Democracy requires a proper understanding of the values, and forms of social cooperation, we ought to honor. But it also requires engagement with institutions and practices that make it more likely that those values will be honored. This course will examine institutional practices and political choices required to support a range of values we associate with democracy: equality, representation, deliberation, political competition, rule of law, etc. The course will use classic texts, philosophical papers and case studies to shed light on the institutional working of democracy.

Recent developments in the United States and throughout the world have exposed fault lines in how communities design and regulate forms of citizenship. But current debates over the assignment, withholding, or deprivation of citizen status have a long and violent history. In this course we will attempt to map a history of citizenship from the ancient Mediterranean world to the 21st century. Questions to be tackled include: who/what is a citizen? (How) are exclusion and marginalization wired into the historical legacies and present-day practices of citizenship?

The ups and downs of the so-called "special relationship" between the United Kingdom and the United States is one of the major themes of the history of the twentieth century, and the one figure who embodies that association in all its many contradictory guises is Winston Churchill, who actually coined the phrase. For Churchill's relationship with the United States was much more nuanced and complex (and, occasionally, hostile) than is often supposed, and it will be the aim of this course to tease out and explore those nuances and complexities (and hostilities), in the broader context of Anglo-American relations.

The production and distribution of narcotics is one of the world's largest industries, and has been a quintessential example of the globalized economy since at least the 19th century. This course follows how the Latin American drug trade works and how it is understood, both conceptually and spatially, from source to user. Therefore, the course addresses areas of drug production; the dynamics and experiences of drug trafficking, including the origins of narcotics illegalization and state efforts to curtail the drug trade; and finally, the consumption of drugs and the practice's policing by state authorities.

Overview of the intersection of the politics and economics of the modern Middle East and North Africa. Study political and economic development and underdevelopment of region's diverse states by exploring the ways in which political institutions affect economic performance and those in which economic conditions influence political events. You'll build on rich historical literature, interdisciplinary theoretical frameworks, and multi-methods empirical studies to think critically about the determinants that lead to underdevelopment vs. development, chaos vs. stability, regime survival vs. overthrow, and political opening vs. stability.

This course introduces major theories of international relations, uses them to explain historical events from 10,000 BC to the present, and investigates contemporary policy issues such as human rights, terrorism, US foreign policy, climate change and global environmental regulation. The course also trains students how to write academic analyses, policy memos and media opinion pieces, thus preparing them for more specialized courses and research in international relations, as well as jobs in foreign policy.

A survey of the foundational texts of modern political theory. Emphasis is placed on close reading and the reconstruction and analysis of theoretical arguments.

This course will examine traditions of political thought--mostly, but not only, on the Left--which challenge mainstream conceptions of liberal democracy and modern capitalist society. The main focus will be on Marxism, anarchism, feminism, religious radicalism, ecological thought, and critiques of alienation in everyday life. Particular attention is paid to the relationship between political and cultural criticism, and to the philosophical anthropologies underlying different theories as well as the mechanisms for social change they envisage. We also ask if liberal democratic thought can effectively respond to radical challenges.

An inquiry into the value of liberty and of particular civil rights and liberties. The course considers competing theoretical justifications for rights and liberties generally, as well as particular problems concerning freedom of speech and the press, religion, sexuality, abortion, and discrimination. Supreme Court opinions regarding the constitutionality of legislation in each of these areas will be discussed and criticized.

This course provides an introduction to the political science of law and courts. Topics typically include: bargaining and decision making on the U.S. Supreme Court; political struggles over doctrine within the judicial hierarchy; the politics of Supreme Court nominations; juries as political institutions; court packing, jurisdiction stripping and judicial intimidation.

In this course, you will learn about and experience how Congress represents the diverse interests and perspectives in the United States. You will learn how to think like an elected official by preparing for and participating in a simulation of the US Senate. In the simulation you will engage in the work of representative government: crafting legislation that serves your constituents, participating in committee amending, making speeches on the Senate floor, and strategizing as a member of a political party determined to win the next election. Students play a wide variety of roles in the simulation and decide which issues will be on the agenda.

This course considers the role of both mass media and social media in American politics and the influence of the media on Americans' political attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. We will examine the nature of news and news-making organizations, the role of the news media in electoral campaigns, how the media shape the behavior of politicians once in office, political advertising, and social media's impact on society, both positive and negative.

This course examines the art of statesmanship, the meaning of political greatness, and the proper means of educating aspiring young statesmen and stateswomen. The ambition, moral character, cunning, prudence, and grit required for effective statesmanship are analyzed using books written by past statesmen for future statesmen. The course also explores whether the life of grand politics is a desirable way of life. Differences between classical and modern statesmanship are considered, in addition to the unique political demands that different regimes and natural circumstances place on founders and leaders of nations.

Many of America's problems are economic in nature, yet politics make the solutions elusive. In "The Political Economy of the United States", this conundrum is explored in detail. We seek to explicitly understand the links between economic outcomes and political processes. Among the concepts explored are special interest influence, the role of money in politics, and regulatory capture. These concepts are brought to life in discussions about key issues and debates such as wealth taxation, the monopolization of social media, and the political effects of economic shocks and de-industrialization.

This course builds on what you learned in POL 345. We will think more deeply about inference, and we will apply our methods to data. Topics include: panel data, models of polychotomous choice, Bayesian analysis, and the analysis of Supreme Court rulings and legislative voting.

An introduction to the use of formal game-theoretic models in the study of politics. Applications include: voting, bargaining, lobbying, legislative institutions, and strategic information transmission. Familiarity with mathematical reasoning is helpful.

This course will focus on the state's role in promoting economic growth and distribution in the developing world. The core organizing question for the course is: why have some regions of the developing world been more successful at industrialization and/or poverty alleviation than other regions. The students will learn about the patterns of development in Asia, Africa and Latin America, with special attention to such countries as China, India, South Korea, Nigeria and Brazil. General challenges that face all developing countries - globalization, establishing democracy and ethnic fragmentation - will also be analyzed.

This course will examine where and why women and men are not treated equally, how gender inequality impacts human welfare and development, and what works to minimize gender inequality in the Global South. This course will introduce students to cutting-edge research on gender inequality in countries as diverse as India, China, South Korea, Brazil, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, and Mali, as well as the reasons why some government efforts to reduce gender inequality are successful while others fail or even backfire. The course will emphasize the importance of culture and norms.

This course provides a broad exploration about how non-democratic governments throughout the world rule. We examine: the conditions that give rise to authoritarianism; the variety of authoritarian regimes; the strategies authoritarian leaders use to stay in power; the consequences of different types of authoritarianism for outcomes such as economic growth and human development; and the domestic and international sources of authoritarian demise. The course builds knowledge about the governments under which most people in the Global South lived during the 20th century.

A study of the politics and history of human rights. What are human rights? How can dictatorships be resisted from the inside and the outside? Can we prevent genocide? Is it morally acceptable and politically wise to launch humanitarian military interventions to prevent the slaughter of foreign civilians? What are the laws of war, and how can we punish the war criminals who violate them? Cases include the Ottoman Empire, Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, China, Imperial Japan, Bosnia, Rwanda, North Korea, and the Russian war in Ukraine.

This course is about international cooperation and sacrifice. We consider global organizations: the United Nations, World Bank, IMF, and WHO; and regional ones: the European Union, Asian Development Bank, and African Development Bank. We also consider China's new institution, the AIIB. We examine their origins and effectiveness, and the interests of powerful members, like the US and China, as well as countries in Latin America and Africa. Taking a political-economy approach, the course pedagogy also involves references to films like Wonder Woman, Dark Knight, and The Godfather, as well as music by Adele and Bob Marley.

What kind of public architecture is appropriate for a democracy? Should public spaces and buildings reflect democratic values - such as transparency and accessibility - or is the crucial requirement for democratic architecture that the process of arriving at decisions about the built environment is as participatory as possible? Is gentrification somehow un-democratic? The course will introduce students to different theories of democracy, to different approaches to architecture, and to many examples of architecture and urban planning from around the world, via images and films.

This course is designed to survey and discuss research on the political and economic development of Latin America. The first half of the course focuses on understanding the region's political systems as well as the main theories describing the incentives faced by politicians when distributing public resources. The second section covers the main problems that challenge Latin America's young democracies today - including weak state capacity, corruption, and violence. Methodologically, the course pays special attention to understanding the ways in which data can be leveraged to provide evidence to evaluate social science arguments.

While before the 1990s democracies typically died through military coups, since 2000 four out of every five instances of democratic decline is due to democratically elected leaders undermining the very institutions established to ensure their accountability (i.e., "democratic backsliding"). Today, approximately one-third of the global population lives in a country that was once well-functioning democracies but is now experiencing a decline in the fairness of elections, the independence of courts, and the respect of minority rights. This course familiarizes students with the cutting edge of the current democratic backsliding literature.

The objective of this course is to debate several contentious issues surrounding globalization. Does globalization undermine national sovereignty? Cause political instability? Increase poverty and inequality? Harm the environment? By examining these among other issue-areas we will come to have a deeper appreciation of the costs and benefits surrounding globalization policies.

This course examines political thinkers who profoundly shaped normative thinking about politics in Indian, Islamic, African and Chinese contexts. The course will examine non-Western ideas of modernity, and justified forms of moral and political order. It will shed new light on key ideas of modern political thought: rights, justice, nationalism, identity, violence, perfectionism, democracy and power. The thinkers in this course such as Gandhi, Iqbal, Ambedkar, Qutub, Fanon, Cesaire, Mao and others, not only contribute to political theory. Their arguments also define fault lines in contemporary politics.

This seminar will explore how US, European, and international human rights law deal with current controversies surrounding religious expression. Topics include religious 'hate speech" and blasphemy; proselytism and anti-conversion laws; religious attire in public settings; religious expression in politics; government-sponsored prayer and religious displays; religious expression in prisons and the military; conflicts between religious expression and anti-discrimination laws; church autonomy questions; and religious expression in schools.

This seminar introduces recent experimental work in political economy and comparative politics. The goal of this course is to introduce students to the theoretical and practical features of experimental political science, particularly natural and field experiments. The course is divided into three parts. Part 1 surveys recent literature on selected topics. Part 2 of the course has four guest speakers whose work students replicate and extend. In Part 3 students present the design of their own experimental study.

This seminar provides a broad introduction to qualitative research design and analysis techniques. Topics include case selection, variants of process tracing, small-n comparative case design, comparative-historical analysis, the design and implementation of field research, in-depth interviewing, and archival research. The emphasis is on application of these skills to students' own work, as well as engaging critically with qualitative work across the subfields.

Race, culture, and nation are all familiar concepts in political discourse. The course explores these concepts from three different perspectives. First, it examines the meaning and significance that early modern and modern European thinkers attached to the concepts. Second, it considers the engagement with these concepts that can be found in nineteenth and twentieth century African American political thought. And, third, it explores various normative and theoretical controversies surrounding these concepts arising in contemporary political philosophy. The seminars will be largely driven by student reading and discussion.

Migration places into sharp relief the question of how to balance the rights of sovereign states and their citizens against the claims of (often-needy) foreigners. Should self-governing peoples be free to set their own migration policies and control their territorial borders without interference? Or ought they instead to be constrained by a human rights to immigrate? This course addresses these and related questions, in part by theorizing foundational issues of self-determination, boundaries, national culture, and membership. We also take up contemporary debates about guest workers, irregular migrants, refugees, and brain drain.

This course examines in depth the thought of two of the most influential figures in the history of political thought, John Stuart Mill and Alexis de Tocqueville. Special attention is paid to the following themes: (1) the nature and institutions of liberalism; (2) the nature and institutions of democracy, and the way in which these might come into conflict with (1); (3) revolution, both the great French upheavals which marked Tocqueville's thought; (4) empire, both the defenses of it from each of these thinkers.

This course surveys the major topics in the Politics of the Middle East with an emphasis on the origins and persistence of its authoritarian political regimes. Its purpose is to introduce the main theoretical and conceptual building blocks of the sub-field of Middle East Politics, while focusing on the core theories of authoritarian politics. We focus on the intellectual evolution of the field, the dominant theoretical debates and controversies, and the variety of approaches to research within the field. Special attention is given to both case-studies, histories, informal norms, and overall contexts which shape politics in MENA.

John Stuart Mill is arguably the most important figure in modern political philosophy. The archetypal liberal, most famous utilitarian, most influential apologist for free speech, architect of feminism, defender of empire, innovative economist: these are just some of his claims to fame. This course provides a detailed introduction to Mill's political thought and places his ideas within several of the contexts most salient to their development. We consider major works as well as lesser-known texts. In addition, this seminar highlights aspects of his career as a journalist, bureaucrat, and politician.

This course provides students with an intensive overview of the rapidly evolving geopolitical, economic, and ideological rivalry between the world's two most powerful states: the United States and China. The course is intended both for masters students intending to pursue careers in the analysis, formulation, and execution of public policy, and for PhD candidates, many of whom are involved in research and teaching.

This course offers a general introduction to the field of comparative politics at the Ph.D. level with an emphasis on principal theoretical approaches to the study of political institutions. Topics include powers of executives and legislatures, origins and behavior of parties and party systems, political participation (voting, collective action, social movements), public goods provision, the welfare state, prosperity, federalism & decentralization, and state capacity.

Survey of classical problems and readings in American constitutional history.

Seminar examines mass political behavior from a comparative perspective and attempts to explain how people become involved in politics, how they form political opinions, and how their behavior influences political outcomes. Seminar covers a range of behaviors, including learning about politics, information processing, political participation, and voter decision-making. For each of these behaviors, two questions are posed: What are the causes and consequences of the behavior? To what extent and how do these causes and consequences depend on institutional or cultural/ historical settings?

This graduate-level seminar is designed to examine the various controversies that surround the role of race in American society. Such issues affect public opinion, political institutions, political behavior, and public policy debates. This course assesses the contemporary and historical influence of race in these domains.

This class is an entry-level graduate study of US political institutions. As such, the seminar provides an overview of the field and, perhaps more importantly, a foundation upon which students can begin to teach themselves additional works in this literature. In addition, through brief assignments and class presentations, we build students' ability to conduct scholarly research, evaluate others' scholarship, and serve as discussants and reviewers.

This course investigates the relationship between identity, groups and politics in the U.S. and in comparative contexts. We consider general theories of group identity development; assess empirical approaches to the study of racial and ethnic groups in politics; intersections of salient identities; and how politically relevant aspects of identity can be measured and manipulated for conducting original research.

A systematic study of the salient features of legal systems, standards of legal reasoning, and the relation between law and morals.

This is the first class of the quantitative methods field in the PhD. in Politics. It is a doctoral-level introduction to foundations of mathematical statistics for Ph.D. students in Politics and other social and behavioral sciences. The class covers rigorous foundations of classical point estimation and statistical inference, as well foundational topics in econometrics. It covers both finite-sample and large-sample theory and relies on linear algebra and multivariate calculus at the level of POL 502. POL 502 or equivalent is a pre-requisite of this class.

This course covers a range of advanced topics in statistical learning that are useful for empirical research in political science. These may include dimension reduction and regularized regression for large datasets; scaling models; models for text, audio, and image data; and spatial statistics among other topics. The course focuses in particular on estimation and inference to enable students to adapt and extend existing approaches.

A rigorous introduction to choice theory, social choice theory, and non-cooperative game theory. The course serves as the first formal theory graduate course and draws on mathematics at the level of POL 502.

The purpose of this course is to prepare students to do empirical research in political economy grounded on a theoretical analysis of strategic interactions. The course focuses on the estimation of dynamic and incomplete information games in politics, including models of bargaining, strategic voting, strategic information transmission, political agency, electoral competition, and media.

An introduction to the subfield of international political economy, covering basic topics in the politics of both trade and finance.

Explores the study of social movements and mobilized collective action aimed at achieving or preventing social and political change. After examining various theoretical approaches to the field, we investigate a number of issues of abiding concern within the study of contentious politics: repertoires, networks, government responses to protest (repression and concessions), and protest policing. The final portion of the course is devoted to the study of the causes, dynamics, and effects of revolutions.

Enrolled graduate students in residence will attend one of these seminars each year and present their research. First-year students sign up for 593; second-year students for 594; third-year students for 595; fourth-year students for 596; and fifth-years 597. The seminars are offered in four fields: political philosophy, comparative politics, American politics, and international relations.

Enrolled graduate students in residence attend one of these seminars each year and present their research. First-year students sign up for 593; second-year students for 594; third-year students for 595; fourth-year students for 596; and fifth-years 597. The seminars are offered in four fields: political philosophy, comparative politics, American politics, and international relation.

Enrolled graduate students in residence attends one of these seminars each year and present their research. First-year students sign up for 593; second-year students for 594; third-year students for 595; fourth-year students for 596; and fifth-years 597. The seminars are offered in four fields: political philosophy, comparative politics, American politics, and international relations.

Enrolled graduate students in residence attends one of these seminars each year and present their research. First-year students sign up for 593; second-year students for 594; third-year students for 595; fourth-year students for 596; and fifth-years 597. The seminars are offered in four fields: political philosophy, comparative politics, American politics, and international relations.

Enrolled graduate students in residence attend one of these seminars each year and present their research. First-year students sign up for 593; second-year students for 594; third-year students for 595; fourth-year students for 596; and fifth-year students for 597. The seminars are offered in four fields: political theory, comparative politics, American politics, and international relations.

This course will introduce students to contemporary constitutional law in comparative perspective. The emphasis will be on bringing together the main theories of constitutionalism; diverse regions that have been the scene of constitution-making in recent decades (including Central and Eastern Europe, and Latin and South America) in comparison with more 'consolidated' constitutional systems, and some of the main recent trends in constitutionalism (militant democracy, transitional constitutionalism, supranational constitution-making, constitutional populism) but with a firm focus on the question of judicial review and constitutional rights.

This seminar provides a broad introduction to qualitative research design and analysis techniques. Topics include case selection, variants of process tracing, small-n comparative case design, comparative-historical analysis, the design and implementation of field research, in-depth interviewing, and archival research. The emphasis is on application of these skills to students' own work, as well as engaging critically with qualitative work across the subfields.