Area Politics C（Interest Groups in Elections in American Politics)

Description

The U.S. electoral system includes weak and fragmented parties and powerful and independent interest groups.  This course will introduce students to the role of interest groups in American elections, and also in the policymaking that follows elections.    We will study the way that American law and culture affects interest group participation in elections, and the trends in group involvement.  We will also study the things that interest groups do to influence elections, from endorsements to volunteer activity to contributions and even to independent advertising.

The instruction will be all in English.

The lectures will be done intensively during the summer break.
There might be a few introductory lectures at the end of April, perhaps on 29th.
The rest will be in late July and early August. There should be an announcement on the schedule by mid-April.

(This lecture is made possible by the generous support from the Shibusawa Ei’ichi Memorial Foundation, commemorating the 90th anniversary of the establishment of the A. Barton Hepburn Professorship in American Constitution, History, and Diplomacy, currently called American Political and Diplomatic History, at the Faculty of Law, the University of Tokyo.)

Course materials

Interest Groups in American Campaigns: The New Face of Electioneering (2nd edition) – Mark Rozell, Clyde Wilcox, and David Madland, CQ Press.