Courses
Course Archive
Courses Autumn 2002
Please find below a list of courses offered by the department during the Autumn 2002 quarter.
21002. Democracy and Integration in an Expanding Europe. Enrollment limited to 20. The course deals with a key issue in contemporary European politics today: the problem of securing the European Union's political legitimacy. Many have pointed to a "democratic deficit" resulting from EU institutions' tendency to decide on traditionally domestic matters such as social welfare and on monetary policy, leaving citizens without a voice in changes affecting them. Others claim that removing impediments to the free flow of goods, people, and capital across European borders is enough to secure the EU's legitimacy as economic liberalization is most likely to deliver continued material prosperity and security. Though European integration might well diminish citizens' ability to influence policy, this is a necessary cost to continuing material comfort that will deliver its legitimacy. Still others claim that the EU and democracy are fully compatible given that states' interests are the leading factor in the functioning of EU institutions, thus challenging assumptions that integration exists and erodes democracy. Beyond considering this debate within the EU-15, this course examines the same problem with respect to EU enlargement in postcommunist Central and Eastern Europe. L. Tesser. Autumn.
21102. British Politics: The Ideas that Shaped Post-War Britain. Enrollment limited to 20. The course examines post-war British politics, focusing on different ideas of social formation and their influence on public policies during three periods: the Consensus Politics era (1945-1979), the New Right era (1979-1997), and the Third Way era (1997 to the present). We will analyze each era with respect to three kinds of change: the range of state intervention, the responsibilities of society to individuals, and the amount of liberty due to individuals. N. Kim. Autumn.
21400/32400. World Politics in the Nineteenth Century: A History. The course provides an overview of major developments in 19th century history: wars, revolutions, diplomacy, economic development, imperial expansion, and international trade and investment. The course covers key elements of international history needed for further study of international politics and IR theory. Besides diplomatic relations among the Great Powers, the course examines long-term trends in economic development and military force. Specific topics include the settlement after the Napoleonic Wars, the failed revolutions of 1848-49, European imperialism, the industrial revolution, and the origins of World War I. C. Lipson. Autumn. (D)
23301. Interest Group Politics. In this course we will take up claims about interest groups and their role in American politics and consider ways to evaluate them systematically. We will discuss their formation and maintenance as organizations, their efforts to influence Congress and the bureaucracy, their part in campaigns and elections and their overall effect on the conduct of American democracy. M. Hansen. Autumn.
23700. Sartre (=PHIL 21200). The focus of the course is on sections from Being and Nothingness dealing with the nature of consciousness, subjectivity, and interpersonal relations. Attention is also given to the novel Nausea as well as to Sartre's later writings in social philosophy. C. Larmore. Autumn.
24800. Ethics in International Affairs and Development (=HMRT 24800). Enrollment limited. This course examines issues of normative judgment in the context of international affairs and economic and social development. It introduces several basic conceptual frameworks for such normative analysis, utilitarianism, rights theories, theories of justice influenced by Rawls, and the theory of capabilities. We will compare and apply these frameworks to specific issues, including: international distributive justice, human rights and cultural difference, Third World debt, development and freedom, global environment, refugees, war intervention, and ideals of global governance. Theories and issues will be examined with some specific case studies, including: the Law of the Sea treaty; the Global Warming treaty; politics of preserving the Brazilian rain forest; the IMF in Nigeria; the NATO war against Yugoslavia. I. Young. Autumn.
25000/35100. Comparative Politics of Latin America. This course introduces major theories of Latin American political and social change, and the political systems of three countries. We focus on the determinants and dynamics of regime change in Latin America. We first read general studies of modernization and political change and then focus on these issues as they worked themselves out in Chile, Mexico, and Nicaragua. S. Stokes. Autumn. (C)
25900/35600. Japanese Politics. This course is a survey of the major aspects of Japanese politics: party politics, bureaucracy, the diet, and political behavior in post-World War II Japan. B. Silberman. Autumn. (C)
27500/37500. Organizational Decision Making (=PBPL 33500, SOCI 35000). This course is an examination of the process of decision making in modern complex organizations such as universities, schools, hospitals, business firms, and public bureaucracies. The course also considers the impact of information, power, resources, organizational structure, and the environment, as well as alternative models of choice and other implications. J. Padgett. Autumn. (B)
29000/39800. Introduction to International Relations. This course introduces the main themes in international relations, including the problems of war and peace, and conflict and cooperation. The course begins by considering some basic theoretical tools used to study international politics. It then focuses on several prominent security issues in modern international relations, such as the cold war and post-cold war world, nuclear weapons, arms control, and nationalism. The last part of the course deals with economic aspects of international relations. It concentrates on issues where politics and economics are closely intertwined: world trade, foreign investment, environmental pollution, and European unification. C. Lipson. Autumn. (D)
29400/39400. International Relations: Perspectives on Conflict and Cooperation and Conflict (=INST 29400/37400). This course examines a number of competing approaches to the study of conflict and cooperation in the international system. Lectures by University faculty introduce key analytic concepts from several intellectual traditions (e.g., realism, liberalism, cultural theory, modernization theory, social constructivism) and discuss their ability to explain war, alliances, revolutions, nationalism, cooperation, ethnic conflict, and other important international phenomena. J. Mitzen. Autumn.
30200. Political Economy of Public Policy (=PBPL 30800). A survey of formal political analysis on game theory, collective action, the Arrow problems, and elections. D. Snidal. Autumn. (E)
30500. Introduction to Data Analysis. This course is an introduction to the research methods practiced by quantitative political scientists. The first part lays out the enterprise of empirical research: the structure and content of theories, the formulation of testable hypotheses, the logic of empirical tests, and the consideration of competing hypotheses. The second part considers the implementation of empirical research: the potential barriers to valid inferences, the strengths and limitations of research designs, and empirical representations of theoretical constructs. The final part provides hands-on experience with the two kinds of analyses most frequently performed by quantitative political researchers: contingency tables and regression. Staff. Autumn. (E)
42500. Postcolonial Political Theory. How do issues of global politics, freedom, oppression, equality, cultural difference race, and imperialism look from the point of view of 20th century thinkers outside Europe and North America, but interacting with them? This course will consider this question by considering texts of political and social theorists and critics from India, Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America. Many of these writings respond to the context of colonialism at the historic moment of transformation to independence, and others reflect on the relationship of European politics and European ideas to aspirations for freedom in the other continents. Writers we are likely to read include: Mahatma Gandhi, Partha Chatterjee, Frantz Fanon, Leopold Senghor, Edward Glissant, Carols Rangle, Enrique Dussel, Gayatri Spivak, Emmanuel Eze, Ofelia Schutte, and Walter Mignolo. I Young. Autumn. (A)
48400. Workshop on International Security Policy. This workshop aims to provide interested members of the Chicago community with an opportunity to meet and discuss a wide range of international security topics. Special emphasis will be placed on looking at important policy issues that lend themselves to social science research. Relevant topics include: 1) NATO expansion, 2) America's grand strategy after the Cold War, 3) the rise of China, 4) nuclear proliferation, 5) the state of Russia's military, and 6) stability in the Persian Gulf. Speakers will include policymakers, as well as scholars and graduate students doing policy-relevant research. C. Glaser, J. Mearsheimer, R. Pape.
50200. Political Realism (=RETH 50200). The exploration of the realist tradition in politics and its ethical implications, from Thucydides to Niebuhr and Aron. J. Elshtain. Autumn. (A)
51200. Law-Philosophy Seminar. This is a seminar/workshop most of whose participants are faculty from seven area institutions. It admits approximately ten students by permission of the instructors. Its aim is to study, each year, a topic that arises in both philosophy and the law and to ask how bringing the two fields together may yield mutual illumination. There are ten to twelve meetings throughout the year, always on Mondays from 4 to 6 PM. Half of the sessions are led by local faculty, half by visiting speakers. The leader assigns readings for the session (which may be by that person, by other contemporaries, or by major historical figures), and the session consists of a brief introduction by the leader, followed by structured questioning by the two faculty coordinators, followed by general discussion. Students write two-page papers for each meeting, and a 20-25 page seminar paper at the end of the year. The course satisfies the Law School Writing Requirement. The schedule of meetings will be announced by mid-September, and students should submit their credentials to both instructors by September 20. Past themes have included: practical reason; equality; privacy; autonomy; global justice; pluralism and toleration. The theme for next year is War. Issues to be discussed include the justification of conflict, civil liberties during wartime, the moral psychology of conflict, and others. M. Nussbaum, C. Sunstein. Autumn, Winter, Spring.
51500. Literature and Ethics in Ancient Greece and Rome (=RETH, PHIL 51509, GNDR). Consent of instructor, enrollment limited to 25. This course will investigate what Plato calls the "ancient quarrel between the poets and the philosophers," studying both the ethical contributions of tragedy and comedy and the literary aspects of philosophical writing, from Plato through Seneca. Central texts will be: Plato, Republic (selections) and Symposium; Aristotle, Poetics; one play each by Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes; Lucretius, The Nature of Things (selections); Cicero, selected letters and one dialogue; Seneca, selected letters, one tragedy, and Apocolocyntosis. Questions to be investigated include: What is mimesis, and what is its connection both to learning and to pleasure? What are tragic fear and pity, and how might it be argued that they make a valuable ethical contribution? What are the ethical and political implications, if any, of the suffering that is depicted in Greek tragedies? What, if anything, does (Old) comedy help us understand? What are philosophical dialogues for, and what is their relationship to drama? Are philosophical epistles really dialogues in disguise? Why would a very severe philosopher write political satire? Is there such a thing as Stoic tragedy? M. Nussbaum. Autumn.
52000. Political Theory Workshop (=SCTH 52000). The workshop is a forum for the presentation of new research in all varieties of political theory and political philosophy, including work in the history of political thought; contributions to normative political philosophy; theoretical engagements with problems in contemporary politics and public policy; and theoretical reflection on fundamental political concepts or phenomena. Our weekly seminars include presentations of work in progress by graduate students, as well as University of Chicago faculty, faculty at other Chicago-area institutions, and a small number of invited guests from around the country. Graduate students serve as discussants for all presentations. The Workshop subscribes to no particular methodology or political ideology, and welcomes participants from all departments and disciplines. D. Allen, C. Larmore, P. Markell, I Young.
54600. Workshop on East Asia (=ECON 57100). This workshop focuses on current social science research on East Asian societies, including the People's Republic of China, Taiwan, Japan, and Korea. Presentations are by university faculty and advanced graduate students who conduct research on these societies, throughout the social science disciplines. Two to three outside speakers are hosted each quarter. D. Yang, B. Silberman.
55500. Workshop on Comparative Politics. This workshop invites scholars whose work is historical, sociological, anthropological, and political to cultivate a forum that is highly interdisciplinary in nature. We have addressed issues such as state building, democratic theory, economic policy, the welfare state, and cultural cleavages in past years. We invite graduate students with area expertise to raise theoretical issues about their data and interpretations that would be of interest to a wider circle of social scientists. As in the past, there will be no particular geographic or temporal focus in the workshop. S. Kalyvas, L. Medina, S. Stokes, L. Wedeen.
585. Workshop on Organizations and Political Sociology. Combining political science and sociology, this workshop focuses on organizations and social networks-both the microunderpinnings of their construction (identity and exchange) and the macroconsequences of their aggregation (states and markets). This year we will focus in particular on the effect of organizational or network structure on the patterning of temporal sequence and change. J. Padgett, G. Herrigel, J. Brehm.
59300/59400/59500. Workshop on International Relations. Part of the Program on International Politics, Economics, and Security (PIPES), this is a yearlong workshop for advanced graduate students engaged in their own research projects in international relations. PIPES meetings provide a forum for advanced graduate students, university faculty, and outside guests to present their research. Topics include the full range of international politics and theory, including political economy, security studies, foreign policy, international law and organizations, international environmental issues, critical international relations theory, and a wide variety of regional issues. This work is methodologically diverse, encompassing historical research, mathematical modeling, quantitative studies, and interpretive approaches. C. Lipson, D. Snidal.
65200. Comparative Bureaucracy. An examination and analysis of the theoretical and empirical literature on national-level public and private bureaucratic organizations in Japan, Great Britain and the U.S. B. Silberman. Autumn. (C)
