Undergraduate

The United States social fabric is threaded with more than 60 million Latinos. Latinos, however, are not a monolithic group. The term “Latino” masks heterogeneous political experiences and views. Latinos have divergent immigration histories and socialization experiences in the US, all of which have differently shaped their political perspectives and engagement patterns. This course examines the past and present of Latino politics in the US. The course reviews the history of conquest, colonization, and immigration that gave rise to the Latino population in the US, the differences and similarities in the contexts of reception of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Dominican, and Central American, the cultural and institutional determinants of Latino identities, and the historical and institutional contexts shaping the contemporary political attitudes, behaviors, and representation of Latino voters.

The course follows and builds on two textbooks: Latino Politics by Lisa García Bedolla and Christian Hosam, and Latino Politics in America by John García and Gabriel Sanchez. Students will attend lectures, engage in reading-based participation and active learning, take two exams, and complete two assignments; one assignment on the elements of a research paper on Latino politics and a second assignment on analysis of quantitative data using the software R. Students will start acquiring the skills to complete these two assignments early in the course. Discussion sections will be designed to introduce students to the writing of a research paper and quantitative data analysis, and to provide a forum for students to present advances on their assignments and to receive feedback from their peers and instructors.

Subfield: American Politics

Note that PS166 is the same course as PS109L renumbered. Please do not enroll in PS166 "Latino Politics" if you have already taken PS109L "Selected Topics: Latino Politics" in a previous semester as it will be considered duplicate credit.

This course explores the use of experiments to make causal (evidence-based) claims in American political behavior research. The course begins with the foundational methodology of different types of experiments (including field, lab, and survey experiments) where students will develop the skills to critically analyze experimental designs. Topics in this part of the course include the importance of randomization, internal and external validity, strengths and weaknesses of each method, and interpretation of results. The remainder of the course focuses on innovative experimental designs that allow us to investigate political behavior research questions such as how political attitudes can vary with physiological traits, the effects of the media and political advertisements on political opinions and voting, the effects of non-political events on voters evaluations of the government, the effects of partisanship on non-political decisions and evaluations, and more.

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 a series of in-depth case studies.  

Please note that this course description is from Spring 2015

Subfield: Comparative Politics

India, the world’s largest democracy, offers an opportunity to study various questions relevant to politics and policy. How does a multiethnic democracy sustain itself? Who supports right-wing policies and politics in India? Have caste and gender-based reservations (quotas) improved political participation? Have welfare policies improved the well-being of the poor? Has right-wing politics shifted the contours of religious, ethnic, and regional divisions?

This course provides a unique opportunity for students to work on questions like these through a semester-long, data-driven research project of a student’s choosing on the Politics of India. Students will interact one-on-one with the instructional team throughout the term, receiving guidance on project development, data analysis, and writing a research paper. Prior knowledge of Indian politics is recommended, not required. Those without knowledge of Indian politics will have access to background materials to familiarize themselves with key concepts, political actors, and recent developments in the Politics of India.

The course is ideal for those who want to experience conducting independent research and data analysis. You don’t need a background in statistics to take the class—just an openness to learning how to analyze and interpret data. The instructional team will assist students in accessing relevant datasets, conducting analyses, interpreting data, and providing regular feedback on their progress. 

The course will cover ethnic politics, broadly conceived with a particular focus on social movements, protests, civil disobedience and political violence. Related topics may include immigration, crime and the state, and urban politics. We will consider a range of questions including, how do stories influence our sense of self, community and nation? How do filmmaking techniques influence which people and issues become salient? How do aesthetic and narrative choices affect attitudes about the social order and who is deserving of power? Through close readings of films, social science, and media studies scholarship, this course will enable students to study key political science concepts, the institution of cinema, and how stories make meaning

Subfield:   Comparative Politics

Women make up around 49.5% of the global population, yet they are strikingly underrepresented when it comes to political office. Looking at the global average, women only hold 24% of seats at the parliamentary level. The percent of women in office varies drastically between countries. For example, quota-based countries like Rwanda have 60% women in parliament, whereas countries with unique electoral systems like Lebanon only have 4.7%. This course looks to explain this variation, and further understand the consequences of it. We will focus on questions such as: How do electoral systems affect women’s access to elected office?  What, if any, are the negative effects of imposing gender quotas? If elected, do women promote greater substantive representation? We will look into the potential for gender-based discrimination among socialized gender roles, voters, political parties, campaign policies, and the media. Please be advised that this is not a course on feminist theory, but rather an investigation of the barriers to women’s representation and political participation.

Instructor: Melanie Phillips

The rise and fall of world communism was one of the great dramas of the 20^th century, born in wars (World War I, World II), offering an alternative modernity to that of the capitalist world, and ultimately succumbing to the pressures of Cold War, capitalist globalization, and popular disaffection.  The result was either systemic collapse (the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe) or a fundamental alteration of key features of the communist system (China, Laos, Vietnam).  Beyond that, a few hangers-on remain: North Korea and Cuba, while many non-ruling communist parties have transformed themselves in either a more-radical or more social-democratic direction.  We will trace communism’s origins in Marxism and Leninism, its victory in the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 , its construction of an international sub-system (the “world communist movement”), its spread throughout Europe and Asia (plus Cuba), and its ultimate demise. What did communist revolutions, states, and non-ruling communist parties have in common, in both their domestic and international orientations?  How did they differ from each other?  Why did international communism fracture into competing models of domestic and foreign relations?  Why did the Soviet Union and, with it, the world communist system ultimately collapse?  Is there a future for new communist states?  Our analyses will be informed by both a “comparative politics” and an “international relations” perspective, with an eye to understanding one of the most tumultuous periods, and most powerful ideas, in modern history. 

Subfield:   Comparative Politics

This course will examine how government, firms, and individuals interact to govern markets by surveying debates over specific substantive issues in the advanced industrial countries, especially the United States. Topics include labor regulation, antitrust policy, financial regulation, and intellectual property rights.

This is an “active learning” class so please be aware and prepared that it will require 100% attendance and full participation.

In this course, we will think critically about the history of clothing in the world, how choices about clothing have shaped political, economic, and social outcomes across the world, and how the choices we make every day when we get dressed relate to the broader world around us. In doing so, we will explore the role(s) of clothing in global history, the history of industrialization, the political uses of clothing, and current interactions between the political economy of fashion and the environment. Students should come to the course ready to engage critically with their everyday decisions and the wider implications of these choices.

This course has been corrected to PS138J from the temporary course number of PS140C as of 10/25/24.

Many are concerned with the state of democracy in the United States and throughout the world. To better understand these concerns, we will study how global democracy has changed over time through questions including - How should democracy be defined and measured? What are the causes of democratization and democratic erosion? Do factors like inequality, polarization, and immigration pose a major threat to democratic progress? How will recent technological developments like social media and AI affect the future of democracy?

PS140R is a TEMPORARY course number. This course will be renumbered to PS137L prior to the first day of classes.