Syllabus
PS 135 (Analyzing Legislative Elections): The substantive purpose of this course is to understand legislative elections. We will study, for example, what role does money play in elections and why do incumbents do better at the polls. We will also explore results of legislative elections, such as divided government. A more important goal of the course is to develop critical reasoning and analytic skills in studying political phenomena.
Week 1
Lecture notes for first week of class covering a review of the spatial model of politics
Week 2
Lecture notes for second week of class covering electoral rules and strategic voting
Week 3
Lecture notes for third week of class covering voter behavior
Week 4
Lecture notes for fourth week covering the evaluating electoral systems.
Week 5
Lecture notes for fifth week covering political parties
Week 6
Lecture notes for sixth week covering the incumbency advantage
Week 7
Lecture notes for seventh week covering campaigns
Week 8
Lecture notes for eighth week covering polarization
Week 9
Lecture notes for ninth week covering redistricting
Week 10
Lecture notes for tenth week covering campaign finance