Results for POLISCI

Why do countries go to war? How can we explain problems such as poverty, inequality, and pollution? What can be done to improve political representation in the United States and other countries? We will use scientific methods to answer these and other fundamental questions about politics.

Russia's annexation of Crimea in Spring 2014 posed not only a threat to post-World War II Europe formed around the norm of national sovereignty, but possibly also the very real threat that Russia had awakened from its 20 years of peacefulness to once again impose its will on Eastern Europe. Is Europe again under threat from the East? In Current Issues in European Security, students will attend public events organized by Stanford's Europe Center and Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. These events -- talks by political leaders and scholars from the U.S. and Europe -- will engage and encourage students to understand the deepening crises in Ukraine, conflict in the Baltics, and European security as a whole. Students will leave the course with a better understanding of the multi-faceted dilemmas policy makers face, historical background, and possible paths forward for global decision makers. In addition to attending the events, students will write a final memo recommending a course of action for US policy makers. Events will typically be scheduled from 12 noon to 1:30 p.m. but may be held at other times. There will be approximately six events in spring quarter, and students may also be required to attend one or two separate discussion sessions.

This seminar will provide an in-depth analysis of the role of California state agencies in driving energy policy development, technology innovation, and market structures. The course will cover three areas: 1) roles and responsibilities of key state agencies; 2) current and evolving energy and climate policies; and 3) development of California's 21st century energy systems. Presentations will include experts from the California Energy Commission, the California Public Utilities Commission, the California Air Resources Board, the California Independent System Operator, the California Legislature, and the Governor's office. This class is required for all Stanford Energy Internships in California (SEIC) fellowship awardees and is open to other interested undergraduate and graduate students. Class dates are: April 2nd (10am-2pm), April 30th (10am-1pm), and May 21st (10am-1pm). Lunch will be provided. May be repeat for credit. If interested you can fill out this webform: http://web.stanford.edu/~sburbank/Energy.fb

(Formerly POLISCI 4) Why are some countries prone to civil war and violence, while others remain peaceful? Why do some countries maintain democratic systems, while others do not? Why are some countries more prosperous than others? This course will provide an overview of the most basic questions in the comparative study of political systems, and will introduce the analytical tools that can help us answer them.

(Students not taking this course for WIM, register for 110Y.) The causes of war in American foreign policy. Issues: international and domestic sources of war and peace; war and the American political system; war, intervention, and peace making in the post-Cold War period.

(Students not taking this course for WIM, register for 110Y.) The causes of war in American foreign policy. Issues: international and domestic sources of war and peace; war and the American political system; war, intervention, and peace making in the post-Cold War period.

This course introduces students to the economy, politics, and international relations of contemporary Japan. The course puts a particular emphasis on several emerging issues in Japan including innovation and economic dynamism, Japan's contributions to international peace and cooperation, and Japan's response to international economic and geopolitical challenges. The course will invite several guest instructors, each of whom is an expert on at least one of the issues that Japan faces today, to give lectures in addition to the main instructors. The guest lecturers will also be available outside of the classroom for further discussion during their stays at Stanford.

An introduction to the history of nuclear weapons from World War II to the present. The focus is on politics, but the role of technology transfer ¿ whether legal or illicit ¿ in the development of nuclear weapons will be examined; so too will the theories about the military and political utility of nuclear weapons. We will look at the efforts to control and abolish nuclear weapons and at the international institutions created to reduce the danger of nuclear war.

The American West is characterized by frontier mythology, vast distances, marked aridity, and unique political and economic characteristics. This course integrates several disciplinary perspectives into a comprehensive examination of Western North America: its history, physical geography, climate, literature, art, film, institutions, politics, demography, economy, and continuing policy challenges. Students examine themes fundamental to understanding the region: time, space, water, peoples, and boom and bust cycles.

This course covers Supreme Court case law concerning governmental powers, equal protection, and certain fundamental rights. The course investigates the constitutional foundation for democratic participation in the United States, covering topics such as the Fourteenth Amendment's protections against discrimination on grounds of race, gender, and other classifications, as well as the individual rights to voting and intimate association, and an introduction to First Amendment rights of free speech and press. Students will be evaluated on class participation, a midterm moot court with both a written and oral component, and a take-home final exam. Lectures will be twice per week and a discussion section once per week.

Collective action problems arise when actions that are individually rational give rise to results that are collectively irrational. Scholars have used such a framework to shed light on various political phenomena such as revolutions, civil disobedience, voting, climate change, and the funding of social services. We examine their findings and probe the theoretical foundations of their approach. What does this way of thinking about politics bring into focus, and what does it leave out? What role do institutions play in resolving collective action problems? And what if the required institutions are absent? Can we, as individuals, be required to cooperate even if we expect that others may not play their part? Readings drawn from philosophy, political science, economics, and sociology.

Ethical and political questions in public service work, including volunteering, service learning, humanitarian assistance, and public service professions such as medicine and teaching. Motives and outcomes in service work. Connections between service work and justice. Is mandatory service an oxymoron? History of public service in the U.S. Issues in crosscultural service work. Integration with the Haas Center for Public Service to connect service activities and public service aspirations with academic experiences at Stanford.

This course provides an overview of core ethical problems in international politics, with special emphasis on the question of what demands justice imposes on institutions and agents acting in a global context. The course is divided into three sections. The first investigates the content of global justice, and comprises of readings from contemporary political theorists and philosophers who write within the liberal contractualist, utilitarian, cosmopolitan, and nationalist traditions. The second part of the course looks at the obligations which global justice generates in relation to five issues of international concern ¿ global poverty, climate change, immigration, warfare, and well-being of women. The final section of the course asks whether a democratic international order is necessary for global justice to be realized.

Social, cultural, political, economic, and international factors affecting the development and consolidation of democracy in historical and comparative perspective. Individual country experiences with democracy, democratization, and regime performance. Emphasis is on the third wave of democratization over the past three decades and contemporary possibilities for democratic change. (Diamond)

Changes in relative power and vitality of each side. The relationship in the Middle Ages revolved around power and domination, and since the Renaissance around modernity. Focus is on Muslims of the Middle East.

Causal inference methods have revolutionized the way we use data, statistics, and research design to move from correlation to causation and rigorously learn about the impact of some potential cause (e.g., a new policy or intervention) on some outcome (e.g., election results, levels of violence, poverty). This course provides an introduction that teaches students the toolkit of modern causal inference methods as they are now widely used across academic fields, government, industry, and non-profits. Topics include experiments, matching, regression, sensitivity analysis, difference-in-differences, panel methods, instrumental variable estimation, and regression discontinuity designs. We will illustrate and apply the methods with examples drawn from various fields including policy evaluation, political science, public health, economics, business, and sociology. Political Science 150A and 150B or an equivalent is required.

This course provides an introduction to strategic reasoning. We discuss ideas such as the commitment problem, credibility in signaling, cheap talk, moral hazard and adverse selection. Concepts are developed through games played in class, and applied to politics, business and everyday life.

New challenges in Asia, the Middle-East, Europe's Eastern and Southern periphery, and even within Europe itself, are making the Transatlantic relationship more central and more critical in world politics than is usually thought. Is there a new dawn in Transatlantic relations? How are the foundations, objectives and "rules of the game" of US-Europe relations being redefined in the context of an emerging new international dis(order)? What will it take for the US and Europe to successfully defend their joint interests and values in an increasingly unstable and dangerous world? The course will discuss the main political, strategic, economic and cultural dynamics and issues at the heart of this new US-Europe relationship.

This seminar examines recent policy from Bush to Obama in the context of two classic traditions: Wilsonianism vs. Realism. What is the role of the international system, what is the weight of domestic forces like ideology, history and identity? Prerequisite: junior or senior standing.

The Middle East is known to be a volatile region, characterized by political violence, armed conflicts, and social instabilities. This volatility is of relevance for many countries including the US with its invested interests in the region and Israel that exists at the heart of the region, and along with its conflict with the Palestinians is considered to be one of the root causes of this volatility. Moreover, the volatility brings into encounter two kinds of collective goods: democracy and security. Their encounter in a conflictual and unstable environment raises a host of questions and dilemmas, both moral and practical: should we balance democracy and security and if so how? Can the two be accommodated at all? Does democracy is better or worse in addressing security problems? Does democracy and security constitute each other conceptually? Do democratic states tend to cooperate with each other when confronting security issues? And what about democratization: how good a ca use is it as a foreign policy? How good a cause is it in justifying war and/or not ending one? From its establishment the State of Israel found itself torn by these and others related questions and the recent decades saw the US drawn by these dilemmas as well (think of the Bybee Memo and the Patriot acts). In the course we will introduce these dilemmas, analyze them and examine different normative and policy answers that were discussed in academia and in the policy world.

This seminar will examine the tension in American foreign policy between pursuing U.S. security and economic interests and promoting American values abroad. The course will retrace the theoretical and ideological debates about values versus interests, with a particular focus on realism versus liberalism. The course will examine the evolution of these debates over time, starting with the French revolution, but with special attention given to the Cold War, American foreign policy after September 11th, and the Obama administration. The course also will examine how these contending theories and ideologies are mediated through the U.S. bureaucracy that shapes the making of foreign policy. ** NOTE: All interested students should attend the first class. Final enrollment criteria will be detailed on the first day of class. There will be 16 spaces available in the course.

Analyzing the international aspects of democratization involves understanding at least the following: (1) what is democracy (2) what domestic-level processes increase or decrease the level of democracy (3) what kind of influences from the outside world work, and do not work, in furthering democracy, and in what ways. This course spans all subfields of political science, and spills over into law, economics, and sociology. A complicating factor is the geographical expanse of democratic institutions and efforts to promote them. Eastern Europe, Russia, the Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa, post-civil war El Salvador and Cambodia, are only some of the regions and countries that have been impacted. Their vastly different backgrounds challenge anyone attempting the puzzle. A further complication is the variety of ways in which the outside world may affect the scope and quality of democracy. These ways include but are not limited to: pressures exercised by regional economic institutions and alliances, the power of ideas and socialization, transfers of wealth, demands for trade liberalization, the training of civic activists, reports issued by foreign election observers.

May be repeated for credit. Requires a petition that can be found on our Political Science website.

During the past two generations, democracy has coincided with massive increases in economic inequality in the U.S. and many other advanced democracies. The course will explore normative and practical issues concerning democracy and equality and examine why democratic institutions have failed to counteract rising inequality. Topics will include the influence of money in politics, disparity in political representation of the preferences of the affluent over those of the poor, the implications of political gridlock, and electoral and institutional barriers to reform.

Americans have been trying to perfect their system of government since its founding. Despite some notable achievements, there is a pervasive sense of frustration with political reform. This course will examine the goals and political consequences of American political regulation. Topics will vary by year to some degree but examples include campaign finance, lobbying, term limits, conflict of interest regulation, direct democracy, citizen commissions and assemblies, vote administration problems, transparency, and open meeting laws.

May be repeated for credit. Requires a petition that can be found on our Political Science website.

This course examines the theory and practice of deliberative democracy and engages both in a dialogue with critics. Can a democracy which emphasizes people thinking and talking together on the basis of good information be made practical in the modern age? What kinds of distortions arise when people try to discuss politics or policy together? The course draws on ideas of deliberation from Madison and Mill to Rawls and Habermas as well as criticisms from the jury literature, from the psychology of group processes and from the most recent normative and empirical literature on deliberative forums. Deliberative Polling, its applications, defenders and critics, both normative and empirical, will provide a key case for discussion.

What is the basis of private action for the public good? How are charitablenndollars distributed and what role do nonprofit organizations andnnphilanthropic dollars play in a modern democracy? How do nongovernmental nnorganizations operate domestically and globally? The historical developmentnnand modern structure of civil society emphasizing philanthropy and thennnonprofit sector. Readings in political philosophy, political sociology, andnnpublic policy. WIM for PoliSci students who enroll in PoliSci 236S.

What is the basis of private action for the public good? How are charitablenndollars distributed and what role do nonprofit organizations andnnphilanthropic dollars play in a modern democracy? How do nongovernmental nnorganizations operate domestically and globally? The historical developmentnnand modern structure of civil society emphasizing philanthropy and thennnonprofit sector. Readings in political philosophy, political sociology, andnnpublic policy. WIM for PoliSci students who enroll in PoliSci 236S.

May be repeated for credit.

This course provides an introduction to the political economy of gender. The course first explores the key areas of debate on women¿s representation. Why are women underrepresented in formal political institutions? How the political institutions affect women's representation? What's the effects of women's representation? Also, the course examines the quality of female politicians, women's voting behavior and political preferences, public opinion on gender issues, and women's representation in Law. No prior knowledge is required.

This course is an introduction to the contemporary politics of Taiwan. Once a poor, insecure autocracy, today Taiwan has been transformed into a prosperous and stable liberal democracy, albeit one whose long-term security remains imperiled by the rising power of the People¿s Republic of China. We will draw on concepts and theories from political science to explore distinct aspects of this ongoing political evolution, including the transition to and consolidation of democracy, origins and trajectory of economic and social development, sources of Taiwanese nationalism, security of the Taiwanese state and its relationship to the PRC and the United States, parties and elections, and public policy processes and challenges.

If, as economists argue, development can make everyone in a society better off, why do leaders fail to pursue policies that promote development? The course uses game theoretic approaches from both economics and political science to address this question. Incentive problems are at the heart of explanations for development failure. Specifically, the course focuses on a series of questions central to the development problem: Why do developing countries have weak and often counterproductive political institutions? Why is violence (civil wars, ethnic conflict, military coups) so prevalent in the developing world, and how does it interact with development? Why do developing economies fail to generate high levels of income and wealth? We study how various kinds of development traps arise, preventing development for most countries. We also explain how some countries have overcome such traps. This approach emphasizes the importance of simultaneous economic and political development as two different facets of the same developmental process. No background in game theory is required.

May be repeated for credit. Requires a petition that can be found on our Political Science website.

May be repeated for credit.

This course is designed to teach students how to design a research project. The course emphasizes the specification of testable hypotheses, the building of data sets, and the inferences from that may be drawn from that evidence. It is only open to students in the PS Research Honors Track.

Students conduct independent research work towards a senior honors thesis.

Theoretical models of political economy. Potential topics include: basic social choice theory, democracy, electoral competition, political accountability, legislative bargaining, lobbying, corruption, autocratic politics, democratization, conflict and arms races, and institutional change. Attention to economics implications, including taxation, redistribution, and public goods. Prerequisite: 203 or permission of instructors.

Analyzing the international aspects of democratization involves understanding at least the following: (1) what is democracy (2) what domestic-level processes increase or decrease the level of democracy (3) what kind of influences from the outside world work, and do not work, in furthering democracy, and in what ways. This course spans all subfields of political science, and spills over into law, economics, and sociology. A complicating factor is the geographical expanse of democratic institutions and efforts to promote them. Eastern Europe, Russia, the Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa, post-civil war El Salvador and Cambodia, are only some of the regions and countries that have been impacted. Their vastly different backgrounds challenge anyone attempting the puzzle. A further complication is the variety of ways in which the outside world may affect the scope and quality of democracy. These ways include but are not limited to: pressures exercised by regional economic institutions and alliances, the power of ideas and socialization, transfers of wealth, demands for trade liberalization, the training of civic activists, reports issued by foreign election observers.

May be repeated for credit.

For students interested in research in political science, psychology, or communication. Methodological techniques for studying political attitudes and behaviors. May be repeated for credit.

May be repeated for credit.

Cross-listed with Law (LAW 781), Political Science (POLISCI 334) and Sociology (SOC 374). Associated with the Center for Philanthropy and Civil Society (PACS). Year-long workshop for doctoral students and advanced undergraduates writing senior theses on the nature of civil society or philanthropy. Focus is on pursuit of progressive research and writing contributing to the current scholarly knowledge of the nonprofit sector and philanthropy. Accomplished in a large part through peer review. Readings include recent scholarship in aforementioned fields. May be repeated for credit for a maximum of 9 units.

This course examines the theory and practice of deliberative democracy and engages both in a dialogue with critics. Can a democracy which emphasizes people thinking and talking together on the basis of good information be made practical in the modern age? What kinds of distortions arise when people try to discuss politics or policy together? The course draws on ideas of deliberation from Madison and Mill to Rawls and Habermas as well as criticisms from the jury literature, from the psychology of group processes and from the most recent normative and empirical literature on deliberative forums. Deliberative Polling, its applications, defenders and critics, both normative and empirical, will provide a key case for discussion.

This course provides an overview of core ethical problems in international politics, with special emphasis on the question of what demands justice imposes on institutions and agents acting in a global context. The course is divided into three sections. The first investigates the content of global justice, and comprises of readings from contemporary political theorists and philosophers who write within the liberal contractualist, utilitarian, cosmopolitan, and nationalist traditions. The second part of the course looks at the obligations which global justice generates in relation to five issues of international concern ¿ global poverty, climate change, immigration, warfare, and well-being of women. The final section of the course asks whether a democratic international order is necessary for global justice to be realized.

The development and practice of law and legal procedure in the ancient Greek world, emphasizing the well documented case of classical Athens. Constitutional, criminal, and civil law, approached through analysis of actual laws and speeches by litigants in Athenian courtrooms. Review of a growing scholarship juxtaposing Greek law to other prominent legal traditions and exploring the role of law in Greek social relations, economics, and literature, and its relationship to Greek conceptions of justice.

May be repeated for credit.

If, as economists argue, development can make everyone in a society better off, why do leaders fail to pursue policies that promote development? The course uses game theoretic approaches from both economics and political science to address this question. Incentive problems are at the heart of explanations for development failure. Specifically, the course focuses on a series of questions central to the development problem: Why do developing countries have weak and often counterproductive political institutions? Why is violence (civil wars, ethnic conflict, military coups) so prevalent in the developing world, and how does it interact with development? Why do developing economies fail to generate high levels of income and wealth? We study how various kinds of development traps arise, preventing development for most countries. We also explain how some countries have overcome such traps. This approach emphasizes the importance of simultaneous economic and political development as two different facets of the same developmental process. No background in game theory is required.

May be repeated for credit.

Provides a survey of statistical tools for model-based inference in political science. Topics include generalized linear models for various data types and their extensions, such as discrete choice models, survival outcome models, mixed effects and multilevel models.

Applying techniques such as information economics, games of incomplete information, sequential bargaining theory, repeated games, and rational expectations of microeconomic analysis and game theory to political behavior and institutions. Applicatoins include agenda formation in legislatures, government formation in parliamentary systems, the implications of legislative structure, elections and information aggregation, lobbying, electoral competition and interest groups, the control of bureaucracies, interest group competition, and collective choice rules.

Continuation of 353A. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: 353A and B. May be repeat for credit

This course provides an introduction to strategic reasoning. We discuss ideas such as the commitment problem, credibility in signaling, cheap talk, moral hazard and adverse selection. Concepts are developed through games played in class, and applied to politics, business and everyday life.

Causal inference methods have revolutionized the way we use data, statistics, and research design to move from correlation to causation and rigorously learn about the impact of some potential cause (e.g., a new policy or intervention) on some outcome (e.g., election results, levels of violence, poverty). This course provides an introduction that teaches students the toolkit of modern causal inference methods as they are now widely used across academic fields, government, industry, and non-profits. Topics include experiments, matching, regression, sensitivity analysis, difference-in-differences, panel methods, instrumental variable estimation, and regression discontinuity designs. We will illustrate and apply the methods with examples drawn from various fields including policy evaluation, political science, public health, economics, business, and sociology. Political Science 150A and 150B or an equivalent is required.

Covers advanced computational and statistical methods for collecting and modeling large-scale data on politics. Topics will include automated and computer-assisted methods for collecting, disambiguating, and merging unstructured data (web-scraping, identity resolution, and record-linkage), database management (SQL, data architecture), data-reduction techniques for measuring the political preferences for large numbers of individuals, topic models applied to political text/speech, and social network analysis for mapping relationships and identifying influential actors.

May be repeated for credit.

Required of Political Science PhD candidates with International Relations, American Politics, or Comparative Politics as their first or second field. Other by consent of instructor. Students develop their own research design. Prerequisites: 410A&B or 420A&B or 440A&B.

For graduate students. Contemporary work. Organized around presentation of research by students and outside scholars. May be repeated for credit.

The social and psychological processes involved in asking and answering questions via questionnaires for the social sciences; optimizing questionnaire design; open versus closed questions; rating versus ranking; rating scale length and point labeling; acquiescence response bias; don't-know response options; response choice order effects; question order effects; social desirability response bias; attitude and behavior recall; and introspective accounts of the causes of thoughts and actions.

Research seminar. Frontiers in mass political behavior. Sources include data sets from the 2004 election cycle. Prerequisite: 420B or equivalent. Course may be repeated for credit.

For graduate students. May be repeated for credit.

Faculty, guest speakers, and graduate students conducting research in comparative politics present work-in-progress. Graduate students may enroll for up to 5 total units apportioned by quarter. Auditors welcome. Course may be repeated for credit.

Content, process, and problems of China's post-Mao reforms. Changes in property rights, markets, credit, and the role of the state in economic development. Comparative insights about reform in the Chinese communist system that distinguishes it from the experience of regimes in E. Europe and the former Soviet Union.

For Ph.D. students in the social sciences and history. Research on contemporary society and politics in the People's Republic of China. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.