American Political Development Spring 2002
Take-Home Final Examination
Instructions:
Answer one of the questions below in an essay of not more than ten pages. Be sure to indicate the number of the question you are answering. Please follow standard formatting conventions - one-inch margins, 12-point font, double-spaced typing. Your essay should be based primarily on assigned course readings. Be sure to cite sources, using any standard system of citation. Grading will be based on content, organization, and writing quality.
The essay is due May 20th. You may leave it in my mail box in the graduate program office by 4 PM. As an alternative, you may mail it to my home address: 284 Kent Place Blvd., Summit, NJ 07901. If you mail it, it must arrive by May 20th. I will not accept exams via fax or e-mail attachment. Please include a self-addressed envelope large enough for the paper so that I can return it to you with comments.
Unless you have a valid, documented excuse, you must submit the exam
on time. As indicated on the syllabus, if I do not receive the final exam
by the due date you cannot receive an incomplete or a passing grade.
Questions:
1. Evaluate the contribution of rational-choice scholarship to our understanding
of American political development.
2. Contrast and compare the sectional analysis of American political
development offered by Richard Bensel and Peter Trubowitz.
3. Contrast and compare two works that examine the role of ideas in
American politics from a historical perspective.
4. Explain and evaluate the role of political parties in American political
development.
5. Several scholars have stressed the importance of overlapping orders
and the friction between them for understanding state formation in the
United States. Assess the contribution made by two works that stress overlapping
orders.
6. Contrast and compare two works that stress continuity in American
political development.
7. Explain and evaluate the role of race in American political development.