discussion project, write out answers on your own and turn them in.  I strongly advise regular attendance (and prompt completion of missed discussion projects), because the material in this course is relatively difficult and confusing, and few students are able to do well on the exams and papers without the explanations and practice provided in class.

Plagiarism

All work submitted for this course must be your own.  Plagiarism is the academic ‘sin’ of presenting someone else’s work as your own.  It is plagiarism if you copy something verbatim (word for word) from a published source, from the Internet, or from another student.  It is still plagiarism if you rearrange, paraphrase, condense, or summarize someone else’s work without making clear to your reader what is your contribution and what is taken from your source. If the exact wording comes from your source, then use quotation marks.  If the idea comes from someone else, give him or her credit for it. The way to do this is to cite your sources.  There is a clear and detailed explanation of various forms of plagiarism and of proper citation practices at: http://clover.slavic.pitt.edu/~tales/02-1/plagiarism.html.   I will give a grade of ‘F’ to any student who submits plagiarized work for this course.    

Incompletes

I will give incomplete grades only to students who have satisfactorily completed most of the course work and who are unable to finish on time because of circumstances beyond their control.

Late work

Response papers must be turned in at (or before) the beginning of class to receive full credit.  Late response papers will receive half credit. In fairness to students who turn their exams in on time, I will subtract one grade (e.g., B+ to B) for each day that an exam is late.

Political Ideas -- Fall 2009 -- Tentative schedule of topics and reading assignments