Political Science
Professors EDLIN(Chair), FULLER, GOULD, LINDAU; Associate Professors COGGINS(Associate Chair), E. GRACE, MCKENDRY, WOLFE; Assistant Professors BANG, FENNER, MA, SANCHEZ; Senior Lecturer DERDZINSKI
Political science prepares students for a variety of careers, public and private, including those directly related to politics and those based on graduate training. Departmental requirements are designed not just to prepare students for graduate school, but to give all majors broad exposure to politics and ready them for responsible citizenship in the contemporary world.
Major Requirements
Basic Requirement: Must complete 10 units in the Department of Political Science
*AP courses do NOT count towards the Political Science major
I. Introductory
The department offers courses in four sub-fields: United States Politics and Government, Political Theory, Comparative Politics, and International Relations. The Catalog of Courses indicates the departmental offerings by sub-field, and a current list is included below.
Basic Requirement: Must complete 10 units in the Department of Political Science
I. Introductory
The department offers courses in four sub-fields: United States Politics and Government, Political Theory, Comparative Politics, and International Relations. The Catalog of Courses indicates the departmental offerings by sub-field, and a current list is included below.
Students must take:
1) In the United States Politics and Government subfield:
PS200 - United States Politics and Government
2) In the International Relations subfield:
PS209 - Introduction to International Relations*
3) In the Comparative subfield:
PS236 - Introduction to Comparative Politics
4) In the Political Theory subfield:
PS290 Introduction to Political Philosophy
Students are strongly advised to take the prescribed courses at the 200 level before taking courses at the 300 level.
*Students entering CC in AY 2024-25 or later (graduating class of 2028 and beyond) must take PS209 (Introduction to International Relations) as their introductory IR course.
II. Sub-field Distribution
A minimum of 10 units in the Department of Political Science is required, to include the following:
1) Two units in each of four subfields. In each subfield, students must take A) the prescribed course or one of the prescribed courses, and B) one additional course in that subfield.
2) A tutorial in one subfield selected for emphasis. Students who are admitted to write theses are exempt from the tutorial requirement.
3) One additional course to reach the 10-unit minimum. The elective may not be the internship courses, 231 or 233. In addition to the regular courses offered by the department, students may count as their elective one of the following courses: a Topics in Politics course (203), an independent study (402), or one course taken at another institution, in the United States or abroad.
III. Study Abroad
Students earning political science credit in off-campus programs or study at other institutions may qualify for relief from the 10-unit rule. However, the department believes a degree in political science from Colorado College means that majors did most of their work here. The department will normally count one unit of political science in an off-campus program toward the basic ten units. Any use of non-CC credit toward the major must have the approval of the student's departmental advisor or the department chair.
IV. Distinction
Distinction in political science will be awarded based on a graduating senior’s cumulative GPA in courses within the major.
V. Thesis
Proposals to write a senior thesis must normally be submitted by the beginning of the final block of the student’s junior year, but a student studying off campus at the end of the junior year may submit a proposal in the first week of Block 1 of the senior year.
VI. Transfer Students
The department chair will consider granting credit toward the major for courses taken at another institution prior to admission to Colorado College at the time the student declares the major. Advanced Placement courses in high school may count toward total units for graduation and should be taken into consideration when selecting courses for the major. They do not, however, qualify for relief from the 10-unit rule.
Minor Requirements
A minor in political science enables students to complete a course of study within one of the subfields in the major. Completion of a minor in political science requires five courses, distributed as follows and chosen in consultation with an adviser in the department:
1) One of the following: 200 in the United States politics and government subfield; 209 in the international relations subfield*; 236 in comparative politics; 290 in the political theory subfield.
2) Three upper-division courses in the minor subfield, including at least one 300-level course for which the student has completed the prerequisite. A course in another subfield can be substituted for one of these three courses upon consultation with the minor advisor.
3) A tutorial in the minor subfield.
*Students entering CC in AY 2024-25 or later (graduating class of 2028 and beyond) must take PS209 (Introduction to International Relations) as their introductory IR course.
Students who entered CC prior to AY 2024-25 (graduating classes of 2027 and previous) may take either PS209 (Introduction to International Relations) OR PS225/PS340 (Conduct of US Foreign Policy) as their introductory IR course. Please note that the course number for Conduct of US Foreign Policy was PS225 prior to AY 2024-25, and changed to PS340 as of AY 2024-25. Students in this category may choose to take both PS209 and PS225/PS340. In qualifying circumstances where students take both courses, PS209 (Introduction to International Relations) will count as the introductory IR course and PS225/PS340 (Conduct of US Foreign Policy) will count as an upper-level IR elective.
Courses
Political Science
Questions explored include the balance between state authority and individual liberty; analogies between the exercise of power in government and other areas of human life; the nature of ethical judgment in governance; and the varying ways in which constitutional regimes give expression to and tame the exercise of power. (Formerly 201 Political Analysis.) (Cannot be taken after 103.) (Not offered 2024-25).
This course examines the gripping drama of ancient Roman politics, from the struggle for freedom to the temptations of empire, as it is notoriously described by Machiavelli in “The Prince,” and vividly portrayed in Shakespeare’s Roman plays. (Summer only 2024-25).
The structure and process of United States national politics and government. Special attention to the ideas and values, institutions, and political processes that shape contemporary public policies in this country. 1 unit. Meets the Critical Learning: SHB requirement.
Examines enduring themes of Political Economy with a focus on the balance between individual liberty, state authority, regulation of economic activity and the relation of the polity to economy.
Introduction to the theory and practice of the contemporary state system. Emphasis on the last hundred years of inter-state rivalry.
Analysis of significant and controversial Supreme Court decisions on issues such as racism and the legacy of slavery, school desegregation, affirmative action, gender discrimination, sexual harassment, the right to an abortion, criminal law, freedom of speech, and the separation of church and state. (Not offered 2024-25).
Examines the relationship between women, government, and public policy -- with the primary goal of understanding how politics is gendered. Topics include the 'waves' of feminism, how female lawmakers navigate the electoral and legislative arenas, and the role of gender in public policy. Meets the Equity and Power: EPUS requirement.
Introduction to models and theories of leadership. Analysis of skills, styles and abilities that are frequently associated with effective leadership in political and organizational settings. Analysis of the paradoxes of leadership and the tensions among leadership, democracy, and creativity. (Not offered 2024-25).
Famously condemned by democratic Athens as an impious and immoral corrupter of the young, Socrates has subsequently become a kind of hero of intellectual freedom. Yet Socrates’s radical pursuit of self-knowledge, his claim that 'the unexamined life is not worth living for a human being” has also continuously provoked profound philosophical debates. What does it mean to live an “examined life”? Why is self- knowledge the most important kind of knowledge? Does progress in Socratic self-knowledge help to strengthen – can it even comport with – our heartfelt commitments to moral, religious, and political progress? In this course, we begin to explore Socrates’ enigmatic life and teachings through accounts given of him by Plato and Xenophon, as well as through the many different and thoughtful judgments made of him through the ages - from Aristophanes and Aristotle to Rousseau, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, and beyond. .5 or 1 unit. (Not offered 2024-25).
The course investigates the origins and development of theories justifying, and also seeking to limit, resort to war and conduct in war. The readings include ancient and modern formulations of what came to be known as the principles of justifying war, which have also gained recognition in international law. This includes consideration of the changing historical circumstances in which the principles are to be interpreted and applied to the use of force especially in relation to the issues of our time such as nuclear weapons and terrorism. (Not offered 2024-25).
Ideas and Institutions which condition the formulation and execution of the nation's foreign policy. (Not offered 2024-25).
Examines the following questions: Are there politically relevant differences between the sexes, and if so, are they the product of nature and/or convention? What is/ought to be the relation between the political community and private attachments? How has liberalism answered these questions? How does consideration of gender challenge liberal theories such as contract, individual rights, and human nature? Readings in both political theory and in feminist literature. Meets the Critical Perspectives: Social Inequality requirement. (Not offered 2024-25).
An investigation into the strengths and limitations of nonviolent conflict in bringing social and political change. After a week investigating social movement theory drawing from several disciplines, students participate in a workshop in which they envision, organize and strategically guide a virtual nonviolent social movement. Class requires substantial engagement in class and group projects and a final exam.
Student internships in primary and general elections. Post-campaign written analysis required. (Offered as an independent study.)
Directed internships in national, state and local government agencies. Written analysis of the work experience required. (Offered as an independent study.)
Examines ancient politics, from the struggle for freedom to the temptations of empire, insofar as it is vividly portrayed in Shakespeare and the classical literature of Greece and Rome: the greatness, challenges and defects of the ancient republic; the nature of political and military ambition; and the causes and character of empire. Focus/possible works: Shakespeare's Roman plays; the Socratic Xenophon's novel on the rise and rule of Cyrus the Great; Tacitus on Roman emperors. The course may also draw upon Machiavelli on Rome. (Not offered 2024-25).
This course will explore Shakespeare’s dramas as political philosophy. In his plays, Shakespeare often immerses the audience in richly detailed political situations that give rise to profound political and moral dilemmas which human beings continue to confront to this day. The class will pursue the moral and political education that thoughtful and prudent political men and women had for generations found in so many of Shakespeare’s dramas.
This course introduces the concepts, definitions, theories and scholarly approaches used to study comparative politics with reference to selected case studies in different regions of the world. Meets the Critical Perspectives: Social Inequality requirement.
Investigates the arts’ relation to narratives of power--those stories that justify why certain structures dominate, and why alternatives do not. An examination into those arts that expose these narratives, reveal silenced alternatives, and present challenger stories that aspire to power themselves. Includes two weeks of study in Serbia and Bosnia. Course fee/Passport and Visa, where needed. Meets the Critical Perspectives: Social Inequality requirement. Meets the Critical Learning: CP requirement. Meets the Equity and Power: EPG requirement.
Examination of leading conservative and liberal thinkers in America since 1945.
Reading and discussion of classic and contemporary works of fiction and drama known both for their literary merit and for their insight into politics. (Not offered 2024-25).
Drawing on politics, economics, sociology and anthropology, this course critically examines the First World's relations with the Third World through the lens of 'development.' (Not offered 2024-25).
The superiority of liberal democracy to other forms of government rested, in the thought of the early modern philosophers who sought to establish it, upon more fundamental claims about the truth of human equality, the right to individual liberty and, more surprisingly, on the primacy in human life of the need for power. Through careful study of the writings of Hobbes, Rousseau, and Tocqueville, we will explore the philosophical and political questions surrounding these claims, questions such as: What is the philosophical case for human “equality,” and what is its relation to justice? What do we mean by “power,” why do human beings pursue it, and how does that pursuit relate to our concerns for equality and justice? For freedom? Are equality and freedom in harmony, or in tension with one another? 1 unit (Not offered 2024-25).
This course examines the relationship between urban development and environmental justice in the United States, with a particular emphasis on the role of urban planning practices in creating and maintaining the disproportionate exposure to pollution and the unequal access to environmental amenities faced by communities of color. It also investigates the political processes through which municipal sustainability efforts are being used by activists and city officials to create solutions to environmental and social injustices in urban areas. Meets the Equity and Power: EPUS requirement. (Not offered 2024-25).
Considers contemporary and historical environmental politics in the United States and how politics is translated into policy. Examines federal policies and their effectiveness in protecting the environment and furthering environmental justice and investigates the role of actors including social movements, environmental organizations, industry, and state and local governments in shaping environmental governance. Environmental Studies majors and minors may count this course or EV271 toward the major, but not both. Prerequisites: None. Recommended prerequisites: EV145 or PS200. 1 unit. - McKendry. (Not offered 2024-25).
This course explores how Syria's peaceful 2011 uprising transformed into a bloody international war. Key themes include authoritarianism, mass mobilization, sectarianism, militarization, proxy conflicts, and the power of political ideology. Note: the materials for this course include a significant amount of graphic imagery. Meets the Critical Learning: CP requirement.
Independent Study, readings on special topics for non-majors or students with little or no previous political science coursework.
Investigates the foundation and aims of politic rule as well as fundamental debates over the meaning of justice, liberty, power, authority, law and rights through an examination of basic but competing perspectives drawn from ancient, medieval, and modern texts. Thinkers include, but are not limited to, Aristotle, Aquinas, Machiavelli, and Locke. (Also offered as a CC120 course.) Meets the Critical Learning: AIM requirement.
An examination of the political theory of the American founding and its relevance to contemporary political problems.
A comparative study of the political systems and political cultures of selected European countries with consideration of the history and prospects of European Union.
Examination of modern philosophies of history since Hegel. Taught as an independent study, extended format or Summer Readings course in accordance with student schedules by arrangement with the instructor. Also fulfills a requirement in the Classics-History-Political Science major. COI.
An overview of the interdisciplinary field of political psychology. Questions include: 1)Why do people engage in 'evil' behavior; 2)Why is there intergroup conflict; 3)How does the media alter political attitudes; and 4)Why do people make 'irrational political decisions? To answer these questions we will engage the situationist - dispositionist debate which shapes political behavior more, the situations in which individuals find themselves, or the psychological dispositions of those individuals? Meets the Critical Learning: SHB requirement. (Not offered 2024-25).
'Someone once said it is easier to imagine rhe end of the world than to imagine the end of capitalism.' (Fredric Jameson) This class examines Marx's diagnosis of capitalist political economy and imagines the end of capitalism from a Marxist perspective. We will also engage Marxist, post-Marxist, and neo-communist thinkers, such as Lenin, Gramsci, Althusser, David Harvey, Slavoj, Zizek, Jodi Dean, and others. (Not offered 2024-25).
A comparative examination of the introduction of democracy and markets in Latin America, Africa, Eastern Europe, and Asia, featuring an analysis of how the contemporary package of neo-liberal policies known as 'the Washington consensus' interacts with political institutions. Meets the Critical Perspectives: Global Cultures requirement. Meets the Critical Learning: AIM requirement. Meets the Equity and Power: EPG requirement.
Rotating, advanced courses in political science, with topic and subfield varying by instructor.
The roots, rise, maturity, and collapse of Soviet Leninism. Addresses implications of the Soviet legacy and contemporary conditions of the post-Soviet political order in Russia and other successor states of the Soviet Union. (Not offered 2024-25).
Examines the development of international thought from the Renaissance to the Scottish, French, and American Enlightenments. How the modern thinkers saw antiquity, and how their thought is relevant to contemporary trends and debates, are key themes. (Not offered 2024-25).
How does the Chinese government see the world? How does China's domestic political concerns shape their actions on the global stage? How does the U.S. government see China? In what ways, do China and the U.S. misunderstand each other? This class examines key policy issues in Chinese foreign policy, and debates over the meaning of contemporary events, as artifacts of different world-views and understandings of power. (Not offered 2024-25).
Focuses on Yugoslavia's disintegration in the 1990's and the subsequent international response. Evaluates theories developed in the fields of international relations and comparative politics that purport to explain events. Places specific focus on the interaction of identity and political institutions. May meet either the Critical Perspectives: Global Cultures or Social Inequality requirement. Meets the Critical Learning: SHB requirement. (Not offered 2024-25).
Traces major themes and developments in MENA politics through the 20th and 21st centuries, with an emphasis on better understanding contemporary events. This course takes seriously the complexity of Middle East politics, engaging with both social scientific theory and lived experience. Topics explored include authoritarianism, state capacity, ethnic and sectarian politics, ideology, and nationalism, approached through case studies, art, fiction, and film. Meets the Critical Perspectives: Global Cultures requirement. (Not offered 2024-25).
The re-emergence of the Middle East as a regional subsystem in the 20th Century. The role of foreign powers, the rise and decline of Arabism, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, wars in the Gulf, and the impact of the Islamist movements since 1967. Meets the Critical Perspectives: Global Cultures requirement. (Not offered 2024-25).
This course considers current elections, with a focus on presidential and congressional races. We will pay particular attention to voting behavior, political parties, and elite messaging.
Examines the main characters, events, and ideas of the era of revolution and constitution building. Focuses on the debates over the Federal Constitution and the diplomacy of the early republic. Considers changing views of the Constitution’s significance over time. Also listed as History 240. (Not offered 2024-25).
Examines and evaluates the institution, the politics and policy impact of the American presidency with special emphasis on theories, models and strategies of presidential leadership. (Not offered 2024-25).
This course uncovers the paradox of ideology in the United States: while Americans, on average, prefer to call themselves 'conservatives,' they hold mostly liberal policy preferences on cultural and economic matters. By evaluating ideology at both the macro and micro level, this course considers the myriad of forces that shape ideological identification. 1 unit (Not offered 2024-25).
Structure and operation of the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate. Emphasis on political organization, the committee system, lobby groups, roll-call analysis, and congressional relations with the executive and the bureaucracy. (Not offered 2024-25).
Forces shaping public policies and decisions; internal politics of the national bureaucracy, the Presidency and Congress. Applies theories of policymaking to such cases as the environment, race and military affairs. Meets the Critical Learning: SHB requirement.
This course examines the function of the courts in the United States as legal and governmental institutions, focusing primarily but not exclusively on the federal judiciary. It begins with the historical development of the trial courts and the adversarial system, and then considers the organization and function of the federal circuit courts and the Supreme Court of the United States. It concludes with an examination of legal reasoning, including the significance of legal sources, the doctrine of precedent, analogical reasoning, and the method and purpose of judicial decision-making. Some of the questions addressed during the course include: Are trials a search for truth? Should courts be concerned primarily with resolving legal disputes or creating legal rules? Are federal judges insulated from political motivations and influences? Is the Supreme Court a legal institution or a political institution?Why do judges follow precedent? What is the relationship between judges and justice? Meets the Critical Learning: AIM requirement. (Not offered 2024-25).
Examines the role of subnational governments such as states, cities, and provinces in climate change politics, with a particular focus on the role of cities in mitigating and adapting to a changing climate. Investigates how local political actors ranging from business interests to social justice activists shape climate initiatives as well as the relationship between subnational climate policies and higher levels of government. (Not offered 2024-25).
A study of the world involvement of the United States from World War I to the present. Examines themes of rise and decline; isolation and intervention; union and empire; military industrial complex and national security state; domestic influences on foreign policy. (Not offered 2024-25).
This course explores the role of the courts in the experience of racial minorities in the United States. Primarily, but not exclusively, the course examines the courts' impact on African Americans. Where race is concerned, the courts have figured prominently in some of America's proudest and most shameful moments. Slavery, segregation, affirmative action, political representation, and the criminal justice system are some of the topics addressed. The course considers some of the ways in which certain legal, political and policy debates are defined, informed and constrained by the historical arc of racial inequities in American law and politics. Meets the Critical Perspectives: Social Inequality requirement. Meets the Critical Learning: AIM requirement. Meets the Equity and Power: EPUS requirement.
This course studies the theory of law. It examines fundamental and recurring subjects of the field, including principally the relationship between law and morality, along with further links between law and justice, power and authority. Some of the questions addressed include: Must valid laws possess some moral value? Are laws the commands of the powerful, or the rules of self-government, or something else? Does law have any legitimate claim to obedience? What is the justification for legal punishment? Students will read the work of canonical and contemporary legal theorists including Austin, Hart, Aquinas, Finnis, Dworkin, MacKinnon, and others. The course also involves applying these theoretical writings to concrete legal disputes and debates, primarily through analysis of constitutional provisions, judicial decisions and legislation.
This course explores the impacts of secrecy and surveillance on the exercise of democracy. How do secrets affect the governed and the state? How does surveillance affect the watcher and the watched? Is informed consent possible in a national security state? Who defines national security? Who benefits from the definition? How are civil rights safeguarded, and how is privacy redefined? How do secrecy and surveillance, in the digital age influence the practice of journalism and the exercise of citizenship?
A seminar organized around comparative analysis of a common theme or topic, employing both historical and political science approaches to analysis and research. Designed principally for History/Political Science majors, but others may be admitted with consent of instructor.
This course provides an introduction into China's domestic politics and the challenges faced by its political system. How does the Communist Party rule? What are its sources of authority and power? How do China's Maoist legacies influence its present governance strategies? How is Chinese society shaped by China's political system, and how is the political system shaped by social changes and pressures? Meets the Critical Perspectives: Social Inequality requirement. (Not offered 2024-25).
This course explores most of the major legal traditions of the world. It considers the concepts, functions and methods of comparative legal study. In doing so, it examines broad and specific distinctions between the common law and civil law traditions, with special emphasis on two common law systems (the United States and the United Kingdom) and two civil law systems (France and Germany). It then explores the EU legal system as an amalgam of these two traditions. This course addresses the relationship between legal systems and legal cultures, the challenge of understanding the mechanisms through which different legal traditions attempt to achieve the sometimes competing political, legal and social goals of order and justice, and it evaluates the purposes that constitutions and courts perform in maintaining the rule of law. Meets the Critical Learning: AIM requirement. (Not offered 2024-25).
Students acquire the historical background and analytical tools necessary to understand the European Union. Covers EU history, institutions, and contemporary policies. Meets the Critical Learning: HP requirement. (Not offered 2024-25).
This course examines the politics of environmentalism and environmental activism in the United States. It focuses on the development and transformation of environmentalism as a social movement from its roots in the preservationists of the late 19th century, through the emergence of the modern environmental movement in the mid-twentieth century, up to through the challenges environmentalism has faced from across the political spectrum in the past thirty years. It also examines the principal debates that have divided the environmental movement itself, including the debate between conservationism and reservationism, the relationship between wilderness protection and environmental justice, and debates about the efficacy of the movement’s traditional focus on state regulation. Finally, the course investigates the successes and failures of the environmental movement and the challenges and opportunities that mark environmental politics today (Not offered 2024-25).
An overview of theories of political change and a comparative analysis of the politics of Argentina, Brazil and Chile. Meets the Critical Perspectives: Social Inequality requirement. Meets the Equity and Power: EPG requirement.
This course examines theories of revolution through the lens of the Cuban experience. Special focus on the evolution of the Cuban regime and the evaluation of its performance. Additional topics include the analysis of U.S. policy toward the Castro government. Meets the Critical Perspectives: Social Inequality requirement. (Not offered 2024-25).
How do the spaces in which people live and work shape their identities? How do strategies of agency and resistance interact with contexts of domination? Students will obtain training in ethnographic methods and interviewing techniques. Meets the Critical Perspectives: Global Cultures requirement.
In the words of George Orwell, 'political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable.' This course examines different uses of language in political life. Why is speaking political? How does language frame reality? We will study cases of political language, including: political discourse of the Third Reich in Nazi Germany, Communist-era propaganda in the Soviet Union, the tweets of President Trump, and more. (Not offered 2024-25).
Africa's diverse social and geographic landscape offers rich intellectual opportunities for the student of politics. This course broadly seeks two goals: to teach as much information as possible about Africa's politics and to provide a continent-wide theoretical framework. This course satisfies the comparative politics requirement for the Political Science major (Not offered 2024-25).
The field of International Relations is structured around broad theories that help us explain general outcomes surrounding the distribution of power in the international system. While useful for their intended purposes, these abstract theories are often insufficient for students who are seeking to understand the behaviors of individual states. In order to explain the motivations of particular states as they interact with other actors, we need to turn to more fine-grained analyses of foreign policy. Taking the United States as a case study, this course will explore the factors that influence how a state defines its foreign policy goals and the strategies it employs to execute those goals.
The U.S.-Latin American Relationship: Explores the evolution of the U.S.- Latin American relationship over the last century. Focuses primarily on overt and covert intervention; the genesis and evolution of the drug war; and, the impacts of human migration. Meets the Critical Perspectives: Social Inequality requirement. Meets the Equity and Power: EPG requirement.
If we claim the mantle of change on behalf of social justice, we would be irresponsible to do so without first asking ourselves: what is justice and why do we care about it? Through careful reflection on what are widely acknowledged to be some of the most radical and thought-provoking philosophical works on the question of justice, we will seek to develop: a rigorous and critical understanding of what we mean by this word; careful reflection on the true character of our aspirations to justice; and a more precise assessment of the degree to which our aspirations can be made effectual, and of what would be necessary to make our hopes for a truly just society come to be. Meets the Critical Learning: AIM requirement.
Investigates competing narratives explaining Russia’s patterns of conflict and cooperation with the West. An in-depth empirical study of the historical record enables students to develop an informed, critical analysis of Russian foreign policy. (Not offered 2024-25).
Surveys contending theories of the contemporary global system, with attention to topics such as globalization, U.S. hegemony, regional conflict, the just war, and the environment. (Not offered 2024-25).
The vast majority of humans throughout history have lived in undemocratic regimes. What is authoritarianism? How do we define and identify authoritarian regimes? How do they work, and under what circumstances do they collapse? Through case studies, fiction, memoir, and theory, this course explores authoritarian politics at both macro and micro levels. Meets the Equity and Power: EPG requirement. (Not offered 2024-25).
An interdisciplinary analysis of environmental policy formulation and regulation at the international level. Examines the negative impact of human activity upon complex ecosystems and the 'global commons,' and analyses the efficacy of international regimes, such as the Kyoto Protocol. Debates the linkages between environmental change, prosperity, and conceptualizations of security. Meets the Critical Perspectives: Social Inequality requirement. (Not offered 2024-25).
Analyzes the relationship between domains of public health, global governance and international development. Examines how health, effective governance and poverty alleviation combine to create virtuous spirals that accelerate trajectories of international development. Examines the relationship between health and human rights and effect of health on international security. (Not offered 2024-25).
Examination of works fundamental to the development of modern political philosophy, including Kant, Hegel, Marx, Mill and Nietzsche. (Not offered 2024-25).
Reading of major essays in political thought from Nietzsche to the present including such thinkers as Hannah Arendt, Friedrich Hayek, Pierre Manent, Michael Oakeshott, Leo Strauss and Eric Voegelin. (Not offered 2024-25).
Examination of classic and modern conceptions of political economy. Emphasis on understanding theory and applying it to explain political and economic outcomes within states and among states in the international arena. Open to declared junior International Political Economy majors, and to others with consent of instructor. Meets the Equity and Power: EPG requirement.
Explores the effects of fossil fuels, nuclear and various renewable energy technologies on carbon emissions. Investigates the political and technological challenges to climate mitigation and adaptation, examines the projected perils that climate change poses to international security, and analyzes shortcomings in global governance that obstruct coherent solutions to climate change. (Not offered 2024-25).
Examines (1) the political and social dynamics and interpretive methods that shape the constitutional decisions of the U. S. Supreme Court, and (2) the political impact of the Court's constitutional decisions and doctrines on political and social conditions. Emphasis given to the shift from judicial concern with governmental structures and powers to the contemporary concern with individual and group rights. 1 unit Meets the Critical Learning: AIM requirement.
This course introduces students to the foundational concepts, questions, and debates in political science research methods. At its core, this course is designed to demonstrate how the choices one makes about research design and methods have significant consequences; the way that we ask research questions (and the choice about which questions to ask), the methodology that we use, and the way that we analyze the data all influence our 'knowledge' about politics and society. (Not offered 2024-25).
The writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Friedrich Nietzsche - as penetrating as they are eloquent, as radical in their philosophical explorations as they are revolutionary in their moral and political implications – continue to have a profound influence on our age. Both Rousseau and Nietzsche leveled scathing critiques at emergent modernity and incisively detailed its powerful but corrupting effects on our lives, while painting competing visions of how to ennoble modern values, politics and culture. Yet they seem to do so as polar opposites; indeed, Nietzsche directs his immense rhetorical firepower at Rousseau as a thinker who fostered values - values central to us now - that would only serve to deepen the problems that concern him. Nietzsche’s condemnation of Rousseau, however, is the obverse of his high regard for the latter as the originator of one of the most profound alternatives to modernity. The course will seek to enter into this great contest through an attentive reading of a number of Rousseau’s and Nietzsche’s fundamental texts. (Not offered 2024-25).
A project normally organized around preparation of a substantial paper. Proposed and carried out at student initiative, under supervision of a department faculty member, in an area in which the student has already completed basic course work. (May also be listed as North American Studies 402 if emphasis is on Canada.)
A directed research project on a topic of the student's choice. The project might involve an extended research paper, empirical research designed to test a hypothesis or describe some phenomena, a theoretical study of a political thinker or institution of government, or some combination of these. 1 unit.
May be taught as a block course or as an extended format year-long course.
A cross-subfield tutorial focusing on a directed research project, serving as capstone to the major/minor in Political Science. (Not offered 2024-25).
A semester long intensive study of advanced texts and topics in political philosophy. The seminar takes one of two forms: Morality of Power. Examines various accounts and defenses of the human interest in the pursuit of power; what constitutes power; and the relations among power, political rule, and justice. Philosophy and Politics in Post-modernity. An introduction to radical changes in philosophic thinking and their potential significance for our understanding of American politics and its principles. This introduction will take place, in part, through a debate with a modern approach to philosophy, politics and morals, including a consideration of its possible connection to Nihilism. (Not offered 2024-25).
Thesis on a subject chosen by the student with approval from the department. Independent-study format with regular consultation between student and faculty supervisor.
Focuses on the historical development and current role of international institutions and multilateral treaties in the regulation of the world economy and environment, with emphasis on the impact of and challenges presented by globalization. Students write a substantial paper exploring some aspect of this interaction, but have considerable freedom in defining their research agenda.
Optional for majors in American Political Economy and International Political Economy, upon application to, and approval of, the departments of Political Science and Economics and Business. (Must be taken in conjunction with Economics 491 for a total of 2 units.)