Winning Political Support Through Persuasion

Catalog description

The purposes of this course are to introduce students to the comparative study of political systems, some of their parts, and the functioning of those parts, and to develop a capacity for effective, ethical citizenship. Real-world attempts to convince various audiences will be analyzed with respect to their appeals to the emotions of their respective audiences, often through framing the candidacy or policy under consideration in ways intended to stimulate fear, hope, or anxiety in order to command the attention of audiences. The use of words, other symbols, and non-verbal stimuli with strong emotional and normative content will be highlighted. The class will also evaluate efforts to establish credibility with audiences through references to endorsements, demonstrations or claims of expertise, goodwill, and good sense. Lastly, the logical validity of inferences and deductions made in the attempts to convince will be considered so that flattery, manipulation, bargaining, deception, and intimidation can be distinguished from genuine persuasion. So that students might see how characterizations of attempts to convince might be placed into a provisional context, the study is comparative. It will look at attempts in the U.S. as well as some other country. In general, so that the attempts at winning over audiences might be as comparable and as comprehensible as possible, the issue should be as similar as possible and the other country should be Anglophone. Although systems of elections and governance and controversial issues inevitably vary within and between countries, it is possible to find elections and policy controversies with sufficient similarities to make cross-national comparisons of attempts at convincing their respective audiences a fruitful exercise. For example, one might build the course around the televised debates and campaign ads for the mayoral elections in Vancouver and Seattle and the efforts to generate support and opposition to oil pipelines in the two countries. By looking at the different strategies used in attempts to convince elites, the citizenry and parts of the citizenry in the two countries, it is possible to raise questions about the workings of the political systems in the two countries. Specifically, students can examine some of the ways that historical geopolitical, constitutional, economic, and demographic differences between and within the two countries are manifested in the political processes of the two countries. By leading students to consider such questions, this course can induce them to undertake further study that will equip them with the methodological tools to investigate these issues in greater depth. Moreover, by providing students with the basic outlines of well-supported valid inference and challenging them to detect of the most common informal fallacies in efforts to convince and create an outline for their own attempt at political persuasion, PLSC 114 (GS) will help build capabilities that are necessary for responsible and effective and ethical citizenship.