Undergraduate

This course examines public opinion in American Politics and how to measure it. The course considers the nature of public opinion, survey methods, the role of polling in opinion expression, opinion formation, citizen knowledge, the role of media in shaping opinion, the effect of opinion on policy, and political polarization.

Instructor: Stephanie Nail

Subfield: American Politics

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

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

This course analyzes the US executive branch from an institutional perspective. Topics covered include the presidency and bureaucracy, their interaction in the policy making process, and their political engagement with other branches of government. Assessments will include short papers, an exam, a final project, and class engagement. 

Subfield: American Politics

This course number was change 10/26/22. It was originally listed as PS109E.

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, Vietnam).  Beyond that, a few hangers-on remain: North Korea, Laos, 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

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

Social scientists and policymakers increasingly use large quantities of data to make decisions and test theories. For example, political campaigns use surveys, marketing data, and previous voting history to optimally target get out the vote drives. Governments deploy predictive algorithms in an attempt to optimize public policy processes and decisions. And political scientists use massive new data sets to measure the extent of partisan polarization in Congress, the sources and consequences of media bias, and the prevalence of discrimination in the workplace. Each of these examples, and many others, make use of statistical and algorithmic tools that distill large quantities of raw data into useful quantities of interest.

Subfield: Empirical Theory and Quantitative Methods

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

Who makes your clothes? What are the materials with which they are made? Where do clothes come from and what are the conditions in which they are made? How do global politics affect the shape of fashion and how do the demands for clothing affect politics? How do we use clothes, and the tools of making more generally, to make statements, both personal and political? How do political and social norms affect our choices with regard to clothing? In this seminar, we will begin to address these questions, by thinking critically about the choices we make every day when we get dressed, and the ways in which these choices relate to the broader world around us. In doing so, we will explore the history of industrialization, the role(s) of clothing in global history, the political uses of clothing, and current interactions between the political economy of fashion and climate change. Students should come to the course ready to engage critically with their everyday decisions and the wider implications of these choices.

The Junior Seminars are intense writing seminars which focus on the research area of the faculty member teaching the course. 

Junior seminars fulfill upper division requirements for the major.

Subfield: Comparative Politics

This course explores the dynamics of war from two perspectives: contemporary social science research and fictional narratives, including novels, films, and short stories.  Topics include participation in violence, nuclear first-use, resistance and rebellion, and the future role of artificial intelligence. 

The Junior Seminars are intense writing seminars which focus on the research area of the faculty member teaching the course. 

Junior seminars fulfill upper division requirements for the major.

Subfield: International Relations

This junior seminar has two goals, one substantive, the other methodological. Substantively, the course considers the relationship between descriptive and substantive representation: how and under what conditions do institutional changes intended to enhance the representation of marginalized groups—from suffrage extensions to voting rules to electoral quotas—lead to policy change that benefit those groups?  Our readings and discussions will consider the effects of institutional changes in Africa, Europe, Latin America, North America, and South Asia. Methodologically, this data-intensive course is part of an initiative to enhance data science offerings in the political science major. 

The Junior Seminars are intense writing seminars which focus on the research area of the faculty member teaching the course. 

Junior seminars fulfill upper division requirements for the major.

Subfield: Comparative Politics or Methods*

* Please note that the seminar is not a replacement of PS3, see prerequisites below.