Please select the lecture that you wish to see.
Lecture One
: Attitudes Toward Politics
Lecture Two
: Competing Visions of Democracy
Lecture Three
: The Framers and Their Constitution: Racist, Sexist, Undemocratic (And Brilliant?)
Lecture Four:
Madison and his Opponents Speak from the Grave
Lecture Five:
American Values:Consensus or Dissensus?
Lecture Six:
American Values in Conflict: Civil Rights/Civil Liberties and the Bill of Rights
Lecture Seven:
Federalism and the Continuing Debate Over Centralization and the American Government
Lecture Eight:
Media and Politics: Analyzing the News Media
Lecture Nine:
The Perils of Polling
Lecture Ten:
How Political Scientists Think Differently From Journalists and Why the Political Scientists are Right(Of Course!)
Lecture Eleven:
Public Opinion and the Parties: The Breakdown of the New Deal Coalition, The Rise of the Gender Gap And the Importance of Latinos in the Future Party System
Lecture Twelve:
Parties: Why So Weak? Why So Few?
Lecture Thirteen:
Interest Groups: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly
Lecture Fourteen:
How an Idea becomes a Bill, How a Bill Becomes a Law, How a Law becomes a Regulation and How it Affects Your Life OR How hard it is to Get Things Done in American Government Thanks in Part to Mr. Madison
Lecture Fifteen:
The Problem of Presidential Power
Lecture Sixteen:
Congress: Centralization and Decentralization
Lecture Seventeen:
Congress: Institutional Incentives, Individual Effects
Lecture Eighteen:
The U.S. Legal System
Lecture Nineteen:
Dictators in Black Robes? The Supreme Court and American Democracy
Lecture Twenty:
Ten Things I Hope You Will Take Away From This Course (And Use in Your Life in Politics)
Tom Burke,
tburke@wellesley.edu
The Department of Political Science
Date created: July 5, 1999
Date modified: November 26, 1999
Page expires: July 5, 2000