Junior Seminar: Politics in the States of the USA – A Comparative Approach

Semester
Fall 2015
Instructor(s)
Units
4
Section
4
Number
191
CCN
71961
Times
M 12-2
Location
791 Barrows
Course Description

This seminar entails an extensive, careful consideration of issues and the research literature on politics and public policies in the (50) states of the U.S. The approach will be to focus comparatively, across the states and giving close attention to historical and contemporary theoretical, analytical and normative debates in the field.  The premise is that state governments are fundamentally important in and of themselves within the American federal system, and they are also critical in how they shape national politics and governance through their own political and policy orientations as well as in their implementation of “national” domestic policies.

 

Subfield: American Politics

 

The Junior Seminars are intense writing seminars which focus on the research area of the faculty member teaching the course.   The seminars provide an opportunity for students to have direct intellectual interactions with faculty members while also giving the students an understanding for faculty research.

Junior seminar can fulfill an upper-division requirement for the major

Requirements

Political Science Majors of Junior and Senior status (must be 3rd or 4th year students with at least 60 units completed) with a minimum overall UC GPA of 3.3.  Students must place themselves on the waitlist through TeleBEARS in Phase II. Priority may be given to students who have not yet taken a junior seminar.  Selection and notification will occur early August 2015