41 - 50 of 266 results for: POLISCI

The political position of Latinos and Latinas in the U.S.. Focus is on Mexican Americans, with attention to Cuban Americans, Puerto Ricans, and other groups. The history of each group in the American polity; their political circumstances with respect to the electoral process, the policy process, and government; the extent to which the demographic category Latino is meaningful; and group identity and solidarity among Americans of Latin American ancestry. Topics include immigration, education, affirmative action, language policy, and environmental justice.

Focus is on whether and how racial and ethnic minorities including African Americans, Asian Americans, and Latinos are able to organize and press their demands on the political system. Topics include the political behavior of minority citizens, the strength and effect of these groups at the polls, the theory and practice of group formation among minorities, the responsiveness of elected officials, and the constitutional obstacles and issues that shape these phenomena.

This course will examine how two of the defining features of contemporary U.S. politics, economic inequality and political polarization, relate to each other and to Congressional gridlock. The reading list will focus on several books recently authored by preeminent political scientists on this important topic. The course will cover a range of topics, including the disparity in political representation of the preferences of the affluent over those of the poor, the origins of Congressional polarization, the influence of money in politics, budgetary politics, immigration policy, and electoral and institutional barriers to reform.

A broad survey of the Constitution, from its Revolutionary origins to the contemporary disputes over interpretation. Topics include the invention of the written constitution and interpretative canons; the origins of judicial review; the Civil War and Reconstruction as constitutional crises; the era of substantive due process; the rights revolution; and the Constitution in wartime.

Policymakers and scholars are increasingly interested in whether climate change and its associated effects could contribute to the risk of violent conflict within and between countries. Will drought and rising temperatures lead to struggles over a dwindling supply of agricultural land? Will shortages of fresh water cause growing tension over access to rivers and lakes? Will rising sea levels cause mass migration from coastal areas, bringing people into conflict? Will social unrest arising from such stresses lead to violent efforts to topple governments or spill over across borders? In this seminar, we explore such questions as: How could the expected effects of climate change make civil or international conflicts more likely? What evidence is there that environmental factors contribute to violent conflicts, historically and today? What regions or countries are most at risk from these challenges, and why? Answering these questions requires that we not only think about the human and social impacts of climate change but also ask basic questions about what causes political violence within and between countries and how we can assess the contribution of different risk factors. Assignments will encourage students to learn more about the conflict risks in countries that interest them and to gain familiarity with some of the methods that political scientists use to explore these issues systematically. The connection between climate and conflict is relatively new area of inquiry, without many settled answers, so this seminar presents an opportunity to explore what we know, what we do not yet know, and what we can do to further our understanding of this issue going forward.

When acting on one's own, it is often easy to know what the morally right action is. But many moral problems arise from the fact that many individuals act together leading to dilemmas, in which what is individually rational is collectively irrational. For example, the collective result of our consumption decisions is to warm the planet. But individual decisions seem to have no effect on climate change. Such collective action situations give rise to moral questions: Are individuals required to take their contributions to wider systemic effects into account? Does it make a difference whether or not others are doing their share, for example with regard to fighting global poverty? In many cases, the best solution for collective action problems are institutions. But when these are deficient or non-existing, what should individuals do? Do they have a duty to assist in building institutions, and what would this duty imply in practical terms? Interdisciplinary perspective, reading authors from philosophy, politics, economics and sociology such as Elinor Ostrom, Peter Singer or Liam Murphy, relating to current questions such as global poverty and climate change. No background assumed; no mathematical work required.

This course offers an introduction to the history of Western political thought from the late fifteenth through the nineteenth centuries. We will consider the development of ideas like individual rights, government by consent, and the protection of private property. We will also explore the ways in which these ideas continue to animate contemporary political debates. Thinkers covered will include: Niccolò Machiavelli, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Edmund Burke, John Stuart Mill, and Karl Marx.

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 class is capped but there are some spaces available with permission of instructor. If the class is full and you would like to be considered for these extra spaces, please email sburbank@stanford.edu with your name, grade level, and a paragraph explaining why you want to take the class.]

How should human beings relate to the natural world? Do we have moral obligations toward non-human animals and other parts of nature? And what do we owe to other human beings, including future generations, with respect to the environment? The first part of this course will examine such questions in light of some of our current ethical theories: considering what those theories suggest regarding the extent and nature of our environmental obligations; and also whether reflection on such obligations can prove informative about the adequacy of our ethical theories. In the second part of the course, we will use the tools that we have acquired to tackle various ethical questions that confront us in our dealings with the natural world, looking at subjects such as: animal rights; conservation; economic approaches to the environment; access to and control over natural resources; environmental justice and pollution; climate change; technology and the environment; and environmental activism.