Tentative Class Schedule

Isaiah 33
22 For the LORD is our judge,
the LORD is our lawgiver,
the LORD is our king;
it is he who will save us.

Harding University Spring 2014

POLS 353/553

Arkansas, State and Local Government

Instructor: Lori Klein	Office: 208 Ganus Building

Contacts/Office Hours: You can reach me, yea verily, in a multitude of ways: Office phone: 279-4375; Home: 279-0628; Courtney, our ever competent and helpful Departmental Secretary: 279-4427; Facebook; e-mail - lklein@harding.edu ; my website - http://www.harding.edu/lklein and the always popular note under the door. I will make my best effort to be in my office for drop-ins on Mondays and Wednesdays from 3:00-5:00 and on Tuesday and Thursday from 2:15-4:45. I will also be keeping office hours by appointment this semester.

Course Objective: The primary objective of the course is to develop a knowledge of state and local government that is deep enough to foster good citizenship, to assist those who chose government as a career or avocation, and to ready those who will be charged with passing along this same knowledge to their own students. This course is designed as an overview of the political and policy making processes of state governments and local governments. Arkansas' state government and local government structures will be used as a point of reference for understanding course concepts.

Texts: David Saffell, State and Local Government: Politics and Public Policies 9th edition. ISBN – 9780073526324

League of Women Voters of Arkansas, Government in Arkansas (2004) ISBN 9-9900003-8-7

Note: The readings are best done prior to the class meeting under which they are listed. Class will begin with a test on underscored, italicized dates.

Tentative Class Schedule (Jan. 10 draft):

FIRST THINGS FIRST:

January 14: Introductions, pre-test and Why should I care? --

What do I know about you, what do you know about me, and what do you know about state and local government?

What's the big deal about Arkansas, or any other state or local government? Also, Federalism - The "Reader's Digest Condensed" version

Catch up on the first day’s reading: Saffell - Chpt. 1, pp. 25-39 and Chpt. 2, pp. 43-54.

STATE GOVERNMENT

January 16: State constitutions -- Or, why is Dr. Tom Howard's picture in the Arkansas state capitol?

Prior to class read: Saffell - Chpt. 2, pp. 67-72 and all of Chpt. 1 of GIA

(Test 1) January 21: The Legislative Branch -- How does a bill become a law, anyway?

Prior to class read: Chpt. 5, pp. 173-192 and Chpt. 2 of GIA

January 23: Legislatures -- The citizen as legislator: Direct Democracy. Also, How to Read a Bill!

Prior to class read: Saffell - Chpt. 4, pp. 147-157

January 28: Legislatures—

Constituents, oversight and auditing, and lobbyists - what they do the other 21 months.

(Test 2) January 31) The Executive -- Is the Governor the state's Chief Executive Officer?

Prior to class read: Saffell - Chpt. 6, pp. 204-221, and Chpt. 3 of GIA

February 4: The Executive Branch -- Cabinets aren't just for kitchens.

Prior to class read: Saffell - Chpt. 6, pp. 221-236

(Test 3) February 6: Bureaucracy, Bureaucrats and Agencies -- Bureaucrat is not a dirty word.

Prior to class read: Chpt. 4 of GIA

February 11: Implementation, where the rubber meets the road. -- How a law becomes a policy.

You may want to get a head start on the next reading. It’s a bit long.

February 13: Col. Carl Grossman, ASI Speaker

(Test 4) February 13: The Judicial Branch -- State judicial structure, judicial selection and qualifications.

Prior to class read: Saffell - Chpt. 7, pp. 252-292 and Chpt. 5 of GIA

February 18: Proposed date for trip to the capitol. This is a TENTATIVE date.

Bonus question: Is this a site visit or a field trip?

February 20: The Judicial Branch -- The impact of federal judicial decisions on state policy.

Prior to class read: Saffell - Chpt. 2 pp. 54-58

February 25: The Judiciary and the Legislature-- An examination of the apportionment process.

Prior to class read: Saffell - Chpt. 5, pp. 165-172

February 27: Tentative Guest Speaker: Judge Robert Edwards

"Me and My State and Local Government" research assignment is due.

LOCAL GOVERNMENTS

(Test 5+6) March 4: Introduction to local government-- Grass roots democracy in action.

Prior to class read: Chpt. 6 of GIA

March 6: TBA Tentative Guest Speaker - City

Spring Break! March 8-16

March 18, Dr. Ben Carson ASI Speaker

March 18: City Government

Prior to class read: Saffell - Chpt. 6, pp. 236-247

March 20: County Government -- Who's who and what do they do?

Prior to class read: Saffell - Chpt. 5, pp. 192-198

(Test 7) March 25: Test and TBA Tentative Guest Speaker – County+City!

Might want to get a head start on next week’s readings!

March 27: What are you doing on my land? -- Land use, "takings" and urban sprawl

Prior to class read: Saffell - Chpt. 8, plus Land Use Handouts

April 1: Tentative Guest Speaker – Coleman Yoakum, Urban Local Government and Land Use Issues

Constitution Extra Credit Quiz is open in the Testing Center from March 3 – April 4

April 3: TBA: Land Use Readings or Tentative Guest Speaker – Education

April 8 : Education -- The biggest piece of the pie!

Prior to class read: Saffell - Chpt. 10, pp. 361-37 and Chpt. 9 of GIA

WAYS AND MEANS

(Test 8) April 10: Revenue and Spending--

Prior to class read: Saffell - Chpt. 9, and Chpt. 10 of GIA

April 15: Budgets -- A million here, a million there, and soon you're talking real money.

April 17: Budget Application

POLITICS

(Test 9) April 22: Tentative Guest Speaker – Victoria Chittam, Municipal Budgeting

The next readings are HUGE. I’d start now if I were you!

April 24: Politics -- Political parties and their local affiliates, and Elections

Prior to class read: Saffell – all of Chpt. 3, and Chpt. 4, pp. 106-117 ?????? and 141-147, plus Chpts. 7 and 8 of GIA

April 29: TBA Tentative Guest Speaker – Bruce Alt, Lobbyist

(Test 10) May 1: Test 10 and Post test/Review for the final and Question Time.

Bonus question: Where is "Question Time" a political institution?

Meeting notes are due May 1st.

May: Final Exam – Thursday, May 8th 3:30-5:30

Top Ten Ways to Irritate the Woman who Grades Your Papers

Confuse legislation, legislator and legislature.

Ignore standard rules of capitalization, and then be inconsistent with the system you have created for yourself.

Leave a poor, defenseless question hanging at the bottom of a page, disconnected forever from its loving answer which follows. (Technically, these are called ‘orphans’. They bug me.)

Start the numbering for your footnotes over with each page. Give me a Works Cited instead of a Bibliography. Use parenthetical citations instead of footnotes. In other words, ignore my simple request that you use standard, Turabian style citation.

Ignore the fact that democratic is a form of governance and Democratic is a political party indicator.

Refer to European explorers as the “first Arkansans.”

Don’t number your pages. And be sure to delete the numbers for each question in order to make my job more challenging. I love challenges…

Refer to your state legislature as “Congress”. And be sure to tell me the names of your federal congressman when I ask for your State Representative. Also, it is possible that your State House has 435 members, but I doubt it.

Don’t bother with a cover sheet and please, don’t trouble yourself to have stapled the pages together if you didn’t use a folder. I need a little more di-organization in my life. And I know that I asked you to mark each source with the footnote number and to present them in footnote order, but that will just make it easier for me to confirm your sources and check on your citations. Easier is just another word for weaker, right? Just toss ‘em all in a pile, and be sure to leave a few out for good measure.

Go ahead, plagiarize.