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
Civil conflicts—civil wars and terrorist campaigns—are among the major threats to peace in the current system. This course addresses explores why, and to what end, civil conflicts fought. It then focuses in on the question of when, why, and how international actors intervene in civil conflicts—especially to end them. Students will have the opportunity to better understand what we know about civil conflict termination and international intervention in that process. These questions also produce answers about the processes by which peace agreements are signed; why peace sometimes lasts and what can be done to make peace more durable; as well as the longer-term prospects for rebuilding after war. This course draws on different theoretical and empirical approaches to actively ask and answer these questions. It is designed to help you: (1) actively engage with the existing research to begin to understand the causes, strategies, and consequences of civil conflict and international intervention, (2) broaden your theoretical framework in international relations generally, (3) develop your critical thinking and writing on these topics through in-class exercises, assignments, and discussion in sections.
Recommended: Familiarity with social science methodology at the level of PS 3 is needed for this course.
Fragile and failed states are among the most pressing challenges of the contemporary world. Yet how to establish, or reestablish, these states is among the most perplexing puzzles facing policymakers. We will briefly survey the literature on the origins of the modern state, and we will examine why certain states are fragile or failed. We will also discuss security concerns that emerge from failed and failing states, including smuggling, drug trafficking, and terrorism. We will then devote the majority of the class to considering efforts to consciously build states—especially by international actors. We will examine whether these efforts succeed and on what dimensions. In exploring these topics, you will gain familiarity with a range of academic and policy debates on state failure, international security, and statebuilding. By helping you identify and grapple with some of the dilemmas associated with building and rebuilding states, you will also learn to critically evaluate existing theories and evidence. Finally, you will have the opportunity to formulate your own theories and compile your own evidence on these topics through course assignments and class discussions.
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.
This junior seminar falls within the "International Relations" subfield, and can fulfill an upper-division requirement for the major.
Political Science Majors of Junior and Senior status ( with four semesters completed) with a minimum overall UC GPA of 3.25. Interested Students must email Professor Aila Matanock with a 250 statement of interest by 10/30/18. Selected students will be contacted with enrollment instructions.
This course examines patterns of political and economic change in Latin America over the course of the twentieth century. Readings focus on industrialization and the advent of populism, the collapse of democracy and the rise of bureaucratic authoritarian regimes during the 1960s and 1970s, democratization, democratic consolidation, as well as economic liberalization and its aftermath. Readings focus on five country cases: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru, and Venezuela. Discussions frame the Latin American cases in terms of broader debates in comparative politics.
Subfield: Comparative Politics
Students who took PS 191 "JUNIOR SEMINAR: LATIN AMERICAN POLITICS" with Professor Post in Spring 2014 cannot take this course due to the substantial similarity in course content. Students who took PS 191 "JUNIOR SEMINAR: The Latin American City: Politics and Policy" with Professor Post in Spring 2018 can take this course as there is no significant overlap in course content.
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 19th 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
As a junior seminar in political science this course is designed primarily for majors interested in exploring in depth the relationship between the political economy of development as it played out in postwar East Asia. The rapid economic transformations of countries like Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Singapore started in the 1950s and 1960s. These early growth stories continued as countries like Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam followed with their own rapid growth. Even more notably, over the last 35 years, China has undertaken radical reforms that have upgraded the sophistication of its economic profile, making it now the most central economic force throughout the region. This so-called East Asian economic miracle did not advance without challenges. One such challenge has to the region has been the number of countries that have been “left behind,” such as Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and North Korea. A second set of challenges came from outside with the end of Cold War bipolarity on the one hand and financial and corporate globalization on the other. How have the various countries adapted to such changes? The seminar will explore this broad range of issues as well as the regional consequences of these intersecting national patterns of political economy? Because the course will draw from four subfields--comparative politics, economic development, East Asian political economy and international relations--students hoping to do well should ideally have two or three upper division courses from one or more of these subfields.
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: Comparative Politics
Political Science Majors of Junior and Senior status (with at four semesters completed) with a minimum overall UC GPA of 3.3. Students must place themselves on the waitlist through Calcentral in Phase II. Priority may be given to students who have not yet taken a junior seminar. Selection and notification will occur in mid-January 2019.
This course focuses on emerging issues in the field of Chinese politics, and books (and articles) published mainly in the last decade. Material covered will include: the state, state capacity, policy implementation, socialist legality, environmental litigation, local people’s congresses, NGOS, village elections, protest, rights consciousness, and experimental research on authoritarian responsiveness.
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
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.
Political science majors with junior or senior status, or other juniors and seniors who are very highly motivated to learn about Chinese politics. Some prior study of Chinese politics, economics, or society is strongly recommended.
Political Science Majors of Junior and Senior status (must be 3rd or 4th year students with at least 60 units completed) who are very highly motivated to learn about Chinese politics. Priority may be given to students who have not yet taken a junior seminar. Some prior study of Chinese politics, economics, or society is strongly recommended.
This class will introduce students to the complex phenomenon of human trafficking (also referred to as a form of modern day slavery) as defined in the United Nations Anti-Trafficking Protocol as well as the US Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA) and its subsequent reauthorizations. In this class, we will discuss trafficking in human beings in its historical, legal, economic, political and social contexts, identifying the scope of the global problem, different forms of human trafficking, regional trends and practices, including trafficking in the United States, and the different actors involved at all levels. We will discuss the complexity of human trafficking in order to understand root causes in a globalized world, as well as the relationship between supply and demand in diverse forms of trafficking. We will examine the roles of government, the international community, civil society and individual actors in addressing the problem and will conclude with strategies that have proven effective in different parts of the world as well as in the United States.
Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:
1. Define human trafficking;
2. Identify the components of a comprehensive anti-trafficking framework; and
3. Assess critical challenges in eradicating human trafficking in a global society.
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 is an introduction to political theory, the academic study of political ideas and values. Students will be invited to study and debate the central interpretive problems and foundational concepts of political theory such as the state, citizenship, authority, liberty, equality, and justice. Students will be encouraged consider how political theorists have historically attempted to classify and defend different forms of political rule (such as monarchies, republics, and democracies). The course will also introduce students to selected excerpts in major texts in the history of political thought, such as Plato’s Republic, Aristotle’s Politics, Hobbes’ Leviathan, and Mill’s On Liberty, as well as ongoing problems in contemporary political theory such as global justice and the politics of race, gender, culture, and the environment.
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