Political Science

Advanced political theory colloquium treats black political thought as concerned with the universal problem of domination. Examines how black thinkers relate democracy, slavery and race; redefine race consciousness as linked fate; articulate new social theories to suggest new "meanings" for race; redefine the political to address social and aesthetic concerns.

Race and Modern Political Thought is a Political Theory colloquium that explores how the concept of race became available to modern thought as a legitimate conceptualization of human being and difference and to political thought as an idea useful to structuring political communities.  Is race best understood in ideological terms, i.e., as a viewpoint shared by philosophers and lay-persons alike about difference that usefully reflected the needs and aspirations of slaveholders and colonialists?  Or is race instead an artifact of modern forms of reasoning?  Or should we ignore questions of origin and simply take seriously the notion that the only practical—ethically correct or politically progressive—approach to theorizing race is to attend critically to the organization of racial power?   What kind of idea is race?

American Political Development (APD) is an emerging subfield within American Politics that focuses on the ways that political culture, ideology, governing structures (executives, legislatures, judiciaries, and subnational governments) and structures of political linkage (political parties and organized interests) shape the development of political conflict and public policy. Rejecting the fragmentation of the field of American Politics into narrow specialties, it links government, politics, policy, culture, and economics in a broad-gauged search for understanding.  (Cross-listed by the American Studies Program.)

Examines increasingly complex relationships existing amongst all levels of American government and theoretical and practical challenges these relationships present for policy-makers and citizens. Themes include which levels of government ought to be doing what, the role of exit and voice, and what it means to produce coherent public policy.

Focusing on the development of constiutional doctrine across time, we will consider the growth of Supreme Court authority over constitutional questions (and challenges to that authority), the Court's relation to the other federal branches, and the relationship between constitutional change and social movements

This colloquium examines two particular episodes of racial violence, each of which situates the political differently: lynchings and prisons. The goal is to not only explore how to bring the state back in but also examine the differences, similarities and points of intersections across disciplines.

Explores the development policies that American cities are pursuing and the political, economic, and social contexts in which they pursue them.  Emphasis will be placed on developing both a theoretical and practical understanding of the challenges cities face as they seek economic prosperity.

Harlem in Theory is an advanced political theory colloquium.  Its focus is both thematic and methodological.  Joining a two-thousand year tradition of doing philosophy in and for the city, we theorize Harlem as urbs and civitas (place and socio-political association) and bring Harlem to bear on philosophy.  We explore the political theorist's craft by engaging different theoretical approaches and methodologies used by political, social and critical theorists.  Our readings include political philosophy, critical frameworks for interpretation and historical, social scientific and literary works about Harlem - supplemented by film, music and of course periodic trips to various Harlem venues. General Education Requirement: Social Analysis (SOC).

A well-functioning democracy should certainly reflect the intent of its citizens, but it is worthwhile to consider whether this goal is achievable when the legislative assembly does not take on the characteristics of the population. In Congress, membership is comprised of fewer than 20% of women. Women constitute a somewhat greater proportion of the various state assemblies, but still not at levels that approach their share of the population. In this class, we will discuss the electoral experiences of women who run for office. We will also consider whether the women who are elected to public office behave differently, and what, if any, implications such a difference might have for public policy. We will also study how gender intersects with race and socio-economics in American political life. This course will introduce students to the concepts, major themes, and debates in the study of gender in American politics. Students who complete the class will learn how to: 1. Identify the key concepts, trends, and debates in the empirical study of women in American politics. 2. Draw linkages between theoretical political science and practical politics in describing how gender affects political outcomes. 3. Critically engage media coverage of women in politics. 4. Assess the theoretical and/or empirical quality of academic arguments about women in politics. 5. Use empirical evidence to present an effective argument, both written and verbal. 6. Produce a high-quality, original research paper that contributes to our understanding of gender in American political life.

Readings on decisionmaking, policy analysis, and the political setting of the administrative process. Students will simulate an ad hoc Cabinet Committee assigned to prepare a presidential program to deal with aspects of the foreign aid program involving hunger and malnutrition. (Cross-listed by the American Studies Program and by the Athena Center for Leadership Studies.)

Exploration of the effect of political leadership on political outcomes in the United States, with special attention to how individual characteristics, like personality, political style, ideology, gender, race and class, interact with the political environment in shaping political outcomes. (Cross-listed by the American Studies Program and by the Athena Center for Leadership Studies.)

The purpose of this course is to examine how political science can inform the real-world campaign environment, improving our understanding of strategy and outcomes in American elections.

Uses major analytical perspectives in comparative politics to understand the persistence of gender inequality in advanced industrial states. Topics include: political representation and participation; political economy and capitalism; the historical development of welfare states; electoral systems, electoral quotas; the role of supranational and international organizations; and social policy.

States are often assumed to maintain control over their sovereign affairs, yet in our contemporary era a variety of external actors regularly violate state sovereignty, pressure governments or challenge their domestic policy autonomy.  This course explores how the traditional political, economic and security functions of states are being undermined and reconfigured.

Comparative political economy course which addresses some important questions concerning corruption and its control: the concept, causes, patterns, consequences, and control of corruption. Introduces students to and engages them in several key social science debates on the causes and effects of political corruption.

One of the key contemporary challenges for democracy and development across both the developing and developed worlds is urban violence. From urban gangs to paramilitaries to vigilantes to citizen defense committees, the city is increasing a key setting for a range of armed actors that engage in equally diverse forms of criminality and the exercise of coercive force. Major cities throughout the world thus lead two lives: as control and command centers in a globalized (and urbanized) economy, and as the stages where the monopoly over the legitimate use of violence that Max Weber identified as a defining attribute of the state is contested on a daily basis. This course has two overarching objectives. The first objective is to examine and critically assess existing theories of the drivers, functions, and consequences of urban crime and violence.  The second objective is to situate existing research within a broader range of classic and emerging political science research on state building, institutions, democracy,  development, and conflict. The methodological emphasis of the course is comparative analysis, and therefore empirical material will largely draw on analyses of crime and violence in Latin America and Africa, and the United States. This course will introduce students to the key theories, debates, and empirical studies of urban crime and violence. Students who successfully complete the class will: 1.      Acquire a broad knowledge of the theories and concepts used to analyze urban crime and violence. 2.      Develop a theoretically informed and empirically grounded understanding of both historical and contemporary trends in crime and violence in major cities across Latin America, Africa, and the United States. 3.      Draw linkages between news coverage of urban crime and violence and political science theories on a range of broader issues regarding state building, institutions, democracy, and development. 4.      Use existing theories to analyze, assess, and present empirical data, both written and verbal.   5.      Produce a major, original research paper that advances existing knowledge of the origins, dynamics, and/or consequences of urban crime and violence.

Examines the origins, trajectories, and effects of social movements, from 18th century Britain to 19th century Iran to late 20th century Argentina, China, and the United States. Focuses on social movements’ relation to political parties, the state, and transnational forces and asks whether social movements promote or undermine democratization.

Examination of democratic consolidation and promotion. What makes democracy work and what, if anything, can outside actors do to help this process along? Topics include the theoretical literature on democratic consolidation, historical cases of intervention, debates about America’s role in promoting democracy, and examination of some of the research on democracy promotion. (Cross-listed by the Europen Studies and Human Rights Programs.)

Considers why men more than women control political and economic resources in advanced industrial states of the world.  Examines how labor markets, welfare states, and political institutions have a different impact on women than men.  Evaluates attempts at increasing gender equality in political representation, labor market participation, and household work.  *Please note, students who have already taken BC 3402 The Compative Politics of Gender Inequality may not register for this colloquium.* (Cross-listed by the Womens Studies Program.)

Explores seminal caselaw to inform contemporary civil rights and civil liberties jurisprudence and policy.  Specifically, the readings examine historical and contemporary first amendment values, including freedom of speech and the press, economic liberties, takings law, discrimination based on race, gender, class and sexual preference, affirmative action, the right to privacy, reproductive freedom, the right to die, criminal procedure and adjudication, the rights of the criminally accused post-9/11 and the death penalty. (Cross-listed by the American Studies and Human Rights Programs.)

Description: The semester-long course aims to study political and social factors behind economic development and exam empirical cases of the success and failure in economic growth in order to understand the key features of the development processes. In the last two centuries, some countries successfully achieved economic growth and development, while other failed to do so. Even in the post-WWII period, the world has witnessed the rise and decline of economies around the world. Why do nations succeed or fail in economic development? How do political institutions affect economic outcomes? What are the ways in which state and market interact and influence each other? Can democracy be considered a cause of development, an outgrowth of development, or neither and to which extent? How do external factors such as foreign aid encourage or discourage development? We will try to examine these questions by taking a historical-institutional and comparative approach and take a critical look at the role of political and other institutions by applying theoretical guidelines and empirical cases. We will explore competing explanations for the successes and failures of economic development in the world. Objective:1. Understand some important concepts and theories within the fields of comparative politics and political economy. To explore the interconnections between politics, economy, and society in the context of development policy and practice.2. Develop basic analytic skills to explore various factors that shape political, economic, and social development and underdevelopment in the world;3. Understand some country specific political economy processes and how these processes prove or disprove certain theories and policies.

Exploration of the various structures, institutions, and processes that order relations among states and/or actors in the international system. Emphasis will be placed on contemporary issues such as dilemmas of humanitarian intervention, the politics of international institutions, the rise of non-governmental organizations, and globalization.

What are sovereign states, why do they fail, does their failure matter, and can the international community help? This course examines these questions using social science theories and historical case studies. It focuses on the political economy and security consequences of two current forms of state failure: warlordism and piracy.

This seminar introduces students to classic works on race, social science, and public policy. The course will explore how social scientists have defined and constructed the conditions of black communities and how those definitions and constructions have varied and influenced policy debates over time.  Students are required to write an original research paper on a policy area that examines the tensions between individual and structural explanations for the persistence of racial inequality.

This course first compares the post-independence political histories of South Asian countries, particularly India and Pakistan.  It then explores selected topics across countries: social and cultural dimensions of politics; structures of power; and political behavior.  The underlying theme is to explain the development and durability of the particular political regimes – democratic or authoritarian – in each country.

An introduction to the politics of the People's Republic of China since 1978 that examines why and how a Leninist system attempts to reform and the consequences. Topics covered include one party rule, market transition, property rights, and grassroots democracy among many others.

This course begins by studying the late Soviet era—the 1970s through the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991--in order to understand what kind of political system and political culture Russia inherited. We spend some time analyzing why and how the Soviet Union—a superpower for 75 years—disintegrated suddenly and for the most part, peacefully. Then, the bulk of the course focuses on state-building in the Russian Federation. Russia’s effort to construct new political institutions, a functioning economy, and a healthy society represents one of the greatest political dramas of our time. Beginning with Yeltsin’s presidency in 1991 and continuing through the current eras of Putin, Medvedev, and Putin again, we consider phenomena such as economic reform, nationalism, separatism, federalism, war, legal reform, civil society, and democratization. The third part of the course addresses Russia’s foreign relations. Like its predecessor states, the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, Russia is concerned with what kind of state it is (or should be) and where it stands in the international order. We will study how Russian elites make sense of Russia’s identity, as well as Russia’s policies toward the US, Europe, its “near abroad,” the Middle East, and China.

Considers the collapse of Communism in the Soviet Union and the challenge of building new political and economic systems in the post-Communist space. Evaluates contending theories of markets, transitions, constitutions, federalism, and democratic institutions. Primary focus on the post-Soviet states, with some reference to Eastern Europe and China.

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. As of academic year 2016-2017, this course is now POLS 4110.

This is the second of two semester-long courses that provide graduate students with an overview of the scholarly study of American politics. G6210 and G6211 constitute the American politics "field survey." The field survey is designed for political science graduate 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. In this course we will cover a range of topics related to American politics that, for the most part, are not covered in G6210. The reading assignments are a mix of foundational contributions (i.e., the canons of American politics literature) and recent research. The first part of each seminar session will aim to clarify and probe enduring puzzles, theories, and debates highlighted in the foundational texts. The latter portion of the seminar session will focus on how recent research is continuing to engage the ongoing debates and puzzles.

Theories of retributive and distributive justice, with emphasis on work published during the last thirty years.  Competing formulations of the principle that people should not suffer as a result of brute bad luck and that relative advantages and disadvantages should as far as possible arise from voluntary choices.

This seminar is designed as an overview of the major debates in the comparative study of U.S. state politics. The primary goals of the course are 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. Students will be asked to critically evaluate the existing literature. Throughout the course, special emphasis will be placed on states as laboratories for the empirical examination of political institutions, behavior, and the policy-making process.

This is a reading course for graduate students, surveying the literature from an interesting new area of study in political theory. By reading and discussing a number of recent works and a couple of classics, we will attempt to identify the common characteristics of the various entities that have been described as “empires” from ancient Greece to the present day, and to evaluate the ideas that have been offered as justifications for and critiques of imperial projects. Issues for consideration will include: What is an empire? How has imperialism informed the arguments of canonical works of political philosophy? Do commerce and capitalism stimulate or suppress imperialism? Can imperialism persist after de-colonization? What strategies are appropriate for combatting imperialism? Are international institutions imperialist? Has the United States ever been an empire? Is it one now? And is any sort of imperialism acceptable?

Theories of retributive and distributive justice, with emphasis on work published during the last thirty years.  Competing formulations of the principle that people should not suffer as a result of brute bad luck and that relative advantages and disadvantages should as far as possible arise from voluntary choices. As of academic year 2016-2017, this course is now POLS 8151.

This course examines the politics of terrorism, with a focus on theoretical and empirical studies of its causes and consequences. We will look at both domestic and transnational forms of terrorism. We begin with issues of definition, and theoretical and empirical approaches to the study of terrorism. We then turn to the causes of terrorism, considering questions such as when, where, and why terrorism occurs, which individuals and which groups resort to terror and why, and who are the targets of terrorist attacks. We then turn to the consequences of terrorism, both for the outcome of conflicts, and for domestic politics.

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.

This course aims to teach students what, if any, answers social scientists have to the questions that concern anyone with an interest in African politics: 1) Why have democratic governments flourished in some countries and not others? 2) What institutions may enable Africans to hold their leaders accountable? 3) How do people participate in politics? 4) In what ways do aspiring African political leaders build public support? 5) To what extent does persistent poverty on the continent have political causes? and 6) Why is violence used to resolve some political disputes and not others?

Advanced topics in game theory will cover the study of repeated games, games of incomplete information and principal-agent models with applications in the fields of voting, bargaining, lobbying and violent conflict. Results from the study of social choice theory, mechanism design and auction theory will also be treated. The course will concentrate on mathematical techniques for constructing and solving games. Students will be required to develop a topic relating political science and game theory and to write a formal research paper.

Survey of the causes of war and peace, functions of military strategy, interaction of political ends and military means. Emphasis on 20th-century conflicts; nuclear deterrence; economic, technological, and moral aspects of strategy; crisis management; and institutional norms and mechanisms for promoting stability.

Examines the constitutional right of freedom of speech and press in the United States. Examines, in depth, various areas of law, including extremist or seditious speech, obscenity, libel, fighting words, the public forum doctrine, and public access to the mass media. Follows the law school course model, with readings focused on actual judicial decisions.

The political setting in which environmental policy-making occurs. The course will focus on grassroots and top-down policy-making in the United States with some comparative examples.Topics include the conservation movement and national agenda politics, pollution control and iron triangle politics, alternative energy policy and subsidy politics, climate change and issue networks, and transnational environmental issues and negotiation of international policy regimes. (Cross-listed by the American Studies Program.)

This class focuses on the broader implications of race as it relates to constitutional law, resistance movements and political economy. This class examines the dynamic relationship between race, law and American politics as a lens by which to interrogate core concepts in legal, social and political decision-making. Enrollment limited to 40 students.

This course examines political behavior in the United States, including voting, contributing, and volunteering.  It also considers how people interpret information and use it to form preferences, and also how external forces can affect individuals' propensity to participate.

Patterns of government and politics in America's large cities and suburbs: the urban socioeconomic environment; the influence of party leaders, local officials, social and economic notables, and racial, ethnic, and other interest groups; mass media, the general public, and the state and federal governments; and the impact of urban governments on ghetto and other urban conditions. As of academic year 2016-2017, this course is now POLS 3213.

The 2011 "Arab Spring" took all observers by surprise. Yet the region has a rich history of bottom-up demands for accountable government. This course examines the diverse forms of popular mobilization in the Middle East region from the 19th century to 2011, including women's, human rights, and labor movements. (Cross-listed by the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Cultures)

Lecture and discussion. Dynamics of political institutions and processes, chiefly of the national government. Emphasis on the actual exercise of political power by interest groups, elites, political parties, and public opinion.

This course inquires into the challenges posed by international immigration to the existing system of human rights. It provides a theoretical understanding of the imortance of citizenship and sovereignty within this system. It combines theoretical readings on human rights with case studies on asylum-seekers, refugees and undocumented immigrants. (Cross-listed by the Human Rights Program.)

Do we have obligations to our co-nationals that we do not owe to others? Might our loyalties or obligations to our fellow citizens be based on a commitment to shared political principles and common public life rather than national identity? Do we have basic duties that are owed equally to human beings everywhere, regardless of national or political affiliation? Do our commitments to co-nationals or compatriots conflict with those duties we might owe to others, and if so, to what extent? Is cosmopolitanism based on rationality and patriotism based on passion? This course will explore these questions from the perspectives of nationalism, republicanism and cosmopolitanism. We will consider historical works from Herder, Rousseau, Kant, Fichte, Mill, Mazzini and Renan; and more contemporary contributions from Berlin, Miller, Canovan, MacIntyre, Viroli, Sandel, Pettit, Habermas, Nussbaum, Appiah, and Pogge, among others.

Much of politics is about combining individual preferences or actions into collective choices. We will make use of two theoretical approaches. Our primary approach will be social choice theory, which studies how we aggregate what individuals want into what the collective “wants.” The second approach, game theory, covers how we aggregate what individuals want into what the group gets, given that social, economic, and political outcomes usually depend on the interaction of individual choices. The aggregation of preferences or choices is usually governed by some set of institutional rules, formal or informal. Our main 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. Most of the course material is highly abstract, but these abstract issues turn up in many real-world problems, from bargaining between the branches of government to campus elections to judicial decisions on multi-member courts to the allocation of relief funds among victims of natural disasters to the scoring of Olympic events. The collective choice problem is one faced by society as a whole and by the smallest group alike.

The rise of new great powers and hegemonic states has been a major engine of change in international relations, both historically and today.  Predominant theories of war, trade, and empire take as their starting point the uneven growth in the power and wealth of major states and empires. Rapid economic growth and associated domestic institutional changes in rising great powers often unleash a volatile domestic politics that affects the ideologies and social interests that play a role in formulating foreign policy.  In turn, the rising power’s international environment shapes the unfolding of these internal processes.  The course will study these dynamics, tracing patterns in historical cases and applying the insights gained to contemporary issues.

This course centers on the writings of the key figures associated with the "first generation" of the Frankfurt School: Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Franz Neumann, Otto Kirschheimer, Friedrich Pollock, and Herbert Marcuse. In addition, it includes various background readings from thinkers whose works were key references for the critical theorists of the Frankfurt School: Immanuel Kant, G.W.F. Hegel, Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud, Max Weber and Gyorgy Lukacs. The course takes the Holocaust as a turning point for the members of this group, as this event brought their conception of critical theory into a crisis, urged them to rethink their assumptions about the relationship between theory and practice, dampened their hopes for revolutionary social change, and compelled them to undertake a much more radical critique of the Enlightenment. We will study the changing and divergent trajectories of critical theory by convering a wide range of material, including different perspetives on reason and rationality, the relationship between theory and practice, intertwinement of freedom and domination in modernity, and pathologies of mass society.

Growth of presidential power, creation and use of the institutionalized presidency, presidential-congressional and presidential-bureaucratic relationships, and the presidency and the national security apparatus. (Cross-listed by the American Studies Program.)

A number of countries in Southeast Asia have recently faced violent conflicts, often linked to separatist or regionalist demands from territorially concentrated ethnic or religious minorities. This course examines a range of conflicts in Southern Thailand (Patani), Southern Philippines (Mindanao), Indonesia (notably Aceh) and Burma, through a variety of different lenses and comparative perspectives. These include security and (counter)insurgency perspectives, the comparative character of militant movements, perspectives based on minority rights and identity politics, explorations of the salience of religion, studies of language politics, questions of autonomy and decentralization, and the issue of peace negotiations and dialogue processes. These themes and issues have a broader relevance to wider debates in comparative politics, which students will be encouraged to explore in their papers.

Survey of the social science discourse on political corruption in the contemporary world and its relationship to political and economic development. Exploration of questions concerning political corruption, its causes, consequences, patterns, and effective mechanisms to reduce, contain, and eliminate corruption. Barnard syllabus.

This course has two objectives: studying the political economy and history of the Arab states, Israel, Turkey, and Iran, and reviewing major themes in the Middle East political science literature. Topics include: historical legacies of colonialism, the political economy of state-society relations, the politics of religion, the politics of democratization, and burgeoning forms of new media.

The course starts from the premise that questions of justice are essentially political, and their study cannot be safely left in the sole hands of lawyers and legal experts. In recent years, a number of important global trends have become evident in the study of justice. These include a growing focus on transitional justice – especially how the transition from an authoritarian regime, or from conditions of violent conflict, may best be handled. Another important trend is the so-called ‘new constitutionalism’ – efforts to strengthen checks and balances through establishing new institutions such as constitutional courts. A third trend concerns disturbing developments in the use of the criminal justice system for essentially political purposes. This course will explore how these recent trends are being played out in various parts of Southeast Asia.

Provides students of political science with a basic set of tools needed to read, evaluate, and contribute in research areas that increasingly utilize sophisticated mathematical techniques.

Examines problems encountered in multivariate analysis of cross-sectional and time-series data. Covers fundamentals of probability and statistics and examines problems encountered in multivariate analysis of cross-sectional and time-series data. More mathematical treatment of topics covered in POLS W4710 and W4712.

Survey sampling is central to modern social science. We discuss how to design, conduct, and analyze surveys, with a particular focus on public opinion surveys in the United States.

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.

Instruction in methods for models that have dependent variables that are not continuous, including dichotomous and polychotomous response models, models for censored and truncated data, sample selection models and duration models.

This course covers methods for models for repeated observations data. These kinds of data represent tremendous opportunities as well as formidable challenges for making inferences. The course will focus on how to estimate models for panel and time-series cross-section data. Topics covered include fixed effects, random effects, dynamic panel models, random coefficient models, and models for qualitative dependent variables.

Examines emerging challenges to the Western-built order of international politics, including emerging powers and the Bretton Woods economic institutions, the reslience of the US-led security system, and the contestation of Western values issues such as human rights and democracy promotion.  Focus on Eurasia, Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia.

This course surveys postwar U.S.-Japan relations with a particular emphasis on the areas of economic trade and miltary security. In each of these areas we will also examine how Japan's East Asian neighbors have influenced the bilateral relationship over time. While focusing on a number of specific case studies of policymaking and political maneuvering, we will investigate how domestic and international forces interact to shape outcomes of relations between the two countries.

Exploration of Russia's ambiguous relationship with the Western world. Cultural, philosophical, and historical explanations will be examined alongside theories of domestic political economy and international relations, to gain an understanding of current events. Select cases from the Tsarist, Soviet, and recent periods will be compared and contrasted, to see if patterns emerge. This course counts as an introductory-level course in international relations.