| source Northwestern (X) |
level |
department POLI_SCI Political Science (X) |
This seminar is designed to develop critical reading and writing skills in the social sciences and to apply these skills to the investigation, inquiry, deliberation and analysis of the position of the United States in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The most immediate question concerns the failure of the Ânation-building project in both countries that was described early in this process as a major goal in both wars. This course will examine the shift away from these and other goals, the formulation of new goals, and seek explanations for these changes. Students will produce four analytical essays through the course of the term, to correspond roughly to the four books that form the core of the readings. These essays will help students to understand the position that the US finds itself now. The objective of these essays also includes helping to familiarize students with the process of reading and synthesizing complex arguments, of taking informed positions, and in formulating oneÂs own argument.
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This course introduces students to different ways of theorizing politics. What constitutes a political community? How does a political community discipline its members? What legitimizes these disciplines? In the first half of the course, we will focus on two major paradigms -- the Kantian and the Nietzschean -- and discuss how they tackle questions of politics. In the second half, we will relate our discussions more specifically to phenomena such as camps, prisons, and sexuality. In addition to texts by political theorists, the course will include material from autobiographies, movies, and popular culture.
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Scope and Emphasis Do people need government? If so, why? What desirable goals--if any--can government achieve that individuals cannot achieve on their own? What is the U.S. governmentÂs record in furthering these goals? This course grapples with these questions while surveying the broad and complex subject of American government and politics. This is difficult to do in one quarter, especially when students vary greatly in their understanding of national politics. I will try to make the subject clear to those with little preparation while challenging those who already know a good deal about American politics. In this course, you will analyze politics in the U.S. using five major concepts: freedom, order, equality, majoritarian democracy, and pluralist democracy. These concepts form the core of our main text: The Challenge of Democracy
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This course will introduce students to the political systems of countries other than the U.S. It will focus on the problem of creating stable and prosperous democracies around the world. The first half of the course will explore the nature of political institutions: executive-legislative relations, electoral systems, and federalism. The second half will turn to issues in political development: state-building, democratization, ethnic conflict, economic policy, and civic life. Students will learn both to understand the variety of political systems around the world and to analyze current political events.
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This course offers an introduction to research methods in political science. The goal is both to give students new analytic tools that they can apply to other courses at Northwestern, and to increase their capacity to pose and answer research questions on their own. The lectures will cover a wide variety of quantitative and qualitative methods. The readings include not only explicitly methodological articles, but many substantive studies which serve to illustrate different methods. In order to reinforce both the readings and lectures, students will do a series of short exercises
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How is public opinion formed? What explains electoral outcomes? Social psychological, and economic factors affecting beliefs, attitudes, and electoral choices. Focus on American politics, with special attention to the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections.
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The purpose of this course is to develop substantial knowledge about environmental and natural resource policy making, and some theoretical orientation which will order thinking about environmental issues. The primary theoretical orientation or framework which will be introduced and developed will be "interest group theory," a loose and somewhat inconsistent set of concepts and ideas, rather than a coherent package. But "interest group theory," with its many limitations, may be a most useful framework for understanding the reality of American policy concerning natural resources and the human environment. This course focuses upon the environmental policy issues and conflicts in the United States but this will be juxtaposed with ecological issues of the globe. The readings, as well as class sessions, should allow us to reflect this larger context for American policy. The primary focus of attention will be upon natural resources and environmental policy as made and implemented by administrative agencies, rather than by legislative bodies. But no easy separation can be made among branches of government when examining environmental issues. It is useful to think of the environmental policy system in the United States as consisting of two rather distinct sub-systems. One is concerned with contests over natural resources - land, forests, waters, etc. Issues within this sub-system typically concern such things as protecting biological diversity, endangered species, forests and so on. This can be called the Interior or natural resources sub-system. The system more or less "peaks" in the Department of the Interior - the other policy sub-system, peaking in the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). While the class will be concerned with the full range of environmental policy issues and processes, the primary focus will be on the Interior or natural resources sub-system.
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This course provides an introduction to federal constitutional law and constitutional theory. Topics covered include the theory and practice of judicial review, including approaches to constitutional interpretation; the institutional powers of the branches of the federal government; and the relationship between the states and the federal government. These matters go the very heart of the American political system
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Recent fears of a global economic meltdown have dominated the news and highlighted the importance of the international economy in shaping our world and our lives. International economic relations have long been a source of both cooperation and conflict in the world. This course explores the enduring issues and controversies in four of the central aspects of the international economy: international trade, monetary relations, international finance, and economic development. We will examine alternative analytical and theoretical perspectives from economics and political science to assess their value in helping us to understand and evaluate the historical development and current operation of the world economy. The goals of this course are to establish your understanding of the central issues in international political economy and to develop your ability to critically analyze the economic and political aspects of the international economy.
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This course provides an introduction to politics and substance of international law and the international legal process. We examine a number of international treaties and legal principles, and use case studies to explore the interplay of politics and law in the making, interpretation, and application of international law. We then explore how legal factors and enter into state decision-making, to gain insight into the ways in which the international legal process tries to facilitate the peaceful resolution of disputes and the attainment of common goals. The aim is to find ground between utopianism and cynicism for an analytical discussion of the functions of law in maintaining the world public order.
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International Environmental Politics COURSE DESCRIPTION: International environmental policy-making has become increasingly important as more and more nations find themselves unable to solve major environmental problems unilaterally. This course explores different approaches to the resolution of international environmental problems. We will address the special nature of environmental conflicts and will study the role of new and old players in advancing politically feasible solutions to regional, international and global environmental problems. We will focus on current debates on issues including climate change, trade and the environment, and sustainable development and will also discuss recent grassroots environmental activism in the United States.
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Combining academic perspectives and practical experience, this course will explore the role of human rights in foreign policy (for the United States, other countries, and multilateral institutions). It will study the history and events in Sudan  especially the long North/South Civil War and the Âgenocide in slow motion in Darfur; the international community and NGO response; efforts to alleviate humanitarian suffering, expand security and find a meaningful peace. And it will consider questions of International Justice including, but not limited to, the activities on Sudan of the International Criminal Court. Taught by Ambassador Richard Williamson who has had a range of experience on the ÂDiplomatic Front Line serving, among other things, as Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs, three Ambassadorships including as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights and most recently as the PresidentÂs Special Envoy to Sudan.
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This seminar on American foreign policy will focus on the American role in the world from 1961 to the present. Attention will be focused on the Bush National Security Doctrine and the American interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan; the impact of September 11, 2001 and of terrorism on the Bush and Obama foreign policies; the Cold War context of American foreign policy in the early 1960s and the US-Soviet confrontation over Berlin and Cuba; the American involvement in Vietnam and its impact; the resurgence of American power in the 1980Âs and the period of detente; the waning and end of the Cold War; the emergence and spread of globalization in the last two decades; and the impact of the financial crisis of 2008-9 and of the rising influence of China, India and Iran on the future of American hegemony. The course will focus not only on geopolitical issues, but also on decision-making, but also on the interaction between public opinion and foreign policy.Â
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Racial division is on of the most troubling and persistent problems for American democracy. It poses a severe test of our egalitarian aspirations. The consequences of racial division, inequality, conflict, and struggles to overcome them play out most clearly in American cities. Cities, for instance, are where African Americans first encountered Jim Crow segregation and first mobilized to demand an end to this practice and other forms of racial exclusion. This course will explore racial dynamics in the political life of American cities. More specifically, we examine the social and political problems that racial divisions produce in cities, and investigate how groups and political institutions have responded to those problems. We focus on how racial divisions shape: mobilization, contests for political power, representation, the allocation of social resources, and patterns of social mobility. Our overarching theoretical aim will be to understand the role that racial group differences play in the quest for political power, policy influence, and socioeconomic advancement in American cities.
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International Organization COURSE DESCRIPTION: A course on International Organizations is not simply a course on the UN, WTO, NATO etc- institutions with buildings, secretariats and staff. It is a course about international cooperation more broadly. When do we get cooperation? Do cooperative agreements matter in terms of changing state behavior? What is the different influence of norms, treaties, institutions with secretariats and global social movements on state behavior, and international politics more generally? And normatively speakingÂdo IOs undermine democracy, and create perverse incentives for states and non-state actors? This course ponders these questions, while providing an introduction to contending theories and approaches in studying the origin and role of international institutions in world politics
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Conventional understandings of IR, focused on material capabilities and strategic interaction, exclude from the start the possibility that religion could be a fundamental organizing force in the international system. Yet several factors, such as the internal pluralization of western societies, the questioning of post-Enlightenment assumptions about secularism and religion at the global level, and a sense of urgency among policy-makers in Europe and the United States post-9/11, have set in motion a re-evaluation of long-standing research programs in political science based on the assumption that religion can be easily defined and will either decline or disappear altogether. Contributing to this re-evaluation, this seminar examines the politics of secularism(s) and religions in international politics. We evaluate challenges to various projects of secularization, and consider whether it might be useful to think in terms of a series of contingent outcomes regarding the definition of religion itself as well as the intensity, locus and arrangement of religion in public space, the state, and international society, such that we might speak of multiple modernities.
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This course explores the themes of politics in the Western tradition of philosophy. We will analyze the difference between ancient and modern political thought, and the tension between freedom and authority in modernity. We will study the birth of rights in the social contract tradition, and study the limits of rights. We will study the thinkers of the French and American revolutions. In the end, students will have a better understanding of what catch-words like democracy, liberalism, and conservativism mean in the history of political thought.
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This course provides an exciting in-depth examination of the history of the Chicago political system, which represents a microcosm of the larger national landscape and the need for reform. The class will then explore and research 3 key topics: influence of campaign finance, consistently low voter turnout and perpetuation of election-day errors and fraud. Students will work in teams as we research campaign financing, voter engagement and election-day procedures in depth.
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This course will introduce students to major themes and issues related to the study of terrorist violence. It will discuss the controversy over defining and identifying the phenomenon, the Âcauses or motives for the use of terrorism by militant organizations and the policy responses and effects of terrorism on local societies. Intended as an overview, the goal is to encourage students to think more broadly and deeply about this deeply controversial and timely issue
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This course provides an introduction to the foundations, organization, processes and controversies of American government and political involvement. It explores from a variety of perspectives the bases of democratic representation both in theory and practice. We will consider the role of public opinion, interest groups, parties, media and leadership in governmental policy making and institutions. This course will provide a historical and theoretical foundation for more in depth studies of American politics. In addition, course material will be brought to bear on current political events and policies.
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This course will examine the history of world politics from 1870 to the present, and the efforts by scholars and statesmen to derive theoretical knowledge from that history.
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This course is an introduction to the rational choice approach to politics, a method for understanding political behavior and analyzing political and social institutions using logical reasoning and inference. Topics covered include collective decision making in small groups; elections and party competition; strategic voting and manipulation of policy outcomes; arms races, coordination, and the logic of collective action. The course is primarily devoted to positive theory, i.e., to developing general, formal explanations for a variety of empirical phenomena. Along the way we will touch on some normative issues, such as the concept of social welfare, efficiency, and ponder justifications for majority rule. Throughout, the theory is illustrated by applications to given problems or issues in politics.
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The Constitution lays out the structure and powers of government as well as the limitations on government. The most important of those limitations are found in the rights and liberties reserved to the people in the Bill of Rights and elsewhere in the Constitution. Yet, the Constitution seldom speaks clearly and precisely about the meaning of these rights and liberties. Even the First Amendment's blunt opening -- "Congress shall make no law" -- does not literally mean what it apparently says. What constitutes "speech" for the purposes of the First Amendment is not obvious. For instance, Justice Antonin Scalia, who is an ardent supporter of the original meaning approach to constitutional interpretation, recently wrote: "sometimes there will be disagreement as to how that original meaning applies to new and unforeseen phenomena. How, for example, does the First AmendmentÂs guarantee of Âthe freedom of speech apply to new technologies that did not exist when the guarantee was created ... In such new fields the Court must follow the trajectory of the First Amendment, so to speak, to determine what it requires -- and assuredly that enterprise is not entirely cut and dried but requires the exercise of judgment." Ultimately, it is the Supreme Court, in exercising its judgment that gives authoritative meaning to the rights and liberties guaranteed by the Constitution. This course critically examines the Supreme Court's efforts to give meaning to rights and liberties in the areas of the right to bear arms, religion, freedom of expression, privacy and equality.
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This course traces the development of and the prospects for European unification from a historical and theoretical perspective. It begins with a particular historical narrative of projects for the future peace of Europe advanced in the eighteenth-, through the Europe of nations in the nineteenth-, to the integration plans for a united Europe by Monnet, Schuman and Spinelli in the twentieth-century. It further addresses the question of what it means, and has meant, to be ÂEuropean, and the place of a distinctive political identity in the future evolution of the European Union. In the process, the course will examine the transnational aspect of integration, the political economy perspective of unification, and the prospects for accommodating a variety of religious, cultural and social groups within a single European project. It will also seek to conceptualize the collective Âidea of Europe as a political and social domain from the perspective of the enlargement policy of the evolving European Union and the challenges facing the further integration of sovereign nation states.
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International environmental policy-making has become increasingly important as more and more nations find themselves unable to solve major environmental problems unilaterally. This course explores different approaches to the resolution of international environmental problems. We will address the special nature of environmental conflicts and will study the role of new and old players in advancing politically feasible solutions to regional, international and global environmental problems. We will focus on current debates on issues including climate change, trade and the environment, and sustainable development and will also discuss recent grassroots environmental activism in the United States.
Score: 12.084242 Details | Listing | Web page