In addition to the bibliography of readings used in the course, see the readings by week below.
Required Texts
Berinsky, Adam J. Silent Voices. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004. ISBN: 9780691115870.
Campbell, Angus. The American Voter. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980. ISBN: 9780226092546.
Carpini, Delli, Michael X., and Scott Keeter. What Americans Know About Politics and Why It Matters. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997. ISBN: 9780300072754.
Gilens, Martin. Why Americans Hate Welfare. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000. ISBN: 022629653.
Herbst, Susan. Numbered Voices: How Opinion Polling Has Shaped American Politics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995. ISBN: 9780226327433.
Holsti, Ole R. Public Opinion and American Foreign Policy. Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 1997. ISBN: 9780472066193.
Iyengar, Shanto, Donald R. Kinder, and Benjamin I. Page. News That Matters. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989. ISBN: 9780226388571.
Kinder, Donald R., and Lynn M. Sanders. Divided by Color: Racial Politics and Democratic Ideals. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997. ISBN: 0226425741.
Kuklinski, James H. Citizens and Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. ISBN: 9780521593762.
Mutz, Daina C. Impersonal Influence: How Perceptions of Mass Collectives Affect Political Attitudes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. ISBN: 9780521637268.
Mackuen, Michael B., and George Rabinowitz. Electoral Democracy. Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 2003. ISBN: 9780472068203.
Mendelberg, Tali. The Race Card. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001. ISBN: 9780691070711.
Page, Benjamin I., and Robert Y. Shapiro. The Rational Public. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992. ISBN: 9780226644783.
Sears, David O., Jim Sidanius, and Lawrence Bobo. Racialized Politics: The Debate about Racism in America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000. ISBN: 9780226744070.
Zaller, John R. The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992. ISBN: 9780521407861.
Readings by Week
| WEEK # | TOPICS | READINGS |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Introduction and Overview of the Course | |
| Preliminaries | ||
| 2 | The Meaning and Measurement of Public Opinion |
Required Readings Herbst, Susan. Numbered Voices: How Opinion Polling Has Shaped American Politics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993, Introduction and chapter 3. Key, V. O. Public Opinion and American Democracy. New York: Knopf, 1961, pp. 3-18. Blumer, Herbert. "Public Opinion and Public Opinion Polling." American Sociological Review 13 (1948): 542-554. Converse, Philip. E. "Changing Conceptions of Public Opinion in The Political Process." Public Opinion Quarterly 51/Supplement (1987): 12-24. Sanders, Lynn M. "Democratic Politics and Survey Research." Philosophy of the Social Sciences 29 (1999): 248-80. Berinsky, Adam J. "Public Opinion in the 1930s and 1940s: The Analysis of Quota Controlled Sample Survey Data." Working Paper (2004), read through pp. 25. Recommended Readings Tilly, Charles. "Speaking Your Mind Without Elections, Surveys, or Social Movements." Public Opinion Quarterly 47 (1983): 461-478. Lippman, Walter. Public Opinion. New York: Free Press Paperbacks (1922), 1997, chapters 1, 3, and 4. Bryce, James. "The Nature of Public Opinion." 1916. Reprinted in Public Opinion and Propaganda. Edited by Katz, D., Dorwin Cartwright, Samuel Eldersveld, and Alfred McClung Lee. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1954, pp. 3-11. Fishkin, James S. The Voice of the People. New Haven, CT.: Yale University Press, 1995. Brehm, John. The Phantom Respondents. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1993. |
| Questions of Competence | ||
| 3 | Political Ignorance: Causes and Effects |
Required Readings Downs, Anthony. An Economic Theory of Democracy. New York: Harper and Row, 1957, chapters 11-13 . Zaller, John. The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992, chapters 2, 3, and 6. Delli Carpini, Michael X., and Scott Keeter. What Americans Know About Politics and Why It Matters. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996, Introduction and chapter 4 . Mondak, Jeffrey. "Developing Valid Knowledge Scales." American Journal of Political Science 45 (2001): 224-238. Lupia, Arthur. "Shortcuts Versus Encyclopedias: Information and Voting Behavior in California Insurance Reform Elections." American Political Science Review 88 (1994): 63-76. Lodge, Milton, Marco R. Steenbergen, and Shawn Brau. "The Responsive Voter: Campaign Information and The Dynamics of Candidate Evaluation." American Political Science Review 89 (1995): 309-26. |
| 4 | The Search for Overarching Principles: Ideology and Political Reasoning |
Required Readings Campbell, Angus, Philip E. Converse, Warren E. Miller, and Donald E. Stokes. The American Voter. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1960, chapter 10 (SKIM!). Converse, Philip E. "The Nature of Belief Systems in the Mass Publics." In Ideology and Discontent. Edited by David Apter. New York: Free Press. Lane, Robert E. Political Ideology: Why the Common Man Believes What He Does. New York: Free Press, 1962, chapters 4, and 22. Achen, Christopher H. "Mass Political Attitudes and the Survey Response." American Political Science Review 69 (1975): 1218-1231. Kinder, Donald R. "Diversity and Complexity in American Public Opinion." In Political Science: The State of the Discipline. Edited by Ada Finifter. Washington, DC: APSA Press, 1983. Zaller, John. The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992, chapters 4, and 5. Converse, Philip. "Assessing the Capacity of Mass Electorates." Annual Review of Political Science 3 (2000): 331-353. |
| Building From the Ground Up: Opinion Ingredients and The Micro-Foundations of Public Preferences | ||
| 5 | Material Interests (Or Symbolic Politics?) |
Required Readings Downs, Anthony. An Economic Theory of Democracy. New York: Harper and Row, 1957, chapters 1-3. Sears, David O., Richard R. Lau, Tom Tyler, and A. M. Allen Jr. "Self-Interest versus Symbolic Politics in Policy Attitudes and Presidential Voting." American Political Science Review 74 (1980): 670-684. Green, Donald Philip, and Jonathan A. Cowden. "Who Protests: Self-Interest and White Opposition to Busing." The Journal of Politics 54 (1992): 471-496. Kinder, Donald, and Roderick Kiewiet. "Sociotropic Politics: The American Case." British Journal of Political Science 11 (1981): 129–41. Kramer, Gerald. "The Ecological Fallacy Revisited: Aggregate - Versus Individual - Level Findings on Economics and Elections, and Sociotropic Voting." American Political Science Review 77 (1983): 92–111. Cambell, Andrea. "Self-Interest, Social Security, and the Distinctive Participation Patterns of Senior Citizens." American Political Science Review 96 (2002): 565-574. Recommended Readings Markus, Gregory B. "The Impact of Personal and National Economic Conditions On the Presidential Vote: A Pooled Cross-Sectional Analysis." American Journal of Political Science 32 (1988): 137-54. |
| 6 | Groups in American Politics: Us and Them |
Required Readings Conover, Pamela J. "The Influence of Group Identifications on Political Perception and Evaluation." The Journal of Politics 46 (1984): 760-784. Converse, Philip E. "The nature of belief systems in mass publics." In Ideology and Discontent. Edited by D. E. Apter. New York: The Free Press, 1964, re-read pp. 234-238. Kinder, Donald R. "Belief Systems after Converse." In Electoral Democracy. Edited by Michael MacKuen and George Rabinowitz. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2003. Sears, David O. et al. Racialized Politics: The Debate About Racism in America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000, chapter 1. Kinder, Donald R., and Lynn M. Sanders. Divided by Color: Racial Politics and Democratic Ideals. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1996, chapters 2, and 5. Mendelberg, Tali. The Race Card, 2001, chapters 1, 6, and 7. Recommended Readings Brady, Henry E., and Paul M. Sniderman. "Attitude Attribution: A Group Basis for Political Reasoning." American Political Science Review 79 (1985): 1061-1078. Dawson, Michael. Behind the Mule: Race and Class in African American Politics. Princeton University Press, 1994. Lee, Taeku. Mobilizing Public Opinion: Black Insurgency and Racial Attitudes in the Civil Rights Era. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002. |
| 7 | Principles and Values |
Required Readings Feldman, Stanley. "Structure and Consistency in Public Opinion: The Role of Core Beliefs and Values." American Journal of Political Science 32 (1988): 416-440. Feldman, Stanley, and John Zaller. "The Political Culture of Ambivalence." American Journal of Political Science 36 (1992): 268-307. Chong, Dennis. "How People Think, Reason, and Feel about Rights and Liberties." American Journal of Political Science 37 (1993): 867-99. Alvarez, R. Michael, and John Brehm. "Are Americans Ambivalent Toward Racial Policies?" American Journal of Political Science 41 (1997): 345-75. Stoker, Laura. "Political Value Judgments." In Citizens and Politics. Edited by James H. Kuklinski Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 433-468. Feldman, Stanley, and Marco Steenbergen. "The Humanitarian Foundations of Public Support for Social Welfare." American Journal of Political Science 45 (2001): 658-677. Recommended Readings Alvarez, R. Michael, and John Brehm. Hard Choices, Easy Answers: Values, Information, and American Public Opinion. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2002. Hochschild, Jennifer L. What’s Fair? American Beliefs about Distributive Justice. Cambridge Harvard University Press, 1981. Luker, Kristin. Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood. Berkely: University of California Press, 1984, chapters 1, 7, and 8. McClosky, Herbert, and Jon Zaller. The American Ethos: Public Attitudes Toward Capitalism and Democracy. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1984. Smith, Rogers. "Beyond Tocqueville, Myrdal, and Hartz: The Multiple Traditions of America." American Political Science Review 87 (1993): 549-566. |
| The World Out There: Society and Politics | ||
| 8 | Social Influence |
Required Readings Huckfeld, Robert, and John Sprague. "Networks in Context: The Social Flow of Political Information." American Political Science Review 81 (1987): 1197-1216. Oliver, Eric, and Tali Mendelberg. "Reconsidering the Environmental Determinants of Racial Attitudes." American Journal of Political Science 44 (2000): 574-589. Mutz, Diana C. Impersonal Influence: How Perceptions of Mass Collectives Affect Political Attitudes. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998, chapters 1, 4, 8, and 9. Berinsky, Adam J. Silent Voices: Public Opinion and Political Representation in America. 2004, chapters 2, and 3. Recommended Readings Krysan, Maria. "Privacy and the Expression of White Racial Attitudes." Public Opinion Quarterly 62 (1998): 506-544. Schuman, Howard, and Jean M. Converse. "The Effect of Black and White Interviewers on Black Responses." Public Opinion Quarterly 35 (1971): 44-68. Tourangeau, Roger, and Tom W. Smith. "Asking Sensitive Questions: The Impact of Data Collection Mode, Question Format, and Question Context." Public Opinion Quarterly 60 (1996): 275-304. |
| 9 | Framing, Priming and Media Effects |
Required Readings Iyengar, Shanto, and Donald Kinder. News that Matters. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987, chapters 1-3, and 6-12. Miller, Joanne, and Jon Krosnick. "News Media Impact on the Ingredients of Presidential Evaluations." American Journal of Political Science 44, no. 2 (2000): 301-15. Nelson, Thomas E., Rosalee A. Clausen, and Zoe M. Oxley. "Media Framing of a Civil Liberties Conflict and Its Effect on Tolerance." The American Political Science Review 91 (1997): 567-83. Gilens, Martin. Why Americans Hate Welfare. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999, chapters 5, and 6. Kinder, Donald R. "Communication and Opinion." Annual Review of Political Science 1 (1998): 167-197. Druckman, Jamie. "The Implications of Framing Effects for Citizen Competence." Political Behavior 23 (2001): 225-256. Recommended Readings Bartels, Larry M. "Messages Received: The Political Impact of Media Exposure." American Political Science Review 87 (1993): 267-285. Zaller, John. "The Myth of Massive Media Impact Revived: New Support for a Discredited Idea." In Political Persuasion and Attitude Change. Edited by Diana C. Mutz, Paul M. Sniderman, and Richard A. Brody. 1996, pp-17-78. |
| 10 | The Miracle of Aggregation and Enlightened Preferences (Is Anyone Right?) |
Required Readings Page, Benjamin I., and Robert Y. Shapiro. The Rational Public: Fifty Years of Trends in American Policy Preferences. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992, chapters 1, 2, 8, and 9. Converse, Philip E. "Popular Representation and the Distribution of Information." In Information and Democratic Processes. Edited by John Ferejohn and James Kuklinski. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois, 1990. Bartels, Larry M. "Uninformed Votes: Information Effects in Presidential Elections." American Journal of Political Science 40 (1996): 194-230. Althaus, Scott L. "Information Effects in Collective Preferences." American Political Science Review 92, no.2 (1996): 545-558. Gilens, Marty. "Political Ignorance and Collective Policy Preferences." American Political Science Review 95 (2001): 379-396. Recommended Readings Stimson, James A. Public Opinion in America. Moods, Cycles, and Swings. 2nd ed. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1999. |
| 11 | Public Opinion and Public Policy |
Required Readings Stimson, James A., Michael B. MacKuen, and Robert S. Erikson. "Dynamic Representation." American Political Science Review 89 (1995): 543-565. Page, Benjamin I., and Robert Y. Shapiro. "Effects of Public Opinion on Policy." American Political Science Review 77 (1983): 175-190. Zaller, John. "Coming to Grips with V. O. Key’s Concept of Latent Opinion." In Electoral Democracy. Edited by Michael MacKuen and George Rabinowitz. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2003. Wlezien, Christopher. "The Public as Thermostat: Dynamics of Preferences for Spending." American Journal of Political Science 39 (1995): 981-1000. Hansen, Mark. "Individuals, Institutions, and Public Preferences over Public Finance." American Political Science Review 92 (1998): 513-531. Bartels, Larry M. "Homer Gets A Tax Cut: Inequality and Public Policy in the Public Mind." Typescript, Princeton University (available from instructor), 2003. Recommended Readings Bartels, Larry M. "Constituency Opinion and Congressional Policy Making: The Reagan Defense Buildup." American Political Science Review 85 (1991): 457-474. Jacobs, Lawrence R., and Robert Y. Shapiro. Politicians Don’t Pander: Political Manipulation and the Loss of Democratic Responsiveness. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000, chapters 1, 2, and 9. |
| 12 | Public Opinion and Foreign Policy |
Required Readings Mueller, John. "Trends in Popular Support for the Wars in Korea and Vietnam." American Political Science Review 65 (1971): 358-75. Modigliani, Andre. "Hawks and Doves, Isolation and Political Distrust: An Analysis of Public Opinion on Military Policy." American Political Science Review 56 (1972): 960-978. Zaller, John. The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992, chapter 9. Hurwitz, Jon, and Mark Peffley. "How Are Foreign Policy Attitudes Structured? A Hierarchical Model." American Political Science Review 81 (1987): 1099-120. Berinsky, Adam J. Silent Voices: Public Opinion and Political Representation in America. Chapter 5. ———. "Public Opinion and World War II." Typescript. Recommended Readings Holsti, Olie. Public Opinion and American Foreign Policy. 1996. |
| Reflections | ||
| 13 | Final Thoughts: The Place of Public Opinion in Democratic Politics |
Required Readings Berelson, Bernard. "Democratic Theory and Public Opinion." Public Opinion Quarterly 16 (1950): 313-330. Bartels, Larry. "Democracy with Attitudes." In Electoral Democracy. Edited by Michael MacKuen and George Rabinowitz. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Key, V. O. Public Opinion and American Democracy. New York: Knopf, 1961, chapter 21. Zaller, John. The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992, chapter 12. Page, Benjamin I., and Robert Y. Shapiro. The Rational Public: Fifty Years of Trends in American Policy Preferences. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992, chapter 10. Verba, Sidney. "The Citizen as Respondent: Sample Surveys and American Democracy." American Political Science Review 90 (1996): 1-7. Berinsky, Adam J. Silent Voices: Public Opinion and Political Representation in America. Conclusion. Recommended Readings Jacobs, Lawrence R., and Robert Y. Shapiro. Politicians Don’t Pander: Political Manipulation and the Loss of Democratic Responsiveness. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000, chapter 10. Ginsberg, Benjamin. The Captive Public. New York: Basic Books, 1986, chapter 3. |