How are individuals forged (or not) into political communities? By whom? For what ends? How can these political projects face the reality of division, diversity, and difference? Is there even such a thing as a common interest? Is solidarity possible in a world constructed and striated by social powers of all kinds? To what extent can solidarity resist the individualization that characterizes contemporary political and economic life? How are contemporary social movements linked to a much longer political history and much wider theoretical tradition?

In this course, we will consider these questions through a variety of historical, theoretical, and methodological perspectives in the history of political thought and contemporary political theory. We will endeavor to understand these texts on their own terms, in their historical contexts, and their broader implications for contemporary political life. We will not settle these questions but deepen our understanding of the complex theoretical and political history of social solidarity.

Instructor: Brian Judge

In the first part of the course, we will focus on the theoretical side of political science. The main goals here are to understand what makes a good political science theory, and to give a brief overview of how game theory and related tools make up a powerful way to construct theories. This side of the class will be less data-focused, we will also see how the programming tools you learn in Data 8 can be used in this part of the scientific process. We will pivot to the empirical side in the second part of the class, we will cover how political scientists and other social scientists think about the challenges of causal inference, and the tools we use to overcome them.

Populism has a long history in the United States. Democratic president Andrew Jackson, Louisiana governor Huey Long, Dixiecrat George Wallace, the Populist Party of the nineteenth century, the Occupy Movement, the Tea Party and President Donald Trump have all been labelled populists. What does populism mean? Does the populist label fit all of these seemingly disparate people/movements? In this course, we will examine the historical episodes of populism to better understand the rise of President Trump and his own brand of populism. We will also compare populism in the United States to populism in the United Kingdom.  In the final weeks of this course, we will examine the factors driving the rise of populism most recently and consider its impact on democracy.