Undergraduate

Berkeley Connect is a mentoring program, offered through various academic departments, that helps students build intellectual community. Over the course of a semester, enrolled students participate in regular small-group discussions facilitated by a graduate student mentor (following a faculty-directed curriculum), meet with their graduate student mentor for one-on-one academic advising, attend events and/or panel discussions, and go on field trips to campus resources. Students are not required to be declared majors in order to participate. There is no homework associated with Berkeley Connect: no exams, no papers, no quizzes.

 We encourage students in their first year at Berkeley, as freshman or transfers, to participate.

How do we know how supportive the public is of a president, whether they support existing or new policies, or otherwise measure the pulse of the nation?  How do campaigns decide where to send volunteers, where to buy advertising, or who is most persuadable?  How can we determine the effect of audits or observers on electoral fraud?  This class will investigate how data is used by campaigns during elections, as well as how data is used to study the impact of campaigns and events on elections.  “Big data” is powerful and how to understand and best use data in decision-making is rooted in basic statistical principles.  This class will focus on three core concepts in statistical inference, descriptive, predictive, and causal inference.  We will study descriptive inference through survey sampling and measuring public opinion; predictive inference through how campaigns use statistical (“machine”) learning to allocate resources; and causal inference through experimental and observational studies of electoral fraud and fairness.  This course will include an intensive data analysis portion.  Based on skills we learn in this class, students will analyze surveys, build predictive models, and conduct and interpret data analyses using the R programming language.  Students will conduct their own original analysis in a final project.

Junior seminars fulfill upper division requirements for the major.

Subfield:   Methods

Most of the "New World" was at one time governed by a European colonial empire. Moreover, the governing institutions of these empires powerfully affects the nation-states of the western hemisphere today. In this seminar we will investigate the political-economic institutions of major New World empires, especially those of Spain, England, and France. We will focus on the character of their institutions, why they were established, how they evolved over time, and their legacies for political-economic development in contemporary North and South America. We will focus on readings from political science, economics, and history. 

The seminar will include assessment of quantitative evidence and simple models of strategic reasoning. PS3 or permission of instructor is a prerequisite.

Junior seminars fulfill upper division requirements for the major.

Subfield: Comparative Politics

This is a junior seminar that emphasizes a thematic approach to the study of political theory. Specifically, the course explores the question of what resistance is. It seeks conceptual clarity regarding that question from various authors—from Frederick Douglass to Primo Levi—and genres, from academic monographs to novels.

Junior seminars fulfill upper division requirements for the major.

Subfield:   Political Theory

The history of suffrage reveals the deeply contested nature of the vote and the meaning of democracy.  In this course, we will trace the historical arguments in favor and opposed to expanding suffrage and voter access to the ballot box and the role of parties in shaping those arguments. In addition, we will analyze contemporary challenges to voting rights, election administration, and voter turnout. Last, we will examine the evolution of the presidential selection process and the 2024 presidential nomination process. 

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 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 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

Since the earliest times, humanity has been on the move. Today, migration has reached a record high: the number of international migrants is estimated to be almost 272 million globally (equivalent to 3.5% of the world population), 51 million more than in 2010. Some people move in search of work or economic opportunities, others move to escape conflict, persecution, terrorism, or human rights violations. Still others move in response to the adverse effects of climate change, natural disasters, or other environmental factors. This course starts by exploring such migration reasons and the scholarly understanding of the politics of immigration. We place emphasis on the political economy and cultural identity origins of immigration policy, and on the factors shaping the public opinion toward immigration and immigrants. We then move to discussing the processes of immigrant incorporation---do immigrants and their children enter the mainstream societal institutions, what are the policies that promote the social, economic and political participation of immigrants, and what are the conditions that hinder immigrants participation; including nativistic reactions to immigration and demographic change. The course ends with a discussion of policy interventions designed to ameliorate the conditions hindering immigrants' incorporation. The course reviews seminal and cutting-edge research by political scientists, sociologists, economists, and demographers, and covers historical and contemporary cases from the U.S. and other Western nations.

Students will attend lectures, engage in reading-based participation and active learning, take two exams, and complete two short writing assignments; one on elements of a research paper and one on analysis of quantitative data. Students will start working on these writing assignments early in the course. Discussion sections are designed to introduce students to the elements of a research paper and to quantitative data analysis. Sections provide a forum for students to present advances on their writing assignments and to receive feedback from their peers and instructors.

Course number will change to PS138Z prior to enrollment Phase 1.

Subfield: Comparative Politics