Undergraduate

This course focuses on the influence enjoyed by the United States of America in global affairs. We will explore the dominance of, and challenges to American foreign policy when it comes to ties with other actors on the world stage. This will be accomplished through an evaluation of themes and frameworks that help explain and critique the drivers of America’s relations with allies, competitors, and adversaries. We will explore the term ‘foreign policy’, examine the key forces and actors that impact American foreign policy, before delving into foreign policy tools of analysis. We will unpack different perspectives for analyzing American foreign policy through lectures, group activities, in-class readings, an in-class debate, and a final paper.

Instructor: Amir Magdy Kamel

This course was originially listed as PS144 for the Spring 25 semester. The course number was updated 11/12/24.

A situation involves strategic interaction if the best course of action of one agent depends on what others are going to do and vice-versa. These situations include, for example, the competition among firms in an oligopolistic market, the struggle between candidates in an election campaign, the wage bargaining between a worker and an employer, and the rivalry between states locked in an arms race. Although originally developed and applied in economics, game theory is now commonly used in political science and is beginning to be applied more widely throughout the social sciences to model strategic interaction. This course offers a non-technical introduction to game theory with a special emphasis on examples and applications drawn from economics, political science, and the other social sciences.

Note: Political Science c135 is cross-listed with Economics c110.

While there are no formal prerequisites for this course, some prior coursework in economics   (e.g., Econ 1) is highly recommended. Class requirements include a midterm, final, and problem sets.

Subfield: Empirical Theory and Quantitative Methods

Please note that this course is NOT a substitute for PS3.

Please note that this course description is from Fall 2013

Instructor:

Zheng Huang

How do we know how supportive the public is of a president, whether they support existing or new policies, or otherwise measure the pulse of the nation?  How do campaigns decide where to send volunteers, where to buy advertising, or who is most persuadable?  How can we determine the effect of audits or observers on electoral fraud?  This class will investigate how data is used by campaigns during elections, as well as how data is used to study the impact of campaigns and events on elections.  “Big data” is powerful and how to understand and best use data in decision-making is rooted in basic statistical principles.  This class will focus on three core concepts in statistical inference, descriptive, predictive, and causal inference.  We will study descriptive inference through survey sampling and measuring public opinion; predictive inference through how campaigns use statistical (“machine”) learning to allocate resources; and causal inference through experimental and observational studies of electoral fraud and fairness.  This course will include an intensive data analysis portion.  Based on skills we learn in this class, students will analyze surveys, build predictive models, and conduct and interpret data analyses using the R programming language.  Students will conduct their own original analysis in a final project.

Junior seminars fulfill upper division requirements for the major.

Subfield:   Methods

This course is an opportunity to read and discuss the most significant political statements of three foundational figures in the Western political tradition: Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero. Throughout the course, we'll be paying attention to both historical context and philosophical argument and aiming to stimulate reflection on key terms in the modern political lexicon (e.g. politics, democracy, republic, justice, citizenship) by engaging with their Greek and Latin origins. Of special interest will be conceptualizations of and relationships between a) the good (to agathon), the just or rightful (to dikaion), the common (koinon), and the advantageous or beneficial (to sympheron), and b) the honorable (honestas) and the useful (utilitas).

We'll be reading Plato's Republic and Laws; Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, Politics, and some of the Rhetoric; and Cicero's Republic, Laws, and some of the On Duties. It will be a lot of reading but the debates between these authors are some of the most intellectually powerful and rewarding around. If you enjoy engaging with philosophical ideas about politics and can put some time and energy into the reading, it'll be worth it. Please email daniela.cammack@berkeley.edu if you'd like to know more. 

The premise of this course is that dystopias are extreme versions of our political fears. In other words, each dystopia is a different vision of politics gone wrong: 1) utopian projects pursued by totalitarian means; 2) the disintegration of politics and reversion to a Hobbesian law of the jungle; 3) existing political and social problems taken to their extreme (racism, sexism, class conflict and inequality, excessive corporate power, popular ignorance and manipulability); 4) regimes operating according to the exact opposite principles of contemporary morality; 5) an evil faction that has usurped power and exercises it for its own benefit.

For each work of dystopian fiction, the class will analyze the central political questions:

What went wrong? How did the dystopia emerge?

What is the purpose of the regime, of politics?

How is power exercised?

How does the regime remain in power, elicit consent?

What are the divisions within society, among groups? Which groups are victimized and why?

How do individuals find meaning in a dystopian world?

What are the possibilities for resisting or overthrowing dystopian regimes?

What are the political lessons or warnings of the dystopian tale?

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:   

The separation of powers is a cardinal doctrine of the United States Constitution.  Described by the Framers as a check on unaccountable power, it is one of the most distinctive features of American constitutionalism exported to other countries that have adopted American-style Presidentialism.  This seminar will be devoted to a study of separation of powers as a (controversial) principle of constitutional design.  Seminar members will study the modern academic literature on separation of powers in constitutional theory and comparative constitutionalism; the intellectual origins of separation of powers; and how U.S. Federal courts have attempted to refine and preserve the doctrine in landmark decisions such as Clinton v. New York; Zivotofsky v. Kerry; United States v. Nixon; Trump v. United States.

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:   Political Theory

Berkeley Connect is a mentoring program, offered through various academic departments, that helps students build intellectual community. Over the course of a semester, enrolled students participate in regular small-group discussions facilitated by a graduate student mentor (following a faculty-directed curriculum), meet with their graduate student mentor for one-on-one academic advising, attend events and/or panel discussions, and go on field trips to campus resources. Students are not required to be declared majors in order to participate. There is no homework associated with Berkeley Connect: no exams, no papers, no quizzes.

 We encourage students in their first year at Berkeley, as freshman or transfers, to participate.

Homelessness, global warming, corruption, bankrupt pension systems, educational inequality... This course explores what we can learn in general about the way societies try to address and solve difficult and seemingly intractable public problems. Can we attribute success or failure to institutions and their capacity to solve problems? Are problems difficult to solve because they are so complex and we lack know-how or because of a failure of political will? What are the characteristics of organizations or communities able to solve problems proactively or creatively? How do public problems get politically framed and how are they used to mobilize constituencies? The course draws on literature in public administration, public policy studies, and democratic theory to try to better understand some of the major social, political, environmental, and economic problems of our contemporary world.

Note: This description is from Spring 2014

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