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This course examines some of the most important thinkers and concepts of modern political philosophy, including the rejection of ancient political philosophy and the rise of liberalism (Hobbes, Locke, and Mill) as well as critiques of the liberal outlook in the name of nature and virtue (Rousseau), tradition and custom (Burke), equality and liberation (Marx), and creativity and greatness (Nietzsche). In addition to exploring the various conceptions of nature, human nature, justice, freedom, history, and the good life in the works of these thinkers, we will also use their arguments to reflect on the health or illness of liberal democracy in today’s world.
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PSC 202 m100 Introduction to Political Analysis
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The purpose of this course, required for political science majors, is to build skills for conducting, interpreting, and presenting political science research. These skills include: basic research and data collection practices, techniques for measuring political science concepts quantitatively, hypothesis testing, interpretation of statistical evidence, and the presentation of findings in a clear and compelling manner. Tying these components together is a thematic focus on important political science concepts such as democracy, power, or representation.
PSC 231 m001 Canadian Politics *
Instructor: Audie Klotz
Class #: 20653
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In this class, students will investigate when, where, why, and how courts have protected the freedom of speech, and when, where, why, and how courts _should_ protect the freedom of speech. In other words, we will critically evaluate the performance of courts in protecting free speech when it should be protected and allowing restrictions on speech when it should be restricted. Much of the class will focus on decisions issued by the U.S. Supreme Court, but we will also consider how courts in Europe and elsewhere have resolved similar disputes. We will pay particular attention to current legal conflicts regarding the appropriate scope of free expression on large social media platforms.
PSC 300 m002 Chinese Foreign Policy *
Instructor: Chengzhi Yin
Class #: 21138
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This course will examine the causes, conduct, and consequences of Chinese foreign policy. We will investigate the evolution of China’s relations with other states (e.g., the United States, Russia, Japan, Vietnam, etc.), the factors shaping Chinese foreign policy, and the implications for competition and cooperation in today’s international politics. Topics covered in this course include: the evolution of China’s foreign policy in the Cold War; China’s foreign policy-making process; China’s foreign policy on contemporary national security and economic issues; China’s military modernization; China’s economic rise; and China’s relations with the United States, Russia, and East Asian states. The primary goal of this course is to help students develop an in-depth understanding of Chinese foreign policy since 1949. Students will also learn how to apply different theoretical explanations to a range of empirical issues in Chinese foreign policy.
PSC 300 m003 Data Visualization
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The purpose of this course is to give students an understanding of New York State government. The course will go over the formal structures of government - the executive, legislative & judicial parts as well as public authorities. The class will also cover how political parties, lobbyists, interest groups, and the media interact with government and shape public policy. Classwork will emphasize participation and teamwork. Written assignments will apply course concepts to the real world work of New York state legislators like bill sponsor memos and letters in support or opposition of policy.
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PSC 300 m006 Black Feminist Politics
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This seminar critically examines key issues, assumptions, and debates in contemporary, post-civil rights Black Feminist thought, action, and behavior. As such, we will understand that Black Feminism is global and diasporic. We will begin with a survey and broad analysis of Black Feminist history and origins. We will pay particular attention to how Black Feminists make use of standpoint theory, Black nationalism, Black liberalism, liberal feminism, Black Marxism, and radical feminist thought. We will also investigate the simultaneity of race, gender, class, and sexual oppression and its relationship to power. This means that we will draw connections between Black Feminist models and contemporary queer and trans politics. In this course, we will also focus on Black feminist understandings of intersectionality, the history of this analytical frame, and how this framework has contributed to today’s politics. The particular questions we will analyze include but are not limited to the following: How do we evaluate Black movements and leadership using a Black Feminist lens? What is the relationship between racism, gender based oppression, homophobia, and classism in Black women’s lives? What forms of resistance do many Black women engage in? How do these decisions shape politics?
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PSC 300 m007 Politics of Academic Freedom
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Prerequisites: None
Course Description
PSC 300 m101 Policy Implementation
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This course is about how public policy gets put into action, with a focus on developing knowledge and skills essential for addressing some of society’s most complex problems. The course will help you understand what we really mean when we say “policy implementation,” as well as some realities of implementation as it is done in practice. The course will stress, in particular, the widespread roles of not only government but also the private and nonprofit sectors at all levels in the implementation process, and how these actors use policy tools like regulations, grants, vouchers, and public-private partnerships to get things done. Government and non-governmental actors have taken numerous approaches to achieving public policy goals, from (among many others) reducing poverty and improving education to ensuring public health and safety, protecting the environment, and recovering from disasters. What are the trade-offs of different strategies to pursuing goals like these, and why has the record of achievement been mixed? How do government, business, nonprofits, and individual members of the public contribute to implementation efforts? How can they work better with one another to make public policy successful? How do we assess whether policies have had their intended impacts on people and communities? Students will consider these questions through a mix of lecture, discussion, examples, and hands-on exercises, and develop abilities in areas including policy field mapping, logic modelling, planning, and applied implementation analysis.
PSC 300 m104 U.S. Intelligence Community *
Instructor: Robert Murrett
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This course is an examination of the African American Political experience in the United States with a focus on the nature of the American political system and the status of African Americans in it. The approach will be analytical and theoretical, but the main focus will be on the historical and contemporary political dynamic. Special attention will be given to the interplay of society, state, ideology, and political struggles.
PSC 310 m001 Refugees in International Politics *
Instructor: Lamis Abdelaaty
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Frequency Offered: Special Offering
Prerequisites: None
CrossCross-listed with HST 341.001
Course Description
This course will analyze the evolution of the modern presidency and its present operation. The focus of our attention will be on the years since the Second World War, and especially on those since 1960. The decision-making process and operation of presidential administrations from Kennedy through Trump will be studied in detail; we also will discuss the early challenges faced by the Biden administration. We shall consider the various roles that the president plays in government, politics and society. The presidency as an institution and as an individual office will be examined to identify factors that have contributed to the successes and failures of particular administrations. This course shall also examine the roles and influence of unelected officials (esp. senior White House staff), and popular attitudes toward both the symbolic and the practical presidency—especially as they have been shaped by the traditional mass media and the “new media” (especially online interactivity). We will consider what lasting effects, if any, events during the last quarter century have had upon the presidency as an institution.
PSC 334 m001 Mexico & the United States *
Instructor: Matt Cleary
Class #: 21163
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This course examines race and ethnicity in American politics, with particular attention to African Americans, Latinos, and Asian Americans as voters, activists, and policymakers. Among other topics, we will examine public opinion, trends in partisanship and voting behavior, the link between traditional civil rights organizations and new social movements, debates about “pan-ethnicity,” descriptive and substantive representation in political institutions, and intersectionality.
PSC 355 m001 International Political Economy *
Instructor: Dan McDowell
Class #: 13025
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From the rise of Donald Trump’s economic populism to Great Britain’s “Brexit” from the European Union, it is impossible to deny the tenuous political underpinnings of economic globalization today. To borrow from Prof. Jeffry Frieden, globalization is a choice, not a fact. That is, the global economic integration we observe today is the product of governments’ policy decisions over a period of many decades. This course introduces the student to the field of international political economy (IPE). IPE studies how politics impacts the global economy and, in return, how the global economy impacts politics. There are two central questions that we will wrestle with in this class. First, what explains the international economic policy choices governments make? Second, what are the effects of those policy choices both within and across countries? Over the course of the session, we will engage with a number of key topics in IPE including: international trade, economic development, multinational corporations, international capital flows, exchange rates, sovereign debt, and financial crises. We will rely on two primary analytic tools: basic economic principles to explain how economic policies influence the distribution of income and political economy theories that explain how politicians set policies. Together, we will use these tools to help understand historical and contemporary phenomena.
PSC 357 m001 US Foreign Policy *
Instructor: Greg Smith
Class #: 12481
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This course examines contemporary issues in U.S. foreign policy. The central goal of this course is to provide students with the knowledge and analytical skills necessary to grapple with the question: what should America’s role in a turbulent world be? Within the U.S. foreign policy community, an active debate has been raging about whether or not the U.S. should pull back its forces from around the world and return to a sort of neo-isolationism or if it should remain actively engaged in world affairs and continue to assert itself militarily and economically. The culmination of this class will require students to take a position on this central debate within U.S. foreign policy and to argue for the particular grand strategy that the United States should adopt moving forward. The course is broadly divided into two parts. The first part provides a theoretical foundation for the study of U.S. foreign policy. The second half of the class applies contemporary social science research to many of the most critical issues in U.S. foreign policy.
PSC 363 m001 Ethics & International Politics *
Instructor: Glyn Morgan
Class #: 12482
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This course examines the fundamental questions of ethics and international relations. Among the topics addressed: raison d’état; the just war tradition; humanitarian intervention; terrorism; torture; fair trade; foreign aid; immigration; human rights; nationalism; and climate change.
PSC 364 m001 African International Relations *
Instructor: Horace Campbell
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This course examines the works of prominent 20th and 21st century theorists of politics and power through the lens of “big questions” about how we organize our political lives, what is fair, who gets what, and who should hold power. We discuss: freedom, rights, nationalism, distributive justice, citizenship, animal rights, and multiculturalism. Readings will include both abstract theoretical works written by authors including Rawls, Nussbaum, Manne, and others, as well as more concrete and immediately relevant political case studies.
PSC 387 m001 Ethnic Conflict *
Instructor: Seth Jolly
Class #: 20644
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This course examines ethnicity and its effects on politics. Our primary goals are to understand what ethnicity is, how it ignites both domestic and international conflict, and what political tools exist to manage these conflicts. We will begin the semester by exploring various definitions of ethnicity. Then we will study the many manifestations of political conflict, such as ethnic riots and genocide, that can be attributed to ethnic divisions within a society. Finally, we will evaluate possible means of mitigating and managing ethnic conflict. In all three segments of the course, we will draw material from around the world, in particular Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America.
PSC 391 m001 Revolutions in the Middle East *
Instructor: Hossein Bashiriyeh
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5- Post-revolutionary power struggles
PSC 393 m001 Middle Eastern Political Systems *
Instructor: Hossein Bashiriyeh
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What are the factors that hinder the development of well-functioning political systems in the Middle East? This is the main question of the course. Political development is usually defined in terms of 1) national unification and the consolidation of national identity; 2) the development of legitimate authority; 3) the development of channels of popular participation in politics and the rise of a civil society; 4) political and administrative efficiency; 5) equitable distribution of resources or the development of a basic welfare state. In trying to answer the main question, we argue that several factors impede political development in the region. These include: 1) Structural ones like geographical/geopolitical, demographic, historical, and religious factors; 2) Social forces, particularly the landed classes, tribes, ethnic groups and sects. In the first part of the course, we will discuss these obstacles in general across the region; in the second part, we will explain the political systems in the region in terms of the impact of various obstacles.
PSC 394 m001 Islamic Political Thought *
Instructor: Hossein Bashiriyeh
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The aim of this course is to study some of the major issues and discourses in Islamic political thought, especially those of more contemporary significance such as dissent, apostasy, intolerance, human obligations and rights, women's status, the status of minorities, war and peace, universal government and the idea of the Caliphate.
PSC 400 m001 Strategic Choice & Politics *
Instructor: Minju Kim
Class #: 21209
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