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Political Research Seminar (395-0-21)

Topic

Can Civil Society Be Rebuilt?

Instructors

Daniel Galvin
847 491 2641
2001 Sheridan Road, 3174
Office Hours: By appointment only

Meeting Info

2001 Sheridan POLI SCI 3228: Thurs 2:00PM - 4:50PM

Overview of class

Over the last fifty years, many of the membership organizations that have long taught ordinary Americans valuable civic skills and given people a voice in politics—neighborhood associations, unions, congregations, fraternal orders, and groups people form around a common cause—have withered or disappeared. What explains their decline? What, if anything, might be done about it? Many such organizations were built on the exclusion of Black Americans, women, and others. Can they be rebuilt on more inclusive terms?

Despite this decline, people keep trying to organize. Workers who lack collective bargaining rights or find it virtually impossible to unionize have launched nonprofit "worker centers" and operated them out of storefronts. Renters have organized tenant associations. Congregations have joined together to mobilize their members into politics. And yet, something is getting in the way. In this seminar, we will weigh several possible explanations, from technological change and stagnant wages to changes in tax law and the priorities of philanthropic foundations.

We will also ask: what distinguishes the organizations that are still vibrant and building power for their members today? Who is doing this work on the left and on the right? For their research project, each student will choose one organization that has received little or no scholarly attention, learn to find and make sense of its records and tax filings, and write an original paper reconstructing how it developed over time in the context of its field. Students will also keep a running appendix that records honestly, with dead ends included, how the research actually unfolded.

In addition to the research paper and appendix, students will be graded on research memos, weekly reading annotations, a final presentation, and seminar participation. Students will also meet one-on-one with the professor and give and receive feedback in peer workshops. Generative AI use is strictly limited in all written work, and the course is designed so that the research has to be your own: your evidence appendix, memos, and one-on-one meetings will show how your project developed.

Registration Requirements

Majors/Minors only
Junior/Seniors only

Learning Objectives

At the end of this course, students will be able to:

  1. Compare and evaluate competing explanations for the decline of membership organizations in the United States.
  2. Critically assess a scholarly argument, identifying where its evidence is thin and its concepts are stretched.
  3. Locate and interpret organizational records, including IRS Form 990 filings, to reconstruct the history of a civic organization.
  4. Design and carry out an original case study that situates a single organization within its field and tests it against existing theoretical frameworks.
  5. Document a research process transparently and defend findings in an oral presentation.

Evaluation Method

Research paper (about 15 pages): 35%
Evidence appendix documenting the research process: 15%
Research memos (five short memos across the quarter): 15%
Presentation and service as respondent to a classmate: 15%
Reading annotations (credit/no credit): 10%
Participation in seminar discussion: 10%

Class Materials (Suggested)

N/A. All readings are available in PDF.

Class Attributes

Advanced Expression