Global Arc

This course will engage broad questions of how racial politics has impacted democratic health in the United States. Students will design and collect data on measures of racial climate and access to democratic institutions. Students will gain direct training in how to collect original data with an opportunity to visit a government archive and compile novel datasets on race and democracy in the United States.

This course provides an overview and introduction to the politics of Southeast Asia. We will focus our attention on domestic politics and history of the ten constituent members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), plus East Timor and Papua New Guinea. The material covered in this course will mainly cover topics and events that have occurred since the end of World War II. We will begin with an overview of the region, before turning to a focus on the domestic politics of Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar (Burma), the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. We will end with comparative analysis of thematic areas.

Students will engage with broad questions of democratic health in the U.S. They will also gain direct training on original data collection. The data elements of the course focus on factors that can serve as objective indicators of access to the rights and privileges of democratic citizenship in the U.S., across time and geography. In short, students will develop their research skills while helping to build a public good - the first democracy index of the United States that accounts for subnational differences in the quality of democracy due to racial climate and institutional context.

Dissidents from the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Poland, among others, considered integrity of thought and word to be exercises of political responsibility. The work of the philosopher or author was political engagement, just as such, since tyranny was possible because of ideology, "the lie". Political participation and freedom remained for those who thought and spoke the truth as they understood it.This seminar explores a select group of dissidents, each of whom encouraged the "solidarity of the shattered" through the political responsibility of intellectual, existential, and spoken truth.

Representation and accountability are foundational building blocks of democratic governance. This course examines how they work in practice. Does public policy - laws, rules, and regulations - reflect what the public wants? How do we know "what the public wants"? What if "the public" cannot agree or does not know what it wants? What are the channels by which public opinion affects lawmakers? Under what conditions do elected officials ignore the public? The course addresses all these questions. Through readings and lectures, the course teaches theoretical frameworks and systematic empirical patterns.

Examines the historical-philosophical background, origins, development, and present controversies over the scope of presidential power under the U.S. Constitution. Considerable emphasis will be placed on primary sources from the founding and from judicial decisions over the last 225 years. Students will also consider classic and contemporary scholarship on the constitutional powers and role of the presidency in American government.

Junior Independent Work requires students to complete a substantial piece of research and scholarship under the supervision and advisement of a Princeton faculty member. The work requires sustained investment and attention throughout the semester.

This course explores the political relationship of the military to the state and to society. It introduces students to the core concepts of civil-military relations, including civilian control, professionalism, and military intervention. The course engages significant cases from global twentieth-century history and surveys contemporary military politics around the world. Topics include coups d'état, responses to protests, and democratic transitions.

Students will engage with theoretical and empirical questions about the relationship between racial equality and democracy in the United States. The course will move historically, focusing on political institutions and the ways in which they impact civil rights and racial equality. Students will also engage in original data collection, whether historical, administrative, ethnographic, or quantitative with the goal of contributing to a democracy index focused on racial climate.

This course explores the foundations, internal dynamics, and consequences of democratic regimes. These are some of the questions it examines: 1) Why do countries democratize? 2) What makes politicians accountable? 3) What is the relationship between democracy and capitalism? 4) Do different constitutions affect policy making? 5) Does globalization constrain democracies? 6) What is the relationship between democracy and national identity? The course does not focus on any specific country or world region. Rather, it uses evidence from multiple geographical areas, historical periods, and different data sets to examine these questions.