Global Arc

This course provides a realistic introduction to how public policy is made in the United States today. It examines how people (voters, activists, wealthy individuals, lobbyists, politicians, bureaucrats, and judges), organizations (interest groups, firms, unions, foundations, think tanks, political parties, and the media) and political institutions (Congress, the presidency, the bureaucracy, and the judiciary) come together to create and implement public policy. The course combines social science theory and systematic empirical evidence with case studies, and provides students with tools of proven usefulness for practical political analysis.

An examination of how U.S. election campaigns are conducted and how they affect political reasoning and voting behavior. Empirical analyses of public opinion data and campaign communication provide the foundation for studying campaigns. The goal of the course is to offer a broad theoretical understanding of the conduct of campaigns and their effects. Recent elections serve to illustrate key insights. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

What is statesmanship? Can qualities of statesmanship be critically assessed? If so, by what analytical methods of political science? This course explores statesmanship through a study of the biographies, principles, practices, and leadership styles of men and women who have been widely regarded as having exemplified the craft. Among the goals is to deepen understanding of how the practical necessities of democratic politics have been combined with appeals to democracy's loftiest ideals.

The course will explore the personal, political, historical and sacred aspects of Latinas/Latinos in the United States from the perspective of a theory of transformation. The course intends to provide Latinas/Latinos as well as students from all backgrounds the opportunity to see a people in their own midst becoming and being political as they move forward to create a new culture and community in this country.

This course explores the interaction of political and economic outcomes in the United States. The course presents several theories and models that help to integrate political and economic analysis. The topics covered include special interest and corporate influence, the role of money in politics, and the political impact of inequality and the Financial Crisis. A special emphasis will be placed on how political and economic factors shape key policy outcomes in areas such as social welfare, antitrust, international trade, and immigration.

This course provides an introduction to state politics and federalism in the United States. Broad themes include the role of states in American federalism, state political institutions, elections and political participation. We will will focus on a variety of topics, including federal-state and state-local relations, interstate competition and cooperation, parties and elections, redistricting, and direct democracy. We also will examine subnational public policy in domains such as health and welfare, budgeting, the environment, and immigration.

Do Trump and other business executives as politicians deliver on their promise to "run government like a business?" When do corporations speak out against such threats to democracy as the Capitol insurrection, and does it matter? Can activist campaigns successfully pressure social media companies to de-platform disinformation? Business shapes contemporary American politics in more ways than many appreciate. In this course, we will explore business power in American democracy, how it leads to policy change (or doesn't), and how it may be harnessed for good.

Why has the U.S. witnessed the rapid rise in mass incarceration? What roles have politicians, judges, prosecutors, and voters played in the astonishing growth in the incarceration rate over the past 40 years? What explains the racial disparities that exist in prosecutions and sentence length? This course will examine these and other questions related to crime and punishment by introducing students to historical and current debates surrounding the politics of criminal justice, criminal law, and state punishment. The course will emphasize cutting-edge research on crime and punishment in the social sciences, particularly political science.

Police are perhaps the most visible face of American government and the decisions they make have life and death consequences. This course explores major questions in the study of the politics of policing, including how controversial police tactics such as stop-and-frisk are deployed, how rules and procedures affect the nature and volume of police-civilian interactions, how police militarization affects perceptions of law enforcement and crime, and the relationship between race and police behavior.

This course focuses upon the evolution, nature, and role of black politics within the American Political System, in the post- civil rights era. The concern is with black people as actors and creators and initiators in the political process. Specifically, this course will examine various political controversies that surround the role of race in American society. These controversies or issues, affect public opinion, political institutions, political behavior, and salient public policy debates. Thus this course will assess and evaluate the contemporary influence of race in each of these domains while also exploring their historical antecedents.