Courses
Course Archive
Courses Autumn 2006
Please find below a list of courses offered by the Department during the Autumn 2006 quarter.
20302. Power in International Politics. PQ: Basic knowledge of IR theory required. “Power” is a central concept in political philosophy, political science and, specifically, in the study of international relations (IR). This course will introduce the main conceptions of power important to the analysis of international relations. We will start with broad philosophical perspectives on power, cover IR-specific notions of power, and then highlight how power works in several specific spheres of international interaction -- power and influence, military power, cultural and economic power, and power in the context of a globalized world of sovereign (?) states. The purpose of the course is to problematize each of these views on power, allow students to form their own notion of the concept, and understand how this process of concept-formation shapes their worldview in general and the kind of IR scholarship produced. We will devote particular attention to the interactions between different views of power in the world of international politics – e.g., between power as a productive / constitutive concept and power as an instrumental / causal concept. Readings will include, among others: Steven Lukes, Bertrand Russel, Max Weber, Robert Dahl, Michel Foucault, Hans Morgenthau, Kenneth Waltz, Thomas Schelling, Stephen Biddle, Joseph Nye, Robert Kagan, and Stephen Walt. N. Monteiro. (D)
20610. Critical Theory Encounters the Nonhuman. What sorts of political and ethical obligations do humans have towards nonhuman animals and nature? Can things, such as commodities, wield power over people? How would the body politic be transformed if we began to question the distinctions between humans, animals, and machines? These are just a few of the many questions posed by critical theorists who treat nonhuman entities as a central object of inquiry. This course invites students to participate in the debates that animate recent investigations into the significance of nonhumans for political theory. This course can also be taken as a thematic introduction to contemporary critical theory. C. Buck. (A)
20702. The Politics of Punishment. This course will ask what punishment means in a modern democratic state and what particular forms of punishment reveal about conceptions of personal responsibility and subjectivity. The first part of the course will explore the dominant modern approaches to understanding punishment, covering Durkheim, Marxist interpretations, modern Anglo-American legal traditions, expressive retributivism, and culminating with a close reading of Michele Foucault’s Discipline and Punish. The second part of the course focuses on incarceration and capital punishment as practiced in the United States in light of these theoretical approaches. The third part of the course asks how these practices play out in terms of collateral consequences and the importance of racial, gender, and sexual identities in relation to punishment. A. Dilts. (B)
21112. The Question of Responsibility. This course will introduce a wide range of philosophical perspectives on an important concept in moral and political thought: responsibility. Throughout the course different perspectives and transformations concerning the question of responsibility in the history of moral and political thought will be explored, but always bearing in mind how and to what extent these perspectives and transformations seem to reflect our everyday moral experience and language, shaped largely by impersonal systems and forces. The tentative list of readings for the course includes writings by Aristotle, Kant, Charles Taylor, Gary Watson, Harry Frankfurt, Christine Korsgaard, Peter Strawson, Bernard Williams, Joel Feinberg, Max Weber, Arendt, Sartre, Levinas, and Derrida. Y. Has. (A)
22100. African American Politics. This course will focus on how the continuing struggle for black empowerment has helped to shape both the current American political environment as well as the social and economic conditions of the black community. While this course focuses on African-American politics since WWII, some attention is paid to the period before the war in order to lay a firm foundation for the analysis of modern black politics. The unique nature of African-American politics necessitates a multi-disciplinary approach to the subject. Consequently, materials and lectures will also show how the study of race relations, psychology, economics, and sociology can inform our understanding of the critical importance of black politics to American politics. After considering such topics as the politics of the Civil Rights and Black Power eras, fiscal retrenchment, and blacks and governmental institutions, this course will end by considering whether a “New Black Politics” has emerged and the impact of the nation’s move toward the political right on African-American politics. M. Dawson. (B)
24600/44600. Political Economy of Development. This course is an introduction to recent scholarship on the political economy of development. It will focus on three questions: What is development? What causes or constrains development? How do we know? The course is structured as follows. First, we will review economic theories of development and examine different approaches to the definition of development. Second, we will examine different theories about the causes of development, with emphasis on the way in which political and economic processes constrain or reinforce each other. Third, we will apply the knowledge from the first two parts to different topics of substantive interest, including health policy, corruption, poverty, inequality and redistribution, and the rule of law, among others. Throughout, we will emphasize issues of inference, exploring the relative merits of different empirical methodologies. A. Simpser. (C)
24810. Politics of the U.S. Congress. This course examines Congress from the perspective of the 535 senators and representatives who constitute it. It examines congressional elections, legislators’ relationships with their constituents, lawmakers’ dealings in and with committees, and representatives’ give-and-take with congressional leadership, the executive, and pressure groups. M. Hansen. (B)
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. (C)
27400/47400. Carl Schmitt on Law and the Political. Enrollment limited to 15. This course is devoted to the political thought of controversial Weimar lawyer and National Socialist partisan, Carl Schmitt. We will read and discuss his major works on sovereignty, the exception, legal theory, parliamentary government, liberalism versus democracy, and “the political.” But we will devote special attention to his two masterpieces of state philosophy and international law, respectively, Constitutional Theory and Nomos of the Earth. We will also consider recent appropriations of Schmitt’s theories by authors such as Agamben, Hardt and Negri. Students are expected to come to the first session having read The Concept of the Political in its entirety. J. McCormick. (A)
29000/39800. Introduction to International Relations. This course introduces main themes in international relations that include the problems of war and peace, conflict and cooperation. We begin by considering some basic theoretical tools used to study international politics. We then focus on several prominent security issues in modern international relations, such as the cold war and post-cold war world, nuclear weapons, nationalism, and terrorism. We also deal with economic aspects of international relations, such as globalization, world trade, environmental pollution, and European unification. C. Lipson. (D)
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. (E)
30500. Introduction to Data Analysis. Open to Political Science Ph.D. students only. 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. E. Oliver. (E)
32602. Texts of Indian Modernity: Rabindranath Tagore’s Writings about Nationalism, Universalism, Gender and Faith. (=RETH 32600, SALC 32603/ENGL 32602/LAWS 53202, PHIL 31250) The course will look at a selection of Tagore's writings in English translation, focusing on those themes which have gained a new relevance in the light of post-colonial debates on universalism and cultural particualarism, the politics of nationalism and gender in modern times. It will offer a mix of philosophical writings (“Religion of Man”), novels (“Ghare baire” or “Home and the World” and “Jogajog” or “Relationships”), short stories (“The Wife's Letter” and “The Exercise Book”) and political essays (Nationalism). It will also offer a few poems from “The Crescent Moon” and a play, “The Post Office.” The readings would be framed within four or five critical writings on Tagore and his historical-political context. M. Nussbaum, T Sarkar. (A)
34700. Political Economy of China. This course offers a set of tools for analyzing Chinese economic development and reforms. Our focus will be on how economic and political institutions have changed and how those changes affect the behavior of citizens, consumers, and businesses. We seek to understand the patterns of institutional transformation by examining legacies of the past, political and economic campaigns, leadership transitions, as well as China’s integration with the world economy. Topics covered include reforms in industrial governance, financial supervision, market regulation, and state-business relations; variations across regions and industrial sectors; the integration of Hong Kong into China; Taiwan and China; and China’s international trade strategy. All major topics are examined with a view to their international implications. D. Yang. (C)
36710. Leo Strauss. An introduction to the thought of Leo Strauss through a reading of a selection of his writings and some recent secondary literature. N. Tarcov. (A)
37000. U.S. Courts as Political Institutions. (=LAWS 51300) An examination of the ways in which United States courts interact with the broader political system. Questions include: How do the procedures, structures, and organization of the courts affect judicial outcomes? Are there interests that courts are particularly prone to support? What effect does congressional or executive impact, including judicial selection, have on court decisions? What are the difficulties with implementation of judicial decisions? G. Rosenberg. (B)
43300. Political Psychology. This course is about how the human mind can shape our attitudes and behaviors in the realm of politics. Do our personalities matter for our political choices? How much does what we learn from others determine our political beliefs, or is it most given by self- interested status? When we introduce heuristics, or cognitive short- cuts, to our decisions, what biases follow? How much of what we think about politics comes from our sense of identity, or those we feel are most similar to? Can we trust political actors, and under what kinds of conditions? When is a message persuasive, and why? J. Brehm. (B)
44500. Hard Questions in IR Theory. This seminar will pose 3 or 4 major questions that remain unresolved (and sometimes unasked) in IR theory. One is the repetitiveness (or “cyclical nature”) of international politics, which is a recurrent theme of Realist analysis. Is this basic assumption warranted and, if so, how should our theories cope with changes in technology, political organization, or ideology? Another hard question deals with the sources of international order. Is it ultimately based on the material relationships, such as the balance of power, or on shared norms and ideas, or some combination? What about the rise (and international reach) of non-state actors? Do they pose fundamental challenges to state-centric theorizing . . . or not? The course will pose several such questions and ask students to pose large questions of their own, as agendas for emerging IR research. This course presumes students have had some prior coursework at the graduate level in international relations theory, security studies, or international political economy. C. Lipson. (D)
52401. Patriotism and Cosmopolitanism. (=LAW 52402, GNDR 52400, HMRT 52400, PHIL 51001, RETH 52400) PQ: Enrollment limited to 25. Permission of instructor required, and this should be sought in writing (e-mail) by September 20. A minimum prerequisite is an undergraduate major in philosophy or the equivalent course work in philosophy. What is a nation, and why might it be appropriate to be attached to one’s own nation in a special way? Are there any good reasons why we should not always have equal concern for all human beings and seek to promote their good equally? (And who has the burden of proof here, the cosmopolitan or the defender of local loyalties?) If there are such reasons, do they give us reason to make the nation special, rather than to focus on other, frequently narrower, loyalties, such as those to one’s family, ethnic or religious group, sports team? Why did Marcus Aurelius say that his first lesson in being a good person was “not to be a fan of the Greens or Blues at the races, or the light-armed or heavy-armed gladiators at the circus”? Why did Sir Walter Scott say that a person who lacks patriotic emotion for his own native land “living shall forfeit fair renown/And, doubly dying, shall go down/To that foul hell from whence he sprung,/Unwept, unhonored, and unsung”? Why did Wilfred Owen say, of the better man of the future, “He wars on Death — for Life/Not men — for flags”? How is each philosophical position linked to a distinctive understanding of the good man and of manly virtue? What is patriotic emotion, and how is the apparently benign emotion of love of country linked to other more problematic emotions, such as anger, fear, the sense of humiliated masculinity, etc.? We will pursue these questions by reading a wide range of philosophical authors who have addressed the topic, including, Cicero, Marcus Aurelius, Adam Smith, J.G. von Herder, Ernst Renan, V. D. Savarkar, M. S. Golwalkar, J.S. Mill, Rabindranath Tagore, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Amartya Sen, Jürgen Habermas, Samuel Scheffer, Richard Rorty, and Alasdair MacIntyre. We will also focus throughout on treatments of (a) patriotism, (b) anti-patriotism, and (c) cosmopolitanism in the arts, including literary works by Rabindranath Tagore, Wilfred Owen, and Walt Whitman, and also including selected films dealing with nationalism in the context of war. M. Nussbaum. (A)
53100. Democracy and the Information Technology Revolution. The revolution in information technologies has serious implications for democratic societies. We concentrate, though not exclusively, on the United States. We look at which populations have the most access to technology-based information sources (the digital divide), and how individual and group identities are being forged online. We ask how is the responsiveness of government being affected, and how representative is the online community. Severe conflict over the tension between national security and individual privacy rights in the U.S., United Kingdom and Ireland will be explored as well. We analyze both modern works (such as those by Turkle and Gilder) and the work of modern democratic theorists (such as Habermas). An emphasis in this course will be the methodologies and research agendas utilized by scholars in this field. M. Dawson. (B)
57200. Social Networks. This seminar explores the sociological utility of the network as a unit of analysis. How do the patterns of social ties in which individuals are embedded differentially affect their ability to cope with crises, their decisions to move or change jobs, their eagerness to adopt new attitudes and behaviors? The seminar group will consider (a) how the network differs from other units of analysis, (b) structural properties of networks, consequences of flows (or content) in network ties, and (d) dynamics of those ties. J. Padgett. (E)
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. (C)
