Political Science 129S, Internet and Politics
Neil Carlson, Instructor
Fall 2001

COURSE CALENDAR
[Link to Syllabus]

Note: Many of the links below require a DukeNet connection for access; if you are accessing this page from outside DukeNet, follow OIT's instructions to connect to a proxy server.

Week     Date Tasks & Events   Topics   Readings & References
* required (to read before class date)
- supplemental readings
+ reference sites
Introduction
1     8/27 M - explore CourseInfo
- get handouts in class		  

- Personal Introductions
- Course Overview
- Scheduling
- Initial Group Formation
- CourseInfo Tour

  

* Syllabus
* this Course Calendar
+ Webopedia computer and Internet glossary of terms
+ ESR's jargon file
+ HTMLhelp.com Overview of all HTML Elements
+ Merriam-Webster Dictionary
      8/29 W - Dreamweaver Tutorial (in Dreamweaver, choose Help/Using Dreamweaver; work through the "Dreamweaver Tutorial" section)  

- Introduction to the Net and HTML
- Dreamweaver intro
- Personal course web pages

  

* Internet Valley History of the Internet Outline
* Ruley, Byte magazine review of The Victorian Internet by Tom Standage, September 1999
- Internet Valley History of the Internet (ugly site; skim, enjoy the fun stuff)
+ Internet Society (ISOC) History page
+ Web Pages That Suck design examples
      8/30 R

- Help session, 7–9pm in SocSci 229

   ICC EVENING HELP SESSION (HTML/Dreamweaver Basics)    
      8/31 F - Week 1 Reviews and Replies (R&R) due by Saturday 5pm  

- Web design principles
- Political content of web design
- Introduction to Slashdot.org, a brain-starter

   * Slashdot.org. Look around, read the About section and skim the FAQ, particularly on why moderation is necessary. Then look over the United States topic, which includes much political discussion. Come to class prepared to give your impressions of Slashdot as a reality and a possibility. What does this site suggest about the future of democracy in cyberspace?
                 
2     9/3 M

- Labor Day (class meets)
- Personal course web page, 1st evaluation

   - Social Science Methods
- Concepts, Causal Models, and Traffic Signals		   * Trochim, Research Methods Knowledge Base, "The Language of Research" topic (read all sections)
- King, Keohane and Verba, Designing Social Inquiry Chapters 2 and 4 [E-Reserves: Part I, Part II; please print and bring to class]
      9/5 W     - What is Politics?
- Decision Rules and Constitutions		   * Mackenzie, "May the Best Man Lose" Discover, Nov 2000.
* Buchanan and Tullock, The Calculus of Consent (1965), Chapter 6 (p. 63-84) (E–Reserve)
* Robert's Rules of Order Revised [constitution.org]; read Introduction, briefly look at the Order of Precedence of Motions and the Table of Rules Relating to Motions.
      9/7 F - R&R due Sat 5pm
- Drop/Add ends		   - Catch Up day: Institutions and Decision Rules
- Polity startup		  

See Readings from previous day (above).
                 
Part I: Technology, Community, Democracy and Citizenship
3     9/10 M - Class Polity constitution begun   - Class Polity meeting
- Group, Party and Committee meetings (5-10 min each?)		   * Read texts ahead for Wednesday and Friday (see below)
* Participate in Class Polity forum.
      9/12 W     [CLASS WAS CANCELLED FOR PRAYER VIGIL]
- Enthusiasm: Direct (Electronic) Democracy Is "Inexorable"!		  

* TEXT: Grossman, The Electronic Republic, Introduction, Chapters 1-3, 7, 8, and 11
- The Direct Democracy Initiative; look at the First Principles and the proposed Amendment and Act.
+ The NES Guide to Public Opinion and Electoral Behavior; class discussion references the section on Support for the Political System.
      9/13 R - Help session, 7-9pm in SocSci 229   ICC EVENING HELP SESSION    
      9/14 F - R&R due Sat 5pm   - Counterpoint: The Establishment Rules  

* TEXT: Davis, The Web of Politics, Foreword, Introduction, Chapters 1 and 7
                 
4     9/17 M

 

   - Madisonian theory  

* Madison, Federalist #10 and Federalist #51 [constitution.org]
* TEXT: Applbaum/Thompson colloquy, democracy.com?, pages 19-44
      9/19 W     - Thick, Thin and Aristotle
- What is community? Can we have it on the Internet?
 

* Aristotle reading in Classics Excerpts
* Bimber, "The Internet and Political Transformation: Populism, Community and Accelerated Pluralism" Polity 1998
* TEXT: Galston and Camp on Community, democracy.com?, pages 45-63
* TEXT: Davis, Chapter 6, "The Virtual Public"
- Lippmann, Public Opinion Chapter 1 (1922)
        - Help session, 7-9pm in SocSci 229   ICC EVENING HELP SESSION   Start work on group pages, project web site.
      9/21 F - R&R due Sat 5pm; project proposals for credit.   - Catch up day; readings optional   [Readings now optional after rescheduling]
- Turkle, "Identity in the Age of the Internet" (1997) [E–reserve]
- Kolko and Reid, "Dissolution and Fragmentation" (1998) [E–Reserve]
                 
5     9/24 M - Personal web page 2nd evaluation   - Social capital
- Effects of communications technology in present day society		   * Putnam, "Bowling Alone" (1995)
* Putnam, Bowling Alone, Chapter 13, "Mass Media and Technology" [E-reserve]
      9/26 W     - Internet changes to TV society  

* Havick, John. "The impact of the Internet on a television-based society", Technology in Society, Volume 22, Issue 2, April 2000, Pages 273-287 Available at ScienceDirect.
* Harwood and Lay, "Surfing Alone: The Internet as a Facilitator of Social and Political Capital?" [APSA 2001 Annual Meeting]
      9/28 F

- First paper due (5-8 pages)
- R&R due Sat 5pm

   Class Polity meeting   Work on polity and project
                 
Part II: Intermediation and Collective Action
6     10/1 M     - Class polity meeting continued; readings discussed Wednesday   * TEXT: Grossman, Chapters 4 and 9
* TEXT: Davis, Chapter 2
* Shapiro, The Control Revolution, excerpts [E–reserve]
- Dery, "With Liberty and Justice for Me" [interview with Andrew Shapiro], Atlantic Monthly July 1999.
+ Technorealism.org; see Readings link
      10/3 W    

- Visions of the digital media
- Individual empowerment?
- Elites, pro and con

   * Lippmann, Public Opinion Chapter 1 (1922)
* Coombs and Cutbirth, "Mediated political communication, the Internet, and the new knowledge elites" Telematics and Informatics, 1998. Available at ScienceDirect.
* Aikens, "Deweyan Systems in the Information Age" (1999) [E-reserve]
        - Help session, 7-9pm in SocSci 229   ICC EVENING HELP SESSION    
      10/5 F

- R&R due Sat 5pm

   - Internet media effects on political knowledge   * Johnson, Braima and Sothirajah, "Doing the traditional media sidestep" Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly; Spring 1999. Available on ProQuest [scroll down on the linked page to find the ProQuest link, then search for this document using "traditional media sidestep"].
                 
7     10/8 M - First paper peer reviews due
- Project topic set 		  - Collective Action Theory and the Free Rider Problem
- Lobbying on the Internet		   * Olson, excerpt from The Logic of Collective Action (1965) [on CourseInfo]
* TEXT: Davis, Chapter 3, "Electronic Lobbying", pages 62-84
      10/10 W     - Is there a "Digital Divide", and if so, how wide?  

* U.S. GAO report "Telecommunications: Characteristics and Choices of Internet Users", February 2001; read pages 1-35 (3-37 in Acrobat page numbers).
* TEXT: Norris/Greenberg exchange about "Who Surfs", democracy.com? pages 71-98
* Bruce Bimber's SHORT research pages on demographics and techological diffusion rates.
- Fountain, "Constructing the information society: women, information technology, and design" Technology in Society 22 (2000). Available at ScienceDirect.
+ Digital Divide: A Pollak Library Research Guide, Cal State Fullerton.
+ About.com Netculture Digital Divide section
      10/12 F - No Reviews due
- Fall Break starts at exactly 12:40 - No Class!		       NO CLASS
                 
8     10/15 M - Fall Break, no class       NO CLASS
      10/17 W     - Citizen Activism and Comparative Democratization
- Interest groups on the Internet 		  * Hill and Hughes, Cyberpolitics (1998) Chapters 1 and 4 [E–reserve, Rogerson]
      10/18 R - Help session, 7-9pm in SocSci 229   ICC EVENING HELP SESSION    
      10/19 F - R&R due Sat 5pm       Work on polity and project
                 
9     10/22 M - Interest Group topics due at class (one page)   - Civil liberties and First Amendment issues
- Extremist sites 		 

* Lessig, Code (1999) excerpt [E–reserve, Rogerson]
* Docter and Dutton, "The First Amendment Online" (1998) [E–reserve]
* Anti-Defamation League "Poisoning the Web" report
+ About.com Conspiracies and Extremism / U.S. Politics

      10/24 W     - Internet Polling I  

* Taylor and Terhanian. "Heady Days are Here Again: Online Polling is Rapidly Coming of Age" The Public Perspective (June 1999)
* Mitofsky, "Pollsters.com" The Public Perspective (June 1999).
* Black and Terhanian, "Using the Internet for Election Forecasting" (1998)
* Newport, "The Science of Polls" (1999)
* Wasserman. "Should the internet replace phones as the polling technology of choice?" The Industry Standard, Oct 20 1999.
* Kathleen Collins. 10-1-99. "Will online polling destroy the survey business?"
* Greenberg and Bocain, "Uncertainty in Internet Based Polling" Paper presented at the 2000 Annual Meeting of AAPOR.
- Harris Interactive news release, "2000 Election Winners"
      10/26 F - R&R due Sat 5pm (topic research progress reports)   - Internet Polling II  

* Wei Wu and David Weaver, "On-line Democracy or on-line demagoguery?" Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics, Fall 1997, Vol. 2 Issue 4, 71-87. Available on Academic Search Elite
* Rosenblatt, Alan J. "Online Polling: Methodological Limitations and Implications for Electronic Democracy" Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics, Spring 1999, Vol. 4 Issue 2, 30-45. Available on Academic Search Elite.
                 
Part III: Campaigns, Elections and Governing
10     10/29 M - Initial Research Group pages posted   - Participation and Voter Turnout   * Teixera (1992). The Disappearing American Voter, Chapter 1, "Why is American Voter Turnout So Low?" and Chapter 2 "Why is American Voter Turnout Going Down?".
      10/31 W     - Online Voting   * Kantor (1999) "Internet voting is to democracy what Amazon.com is to books"
* Weisberg (1999) "Will Internet Voting be good news for American Democracy?"
* Strassman (1999) "Internet Voting Circa 2002"
* Phillips and The Voting Integrity Project (1999) "Are We Ready for Internet Voting?" (browse sections)
* O'Halloran and Epstein [interview] "The Internet and the American Political Process"
        - Help session, 7-9pm in SocSci 229   ICC EVENING HELP SESSION    
      11/2 F - R&R due Sat 5pm   - Internet and Political Participation   * Tolbert and McNeal (APSA meeting 9/2001), "Does the Internet Increase Voter Participation in Elections?"
                 
11     11/5 M     - Campaigns and candidates   * TEXT: Davis, Chapter 4
* TEXT: Kamarck, "Campaigning on the Internet in the Elections of 1998", in democracy.com?.
      11/7 W - Solo Paper 2 due at class       Polity meeting: work on project
      11/9 F - R&R due Sat 5pm   - Campaign regulation
- Individual activism		  

* Corrado, "Campaigns and Elections in Cyberspace: Toward a New Regulatory Approach" (2000)
* Wayne, Leslie , "On Web, Voters Reinvent Grass Roots Activism" New York Times, May 21, 2000, available on ProQuest.
* Dreyfuss and Stopler (1998) "Getting out the vote, 90s Style" The Nation 26 October 1998, v. 267, n. 13, pp. 15–20. Available on ProQuest.
+ Democracy Online Project, Online Campaigning: A Primer (2000)
                 
12     11/12 M     - Parties online  

* White and Shea (1999) New Party Politics, Chapter 8
* Munro, Neil, "The New Wired Politics" The National Journal, Vol. 32, No. 17, p. 1260-1263 (22 April, 2000). Available on ProQuest.
* Margolis, Michael et al, "Party Competition on the Internet in the United States and Britain," Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics, 4: 24-47 (Fall 1999). Available on Academic Search Elite. [search on "margolis AND party AND competition]
      11/14 W - Solo Paper 2 peer reviews due at class time  

- Officeholders and government responsiveness
- Committee and Group meetings

  

* TEXT: Davis, Chapter 5
      11/15 R - Help session, 7-9pm in SocSci 229   ICC EVENING HELP SESSION    
      11/16 F - R&R due Sat 5pm   - Representation and the Internet  

* Adler, E. Scott et al (1998), "The Home-Style Homepage: Legislator Use of the World Wide Web for Constituency Contact" [E-reserve]
* Carter, Matt (1999), "Speaking Up in the Internet Age: Use and Value of Constituent E-mail and Congressional Web-sites" [E-reserve]
                 
13     11/19 M

- Solo papers posted as HTML pages on Zope
- Group page outlines set.

  

- Summing up
- Direct Democracy that works
- Online innovation

   Wrap-up day; lecture/discussion and project brainstorming and planning.
      11/21 W - Thanksgiving break starts @ 12:40pm; class optional       OPTIONAL help session / project discussion.
      11/23 F - no Reviews due
- Thanksgiving break, no class		       H A P P Y    T H A N K S G I V I N G !
                 
Project Focus
14     11/26 M - First drafts of research group pages completed       Project organization and web design meeting
      11/28 W         Group 1 presentation and discussion
        - Help session, 7-9pm in SocSci 229   ICC EVENING HELP SESSION    
      11/30 F - R&R due Sat 5pm       Group 2 presentation and discussion
                 
15     12/3 M - Main project design elements set, most materials posted; personal web sites updated to reference project materials.       Group 3 presentation and discussion
      12/5 W         Class wrap-up
      12/6 R - Help session, 7-9pm in SocSci 229   ICC EVENING HELP SESSION    
      12/7 F - Reading Period, no class       NO CLASS; instructor generally available to meet with groups all weekend
                 
Finals Week
16     12/11 T - All Class Project materials completed by 9:00am.       NO CLASS
      12/15 S - Project and personal page peer reviews completed by 12pm.
- NO Final Exam 9am-12pm		       NO CLASS
Last updated by Neil Carlson, Wednesday, November 14, 2001 1:23 AM