| source Georgetown (X) |
level |
department Development Management and Policy (X) |
This course serves as an introduction to the art and science of interpreting quantitative information about political and social phenomena. Although understanding statistics requires the use of some mathematics, in this case only advanced algebra will be needed to successfully complete the course. There will be an introduction to the techniques of data gathering and the development of computer-readable datasets. Assignments will involve small data analysis projects using statistical packages. The reading list will be supplemented with a few articles illustrating the application of various methods to the analysis of political questions.
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This course is intended for graduate students planning social science research projects involving comparison of regional politics and public policies. It will equip students with a variety of research methods, including survey research, the techniques of political interviewing, participant observation, techniques for electoral analysis, case studies and the uses of primary sources. A goal of the course is to make students aware of the ways in which choices of methodology are closely linked to broader theoretical and conceptual issues, and to consider the appropriateness of different methodologies and types of evidence to test alternative hypotheses and to construct various arguments. By the end of the course students should be able to prepare a research proposal on a significant problem leading to the writing of a thesis.
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The first half of the semester will be devoted to developing an understanding of the major programs that usually compose the "social policy" (mainly education, health, and welfare policy). The objectives of this part of the course are: (1) to obtain an understanding of the range of social programs; (2) to explore questions concerning the efficiency, effectiveness, equity, and promotion of human values of those programs; (3) to carry out an analysis concerning some problems of social policy. The second half of the course will be devoted to analyze in comparative fashion national cases of social policy. Three main cases will be studied: the United States, Canada, and selected countries of Latin America.
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This course analyzes the social and political heritages of the five âLatin Americasâ--Mexico, the Spanish Caribbean and Central America, Andean societies, Brazil, and the Southern Cone--in comparative perspective with North America and the English Caribbean. It then examines the changes in the patterns of social and political action resulting from the exhaustion of the state-centered matrices in the 1980s. More specifically, the course analyzes how the weakening of authoritarian political values and the erosion of the networks of collective solidarity has transformed the links among culture, political society, and civil society.
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The course will focus on concepts and methods for analyzing public organizations and their influence on the setting and implementation of public policy. It will stress problems of effective management and incentives with limited resources vis-Ã -vis the public demand for increased service and improvements in organizational performance.
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We have two main goals in this course: First, we want to develop the ability to conduct high quality research regarding why policies are adopted (or rejected) and implemented well (or poorly); Second, we want to enhance your ability to analyze the impact of policies. The first goal is mainly political. To understand why and how policies are enacted and implemented, you will need to develop a keen understanding of the policy process. To understand the impact of policies, you will need to develop a broad range of quantitative and qualitative analytical tools.
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This course explores the sociology of public organizations and organization theory, with a particular focus on its paradigms and issues. Through the use of political science, economics and organizational behavior theory, we analyze the nature, specificity and types of public organizations as well as the normative context of public organizations. Of particular interest is the nature and definition of authority, power, and leadership in complex organizations. At the conclusion of the course, students will be able to diagnose and evaluate the specific capabilities of public organizations.
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This course opens with an examination of democracy through different paradigms, including classical political theory, liberalism, economic theory of democracy, Marxism, pluralism, and modern sociology. The course then employs these paradigms to analyze critical issues in contemporary democracies, such as citizenship, representation, individual freedom, social welfare, and nationalism.
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This seminar seeks to illuminate what could be called the Liberal vision for the future: free markets and democracy. We begin by reading Fukuyama who argues that liberal values have won throughout the world at centuryâs end, and then turn to selections from Kant and Smithâtwo eighteenth century philosophers who, more than any one else, set forth the liberal vision. Thereafter we will turn to Marx and finally, Tocqueville, who attempts to explicate the conditions under which enduring economic vitality may be achieved, and democracy fostered.
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This seminar focuses on several problems in the analysis of contemporary Latin American politics, paying special attention to the countries of the MERCOSUR. The first is the question of the strengths and weaknesses of the state versus the market. The second theme also focuses on state capacity, but in terms of distributive policy and responsiveness to social demands. The third theme highlights the issue of political representation and explores the new channels for political participation comparing the experiences of Brazil and Argentina, and to a lesser extent of Uruguay and Paraguay. Finally, we will look into processes of political and economic decentralization and the role of sub-regional governments.
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This course examines some of the most salient topics in study of poverty, social inequality and economic growth in Latin America. The primary focus of the course will be on (a) the social impact of economic growth and structural reforms; (b) the impact of historical patterns of social inequality on economic growth; and (c) the political processes shaping policy-making around poverty, inequality and growth over the past two decades. The course will critically review the major theories used in these areas of inquiry, evaluate how different theoretical approaches have been used in empirical research, discuss the relevant empirical data, and assess the social policy implications of alternative perspectives. To conclude, the course will examine the relationship between regional trends and broader, world-economic patterns of inequality at the turn of the century.
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This course will provide an introduction to political and professional values for students planning a career in policy analysis in a public, commercial, or nonprofit setting. The course will cover (1) prescriptive aspects of contemporary public policy issues; (2) professional ethics with an emphasis on accountability and responsibility; and, (3) the role of the policy analyst in a democracy. The methods will include case studies, historical interpretation, and conceptual analysis. The emphasis throughout will be on concrete problems, and questions faced by the working analyst or manager.
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Course description forthcoming.
Score: 11.853731 Details | Listing | Web page
This course seeks to introduce students to the field of public management techniques, such as strategic planning, policy formulation, process re-engineering, institutional analysis of state capacities, as well as issues pertaining to performance measurement and evaluation. Any significant improvement of public management in Latin America does require the construction of political consensus and the respect for the public and political management of state affairs. However, an adequate public management also requires that managers and organizations employ instruments and technologies that would improve such results, combining in this way technical and political dimensions for a successful management of state affairs.
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In this course, we will cover several topics related to the âsocialâ aspects of development. Of course, there is a broad range of topics that could be discussed; we will concentrate on some of the key ones. One of the most commonly used measures of development is GDP per capita, the pace of development is often measured by the rate of change of this variable (or economic growth). Yet, there are a myriad of other factors that are part of âdevelopmentâ. The focus of this course will be on these other aspects of development, and on their interaction with economic growth as conventionally defined. A large part of the course will be devoted towards an examination of previous and existing policies, and on analyzing previous experiences in developing countries. Thus, the focus will be largely (but not solely) on practical issues.
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Health politics is important not only because of its direct relationship with the welfare of the people. It matters also for its economic and political effects. In this course, we intend to review the political processes surrounding health issues in the Southern Cone, comparing three cases that seemed to have gone along different paths: Chile, Brazil and Argentina. Each case has had to resolve almost simultaneously at least two types of "health questions", coverage expansion and equity, and cost control and rationalization. Hence, the course is devoted to understand, first, the common elements in the responses articulated in the three countries, and, second, to explore the economic, political and institutional dynamics that give its unique features to each case. The course also provides an introductory landscape to each country health politics in order to facilitate a thorough understanding of the conditions and processes that will be discussed in the core sections.
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The main goal of this course is to capture the historical development of a Latin American political thought and the constitution of a contemporary political culture in the region. The starting point of the proposed (albeit conventional) periodization is the economic crisis of 1929 and its impact on the Latin American societies and regimes. We will focus on the most significant political breakthroughs, since the collapse of the oligarchic state to the democratic transitions of the past decades, seeking to highlight different hermeneutic models, which contributed to shape Latin American politics. Special attention will be paid to the role of the intellectuals and their connection to power in Latin American Societies.
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The course focuses on a series of political and sociological issues related to the transformation of socio-political relationships and collective institutions that had developed in occidental democracies during the second part of the XXth century. The de-institutionalization of that matrix has produced different processes of social individualization, which present positive or negative characteristics --depending on the cases and the authors-- in relation to the constitution of autonomous subjects. The structure of the course is organized around two major axis with their theoretical and practical implications. The first one is the notion of citizenship. The second one concerns the new forms of collective action that have emerged in the 1990s. The course situates the debates in the general context of contemporary democracies with an emphasis in Latin America and, in particular, Argentina. The approach we propose seeks to analyse how social actors become conscious of being such, and also the way social science discourses contribute to shape those processes as a result of their own transformations and inflexions.
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This course focuses on the role of federalism and subnational regimes in the processes of democratic institutional building and pro-market economic reforms in Latin America. Studies on democratization, state reform, and economic liberalization have largely overlooked the implications of federal institutions and subnational politics for macroeconomic management and "good governance" in the region. Yet, there is a growing agreement among scholars regarding the need to re-examine critically previous hypotheses and predictions formulated in those fields, in light of the federal dimension. Accordingly, the purpose of this course is twofold. First, it seeks to make the students familiar with basic concepts (such as political federalism, fiscal federalism, decentralization) and their association with specific issues and debates pertaining to democratic theory, collective action, regional development, and the state. Second, the course aims at exploring the relationship between federalism, market-oriented reforms, and democratic institutional building in contemporary Latin America through the examination of the theoretical perspectives offered by neo-institutionalism and comparative cross-national studies. Special attention will be given to the experiences of Brazil and Argentina.
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This course will review the process of structural reform in the countries of MERCOSUR: Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. Chile will also be included, though emphasis will be given to the cases of Argentina and Brazil. The course will analyze the interplay of democratic consolidation and economic reform in the last two decades, paying close attention to the emergence of new mechanisms in the relationship between the public and private sectors. It will also consider the role of other political institutions (mainly legislatures) and compare government policy in several arenas.
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All the students have to take this seminar when they start working in the thesis proposal. The seminar has a workshop format designed to allow each student to discuss his/her proposal in interaction with the instructor and the other members of the seminar. Once the proposal is approved, students are required to complete their thesis within two quarters (in the case of the full-time students) and four quarters (in the case of the part-time students). They work in coordination with the instructor and under the supervision of the thesis committee.
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The course opens with a theoretical introduction to the main contending approaches about globalization. We will study globalization from the transformation perspective, that is, as a multi-dimensional process, which is re-structuring national societies and the world system as well. In the remaining sessions, we will develop a number of key topics related to globalization, such as the features of the so-called New Economy, the nature of the technological revolution, the main actors of the global dynamics since 1989, the constitution of a new global âmapâ, and the main arenas of global governance. Finally, the discussion will center on the impact of globalization on governability and its prospective outcomes.
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This course teaches the essential concepts and tools of public sector economics, and applies them to relevant public policy issues. The topics covered in the course include both the revenue and expenditure side of government. Specifically, alternative tax policies and major government spending programs are discussed. The course is designed to provide a review of the basic economic theory relevant to each topic, and then quickly move from theory to empirical analysis of government programs. Efficiency and equity arguments for government interventions, economic theories of government decision-making, and empirical evidence on government actions are analyzed. As such, the course is intended to bridge the gap between theory and policy applications. Some of the questions for this course are: Has the government decline its role in the economy over the 1990s? Is there a real trade-off between efficiency and equity in tax policy? Should social insurance programs be financed through benefit or general taxes? Who should tax and spend?
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Course description not yet available.
Score: 11.853731 Details | Listing | Web page
This course deals with the foundations of democracy as both an ideal regime and institutional pattern. We apply a historical- comparative approach to several empirical cases. As there is no neutral institutional design, we provide the students the analitical theories and data to understand its results and performance. This course aims at examining modern democratic institutions including: electoral systems, political parties, party systems, presidentialism and parlamentarism, bicameralism and unicameralism, federalism and unitarism, etc. Readings include both classic and contemporary comparative politics literature.
Score: 11.853731 Details | Listing | Web page