Undergraduate

This class is about how political processes, institutions, and behaviors shape public policy in the
United States. It combines two different approaches to thinking and learning about the ways
politics affects policy.

The first is general and practical. For example, we discuss what kinds of groups are more or
less likely to organize in pursuit of their collective interests as well as strategies for overcoming
the collective action problem. We also discuss what kinds of interest groups one can expect to
encounter in pursuing some policy change, how one might get more people to participate in
politics, and how that might affect policy outcomes. In addition, we discuss how strategic voting
and agenda-setting affect policymaking, how legislators think and what’s important to them, and
what makes government suddenly pay attention to some issues but not others. When a
particular class topic falls more in this first category, we will typically have a case, a small
project, or an assigned short paper—or some combination of the three.

The second approach used in this class is more substance-specific and reflective. There are
many things going on in U.S. government and policymaking that have strong political
underpinnings, and it is productive to spend time discussing them. For example, we ask: How
do identities shape people’s views about policy and government? What’s going on within the
two major political parties in the United States? What is the future of the Democratic Party? The
Republican Party? And how did the political parties come to this point? What caused the rise in
party polarization? How does federalism shape policymaking, in particular on health policy?
What does local politics have to do with housing unaffordability? What do public-sector unions
do in state and local politics, and how should we think about their influence? What are some
possible political contributors to rising economic inequality? When the topic for the day falls in
the second category, class will be mostly discussion of the themes, ideas, lessons, and conflicts
that emerge from the readings.

Subfield: American Politics

An inside look at how political campaigns operate from the people who run them. Class material will be directed toward students who are interested in direct involvement in campaign politics or who are looking for a greater understanding of the political process. Students will be required to develop a complete written campaign strategy document in order to fulfill class requirements. Students will be expected to follow political and campaign news through the news media and be prepared to discuss those developments in class. Serious lectures, discussion and classroom exercises on campaign strategy and message development and delivery, with a special focus the role of political media. This section will focus predominantly on campaign advertising, news media coverage, the emerging role of the Internet, and other means by which candidates communicate their message to the voters.

Subfield: American Politics

Please note that the description is from Fall 2013.

Nomination and election, constituent relations, the formal and informal structures of both houses, relations with the executive branch, policy formation, and lobbying.

Subfield: American Politics

Note: This description is from Spring 2013

This course focuses on a central issue that all political leaders face: how to exert and maintain control over society. This topic is particularly timely in present-day China and one that the Party leadership has approached in many different ways. Topics covered will include: policing of protest and crime, censorship and information control, the Wuhan lockdown, and how the social welfare system is used to defuse discontent. We will consider both “hard” and “soft” repression and also strategies that incorporate responsiveness to popular expectations. Finally, the course will examine ways in which different social groups are coping with increased control.

The course is designed, and will be conducted, like a graduate seminar.  Students who enroll must be ready to do all the reading in advance of seminar meetings and to participate actively in class discussions.

Subfield: Comparative Politics

This seminar investigates the worldwide crisis of democracy and how democracy’s defenders
might overcome it. In the late 20 th century, democracy was on a global roll; now it is in retreat in
every world region. In the United States, the world’s oldest democracy, one of the two major
parties works to restrict voting access and refuses to accept defeat in elections. India, the
world’s largest democracy, has come under the control of a leader who erases civil liberties and
pursues an ethnonational agenda. Poland and Hungary, once considered exemplars of
successful democratization, are now dominated by parties that attack judicial independence
and free media. In Russia, Turkey, and Venezuela, imperfect democracy has given way to hard
autocracy. Brazil, the Philippines and other developing-world democracies have undergone
backsliding toward authoritarianism, while experiments with open politics have foundered in
the Middle East and North Africa. How can we explain democracy’s crisis? How can democrats
reverse the autocratic wave, and what must they do to restore democracy’s promise?

Subfield:   Comparative Politics

Why are human rights not part of debates about domestic public policy and legal reform in the United States? The United States played a leading role in the creation of the post-World War II international human rights regime and has often championed human rights as a foreign policy goals. Yet human rights have been marginal to debates about social and economic equality at home. We will examine the history of human rights in the United States since the New Deal, asking how and why the New Deal’s embrace of human rights was supplanted by a narrower focus only on constitutional and civil rights. We will also examine the consequences of this narrower framework, as well as why human rights may now be coming home. 

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:   American Politics

This course introduces students to the seminal questions and cutting-edge research on the politics of immigration. It draws on research by political scientists, sociologists, economists, and demographers, and covers historical and contemporary cases from the US and other Western nations. The course has two goals: to provide students with an understanding of immigration patterns, legal structures, and academic debates, and to lay the groundwork for students to produce high-quality quantitative immigration research. The course begins by discussing core questions like why do people migrate and how do we understand the politics of immigration, and provides an account of the policies that welcome or prohibit some immigrants. We then move to discussing the processes of immigrant integration: how do social scientists define immigrant integration, do immigrants and their children enter the mainstream societal institutions, what are the policies that promote the participation of immigrants in the mainstream institutions, and which conditions hinder immigrants participation in the mainstream, including nativist reactions to immigration and demographic change. The course ends with a discussion of interventions designed to promote inclusionary attitudes towards immigrants. Class sessions focus on discussions of course readings and student presentations. Students will complete an analytical essay considering a historical or current societal challenge or puzzle related to the politics of immigration. 

Subfield: Comparative Politics

Instructor: Stephanie Zonszein

French political life has long gravitated around a " Republican model" marked by an unmediated relationship between the citizen and the state, socialization into French values through secular public education, a special vocation for France on the international stage, and an activist state.   Recent developments have called the Republican model into question.   This course will examine the transformation of France's Republican model-its origins, operations, and responses to contemporary challenges.

Subfield: Comparitive Politics

Please note that the course description is from Fall 2013.