Graduate

This course surveys ways in which the value of the environment has been conceptualized in political philosophy, with a special focus on the moral problem of climate change and its intersection with territorial rights and self-determination.  What is the moral basis of claims to territory and natural resources?  What is the value of nature, biodiversity, and non-human animals?  Are territorial rights and self-determination compatible with respect for the environment?  What are our environmental responsibilities to future generations?  How should individuals and governments respond to the problem of climate change?  Is economic growth the problem or the solution?  

A weekly seminar on political thought from the Renaissance to the French Revolution. Early modern political theorist, typically including Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau.

The theme for Spring 2025 "Social Contracts".

PS 212B is a survey graduate seminar course in political theory introducing graduate students to major texts in the history of early modern political thought (roughly 1500-1800).  The theme for this year’s seminar will be ‘social contracts.’  The idea of the social contract has provided a vital heuristic in the modern social sciences and philosophy to explain how collectively beneficial social cooperation can be possible in a world populated by self-interested humans.  The course will study the major textual sources of the social contract tradition in major works by Grotius, Pufendorf, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau.  The course will also introduce students to major ancient and medieval scholastic sources of contract law.  If time permits, the seminar may also study Marxist and feminist critiques of social contract theory and attempts to apply the social contract tradition to ‘contractualism’ in moral philosophy. 

This course offers an in-depth assessment of the state as it is studied in contemporary scholarship in the field of comparative politics. Drawing on scholarship in comparative politics and allied disciplines, we will ask what the state is (considering various conceptions), seek to account for its emergence, and explore relationships between states and societies. We will also explore scholarship about state weakness and state failure, and explanations for variation in the strength and stability of states. Readings range from theoretical social science to cross-national analyses and studies of a variety of specific cases from across the world, and from classics in the field to recent published and unpublished papers. Though we will touch on Marxist and Foucauldian perspectives on the state, our investigation will be centered in what might be described in broad terms as a Weberian perspective.

This seminar explores the characteristics and dynamics of non-democratic regimes: how and why they come about, what sustains them, why some people resist and others do not, and how and why they decline and fall. There are no formal methodological prerequisites for this course. However, during our journey through autocracy we will encounter a variety of approaches, including formal, large-N statistical, small-N qualitative, and narrative. Some of the readings may employ techniques with which you are not familiar. We will not spend lots of time on methods per se, but you should consider those readings notice that you will eventually have to get up to methodological speed to understand cutting-edge research. In any case, you should try to do the best you can for whatever level of methodological training you have.  

Throughout the world and at all levels of government, public bureaucracies play a major role in politics and public policy. They create and administer law, deliver welfare benefits, collect taxes, provide security and protect us from risks of all types. How well they do this helps to determine the effectiveness of government and the quality of democracies. Adopting a comparative perspective on bureaucracy, this course examines how and why the structures, capacities, effectiveness and accountability of bureaucracies vary significantly in different places and at different times. Why do some administrative organizations become politicized and corrupt while others establish strong meritocratic
administration and effective performance? Why do some bureaucracies develop their own power base and become relatively autonomous while others are subject to elaborate political oversight and micromanagement? This course examines how bureaucracy works in different countries and in different policy sectors in both the global north and the global south.

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.

Note: This description is from Spring 2015

The main aims of this workshop are met through a forum in which faculty and graduate students at various career stages work closely together. It is an applied workshop with an emphasis on learning by doing and on learning how to be a more constructive colleague. Rather than segregate PhD students by cohort, the workshop is designed to bring cohorts together in order to facilitate the student-to-student transfer of skills and knowledge.

This group brings together students and faculty working at the intersection of politics and identity. Our goal is to foster community among anyone studying the role of social identities in politics and society, regardless of subfield, methods involved, and identities of interest. Anyone is welcome. Participants can present research, give and receive feedback, share research best practices, and work through challenges with fellow scholars in a collegial and welcoming environment. Discussion can center around research at any stage, from fully-drafted working papers, to proposed research designs (e.g., an experiment before it is run), to early-stage ideas and brainstorming. We will meet weekly for an hour for most of the semester. Food and drinks will be served.

Tuesdays 12:30-1:30
Harris Room, Philosophy Hall
Sept 10-Nov 19

*Course will be renumbered to PS290IP as of Spring 2025.

PS 375 is a two-credit course designed for first-time Graduate Student Instructors (GSIs).  The course seeks to introduce students to practical teaching methods and to foster discussion about effective pedagogy. It also focuses on professional development, in particular on developing skills that are closely related to effective teaching such as presentation skills. The course features student presentations on selected pedagogical topics, panels on key issues related to teaching and to professional development, and discussion of weekly assignments in relation to challenges encountered by GSIs in the course of their teaching.