Courses

    Provides systematic treatment of theories, concepts, and data addressing the conditions and processes of international conflict, violence, and stability, with attention to historical and contemporary cases. Restricted to graduate students or instructor consent required.

    Develops competence in engaging formal theories of politics and in constructing and solving basic game-theoretic models of political behavior. Prerequisites: Restricted to graduate students only.
    Explores diverse approaches to policy choice, change, and learning processes. Overviews literature on policy determinants and typologies, policy subsystems, innovation and diffusion, agenda setting, implementation, problem definition and social construction, policy design, institutional analysis, and policy and democratic values. Prerequisites: Restricted to graduate students only.

    Explores the political aspects of pluralism, ethnonationalism, separatism, and related phenomena. Examines theories of ethnic mobilization, conflict,and accommodation in the context of political development and nation building. Includes cross-polity comparisons and case studies of multiethnic societies in the developed and developing world. Prereq., at least one course in comparative politics. Restricted to graduate students or instructor consent required.

    Provides an intensive, critical examination of theoretical and substantive literature dealing with the behavior of the primary actors in the legal system--police, lawyers, judges, and citizens. Emphasizes empirical approach and quantitative methods. Requires research papers. Formerly PSCI 7077. Prerequisites: Restricted to graduate students only.
    Introduces graduate students to concepts, theories, and data used to study the global system from a political-economic framework. Examines world systems analysis, regime change theory, and dependency theory with respect to operation of the exchange and power relationship within the contemporary world system. Prerequisites: Restricted to graduate students only.
    Introduces students to research design, with a subsequent focus on professional development. Students learn about different styles of research, central methodological points surrounding (and differentiating) these styles, and standards for evaluating research, regardless of approach or content. Prerequisites: Restricted to graduate students only.
    Provides intensive experience with quantitative techniques commonly employed in political science research; builds on a review of multivariate regression, inferential statistics, and causal modeling. Students undertake substantive research projects, requiring lab instruction in the use of the computer in quantitative applications of political science research. Prerequisites: Restricted to Political Science (PSCI) graduate students only.

    Examines theoretical and empirical research on American social movements. Emphasizes the role of movements as political actors and their ability to bring about changes in public policy and national political institutions. Restricted to graduate students or instructor consent required.

    Provides advanced training in empirical and analytic methods of political analysis. Covers general multivariate linear (regression) model as employed in political science. Also covers a variety of dynamic approaches to empirical analysis (stochastic models, time series, and simulation). Prereq., PSCI 7085. Prerequisites: Restricted to graduate students only.
    Various topics not normally offered in the curriculum. Topics vary each semester. May be repeated up to 12 total credit hours. Prerequisites: Restricted to graduate students only.
    Intensive examination of the structure and rules of different political institutions in the United States. Explores both the changing approaches to the study of American political institutions as well as many ofthe major research topics on the presidency, Congress, the judiciary, and the bureaucracy. Prerequisites: Restricted to graduate students only.

    Critically examines topics relating to social forces, parties, and interest groups. Analyzes concepts, theories, and case studies with particular emphasis on Western political systems. Also examines party systems in comparison and the role of groups and the determinants of group politics. Restricted to graduate students or instructor consent required.

    Examines major texts of Western political thought from the ancients through the 21st century. Introduces students to major schools of contemporary political theory, while situating these in their larger political context. Professionalizes students through presentations and research projects. Texts vary each semester. May be repeated up to 6 total credit hours. Recommended prereq., some previous coursework in political theory or philosophy. Prerequisites: Restricted to graduate students only.
    Develop proficiency in constructing research designs with qualitative methods. The goal is to understand and be able to justify research designs involving relatively small numbers of observations as good political science given the fact that such designs may limit our ability to generalize. Prerequisites: Restricted to graduate students only.

    Prepares students to conduct research on topics where data is not obvious or not easily available. Encompasses variations in context and setting as part of data observations. Methods include interviewing protocols, interpretive methods, cluster analyses, case study methodologies, and textual analyses. Restricted to graduate students or instructor consent required. Same as ENVS 5740.

    Examines the writings of African American political leaders, public policy critics, and politicians who have influenced black politics and society since 1900. Explores the ideas and leadership of W.E.B. Dubois, E. Franklin Frazier, Martin Luther King Jr., and others. Restricted to graduate students or instructor consent required.

    Surveys historical, theoretical, and empirical analyses of violent conflict behavior, including causes and consequences of riots, terrorism, revolution, international war, and intervention. Prerequisites: Restricted to graduate students only.
    Surveys major schools of contemporary democratic theory and introduces students to current scholarly debates about democracy and democratic politics. Professionalizes students through class presentations and research projects. Specific controversies and texts vary each semester. Recommended prereq., some previous coursework in political theory or philosophy. Prerequisites: Restricted to graduate students only.
    Explores the relationship between economics and politics in developed and developing countries. Gives students an historical overview of 20th century economic trends and covers scholarly approaches totopics such as political and economic institutions, economic ideas and interests, the political causes of growth and equality, globalization and the welfare state, and varieties of capitalism. Recommended prereq., PSCI 7012. Prerequisites: Restricted to graduate students only.

    Introduces the application and role of models in political science (domestic and international politics), in areas such as voting, committees, power, decision making, and war and peace. Models include applications of set theory, elementary probability, games, and systems analysis. Restricted to graduate students or instructor consent required.

    Provides a comprehensive overview of the issues and literature concerning American "Subnational" politics. Considers three bodies of literature: American federalism and intergovernmental relations, state politics, and urban/local politics. Also examines a number of policy issues. Restricted to graduate students or instructor consent required.

    Introduces maximum likelihood estimation and extends the linear model to several "generalized linear models." Provides students with the skills to analyze and understand a broad class of outcome variables and data structures such as dichotomous outcomes, counts, ordered and unordered categorical outcomes, and bounded variables. Also examines several special topics such as multilevel models, causal inference, and missing data. Prereqs., PSCI 7075, 7085 and 7095 (all minimum grade B-). Restricted to graduate students in PSCI.

    Explores cutting-edge debates in election law. Studies different perspectives on the current controversies in the field, in addition to select opportunities to engage scholars directly about their work. Develops students' understanding of the law of democracy, exposing students to some of the best scholarship, and improving students' ability to evaluate and critique legal scholarship. Recommended prereq., PSCI 7011. Same as LAWS 8205.

    Help students make progress towards (1) in the short term: focusing in on a dissertation topic, crafting a dissertation prospectus, and identifying potential funding sources; and (2) in the long term: sending papers out for review, developing a package for the job market, and understanding the academic job market and the tenure process. Prerequisites: Restricted to graduate students only.

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