American Politics Comprehensive Exam
May 26, 2005
Department of
Politics,
DAY TWO
American Political Behavior
Please answer two of the following questions, one from Part 1 and one from Part 2. You will have four hours to answer the two questions.
Your answers on the Day One and Day Two exams will be evaluated together, so be sure to avoid substantial overlap between the two days in the materials and ideas you discuss.
Each of your answers should employ a wide variety of specific authors and works. Your answers should always focus on the literature at the expense of discussions of a particular election or other event in American politics.
Part 1. Choose one
question from the list below.
1a. Voter turnout rose significantly from 2000 to 2004. How might we explain this increase?
1b. Political scientists certainly spend a lot of time studying voting. What other form of American political engagement deserves to be next in line?
1c. Is American politics is becoming more polarized?
Part 2. Choose one
question from the list below.
1a. Is the American voter rational? Why or why not?
1b. What roles, if any, do the media play in forming American public opinion?
1c. Americans are famously ignorant about politics (and some Americans know even less than others). So what?
1d. Are the links between American public policy and public opinion firm enough so that these links produce a form of political representation?