Courses
Course Archive
Courses Spring 2001
Please find below a list of courses offered by the department during the Spring 2001 quarter.
211. Global Environmental Politics (=EnvStd 243, LL/Soc 245, NCD 211, PubPol 243). This course will offer an introduction to global environmental politics. Explorations in selected environmental issue areas will be used to identify the roles, interests, and behavior of main actors such as states, international organizations, NGOs, and the business community. Major contemporary debates will be introduced that relate environmental issues to, inter alia, trade liberalization, security, global justice and human rights. These analyses will provide students with analytical tools to further explore environmental issues. H.P. Schmitz.
212. Is Development Sustainable? (=BigPro 234, EnvStd 244, LL/Soc 246, HiPSS 234, NCD 273, PubPol 244). PQ: Fourth-year standing and consent of instructors. This is a discussion course intended for senior students without an environmental background. Taught by a political scientist, a computer scientist, and a biologist, its aim is to develop skills in analyzing "big problems" which surpass the scope of traditional disciplines and single paradigms. Big environmental problems include human population growth, the unintended consequences of technology, the conflict between economic development and the preservation of our habitat, and choices regarding the allocation of resources to present versus future needs. G. Davis, T. Steck, W. Sterner.
219. National Citizenship and Interethnic Relations. This course examines the impact of competing responses to immigration and ethnic diversity on existing understandings of citizenship and the nation. The course contrasts competing theoretical perspectives and relates them to policy and recent political controversies. Topics include multiculturalism, "post-national" citizenship, assimilationism, constitutional patriotism, nationality law reform, and minority cultural rights. E. Thomas.
220/407. Constitutionalism (=LL/Soc 253). In this course we will study the ideas and practices of constitutionalism. These center around the constraint of state power, and especially its constraint by law. We will look at the constitutions, and the constitutional practices, of a number of contemporary and historical states. We will also read works from political theory and from the philosophy of law on the idea of a legally binding constitution, on the founding of states, on the relationship between constitutionalism and democracy, and on processes of constitutional revision and reform. We will read some judicial cases that cast light on basic practices and ideas of constitutionalism, but the course is not case-driven. In particular, it is not focused on how the U.S. Supreme Court has interpreted the U.S. Constitution. Rather, it is comparative, historical, and theoretical. J. Levy. (A)
223. American Law and the Rhetoric of Race (=Law 598, LL/Soc 243). This course examines the ways American law has treated legal issues involving race. Two episodes are studied in detail: the criminal law of slavery during the antebellum period and the constitutional attack on state-imposed segregation in the twentieth century. The case method is used, although close attention is paid to litigation strategy and judicial opinion. D. Hutchinson.
229. Critical Issues in Education (=Educ 267/367, PubPol 266/367). This course focuses on a central policy question: How can urban public education systems be redesigned to improve school performance? We examine this question from an institutional-political perspective, with particular attention to three sets of concerns: (1) accountability in the complex institutional-political context in which urban schools are situated; (2) distribution and division of tasks in a multilayered policy organization; and (3) equity issues in the urban school setting. K. Wong.
232. Political Sociology (=PubPol 236/336, Sociol 235/335). PQ: Prior general social sciences course. This course provides analytical perspectives on citizen preference theory, public choice, group theory, bureaucrats and state-centered theory, coalition theory, elite theories, and political culture. These competing analytical perspectives are assessed in considering middle-range theories and empirical studies on central themes of political sociology. Local, national, and cross-national analyses are explored. T. Clark.
245/359. Gandhi (=Fndmtl 249). Course readings deal with Gandhi's life (including his autobiography), texts that articulate his thought and practice, and critical and interpretative works that assess his meaning and influence. Topics include nonviolent collective action in pursuit of truth and justice, strategy for cooperation and conflict resolution, and alternatives to industrial society and centralized state. L. Rudolph. (A)
249. Problems of Public Policy Implementation (=PubPol 223, Sociol 340). This course is a systematic examination of the interplay among the executive, the administrator, the legislator, and the public as these relationships affect policy and its undertaking. The emphasis is on the politics of administration, as well as those political forces that organize around the implementer of public policies. R. Taub.
255. Violence and Civil Strife. Intrastate or civil wars have become the dominant form of war. Out of ninety-six armed conflicts that took place between 1989 and 1996 only five were wars between sovereign states ("interstate wars"). Civil wars (both ethnic and non-ethnic) tend to be deadlier than interstate wars. What makes their violence even worse is that they primarily, and often deliberately, target civilians: eight out of ten people killed in contemporary civil wars have been civilians. Moreover, in many cases, victimizers and victims tend to know each other; they are neighbors who had been living together peacefully. We will analyze and attempt to understand the nature of violence in civil wars via both a critical reading of descriptions of this phenomenon and the application of social science tools to it. S. Kalyvas.
260. Introduction to South Asian Civilization (=Anthro 308, SocSci 232, SoAsia 209). PQ: Must be taken in sequence. Students who register for the second quarter of the sequence as PolSci 260 do not have to meet the prerequisites. This course fulfills the General Education requirement in civilizational studies. Using a variety of disciplinary approaches, this sequence seeks to familiarize students with some of the important ideas, texts, institutions, and historical experiences that have constituted South Asian civilization. The winter quarter examines the Ramayana and the Mahabharata as media of civilizational expression, elements of Hindu mythology, the role of the temple as ritual center and focus of political and economic exchange, Hindu devotionalism, South Asian Muslim identity, Muslim social and cultural institutions in South Asia, and Muslim-Hindu interactions in South Asia. The spring quarter focuses on Mughal state, society, and culture; British and Indian nationalist constructions of Indian "tradition" the culture and politics of religious and caste identities; and representations of the lives of women in South Asia. S. Rudolph. (C)
270. Theories of International Relations. This course examines competing theories about the structure, functioning, and transformative potential of the international system. Three distinct problems are addressed. Part I deals with the traditional problem of international life, namely the problem of order among relatively equal powers in a condition of anarchy. Part II calls the assumption of anarchy into question by looking at unequal power relationships in a variety of issue areas. Part III turns to the problem of governing an increasingly global community, with attention to both the practical and normative aspects of global constitutional design. Throughout the course our focus will be theoretical. The relevance of theoretical disagreements to the real world will be illustrated, but students will be evaluated primarily on their understanding of the assumptions and logics of competing points of view rather than on questions of empirical substance. A. Wendt.
277. Pragmatism, Feminism, Democracy: Dewey and Addams (=GendSt 277). Classical pragmatism has been a source for much postmodernist and critical theoretical work of recent decades. This course provides an in-depth examination of the radical democratic potential to be found in the pragmatism of John Dewey, linking his work to the theory and practice of the settlement house movement as represented by Jane Addams. Thus, Deweyan democracy will be considered in connection with the constructions of feminism, gender, and sexuality at work in some crucial historical contexts of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The course will also consider various recent defenses and critiques of the Deweyan legacy, such as those of Charlene Seigfried, Richard Rorty, Richard Bernstein, and Nancy Fraser. There will also be fieldtrips to Hull House and the Laboratory School. R.B. Schultz.
283. Seminar on Realism. The aim of this course is to read the key works dealing with the international relations theory called "realism." J. Mearsheimer.
287. Field Research Project in Public Policy II (=PubPol 263/391). PQ: Open to non-public policy studies concentrators with consent of instructor; students must register for both quarters. Students work on a research team to prepare a report on an important public policy problem for a governmental agency, large public-interest group, or community-based organization; this project includes development and implementation of a research strategy designed to answer the policy questions. The objective is preparation of a publishable report. Projects in recent years have focused on refugee resettlement, welfare reform, and community development on the South Side of Chicago. A.R. Datta.
289/399. Strategy. This course is about American national security policy in the post-Cold War world, especially the principal issues of military strategy that are likely to face the United States in the next decade. The course is structured in five parts around the question of how American nuclear and conventional strategy should adapt to an increasingly multipolar world. The first component examines the key changes in strategic environment since 1990. The second looks at the effects of multipolarity on American grand strategy and basic national goals, such as off-shore balancing, spreading democracy, and isolationism. The third block focuses on nuclear strategy, using debates on nuclear strategy and the utility of nuclear threats as tools to examine the problems of deterring major and minor nuclear powers. The fourth section is about conventional strategy, covering conventional deterrence and coercion theory, the use of coercive air power in Vietnam and Iraq, and the problems of intervention in ethnic conflict. The last block discusses the future of war and peace in the Pacific Rim. R. Pape. (D)
307. Introduction to Linear Models. PQ: PS 301. An introduction to the general linear regression model, the most widely used inferential tool in quantitative social science. The course first considers the model and its statistical properties. It then considers generalizations of the model that deal with problems caused by violations of its assumptions. Topics include the general linear model, hypothesis testing, nonlinearities in variables, interactions, diagnostics, heteroscedastic residuals, autocorrelated residuals, lagged variables, qualitative dependent variables, measurement error, interdependent sets of equations and graphic display of data and regression models. M. Hansen. (E)
308. Game Theory. This course introduces concepts of game theory, that is, the mathematical study of interdependent decisions, and some basic instances of its uses in political science. Its goal is to present the basic solution concepts most widely used in the literature (rationalizability, Nash equilibrium, sub-game perfect equilibrium and perfect Bayesian equilibrium, core) in a way that requires little, if any, previous mathematical background. L. Medina. (E)
316. Decisionmaking: Principles and Foundations (=Philos 319). Individuals, particularly those in leadership positions, are often called upon to make decisions on behalf of others. Such decisions are made in both the public and private spheres and can have enormous influence both on individual lives and on public policy. Lawyers are often called on either to make important decisions themselves or to give counsel to people who make them. The way in which individuals are judged often turns on a handful of decisions they make over the course of their lives, and the way they make these decisions has been the focus of thinkers from Thucydides and Aristotle to Bentham and Kant. It has also been a recurring theme in literature and much of modern economics. The course offers a rigorous study of how philosophers and others have examined these questions, and the tools they have used, including those from behavioral economics and game theory. Included will be discussion of moral dilemmas and of some of the more common pathologies of decision-making: akrasia, self-deception, blind obedience to authority. D. Baird, M. Nussbaum.
333. Interpretative Methods in the Social Sciences. This course is designed to provide students with an introduction to interpretive methods in the social sciences. Students will learn to "read" texts and images while also becoming familiar with contemporary thinking about interpretation, narrative, ethnography, and social construction. Among the methods we shall explore are: semiotics, hermeneutics, ordinary language theory, and discourse analysis. L. Wedeen. (E)
334. U.S. National Security Policy (=PubPol 334). This course introduces students to the key issues in U.S. national security policy. We will examine U.S. interests in the post-cold war era, threats to these interests (if any), and policies for minimizing the danger posed by these threats. Topics include the prospects for peace in Europe and the U.S. role in establishing a new European security order; similar issues concerning peace and the U.S. role in Northeast Asia; sources of and policies for dealing with ethnic and internal conflicts; roles and requirements for U.S. conventional forces; U.S. nuclear strategy and force requirements; and the dangers posed by the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and policies for dealing with these dangers. The course will provide background on the challenges the United States faced during the cold war and the policies it pursued to meet them; and will assess fundamental revisions that are required by the end of the cold war and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. While primarily concerned with policy questions, the course will explore theoretical issues that provide the foundation for U.S. security policy. C. Glaser.
337. Military Policy and International Relations (=PubPol 337). This course will focus on theoretical questions about the role of military policy in both managing and generating international conflict. The course provides a thorough examination of topics such as the key issues in deterrence literature, including deterrence of motivated aggressors, tacit bargaining, crisis stability and arms race stability; the debate over the effectiveness of deterrence threats; and specific issues in nuclear and conventional deterrence. We then broaden our perspective, considering the political consequences of military policy, addressing issues related to the security dilemma, political spirals, and debates over offensive and defensive strategies. Drawing upon these theories, the course moves on to explore the consequences of arms races and policies for reducing the dangers generated by military forces, including, but not limited to, arms control. Students should be familiar with some of these issues prior to enrolling in this course. G. Glaser.
341. Human Rights III (=Hist 295/395, GS Hum 289, LL/Soc 272, IntRel 579, Law 579, Pathol 465). This course examines the main features of the contemporary human rights system. It covers the major international treaties, and the mechanisms, international, regional, and national, established to implement them. We also discuss the uses and limitations of the international treaty system, and the relationship between international obligations and domestic implementation. Problems of rights implementation are related to issues of evidence, professional ethics and political feasibility. Legal and medical concepts are applied to topics such as torture, political repression, war crimes and genocide, refugees, women's rights, children's rights, violations of human rights within the United States, and medical ethics. J. Bhabha, R. Kirschner.
353. Conservative and Radical Liberalisms. This course will explore a recurring tension within liberal thought--between a view that society can and should be radically remade in accordance with liberal ideas of rationality, autonomy, and freedom, and a view that the liberal state must respect existing traditions and ways of life (even when these are not autonomous), that it must be so powerful as to dominate society, and that rationality is of limited importance to liberalism. The latter view favors decentralized power, federalism, and a thick civil society made up of a variety of kinds of associations and communities; the former favors the use of state power to prevent the growth of local tyrannies. We will discuss whether one or the other is truer to liberalism or morally preferable in general, and whether and how they could or should be synthesized. We will read Burke, Paine, and Wollstonecraft; Tocqueville and Mill; Montesquieu and Voltaire; and debates surrounding the abolition of slavery and the rights of women. We will also--briefly--consider the contemporary instantiations of this debate. J. Levy. (A)
358. Formal Approaches to Comparative Politics. This course presents some of the applications of the rational choice paradigm to comparative politics. It consists on three parts of uneven length: civil and ethnic conflict, transitions to democracy and democratic regimes, being the latter the longest one. Within that last chapter, the course will cover the analysis of elections, legislatures, political parties and politico-economic environments (e.g. distributive taxation and public goods). Students with some background in mathematics (especially, algebra and calculus) will benefit the most although other students unfamiliar with, but willing to engage in, formal analysis are also welcome. L. Medina. (C)
361. Civil Wars. The substantive focus of this seminar is on civil wars. Although we will look at issues related to their causes and termination, the main theoretical focus will be on civil wars as political processes. Topics include the institutions of civil wars, the impact of cleavages (especially ethnic ones), and the patterns of violence. Methodologically, we will rethink the ways in which we design research in comparative politics, especially with phenomena that are hard to place within existing analytical frameworks. Topics include the identification of theoretical and empirical puzzles, the selection of methodological tools and their adaptation to the question at hand, the development of research designs tailored to available empirical resources, the combination of fieldwork with models, the identification of relevant (and diverse) bodies of literature, and the production of data in data-scarce environments. We will pay particular attention to the tension between aggregation and disaggregation, macro and micro levels of analysis, agency and structure, area expertise and abstract generalization. Finally, we will ask whether it is possible to transcend context in a way that fully respects it. S. Kalyvas. (C)
436. Collective Choice and Institutions (=PubPol 435). The course introduces students to the formal theory of aggregating preferences via the political process rather than the market. Starting from Arrow's problem of social choice, the course covers spatial voting theory, institutional social choice theory, bargaining, and principal-agent models. The goal of the course is to learn how to analyze and model social interaction from a rational choice perspective. Most of the applications are in the context of legislative organization, electoral and interest group behavior, and the relationship between the legislature and bureaucracy. This course is primarily designed for Ph.D. students. S. Feldmann.
441. Social Theory of International Relations. Limit to 20 students. Introduction to philosophical aspects of international relations. Examination of debates in contemporary IR theory in light of recent work in social theory and philosophy on ontology, epistemology, and method, and especially on the relationship of material forces to ideas, agency to structure, and the nature and purpose of social scientific inquiry. IR scholarship addressed includes neorealist, neoliberal, constructivist, post-modern, critical, transnational, feminist, global governance, and normative approaches. Some prior familiarity with this scholarship is desirable, but since the issues are endemic to the social sciences and a third of the reading will be from social theory, the course may also be viewed as an introduction to the philosophy of social science, using IR as an extended case study. A. Wendt. (D)
451. Comparative Capitalisms II. PQ: Completion of PolSci 450 is encouraged but not required. This course will address key empirical and theoretical controversies involving matters of economic and industrial adjustment in advanced industrial economies. Literature on the welfare state, regions, corporate governance, industrial relations and industrial organization will be examined in comparative context. G. Herrigel. (C)
472. Coriolanus and Julius Caesar (=SocTh ). A reading of Shakespeare's Coriolanus and Julius Caesar along with treatments of those two figures by such ancient authors as Livy, Plutarch, and Dionysius of Halicarnassus, and by Machiavelli. N. Tarcov, G. Most. (A)
484. 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.
500. Dissertation Proposal Seminar. L. Wedeen.
509. Comparative Case Study Method. This course will examine the core epistemological and methodological issues surrounding the case study method. J. Mearsheimer, R. Pape. (E)
512. Workshop on Law and Philosophy (=Law 615, Philos 512, DivRe 513). This workshop, which represents a fusion of the faculty law-philosophy group and the existing legal theory workshop, will meet throughout the year, on alternate Mondays, with a total of about twelve meetings, mostly in the fall and winter. There will be a theme running throughout the year, and we will pursue that theme through both philosophical and legal readings, with a range of visiting speakers and some sessions directed by local faculty. The theme in 2000-01 will be Global Justice. We will pursue legal and philosophical readings on the topic, both historical and recent, and examine the significance of philosophical work on the topic for issues in constitutional law, criminal law, and other areas. Sessions will be led by the following people: Fall: Randall Kennedy (Harvard), John Deigh (Northwestern), Richard Mohr (Illinois-Urbana), Charles Fried (Harvard), Catharine MacKinnon (Chicago and Michigan), Joshua Cohen (MIT). Winter: Richard Posner (Chicago), Candace Vogler (Chicago), Jonathan Lear (Chicago), Tom Grey (Stanford), Martha Nussbaum (Chicago). Spring: Andy Koppelman (Northwestern), Reva Siegel (Yale), Michael Warner (Rutgers), Ed Baker (Penn, visiting at Chicago), Anita Allen (Penn). This workshop will meet throughout the year, on alternate Mondays from 4 to 6 PM, with a total of about 14 meetings. The schedule is currently available from Martha Nussbaum's secretary Shirley Evans. Students will write short responses to each presentation, and a longer seminar paper. Enrollment is limited to law students and philosophy Ph.D. students, and numbers are limited. Law students who wish to enroll should contact David Strauss, and philosophy students should contact Martha Nussbaum, by October 1. M. Nussbaum, D. Strauss.
520. Political Theory Workshop (=SocTh 520). 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, J. Levy, P. Markell, N. Tarcov, I Young.
545. American Politics Workshop. This workshop explores recent work in a variety of the subdisciplines of American politics. Our agenda is as diverse as the interests of our participants, ranging from the "new institutionalism" in both its historical and formal varieties, to studies of agenda setting, to quantitative studies of the electoral process. We are catholic in our substantive and methodological approaches. Sessions include paper presentations by workshop participants, readings and discussions of important new work, and several presentations by visiting scholars. J. Brehm, M. Dawson, M. Hansen, M. Harris-Lacewell, G. Rosenberg.
546. Workshop on East Asia. (=Econ 571). 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.
550. Workshop on Nations and Nationalism. The workshop serves as a multidisciplinary forum for the presentation and discussion of advanced research on nationalism, national identity, nation-formation, ethnonational violence, and related topics. The workshop welcomes participants and papers from diverse disciplines and methodologies. We also intend to connect theory and practice by involving policymakers, journalists, and others outside the academic community who might benefit from an increased understanding of the role and nature of the national in politics and society. R. Suny, L. Wedeen, N. Abu El-Haj.
555. Workshop on Comparative Politics and Historical Sociology. 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. Stokes, L. Wedeen.
556. Workshop on Social Theory. This workshop explores issues in social theory across a variety of disciplines in the social sciences and humanities. The emphasis is less on developing social theory than on exploring in a sustained fashion the social theoretical implications of the participants' substantive work. Themes to be addressed are likely to include the relationship between social and cultural transformations; questions of the public sphere, civil society and democracy; the relations between modernist and postmodernist forms of social theory; as well as conceptual issues posed by globalization. W. Sewell, M. Postone.
559. Theory and Practice in South Asia. The workshop will focus on ongoing work in the two regions. Topics of special interest include state formation, associational life, the politics of religion and ethnicity, political economy, and foreign policy. The workshop is primarily addressed to advanced graduate students in the social sciences, but the treatment of some topics may be of interest to students of history, literature, and comparative religion. Presentations will include the work in progress of graduate students, occasional guests, and faculty members. L. Rudolph, S. Rudolph.
578. Political Economics of Institutions. This course is designed for policy students preparing for the Ph.D. political economy exam. It explores the existence, purpose, form and consequences of institutions and organizations. Building on our answers to these questions, we will then explore issues of institutional design - that is, how to best create, maintain and reshape economic, political and social organizations. These issues go to the heart of public policy. Analysts can hardly understand a policy's likely effects if they do not understand the institutional context in which it will be implemented, or how to alter the institutional context to facilitate implementation. The class will be a combination of a seminar and a reading-study group. Although much of the material in the course is informal, the course assumes proficiency with relevant methodological tools taught in the political economy sequence. Enrollment is limited to policy students preparing for the Ph.D. political economy comprehensive exam; a limited number of other students may be admitted with consent. D. Snidal.
593. 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. D. Snidal.
