Courses
Course Archive
Spring 2007
Please find below a list of courses offered by the Department during the Spring 2007 quarter.
20402. Machine Politics in Latin America. This course introduces students to the phenomenon of machine politics and political clientelism in three Latin American countries: Argentina, Mexico, and Peru. Why do some political machines succeed in getting votes while others fail? Why are some machines consistently able to win votes over a given period of time while others are not? Are there significant differences between machine politics in Mexico, Argentina, and Peru? What transformations and continuities can we find in comparing past and present forms of machine politics and political clientelism? What does the existence of these machines imply for the quality of democracy in Latin America? What are the prospects for these machines in the future? We will address these questions by studying various theoretical explanations, empirical evidence, and some formal models of machine politics in Latin America. M. Szwarcberg. Spring. (C)
20612. The Rise of Industrial Asia. This course analyzes the theoretical explanations behind the rise of East Asia as a global economic power, with a particular focus on Japan, China and the four East Asian tiger economies (Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, and Hong Kong). The course has two major objectives. First, it reviews the major development of East Asian political economy since the 1960s. Second, it examines the key theoretical debates in comparative East Asian political economy such as the sources of development, the relationship between development and regime type, the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997-98, and the impact of globalization on economic development. W. Tam. Spring. (C)
20910. War, Sovereignty, and the Subject of International Politics. This course will explore the conceptions of war that animate international politics and inform the practice of international relations. We will focus on broadening an deepening our appreciation of the configurations of power that constellate the state as such, as well as exploring the underlying conceptions that constitute the ontological assumptions regarding international politics. By challenging received ideas of the state and war, we will investigate the ways that these notions are produced in current international practice, as well as reproduce the centrality of the state as the dominant actor of international politics. We will also examine contemporary foreign policy issues through a new lens. We will develop the tools to see some of the deeper structural issues involved in constraining contemporary practice, as well as the ways in which individual agential decisions reproduce and constitute that which is often viewed as unproblematically obvious. C. McIntosh. Spring. (D)
22510. Law and Society. (=LLSO 28100) PQ: PLSC 28800 or equivalent. This course examines the myriad relationships between courts, laws, and lawyers in the United States. Issues covered range from legal consciousness to the role of rights to access to courts to implementation of decisions to professionalism. G. Rosenberg. Spring. (B)
23500. Political Organizations. This course introduces the study of political organizations and organizational behavior. We examine classic and contemporary writings on organizations, as well as applications of those ideas to political problems. J. Brehm. Spring. (B)
23800/43800. Plato’s Laws. (=FNDL 23400, LLSO 28500, SCTH 30300) PQ: Enrollment limited. Open to undergraduates with consent of instructor. An introductory reading of Plato's Laws with attention to such themes as the following: war and peace; courage and moderation; rule of law; music, poetry, drinking, and education; sex, marriage, and gender; property and class structure; crime and punishment; religion and theology; and philosophy. N. Tarcov. Spring. (A)
26210/36210. Alternative Models of Political Theorizing. This seminar examines three alternative models of political theorizing: critical theory, post-structuralism and feminist political theory. We focus on assessing the strengths and weaknesses of each of these models to think about injustices in contemporary societies by studying the works of two representatives: Karl Marx and Theodor W. Adorno (critical theory), Michel Foucault and Jacques Lacan (post-structuralism), Iris Marion Young and Judith Butler (feminist political theory). As our understanding of these theoretical frameworks deepens, we critically discuss the commonalities and differences of both the discussed thinkers and the alternative models of political theorizing they represent. This course is open to graduate students and undergraduate students with some prior knowledge of the discussed thinkers. C. Leeb. Spring. (A)
26710. Ethnic Conflict. What is ethnic conflict and how can it be moderated? This course draws on readings from many social science disciplines, and case studies of conflicts from Africa, the Americas, Europe and Asia to introduce students to theories of ethnic identity and change and ethnic conflict. We will also explore the main institutional, economic, and social-psychological approaches used to moderate conflicts. Students will be asked to "solve" an ethnic conflict of their choice using one or other of the approaches discussed in class. S. Wilkinson. Spring. (C)
27215/52315. Machiavelli and the Florentine Republic. (=LLSO 28200) Enrollment limited to 15. This course is devoted to the political writings of Niccolò Machiavelli, his intellectual predecessors such as Petrarch, Bruni, Salutati, and contemporary interlocutors such as Guicciardini. These readings will be studied in light of the political history of these writers’ native city, the Florentine Republic. Themes to be explored include: the relationship between the person and the polity; the compatibility of moral and political virtue; the utility of class conflict; the advantages of mixed institutions; the principles of self-government, deliberation, and participation; the meaning of liberty and the question of military conquest. Students are expected to come to the first session having read Machiavelli’s The Prince in its entirety. J. McCormick. Spring. (A)
28900/39900. Strategy. This course covers 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: (1) examining the key changes in strategic environment since 1990, (2) looking at the effects of multipolarity on American grand strategy and basic national goals, (3) focusing on nuclear strategy, (4) examining conventional strategy, and (5) discussing the future of war and peace in the Pacific Rim. R. Pape. Spring. (D)
30700. Introduction to Linear Models. This course will provide an introduction to the linear model, the dominant form of statistical inference in the social sciences. The goals of the course are to teach students the statistical methods needed to pursue independent large-n research projects and to develop the skills necessary to pursue further methods training in the social sciences. Part I of the course reviews the simple linear model (as seen in Stat 220 or its equivalent) with attention to the theory of statistical inference and the derivation of estimators. Basic calculus and linear algebra will be introduced. Part II extends the linear model to the multivariate case. Emphasis will be placed on model selection and specification. Part III examines the consequences of data that is “poorly behaved” and how to cope with the problem. Part IV introduces special topics like systems of simultaneous equations, logit and probit models, time-series methods, etc. The breadth of coverage depends on time. Relatively little prior knowledge of math or statistics is expected, but students are expected to work hard to develop the tools introduced in class. J. Brehm. Spring. (E)
33800. Nietzsche’s Critique of Modernity. Open to undergraduates with consent. An examination of Nietzsche's mature philosophical thought, with special attention to Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Beyond Good and Evil, and On the Genealogy of Morals. R. Gooding-Williams. Spring. (A)
37700. Liberal Citizenship. (=MAPS 43700) Do modern liberal regimes require specific character traits from their citizens? If so, what virtues are we talking about, and how demanding are they? Should a liberal politics strive to be maximally accommodating of moral difference, or do we have reasons to promote a more robust understanding of the good life? How should liberal virtues be encouraged or promoted? This seminar tries to re-orient debates between political and comprehensive liberals by examining the qualities of character necessary for liberal citizenship. Readings will be drawn from Judith Shklar, William Galston, Stephen Macedo, Eamonn Callan, Charles Larmore, Amy Gutmann, Ingrid Creppell, and Ruth Grant. C. Cyrenne. Spring.
41200. Terrorism. This course examines the causes, conduct, and consequences of terrorism, with special emphasis on suicide terrorism. The course takes a building-block approach. It begins with competing theories about the causes of terrorism, then examines prominent cases, such as Hezbollah, Hamas, and Al Qaeda, and ends with a series of student research days focusing on important topics, such as those covered in the course as well as on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the IRA, the Assassins, and other cases. R. Pape. Spring. (D)
44200. Hannah Arendt. In this course we’ll read The Origins of Totalitarianism and Eichmann in Jerusalem in order both to learn about the political thought of Hannah Arendt and to think about issues of responsibility and political agency. D. Allen. Spring. (A)
44400. Democratic and Nationalist Mobilization. We live in an age of democratization as well as an age of nationalism. This graduate seminar considers the interaction of these two global trends by comparing and contrasting some of the major mass movements for popular self-rule that erupted during the final decades of the twentieth century (i.e. China’s Tiananmen Square protests, South Africa’s anti-apartheid movement, indigenous insurgencies in Latin America, Poland’s Solidarity movement, and the Palestinian intifada). We will pay particular attention to the role of collective identities and class interests in sparking and sustaining popular protests for political change. Advanced undergraduates may register for the course with instructor consent. D. Slater. Spring. (C)
45110. Issues in Comparative Capitalism. This course will address key empirical and theoretical controversies involving matters of economic and industrial adjustment in advanced industrial economies. Literature on the multinationals, regions, corporate governance, industrial relations, welfare states, new patterns of administrative governance and democracy will be examined in comparative context. G. Herrigel. Spring. (C)
50000. Dissertation Proposal Seminar. S. Wilkinson. Spring.
50202. Religion and the Political Order II: Machiavelli to Aubuhr. (=RETH 50202) J. Elshtain. Spring. (A)
62900. Advanced Seminar in Ethics. (=RETH 52900) J. Elshtain. Spring. (A)
