Princeton University
Department of Politics
Politics 542 Power in American Society
Spring 1995
Jennifer L. Hochschild
email: hochschi@wws.princeton.edu

PURPOSE: This seminar on "Power in American Society" has three purposes. The first is informative, in the literal sense of that term; we will read empirical works intending to convey information about the nature and workings of particular power structures and relationships in the United States (and, to some degree, elsewhere). The second purpose is analytic; we will read (sometimes in the same books) theories of power that purport to define and measure it, explain its potentials and limits, and evaluate its causes and consequences. The third purpose is normative; we will explore the virtues and defects of particular definitions of power, and of particular exercises or structures of power, with an eye toward desirable and feasible changes in how we think about power and how power is exercised. My goal is for all of us to conclude this seminar with a clearer sense of the actual workings, conceptual elements, and normative implications of the concept that underlies and unites (if anything does) the discipline of political science.

TASKS: We will read and discuss approximately one book a week (including the first class session); they are listed below.

You will be responsible for being a "Defender of the Text" for one or two sessions (depending on the number of participants). The Defender(s) will read the assigned material with extra care, will perhaps read other material by the same author or other pertinent unassigned material, and will make the best case possible for the argument that the author propounds. This role does not preclude criticism. Authors are usually their own best critic but it does imply that criticism should be "internal" rather than "external". The purpose of this role is to encourage you to escape the classic graduate student dilemma of honing critical skills to a razorsharp edge while leaving constructive skills dull and unpolished.

You will also write two short (8 to 10 page) papers or one long (15-18) page paper. If you choose the first option, the papers will be due roughly in the middle of the semester and at the end of the class sessions. If you choose the second option, it will be due at the end of class sessions (for Politics graduate students) or at the end of reading period (for everyone else). The paper(s) need not involve extensive outside research, but it may include some.

The paper(s) should have empirical, conceptual, and normative content. That is, once you have chosen a specific, wellbounded issue or condition, you should ask the following questions: How does power work in this circumstance? Who exercises it? To what effect? How does this case lead us to conceive of power? Is the power operative in this case measurable, and by what metric? Under what conditions should the power exercised in this case be created, encouraged, resisted, abolished, or otherwise changed?

If you choose to do two short papers, they could be on different topics, covering some of these questions, or on the same topic, each covering different aspects of power.

GRADES in the seminar will be divided roughly into halfs; one half for the paper (one quarter each for two short papers), and one half for class participation. You must complete all the work to pass the course. I reserve the right not to grade in accord with the strictly arithmetic average, so that I can take into account such things as extra (but unsuccessful) effort, trajectory during the semester, unusual circumstances that affect performance, and so on. Class participation will probably weigh more heavily in my evaluation than the papers if there is a discrepancy between the two indicators.

The following BOOKS are available in the UStore and on reserve at Firestone Library (some are also available in the Woodrow Wilson School Library):

Derrick Bell, And We Are Not Saved (New York: Basic Books, 1987)

Robert Caro, The Power Broker (New York: Vintage Books, 1974)

Robert Dahl, Who Governs? (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1961)

Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish (New York: Vintage Books, 1979)

John Gaventa, Power and Powerlessness (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1980)

Eugene Genovese, Roll, Jordan. Roll (New York: Vintage Books, 1976)

David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity (Cambridge MA: Blackwell, 1990)

Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray, The Bell Curve (New York: Free Press, 1994)

Arlie Hochschild, The Second Shift (New York: Viking Books, 1989)

Theda Skocpol, Protecting Soldiers and Mothers (Cambridge: Harvard University Press)

Articles or books not available for purchase will be on reserve at Firestone; we can make arrangements for copying them if people in the class so desire.

TOPICS AND READINGS

February 1: The Classic Theory of Pluralism

Robert Dahl, Who Governs?: chapters 1, 6-10, 12-19, 24-28

February 8: Classic Responses:

Nondecisions and Powerful Individuals

Peter Bachrach and Morton Baratz, "Two Faces of Power," American Political Science Review (1962)

Mathew Crenson, The Unpolitics of Air Pollution (Johns Hopkins Press, 1971): chapters I (pp. 15, 18-34), IV, V, VII

Robert Caro, The Power Broker: Introduction, chapters 8-13, 19-20, 22-24, 28-30, 37-38, 42-43, 45-49

February 15: Classic Responses: The Third Face of Power

John Gaventa. Power and Powerlessness

February 22: Contemporary Responses: NeoInstitutionalism

Theda Skocpol, Protecting Soldiers and Mothers, Introduction, chapters 2, 3, 5, 8, 9, Conclusion

March 1: Contemporary Responses: Structuralism

Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: chapter 1 of Part 1, chaPter 1 of Part 2, Parts 3, 4

March 8: Contemporary Responses: Postmodernism

David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity, Preface, chapters 13, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 14, 17, 19, 21, 25-27

Robert Hollinger, Postmodernism and the Social Sciences (Sage, 1994): chapters 9, 10

March 22: Do Structures Create Gender?

Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Men and Women of the Corporation: Introduction, chapters 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, Appendix 2

Arlie Hochschild, The Second Shift: chapters 13, 1217, and any 5 of chapters 4-11

First short paper due, if you are writing 2 papers

March 29: Does Gender Create Structures?

Joan Scott "Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis," American Historical Review (1986)

Linda Gordon, Pitied But Not Entitled (Free Press, 1994): chapters 1, 3, 6, 9, 10

Nancy Fraser, Unruly Practices (U. of Minnesota Press, chapters 7, 8

April 5: Does Racism Cause Racial Inequality?

Eugene Genovese, Roll, Jordan. Roll:

Preface

Book One

Book Two, Part 1 on "Black Conversion...,"

Preachers," "The Gospel in the Quarters,"

Preachers," and "Religious Foundations..."

Book Two, Part 2

Book Three, Part 1 on "Life in the Big House,

Between," and "A Conclusion..."

Book Three, Part 2 on "Husbands and Fathers,"

Mothers," and "The Children"

Book Four

A Note on Sources

April 12: Does Race Create Structures?

Derrick Bell, And We Are Not Saved:

Introduction

Part I: Prologue, chapters 1, 2, 6

Part II: Prologue, chapter 9

Part III 1989):

Jennifer Hochschild, Facing Up to the American Dream (Princeton U. Press, forthcoming 1995): chapters 4-7

April 19: Knowledge and Power

Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray, The Bell Curve: Preface, Introduction, chapters 4, 5, 6, 9, 11-14, 16, 19, 21, 22, Appendix 1 as needed, Appendices 46 as desired

April 26: The Meaning of Power

Clarence Stone, Regime Politics: Governing Atlanta (University Press of Kansas, 1989): Preface, Part Three

Terry Moe, "Interests, Institutions, and Positive Theory," Studies in American Political Development (1987): 236-299

Douglas Rae, "Power as the Determination of Possible Lives: the Case of Etta Broward," paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, 1989

Second short paper due, if you are writing 2 papers

Long paper due for Department of Politics graduate students

May 9: long paper due for all other students