Spring 2014

The goal of this course is to explore the conditions that lead to the initiation, escalation, and termination of international conflict as well as the factors that encourage peace between states. The course does not focus on historical description of particular wars but rather provides a broad theoretical treatment of the causes of war and peace. We will first familiarize ourselves with the principles of the scientific study of international conflict. Then we will spend the semester examining various factors that scholars have identified as potentially leading to conflict, such as the distribution of power, arms races, alliances, territory, rivalry, trade interdependence, and domestic 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 seminars fulfill upper division requirements for the major.

Subfield:   International Relations

Arguments about the proper relationship between markets and governments – that is, about political economy – are at the heart of many of the most intense conflicts in contemporary American politics. This seminar is designed to explore what we know about the American political economy. We will approach the topic from multiple vantage points – theory, including classic and contemporary work; comparative analysis; historical analyses of the American experience; and investigations of recent and on-going political conflicts. The goal is to better understand why the political economy of the United States is distinctive, and to shed light on the broader question of how – and for whose benefit – the American political system operates. Among other topics we will discuss the political power of business, the sources of rising inequality in the United States, the causes and consequences of finance's increasing role in the American economy, and the politics of health care reform.

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 seminars fulfill upper division requirements for the major.

Subfield:   American Politics

This course examines patterns of political and economic change in Latin America over the course of the twentieth century.  Readings focus on industrialization and the advent of populism, the collapse of democracy and the rise of bureaucratic authoritarian regimes during the 1960s and 1970s, democratization, democratic consolidation, as well as economic liberalization and its aftermath. Readings focus on five country cases: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru, and Venezuela.  Discussions frame the Latin American cases in terms of broader debates in comparative 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 seminars fulfill upper division requirements for the major.

Subfield:   Comparative Politics 

Cities are the sites of some of the most extremes of poverty and wealth in the United States.  Groups representing these diverse interests often desire very different kinds of cities and different policies from city governments.  Businesses want a city that limits regulations and taxes, while the superwealthy may prize security and special amenities.  The superwealthy may also use their own money to support some types of activities but not others.  Low and moderate-income residents, by contrast, have less power to make government respond to their preferences for affordable housing and responsive public institutions.  We will examine the strategies that each of these groups uses to achieve its goals in cities, asking when and how the preferences of the less wealthy can prevail in urban settings.

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 seminars fulfill upper division requirements for the major.

Subfield:   American Politics

This one-unit course will feature a guest speaker each week discussing an issue currently in the news. The class is open to all students, and there are no prerequisites. The class is offered Pass/Not Pass, based on a final examination. May be repeated for credit.

This course does not count as an upper division Political Science requirement.

This course provides an overview of California politics, with a focus on contemporary issues and an analysis of who wields power and why. Specifically, the course will focus on : the demographic, social and economic forces that shape the State's politics- the three official branches of state government (executive, legislative and judicial)- the three unofficial branches (the media, lobbyists and interest groups)- campaigns (candidates, initiatives, consultants, pollsters, political parties and money), local government, the state budget and education policies.

Subfield:   American Politics

Please note this description is from Fall 2013

The overwhelming majority of governments throughout history have been dictatorial. Even the recent spread of democracy has not extirpated authoritarian rule: as of 2012 roughly one quarter of all countries are considered full-blown autocracies. Whatever the benefits of democracy, it seems dictatorship is here to stay. This course explores the characteristics and dynamics of non-democratic regimes: how and why they come about, what sustains them, why some people resist them and others do not, and how and why they decline and fall. We will explore a variety of examples from Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. Using films and novels in addition to political science literature, we will investigate how dictators maintain their power, how ordinary people react to repression, and the links between dictatorship and security and economic development.

This course will focus on the transformative process through which the nations of contemporary Southeast Asia have confronted political crises and instability and the various levels of success with which they have attempted to implement comprehensive programs of reform. This course will analyze several different areas of political activity, such as: state-led initiatives (political economy) regarding development and resource distribution citizen and opposition movements both within and outside formal state institutions which seek to influence, alter, or overturn state action and policy institution-building and the cultivation of social capital and regional and transnational flows of capital and labor which act in alliance with or in opposition to national economic institutions. Specific topics will include a comparative analysis of state policy the relationship between illicit economies (such as narcotics) and ethnic insurgency the nascent political voice of religion and ethnicity as nationalist or opposition ideologies the expansion and influence of local NGOs (legal aid, human rights, women's rights, etc.) political violence and alternative paths to the expression of discontent and corruption. After a general overview of Southeast Asia as a regional political theater, we will turn our attention to in-depth case studies of Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines, and Burma.

Please note this description is from Fall 2013.

Subfield:   Comparative Politics

 This course is designed primarily for students interested in exploring in depth the relationship between U.S. foreign policy and developments in East Asia. Although geographically quite distant from the Asian mainland, the United States has been deeply involved militarily, diplomatically and economically with that region since the 19^th Century. Since the defeat of Japan in the Pacific component of World War II, the United States has maintained a strong military presence throughout the Asia-Pacific and has fought costly wars in Korea and Viet-Nam, all as integral components of the Cold War. More recently, the rise of China; the cross-Straits problem surrounding Taiwan; the economic torpor of Japan; the continued division of the Korean peninsula and the nuclear program of North Korea; along with the potential for Muslim terrorism in Southeast Asia are but a few of the problems that animate the foreign policy interactions between East Asia and the United States. This course will explore the historical and contemporary foreign policies of the United States toward Asia with an eye toward analyzing the ways in which Asia has been shaped by American, and in turn American policies have been shaped by events in Asia.

Students who took PS 191 "Junior Seminar: American Foreign Policy in East Asia" with Professor Pempel cannot take this course due to the substantial similarity in course content.

This course examines the politics and policy of contemporary Japan, applying a range of theoretical perspectives to analyze both recent history and current events.  After a brief historical review, we survey the core political institutions of the postwar era, examine patterns of political interaction, survey recent social changes, and analyze current debates over policy issues ranging from economic reform to constitutional revision.