Sociology 9N Rev 12/1/ 2024

Title: The 2024 US election, understanding the national, participating in the local

Number of units: 3

Mondays and Wednesdays, 1:30-2:50P
Building 160, room 323

Quarter offered: Fall quarter, 2024

Instructor: Michael Rosenfeld, Professor of Sociology

Specific Soc 9N information (including reading questions, class community guidelines, directions for presenters and directions for papers are here).

Additional class material on Canvas

Goals:
In this class we will read and discuss the literature on voting, voting rights, public opinion polling, and elections. The class will have a field component, as students will not only be obligated to register to vote (if they are eligible), but also make phone calls or canvass in person to talk to citizens about some issue or candidate. Students will have the opportunity to pick any candidate (local, state, or national), any party, and any nonpartisan issue or group (such as ballot measures, the League of Women Voters, the Environmental Defense Fund, the National Rifle Association, nonpartisan voter registration drives, etc.) that they want. Political persuasion only makes sense if the person doing the persuading believes in the candidate or cause.

Students will learn to understand the election system through participation. Each student will pick an issue or candidate, and then the students will phone call (or canvass in person) around that issue or candidate and learn about what their fellow citizens have to say about their chosen issue. Professor Rosenfeld will help students of all political persuasions to find phone canvassing opportunities. Students will present a post-mortem about their chosen candidate or issue after the November elections are over.

It is certain that we in this class will not all be supporting the same candidates. We will always show respect to each other regardless of our partisan differences. We all required to observe the Chatham House rule, which mean that while you may talk to people outside of class about what happens inside of class, you may not name anyone inside of class to anyone outside of class. That ensures that we can have open discussions inside of class.

The situation we are in: The world is not normal right now. If the world-wide craziness is interfering with your ability to get things done, reach out to me and we will find an accommodation as best we can.

Masking: I am going to wear a mask in class, but masking will be optional for students.

Students with Disabilities:
Students with disabilities that may necessitate an academic accommodation must initiate a request with the Stanford Office of Accessible Education, https://oae.stanford.edu/.
If you need accommodations, please share your OAE letter with Professor Rosenfeld early in the quarter.

The Honor Code:
Students are responsible for understanding the University’s Honor Code policy and must make proper use of citations of sources for writing papers, creating, and presenting their work, and doing research. For tips on how to uphold the honor code in an online learning environment, read these recommendations. If you have any questions regarding this policy, please contact me.

Readings: There are two required books, both on reserve at the Green library and available for purchase at the bookstore. I recommend buying these two books. We read these books in the beginning of the quarter so make sure you have them, or have easy access to them. You can read them piece by piece through the library online, but the physical versions are easier to read (and the library versions may only be accessible to one student at a time).

General history and theory of American democracy:

*Dahl, Robert. 1989. Who Governs? Democracy and Power in an American City. Available Online at Stanford Libraries. https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/13055255

Theory and evidence of what influences voter turnout:

* Green, Donald P. and Alan S. Gerber. 2024. Get Out the Vote: How to Increase Voter Turnout. Washington, DC. Brookings Institution. Fifth Edition. The Fourth edition is available online at the library, here.

On Political lies:

*Allcott, Hunt, and Matthew Gentzkow. 2017. "Social Media and Fake News in the 2016 Election." Journal of Economic Perspectives 31 (2):211-236. Online here.

* Arendt, Hannah. 1971. "Lying in Politics: Reflections on the Pentagon Papers." The New York Review of Books, November 18 1971. https://www-nybooks-com.stanford.idm.oclc.org/articles/1971/11/18/lying-in-politics-reflections-on-the-pentagon-pape/

*Vosoughi, Soroush, Deb Roy, and Sinan Aral. 2018. "The Spread of True and False News Online." Science 359:1146-1151. Online here.

On felon disenfranchisement:

*Chris Uggen, Ryan Larson, and Sarah Shannon. 2016. 6 Million Lost Voters. https://www.sentencingproject.org/app/uploads/2022/08/6-Million-Lost-Voters.pdf

* And see this 2024 update by Nicole Porter et al “Out of Step: US Policy on Voting Rights in Global Perspective” at https://www.sentencingproject.org/publications/out-of-step-u-s-policy-on-voting-rights-in-global-perspective/

* Christopher Uggen, Mischelle Van Brakle, and Heather McLaughlin. 2009. “Punishment and Social Exclusion: National Differences in Prisoner Disenfranchisement.” Pages 59-78 in Criminal Disenfranchisement in an International Perspective, edited by Alec Ewald and Brandon Rottinghaus. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Available online at Stanford libraries, https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/13517064

On Voter Fraud:

*Ansolabehere, Stephen, Samantha Luks, and Brian F. Schaffner. 2015. "The perils of cherry picking low frequency events in large sample surveys." Electoral Studies 40:409-410. https://www-sciencedirect-com.stanford.idm.oclc.org/science/article/pii/S0261379415001420

*Goel, Sharad, Marc Meredith, Michael Morse, David Rothschild, and Houshmand Sirani-Mehr. Forthcoming. "One Person, One Vote: Estimating the Prevalence of Double Voting in U.S. Presidential Elections." American Political Science Review.https://5harad.com/papers/1p1v.pdf

* Levitt, Justin. 2007. "The Truth about Voter Fraud." New York: Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law School. https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/truth-about-voter-fraud
* Levitt, Justin. 2014. "A Comprehensive Investigation of Voter Impersonation finds 31 Credible Incidents out of One Billion Ballots Cast." The Washington Post, August 6, 2014. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/08/06/a-comprehensive-investigation-of-voter-impersonation-finds-31-credible-incidents-out-of-one-billion-ballots-cast/

*Richman, Jesse T., Gulshan A. Chattha, and David C. Earnest. 2014. "Do non-citizens vote in U.S. elections?" Electoral Studies 36:149-157. https://www-sciencedirect-com.stanford.idm.oclc.org/science/article/pii/S0261379414000973

On Shelby County:

* The Shelby County v. Holder decision (https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=301092622958164034) and its aftermath, i.e. “How Shelby County v. Holder” broke America, by Vann R. Newkirk in the Atlantic, https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/07/how-shelby-county-broke-america/564707/

* Blackshear, James, and Lani Guinier. 2014. "Free at Last: Rejecting Equal Sovereignty and Restoring the Constitutional Right to Vote Shelby County v. Holder." Harvard Law and Policy Review 8 (1):39-70. https://heinonline-org.stanford.idm.oclc.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/harlpolrv8&id=39&collection=journals&index=

* Rachel Lears, Director. Knock Down the House (2019). Featuring Alexandria Occasio-Cortez. Available on Netflix.

On Political Polarization:

Baldassarri, Delia, and Andrew Gelman. 2008. "Partisans Without Constraint: Political Polarization and Trends in American Public Opinion." American Journal of Sociology 114 (2):408-446. https://www-jstor-org.stanford.idm.oclc.org/stable/pdf/10.1086/590649.pdf

Lord, Charles G., Lee Ross, and Mark R. Lepper. 1979. "Biased Assimilation and Attitude Polarization: The Effects of Prior Theories on Subsequently Considered Evidence." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 37 (11):2098-2109. https://psycnet-apa-org.stanford.idm.oclc.org/fulltext/1981-05421-001.pdf

Assignments and grades:
Students will sign up for days to present. Papers will be due before class when there is a reading assignment. Students decide which class readings to write about. The purpose of the short essays is to bring students to class ready to talk about the readings, so you must turn in the paper before class and you must also attend class to get credit for the short essay. Short essays and class presentations occur on different days, and cover different readings.

2 short paper assignments of 2-3 pages (or best 2 papers if you turn in more than 2)	20%
Registering to vote and voting (if eligible)	10%
In-class presentation on your candidate or issue before the election	15%
In-class presentation post-election analysis about why your candidate or issue won or lost	15%
One in-class presentation on a reading (or your best grade out of 2 in-class presentations)	20%
Regular in-class participation, including reports on phone or in-person canvassing work	20%

Week 1	Reading Assignment	In Class	Student presenters
Sept 23		Introduction to class
Sept 25	On democratic theory. Reading: Dahl, Who Governs? Book I and II, chapters 1-12	discuss democracy theory

Week 2
Sept 30	On Democratic theory. Dahl’s Who Governs? finish the book	discuss democracy theory
Oct 2		Students introduce their chosen issue and campaign

Week 3
Oct 7	On how campaigns work: Green and Gerber Get Out the Vote, read the whole book	discuss the evidence of what works (and what doesn’t work) in getting out the vote, and why, and how we know what works
Oct 9		Students describe their first phone canvassing experiences

Week 4
Oct 14	* Shelby County v Holder (US Supreme Court decision) * Newkirk in the Atlantic * Blackshear and Guinier	Discuss the state of voting rights now.
Oct 16		Pre-election First group of students present both sides of their chosen election and issues and then explain why they support one side.

Week 5
Oct 21	* Allcott, Hunt, and Matthew Gentzkow. * Vosoughi et al * Arendt 1971	Discussion of political lies and their impact
Oct 23		Pre-election second group of students present both sides of their chosen election and issues and then explain why they support one side.

Week 6
Oct 28	* Richman et al * Ansolabehere et al * Levitt 2007 report, The Truth about Voter Fraud * Levitt 2019 article * Goel et al, One person One Vote	Discussion of the evidence of Voter fraud in the US
Oct 30		Discussion of what is on your ballot

Week 7
Nov 4	No class: canvassing day!
Nov 5	Election Day!
Nov 6		Elections initial post-mortem

Week 8
Nov 11	Netflix Movie Knock down the House.	On running for office and campaigning
Nov 13	Zoom class (or no class)	More elections post-mortem

Week 9
Nov 18	A report and a paper by Uggen on felon disenfranchisement	Discussion of felon disenfranchisement and re-enfranchisement. Also, a discussion of polling
Nov 20		Post-election presentation, group 1.

Nov 25	Thanksgiving Recess, no class
Nov 27	Thanksgiving Recess, no class

Week 10
Dec 2	Lord et al and Baldassari and Gelman on political polarization	Discussion of political polarization and: Post-election presentation, group 2
Dec 4		Post-election presentation group 3