Introduction to Comparative
Politics
Political Science 204, Fall
2009
Office Hours: TBA
Office: 830 PLC
Phone:
E-mail: csmith5@uoregon.edu
SSIL -- Social Sciences Instructional Lab -- Contact Information:
(These are the folks who will administer the midterm and final exam.)
e-mail: de@ssil.uoregon.edu
Phone: 346-4642
Course
Description
This course provides an introduction to major conceptual foundations and issues in comparative politics. Its most basic aim is to sharpen your analytical and critical-thinking skills and expose you to the diversity of governments, cultures, histories and economies in the world today. In this course we will explore the analytical techniques of comparative politics, major political institutions, democracy and democratization, political cultures, ideologies, political economy, and development. The assigned reading from the textbook focuses on core concepts and theories in the study of comparative politics.
The course is divided into four main sections. The first part of the class (Chapters 1-3) provides an introduction to the study of comparative politics, the major topics in the sub-discipline, and the analytical techniques used by comparative scholars. The second part of the class (Chapters 4-6) addresses crucial concepts and institutions of comparative politics. In the third section of the class (Chapters 7-11) we turn to examination of democracy and democratization. The fourth part of the course examines three major topics in comparative politics, but in less detail than the other sections.
In addition to reading the first 15 conceptual chapters of the textbook you will also read three of the country chapters, two from the developed world and one from the developing world. Explained in depth below, you will be required to write two two-page papers on the country chapters.
*Important note: Our department offers both a lecture based and a web based Introduction to Comparative Politics course. Please double check to make certain that you are enrolled in right class and have purchased the correct book.
Your grade for the class will be based on the following (more details on each below). To pass the class all of the assignments must be completed.
In order to access course materials and complete the class assignments you will need regular access to a competent computer with web access. You should have at least 56K dial-up Internet connection, although faster connections will obviously be better. Lack of such access is not an excuse to request alternative assignments or extensions on deadlines – it is a reason not to take this class. It is absolutely crucial that you have access to a reliable computer and Internet access for this class. Be especially careful of using wireless connections, as they can be unstable and disconnect easily.
This is an online course. It has no face-to-face meetings, unless you choose to come to my office hours. Contrary to what many anticipate, this makes the class harder, not easier. This independent study version of PS 204 is designed for self-motivated students who wish to proceed through the subject material at their own pace. Keep in mind that independent study is not the best option for every student. The lack of lectures or discussion sections means you have fewer opportunities to learn challenging material. Much of the material is complicated and challenging to understand well. There is a lot of information to absorb over the ten-week quarter. I am here to help you in office hours or by email, but for the most part learning and comprehending the material is done independently. To succeed in this course, you must be motivated and well organized. Due dates are firm and frequent. They creep up fast and extensions are only given under exceptional circumstances. Your reading, studying, and analytical skills should be strong. The lack of face-to-face interactions and the fact that you are essentially learning from a textbook means you should have strong reading comprehension skills. Because so much of the course grade is based on the True/False and multiple choice quizzes and examinations, please give careful consideration to whether that is a format that will work for you. To do well in this class you should be comfortable with this method of testing. There are no alternative assignments or extra credit opportunities.
Historically, the range of grades in this class has been very large – there have been large numbers of both As and Fs. The quizzes and exams are not easy. Marginal students just taking this class to avoid attending lectures and section meetings, or because they think it will be easy, are strongly encouraged to drop the class now and enroll in the traditional lecture-based version of this class – you will learn more and your grade will be higher. Be warned, I cannot emphasize enough that this course requires organization, self-motivation, strong reading comprehension, and an ability to perform well in True/False and multiple choice exams. Note that PS 204 cannot be repeated for credit – the traditional lecture course PS 204 and the independent study/distance education course PS 204 are treated as the same course by the Registrar’s office.
Various elements of this class are accessible through two web sites. If you are taking more than one online class through the Political Science Department please note that this online class is run on a different platform than the PS 201 and PS 205 courses.
E-mail Access
Important
class announcements will periodically be sent out via e-mail to your UO account. It is therefore imperative that all
students either use their UO email account, and check it several times a week,
or set it to forward to the account you really use. Please take steps
immediately to make sure that this is taken care of, and also make sure that
e-mails I send out to the class via Blackboard will make it past your spam
filter. This is your responsibility. All UO students are now
automatically assigned UO e-mail accounts, which are automatically used as your
e-mail address in all UO directories. If you do not know how to access
your UO email account, contact the
The required materials for this class are:
Comparative Politics: A Global Introduction
3/E by Michael J. Sodaro.
The textbook is available for purchase at the
UO Bookstore. You can purchase a copy of the textbook
elsewhere (online or at another bookstore), but do not get an older version of
the textbook because the material is not the same, making the quizzes and exams
difficult. If you are not in
Tests and Assignments
Chapter Quizzes (22.5% total; 1.5 points for each
chapter quiz)
Although
the book contains 23 chapters, you are only required to take chapter quizzes
for the first 15 of them (Chapters 1-15).
I have decided to omit quizzes from the chapters that focus on specific countries. I did this to lighten the workload and
because whole classes on politics in some of these countries are offered
through the UO Political Science Department.
However, you will need to read at least three of the country chapters
(Chapters 16-23) to write the papers. Of
course, you can read more of the omitted chapters, but you will not be required
to take quizzes on any of them nor will material from the country chapters be
include in the midterm or final.
You
will take the chapter quizzes through the Blackboard web site. The chapter quizzes are located under the
“Chapter Quizzes” folder of the Blackboard web site. Only take the quizzes when you are
ready. Because they are forced
completion you only get one chance to take them.
The
quizzes are not proctored, but they are closed book. In order to take them you
will need to promise that you are not looking things up in the book, sharing
questions or answers with classmates, printing out the quiz, or using a quiz or
quiz answers provided by a classmate. If you engage in any of these
activities even once, your grade for all the quizzes will be a zero, which
will make it essentially impossible to pass the class.
You will be given 20 minutes to take each chapter quiz. After completing the quiz, please make sure you press the “Submit” button about 30 seconds before the 20 minute time limit because it takes the system about that long to process your quiz. You can take each quiz only once. Each quiz will consist of 11 questions, worth 10% each. This means that you can potentially score up to 110% for each quiz (a form of extra credit).
Important Deadlines: You must complete the quizzes for chapters 1-3 by no later than
You can take the quizzes at any time and get ahead in the class. Please note that the deadlines for quizzes approach rapidly, so you may want to give serious consideration to getting ahead least you fall behind and have to struggle to meet the deadlines. Extensions for the quizzes are only granted under exceptional circumstances. Access to the quizzes will be password-protected after the deadlines, and will only be available to students with approved extensions. If you are granted an extension I will send you the appropriate passwords. These passwords must be kept secret. Sharing them with other students will result in you failing the class. To get an extension you must contact me before the deadline of the quiz for which you seek an extension.
Blackboard Discussion Board Postings (5% total for postings on five discussion boards, credit/no credit)
You
will be responsible for posting to five Blackboard discussion forums during the
course of the term. One discussion
thread will just involve introducing yourself and the other four discussion
forums correspond to each of the four segments of the class. You must post at least once to each, all
five, of the required discussion forums.
Each of the discussion forums has a deadline, which corresponds to the
deadlines listed above for each section of the class. The deadlines are also stated in the
discussion forum title. Please make a
note of them. After the deadline you can
no longer post to the discussion forum and will receive 0 for that discussion
forum.
Your
required posts must be at least one paragraph long, which means you need to
write at least 10 sentences. You must
have something substantive to say, and you must somehow incorporate or
refer to ideas from the readings.
Do not just write a 2-5 sentence posting, simply restate what other
students say, or post on an unrelated topic.
You will not receive the one percentage point for a discussion forum if
your posting is inadequate. You may of
course respond on more than one topic or respond more than once on each
discussion board if you like. However,
you can only receive 1 point of each discussion forum no matter how many times
you post to it. I encourage interaction
and debate, so please feel free to engage each other through the discussion
forums. You don’t have to start your own discussion thread. Making
substantive responses to one another is, arguably, even better. (Hence
the term discussion board!) Remember to use proper netiquette – Internet
courtesy. Challenging a person’s ideas is acceptable; but insulting the
person (flaming) who voiced the ideas discourages the cooperative learning
process. Postings that flame another
user will be removed and will not count toward the five-post minimum.
Exams (47.5%
divided into a midterm (20%) and final (27.5%) examination)
You
will take two proctored examinations based on the assigned readings in the
textbook – a midterm and final exam worth 20% and 27.5% of your grade
respectively. See below for detailed instructions for taking these exams. The
midterm consists of multiple choice and true/false questions. The midterm will
cover material from chapters 1-6 of the textbook and the final will cover
chapters 7-15. The final examination is not cumulative. The final
consists of multiple choice, true/false, and short answer, and essay
questions. Both exams are closed book
and cannot be taken more than once. The
SSIL lab does not allow students to use electronic dictionaries in the exam, so
if you need a dictionary please make sure you have a hardcopy substitute. The exams will be made available after the third week of classes and can be
taken any time after that. Not that you
would want to, but this means that you cannot take the midterm or final before
week three of the quarter. Take extra care when logging in that you are logging
in for the correct exam. If you take the wrong exam there is literally nothing
anyone can do to “fix” it.
The exams cover a wide range of material and require knowledge of broad concepts and specific factual details. They require you to have a firm grasp of the information covered in the textbook. I will provide a study guide for the exams and be happy to give suggestions, advice, and answer any questions you have.
The
deadline for taking the midterm is Saturday November 7. The deadline for
taking the Final exam is Thursday of Finals Week, December 10. Except under exceptional circumstances no
extensions will be granted for the midterm or final.
Papers (Two
papers worth 12.5% of your grade each for a total of 25%)
You will need to write two two-page
papers for this class. Detailed
instructions for each of the papers will be posted in the “Assignments” section
of the Blackboard web site after the second week of classes. Both
of the papers are due by
For the first paper you will need to
read two chapters from the textbook that focus on developed countries (Chapters
16-20) - The United Kingdom,
For the second paper you will need to
read one of the chapters from the textbook that focuses on a developed country
(Chapters 21-23). Note that while
I am more than happy to help you write the paper. I will answer questions, help you formulate an answer, and read rough drafts up until one week before the deadline, February 22. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you need help.
Quiz and Exam Deadlines
|
Text Section |
Text Chapter |
Quiz and Discussion Forum Deadline |
Exam Deadline |
|
1: Introduction |
Chapters
1-3 |
October 16 |
|
|
2: Concepts and
Institutions |
Chapters
4-6 |
October 30 |
MidtermNovember 7 |
|
3: Democracy and
Democratization |
Chapters
7-11 |
November 20 |
|
|
4: Culture,
Ideology, Political Economy and Development |
Chapters
12-15 |
December 4 |
FinalDecember 10 |
Examination Policies and Procedures:
Exam testing policies can be viewed on-line at http://distanceeducation.uoregon.edu/information/on_campus and http://distanceeducation.uoregon.edu/information/off_campus. It is each student’s responsibility to understand and follow the policies outlined in this document. If you have any further questions, please contact me.
Test Scheduling and Deadlines: You may schedule an exam for any available
time (available test times will be determined by SSIL or your approved remote
proctor), up to the deadlines – Saturday, November 7 for the midterm and
Thursday, December 10 for the final, up until SSIL’s last time slot that
day. The exams will be made available during the third week of class, but
not before then. It is your
responsibility to make sure that you take the exam before the deadline. I will only grant extensions for the
midterm or final for exceptional excuses that involve serious illnesses or
family emergencies. I strongly recommend
making an appointment as early as you can, and taking the exams at least a day
or two before the deadlines in case something comes up at the last minute. The time slots in the SSIL lab fill up
quickly, so if you have a busy schedule or are only in
On-Campus Students: If you are taking this course on campus, you will take all your tests at the Social Science Instructional Lab (SSIL) located in McKenzie Hall 445. Directions to the SSIL lab can be found at http://distanceeducation.uoregon.edu/information/map. All on-campus tests are given and scheduled by appointment only. Before you can schedule an exam, you must complete the On-Line Introduction to Test taking by going to: http://distanceeducation.uoregon.edu/ and clicking anywhere on the paragraph that begins “be sure to get your Test Taker ID.” After you complete the introduction, you will be given a Test Taker ID Number and Password. Please write these down in a safe place and remember them. With these, you can log into your Test Taker Home Page from the above Distance Education web page. From your Test Taker Home Page you can make appointments to take tests, cancel appointments, see your test scores, e-mail your professor, change your test taker password, and more. You should go through the On-Line introduction the first week of class. Take the time to read the information under the link, “On Campus Students.” If you have further questions about testing, contact: de@ssil.uoregon.edu.
It is strongly recommended that students make appointments in SSIL for taking tests early. You cannot, however, make appointments more than two weeks in advance of your intended test date (not the test deadline). If you want to take tests early you may do so, but not before the third week of classes. Remember that SSIL has limited testing slots available each day so make certain that you plan ahead.
Be sure to schedule yourself enough time to finish a test. This is not usually a problem. In fact, from my experience students take far less time than they should in the midterm and final. Budget extra time for possible software or other complications. Thirty minutes is the average time needed to complete the exams, and appointments are for one hour. The lab fee for this class also entitles you to use the computers in SSIL for word processing, web browsing, etc. Absolutely no food or drink allowed is in the lab. For more information, check the SSIL Web page at: http://ssil.uoregon.edu/.
To ensure that SSIL test times are available for all student schedules, a wide variety of test-taking times are available. They will be posted at http://distanceeducation.uoregon.edu/. If your schedule is inflexible it is your responsibility to sign up far enough in advance to get a space in a time slot that fits your schedule. It is not SSIL’s or the instructor’s responsibility to make an additional exam time for you. More slots are likely to be added during the term as the level of demand becomes clear.
Remote Site Testing (other than
All
visits to the proctored test sites must be scheduled in advance. You can get
all necessary information about your testing site by contacting the testing
site proctor or the
For security reasons, the following class policies will be strictly enforced at both the Eugene Campus SSIL testing center and the remote site testing centers. Students at the remote sites should be aware that each remote site may have additional policies.
Do not hesitate to ask the person
administering the test for help with the testing software. If you experience
any problems with the software, notify the person administering the test
immediately. The person administering the test will help you restart the
software and contact the professor about the problem.
For questions concerning administration and scheduling of exams, contact the SSIL lab first; for questions regarding quiz or exam content, papers, discussion forum postings, or grading, contact Professor Clint Smith.
Online
The Blackboard
online grade center will house all your earned grades for the quarter.
Blackboard automatically updates your grades after you complete a chapter
quiz. I enter the midterm, final, papers
and discussion board posting scores manually.
I enter your scores after the deadline has passed as I need to see all
students’ scores to decide whether to curve the exam or not. It usually takes
me a week to enter all of the scores into Blackboard, but sometimes there are
delays.
You need to be very careful while taking the quizzes. If you see an “!” where your score should be, it means you went overtime while completing the assignment. Remember you need to press the “submit” button about 30 seconds before the 20 minute time limit. Usually this is not a big deal unless it is an egregious amount of time (more than a minute or two). Please send me an email if you see a “!” and I will fix the problem, usually by manually grading your quiz and entering your score. If you see an icon that looks like a combination lock, it means that an error occurred while you were taking the quiz. Usually it means that you lost your Internet connection, accidentally closed the browser window, or some other technical error occurred. If you see one of these please send me an email and I will correct the problem, usually by clearing your first attempt and letting you try again. However, for this error I can only clear one attempt per user per term. Remember, the discussion board, papers, midterm, and final exam scores are updated after the deadline for their completion.
Final grades are calculated based on your percentages on the 15 chapter quizzes at 1.5% each, the 5 required Blackboard discussion postings at 1% each (credit/no credit), the two papers at 12.5% each, and the midterm and final exams each at 20 and 27.5% each respectively.
If necessary, I reserve the right to apply a curve at a level that I deem appropriate. While a curve is a possibility, you should not count on it; rather, you should assume that your grade will be based on your raw scores. If I do use a curve, no one will receive a grade below where the raw scores would have placed you; but depending where you are in relation to the cutoffs, it is possible that some students’ letter grades would increase while others would not, or that some students’ letter grades would increase more than others. If a student is on the border of two grades I will take into account the effort they into the class when assigning a grade.