Spring 2015

The goal of this yearlong course is to provide a forum in which students propose, develop, and complete a research project that produces a journal-length paper of publishable quality. It is primarily oriented towards second-year Ph.D. students in any subfield (students in other years may participate with the professors’ consent). The course meets regularly during parts of the fall semester and irregularly during the spring semester. In the first few weeks of the course, we discuss the process of moving from research topic to research question; and we survey published articles by recent Ph.D. students/assistant professors, focusing on the structure and nature of the writing and presentation as well the quality of the argument and evidence. We then move to students’ research proposals for the rest of the fall semester. During the spring semester, students meet individually with the course instructors and their advisors, develop and revise drafts of their papers, and present their work at a department “APSA-style” conference. In order to complete the course and receive credit, students must complete the requirements for both semesters.

NOTE: SPRING 2015 IS THE SECOND SEMESTER OF THIS COURSE.

This colloquium exposes graduate students and faculty to work by leading scholars of comparative politics working in diverse substantive areas. Graduate students are expected to read circulated papers of visiting speakers ahead of the colloquium and participate actively in raising questions and making comments.  They are encouraged to meet visiting speakers in their areas of interest in group or one-on-one sessions. The schedule and links to available papers may be found at http://polisci.berkeley.edu/research-and-teaching/lectures-colloquia/comparative-politics-colloquium or http://cpd.berkeley.edu/events/comparative-politics-colloquium/"

This course provides an introduction to research design in comparative politics; it is the second semester of the two-semester introductory graduate sequence for the comparative sub-field.  We will focus on various topics relevant to doing research, such as how to formulate research questions; develop concepts and measures; bolster the validity of descriptive and causal inferences; and use various qualitative and quantitative methods in the service of diverse substantive agenda.  Developing the ability to critique research is one important objective.  However, the primary goal of the course is to provide a first foundation for actually doing research.

The focus of this course will be on redefining security in Pakistan.  Pakistan's relations with India, nuclear proliferation, and terrorism will serve as a departure for an examination of security from multiple alternative perspectives such as education, sectarianism, water, population growth, urbanization, rural development, religion, etc.  These issues will be connected with a conference on this topic to be held in late February.  Students will be expected to attend, attend two meetings before the conference, three talks by visitors, and one meeting toward the end of the semester. Students will have to read relevant monographs and papers related to topics to be covered in the conference or the talks by visitors.  Grades will be assigned on attendance, class participation, and a short written summary of conference proceedings.

NOTE:  This 1-unit, P/NP course does not count as an upper division Political Science requirement. It is elective credit only.

This reading/workshop course will review a set of core readings in business-state relations and then move directly to student presentations of current research.   Readings will be drawn from recent findings on corporate governance, comparative business power, financial crisis and response, and foreign direct investment.  Requirements include participation, a short paper on assigned readings, and presentation of a longer paper related to each participant’s current interests.   The course will be graded on a pass-fail basis.

This seminar, cross-listed with the University of California, Berkeley Law School , is designed to introduce students to the study of public law-- a subfield of political science that focuses on the relationships between law and politics, and between politics and the design, behavior, and impact of legal institutions. Readings draw on comparative as well as American studies to better understand the political sources of the rule of law, judicial independence and constitutional courts, and typologies of legal systems and legal institutions. This course will include studies of decision-making by judges and other legal decision-makers and studies of the capacity of law and courts to affect policy and social change. In the course of addressing these topics, the seminar will familiarize students with prominent approaches to research and explanation in public law.

The course start date is January 15, 2015.

Note:  The course follows the University of California, Berkeley Law School Academic Calendar.  For further information, please reference their web page. 

https://www.law.berkeley.edu/php-programs/courses/coursePage.php?cID=16004&termCode=B&termYear=2015

This seminar compares the institutions used by different countries to provide stable markets and economic security for their citizens. The course begins with historical readings on the role of  finance in promoting economic growth from nineteenth-century industrialization through the three decades of stability after World War Two. We will then use this framework to examine topics including: industrial finance, social risk-sharing, corporate governance, and comparative responses to the financial crisis of 2008. Readings will be drawn from Europe, Japan, and the United States. 

The course will be conducted like a graduate seminar. Students must be do the reading before each session and be ready to participate actively in discussion. There are no technical prerequisites, but students must have some background in either economics or the comparative politics of advanced industrialized democracies. Written requirements will include regular attendance and participation, two short think-piece essays and one research paper with topic and preliminary outline to be submitted during the course of the semester.

This course provides a graduate-level survey of the politics that shape social and redistributive policies in the advanced democracies. In different ways, both Europe and the United States have confronted multiple challenges to long established patterns of politics and public policy. Economic shifts have exacerbated inequality and created new economic divisions in most, but not all, advanced democracies. Key social and infrastructure policies have been altered with new forms of public-private provision for financing and delivering public services. Finally, rising numbers of immigrants from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds have disrupted settled national identities. As they challenge existing institutions and politics, these underlying shifts toward dualism, privatization, and diversity raise fundamental questions about the boundaries of public power and the political coalitions that undergird public policy in advanced democracies.

This seminar examines the politics and policy conflicts that accompany these changes. The course begins with key debates drawn from both political economy and political sociology. It then examines contending viewpoints generated by the (underlying) economic and demographic shifts identified above. Among the topics to be considered are: housing policy in light of the 2008 recession; nonprofit/nongovernmental organizations and the delivery of social policy; financialization as a strategy deployed by strapped public agencies; and the ethnic and racial dimensions of conflict over the public role. The readings consider alternative theories of policy evolution, federalism, political mobilization and organizational strategy.

Topics from multi-equation causal modeling and introductory econometrics, with special emphasis on procedures appropriate for political data, including survey data.