POLITICAL SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

Fall 1995 Course Description and Readings

DANA WARDSANDY PETERS

This course examines how environmental policy is created through the political process and how governments implement environmental policy. We will study the legislative process, regulatory bodies, intergovernmental relations, public opinion formation, interest group lobbying, grassroots environmental movements and various environmental topics.

This course will combine lectures, discussion and computer lab sessions. Lectures will not always coincide with the reading, but the reading is designed to give you the background necessary to discuss environmental policy making. It is essential that you complete the reading assignment by class-time in order to understand the lecture and to participate in the discussions. Most of the reading will be on the internet.

To keep well informed about environmental issues and government policy, it will be necessary to read newspapers regularly. You will be shown how to subscribe to electronic newsgroups and to access a wide variety of electronic newspapers from around the world. You will be required to keep a reading log of articles read, including both assigned readings and news readings.


CONTENT COURSE REQUIREMENTS

Grades will be assigned on the basis of the following criteria:

1) Quizzes will constitute 20% of your content grade: There will be several "surprise" quizzes covering readings, news events and previous lectures. In order to do well, you will have to take notes on lectures, review the readings, and take note of major news events before every class. These quizzes will not be announced and are designed to insure that you regularly keep up with course assignments.

2) Two "Position Papers" will constitute 20% percent of your content grade: The "Position Papers" can be no longer than two pages each. Each position paper will examine a different environmental issue. In the position paper, you must identify the controversy surrounding the issue, summarize the status of that controversy, briefly summarize a government's policy on the issue and, finally, make a specific recommendation concerning what policy should be pursued in order to deal with the environmental issue. You can find useful information and tools for this paper here.

3) A Reading log will constitute 20% of you content grade. You are required to turn in a weekly reading log. The log should list all the materials you have read during the week for this course, and each article or section of a book should be characterized in at least a sentence or two. The more elaborate you are in your log, the easier it will be to write the papers. As a rough guide, you should be reading a minimum of two hours for each content hour of class time. If you are a serious student, of course, more than two hours per content hour will be necessary to explore a topic to your satisfaction. A very good tool for your reading log can be found by clicking here, and the APA style guide can be found here. An excellent source on how to cite electronic references is here.

4) Forty percent of your content grade will be based on two exams, one covering the first half of the course, and one covering the second half of the course. There will be no final exam. The exam will be in a short answer format.


5). Internews Subscriptions: You are also required to subscribe (it's free) to the appropriate bulletin boards on "internews", the interface for reading "usenet". We will go over how to subscribe in class. Each week, you must forward at least one article you have read on a clari.news bulletin board dealing with your topics. Of course, you should list these articles in your reading log and you may use the material for your position papers.


ENGLISH COURSE REQUIREMENTS

The English part of the course is designed to help students develop their ability to comprehend important concepts discussed in the course, express their ideas about these concepts and develop their overall language proficiency, academic study skills, and critical thinking skills. Students will be required to participate in a variety of activities involving academic reading and vocabulary and grammar development, writing, listening, and speaking.


GRADING SUMMARY

CONTENT REQUIREMENTS: (50% OF TOTAL GRADE)


QUIZZES = 20% POSITION PAPERS = 20% READING LOG = 20% EXAMS = 40%

ENGLISH REQUIREMENTS (50% OF TOTAL GRADE)




READINGS

Useful Environmental Resources
Sept 1: Orientation

Sept 4: Congressional Quarterly, The U.S. Congress

Sept 6: Congressional Quarterly, How a Bill Becomes A Law
Optional reading: For more details see: How Our Laws Are Made

Sept 8: Congressional Quarterly, "The GOP Sets Congress On A New
Regulatory Course"

Sept 11: Congressional Quarterly, The Environmental Movement at 25

Sept 13: Read any article in "E"

Sept 18: Continue reading assignments from previous week and for next week.

Sept 20: Continue reading assignments from previous week and for next week.

Sept 22: Continue reading assignments from previous week and for next week.

Sept 25: Danziger, The World of Politics, "Politics as a Value Allocation
Process", pp. 222-239.

Sept 27:

Sept 29:

Oct 2: Continue Reading Danziger, and read news articles on ENN.
(Requires registration. Follow on-line directions.)

Oct 4: Read news articles on ENN.
Be sure to read this!

Oct 6: Read news articles on ENN.
And Read this!!

Oct 9: Continue reading news articles

Oct 13: Continue reading news articles

Oct 16: Danziger, The World of Politics, "Political Actions", pp.60-71.

Oct 18: Read news articles on ENN..

Oct 20: Read news articles on ENN..

Oct 23: Papers Due. No Readings

Oct 25: Read news articles on ENN.

Oct 27: Read news articles on ENN.
First Midterm

Oct 30: Read news articles on ENN.

Nov 1: Read news articles on ENN.

Nov 6: Begin Reading Section 1 of Political Ecology

Nov 8: Continue reading Section 1 of Political Ecology

Nov 10: Continue reading Section 1 of Political Ecology

Nov 13: Continue reading Section 1 of Political Ecology

Nov 15: Finish reading Section 1 of Political Ecology

Nov 17: Begin reading Section 2 of Political Ecology

Nov 20: Continue reading Section 2 of Political Ecology

Nov 22: Continue reading Section 2 of Political Ecology

Nov 24: Continue reading Section 2 of Political Ecology

Nov 27: Finish reading Section 2 of Political Ecology

Nov 29: Begin reading Section 3 Political Ecology

Dec 1: Continue reading Section 3 Political Ecology

Dec 4: Continue reading Section 3 Political Ecology

Dec 6: Continue reading Section 3 Political Ecology

Dec 8: Continue reading Section 3 Political Ecology

Dec 11: Continue reading Section 3 Political Ecology

Dec 13: Finish reading Section 3 Political Ecology

Dec 15: Second Midterm