POLIT ECONOMY OF DEVELOPMENT
Why are some nations able to grow and prosper while others mired in conflicts and poverty? What are the political factors that shape countries’ success in growing their economies How does economic progress affect a regime’s ability to stay in power and the prospects and direc-tions of political changes? This course addresses these questions by introducing students to major ideas and findings from both classical and cutting-edge scholarship on political economy of de-velopment. The first part of the course will review major episodes of growth (or the lack thereof) in human history and how they influenced the theoretical paradigms for studying development. The second half of the course will be devoted to more specialized topics, examining how differ-ent institutions, strategies, and contingencies affect countries’ economic fortunes. The goal of the course is to help you acquire the necessary conceptual and empirical toolkit for digesting and producing scholarly knowledge about the origins and consequences of economic development.
- T 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
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Instructor:
Junyan Jiang
h-index: 8 Info - 4 points
POL CULTURE, PARTICIPTN
POL CULTURE PARTICIPTN
The idea that culture influences politics has been a core theme of the modern social sciences. But scholars have debated what culture is, what it influences, and how. The course looks at some of the foundational works in this literature. It then focuses on the stream of research that uses survey research methods and in so doing, focuses on the understanding of political culture as a distribution within a society of values, norms, and attitudes toward political objects. Within this literature, we look at how social scientists using survey research have assessed the impact of political culture on one type of behavior, political participation, and one type of attitude, regime legitimacy. This in turn involves a discussion of the distinction in the literature between democratic and authoritarian regime types, and how they differ with respect to drivers of participation and causes of legitimacy. The course deals with culture, regime type, participation, and legitimacy at both the conceptual and methodological levels. By critiquing prominent works in the field, we will learn more about problems of measurement, question formulation, response category design, and questionnaire design, and about practical problems of gaining access and conducting interviews in various social and political environments. We will develop an appreciation of how sampling techniques affect the reliability of findings, and discuss the possibilities and limits of using non-random and flawed samples. Students who can use statistical software will have an opportunity to work with the Asian Barometer Survey Wave 4 dataset.
- R 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
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Instructor:
Andrew J Nathan
CULPA: 44 Wikipedia h-index: 40 Info - 4 points
Politics of Migration
Managing migration is one of the most pressing global challenges of our time, one that is destined to increase in importance as climate change, conflict, and economic inequality continue to drive people across borders. This graduate-level course offers an in-depth exploration of cutting-edge research on the causes and consequences of migration, engaging with key questions central to today’s political debates: Are most migrants poor? Do restrictive policies deter migration? Are immigrants beneficial or harmful to host economies? When do migrant inflows trigger natives’ hostility and political backlash? Our discussion will be grounded in actual migration episodes (Syria, Bangladesh, East Africa, France, the US, and the Pacific Islands), and we will evaluate theories and common beliefs through a scientific lens.
The course is divided into two main sections. The first focuses on the political economy of migration in sending countries, examining why people migrate, who migrates, and how migration impacts communities of origin. Topics will include climate migration and the socioeconomic effects of displacement. The second section explores migration in destination countries, addressing pull factors, integration, public opinion, and natives’ reactions to migrants, including hate crimes and political backlash. While anchored in a political economy framework, the course also touches on human rights, conflict-related displacement, and human trafficking, providing a comprehensive view of both developed and developing contexts.
- R 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
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Instructor:
Gemma Dipoppa
Info - 4 points
COLL-ISSUES IN JAPANESE POLIT
- T 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
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Instructor:
Kenneth McElwain
Info - 3 points
TOPICS IN COMPARATIVE POLITICS
- T 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
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Instructor:
John Huber
CULPA: 15 h-index: 31 Info - 4 points
Advanced Topics in Formal Political Theo
Adv Formal Political Theo
This course will prepare graduate students in political science and economics who have completed their basic formal and quantitative training for research in formal political theory. The specific substantive focus of the course will depend on the distribution of students’ interests, but topics will include electoral and legislative institutions, autocratic politics, political behavior, persuasion, and conflict. The topics should be of broad relevance for graduate students interested in political economy across the social sciences.
The course will be conducted primarily in seminar format, complemented by frontal instruction. For each topic, we will focus on a small number of relatively recent articles and working papers. Students will also present on topics related to their own research.
- M 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
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Instructor:
Carlo Prato
h-index: 11 Info - 4 points
Politics in the World Economy
This seminar is both a critical survey of empirical evidence on foreign aid, trade, and investment and an introduction to modern quantitative research methods used in international political economy. Substantively, the seminar will examine the relationships between economic instruments and human rights, conflict, public opinion, and other topics. It will introduce students to cutting-edge debates in the field. How can the international community best promote human rights? What international factors lead to economic growth? When do countries comply with international laws? When do the economic activities of the international community lead to conflict? More generally, the course will consider the challenges of drawing causal inferences in the field of international political economy.
The seminar will discuss empirical research designs including instrumental variables, field experiments, and regression discontinuity designs. We will read recent scholarship on political economy topics with a critical focus. Students will also produce a research proposal for studying a topic related to political economy, though they do not need to actually conduct this research.
- R 10:10 a.m.-noon
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Instructor:
Allison J Carnegie
Info - 4 points
THEORIES OF WAR AND PEACE
In this course we undertake a comprehensive review of the literature on the causes of war and the conditions of peace, with a primary focus on interstate war. We focus primarily on theory and empirical research in political science but give some attention to work in other disciplines. We examine the leading theories, their key concepts and causal variables, the causal paths leading to war or to peace, and the conditions under which various outcomes are most likely to occur. We also give some attention to the degree of empirical support for various theories and hypotheses, and we look at some of the major empirical research programs on the origins and expansion of war. Our survey includes research utilizing qualitative methods, large-N quantitative methods, formal modeling, and experimental approaches. We also give considerable attention to methodological questions relating to epistemology and research design. Our primary focus, however, is on the logical coherence and analytic limitations of the theories and the kinds of research designs that might be useful in testing them. This course is designed primarily for graduate students who want to understand and contribute to the theoretical and empirical literature in political science on war, peace, and security. Students with different interests and students from other departments can also benefit from the seminar and are also welcome. Ideally, members of the seminar will have some familiarity with basic issues in international relations theory, philosophy of science, research design, and statistical methods.
INT'L POLITICS OF CLIMATE CHANGE
INT'L POLITICS CLIMATE CH
Climate change presents arguably the biggest threat to humanity in recorded history. It has the potential to change international politics in unprecedented ways. It also represents a global problem for which both mitigation and adaptation require international cooperation. Yet the study of climate change in the field of international relations remains underdeveloped relative to other topics in IR, and certainly relative to the enormity of the stakes.
This advanced graduate colloquium (seminar format) will explore existing literatures and emerging research agendas on climate change in the field of international relations. We will draw also on literatures and research in other subfields and other disciplines as this topic is inherently interdisciplinary.
- T 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
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Instructor:
Virginia Page Fortna
CULPA: 5
Wikipedia
h-index: 17
Info
- 4 points
DECISION MAKING AND DIPLOMACY
DECISION MAKING & DIPLOMACY
This course represents a hands-on approach to decision-making and diplomacy. It is designed to allow students to take part in diplomatic and decision-making exercises in the context of international political issues and problems. Important historical decisions will be evaluated and re-enacted. In addition, more current international problems that face nations today will be analyzed and decisions will be made on prospective solutions. Finally, various modern day diplomatic initiatives will be scrutinized and renegotiated. The class will essentially function as a working committee, considering a different problem or issue each week. Preparations for decisions and diplomatic bargaining will rely both on assigned readings as well as additional outside materials collected by the students. A significant part of the preparations and class activities will involve team work.
- M 12:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
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Instructor:
Giulio M Gallarotti
Info - 4 points
Firms in International Political Economy
Firms in IPE
Inspired both by advances in data availability and a growing scholarly appreciation for the political influence of the private sector, firm-level theories and research designs have grown increasingly popular among political economy scholars in recent years. While studying firms allows for the generation of new insights across a broad array of substantive topics, it carries with it several unique conceptual and empirical challenges. For example, how should we conceive of firms as political actors, given their organizational structures? What are firms’ policy preferences? How do they influence politics, and how can we measure their impact? In this course we will review political economy research that centers the firm as the actor of interest; particular focus will be given to recently published work that is innovative in terms of methodology, measurement, and/or data collection. While we will focus primarily on international political economy applications—for example, firm-level studies of trade, in-vestment, and commercial diplomacy—we will also cover less inherently international topics such as lobbying, environmental politics, and private governance/corporate social responsi-bility. In addition to providing preparation for the IR field exam, this course aims to give students the tools to conduct state-of-the-art political economy research at the firm level.
- W 10:10 a.m.-noon
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Instructor:
Calvin N Thrall
Info - 4 points
DISSERTATION SEMINAR
Provides students the opportunity to present draft dissertation proposals and draft dissertation chapters.
- F 2:40 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
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Instructor:
Shigeo Hirano
CULPA: 3
Info
- 4 points