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131
Introduction to Comparative
Government and Politics
3 credits
TR 11:40-12:55
Herring, R.
This course provides a survey of the institutions, political processes,
and policies of contemporary states. It focuses on the conditions for
and workings of democracy. Looking at Western Europe, we will analyze
institutional variations among liberal democracies, and their political
implications. We will then probe the origins of democracy in Western societies
and the reasons why communism and other forms of authoritarian rule have
prevailed elsewhere. Finally, we will explore the impetus behind and the
obstacles to democratization in the Third World and the erstwhile Communist
Bloc. Throughout this survey, problems of democracy will be related to
problems of economic development, efficiency, and equality.
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161
Introduction to Political
Philosophy
3 credits
MW 2:55-4:10
Kramnick, I.
A survey of the development of Western political theory from Plato to
the present. Readings from the works of the major theorists. An examination
of the relevance of their ideas to contemporary politics.
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215
Gender, Nationalism, and
War
4 credits
TR 10:10-11:25
Evangelista, M.
Enrollment is limited to 15 students. While not restricted to sophomores
this course is intended to offer students, especially sophomores, an opportunity
to work closely with faculty in a seminar environment within a strong
interdisciplinary context. What is the relevance of gender to nationalism,
conflict, and war? The association of hostility, aggression, and bloodshed
with masculinity—and conciliation and peace-seeking with female attributes—repeatedly
surfaces in portrayals of militaries and violent strife. The concept of
the nation is inextricably linked to images of motherhood (the motherland,
the mother language, etc.), but violent defense of the nation has traditionally
been understood as a masculine endeavor. In this course, we examine works
in several disciplines and media and evaluate generalizations that link
gender, nationalism, and war. Our texts include novels and films, as well
as political and sociological writings. Students will read Virginia Woolf’s
Three Guineas and Joshua Goldstein’s War and Gender (a political
science survey). They will see films such as the Battle of Algiers and
Prisoner of the Mountains—a Russian film based on the war in Chechnya,
but which draws on Tolstoi’s stories, which the students will also
read. Because the course emphasizes writing, students will have the opportunity
to experiment with a wide range of styles, from visual analysis of the
films to political research. Among the questions we explore are: How does
the political formation of gender identity occur? How do gender identities
shape the objectives and techniques of nationalist movements and state
power and how are they deployed by the state? We will reflect on these
questions both theoretically and in the context of particular episodes
of violent nationalist or ethnic conflict—in the former Yugoslavia,
in the Chiapas region of Mexico, in Afghanistan, and elsewhere.
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222
Controversies About Inequality
1-3 credits
MW 2:55-4:10
Prof. Grusky (see Dept. of Sociology)
This course introduces students to contemporary debates and controversies
about the underlying structure of inequality, the processes by which it
is generated and maintained, the mechanisms through which it comes to
be viewed as legitimate, natural, or inevitable, and forces making for
change and stability in inequality regimes. These topics are addressed
through readings, class discussion, visiting lectures from distinguished
scholars of inequality, and debates staged between faculty who take opposing
positions on pressing inequality-relevant issues (e.g., welfare reform,
school vouchers, immigration policy, affirmative action). Although this
course is required for students in the Inequality Concentration, it is
also open to other students who have completed prior coursework relevant
to issues of inequality.
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274
History of the Modern Middle
East in the 19-20th centuries
3 credits
MWF 10:10-11:00
Campos, M.
This course surveys the history, politics, and society of the Middle East
from World War I until the present day. We will think critically about
the transformation of the Middle East from autonomous Islamic empires
to colonized mandates to post-colonial states; the development of collective
identities such as nationalism, pan-Arabism, and Islamism; the formation
and mobilization of social classes and changing gender relations; the
Middle East through the lens of the Cold War and subsequent American hegemony;
revolution, war, and civil strife; and popular culture.
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301
Public Opinion & Amer.
Demo.
4 credits
TR 11:40-12:55
Winter, N.
This course will examine public opinion and assess its place in the American
political system. The course will emphasize both how citizens thinking
about politics is shaped, and the effects public opinion has on political
campaigns, elections and government. The course will examine research
on the current state of public opinion. Throughout the course we will
also discuss historical developments in opinion and its place in politics,
including changes that arose with the development of polling and with
the advent of television and other electronic media. We will also consider
normative questions, including the role opinion should play in American
democracy.
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304
Women & Politics
4.0 credits
MWF 10:10-11:00
Martin, S.
This course relies on case studies to examine gender and politics from
a comparative perspective. We will explore how political and economic
transformations impact gender norms and family structures, thereby posing
new challenges for governments in the ongoing tasks of nation-building
and construction of a national identity. Topics covered within this course
include, but are not limited to 1) the changing social constructions of
family; 2) families as agents of socialization; 3) government efforts
to control women's re/productive capacities; 4) women's political mobilization;
and 5) policy instruments used to re/produce ideal families.
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309
Science in the American Polity
1960-now
4 credits
TR 1:25-2:40
Hilgartner, S.
This course reviews the changing political relations between science,
technology and the state in America from 1960 to the present. It focuses
on the politics of choices involving science and technology in a variety
of institutional settings, from Congress to courts and regulatory agencies.
The tensions and contradictions between the concepts of science as an
autonomous republic and as just another special interest provide the central
theme for the course. Topics addressed will include research funding,
technological controversies, scientific advice, citizen participation
in science policy and the use of experts in courts.
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311
Urban Politics
4 credits
MWF 3:35-4:25
Shefter, M.
The major political actors, institutions, and political styles in large
American cities: mayors, city councils, bureaucracies, ethnic and racial
minorities, urban machine politics and the municipal reform movement.
The implications of these political forces for policies pertaining to
urban poverty, homelessness, and criminal justice.
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313
The Nature, Functions, and
Limits of Law
4 credits
MWF 2:30-3:20
Clermont, K.
A general education course for students at the sophomore and higher levels.
Law is presented not as a body of rules but as a set of varied techniques
for resolving conflicts and dealing with social problems. The course analyzes
the roles of courts, legislatures, and administrative agencies in the
legal process, considering also constitutional limits on their power and
practical limits of their effectiveness. Assigned readings consist mainly
of judicial and administrative legal process. Students are expected to
read assigned materials before each class and to be prepared for participation
in class discussion.
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319
Racial & Ethnic Politics
4 credits
TR 10:10-11:25
Jones-Correa, M.
In 1965 the landscape of American politics changed dramatically with the
passage of the Voting Rights Act. That same year, Congress passed the
Immigration Reform Act, which though little heralded at the time, arguably
has had equally profound effects. This course will provide a general survey
of minority politics in the United States, focusing on the effects of
these two key pieces of legislation. The course will highlight the relationships
between immigrants and minorities, electoral politics and protest politics,
and between cooperation and competition within and among minority groups.
The purpose of the course is not only to pinpoint the similarities and
differences in the agendas and strategies adopted by minority groups,
but to indicate the interaction between "minority" politics and American
politics as a whole.
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320
Public Opinion and Public
Choice
4 credits
TR 1:25-2:40
Mebane, W.
A fundamental paradox in democracy is the fact that a government the people
control will only rarely be a government that does what the people want.
This is not to say that government NOT by the people is better (it's usually
worse). This course explores this problem, contrasting the answers given
by the concept of public opinion and the formal theory of social choice.
We encounter the paradox in several American political institutions, including
elections, legislatures, and bureaucracy. Prerequisite: Government 111
or permission of the instructor.
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323
The Great Depression
4.0 credits
MWF 12:20-1:10
Smith, J. S.
The Great Depression: A Global Crisis in Capitalism How do nations and
their citizens respond to the creative destruction that characterizes
capitalism? This course investigates this question by focusing on the
Great Depression of the 1930s, exploring how this global crisis in capitalism
helped provoke different kinds of political responses. We will compare
Roosevelt's New Deal in the United States to a range of other cases, including
the rise of Hitler's Nazi regime in Germany. Topics to be covered include
mass unemployment, the political impact of social movements, political
parties and the rise of the state, race and the labor movement, and changes
in economic thought (as well as broader developments in culture and the
arts) during the period. Readings will include a variety of primary sources
and a number of monographs.
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326
4 credits
TR 10:10-11:25
Weiner, R.
How would you fix the bugs in America’s democratic systems? What
advice would you give constitutional framers in Japan in 1945, South Africa
in 1993, or Iraq today? We’ll learn how framers, reformers, and citizens
can (try to) design institutions to help bring about their particulardemocratic
visions. The course combines general theory with cases from a wide variety
of democracies from the U.S. and around the world, and from countries
to cities to student governments.
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332
Modern European Politics
4 credits
TR 1:25-2:40
Zimmermann, H.
The course gives an introduction to politics and political systems in
Western Europe. It starts with a brief history of the formation of the
nation state and the establishment of democratic rule. It continues with
the modes and structures of political conflict and explores political
cultures, party and electoral systems, the roles of interest groups and
social movements, and the mass media. It then turns to a discussion of
parliament and government. The main countries studied include Britain,
France, Germany, and Italy. The main dimensions guiding the comparison
will be conflict vs. consent, federalism vs. centralism, parliamentary
vs. presidential systems, and majority vs. proportional representation.
The course will conclude with a discussion of minority-majority relations
and the problem of democratic inclusion. Pre 1998 description: This course
presents an introduction to politics and political change in Western Europe.
It starts from the formation of the European nation-state and the growth
of democratic regimes after the French Revolution. It continues with the
nature of European systems of government and with the political party
system; it then turns to the politics of public policy and to the interaction
between policy-makers and societal interest groups. The course ends with
an analysis of the interaction between politics and economics in the different
countries. The main countries studies are France, Germany, Britain, Italy,
Spain and the Scandinavian countries, with the United States used as an
external reference point.
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339
Political Economy of Development
4 credits
TR 11:40-12:55
Moehler, D.
This course examines the political economy of developing countries. It
addresses the questions: What is development? How have our ideas about
development and its causes changed over time? How have the experiences
of people living in developing countries improved or worsened? Where should
we focus our development efforts in the future? The first half of the
course surveys major theories over the past 50 years about how states
develop economically and politically. The second half examines some current
development issues.
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341
Modern European Society and
Politics
4 credits
MW 2:55-4:10
Tarrow, S.
Since the Reformation, the French, and the Industrial revolutions, Europe
has been a source of innovation and stability, conquest and freedom, war
and peacemaking, capitalism and socialism, the rule of law and the perfection
of terror, and of modernity and its critics. Today's Europe emerged through
the interactions among capital formation in the cities and later national
and international economies, coercion and regulation of citizens by states,
empires and eventually European institutions, and political and military
contention among states and between them and their citizens. Nor is Europe
A Single Thing. Well before the Cold War split the continent in two, differences
in social and state formations divided it into East and West -- with autocratic
and concentrated states dominating in the East and representative and
plural states taking root in the West. Finally, Europe is impossible to
understand outside of its relations with the rest of the world: with the
colonial empires from which it extracted wealth, and with the North American
giant that it gave birth to. The course will focus on how modern Europe
was produced through the intersections of capital, coercion and contention;
it will then turn to the differences that developed between East and West;
then it will use the three core concepts (capital, coercion and contention)
to understand the European societies and politics of the present. It will
close with a consideration on the meanings of European integration for
coercion, capital and contention.
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344
Government and Politics of
Southeast Asia
4 credits
TR 2:55-4:10
Ryter, L.
Contemporary politics in Southeast Asia must be understood in light of
colonialism, the nationalist movements that colonial rule in effect produced,
and the geo-strategic imperatives of the cold war. Colonial rule defined
the territorial boundaries and institutions of the modern state, nationalism
provided a new political discourse, and the cold war helped determine
the nature of authority in post-colonial states. This course will consider
these and other themes in comparative perspective with special focus on
Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines.
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364
Politics of Nations Within
4.0 credits
TR 2:55-4:10
Hendrix, B.
This political theory course will consider the political status of Native
Americans in the United States, as well as the status of indigenous peoples
in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. We will begin with brief overviews
of native peoples in the countries considered, with special attention
to the history of their interactions with the states that now rule them,
and their contemporary legal status. The course will consider the ideologies
used to justify conquests and displacements by European colonists, particularly
as illustrated in historical works of political theory and key court cases.
The latter half of the course will consider the possible futures of these
“nations within” by considering normative arguments about assimilation,
cultural rights, treaty federalism, and full sovereign statehood.
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368
Global Justice
4 credits
TR 2:55-4:10
Miller, R.
See PHIL 347
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385
American Foreign Policy
4 credits
MWF 9:05-9:55
Suh, J.J.
This course will provide an overview of the history of American foreign
policy, concentrating on the period between 1914 and the present. Various
theoretical approaches to the study of American foreign policy will be
covered, including international, domestic and individual levels of analysis.
These interpretations will be used to examine events including: the First
World War and the League of Nations; the rise of American hegemony; various
crises of the Cold War, including the U-2 crisis, the Suez and Berlin
crises, and the Cuban missile crisis; and the Korean, Vietnamese and Gulf
Wars. Emphasis will be placed on security as opposed to economic foreign
policy issues. CIW description: This course will examine the challenges
for and the conduct of American foreign policy in the post-Cold War world.
Drawing on international relations theory, the recent history of America's
involvement in the world, and contemporary issues and debates, this course
will increase: your knowledge of the challenges and opportunities facing
America in the world; your understanding of the processes by which foreign
policy is made; and your familiarity with the major perspectives which
shape the contours of scholarly discussion of these issues. This course
will meet twice each week for two hours per session.
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400.01
Conflict & Coop in Transnational
Relations
4.0 credits
M 2:30-4:25
Zimmermann, H.
(Satisfies the major seminar requirement.) This course evaluates
changes over time in political and economic relations between the United
States and Western Europe (including the European Union), beginning with
the Cold War and continuing to the present. The key issue will be explaining
patterns of cooperation and conflict.
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400.03
Modern Social Thought
4.0 credits
W 2:30-4:25
Mantena, K.
(Satisfies the major seminar requirement.) This course is designed
to explore the development of modern social theory, from 17th and 18th
century 'pre-cursors' to the central figures of classical sociological
theory in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. All of these thinkers
were united in their attempt to understand the complex relationship between
the individual and society in modernity. Thus almost all developed unique
and comprehensive theories of modernity and the contradictions of capitalist
societies. Intensive readings of the major works of thinkers such as Rousseau,
Smith, Marx, Durkheim, and Weber will form the core of this course. The
course will emphasize the philosophical questions that frame each thinker's
approach to theorizing modern society. What is their account of human
nature and how does it inform their concepts of freedom and/or happiness?
Does society, especially modern capitalist society, constrain or nurture
human freedom? What is the best way to characterize the nature of capitalism
as an economic, political, and social order? We will examine, more broadly,
issues concerning the methodology and philosophy of social science, the
relationship between social theory and politics and political philosophy,
and how the theories put forward by these founding thinkers continue to
shape contemporary social science.
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400.04
African Politics
credits
W 2:30-4:25
Moehler, D.
(Satisfies the major seminar requirement.) This is an introductory
course on the politics of Sub-Saharan Africa. The goal is to provide students
with historical background and theoretical tools to understand present-day
politics on the continent. The first part of the course will survey African
political history, touching on: pre-colonial political structures, colonial
experiences and legacies, nationalism and independence movements, post-independence
optimism and state-building, the authoritarian turn, economic crises,
and recent political and economic liberalizations. The second part of
the course will examine some contemporary political and economic issues.
These include: the effects of political and social identities in Africa
(ethnicity, social ties, class, citizenship); the politics of poverty,
war, and dysfunction; Africa in the international system; and current
attempts to strengthen democracy and rule of law on the continent.
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413
Coordination in American
Politics
credits
M 2:30-4:25
Mebane, W.
(Satisfies the major seminar requirement.) Prerequisites for undergraduates:
Government 111 and one 300-level course in American government, or permission
of the instructor. In this seminar we examine the idea that American voters
act in a strategically coordinated way. Are voters as wary of one another
as they are of politicians? We examine how coordination depends on American
institutions, especially the separation of powers and the political parties.
We look at how large-scale coordination, which implies collective equilibrium,
need not depend on individuals being highly informed and rational. We
consider how coordination and strategic voting affect the parties' campaign
strategies, and what coordination implies about popular control of the
government.
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414
Causes & Consequences
of U.S. For. Pol.
4.0 credits
M 12:20-2:15
Sanders, E.
(Satisfies the major seminar requirement.) How can we characterize
the twentieth/twenty first century legacy and continuing impact of US
foreign policy on the world? What forces-- domestic, international, institutional,
electoral, economic, cultural, or personal--drive US foreign policy? These
are the broad questions to be addressed this semester.
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424
Contemporary American Politics
4.0 credits
T 2:30-4:25
Shefter, M.
(Satisfies the major seminar requirement.) This seminar analyzes
some major changes in U.S. electoral and group politics in recent decades.
Topics to be considered include: partisan realignment, the new conservatism,
racial cleavages, "Identity politics," and democratic decline.
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426
Colonialism and Postcolonialism
4 credits
W 10:10-12:05
Ryter, L.
(Satisfies the major seminar requirement.) The age of colonialism,
for the most part, came to an end after the second world war. Yet colonialism
profoundly shaped the world we know today, transforming economies, geographies,
identities, and epistemologies. Students of developing countries in particular
must consider colonial legacies, not only to understand how they have
shaped the objects of study, but also how they have structured the very
methods and modes of analysis brought to bear on the objects themselves.
Aiming to explore the various dimensions of postcolonialism, this course
will survey such topics as colonial empires, nationalism and ecolonization,
commodities and violence, and representation and subjectivity. Readings
will be drawn from scholarship in several disciplines, from anti-colonial
writings, and from colonial genres such as travelogues.
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431
Model European Union I
2.0 credits
TBA
Staff
This two-credit course is designed to prepare students to participate
in the annual Model European Union Simulation held, on an alternating
basis, at SUNY Brockport and in Brussels. The simulation provides an opportunity
for participants, representing politicians from the member states of the
European Union, to discuss issues and resolutions of current concern to
the EU. The preparatory course introduces students to the EU, the country
that the Cornell team will represent, and the issues to be discussed at
the simulation. A substantial part of travel costs for the Cornell team
will be paid by the Institute for European Studies, and course enrollment
will be restricted by budgetary considerations. Students enrolled in this
course are required to write a research paper.
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466
Islamism
4 credits
R 12:20-2:15
Buck-Morss, S.
(Satisfies the major seminar requirement.) This course is intended
to introduce students to the complexities of Islamism as a modern discourse
of opposition that deals with issues of social justice, legitimate power,
and ethical life. Because the literature on Islamism is part of the partisan
debates, attention is given to the political and theoretical presuppositions
embedded in the very concepts of "Islamism" and the "West," and how the
struggle to define them figures into the meanings of "modernity," "democracy,"
"universal rights," and "liberation." We will read philosophical texts
by Ayatollah Ruhallah Khomeini, Muhammad Iqbal, Ustadh Mahmoud Taha, Sayyid
Qutb, and Ali Shar'iati, and commentaries by academic scholars: Mohammed
Arkoun, Talal Asad, Saba Mahmood, Ahmet Davoutoglu, Miriam Cooke, Roxanne
Euben, Hamid Dabashi, Ali Mirsipassi, Olivier Roy, Bobby Sayyid, Akbar
Ahmed, Bassam Tibi, Hisham Sharabi, Tariq Ali, Samir Amin, and others,
as well as historical and social-scientific analyses of political events
influenced by Islamism. As the major experiment in founding an "Islamist
Republic," Iran will be a focus. Themes will include Islamism and feminism,
Islamism and cinema, Islamism and diaspora culture.
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473
Marx, Nietzsche, Freud
4 credits
TR 10:10-11:25
Waite, G.
There are three main aspects to this course. First and primarily, it provides
an introduction to the thinking of these three "master thinkers" who have
determined much of modernity and postmodernity. Here, basic aspects of
their work are considered: (a) scientific and theoretical writings; (b)
specific critical and historical analyses; (c) programs and manifestos;
and (d) styles of argumentation, documentation, and persuasion. (This
also entails an introduction, for non-specialists, to basic problems of
economics, philosophy, psychology-and literary criticism.) Second, we
will compare and contrast the underlying assumptions and interpretive
yields of the various disciplines and practices that Marx, Nietzsche,
and Freud helped to ground; historical materialism and communism; power-knowledge
analysis; and psychoanalysis, respectively. Finally, but less thoroughly,
we will discuss the ways these three thinkers have been fused together
into a single constellation or troika: "Marx-Nietzsche-Freud." The main
focus of the course will be on primary texts, which might include, e.g.:
(Marx) The Communist Manifesto, The 18th Brumaire, Critique of the Gotha
Program, and selections from The Paris Manuscripts, Grundrisse, and Capital;
(Nietzsche) The Birth of Tragedy, "The Greek State," "On Truth and Lie
in the Extramoral Sense," On the Use and Disadvantage of History for Life,
and selections from Thus Spoke Zarathustra and The Genealogy of Morals;
and (Freud) two case studies, On Dreams, Civilization and Its Discontents,
Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality, and selections from The Psychopathology
of Everyday Life and Introductory Lectures.
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480
Politics of 70's Films
4.0 credits
T 2:30-4:25
Kirshner, J.
(Satisfies the major seminar requirement.) The ten years from 1967
to 1976 were an extraordinary time both in the history of American politics
and in the history of American film. In the same period that the country
was rocked by the Vietnam War, the feminist and civil rights movements,
Watergate and economic crisis, the end of Hollywood censorship along with
demographic and economic change in the industry ushered in what many call
"the last golden age"of American film. In this class we study both film
theory and political history to examine these remarkable films and the
political context in which they were forged. The goal of the course is
to take seriously both the films and their politics. or short version:
The ten years from 1967 to 1976 were an extraordinary time both in the
history of American politics and in the history of American film. In this
class we study both film theory and political history to examine these
remarkable films and the political context in which they were forged.
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483
The Military and New Technology
4 credits
TR 10:10-11:25
Vogel, K.
Military organizations are seen paradoxically as both inflexible, hide-bound
institutions and avid proponents of new technology. In this seminar we
examine changes over time in the attitude of the military toward new technology
and analyze competing explanations, including concepts from science studies,
for these changes. The course concludes with an analysis of the so-called
"Revolution in Military Affairs." Readings include John Ellis, The Social
History of the Machine Gun and Steven Rosen, Winning the Next War.
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495
Honors: Research & Writing
4.0 credits
TBA
Herring, R.
Limited to students who have completed GOVT 494, Honors Thesis Program.
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499
Undergraduate Independent
Study
1-4 credits
TBA
Staff
Undergrads are able to work independently with a faculty supervisor for
college credit. Students should meet with a faculty member and discuss
a topic before applying. Students must fill out an application form and
have it stamped by the department in order to be officially enrolled.
You do not need to fill out an add/drop form in addition to this form.
(Forms can be picked up in 210 White Hall.)
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602
Methods of Political Analysis
II
4.0 credits
R 1:25-3:20
Winter, N.
This course provides an introduction to some of the quantitative methods
used in the social sciences. Topics we shall discuss include: elementary
probability theory, random variables, functions of random variables, and
sampling distributions; concepts of inference, including point estimation,
confidence intervals, and hypothesis testing; bivariate regression; and
multiple regression.
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603
Field Seminar in American
Politics
4 credits
W 10:10-12:05
Jones-Correa, M.
The basic issues and institutions of American government and the various
subfields of American politics are introduced. The focus is on substantive
information and theoretical analysis and problems of teaching and research.
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604
The Language
of Public Policy
4 credits
W 4-6p.m.
Lowi, T.
A new graduate seminar to be offered by Theodore J. Lowi in collaboration
with Professor Robert Parks. The purpose of the seminar is to identify
the key concepts utilized in normal policy discourse and to improve our
ways of unpacking those concepts in developing clearer arguments for discourse
in policy making and policy implementation.
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611
4 credits
T 4:30-6:30
Bensel, R.
This course will trace and describe the political economy of national
state formation from the last decades of the antebellum period, through
the Civil War and Reconstruction eras, and end with the transition to
a more industrial society during the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries. Utilizing a broad survey of the historical literature on these
periods, the course will investigate: (1) the connection between slavery
and the emergence of southern separatism; (2) the impact of conflict between
the plantation South and industrializing North on American state formation;
(3) the failure of post-Civil War attempts to remold the southern political
economy; (4) the role of finance capital markets in indistrial and western
agrarian expansion and the consequent emergence of monetary issues in
national politics; and (5) the political economic basis of possible developmental
trajectories other than the high-tariff, gold-standard one actually followed.
This course is designed as a general survey of the vast literature on
American political and economic development in the late nineteenth century.
For that reason, seventy-five percent of the course grade will be based
on a take-home exam conducted as if it were a small version of a Ph.D.
qualifying examination. An additional ten percent will be allocated according
to the amount and quality of individual contributions to class discussion.
The remainder of the course requirements will be satisfied in the form
of a class presentation in which each student leads discussion of the
readings under one of the weekly headings.
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613
Coordination in American
Politics
4 credits
M 2:30-4:25
Mebane, W.
Prerequisites for undergraduates: Government 111 and one 300-level course
in American government, or permission of the instructor. In this seminar
we examine the idea that American voters act in a strategically coordinated
way. Are voters as wary of one another as they are of politicians? We
examine how coordination depends on American institutions, especially
the separation of powers and the political parties. We look at how large-scale
coordination, which implies collective equilibrium, need not depend on
individuals being highly informed and rational. We consider how coordination
and strategic voting affect the parties' campaign strategies, and what
coordination implies about popular control of the government.
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614
Causes & Consequences
of U.S. Foreign Policy
4.0 credits
M 12:20-2:15
Sanders, E.
How can we characterize the twentieth/twenty first century legacy and
continuing impact of US foreign policy on the world? What forces-- domestic,
international, institutional, electoral, economic, cultural, or personal--drive
US foreign policy? These are the broad questions to be addressed this
semester.
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623
The Politics of Courts
4.0 credits
F 10:10-12:05
Rabkin, J.
All modern or westernized governments have judicial organs, designed to
provide impartial decisions on certain kinds of disputes. But the kinds
of issues that are left to courts vary widely from country to country
and from era to era; the forms and degrees of political insulation for
courts also vary widely; even the official rationales for such institutions
vary a good deal. All of these differences are sometimes subjects of political
controversy. This course will survey various forms and doctrines of judicial
authority, seeking to clarify the relation between particular judicial
models and the political systems in which they operate. Supra-national
courts and administrative organs will be included in the survey, but principal
emphasis will be on the role of courts in English-speaking countries.
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625
Colonialism & Post Colonialism
4.0 credits
W 10:10-12:05
Ryter, L.
The age of colonialism, for the most part, came to an end after the second
world war. Yet colonialism profoundly shaped the world we know today,
transforming economies, geographies, identities, and epistemologies. Students
of ³developing countries² in particular must consider colonial
legacies, not only to understand how they have shaped the objects of study,
but also how they have structured the very methods and modes of analysis
brought to bear on the objects themselves. Aiming to explore the various
dimensions of ³postcolonialism,² this course will survey such
topics as colonial empires, nationalism and ecolonization, commodities
and violence, and representation and subjectivity. Readings will be drawn
from scholarship in several disciplines, from anti-colonial writings,
and from colonial genres such as travelogues.
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629
Contemporary American Politics
4 credits
T 2:30-4:25
Shefter, M.
This seminar analyzes some major changes in U.S. electoral and group politics
in recent decades. Topics to be considered include: partisan realignment,
the new conservatism, racial cleavages, "Identity politics," and democratic
decline.
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635
Field Seminar in Comparative
Politics
4.0 credits
T 5:30-7:30 p.m.
Van de walle, N.
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637
Comparative Societal Analysis
4.0 credits
T 2:00-4:25
Berezin, M.
In the last 10 years, scholars from a broad range of social science disciplines
(sociology, political science, history, anthropology, even economics)
have turned to historical and cultural analysis to explore classical macro-level
problems, such as the development of political institutions, the experience
of social inequality and the desire to engage in collective action. This
course focuses upon writings about these new methods (path dependence,
narrative analysis) as well as empirical studies. The course is designed
to expose graduate students from all social science disciplines to the
representative works from a variety of disciplines. As the course focuses
upon the form as well as the substance of the works studied, it is an
ideal seminar for students beginning to think about designing a dissertation
as well as first year students who seek exposure to new methods.
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640
4.0 credits
W 7:00-9:00 p.m.
Weiner, R.
Political parties are the basic building blocks of democratic politics.
Why do politicians and voters create, change, and destroy them? What do
citizens and political scientists want from them, and what affects how
well parties meet these demands? Does it matter which party a candidate
belongs to, or which parties control the government? With such questions
in mind, this seminar assesses comparative theories of political parties
and how they apply across different countries, levels of government, and
periods of time. We will study both established and new democracies, mainly
in the Americas (including the U.S.), Europe, and Asia.
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641
Revitalizing the Labor Movement
4 credits
M 7:00-10:00 p.m.
Turner, L.
Examines contemporary efforts in advanced industrial democracies to reform
industrial relations. The first half of the course will examine contemporary
industrial relations; reform efforts in the United States, including innovative
organizing strategies; new calls for union militance; business strategies
for a "union-free" environment; efforts at labor-management cooperation;
and the report of the Dunlop Commission. The second half wil cover Britain--the
Thatcher reforms of the 1980s and the current labor-backed works council
movement; France---the Auroux Laws of the 1980s and their effects; and
German7--the transformation of industrial relations in eastern Germany
since 1989.
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667
Grad Seminar: Eur. Cult.
& Intell. His
4.0 credits
W 2:30-4:25
Steinberg, M.
Topic for 2005: Hannah Arendt and Her World This seminar will explore
the thought of Hannah Arendt and the question of "migratory thinking"
in the 20th century, specifically her representation and analysis of boundaries
and boundlessness of politics, philosophy, and art; Europe and the United
States; thinking and acting. We will read Arendt on such figures as Lessing,
Kant, Heidegger, Benjamin, Scholem, Brecht, and Broch in conjunction with
works of these figures as well as some recent scholarship on Arendt herself
(Benhabib, Kristeva, Villa).
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670
4 credits
T 7:00-9:00 p.m.
Buck-Morss, S.
This seminar approaches the topic of Globalization through diverse sources,
combining theoretical texts with empirical studies, and historical accounts
with contemporary analyses. The aim is to avoid common academic pitfalls:
theoretical analyses from being vacuously abstract, social scientific
descriptions from being dangerously unreflective - and both from being
naively unhistorical. Topics considered in their global ramifications
include Capitalism, Imperialism, Sovereignty, Totalitarianism, Legitimacy,
Media, and Religion.
Theoretical texts are by Althusser, Ahmad, Bourdieu, Eisenstein, Brennan,
Hardt and Negri, Mignolo, Giroux, and Tsing.
Reigning -isms will be critically engaged (postmodernism; post-colonialism;
post-nationalism; post-Marxism; neo-liberalism; neo-imperialism; market
and religious fundamentalisms), and alternatives will be explored (feminism,
anarchism, NGOs, World Social Forum, sustainable development, independent
media).
The course is designed to expand intellectual horizons and encourage students
to share interdisciplinary and inter-subfield expertise, while promoting
research concerns that connect to political practice. Readings are heavy
(not advised for undergraduates).
Requirements: regular participation, one oral presentation, one substantial
paper.
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677
4.0 credits
T 10:10-12:05
Frank, J.
This course explores the "linguistic turn" of recent political theory
alongside canonical debates over the political and epistemological consequences
of different philosophies of language. Writers examined will include Locke,
Rousseau, Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, Austin, Derrida, Butler, and Cavell.
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681
Politics of Transnationalism
4 credits
M 10:10-12:05
Tarrow, S.
Between the realism of traditional international relations and the constructivism
of its critics, a new school of transnational politics has developed.
Ranging from sociological institutionalists who examine transnational
normative diffusion to students of international institutions who focus
on non-state authority to students of globalization and its discontents,
scholars in this tradition examine the responses of actors in civil society
to a globalizing world through their interactions with one another, with
states, and with international instititutions. The course traces the development
of this area of research from its origins in the "old" transnational politics
of the 1970s; examines critically the contributions of constructivism,
sociological institutionalism, and global civil society; and proposes
a model of the international system in which transnational actors - claiming
to act as proxies for civil society groups - interact with states and
international institutions. Particular attention is paid to the formation
of transnational coalitions among social movements, transnational advocacy
networks, state actors and agents of international institutions.
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689
International Security Politics
4 credits
M 4:30-6:30
Suh, J.J.
McDermott desc: This course will provide an overview of theoretical and
research topics in the area of international security policy. This course
will cover several theoretical perspectives, including rational choice
and psychological approaches to the study of security issues. These perspectives
will be used to examine various substantive topics including war and deterrence,
balance of power, alliance politics, domestic constraints on foreign policy
and military strategy. Less attention will be paid to issues involving
economic cooperation and sanctions. Suh/PK desc: Course will examine a
variety of international relations theories in studying a broad range
of security issues, including the causes of war, alliance formation, balance-of-power
politics, security regimes, nuclear and conventional deterrence, military
strategy, and core-periphery relations.
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692
The Administration of Agriculture
and Rural Development
4 credits
M 2:30-5:00
Uphoff, N.
The political, bureaucratic, economic, and technical environments of administration
for agricultural and rural development; the various functions involved
in administration (personnel managment, planning, budgeting, economic
analysis, information systems); several major tasks (research, extension
services, and infrastructure development); and specific problems of integrating
activities, interfacing with rural populations, and utilizing external
assistance. Intended primarily for persons who expect to have some future
responsibilities in agricultural or rural development administration and
Third World countries.
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699
CPAS Weekly Colloquium
1.0 credits
R 4:30-5:30
Dotson
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735
Politics of South Asia
4.0 credits
M 7:00-9:00 p.m.
Herring, R.
This course investigates the politics of the South Asian region by examining
the substantive and theoretical literature on various specific subjects,
with special emphasis on India. Themes will vary by term, but include
some mix of political economy and development; agrarian movements and
policy; politics of ethnicity, identity and subnationalism; and environmental
politics. An explicit focus is comparative method, both within the region
and between the region and other world areas. The course is seminar in
format and premised on significant student participation.
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799
Independent Study
var. 1-4 credits
TBA
Staff
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