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.
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.
This junior seminar falls within the "Comparative Politics" subfield, and can fulfill an upper-division requirement for the major.
Political Science Majors of Junior and Senior status (must be 3rd or 4th year students with at least 60 units completed).