Global Arc

Can policy problems like broken systems of representation, social prejudice, fake news, and environmental mismanagement be solved? How would we know if we are making progress? In this course we will combine the examination of the theoretical underpinnings of these policy challenges with real world lessons that social scientists have learned in their efforts to alleviate them. We will focus not only on the ideas behind solutions to policy problems, but we will also learn if and how these solutions work. We will explore how randomized control trials, also known as A/B tests and randomized experiments, have already been used to test these ideas.

This seminar examines how long-run structural changes have shaped political conflict. We will consider economic, social and demographic transformations and study the ways in which they influence voter preferences, party strategies, government policies and electoral outcomes. Questions include: How do voters prioritize economic interests vs. cultural concerns? When does deindustrialization benefit populist politicians? Why have politicians failed to prevent affordable housing crises? What factors promote or prevent the advancement of women in politics? Why are social democratic parties declining in much of Europe?

This course surveys ways in which the value of the environment has been conceptualized in political philosophy, with a special focus on the moral problem of climate change. What is the value of nature, biodiversity, and non-human animals? What is a fair distribution of environmental goods? How does climate change interact with other structures of inequality in our society? Is economic growth the problem or the solution? What are our environmental responsibilities to future generations? How should individuals and governments respond to the problem of climate change?

Media and journalism are undergoing what many observers are describing as a profound structural change. How we view the consequences of this change for democracy depends on what we normatively expect from the relationship between the media and politics in the first place. Hence we shall start with basic questions about this relationship and critically examine previous transformations and what were perceived as crises in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We finish with a closer normative and empirical look at the role of social media and attempts transnationally to re-shape media landscapes. There will be a number of guest speakers.

This course examines political thinkers who profoundly shaped normative thinking about politics in Indian, Islamic, African and Chinese contexts. The course will examine non-Western ideas of modernity, and justified forms of moral and political order. It will shed new light on key ideas of modern political thought: rights, justice, nationalism, identity, violence, perfectionism, democracy and power. The thinkers in this course such as Gandhi, Iqbal, Ambedkar, Qutub, Fanon, Cesaire, Mao and others, not only contribute to political theory. Their arguments also define fault lines in contemporary politics.

We protect expressive liberty in the US even when it takes the form of racist hate speech, pornography, and (much) lying: Should we follow other countries and permit more restrictions on harmful speech? Or will that undermine truth-seeking and other values? Can we rely on the restraining effect of social norms? Should universities restrict more campus speech? And what should we - as political communities and universities - honor and memorialize? How should we balance the recognition of heritage and the inclusion of people from diverse cultures? Seminars will often include debates. Active weekly participation required of all.

This seminar explores constitutional and legal issues posed by the attempted secession of eleven states of the Federal Union in 1860-1865 and the civil war this attempt triggered. Issues to be examined include the nature of secession movements (both in terms of the constitutional controversy posed in 1860-1861 and modern secession movements), the development of the "war powers" doctrine of the presidency, the suspension by the writ of habeas corpus, the use of military tribunals, and abuses of civil rights on both sides of the Civil War.

Academics and policymakers increasingly recognize that political factors can affect economic performance in developing countries. This seminar covers recent scholarship pertaining to the politics of economic underdevelopment from an international relations perspective. We will focus on how political processes affect economic performance from both a "macro" and "micro" perspective, including such factors as: institutions, historical legacies, colonialism, political regimes, sources of poor governance (e.g., corruption, ethnicity, civil conflict, religion), and the role of geopolitics, foreign aid, and international trade.

This course will examine the history, contemporary reality, and likely future of higher education, especially in the United States but also abroad. We will consider the changing and often conflicting ideals and aspirations of parents, students, instructors, and administrators from Plato's Academy to Christian institutions in the European Middle Ages to American athletic powerhouses today, seeking answers to fundamental practical, economic, and political questions that provoke vigorous contemporary debate.

This course covers recent research on the role of political institutions (macro and micro) in economic development. We first introduce the concept of political distortions (e.g., patronage and state capture) that allow those in power to distort market competition and public investments. We then provide a wide range of reforms that may curb such distortions and improve democratic governance. This includes campaign finance laws, improvement in government transparency, bureaucratic reforms, and public deliberation. The course will be imbedded in the activities of the Institutional Experimentation Lab (IEL) of the Department of Politics.