Course readings will engage your thinking on the central debates in moral philosophy, normative approaches to international political economy, and grassroots efforts to secure justice for women and other severely disadvantaged groups. But social risk has not disappeared--you could lose your job, get into an accident, or find yourself plunged somehow into poverty. We will pay particular attention to the construction of "Jews" and "Judaism" in these arguments. What are we to make of these different assessments? Our focus is both contemporary and comparative, organized thematically around common political experiences and attributes across the region. Safety measures are in place, and campus community members and guests are additionally advised to take personal precautions. Are there forms of unequal social power which are morally neutral or even good? Do nuclear weapons have an essentially stabilizing or destabilizing effect? Our focus, then, is nothing less than the story of America -- as told by those who lived it. Might developments in artificial intelligence transform our sense of the human or even threaten the species? The course concludes by considering what policies could be appropriate for supporting, while also regulating, the tech sector in the twenty-first century. Students will take up the central philosophical questions that shaped the tradition from the early nineteenth century to the present by engaging historical thinkers like Anna Julia Cooper, W.E.B. How significant of a threat are concerns like nuclear proliferation, nuclear terrorism, and nuclear accidents? To that end, the course will discuss the origins, logic, and meaning of liberalism and capitalism and the relationships between them. Terrorist attacks at home and abroad. Finally, could the Cold War have been ended long before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989? We next assess major dimensions that have historically shaped the study of African politics, including conflict and violence, economic development, and foreign aid. This course will focus on neo-liberalism in comparative perspective, looking mainly at the US and Europe. Fortuitous events? This course offers an analysis of the conservative welfare state with particular interest in public policies around social insurance, employment, the family, and immigration. As we examine the debates over inclusion, we will consider different views about the relationship among political, civil, and social rights as well as different interpretations of American identity, politics, and democracy. climate change) are organized and mobilized. Is America really a democracy at all? [more], When Barack Obama's successor assumes office in January 2017, they will be asked to govern an America that is out of sorts. What does it mean to be "philosophical" or to think "theoretically" about politics? What, if any, is the relationship between economic development and the organization of power (regime type)? This capstone seminar will explore these and related questions through an examination of the life and work of Jamaican novelist, playwright, cultural critic, and philosopher Sylvia Wynter. Finally, we examine whether the emergence of a neoliberal economic order has affected the organization of political society? Is there is a trade-off between democratic accountability and effective governance? Us" became a rallying cry of Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign in late 2019. Democracy in Comparative and Theoretical Perspective. How does corruption grow and what can we do about it? It then considers how nationalism is manifest in the contemporary politics and foreign relations of China, Japan, South Korea, North Korea and Taiwan. immigration, and the politics surrounding American immigration policy have intensified as a result. Are the politics of the presidency different in foreign and domestic policy? In much of the rest of the world, however, conservatives harbor no hatred of the state and, when in power, have constructed robust systems of social welfare to support conservative values. Beginning with the evolution of the field, this course will equip students with the methodological tools to critically navigate their own specific regional, inter-regional, or interdisciplinary tracks in the Asian Studies concentration. One of the key questions we will seek to answer is why Kennan and Kissinger disagreed on so many important issues, ranging from the Vietnam War to the role of nuclear weapons, despite their shared intellectual commitment to Realism. Can certain forms of power be considered more feminist than others? Is it manufactured by a political elite using the rules of the game to maintain power while ignoring the concerns of the people? Finally, we will also examine how Chomsky's views, largely considered to be radical for much of his life, have become far more mainstream over time. and social inequalities. First, through a variety of readings and discussions (including, perhaps, with the assigned scholars themselves), it aims to introduce students to the challenges of original scholarly research and expose them to the range of ways political scientists approach those challenges. The course surveys the electoral politics of low and middle-income democracies in the developing world, investigating its similarities and differences with the historical and contemporary politics of developed democracies. Or is it the reverse? From the perspective of the workplace, we investigate the firm as an arena of power, where workers and managers meet each other in continuous contests for control. This course confronts these questions through readings drawn from a variety of classic and contemporary sources, including works of fiction, autobiography, journalism, law, philosophy and political theory, and social science. Others, whose ambitions and initiatives arguably undermined progress toward American ideals, were not recognized as dangerous at the time. Skepticism of government has deep roots and strong resonance throughout American political history. Second, the tutorial will examine the past and ongoing uses and abuses of Orwell's legacy by scholars and analysts on both the political left and the right. How do religion and politics interact? [more], Waste is not just a fact of life, it is a political practice. regulated? This seminar explores how our understanding of politics and political theory might change if visuality were made central to our inquiries. [more], The idea that all humans have rights simply because they are human-independent of anything they might do or achieve-has transformed local and international politics, probably permanently. Is solidarity possible only in utopia, or can we realize it in the world as well? What's really at stake when we depict our leaders? What would "politics as unusual" look like anyway? This course is part of a joint program between Williams' Center for Learning in Action and the Berkshire County Jail in Pittsfield, MA. Give up? Most of the course will focus on the historical and contemporary relations between whites and African Americans, but we will also explore topics involving other pan-ethnic communities, particularly Latinos and Asian Americans. [more], International law embodies the rules that govern the society of states. How have they tried to make cities more decent, just, and sustainable? One might even claim that when Plato deployed the metaphor in an extended allegory, he constituted the fields of both philosophy and political theory. What does that portend, if anything, for other democracies, or for the general principle of popular sovereignty--the idea that the people govern themselves? does it mean to be an American? [more], A central tenet of political science is that once a country reaches a certain level of political and economic development, democracy will endure indefinitely. [more], The rise of gigantic tech firms--Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon--has sparked widespread worries about the role of business power in capitalist democracy. Do the mass media and political elites inform or manipulate the public? Should feminist theory embrace objectivity and model itself upon scientific procedures of knowledge production? Using both Economics and Political Science methods of analysis, students will study the way societies respond [ more ] Taught by: Darel Paul, David Zimmerman Catalog details POEC 402(S) SEM Political Economy of Public Policy Issues Who decides? An important goal of the course is to encourage students from different backgrounds to think together about issues of common human concern. Is it what we, Survival and Resistance: Environmental Political Theory. In this course, we will look at how leaders have marshaled ideas, social movements, and technological changes to expand the scope of American democracy--and the reasons they have sometimes failed. We will address both empirical and normative dimensions of the issues, as well as learn about examples of democratic erosion around the world from early 20th century until today. Throughout the semester we interrogate four themes central to migration politics: rights, representation, access, and agency. Jews had to decide where to pin their hopes. After familiarizing ourselves with what academic and policy literatures have to say about them, we then will read about the histories and contemporary politics in each society. What functions does leadership fill, and what challenges do leaders face, in modern democratic states? Yet inequality in wealth may conflict with the political equality necessary for democratic governance and public trust, leading to concerns that we are sacrificing community, fairness, and opportunity for the benefit of a small portion of the population. What form of government best serves the people? This tutorial will first examine the nature of their relationship to both Realist and Wilsonian perspectives on American foreign relations. but dictatorships in others? More information can be found on the Political Science site. Among other issues, we will consider the points of conflict and consensus among different racial groups, how Americans of different racial backgrounds think about other groups, and the implications of demographic change (including the growth of the Latino and Asian-American populations and the shrinking white share of the electorate) for future elections. How have its constitutive institutions, from pensions to unemployment insurance, evolved since the post-war "Golden Age"? The basic format of the course will be to combine brief lectures--either posted on the class website beforehand or given at the start of each class--with an in-depth discussion of each class session's topic. What form of government best serves the people? And how will the unfolding pandemic change how we respond to these stories? Electoral Politics in the Developing World. What is "objectivity" anyway, and how has this norm changed through history? We will engage primarily with political science, but also with scholarship in other disciplines, including sociology, history, geography, and legal studies, all of which share an interest in the questions we will be exploring. We study techniques to politically use media as well as research techniques to uncover political practices and relations. How can democracy be made to work better for ordinary people? We will focus on the role of political parties in democratization; the emergence of political dynasties; changes in the characteristics of the political elite; investigate claims of democratic deepening; and examine the effect of inter-state wars, land disputes, and insurgencies on democratic stability in the region. Our focus is on rights and liberties -- freedom of speech and religion, property, criminal process, autonomy and privacy, and equality. It will pay particular attention to the ANC and corruption, and it will address why, thus far, the ANC has won national elections handily amidst growing dissatisfaction with overt and pervasive official corruption and misgovernment and the role racial solidarities and memories play in sustaining the ANC in office. Treating the visual as a site of power and struggle, order and change, we will examine not only how political institutions and conflicts shape what images people see and how they make sense of them but also how the political field itself is visually constructed. Do the institutions produce good policies, and how do we define what is good? How does power relate to technology? Although we will attempt to engage the readings on their own terms, we will also ask how the vast differences between the ancient world and our own undercut or enhance the texts' ability to illuminate the dilemmas of political life for us. Is it the person or the context? It seeks to challenge the widespread image of African politics as universally and inexplicably lawless, violent, and anarchic. rise of totalitarianism, and the detonation of the first atomic bomb. Is it manufactured by a political elite using the rules of the game to maintain power while ignoring the concerns of the people? [more], This seminar examines the role of women in "liberation movements," it focuses on their contributions to civil and human rights, democratic culture, and theories of political and social change. To examine this claim, the readings will address two fundamental issues. This course investigates the historical and contemporary relationship between culture and economics, religion and capitalism, in their most encompassing forms. retreat!) Should "religious" organizations be exempt from otherwise generally applicable laws? We will go on to discuss the U.S. support for Islamist political parties during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s and the consequent rise of the Taliban, and the role of Afghanistan in the September 11th attacks and the "War on Terror" that followed. What is it and how might it work? One Comparative Political Economy/General Public Policy Course [9] Examples ECON 233 Behavioral Economics and Public Policy PSCI 246 The Politics of Capitalism PSCI 248T The USA in Comparative Perspective The course goes back to the founding moments of an imagined white-Christian Europe and how the racialization of Muslim bodies was central to this project and how anti-Muslim racism continues to be relevant in our world today. [more], American politics is often unequal, and well-organized advantaged interests tend to triumph. Williams Political Science Courses Courses PSCI 110(F, S) LEC Introduction to American Politics: Power, Politics, and Democracy in America Begun as an experiment over 200 years ago, the United States has grown into a polity that is simultaneously praised and condemned, critiqued and mythologized, modeled by others and remodeled [ more ] But what is Asia? Should they be? What do Americans want from their political leaders?". Why do we end up with some policies but not others? They are using debt to create liquidity, demand, and uphold credit markets. The goal is to develop a rich understanding of the foundations of public opinion and political behavior. With that as background, students will choose an aspect or aspects of these conflicts as a subject for their individual research. Do concerns about information security alter states' most basic political calculations? But what does this mean? This course offers an analysis of the conservative welfare state with particular interest in public policies around social insurance, employment, the family, and immigration. We also compare historical U.S. foreign policy toward the hemisphere to U.S. policy toward the entire world after the Cold War. How has America's democratic experiment compared with (and interacted with) democracy elsewhere in the world? Which leaders were successful in managing U.S. statecraft, and which were not? Mackie, Marx, Nietzsche, and Max Weber. Protests against cultural insensitivity on campuses. [more], Reserved for and required of those students invited to continue in the honors program following the department's approval of their research proposal at the end of the fall semester seminar, the spring semester Senior Thesis Research and Writing Workshop provides a focused forum for the exchange of ideas among thesis writers, who will regularly circulate excerpts of their work-in-progress for peer review and critique. Our focus is on structures of power -- the limits on congressional lawmaking, growth of presidential authority, establishment of judicial review, conflicts among the three branches of the federal government, and boundaries between the federal and state and local governments. [more], This is a course about international politics in the nuclear age. that media convey). It is no accident that tech became a symbol for economic growth in the 1970s, precisely when it also began to build powerful alliances in Washington. Why do people identify with political parties? Finally, could the Cold War have been ended long before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989? The final module introduces students to theory and methods for analyzing media relations (how a given media connects particular groups in particular ways). What, if anything, defines contemporary conservative thinking? Examples of internationalized transitional justice abound. at the dawn of the 21st century. We will take a very wide definition of "politics," as music can have political meaning and effects far beyond national anthems and propaganda. The goal of these discussions is to generate debates over the conceptual, historical, and policy significance of the subjects that we cover. [more], This tutorial provides an introduction to comparative political economy by focusing on an enduring puzzle: the spread of capitalism led to both transitions to democracy and dictatorship/authoritarianism. From now on only liberal democracy, free market capitalism, and global integration had a future. Where do we find continuities and where upheavals? What kinds of alternatives are considered as solutions to these problems? Is "religion" good or necessary for democratic societies? After examining general models of change and of leadership, we will consider specific case studies, such as civil rights for African-Americans, gender equality, labor advances, social conservatism, and populism. For instance, musical sound is often read as a metaphor for political structures: eighteenth-century commenters pointed out that string quartets mirrored reasoned, democratic discourse, and twentieth-century critics made similar arguments about free jazz. If the welfare state has a future, it will look different from the past, but how? Terrorist attacks at home and abroad. Everything else--including political ideology, nationalism, conservative religion, and sovereignty--was consigned to the ash heap. This seminar examines theory, politics, literature, film, and music produced from and linked to twentieth-century movements against capitalism, racism, colonialism, and imperial wars to think through how Black and Yellow Power have shaped solidarity to challenge white supremacy and racial capitalism. How is property defined, and how far should law go to erode or reinforce distinctions between property and humanity? Beliefs about music can serve as a barometer for a society's non-musical anxieties: Viennese fin-de-sicle critics worried that the sounds and stories of Strauss's operas were causing moral decline, an argument that should be familiar to anyone who reads criticism of American popular music.
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