Political Science

Required Discussion Section for Barnard-taught GLOBAL POLITICS OF CLIMATE CHANGE (POLS-BC1605).

Students enrolled in POLS-BC1605 must enroll in a Discussion Section of POLS-BC1005.

Required Discussion Section for Barnard-taught GLOBAL POLITICS OF CLIMATE CHANGE (POLS-BC1605).

Students enrolled in POLS-BC1605 must enroll in a Discussion Section of POLS-BC1005.

Required Discussion Section for Barnard-taught GLOBAL POLITICS OF CLIMATE CHANGE (POLS-BC1605).

Students enrolled in POLS-BC1605 must enroll in a Discussion Section of POLS-BC1005.

The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the principles of American politics and governance. Upon completing the class, students should be more informed about the American political process and better able to explain contemporary American political phenomena, as well as being more likely to engage with politics and elections. 

BEGINNING IN FALL 2025, BARNARD STUDENTS WISHING TO TAKE INTERNATIONAL POLITICS FOR INTRO CREDIT TOWARD THE MAJOR MUST TAKE POLS-BC1210. If Barnard students enroll in POLS-UN2201, the course will only count toward their major as elective credit.

Columbia College students who take POLS-BC1210 can only apply the course toward their major for elective credit.

Students may not get credit for more than one of the following courses:  POLS BC1210, POLS UN1201, or POLS-UN2201.

Required Discussion Section for Barnard-taught Intro to American Politics (POLS-BC1210).

Students enrolled in POLS-BC1210 must enroll in a section of POLS-BC1212.

Required Discussion Section for Barnard-taught Intro to American Politics (POLS-BC1210).

Students enrolled in POLS-BC1210 must enroll in a section of POLS-BC1212.

Required Discussion Section for Barnard-taught Intro to American Politics (POLS-BC1210).

Students enrolled in POLS-BC1210 must enroll in a section of POLS-BC1212.

Required Discussion Section for Barnard-taught Intro to American Politics (POLS-BC1210).

Students enrolled in POLS-BC1210 must enroll in a section of POLS-BC1212.

Required Discussion Section for Barnard-taught Intro to American Politics (POLS-BC1210).

Students enrolled in POLS-BC1210 must enroll in a section of POLS-BC1212.

This course will examine the development of democracies and dictatorships in Europe from the ancien régime to the present day. It will analyze the nature and dynamics of European political history and use the European experience as a foundation upon which to build a broader understanding of how different types of political regimes emerge, function and are consolidated over time.

Required discussion section for POLS-BC1401 Democracy and Dictatorship in Europe

Required discussion section for POLS-BC1401 Democracy and Dictatorship in Europe

Required discussion section for POLS-BC1401 Democracy and Dictatorship in Europe

Required discussion section for POLS-BC1401 Democracy and Dictatorship in Europe

This course provides a broad overview of the comparative politics subfield by focusing on important substantive questions about the world today. The course is organized around four questions. First, why can only some people depend upon the state to enforce order? Second, how can we account for the differences between autocracies and democracies? Third, what different institutional forms does democratic government take? Finally, are some institutions more likely than others to produce desirable social outcomes such as accountability, redistribution, and political stability?

BEGINNING IN FALL 2025, BARNARD STUDENTS WISHING TO TAKE COMPARATIVE POLITICS FOR INTRO CREDIT TOWARD THE MAJOR MUST TAKE POLS-BC1510. If Barnard students enroll in POLS-UN2501, the course will only count toward their major as elective credit.

Columbia College students who take POLS-BC1510 can only apply the course toward their major for elective credit.

Students may not get credit for more than one of the following courses:  POLS BC1510, POLS UN1501, or POLS-UN2501.

Required Discussion Section for Barnard-taught Intro to Comparative Politics (POLS-BC1510).

Students enrolled in POLS-BC1510 must enroll in a section of POLS-BC1512.

Required Discussion Section for Barnard-taught Intro to Comparative Politics (POLS-BC1510).

Students enrolled in POLS-BC1510 must enroll in a section of POLS-BC1512.

Required Discussion Section for Barnard-taught Intro to Comparative Politics (POLS-BC1510).

Students enrolled in POLS-BC1510 must enroll in a section of POLS-BC1512.

Required Discussion Section for Barnard-taught Intro to Comparative Politics (POLS-BC1510).

Students enrolled in POLS-BC1510 must enroll in a section of POLS-BC1512.

Required Discussion Section for Barnard-taught Intro to Comparative Politics (POLS-BC1510).

Students enrolled in POLS-BC1510 must enroll in a section of POLS-BC1512.

Required Discussion Section for Barnard-taught Intro to Comparative Politics (POLS-BC1510).

Students enrolled in POLS-BC1510 must enroll in a section of POLS-BC1512.

Climate change mitigation is the greatest global political challenge of our times. This course uses concepts drawn from the broader political science literature to analyze the recent history and possible future trajectories of interactions between international and domestic politics and climate change. It focuses on mitigation questions, and includes the international political economy of various relevant commercial sectors. It has no prerequisites, and no background knowledge is required. The course has two fundamental goals: to increase student understanding of the complexity of political issues and interests involved in global climate change problems, and to counter growing climate despair by suggesting realistic paths forward toward global net zero carbon emissions. Class lectures will leave significant time for student questions and discussion. There is also a required weekly discussion section.

Political theory examines the ideas and institutions that shape political life.  This course introduces key texts and arguments about the best way to organize political power, how it should be used, and for what purpose.

We will address these larger questions by studying how major thinkers, ancient and modern, analyzed political diversity, division, and conflict.  What are the sources of conflicting identities, interests, passions, and values in politics?  How can partisanship and contestation avoid degenerating into open war and unjust domination?  Which institutions, laws, and practices are best able to manage conflict consistent with other political goals, such as freedom, equality, justice?  

Course goals: Demonstrate broad knowledge of key texts, thinkers, concepts, and debates in the history of political thought; compare, contrast, and classify definitions of diversity and their political significance; interpret texts and reconstruct their core arguments and concepts; evaluate arguments, concepts, and theories in terms of consistency, plausibility, and desirability; develop persuasive interpretations and arguments through textual analysis; present and defend ideas and arguments clearly in writing and discussion.

Discussion section

In this course, students will gain familiarity with some of the major questions and theoretical frameworks in the American Politics subfield of political science and learn how to think theoretically and empirically about politics.

Discussion section

Why do countries go to war? What conditions foster international cooperation? How do alliances between countries function? How are countries affected by global trade and investment, and in turn how does the political economy of individual countries shape international conflict and cooperation? How do ideas and culture (including both positive ideas like human rights and negative ideas like racism) affect international politics? What role do individuals and groups play in shaping international politics? What explains the international response to the COVID-19 pandemic? Why isn’t there significant cooperation on climate change, and can a new global cooperation emerge? What issues have garnered international attention, and how has that shaped the countries’ cooperation? What causes terrorism? Is the proliferation of nuclear (or cyber) weapons a threat to peace, and if so, how should the world response? Does UN peacekeeping work?

In this course we will begin to grapple with these questions. We will use theories developed by philosophers, political scientists and policy analysts, and we will examine the historical roots of today’s problems, in order to explain and predict the patterns of international politics and the possibilities for change. Throughout the course, students will be encouraged to choose and develop their own theories to explain events.

Learning Objectives:

By the end of the semester, students will accomplish the following:

• Demonstrate broad factual and causal knowledge of important current and historical issues in international relations.
• Apply contending theories from the political science literature and the policy world to analyze, compare, and evaluate events and trends in international relations.
• Assess the value of competing theories in explaining events.
• Synthesize facts and arguments across cases in order to reason critically and argue creatively, through both oral discussions in section and written essays.

Discussion section

What explains Russia’s foreign and security policy choices and its terrible relationship with the West today? We will discuss and debate the motivations behind Moscow’s actions, asking whether they have been driven by realist great power considerations; by Russia’s domestic patronage system and Russian President Putin’s desire to stay in power; by an ideology of ethnic Orthodox nationalism or neo-Eurasianism; or by decision-making factors that are either unique to Putin or common across human psychology. In turn we will examine how choices made by the United States and the European Union have affected Russia, and evaluate what all of this means for concrete recent and current Russian and Western foreign and security policy choices. Students will be encouraged to come up with their own answers to these riddles in class discussions and written assignments, and the course concludes with a rigorous negotiation simulation where students will apply the knowledge gained in this course in a practical exercise. This course has no prerequisites, and no background knowledge is expected.

This lecture course in political theory examines pressing questions related to borders, migration, exile, and displacement: Why do we have borders, and how are they constructed and governed? How do borders relate to political membership and rights? What can borders teach us about modern sovereign power? Are there any limits to state coercion and violence in border enforcement? In what ways do borders manifest racial hierarchies and divides within the global order? How do we rethink political responsibility in response to problems of rightlessness generated by borders? In addressing these questions, the course prioritizes borders as crucial sites for understanding and interrogating key political concepts such as sovereignty, membership, rights, and violence.

Required discussion section for POLS-BC3003, Political Theory at the Border.

Required discussion section for POLS-BC3003, Political Theory at the Border.

This course is a study of the development of American political ideas, through critical analysis of the

writings of intellectuals and political leaders from the American Founding to the present. As our central

theme, we will focus on the traditions of American Political Thought (APT) as simultaneously theorizing

freedom and liberty on the one hand, and intense, often violent forms of domination on the other,

especially domination on the basis of race. Consequently, we will devote time to both classic readings in

APT (the Founders, Tocqueville, Lincoln, etc.) and to multiple strands of US political thinking that

challenge the dominant narratives of APT. In analyzing the competing traditions of equality and

inequality in theory, we will also explore the connections between this theory and practices of equality

and inequality.

Feminism is often recognized as a political movement. But is there a feminist way of thinking about politics? In this course, we’ll investigate the core premises, provocations, proposals, and tensions of feminism as they relate to specifically political problems, focusing particularly on feminist political thought as it developed in the twentieth century. Who is the subject of feminist politics? What is the meaning of “difference,” and how can—or should—feminists seek to organize across it? What are appropriate topics for politics, and what should remain private? Is the family a space for politics? The household? The body? How much of the personal can, and should, be made political? Are there feminist ways of doing politics? We will consider these questions with reference to texts from both feminist activists and feminist scholars.

Capitalism is usually thought of as an economic system, but what does it have to do with politics? This course examines how thinkers of contrasting perspectives have understood capitalism politically. Some have celebrated the market as an escape from coercion, while others criticize it as a source of disguised domination; some see capitalism as leveling social hierarchies, while others point to its creation of class and racial hierarchy; some see capitalism as an engine of wealth creation and heightened living standards, while others emphasize its destruction of existing ways of life and production of inequality; some see capitalism as an engine of peace, while others emphasize its reliance on violence. In particular, we will consider the relationship between state and market, moral critiques of markets and exchange, analyses of the role of force and violence in accumulation, and theories of freedom and domination.

What is sovereignty? What role do basic rights play in modern democracy? Should democracy be based in commonly shared values? Is there an essential difference between liberalism and democratic politics? And if so, how can modern liberal democracies function?

The Weimar period gave rise to some of the most important and consequential debates in political theory and constitutional thought since the eighteenth century. Lawyers and political theorists such as Carl Schmitt, Hans Kelsen, Hermann Heller, Franz Neumann and Otto Kirchheimer tackled in particular the challenges that democracies face in an age of mass society, of unbounded capitalist dynamics, and of rising anti-democratic forces.

This lecture course introduces students to key debates in political and constitutional theory of the Weimar period. It contextualises them in the social and political world of Germany’s first, failed, democratic state by looking at cultural and economic theory as well as political thought. Many of the texts discussed in this class have only recently become available in the English language. As such, they offer fresh perspectives on concrete political theoretical problems such as the function and legitimation of modern constitutional courts, of basic rights and the role of the party. At the same time this course offers a deep insight into the vagaries and complexities of European constitutionalism in the first half of the twentieth century, and the consequences of its failure for the political world which came after it. 

Much of politics is about combining individual preferences into collective choices. Collective choice problems are faced by society as a whole and by the smallest group:  bargaining within and between the branches of government, campus elections, allocation of relief funds among victims of natural disasters, scoring of Olympic events, even sharing common space in a dorm room. How can preferences be combined?  Our primary theoretical approach is called social choice theory, which studies how we aggregate what individuals want into what the collective “wants.”  We will also touch on game theory, studying how we aggregate what individuals want and do into what the group gets, given that social outcomes usually depend on the interaction of individual choices.

Our themes include the rationality of individual and group preferences, the underpinnings and implications of using majority rule, tradeoffs between aggregation methods, the fairness of group choice, the effects of institutional constraints on choice (e.g., agenda control), and the implications for democratic choice. The aggregation of preferences or choices is usually governed by some set of institutional rules, formal or informal, and we will examine some of their effects. While what we learn will be useful for thinking about many real-world problems and institutions, this class is not concerned with actual institutions in full descriptive detail, but rather with abstractable features common to collective decision making and on the abstract logic of collective choice... and the paradoxes that arise.

Students will learn how to formalize varying notions of fairness, equality, and rationality. Students will learn about tradeoffs between them—what is possible and what is not?  Students will learn how different voting methods work.  Students will learn how strategic anticipation helps or hurts in social choice.

This course will focus on the mechanisms that drive political behavior in the United States. “Political behavior” is a broad concept, and can include many areas of engagement with civic life such as voting, donating, organizing, advocating, protesting, and more. As we consider “behavior,” we must therefore also take on its foundations: Public opinion, ideology, and partisanship. We will focus primarily (but not exclusively) on mass politics—beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors of ordinary citizens—rather than on behaviors of activists or elites. We will also explore the connection between behavior and other factors such as race and place.

This course will introduce students to research on the institutions of the US carceral system, including the police, courts, prisons, and immigration control. We will focus on two questions: how race relates to experiences with the institutions of the carceral state, and how those institutions in turn influence racial politics. The main objective is not the accumulation of factual knowledge about this system, but familiarity with theoretical frameworks with which to make and critically assess arguments about the functioning of carceral institutions as they relate to racialized people and the functioning of democracy.

How do ordinary people come together to enact social change in society? Focusing on the United States, this course explores how everyday people engage in collective action from the ground up, through social movements, community organizing, and other forms of advocacy and activisms. In particular, we will consider the role of grassroots movements and organizations as agents of democratic representation and catalysts for political transformation for marginalized communities. We will engage key questions about why groups choose to make political demands outside of formal institutional spaces, what kinds of visions for social change they put forward, how they seek to achieve their ideals, and how successful they are. The course will focus on contemporary activisms around racial justice, immigrant rights, LGBTQ+ rights, feminism, and labor.

The term “kleptocracy” literally means “rule by thieves” and refers to the extensive grand corruption that elite rulers, allies and their family members engage in to privately enrich themselves at the expense of their populations. Traditionally, kleptocracy has been viewed as a scourge on developing countries, associated with greedy authoritarian rulers in conflict-prone, resource rich and/or aid dependent states. However, in recent years scholars and policymakers have increasingly become aware of the critical role played by international actors, institutions, legal structures and professional service providers that facilitate kleptocracy at a global level. Unlike other transnational illicit sectors such as narcotics trafficking or terrorism, many aspects of kleptocracy networks are publicly visible and perfectly legal. Overall, these networks function to enable the domestic plundering of these elites, the whitewashing of their reputations, and the exacerbation of vast inequality, both within the countries that kleptocrats systemically plunder and between the Global South and the West which receives and benefits from many of the proceeds of these corrupt activities. 

The first part of the course (Weeks 2-5) examines the transnational actors, service professionals and institutions that facilitate money laundering by kleptocrats. The second part (Weeks 6-7) concentrates on how kleptocrats launder their reputations, by presenting themselves as global philanthropists or business professionals and by acquiring residency in other jurisdictions through the growing market for citizenship.  The final part of the course (Weeks 8-10) examines recent developments in international policy efforts to counter kleptocracy, including incorporating such efforts into national security strategies, enacting extraterritorial legislation to punish corporate bribery, sanctioning individual kleptocrats and oligarchs, and amending libel laws in countries like the UK that are routinely used by kleptocrats to intimidate journalists and deter investigations into their dealings.  

Finally, throughout the course we will grapple with the methodological challenges posed by trying to study and detect illegal and secretive patterns of behavior. What are the tools, resources and research techniques available to researchers and policy makers interested in making more evidence-based assessments about kleptocracy and grand corruption? 

Examination of human rights within the context of international migration. The course covers topics such as citizenship, state sovereignty, border control, asylum-seekers, refugees, and undocumented immigrants. (Cross-listed by the Human Rights Program.) 

How can we build peace in the aftermath of extensive violence? How can international actors help in this process? This colloquium focuses on international peacemaking, peacekeeping, and peacebuilding efforts in recent conflicts. It covers general concepts, theories, and debates, as well as specific cases of peacebuilding successes and failures. Cross-listed with Human Rights.

This course will introduce students to basic concepts in American Constitutional Law - including the history and development of the U.S. Constitution, theories and practice of constitutional interpetation, and the historical context of major controversies of the Supreme Court. Students will develop the intellectual ability to read case law, properly conceptualize and analyze constitutional issues, and will foster an informed perspective on the nature and limits of constitutional decision making. Class will spend particular attention on the development of civil rights and civil liberties.

A major challenge for governments across the Western Hemisphere is the complex relationship between illicit economies, violence, and politics. We can see this relationship operating at multiple levels, from everyday politics in gang-controlled neighborhoods where drugs are trafficked to the Amazon where illegal extraction of natural resources poses significant threats to the environment at the local and global levels. Today, the dynamics and consequences of the politics of illicit economies touch all our lives in different ways, including individual and family struggles with substance abuse, everyday encounters with militarized police, environmental degradation, state corruption, and the strains on democracy and citizenship, among many others. This course will examine some of these dynamics and consequences with a theoretical and empirical focus mainly on the Western Hemisphere. Throughout our time together we will connect these pressing issues to broader theories, concepts and empirical findings in political science.

This course will explore the politics of ethnicity and ethnic identity using the frameworks, methodologies, and approaches of the political science subfield of comparative politics. Ethnicity—and identity politics more broadly—is enormously important in understanding domestic politics in most countries around the world. While most people would acknowledge that they themselves have an ethnic identity, few would say that they purposefully chose that identity. Compared to other identity categories, ethnicity is assigned at birth without consent or consultation, and is generally thought to be beyond any one individual’s capacity to change it. Yet almost no one would say that this somewhat random assignment procedure makes ethnicity irrelevant. Not only are many people very eager to organize the political world around ethnic identities, but people also derive a sense of meaning and attachment to others as a result of their ethnicity. With the global rise in ethnonationalist populism in many places, this influence is becoming even more pronounced.

This class will explore how and why this specific type of identity has come to hold such enormous importance for the lives of so many people. At an individual level, we will ask where ethnic identities come from, and why ethnic identities at some times take on primary importance for an individual’s sense of self, while at others become less important than other identities such as religion, interest, class, social values, etc. At the group level, we will examine when ethnic identities become politicized, when ethnic communities organize politically into political parties or interest groups, and which groups get representation in the seats of political power and which do not. At the broadest societal level, we will examine how those ethnic identities influence regime type (whether democratic or authoritarian), political party systems, economic development, inequality, and stability.

While it will be helpful to have completed Introduction to Comparative Politics (POLS UN2501), it is not absolutely required to take this class. Please also note that this class is not the same as Ethnic Conflict (POLS UN 3622). While there will inevitably be some overlap between this class and that, this course focuses much more on domestic politics, ethnicity and non-violent democratic processes, and ethnicity in the politics of regime change.

1

With longstanding democracies in Europe and the US faltering, autocratic regimes in Russia and China consolidating, and hybrid regimes that mix elements of democracy and autocracy on the rise, scholars, policymakers, and citizens are re-evaluating the causes and consequences of different forms of government.  This course is designed to give students the tools to understand these trends in global politics. Among other topics, we will explore: How do democracies and autocracies differ in theory and in practice?  Why are some countries autocratic? Why are some democratic? What are the roots of democratic erosion?  How does economic inequality influence a country’s form of government? Is the current period of institutional foment different past periods of global instability?  This course will help students keep up with rapidly unfolding events, but is designed primarily to help them develop tools for interpreting and understanding the current condition of democracy and autocracy in the world.  

The course examines the development of states and nations from both historical and comparative perspectives.  It asks why states replaced other forms of political organization (empires, feudalism, warlordism) and why national identities came to replace or dominate other types of identities (religious, ethnic, local) at some times and in some places, but not others.  It explicitly compares the processes of state and nation-building in the past and the contemporary period, drawing on cases from various parts of the world.  The course also considers factors that may be undermining states and nations today. 

 Turkey’s (Türkiye’s) regional identity has always been ambiguous and multifaceted. While Turkey is sometimes located within the Middle East in academic writings, media reporting, and country analyses, at other times, it is listed among the countries of Europe. In fact, Turkish Republic has always been at the margins of Europe. Developments in Turkey had an impact on European societies while the political dynamics in Europe have always affected Turkey. This course not only reviews Turkey’s unique relationship with Europe but also the international and domestic political developments that preceded democratic and authoritarian practices in Turkey by highlighting critical themes such as westernization, liberalism, secularism, the role of the military, gender, minorities, migration, citizenship, electoral authoritarianism and autocratic legalism. 

This course is concerned with what policy the American government should adopt toward several foreign policy issues in the next decade or so, using materials from contradictory viewpoints. Students will be required to state fairly alternative positions and to use policy analysis (goals, alternatives, consequences, and choice) to reach conclusions.

Over the past thousand years, modern capitalism has expanded from its European starting point to the entire world. Modern economic activity started with a commercial revolution in the late Middle Ages, concentrated in European city states like Venice and Genoa. From the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries, European colonialism spread this commercial revolution around the globe. The Industrial Revolution in northwestern Europe led to unprecedented and sustained economic growth, which allowed European nations to dominate the rest of the world economically, politically, and militarily, with mixed results for the rest of the world. Over the past hundred years, global capitalism has continued to present countries, and the people in them, with enormous opportunities, crushing constraints, and major political dilemmas. 

The course is an introductory overview of the economics and politics of international economic activity in historical and theoretical perspective. 

Over the past thousand years, modern capitalism has expanded from its European starting point to the entire world. Modern economic activity started with a commercial revolution in the late Middle Ages, concentrated in European city states like Venice and Genoa. From the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries, European colonialism spread this commercial revolution around the globe. The Industrial Revolution in northwestern Europe led to unprecedented and sustained economic growth, which allowed European nations to dominate the rest of the world economically, politically, and militarily, with mixed results for the rest of the world. Over the past hundred years, global capitalism has continued to present countries, and the people in them, with enormous opportunities, crushing constraints, and major political dilemmas. 

The course is an introductory overview of the economics and politics of international economic activity in historical and theoretical perspective. 

Race has served as an enduring organizing principle of American politics. This course will
survey how race shapes politics and how politics shapes race in the United States. In the first of
the semester, we focus on the political processes and institutions that “make” race and
interrogate what we mean exactly when we say race is socially constructed. In the second half of
the semester, we turn to looking at how racialized groups engage in politics on multiple fronts,
paying particular attention to electoral politics and social movements. Throughout the course,
we grapple with both the challenges to and possibilities of diversity and racial justice in the
contemporary America. Topics include but are not limited to political representation, voting,
intersectionality, citizenship, immigration, community activisms, and solidarity.

Welcome to "Global Authoritarianism." Over the past two decades, scholars and policymakers have grown increasingly alarmed about the state of democracy worldwide. Freedom House, V-Dem, and other monitoring organizations have documented what many call a "democratic recession" in which authoritarian governance is expanding globally while the number of democracies shrinks and democratic institutions within liberal democracies weaken. This purely domestic framing, however, misses how authoritarian states now cooperate with and learn from one another, project power across borders into democracies, exploit the openness of democratic societies, and actively reshape international institutions and norms to serve their interests. Authoritarianism has gone global.

In this course, we will analyze the mechanisms, tools, and strategies that authoritarian states use to extend their reach beyond their borders and push back against the liberal international order. We also confront an uncomfortable reality: many of the networks, institutions, and professional services that enable authoritarian power are actually embedded within democracies themselves, including law firms, lobbyists, financial centers, think tanks, global media outlets and sports leagues based in New York, London and other democratic locations.

This course examines the basic methods data analysis and statistics that political scientists use in quantitative research that attempts to make causal inferences about how the political world works. The same methods apply to other kinds of problems about cause and effect relationships more generally. The course will provide students with extensive experience in analyzing data and in writing (and thus reading) research papers about testable theories and hypotheses. It will cover basic data analysis and statistical methods, from univariate and bivariate descriptive and inferential statistics through multivariate regression analysis. Computer applications will be emphasized. The course will focus largely on observational data used in cross-sectional statistical analysis, but it will consider issues of research design more broadly as well. It will assume that students have no mathematical background beyond high school algebra and no experience using computers for data analysis.

This class aims to introduce students to the logic of social scientific inquiry and research design. Although it is a course in political science, our emphasis will be on the science part rather than the political part — we’ll be reading about interesting substantive topics, but only insofar as they can teach us something about ways we can do systematic research. This class will introduce students to a medley of different methods to conduct social scientific research.

This is the required discussion section for POLS UN3720.

This course explores techniques to harness the power of “big data” to answer questions related to political science and/or American politics. We will teach students how to use R—a popular open-source programming language—to obtain, clean, analyze, and visualize data. We will focus on applied problems using real data wherever possible, with a particular focus on R’s “Tidyverse.” In total, in this course we will cover concepts such as reading data in various formats (including “cracking” atypical government data sources and pdf documents); web scraping; data joins; data manipulation and cleaning (including string variables and regular expressions); data mining; making effective data visualizations; using data to make informed prediction, and basic text analysis. We will also cover programming basics including writing functions and loops in R. Finally, we will discuss how to use R Markdown to communicate our results effectively to outside audiences. No previous knowledge of R is required.

Randomized experimentation is an important methodology in political science. In this course, we will discuss the logic of experimentation, its strengths and weaknesses compared to other methodologies, and the ways in which experimentation has been -- and could be -- used to investigate political phenomena. Students will learn how to interpret, design, and execute experiments.

Students who wish to do an independent study project (I.S.P.), should speak with a Political Science faculty member willing to serve as sponsor, then fill out a Request for Approval of Credit for Independent Study (see Registrars link below) and obtain signatures from the sponsor and from our Department Chair. File this form with the Committee on Programs and Academic Standing, which must approve all requests. (It must be filed with the C.P.A.S. well before the Registrars program-filing deadline for the semester of the I.S.P.) Note that no credit is given for an internship or job experience in or by itself, but credit is given for an academic research paper written in conjunction with an internship, subject to the procedures outlined above. The internship and the I.S.P. can be in the same semester, or you may do the I.S.P. in the semester following the internship. A project approved for three or four points counts as an elective course for the purpose of the ten-course major or five-course minor requirement. No more than two such three- or four-point projects may be used for the major, and no more than one for the minor. An independent study project may not be used to satisfy either the colloquium or senior seminar requirement. Each instructor is limited to sponsoring one independent study project per semester. The Registrar will assign a POLS BC 3799 section and call number unique to the faculty sponsor. The Registrars ISP form: http://www.barnard.edu/sites/default/files/inline/indstudy.pdf. The Political Science faculty: http://polisci.barnard.edu/faculty-directory.

Students who wish to do an independent study project (I.S.P.), should speak with a Political Science faculty member willing to serve as sponsor, then fill out a Request for Approval of Credit for Independent Study (see Registrars link below) and obtain signatures from the sponsor and from our Department Chair. File this form with the Committee on Programs and Academic Standing, which must approve all requests. (It must be filed with the C.P.A.S. well before the Registrars program-filing deadline for the semester of the I.S.P.) Note that no credit is given for an internship or job experience in or by itself, but credit is given for an academic research paper written in conjunction with an internship, subject to the procedures outlined above. The internship and the I.S.P. can be in the same semester, or you may do the I.S.P. in the semester following the internship. A project approved for three or four points counts as an elective course for the purpose of the ten-course major or five-course minor requirement. No more than two such three- or four-point projects may be used for the major, and no more than one for the minor. An independent study project may not be used to satisfy either the colloquium or senior seminar requirement. Each instructor is limited to sponsoring one independent study project per semester. The Registrar will assign a POLS BC 3799 section and call number unique to the faculty sponsor. The Registrars ISP form: http://www.barnard.edu/sites/default/files/inline/indstudy.pdf. The Political Science faculty: http://polisci.barnard.edu/faculty-directory.

Seminar in Political Theory. Students who would like to register should join the electronic wait list. For list of topics and descriptions see: https://polisci.columbia.edu/content/undergraduate-seminars

Seminar in Political Theory. Students who would like to register should join the electronic wait list. For list of topics and descriptions see: https://polisci.columbia.edu/content/undergraduate-seminars

Prerequisites: the instructors permission. Pre-registration is not permitted. Seminar in American Politics Seminar. Students who would like to register should join the electronic wait list. For list of topics and descriptions see: https://polisci.columbia.edu/content/undergraduate-seminars

Prerequisites: the instructors permission. Pre-registration is not permitted. Seminar in American Politics Seminar. Students who would like to register should join the electronic wait list. For list of topics and descriptions see: https://polisci.columbia.edu/content/undergraduate-seminars

Prerequisites: the instructors permission. Pre-registration is not permitted. Seminar in American Politics Seminar. Students who would like to register should join the electronic wait list. For list of topics and descriptions see: https://polisci.columbia.edu/content/undergraduate-seminars

Prerequisites: the instructors permission. Pre-registration is not permitted. Seminar in American Politics Seminar. Students who would like to register should join the electronic wait list. For list of topics and descriptions see: https://polisci.columbia.edu/content/undergraduate-seminars

Prerequisites: the instructors permission. Pre-registration is not permitted. Seminar in American Politics Seminar. Students who would like to register should join the electronic wait list. For list of topics and descriptions see: https://polisci.columbia.edu/content/undergraduate-seminars

Prerequisites: the instructors permission. Pre-registration is not permitted. Seminar in American Politics Seminar. Students who would like to register should join the electronic wait list. For list of topics and descriptions see: https://polisci.columbia.edu/content/undergraduate-seminars

Prerequisites: POLS V1501 or the equivalent, and the instructors permission. Pre-registration is not permitted. Please see here for detailed seminar registration guidelines: http://polisci.columbia.edu/undergraduate-programs/seminar-registration-guidelines. Seminar in Comparative Politics. Students who would like to register should join the electronic wait list. 

Prerequisites: POLS V1501 or the equivalent, and the instructors permission. Pre-registration is not permitted. Please see here for detailed seminar registration guidelines: http://polisci.columbia.edu/undergraduate-programs/seminar-registration-guidelines. Seminar in Comparative Politics. Students who would like to register should join the electronic wait list. 

Prerequisites: POLS V1501 or the equivalent, and the instructors permission. Pre-registration is not permitted. Please see here for detailed seminar registration guidelines: http://polisci.columbia.edu/undergraduate-programs/seminar-registration-guidelines. Seminar in Comparative Politics. Students who would like to register should join the electronic wait list. 

Prerequisites: POLS V1501 or the equivalent, and the instructors permission. Pre-registration is not permitted. Please see here for detailed seminar registration guidelines: http://polisci.columbia.edu/undergraduate-programs/seminar-registration-guidelines. Seminar in Comparative Politics. Students who would like to register should join the electronic wait list. 

Prerequisites: POLS UN2601 or the equivalent, and the instructor's permission. Seminar in International Politics. Students who would like to register should join the electronic wait list. 

Prerequisites: POLS UN2601 or the equivalent, and the instructor's permission. Seminar in International Politics. Students who would like to register should join the electronic wait list. 

Prerequisites: POLS UN2601 or the equivalent, and the instructor's permission. Seminar in International Politics. Students who would like to register should join the electronic wait list. 

Prerequisites: POLS UN2601 or the equivalent, and the instructor's permission. Seminar in International Politics. Students who would like to register should join the electronic wait list. 

Prerequisites: POLS UN2601 or the equivalent, and the instructor's permission. Seminar in International Politics. Students who would like to register should join the electronic wait list. 

Prerequisites: POLS UN2601 or the equivalent, and the instructor's permission. Seminar in International Politics. Students who would like to register should join the electronic wait list. 

Prerequisites: POLS UN2601 or the equivalent, and the instructor's permission. Seminar in International Politics. Students who would like to register should join the electronic wait list. 

This course will compare and contrast the theories of the political, the state,freedom, democracy, sovereignty and law, in the works of the following key 20th and 21st century continental theorists: Arendt, Castoriadis, Foucault, Habermas, Kelsen, Lefort, Schmitt, and Weber. It will be taught in seminar format.

Prerequisites: Contemporary Civilization or a comparable introduction to political theory course. This course examines ancient political thought from its origins in the archaic Greek poleis through the development of classical Greek political philosophy and the transmission and adaptation of Greek political ideas in the Hellenistic, Roman, and early Christian traditions. Our texts will include major ancient works of political theory by Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero as well as works of poetry, drama, history, and ethical and natural philosophy that offer insight into ancient thought on politics. We will approach these texts not only as reflections on the ancient democratic, oligarchic, monarchical, and republican political systems they address, but also as foundations for modern political discourse that still prompt us to consider the questions they raise—questions about the ideal form of government in theory, and the best form in practice; about the nature of law and justice, and the relationship between law and custom, science, or religion; about the rule of law, and the rights and obligations of an individual citizen living in a participatory state; and about the reach of empire, and the implications when a self-governing people attempts to direct the affairs of non-citizens or of other states.

In this class we evaluate the puzzles and challenges that have and continue to face government and society in South Asia—with a strong emphasis on India—drawing on the analytical tools of political science. The course is divided into four parts. First, we discuss India’s historical and social context. Second, we discuss India’s state and political institutions, including the state bureaucracy, political parties and the institution of elections. Third, we address major challenges for democracy and governance, including pervasive corruption, ethnic conflict, democratic backsliding, and poverty alleviation. Fourth, we discuss India’s neighbors’ experiences with democracy and governance with attention to the Indian comparison laid out throughout the course.

The course has three main goals. First, to strengthen your skills in analyzing complicated political issues using the analytic tools of political science. Through discussion and writing, you will grapple with the many puzzles Indian democracy and governance in South Asia more broadly pose. Second, to help you to develop an extensive knowledge of Indian (and South Asian) politics and policy. We do this through lectures and readings that draw on a range of analytic approaches. Third, to place these issues in comparative context through engagement with theory and evidence from the region.

This course presents basic mathematical and statistical concepts that are essential for formal and quantitative analysis in political science research. It prepares students for the graduate-level sequence on formal models and quantitative political methodology offered in the department. The first half of the course will cover basic mathematics, such as calculus and linear algebra. The second half of the course will focus on probability theory and statistics. We will rigorously cover the topics that are directly relevant to formal and quantitative analysis in political science such that students can build both intuitions and technical skills. There is no prerequisite since this course is ordinarily taken by Ph.D. students in their first semester. The course is aimed for both students with little exposure to mathematics and those who have taken some courses but wish to gain a more solid foundation.

NOTE: This course does not satisfy the Political Science Major/Concentration research methods requirement. 

This course examines the basic methods of data analysis and statistics, through multivariate regression analysis, that political scientists use in quantitative research that attempts to make causal inferences about how the political world works. The same methods apply to other kinds of problems about cause and effect relationships more generally. The course will provide students with extensive experience in analyzing data and in writing (and thus reading) research papers about testable theories and hypotheses.

This is the required discussion section for POLS GU4710.

Fitting and understanding linear regression and generalized linear models, simulation, causal inference, and the basics of design of quantitative studies. Computation in R. Textbook: Regression and Other Stories by Gelman, Hill, and Vehtari.

In this course, we will discuss the logic of experimentation, its strengths and weaknesses compared to other methodologies, and the ways in which experimentation has been — and could be — used to investigate social phenomena. Students will learn how to interpret, design, and execute experiments. Special attention will be devoted to field experiments, or randomized trials conducted in real-world settings.
 

Prerequisites: Students should have taken at least one or two semesters of statistics. Some understanding of probability, hypothesis testing, and regression are assumed. Familiarity with statistical software such as R is helpful. We will be working with data in class throughout the term. The examples used in the textbook and lectures are written in R, and R tutorials will be taught in special sessions early in the term.

This course serves as a modern, applied introduction to machine learning. Students will learn how to evaluate machine learning models and learn specific methods in supervised and unsupervised learning, including regression, ensembles, and neural networks. Other frontier topics with social science relevance will be presented. Topics will be of interest to researchers who are interested in prediction, causal inference, text analysis, and more. Students may use Python, R, or any coding
language that requires only free software. Lectures and lecture notes will only include Python. Students should have prior experience with regression models, be comfortable with matrix algebra notation, and have experience with basic coding (R or Python, ideally).

Learning goals:
• Understand common machine learning models and be able to implement them.
• Gain familiarity with the use of machine learning models in modern social science research.
• Be able to identify research settings where different models might be appropriate.
• Be able to read and interpret technical research papers, extracting the key methodological
choices, assumptions, and results.

Discussion section for POLS GU4728

The course focuses on the nexus between energy and security as it reveals in the policies and interaction of leading energy producers and consumers. Topics include: Hydrocarbons and search for stability and security in the Persian Gulf, Caspian basin, Eurasia, Africa and Latin America; Russia as a global energy player; Analysis of the impact of Russia's invasion of Ukraine on energy markets, global security, and the future of the energy transition; Role of natural gas in the world energy balance and European energy security; Transformation of the global energy governance structure; Role and evolution of the OPEC; Introduction into energy economics; Dynamics and fundamentals of the global energy markets; IOCs vs NOCs; Resource nationalism, cartels, sanctions and embargoes; Asia's growing energy needs and its geo-economic and strategic implications; Nuclear energy and challenges to non-proliferation regime; Alternative and renewable sources of energy; Climate change as one of the central challenges of the 21st century; Analysis of the policies, technologies, financial systems and markets needed to achieve climate goals. Climate change and attempts of environmental regulation; Decarbonization trends, international carbon regimes and search for optimal models of sustainable development. Special focus on implications of the shale revolution and technological innovations on U.S. energy security.

This course explores key frameworks and issue areas within international political economy. It examines the history and key characteristics of (economic) globalization, the theories of international cooperation, as well as the nature and role of international organizations (such as the World Trade Organization) in fostering trade and international economic cooperation. Furthermore, the course discusses the pros and cons of globalization and its implications on domestic policies of nation-states, with a particular focus on the tensions globalization creates and the lines of cleavages between winners and losers from globalization. Finally, the course reflects on the future of globalization and international trade and the challenges faced by national and supranational policy makers.

This is the required discussion section for POLS GU4865.

Prerequisites: the instructors permission prior to registration. A survey of selected issues and debates in political theory. Areas of the field discussed include normative political philosophy, history of political thought, and the design of political and social institutions.

Prerequisites: the instructors permission prior to registration. Please contact the instructors for more information. This graduate student field survey provides an overview of the scholarly study of American politics. The course has been designed for students who intend to specialize in American politics, as well as for those students whose primary interests are comparative politics, international relations, or political theory, but who desire an intensive introduction to the ;American; style of political science.

This is the first course in the two-semester sequence surveying covering foundational research in comparative politics across the developed and developing world. The course is designed for Ph.D. students preparing for comprehensive exams and who intend to conduct research relating to comparative politics, and has two core objectives. The first objective is to expose students to a range of arguments organized around questions motivating major research agendas in comparative politics. The second objective is to expose students to processes of theorizing, hypothesis formation, and testing and to strengthen students’ analytical skills in evaluating and critiquing political science research. It should go without saying that these two classes cannot exhaustively cover the many important works, topics, and methodologies in the field.

The Fall semester of this sequence will primarily focus on citizen-level and politician-level behaviors, while the Spring semester will focus on more macro-level institutions and applications of the building blocks covered in this course. However, it is not necessary to take the classes in a particular order.

Before capitalism, there was commercial society. This course examines European debates about commerce, luxury, and social organization from the late seventeenth through the late eighteenth centuries. We will survey a range of theoretical perspectives on the new forms of commercial sociability and political life emerging in Europe, whether triumphant, despairing, or ambivalent. 

Courses on public opinion and political behavior (including the GR8210 seminar taught by Professor Shapiro) ordinarily move briskly through a wide array of topics having to do with how American tend to think and act. This class has a narrower scope but tries to delve more deeply into the literature.  We focus on four topics that are arguably crucial understanding contemporary American politics (and perhaps the politics of other times and places). 

• The first topic addresses what might be thought of as the legacies of slavery: prejudice, resentment, racial/ethnic group identification, issue preferences on topics that are directly or indirectly connected to race/ethnicity, and group differences in political behavior. 
• The second topic considers the literature on partisanship and polarization, as well as related topics on “macropartisan” change and party realignment.  What are the causes of micro- and macropartisan change, and what are its consequences? 
• The third topic is support for democratic norms, civil liberties, and respect for the rights of unpopular groups.  How deeply committed are Americans to democratic values and constitutional rights?  
• The fourth topic is the influence of media on public opinion, a vast topic that includes the effects of advertising, news, social media, narrative entertainment, and so forth. 

Although we will be focusing on just four broad topics, time constraints nevertheless prevent us from covering more than a fraction of each scholarly literature.  Students are encouraged to read beyond the syllabus, and I am happy to offer suggestions.

This seminar is designed as an overview of the major debates in Judicial Politics, with deeper
coverage of a selection of topics. The primary goal of the course is to familiarize students with the
principal questions being asked by scholars in this subfield, the methodological approaches
employed, and the avenues available for future research. The primary focus is on law and courts as
political institutions and judges as political actors. We will examine decision making and power
relations within courts, within the judicial hierarchy, and within the constitutional system. While
we will concentrate on U.S. courts, we will also cover some material on other courts. We will aim
to clarify and probe the puzzles, theories, methods, and evidence presented in the various texts and
to assess the contributions they make to an understanding of judicial politics. We will explore
issues such as research design, causal inference, the role of theory, and the nature of political
science argument, in ways relevant throughout political science. This course will have a seminar
format, though I will occasionally lecture on material as necessary. Other than that, my role is to
moderate and guide discussion, relying on you to do your part.

Why are some nations able to grow and prosper while others mired in conflicts and poverty? What are the political factors that shape countries’ success in growing their economies How does economic progress affect a regime’s ability to stay in power and the prospects and direc-tions of political changes? This course addresses these questions by introducing students to major ideas and findings from both classical and cutting-edge scholarship on political economy of de-velopment. The first part of the course will review major episodes of growth (or the lack thereof) in human history and how they influenced the theoretical paradigms for studying development. The second half of the course will be devoted to more specialized topics, examining how differ-ent institutions, strategies, and contingencies affect countries’ economic fortunes. The goal of the course is to help you acquire the necessary conceptual and empirical toolkit for digesting and producing scholarly knowledge about the origins and consequences of economic development.

Prerequisites: the instructor's permission. A graduate seminar designed to explore the content, process, and problems of China's political and economic reforms in comparative perspective. Please see the Courseworks site for details

Prerequisites: the instructors permission prior to registration. This is a survey course in international political economy. This course examines how domestic and international politics influence the economic relations between states. It will address the major theoretical debates in the field and introduce the chief methodological approaches used in contemporary analyses. We will focus attention on different types of cross-border flows and the policies and international institutions that regulate them: the flow of goods (trade policy), the flow of people (immigration policy), the flow and location of production (foreign investment policy), the flow of capital (financial and exchange rate policy), and the flow of pollution (environment policy). The goal of this course is to cover, in some depth, many of the main topics and readings in international political economy. The readings each week are designed to tackle some of the essential points of a substantive topic, as well as raise deeper methodological questions that have application to other issues and themes in the sub-field. Not coincidentally, a related goal is to partially prepare students for the IR Field Exam. To help with that, a number of recommended readings accompany each weeks topic.