printer friendly pagePOLISCI 228: The Democratic Faith: An Empirical Analysis of Citizenship
Political scientists have now accumulated evidence over more than fifty years documenting the limits of ordinary citizens ¿ their minimal levels of information about public affairs; their minimal capacity for thinking coherently about political choices; their limited understanding of and commitment to core democratic values; their susceptibility to racism and intolerance of many forms. These findings, taken all in all, seem to add up to a conclusion that citizens are incapable of discharging the duties of democratic citizenship. It seems, these results suggest, that the best contribution that they can make to a democratic politics is to stay out of the way. The aim of this course to examine a paradox: how can it simultaneously be true that findings of citizen incompetence and intolerance are valid and that citizens nonetheless can be capable of discharging the duties of democratic citizenship. In particular, this course will concentrate on three main topics: racism in contemporary politics; commitment to civil liberties and civil rights, and multiculturalism. The course will require intensive reading and analysis of quantitative research on public opinion surveys and experiments.
POLISCI 229R: Running Time: Running and Winning Elections (COMM 163)
This course aims to teach you the nuts-n-bolts of political campaigning. How do campaign consultants organize a campaign, draft a strategy, come up with a theme, target voters, raise money, write and produce ads and get voters to the ballot? Drawing upon academic writings in the fields of political science and communication, articles by campaign consultants, TV ads, and documentaries, you will learn all about how elections are won and lost. You will master, and yet learn to be critical of, current electoral politics with their emphasis on money, polls, and sound bites. Finally, you will harness this new knowledge to do some good, by promoting a worthy cause.
Instructors:
Waismel-Manor, I. (PI)
POLISCI 235J: Creative Political Thinking: Three Cases (HISTORY 305G, POLISCI 335J)
How can we account for creativity and innovation in political thinking? Are these qualities simply a product of political expediency and rhetorical urgency, or do they also depend on qualities of mind and historical contingencies that have to be studied individually? This class will explore these questions with three noteworthy cases: Niccolo Machiavelli, John Locke, and James Madison. Extensive reading in both primary writings and secondary sources.
POLISCI 238: Political Disagreement
Disagreement is a permanent and ubiquitous feature of political life. Furthermore, political disagreement can stem from a wide range of sources. Perhaps most importantly, democratic citizens disagree at the level of values: they disagree about the proper form of the good life as well as the human interests that political laws and institutions ought to serve. This course will focus primary attention on the implications of such value-based disagreement for how we should think about political justice.
POLISCI 243E: Political Economy of Development in Rural India
When and why do farmers accept, manipulate, or overthrow the pre-existingnndistribution of political, economic and social power?nnThis course will help students utilize political economy theories and methods of analysisnnto understand the institutional dynamics of change in rural India. First, it will providennstudents with a deeper understanding of the nature of change in a particularly dynamic,nnvaried and influential state with a mainly-rural population: India. Second, it will focus onnnthree major topics in political economy: control over land; taxation and investment; andnnanti-state resistance. The course will draw from political science¿s examinations of hownnand why states succeed, fail, and conduct major reforms by examining these questions innnthe context of rural India¿s small farmers. Indian political institutions are simultaneouslynnlauded as extremely stable, highly-prone to decentralized rebellion, and models fornnvoice and innovation from which the rest of the world has much to learn.nnOverall, this course will expect students to engage with the political economy literature ¿ both historical and contemporary ¿ in order to develop two short research papers and present well-argued positions in class-wide debates on the nature of political, economic and social change driven by and for small farmers in rural India.
POLISCI 243L: Politics of Economic Reform
Description to come.
POLISCI 244P: Religion and Politics in Latin America
The purpose of this seminar is to introduce students to the complexities of Politics and Religion in Latin America from a historical and sociological perspective. The seminar will examine the evolution of Church-State-Society-Community-Individual relations in Latin America, from Independence to present day. Topics will include new definitions of religious freedom, debates concerning the so called ¿lay State¿ (Estado laico), secularization, and the role of the lay or secular state and religious groups in the development of democratic or authoritarian regimes, as well as civil and religious freedoms, particularly sexual and reproductive rights and bioethical issues (contraception, abortion euthanasia, stem cell research, homosexual rights and homophobia). nThe course will combine a series of reading tests designed to introduce central questions of the texts with a critical discussion of the assigned source material, in order to develop a knowledgeable approach and research interest in the student.
POLISCI 244T: Organized Crime and Democracy in Latin America (INTNLREL 152, IPS 247)
Scholars and policy analysts have long emphasized the strength of the rule of law as a key determinant of economic development and social opportunity. They also agree that the rule of law requires an effective and accountable legal system. The growth of transnational organized crime is a major impediment, however, to the creation of effective and accountable legal systems. nThis seminar examines how and why transnational criminal organizations have developed in Latin America, explores why they constitute a major challenge to the consolidation of democratic societies, economic development and individual rights. It also examines the efforts of governments to combat them, with a focus on the experiences of Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil. The course examines these cases in order to draw lessons¿by pointing to both successes and failures¿of use to policy analysts, legal scholars, and practitioners.
POLISCI 248L: Political-Economy of Crime and Violence in Latin America (POLISCI 348L)
Latin America has experienced a significant wave of crime and violence in the past two decades.Criminal organizations have penetrated State organizations and are increasingly embedded insociety. These organizations have created wide and solid networks all over the region, including theUnited States. The activities of criminal organizations in Latin America have eroded the social fabric,weakened State institutions, have caused a significant number of deaths, and have created strong disincentives for productive investment. The course aims at acquainting students with the political-economy of crime and violence. It focuses on understanding the incentives that individuals face for engaging in criminal activities; the incentives that criminal organizations have to use violence against each other, against citizens, and against State forces; the incentives that citizens face to side, or not, with criminal organizations; andnthe responses that States have structured against crime and violence.nThe course focuses on Latin America, but also learns from the case of the United States for which there is a relatively more extensive literature. The course makes extensive use of available data on the topic and emphasizes the learning of adequate methods for measuring these phenomena.
POLISCI 323: Pivotal Moments in American Institutions and Public Law, 1781-Present
(Same as
Law 680) American lawyers and policymakers work today in a system of institutions that are strikingly unique in comparative and historical terms. With some exceptions, that system is characterized by relatively stable political and legal institutions, low levels of explicit corruption, high bureaucratic capacity in public organizations, and relatively open, impersonal access to political, policymaking, and legal institutions. Although these characteristics are now too often taken for granted, the process through which they emerged remains remarkably opaque. In the 1780s under the Articles of Confederation, the United States was a poor developing country on the fringe of the Atlantic community with limited capacity and a striking inability to provide basic public goods, such as security. One hundred years later, it well along the way to becoming the richest nation in the world. How did this transformation occur?nnnDrawing on judicial opinions, legal scholarship, political science, economics, and history, this course explores how institutions evolved to create such a system. It traces the problem of institutional development through several critical periods in the history of American public law, including the emergence of the Constitution, the events leading up to and following the Civil War, the Progressive era, World War II, 1964-75, and the emergence of the modern administrative state. Although the primarily focus is on the American experience, we place these developments in comparative context as well.
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