Quiz #1

You will have a quiz on your 5th class day (week 5). This quiz will cover all of the articles that you have read and the class discussions. There are 6 groups/sections of this class. Find your class below and the corresponding quiz day. The hour and room of your quiz WILL NOT change. Just come to class like you normally do and be prepared to take the quiz. We will stay and have discussion afterwards. If you have any questions, please email me.

Thursday 17h15 & Thursday 18h15 -- 6 October

Friday 12h15 & 13h15 & 15h15 -- 7 October

Wednesday 8h15 -- 12 October

 

The quiz cannot be rescheduled. If you miss it you will receive a zero.

Week 4 Reading and Assignment

Please read this article for week 4. Make sure you are reading the correct article! Count which week you are on. The reading for week 4 is what is to be read by the time you come to your 4th class. In addition to reading, please summarize this article (5-7 sentences) and turn it in to me at the end of the class. If you come to class without having read the article, I will ask you to leave and you will lost your attendance grade for the day. Participation and preparation are mandatory. If you have any questions, you must email me (megan.oprea@univ-montp3.fr). 

The 'Incumbency Effect' Isn't So Effective This Year

by Linton Weeks, October 25, 2010

The conventional take on national elections is: The candidate already in office nearly always wins. Political scientists call this "the Incumbency Effect." It's especially true in elections for the House of Representatives, which occur every two years. In the past 17 congressional elections — since 1976 — more than 90 percent of representatives in office have won re-election. But this year is looking different. And, for many Democratic incumbents, difficult.

In fact, political observers are questioning whether the incumbency seawall can hold against the so-called Republican Tsunami — forecast to sweep across the country in the midterm contests on Nov. 2 — next Tuesday. At present, there are 255 Democrats and 178 Republicans in the House. Gary C. Jacobson, a political science professor at the University of California, has been specializing in congressional elections for more than 30 years. The 2010 elections, he says, "will be a severe test of the incumbency advantage, because it is the only thing standing between Democrats and the Tsunami."

Aside from the troubled economy, Jacobson says, the main bugaboo for the incumbent Democrats "is that they hold so many seats in Republican-leaning districts." (…) When all of the votes are counted, 2010 may prove to be a complete reversal of 2006 and 2008, when Democrats, especially in the South and in conservative districts, won GOP seats because of dissatisfaction with Republicans. As The Washington Post has noted, 49 Democrats hold seats in districts that were carried by John McCain in 2008.

The upshot is that, especially for Democrats in the House, incumbency may be cumbersome.

A Bent Toward Incumbents

The Incumbency Effect is a truism. In 1994, for instance, when the "Republican revolution" swept through the land during President Bill Clinton's first term and the GOP took 52 seats, the turnover rate in the House was only 20 percent. As Stephen C. Erickson showed in his essay "The Entrenching of Incumbency: Re-elections in the U.S. House of Representatives, 1790-1994": "91.3 percent of all incumbents who ran in 1994 defeated their challengers."

The term "Incumbency Effect" is often traced back to an influential article in 1975 titled: "Name Familiarity, Reputation, and the Incumbency Effect in a Congressional Election" by Alan Abramowitz, a political science professor at Emory University. "The electoral advantage of incumbency is perhaps one of the best known and least understood facts of American political life," Abramowitz wrote. "Nowhere is the advantage of incumbency more clear than in elections for the U.S. House of Representatives."

From NPR's 'Election Scorecard'

In his study, Abramowitz pointed out the advantages that incumbents have over challengers. It's easier for incumbents to martial campaign resources, such as money, volunteers, group endorsements and party support. Incumbents get more frequent publicity than challengers. Incumbents enjoy "free" mail and communications with their constituents. Voters more often know the names and faces of people in office. (…)

But Abramowitz agrees that the Democrats are liable to lose a lot of seats because of a combination of normal midterm voting patterns that favor the opposition party, the Democrats' need to defend a large number of seats in Republican-leaning or marginal districts and a high level of discontent among the electorate. (…)

Lining Up Early To Vote

In late September, a Pew Research Center/National Journal poll showed that while only 13 percent of Americans surveyed gave Congress (the institution) positive grades, 28 percent gave their individual representatives good or excellent marks, and 43 percent felt that their representatives were "in touch" with their constituents. The same number, 43 percent, believed that the incumbent House member "can help bring about change in Washington," while only 32 percent said their representative "has been in Washington too long." And 42 percent of those surveyed said their incumbent representative "does a good job of bringing projects" to the home district. (…)

Wendy Schiller, a political science professor at Brown University, says the Incumbency Effect is almost always weakened in midterm years under unified government. One exception, she says, was 2002, when George W. Bush was president and Republicans gained four House seats. This year, with a Democratic president and Democratic control of the Senate and House, Schiller says, "the Republicans have done a good job of persuading voters that they can register their anger and make a change, so voters feel engaged and empowered. When voters believe that their votes will change the course of policy and even control of government, they line up early in the morning to vote."

Reflecting the findings of the Pew poll, Schiller says the Incumbency Effect is grounded in local constituency service. "In a year where national issues reign supreme," she says, "even the most diligent incumbent will be in danger of losing their seat."

Some incumbents use a more graceful exit strategy than losing. They retire. But "retirements are not unusually high" in the House this year, Gary Jacobson says. In fact, only 20 Democrats and 23 Republicans will ride off into the sunset — perhaps just ahead of a coming tsunami.

Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130722090

Week 3 Reading and Assignment

Your assignment is to read the following article closely and carefully in order to be prepared for class discussion. Remember to understand the article but also to think about your own opinions and whether the article has influenced you one way or the other. Please also write a brief summary and reaction (7-10 sentences) to the article to be turned in at the end of class.

Gun Control

For three decades, the story of gun control was one of notorious crimes and laws passed in response, beginning with the federal law that followed the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968. But after a Democratic-controlled Congress in 1994 passed bills proposed by President Clinton to restrict certain kinds of assault weapons and to create a national system of background checks for gun purchases, the political pendulum began to swing the other way. President Bush's defeat of Al Gore in the 2000 presidential election was attributed in part to the perception among gun owners that Mr. Gore was "anti-gun." […]

Recent battles have taken place in the courts, revolving around fundamentally differing interpretations of the oddly punctuated, often-debated Second Amendment, which reads: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

The Supreme Court in 2008 embraced the view that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to own a gun for personal use, ruling 5 to 4 that there is a constitutional right to keep a loaded handgun at home for self-defense.

But the landmark ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller addressed only federal laws; it left open the question of whether Second Amendment rights protect gun owners from overreaching by state and local governments.

On June 28, 2010, the court ruled in another 5-4 decision that the Second Amendment restrains government's ability to significantly limit "the right to keep and bear arms." The case involved a challenge to Chicago's gun control law, regarded as among the strictest in the nation. Writing for the court, Justice Samuel Alito said that the Second Amendment right "applies equally to the federal government and the states."Read More...

The McDonald v. Chicago ruling is an enormous symbolic victory for supporters of gun rights, but its short-term practical impact is unclear. As in the Heller decision, the justices left for another day the question of just what kinds of gun control laws can be reconciled with Second Amendment protection.

A 1939 decision by the Supreme Court suggested, without explicitly deciding, that the Second Amendment right should be understood in connection with service in a militia. The "collective rights'' interpretation of the amendment became the dominant one, and formed the basis for the many laws restricting firearm ownership passed in the decades since. But many conservatives, and in recent years even some liberal legal scholars, have argued in favor of an "individual rights'' interpretation that would severely limit government's ability to regulate gun ownership.

In May 2009, President Obama signed into law a provision allowing visitors to national parks and refuges to carry loaded and concealed weapons. The amendment was added to a consumer-friendly credit card measure that the president has said is important.

The provision represents a Congressional victory that eluded gun rights advocates under a Republican president. But in July 2009, the Senate turned aside the latest attempt by gun advocates to expand the rights of gun owners, narrowly voting down a provision that would have allowed gun owners with valid permits from one state to carry concealed weapons in other states.

When President Obama took office, gun rights advocates sounded the alarm, warning that he intended to strip them of their arms and ammunition. But Mr. Obama has been largely silent on the issue while states are engaged in a new and largely successful push for expanded gun rights, even passing measures that have been rejected in the past.

Source : http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/g/gun_control/index.html

Overview and Information

Professor: Megan Oprea
Email: Megan.Oprea@univ-montp3.fr
Office: C223

Grades:
3 tests = 80%
Homework = 10%
Attendance = 10%

The grade from the TP will make up 20% of your grade for TD.

3 unexcused absences, after that you lose points for each absence.

Class Organization:
You will read 1 or 2 articles per week and write a summary and/or a response. In class we will discuss as a class, do presentations and debates. There will be 3 exams that will be either multiple choice, short answer or essays (or a mixture of all three).

Week 2 Reading and Assignment

Read the following article and write up a summary (5 sentences minimum). Be prepared to come to class and discuss the article in small groups and with the whole class. Be prepared to possibly have to debate the points in the article. When reading the article, don't only think about remembering the information, think also about your response to it and your opinions about it. This will be discussed in class. I prefer if you print the article and bring it with you to class.

Majority of Americans distrust the government

A Rally to Bear Arms

Reuters, WASHINGTON | Mon Apr 19, 2010 7:19pm EDT

A protestor holds a picture of President George Washington crying as several groups hold a ''Kill the Bill'' rally against health care legislation on Capitol Hill, March 20, 2010.

Credit: Reuters/Jonathan Ernst

WASHINGTONNearly 80 percent of Americans say they do not trust the government to do what is right, expressing the highest level of distrust in Washington in half a century, according to a public opinion survey. Only 22 percent of Americans say they trust the government "just about always" or "most of the time," according to the Pew Research Center survey released on Sunday.

Americans' trust in the federal government has been on a steady decline from a high of 73 percent during the Eisenhower administration in 1958, when the "trust" question was first posed in a national survey, the research center said.

Economic uncertainty, a highly partisan environment and overwhelming discontent with Congress and elected officials were all factors contributing to the current wave of public distrust, the report said.

The long, bitter debate over the healthcare law that President Barack Obama signed last month made negative feeling about government, particularly Congress, even worse, according to the report based on a series of surveys of some 5,000 people.

About 25 percent had a favorable opinion of Congress, the lowest in 25 years of surveying, and less than half (40 percent) said the Obama administration was doing an excellent or good job, Pew said.

Americans were found to be more frustrated than angry, with 56 percent expressing frustration with the federal government, compared with 21 percent who said they were angry.

Forty-three percent of Republicans, 50 percent of independents who lean Republican and 57 percent of those who agree with the Tea Party movement said the government presents a major threat to their personal freedom.

That compares with 18 percent of Democrats, 21 percent of independents who lean Democratic and 9 percent of those who disagree with the Tea Party movement.

The main survey of 2,505 adults was conducted March 11-21. Three other surveys of about 1,000 adults each were conducted March 18-21, April 1-5 and April 8-11. The margin of sampling error for the surveys is plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Source : http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/04/19/us-americans-government-poll-idUSTRE63I0FB20100419