The 2008 Presidential Election
Instructor: Larry Berman, Department of Political Science, College of Letters and Science
Description: This seminar will focus on the 2008 presidential campaign and election. We will begin by looking back at the presidential primaries and caucuses, the role of money in campaigns, Electoral College strategies, roles of the media and the strategic messages of the election. We will also evaluate how electoral rules impact tactics. We will watch and evaluate the presidential debates as a group and spend election night together in a special seminar setting. We will spend out final sessions evaluating the election, looking at possible reforms and assessing issues for the presidential transition.
Format: The seminar will meet two hours each week. Discussion will focus on the reading assignments and contemporary events. I will assign one book for the class: Stephen Wayne, The Road To The White House 2008. Students will also be expected to read the daily New York Times or Washington Post. I expect that we will actively engage one another and place a premium on informed seminar participation. Grading: Grades will be based on seminar participation (30%), student debate presentations (30%) and short (1-2 page) writing assignments (40%) modeled as informed opinion essays.
About the Instructor: Larry Berman is a Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Davis. Among other honors, Berman has been awarded fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the American Council for Learned Societies. He has been a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. and scholar in residence at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Center in Bellagio, Italy. He has received the Outstanding Mentor of Women in Political Science Award from the Women's Caucus for Political Science. He is recipient of the Bernath Lecture Prize, presented annually by the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations to a scholar whose work has most contributed to our understanding of foreign relations and co-recipient of the Richard E. Neustadt Award, given annually for the best book published during the year in the field of the American Presidency. Berman’s research has found an audience beyond the walls of academia on Bill Moyers PBS series, “The Public Mind;” David McCullough’s American Experience, C-SPAN’s Book TV, the History Channel’s “The Presidents: To the Best of My Ability” and NPR’s Morning Edition with Scott Simon. In April 2007 Smithsonian Books/Harper Collins published Perfect Spy: The Incredible Double Life of Pham Xuan An, Time Magazine Reporter and Vietnamese Communist Agent. A complete list of Berman’s publications can be found at http://ps.ucdavis.edu/People/faculty/lsberman/