Undergraduate

This course is an introduction to the methods employed in empirical political science research. We will cover basic topics in research design, statistics, and formal modeling, considering many examples along the way. The two primary goals of the course are: (1) to provide students with analytic tools that will help them to understand how political scientists do empirical research, and (2) to improve students' ability to pose and answer research questions on their own. There are no prerequisites.

Note: Course description is from Fall 2013

This course is an introduction to the study of American politics in the contemporary era. Its focus is the process of policy making in a sociologically diverse, culturally divided, and institutionally fragmented political system. An underlying issue is whether the American political order (or disorder) is obsolescent, given the contemporary demographics and economic challenges. Among the themes to be discussed are: the contemporary collision between the values of liberty and equality and its impact on public policy, the nature of American national identity in the face of ethnic change, the power of organized interest groups, the role of the media, the meaning of the public interest, and the case for and against reforming fundamental features of the political system, such as the electoral college, campaign finance laws, and the budgetary process.

Please note that the course description is from Fall 2012.

The focus of this course will be on redefining security in Pakistan.  Pakistan's relations with India, nuclear proliferation, and terrorism will serve as a departure for an examination of security from multiple alternative perspectives such as education, sectarianism, water, population growth, urbanization, rural development, religion, etc.  These issues will be connected with a conference on this topic to be held in late February.  Students will be expected to attend, attend two meetings before the conference, three talks by visitors, and one meeting toward the end of the semester. Students will have to read relevant monographs and papers related to topics to be covered in the conference or the talks by visitors.  Grades will be assigned on attendance, class participation, and a short written summary of conference proceedings.

NOTE:  This 1-unit, P/NP course does not count as an upper division Political Science requirement. It is elective credit only.

This seminar compares the institutions used by different countries to provide stable markets and economic security for their citizens. The course begins with historical readings on the role of  finance in promoting economic growth from nineteenth-century industrialization through the three decades of stability after World War Two. We will then use this framework to examine topics including: industrial finance, social risk-sharing, corporate governance, and comparative responses to the financial crisis of 2008. Readings will be drawn from Europe, Japan, and the United States. 

The course will be conducted like a graduate seminar. Students must be do the reading before each session and be ready to participate actively in discussion. There are no technical prerequisites, but students must have some background in either economics or the comparative politics of advanced industrialized democracies. Written requirements will include regular attendance and participation, two short think-piece essays and one research paper with topic and preliminary outline to be submitted during the course of the semester.

We are currently experiencing a global expansion of judicial power. In stable democracies, transitional societies and even autocracies, courts have become central actors in national politics and policymaking. Today, major political controversies often end up in court and are decided by judges, rather than by elected legislators serving in national parliaments. How do we explain this tremendous growth of judicial power and courts newly expanded roles in politics and policymaking? And what are the consequences of this judicialization of politics and policymaking for majoritarian institutions and democratic practices? 

This course provides an introduction to the political science of law and courts. This is not a course on constitutional law, and the focus will not be on the development of legal doctrines or the reasoning of important cases. Instead, we will evaluate law and courts as political institutions and judges as political actors and policy-makers across different types of political systems. Topics will include: the foundations of judicial independence, the relationship between the courts and other branches of government (e.g., judicial oversight of the bureaucracy), the sources of judicial power, the rights revolution and the role of courts in democratic consolidation. Courts in the U.S., France, Egypt, Turkey and Taiwan will be examined.

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

Over the past twenty years, many American cities have experienced comebacks but others have experienced sharp declines. Growing numbers of upper- income residents have relocated to some cities; downtowns have been transformed into lively arts and entertainment districts; and crime has fallen. Other cities have faced bankruptcy or near bankruptcy causing them to slash services. This course examines the causes and implications of these recent upswings and downturns in urban fortunes. The questions we consider include: How did cities achieve these transformations? Why were some cities much more successful than others? How has the revitalization of cities affected the urban poor? The course will also examine the impact of the recession on cities. How did the recession jeopardize recent gains in urban prosperity? How have cities coped with the fiscal strains presented by reduced tax revenues and limits on state and federal assistance?

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

Subfield: American Politics

The modern political period is recognizable to us and yet also distant. Its increasing – if contested – acceptance of democracy as the best mode of government and its solutions to the dangers of democracy inform our beliefs today. Yet, its characteristic belief in progress and the inevitable, stadial, movement of history is less acceptable to us, as is its belief that democracy is compatible with colonialism and palpably differing gender roles.  

This course will look at the modern political period and its wrestling with democratic ideals through the lenses of four political traditions: liberalism, socialism, romanticism, and radical historicism. We will look at these traditions’ views on what it means to be fully a human being and the modes of government that are most compatible with these conceptions. In particular, we will ask what these traditions had to say about colonialism and gender equality. Ending the course with Nietzsche’s contestation of the stadial view of history, we will make a prelude to our own far less historical century.

NOTE: Lecture and discussion times as well as location may change

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