| Description |
An examination of the structure, activities, and significance of political parties, primarily (though not exclusively) in the contemporary American setting. Lectures, readings, and assignments focusing on the logic of party competition, the evolving political and social bases of party coalitions, the development and impact of partisan loyalties in the electorate, activities of party organizations and activists, the processes by which parties select their nominees for elective office, mechanisms of party influence in law-making, and shifts in public policy attributable to changing partisan control of government. |