POL 562 - Passionate Politics: Mobilization, Interest Groups, and Social Movements

This course discusses political mobilization: the factors that motivate political involvement and the consequences that high levels of public engagement have on elections and the development of public policy. The course begins with several high profile examples of citizen engagement that have had noticeable impacts on American politics. This first section also includes a discussion of the various ways in which Americans can be mobilized from involvement in election campaigns to the distribution of political information via social networks. The course then shifts focus to cover the psychology of political mobilization in detail, including the importance of group memberships and identities, emotions, and values. An entire unit of the course is devoted to the psychology of group membership in which the mobilizing power of identities and the role of politically motivating emotions are discussed at length. Finally the last section of the course is devoted to specific examples of political mobilization in the U.S., including highly polarized partisan politics. Overall, the course is designed to illuminate the psychology of political mobilization and apply these principles to contemporary American politics. POL 562 will not count towards the fulfillment of the PSPMA degree requirements if you have taken POL 402, Topic: Passionate Politics.

3 credits

Prerequisite(s): Admission to PSPMA program or permission of instructor.

Grading Letter graded (A, A-, B+, etc.)