Spring 2018

Although Asia has been the world’s outstanding developmental success story since World War II, the study of Asian politics has been hitherto dominated by area studies and international relations; comparative analysis of Asian polities has been rare and relatively unsystematic.  There are good reasons for this, including the bewildering diversity of this vast continent, but as Asia rises economically its member-states also become more economically and politically mature, creating a basis to understand patterned similarities and differences.  The purpose of this course is to immerse advanced undergraduate students in the available secondary literature on contemporary Asia for the purpose of advancing comparative research.  

Please see click on the link below for more information regrarding RWAP

http://polisci.berkeley.edu/research-and-teaching/lectures-colloquia/research-workshop-american-politics-rwap-colloquium

A forum for the presentation and discussion of research in quantitativemodeling. Anyone working on quantitative modeling or empiricaltesting of quantitative models is welcome to attend. To receive creditfor the course, a student must attend regularly, participate actively,and make at least two presentations per semester. Presentations canbe of the student's own work-in-progress or of work by other scholars (including both influential/classic works or interesting current working papers).

Variable Unit Course: 1.0 to 3.0

Please see click on the link below for more information regrarding MIRTH

http://polisci.berkeley.edu/research-and-teaching/lectures-colloquia/monday-international-relations-thoughts-series-mirth

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 2018 IS THE SECOND COURSE IN THE RESEARCH AND WRITING SEQUENCE.

Opinion surveys are nearly ubiquitous in public life today.  They are also widely maligned and misunderstood.  What are surveys, how do we conduct them, what can they tell us (and fail to tell us), and what is their relevance to social and political research? This seminar is a skills-based practicum geared to train you to critically consume and generate survey data.  It includes both readings on survey research and a practicum on collecting and analyzing survey data.  Key topics we will cover include: the concept of public opinion; the nature of survey response; survey design and implementation; understanding sampling theory and questionnaire design; primary analysis of survey data. This is not a course on quantitative methods, but familiarity and comfort with quantitative analysis is expected. You are expected to participate actively in seminar discussions, complete work on multiple practicum assignments, and submit a final paper for the class

Note: This course is combined with the Law School and follows the Law School Calendar 

https://www.law.berkeley.edu/php-programs/courses/academic_calendars.php

American federalism allocates authority and organizes representation along territorial lines. Although these institutional arrangements likely have major consequences for American politics, in recent years they have received limited attention from political scientists. This seminar will draw on institutional theory, comparative analysis, and research on American political development  to explore some of the most important political consequences of federal institutions and territorially grounded representation in the United States. We will then explore the subject through focused inquiry on three areas of recent and current politics: the evolution of the American political economy, the dynamics of racial conflict, and the development and institutionalization of partisan polarization.

TBA