POLS 4415U - Course Overview

May be considered UGA equivalent at the discretion of student's academic department.

A study of the political and economic implications of environmental problems both on a national and international level.

Text: Sussman, Daynes, and West, American Politics and the Environment, Longman, 2002; Clarke and Cortner, The State and Nature: Voices Heard, Voices Unheard in America's Environmental Dialogue (9th ed.), Prentice Hall, 2002.

Course Overview

Introduction

This course is open to all students, whether or not they are political science majors. The only recommendation is that any student taking the course should have studied U.S. government or U.S. history in some introductory form. However, a motivated, interested student with no background in government or history still can do quite well.

Understanding the politics of environmental policy, both from domestic and global perspectives, is important to every citizen. Domestically, the United States faces serious problems of air and water pollution, potential (and actual) energy shortages, and the growing crisis of toxic waste creation and storage. Internationally, overfishing threatens the oceans, acid rain kills forests and wildlife, global warming and depletion of the ozone layer can destroy the planet’s ecological balance, and overpopulation can eventually widen the resource gap between the wealthier, industrialized nations and the developing countries. Thus, it is imperative for American leaders to forge wise environmental policies that can balance U.S. domestic needs (particularly of an economic nature) with universal, "spaceship earth" ecological priorities. However, as you will discover in this course, there are many obstacles to achieving true environmental solutions—political, economic, social, and cultural, among others.

Specifically, this course will address the following topics:

how and why American environmental policy has varied considerably throughout the nation’s history the individuals who have been prime movers of the environmental movement in American history
the role that interest groups play in environmental policy
how the president, Congress, the executive agencies, the media, the public, the courts, political parties, the states, and international constraints all influence the environmental policy process
the environmental challenges facing both the planet and the United States
the difficulty of truly "solving" contemporary environmental challenges
the relationship between environmental policy and perceived economic costs
the environmental philosophy of George W. Bush’s presidential administration
the difference between liberal and conservative environmentalism
why the imprecision of scientific research adds to the uncertainties over what are truly effective environmental solutions
how environmentalism can be a potent political issue in presidential campaigns

Final Examination and Grading

This course has ten lessons and a final examination. The final examination counts 50 percent of your course grade. Each of the ten lessons counts 5 percent, for a total of 50 percent. The final examination is comprehensive and consists of identifications, short-answer essays, and a longer essay. There will be ten identification questions, each one counting four points. These are followed by a mandatory essay question worth 25 points. You will then be asked to select three essay questions from five choices, with each of these shorter essay questions counting fifteen points. Please note that IDL policy requires that you must pass the final to pass the course, regardless of grades earned on lessons. You are responsible for knowing and abiding by IDL policies and procedures. See your Student Handbook for detailed information.

Grading criteria are as follows:

A = excellent performance
B = good
C = fair
D = poor
F = failure
I = incomplete lesson, requiring further work

Course Research

There are questions in a few of the individual lessons that require outside research using sources (periodicals/books/newspapers/television reports/web sites) that contain information relevant to the area of environmental politics. Specific sources that are readily available are The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Atlanta Constitution, or popular magazines such as Time, Newsweek, or U.S. News and World Report. (If you are enrolled for e-mail lesson submission, you should find articles in the online versions of these periodicals so that you can readily submit them easily with your assignment.) There are many other sources where information can be found regarding enviromental policy. As noted above, a large number of enviromental web sites are found in the Sussman text.