MEETINGS: Monday, Wednesday, Friday 2:00-2:50 in Reed 117

INSTRUCTOR: Dr. John Gamble

OFFICE LOCATION & HOURS: My office is Academic #156.

Mon.: 3:00p-6:00p

Wed. 7:30a-9:30a, 12:30p-1:30p

Fri.: 9:00a-11:30a

Sat. 11:00a-1:00p

Other times are available by appointment. Walk-ins usually are all right, but please ask. Usually I am very easy to find. I am in my office many days including weekends from 7:00a onward.If the door is closed, knock, I may be there. I use a "do not disturb" sign to indicate "crunch times" usually when manuscripts or proposals are due or when I am on a long distance conference call. If I am unable to keep office hours, for example because of meetings, leave a note and we shall find a mutually convenient time.

TELEPHONE and E-MAIL: 898-6291. If I am not there, leave a message on AUDEX. I retrieve messages often. E-mail provides another way to reach me, often very quickly and efficiently. My address is: jkg2@psu.edu

REQUIRED BOOK: W. Phillips Shively, et al., Comparative Governance, 1999. The book has been customized for this course.

PURPOSE of the COURSE: The primary purpose of the course is to intro-duce you to comparative politics, the subfield of political science concerned with patterns, similarities and contrasts among countries. This primary purpose is related to the fact we live in an increasingly interlinked world. Almost any job you get will require an understanding of the world beyond the United States. There are several important secondary purposes. The course will provide practice in writing. Writing skills should be honed as part of a college edu-cation. A signifi-cant portion of your tests will be essays. Pl Sc 3 will try to prepare you for life beyond college. This means (i) following directions; (ii) fostering an openness to points of view different from your own; (iii) learning to find regularity and pattern in a vast body of informa-tion; and (iv) working independently and responsibly.

NATURE and FORMAT of the COURSE: The course material is difficult. We deal with many different countries all of which are moving targets in the sense that important developments will have occurred since the text was com-pleted. Reading assignments are not long. However, you must read the text carefully on time so that I can do my job of explaining, augmenting, synthesizing and updating the material. The broad scope of this course has several implications. I shall use lectures to cover certain mate-rial quickly and more efficiently. Class discussion is encouraged and will affect your grade. There is an unavoidable tug and pull between breadth and depth, e.g., do we focus more on individual countries (there are about 190) or try to discern patterns that might apply to many different countries. Each of you will become an expert-- later I shall explain what I mean by "expert"-- about one of the countries covered in the text: Canada People's Republic of China Republic of Cuba French Republic Russian Federation Republic of South Africa United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Before September 10th, you will need to spend a couple hours in the library and/or on the Internet familiarizing yourself with recent de-velopments.

Knowledge about your country is essential for two distinct reasons:

•structure/policy (S/P) paper You will prepare a brief research paper (1000 - 1500 words) wherein you look at a specific policy in your country and at an aspect of that country's governmental struc-ture that affects the policy you have chosen. Details about this assignment will be provided by October 1st.

• the lens of your country At any point after September 10th, I shall assume you are familiar with your country and can relate it to other countries and to the broad concepts developed in the course.

During the first week of class, you will be assigned country roles, about 10 people per country. Those assigned to the same country will be seated in clusters and will work together as a team. By September 10th, each group will select an advocate who will be principal speaker on the behalf of the country. In general, this means articulating the views and attitudes of the country. For example, I may be lecturing about the United Kingdom (Britain) discussing the new parliament for Scotland. Obviously, all those in the U.K. cluster must be very involved in the discussion, but I might asked the Canadian cluster how this relates to feelings about Que-bec separating from Canada.

The class will have three undergraduate teaching assistants (UTA). These three, Teresa Bailey, Jared Hawk, and Morgan Saeler, have taken the course in the past and done very well in it. Their job is to help make the course more meaningful for you especially when it comes to country role playing.

GRADING, STANDARDS, and EXPECTATIONS

A total of 1,000 possible points exists for the course corresponding to these grades:

 

900-1000	A
800 - 899	B
700 - 799	C
600 - 699	D
Below 600	F

Plus and minus grades will be assigned to reflect "natural breaks" in the grade distribution. Often, if grades run low, cut-off points will be adjusted down. For example, in Winter Semester, 1997, a score of 870 points (87%) was an "A-." In no case, will the cut-off points be shifted to your disadvantage, e.g., if you get 90%, you are assured some "flavor" of "A."

You will be graded on these five elements:

 

Quiz, Fri., Sept. 10th	100 points
Test, Mon., Oct. 18th	150 points
Test, Fri., Nov. 19th	150 points
Optional wildcard exam, Fri., Dec. 3rd	xxx points
S/P papers due Fri., Dec. 10th	200 points
Attendance, participation, pulse quizzes, exercises	150 points
Final exam, as scheduled	250 points

The exact dates of tests may vary slightly, but you always will be notified at least one week in advance. The final exam will be cumulative, although relatively more emphasis will be placed on the material on which you have not already been tested. The wildcard exam can be used to substitute for any earlier test or quiz and usually is the only way to make up a missed test. If you miss a test and do not wish to use the wildcard exam, you must have a very good reason that you convey to me before the fact.

I believe in maintaining high academic standards. I endorse wholeheartedly and follow the School of Humanities and Social Sciences Agreement on Academic Standards and Teaching (as adopted 20 Aug. 1999). This has a number of concrete implications for this course includ-ing the following:

o Academic dishonesty will be dealt with sternly with a minimum penalty of zero for the test or paper involved. The most frequent misunderstanding about dishonesty involves using infor-mation from another source without proper attribution (footnoting). You must give credit for all pertinent information, not just quotations.

o Regular, prompt attendance is expected. If you miss more than a few classes your grade will suffer. It is very disruptive to have students entering sometimes as late as 20 minutes after the class has begun. You should arrive on time; if you are more than few minutes late, sit in the back, not with your country. Attendance is judged in part by "pulse quizzes," so named be-cause having a pulse assures a gentleperson's "B-". There is a temptation to skip class before weekends and vacations; avoid this! We have only 43 class sessions which is too few to cover all the material.

o As noted above, the wildcard exam is available to all of you and will accommodate virtually all problems such as a missed exam because of illness or family emergency. Don't use the wild-card frivolously-- you may need it for a serious problem or to improve your grade.

SCHEDULE: [Dates correspond to the beginning of the week, S = Shively textbook]

Week No. Dates Assignments and "Events"

Week No.	Assignment	Events
1	Aug. 23rd Introduction and expectations-- country assignments, S, 1-25: "comparing" and "power"
	[IMPORTANT: BEFORE THE QUIZ OF SEPT. 10TH, YOU MUST READ THE TEXTBOOK CHAPTER DEALING WITH YOUR ASSIGNED COUNTRY.]
2	Aug. 30th S, 26-85, cohesion, political conflict, decision-making
3	Sept. 6th S, 86-101, state and the economy	Labor Day holiday, Mon., Sept. 6th Quiz, Fri., Sept. 10th
4	Sept. 13th S, 104-146, government of the United Kingdom
5	Sept. 20th finish U.K. (Mon.), S, 148-187, government of France, I
6	Sept. 27th S, 188-207, government of France, II	guest lecturer, Dr. Kathryn Willis Wolfe, Fri., Oct. 1st
7	Oct. 4th S, 314-361, government of China, I	guest lecturer, Dr. Charlotte Ku, Fri., Oct. 8th
8	Oct. 11th S, 361-382, government of China, II	Fall break, Mon., Oct. 11th
9	Oct. 18th S, 208-251, government of Russia/CCCP/Russia, I	Test, Mon., Oct. 18th, 150 points
10	Oct. 25th S, 251-267, government of Russia/CCCP/Russia, II	guest lecturer, Prof. Dr. Plikanov, Fri., Oct. 29th
11	Nov. 1st S, 268-312, government of South Africa
12	Nov. 8th S, 384-428, government of Cuba
13	Nov. 15th S, 430-451, government of Canada I	Test, Fri., Nov. 19th, 150 points
14	Nov. 22nd S, 451-474, government of Canada, II	Thanksgiving holidays, Nov. 24-28
15	Nov. 29th S, 474-498, government of Canada, III	guest lecturer, Hon. P. E. Trudeau, Wed., Dec. 1st Optional wildcard exam, Fri., Dec. 3rd
16	Dec. 6th loose ends, preparation for final
		S/P papers due Fri., Dec. 10th, 200 points Final exam, as scheduled, 250 points

(John King Gamble Home)