Undergraduate

This course explores central themes and ideas in the history of African American political thought: slavery and freedom, solidarity and sovereignty, exclusion and citizenship, domination and democracy, inequality and equality, rights and respect. Readings will be drawn, primarily, from canonical authors, including, among others: Frederick Douglass, Martin R. Delany, Harriet Jacobs, Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells, Marcus Garvey, and Martin Luther King, Jr. This is an introductory course, which emphasizes both thematic and historical approaches to the study of political theory.This course explores central themes and ideas in the history of African American political thought: slavery and freedom, solidarity and sovereignty, exclusion and citizenship, domination and democracy, inequality and equality, rights and respect. Readings will be drawn, primarily, from canonical authors, including, among others: Frederick Douglass, Martin R. Delany, Harriet Jacobs, Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells, Marcus Garvey, and Martin Luther King, Jr. This is an introductory course, which emphasizes both thematic and historical approaches to the study of political theory.

Note: Course ID to change later this semester. It will be updated with a specific suffix.

This class seeks to guide students in researching, organizing, writing, reviewing and rewriting an original research paper of publishable quality and length (approximately 25 pages long).  Students will be encouraged to individually explore any issue relating to religion and conflict, broadly defined.  They will also be expected to closely follow strict guidelines in terms of structure and formatting.

The secondary goal of this class is to discuss the relationship between religion and conflict.  Lectures dedicated to the craft of research and writing will be interspersed with lectures about theoretical and empirical issues relating to religion and conflict worldwide.  We will discuss theories in the social sciences, from psychology and sociology to anthropology and political science, that explore the intersection of religion and domestic or international conflict.  We will examine explanations for fundamentalism and extremism;  the role of religion in driving global, international and ethnic conflict;  religion and martyrdom; religion in the military; the relationship between religion and science; the Just War tradition; and the contribution of religion to conflict resolution. 

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

NOTE: Students who took PS 123H "Topics in International Relations: Religion and Conflict" with Professor Hassner cannot take this course due to the substantial similarity in course content.

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

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 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

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

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 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.

Course themes:

1. What is public opinion and in what ways is it expressed?

2. How do surveys perform as measures of public opinion and what is their role in our democracy? Are they accurate? What do they measure?

3. What are the implications of the changes in technology for surveys?

4. Are citizens knowledgeable? Are they rational or self-interested?

5. Is the public polarized?

6. How does the media influence public opinion?

7. What role does opinion play in shaping policy?

NOTE: This description is from Spring 2015

This course examines the politics and policy of contemporary Japan, applying a range of theoretical perspectives to analyze both recent history and current events. After a brief historical review, we survey the core political institutions of the postwar era, examine patterns of political interaction, and investigate current debates over policy issues. We focus particularly on political change since 1993, including the new electoral system and party realignment. Specific topics include social issues, the economic crisis, political and economic reform, U.S.-Japan relations, defense and foreign policy.

Subfield:   Comparative Politics

Please note that this course description is from Fall 2013

 This course is designed primarily for students interested in exploring in depth the relationship between U.S. foreign policy and developments in East Asia. Although geographically quite distant from the Asian mainland, the United States has been deeply involved militarily, diplomatically and economically with that region since the 19^th Century. Since the defeat of Japan in the Pacific component of World War II, the United States has maintained a strong military presence throughout the Asia-Pacific and has fought costly wars in Korea and Viet-Nam, all as integral components of the Cold War. More recently, the rise of China; the cross-Straits problem surrounding Taiwan; the economic torpor of Japan; the continued division of the Korean peninsula and the nuclear program of North Korea; along with the potential for Muslim terrorism in Southeast Asia are but a few of the problems that animate the foreign policy interactions between East Asia and the United States. This course will explore the historical and contemporary foreign policies of the United States toward Asia with an eye toward analyzing the ways in which Asia has been shaped by American, and in turn American policies have been shaped by events in Asia.

Students who took PS 191 "Junior Seminar: American Foreign Policy in East Asia" with Professor Pempel cannot take this course due to the substantial similarity in course content.

Note: The description is from Spring 2014