printer friendly pagePOLISCI 240A: Democratic Politics (POLISCI 340A)
This course examines the relationship between democratic ideals and contemporary democratic politics.
Last offered: Autumn 2017
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI
POLISCI 241S: Spatial Approaches to Social Science (ANTHRO 130D, ANTHRO 230D, URBANST 124)
This multidisciplinary course combines different approaches to how GIS and spatial tools can be applied in social science research. We take a collaborative, project oriented approach to bring together technical expertise and substantive applications from several social science disciplines. The course aims to integrate tools, methods, and current debates in social science research and will enable students to engage in critical spatial research and a multidisciplinary dialogue around geographic space.
Last offered: Winter 2020
| UG Reqs: WAY-AQR, WAY-SI
POLISCI 244A: Authoritarian Politics (POLISCI 444A)
This course offers a thematic approach to the study of authoritarian politics. We will cover the major areas of political science research on authoritarian politics and governance while simultaneously building empirical knowledge about the politics of particular authoritarian regimes. The course will also discuss transitions to democracy as well as authoritarian political tendencies within democratic contexts.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI
Instructors:
Blaydes, L. (PI)
;
Fabrizio, A. (TA)
POLISCI 244U: Political Culture (POLISCI 344U)
The implications of social norms, preferences and beliefs for political and economic behavior and societal outcomes.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI
Instructors:
Fouka, V. (PI)
;
Laitin, D. (PI)
POLISCI 245R: Politics in Modern Iran
Modern Iran has been a smithy for political movements, ideologies, and types of states. Movements include nationalism, constitutionalism, Marxism, Islamic fundamentalism, social democracy, Islamic liberalism, and fascism. Forms of government include Oriental despotism, authoritarianism, Islamic theocracy, and liberal democracy. These varieties have appeared in Iran in an iteration shaped by history, geography, proximity to oil and the Soviet Union, and the hegemony of Islamic culture.
Terms: Sum
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-SI
Instructors:
Milani, A. (PI)
POLISCI 246A: Paths to the Modern World: The West in Comparative Perspective (POLISCI 446A)
How and why did Europe develop political institutions that encouraged economic growth and industrialization? And why have many other regions lagged in the creation of growth-promoting institutions? This course uses a comparative approach to understanding routes to the modern world - the historical experiences of Christian Europe, the Islamic world, and others. We will explore questions including: When do parliaments emerge? How do cities promote growth? What is the role of religion?
Last offered: Winter 2020
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI
POLISCI 247A: Games Developing Nations Play (ECON 162, POLISCI 347A)
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.
Terms: Win
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-AQR, WAY-SI
Instructors:
Weingast, B. (PI)
;
Jimenez, M. (TA)
POLISCI 247G: Governance and Poverty (POLISCI 347G)
Poverty relief requires active government involvement in the provision of public services such as drinking water, healthcare, sanitation, education, roads, electricity and public safety. Failure to deliver public services is a major impediment to the alleviation of poverty in the developing world. This course will use an interdisciplinary approach to examining these issues, bringing together readings from across the disciplines of political science, economics, law, medicine and education to increase understanding of the complex causal linkages between political institutions, the quality of governance, and the capacity of developing societies to meet basic human needs. Conceived in a broadly comparative international perspective, the course will examine cross-national and field-based research projects, with a particular focus on Latin America and Mexico.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI
Instructors:
Magaloni-Kerpel, B. (PI)
POLISCI 248S: Latin American Politics (POLISCI 348S)
Fundamental transformations in Latin America in the last two decades: why most governments are now democratic or semidemocratic; and economic transformation as countries abandoned import substitution industrialization policies led by state intervention for neoliberal economic polices. The nature of this dual transformation.
Last offered: Spring 2020
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, WAY-SI
POLISCI 299A: Research Design
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. This course fulfills the WIM requirement for Political Science Research Honors students.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI
Instructors:
Prillaman, S. (PI)
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