ASTK15472U COURSE: An American Perspective on Political Campaigns
Bachelorlevel: 10 ECTS
Masterlevel: 7,5 ECTS
The course will examine the operations and tactics of modern political campaigns in the United States and explore the effects - positive and negative - that the campaigns have on the surrounding citizenry.
In order to reflect how the 2016 campaign season - from the primaries throughout the general election – has upended some assumptions about effective campaigning and reconfirmed others, the syllabus will be adjusted to include material published between now and the beginning of the spring semester.
The course will cover
An overview of how political campaigning has evolved historically in the United States
The primary system and the Electoral College system
The influence of the winner-take-all system
Voter behavior patterns and causes
Voter segmentation and targeting
On-the-ground campaigning and volunteer operations
Candidate positioning
Campaign finance
The role of parties
Comparative excerpts from classic campaign literature
The increasing role played by Big Data
The ways in which the rise of round-the-clock news coverage and the rapidly growing reach of social media have influenced and continue to influence campaigning
Real-life examples of effective campaigns, negative campaigning, campaign ads, televised debates, controversial campaign strategies and methods, voter manipulation and voter disenfranchisement
Will follow
Core readings:
‘Campaigns and Elections’
John Sides, et. al.
2015
W.W. Norton
‘Game Change’
John Heilemann and Mark Halperin
2010
Harper Collins
‘The Victory Lab’
Sasha Issenberg
2013
Broadway Books
Online material:
‘What is political dark money’
http://www.publicintegrity.org/2016/01/20/19156/what-political-dark-money-and-it-bad
‘Take the Money and Run for Office’
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/461/transcript
Contribution limits
http://www.fec.gov/info/contriblimitschart1516.pdf
‘The Hardest Job in Washington’
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2010/07/jon-vogel-washington
‘Campaign Consultants’
‘Are Campaign Consultants Valuable?’
http://hlpronline.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/zeng_consultants.pdf
‘Show and Tell’
https://thebluereview.org/political-ads-disclosure/
Daisy
http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/1964/peace-little-girl-daisy#3983
Bear
http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/1984/bear#4095
Morning in America
http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/1984/prouder-stronger-better#4085
Horton
http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/1988/willie-horton#4123
Windsurfing
http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/2004/sellout#4287
Fundamentals
http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/2008/fundamentals#4474
Mavericks
http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/2008/fundamentals#4474
No Maverick
http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/2008/fundamentals#4474
Yes We Can
http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/2008/fundamentals#4474
Celeb
http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/2008/fundamentals#4474
The Virtues of the Super PAC
‘Trial Lawyers to Obama […]’
Data on 2014 donations by the American Association of Justice
https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=D000000065
Communicating with Congress
‘Robo-Calls’
http://content.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1853436,00.html (make sure to also listen to the audio when you read the text)
‘The Top 10 Political Robocalls of 2008’
http://thinkdodone.typepad.com/ccd/2008/12/the-top-13-political-robocalls-of-2008.html
Robocall case
‘Black Voters Told […]’
‘The Truth About Push Polls’ http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-truth-about-push-polls/
‘The Trashing of John McCain’ http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2004/11/mccain200411
‘Is ‘Popular Rule’ Possible?’ http://www.brookings.edu/research/articles/2003/06/summer-elections-bartels
‘Our Friend the Smear’ http://harpers.org/archive/2004/11/our-friend-the-smear/
Swift Boat http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/2004/any-questions/
‘The problems of the permanent campaign' http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2011/07/political-reform
|
- Category
- Hours
- Class Instruction
- 28
- Total
- 28
- Credit
- 7,5 ECTS
- Type of assessment
- Oral examinationOral
- Marking scale
- 7-point grading scale
- Censorship form
- External censorship
Criteria for exam assesment
- Grade 12 is given for an outstanding performance: the student lives up to the course's goal description in an independent and convincing manner with no or few and minor shortcomings
- Grade 7 is given for a good performance: the student is confidently able to live up to the goal description, albeit with several shortcomings
- Grade 02 is given for an adequate performance: the minimum acceptable performance in which the student is only able to live up to the goal description in an insecure and incomplete manner
Course information
- Language
- English
- Course code
- ASTK15472U
- Credit
- 7,5 ECTS
- Level
- Full Degree MasterBachelor
- Duration
- 1 semester
- Placement
- Spring
- Schedule
- .
- Continuing and further education
- Study board
- Department of Political Science, Study Council
Contracting department
- Department of Political Science
Course responsibles
- cbw186 cbw186 (8-7169787869326770446d6a77326f7932686f)