No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Decision Making and Participation: An Exercise
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 May 2020
Extract
This article describes an exercise in political decisionmaking for use in introductory political science courses. Based upon participatory democratic theory, the exercise is a covert simulation project aimed at providing students with an experiential understanding of the political decisionmaking process. This activity is useful for exposing the latent political structure which underscores most social settings and for allowing a clear analysis of the exercise of power in a small, educational arena; the simulation provides a unique opportunity for combining subject matter and pedagogical technique.
The procedure will be described in some detail, the initial results generated are discussed, the topics related to the experience later in the course are examined, and suggestions for instructor preparation are made. This procedure has been successfully used in undergraduate classes of Introduction to American Government and in Introduction to Political Science over a five year period.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © American Political Science Association 1984
References
1 A Preface to Politics, Second Edition (Lexington, Mass.: D.C. Heath, 1977). A third edition is now available. Blaming the Victim, Rev. ed. (New York: Vintage Books, 1976). Subliminal PoliticsGoogle Scholar (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1980). American Politics and Everyday Life (New York: John Wiley, 1982).
2 The Dispossessed (New York: Avon Books, 1974). See Bucknall, Barbara, Ursula Le Guin (New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing, 1981)Google Scholar for a critical review of Le Guin's novels. In introduction to political science classes, the Le Guin book has proven very helpful in highlighting the political effects of natural resources, the physical environment, child rearing practices, gender roles, the social construction of political reality, and the limitations which politics can place on science, the arts and interpersonal relations.
3 Kariel, Henry, “Becoming Political,” Teaching Political Science, 4 (1976), 53–71CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Kariel, Henry, Saving Appearances (North Scituate, Mass.: Duxbury Press, 1972)Google Scholar.
4 Arendt, Hannah, The Human Condition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1958)Google Scholar.
5 Elden, J. Maxwell, “Political Efficacy at Work: The Connection Between More Autonomous Forms of Workplace Organization and a More Participatory Politics,” American Political Science Review, 75 (1981), 43–58CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Greenberg, Edward, “Industrial Self-Management and Political Attitudes,” American Political Science Review 75 (1981), 29–42CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
6 Merlman, Richard, “Democratic Politics and the Culture of American Education,” American Political Science Review 74 (1980), 319–332CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Fielding, Roger, “The Hidden Curriculum in the Classroom,” Teaching Political Science 8 (1981), 319–338CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
7 Participation and Democratic Theory (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1970). The Political Mind and the Political Environment (New York: Lexington Books, 1975), especially Chapter Six on grassroots activism and political consciousness. Salem, Greta, “Participation and Education: Power Sharing in the Classroom,” Teaching Political Science, 5 (1978), 307–317CrossRefGoogle Scholar.