Political Science Courses

Program | Faculty | Courses

All courses carry 3 credits unless otherwise specified.

Thesis and Dissertation

699 Master's Thesis

Credit, 6.

899 Doctoral Dissertation

Credit, 10.

American National Government and Politics

701 Directed Studies in American Government and Politics

702 The American Presidency

Constitutional framework and politics of the modern institutional presidency. Problems of presidential leadership and decision making in selected areas of domestic and foreign policy. Analysis of presidential power and responsibility.

703 The Legislative Process

Analysis of the structures, procedures, and norms of the U.S. Congress. Emphasis on congressional elections, representation, committees, legislative parties, roll call votes, and congressional interaction with interest groups and the executive branch.

704 American Federalism

American system of federalism as it has developed and expanded from the early years of the Republic to the present time. Emphasis on changing nature of intergovernmental relations in both legal and programmatic terms.

705 The American Founding

Survey of American political thought from the Puritans through the Civil War. Emphasis on the framing of the Constitution and its interpretation. Focus on the development of republican institutions and the nature of the federal union.

707 The American Voter

Voting in American politics. Nature of elections. Role and influence of party identification, candidates, issues, and other factors in electoral behavior. Introduction to the use of survey methods and selected analytical techniques in the study of political behavior.

708 American Political Party Systems

Structure and activities of American national and state parties. Origin and dynamics of the party system. Impact on individual and group political behavior and on government and public policy.

Public Administration

524 Administrative Law

The law governing public administration. Attention to legal reasoning, liability, due process, informalism, and public access. The apparatus of administration.

620 Public Administration

Organization of bureaucracy, bureaucratic life, constitutional position and political role of governmental bureaucracy. Not open to candidates for graduate degrees in Political Science.

730 Proseminar in Public Administration

731 Tutorial in Public Administration

732 Problems in Public Administration

Special seminars on issues and controversies in the study and practice of public administration and management.

733 Public Management

Public administration as activity, profession, and discipline; attention to the contributions and limitations of organization theory and political science.

734 Public Administration: Responsibility

Ethical obligations of the public administrator. Whether membership in a large governmental bureaucracy vitiates individual moral responsibility. To whom or what the public administrator has moral obligations: elected officials, the law, hierarchal superiors, professional standards, agency ethos, regime values, universal moral standards.

735 Public Personnel Administration

Comprehensive examination of employee relations in government, covering issues such as hiring and firing, political executives and the career service, work organizations and institutional authority, employee rights and collective action.

736 Public Budgeting

Theory and techniques of budgeting in governmental fiscal relations and the political processes that relate to decision making within the governmental organization.

737 Public Sector Labor Relations

Nature of labor relations processes and practices at all levels of American government. Attention to the political variables that distinguish public sector from private sector labor relations.

739 Public Administration Internship Report

Internship experience in government service, including a supervised written report and an oral examination. Normally takes nine months to a year.

Comparative Politics and Area Studies

631 Political Development and Modernization

Issues of generating and managing political change in the third world; formal and informal roles of institutions such as parties, legislatures, bureaucracy, and the military; analysis of institutional under-development; stabilizing and preserving the state; leadership; theories of political development.

632 Government and Politics of Scandinavia

The rise of the Scandinavian statesDenmark, Norway, and Sweden; emphasis on the interplay of political, social, and economic factors in shaping democracy. The Scandinavian welfare state model and its domestic and international dimensions.

634 Government and Politics of Japan

Study of the nature of democracy and capitalism in Japan, using history, culture, and basic worldview of the Japanese people as a guide for understanding Japan today.

635 Government and Politics of East Central Europe

Survey of the ethnic, religious, and historic infrastructure of East Central Europe; focus on the character of the regimes, Communist Party rule, the divergencies between the various states of the area, and their relations with Russia and the changes of 1989 and later, particularly the politics of democratization, marketization, and nationalism. States included are: Poland, the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic, Hungary, Rumania, Bulgaria, Albania, and the successor states of the former YugoslaviaSlovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia-Montenegro and Macedonia.

636 Government and Politics of Russia

Historical and ideological influences on politics; the interconnection of social and political institutions and processes; membership, organization, and operation of political parties; the constitution and the governmental structure and their operation; the politics of change, resistance, and ethnicity; and prospects for the future.

640 Government and Politics of South America

Comparative analysis of interest groups, political parties, and government institutions of the South American countries. Emphasis on background and political culture in which Latin American politics and government take place. Alternative models of social and political modernization.

641 Government and Politics of Central America and the Caribbean

Comparative analysis of the interest groups, political parties, and government institutions of the Central American and Caribbean countries. Emphasis on revolution and the role of the U.S. Globalization, democratization, and development.

643 Government and Politics of East Africa

Issues of development in Kenya and Tanzania. Comparative analyses of post-independence development models: free-market capitalism vs. agrarian socialism. Impact of global capitalism on dependent peripheral economies. Issues of democratization and multipartyism in the 1990s.

644 The Political Systems of Spain and Portugal

Unique aspects of the process of political development and/or decay in Spain and Portugal. Emphasis on the heritage of these two nations as reflected in their New World colonies in the Americas and on the present-day pattern of politics in the Iberian peninsula.

645 Government and Politics of the Caribbean

Comparative political analyses of four English-speaking Caribbean nations: Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, and Grenada. Course examines the political institutions, processes and movements which give expression to the forces at work in these societies, especially those of race, class, ethnicity, relations of production, and global capitalism.

685 Comparative Public Policy

Some political aspects of economic and social policy in advanced industrial states. Focus on political economy and policy innovations in several Western industrial states. Areas compared: economic management, including taxation, stabilization, and distribution, labor relations, health, and education.

710 Proseminar in Comparative Politics

New methodologies and theories that focus on institutions, ideologies, and systems. Also, interdisciplinary theoretical approaches to the study of culture and history. Guest speakers with expertise in area studies.

711 Tutorial in Comparative Politics

712 Directed Studies in Comparative Polities

771 Tutorial in Area Studies

772 Directed Studies in Area Studies

777 Latin American Politics

Comparative study of Latin American politics and government.

778 European Politics

A comparative study of major contemporary themes and issues in western European democratic politics including historical and institutional development, parties, interest groups and elections, public policy, and issues of integration and globalization. Analysis includes the nation-state, and subnational and supranational entities, and combines theoretical and empirical approaches.

International Relations

650 Russian, Soviet, and Post-Soviet Foreign Policy

Major aspects of Soviet foreign policy from 1917 to 1991 and of the current transitions. Soviet and post-Soviet goals, motivations, and capability; the relation between domestic and foreign policy; continuity and change among the Imperial, Soviet and post-Soviet eras; changes in the foreign policy decision-making process; relations with the U.S. and policy towards other regions.

654 International Relations

The nation-state system and conceptions of national interest in modern world politics. Emphasis on forms and distribution of power, making of foreign policy, and issues of war and peace.

656 International Law

Examination of the basic legal rules regulating relations among states and between states and other entities. Analysis of theories of international law and of how and to what extent legal rules and legal reasoning affect the policies of governments.

658 International Relations: Asia

Introduction to general problems in Asia, focusing primarily on the period since 1859. Emphasis on China, Japan, and other states of East and Southeast Asia in their regional and global relations.

720 Proseminar on International Relations

Survey of theory, research, and methodology in the field of international relations; its interdisciplinary dimensions.

721 Tutorial in International Relations

Guided reading and discussion of specific topics as agreed with a faculty member.

722 Directed Studies in International Relations

Research on an international relations topic of the student's choosing under guidance of a faculty member.

723 Problems of International Relations

Analysis of selected contemporary problems in international relations. A recent offering examined contemporary world order projects.

724 International Institutions

Research seminar combining discussion of selected aspects of international institutions, broadly defined, with student preparation and presentation of research papers.

725 Theory and International Politics

Conceptualization and analysis of the forces and drives that shape world politics.

Public Law and the Judicial Process

660 Constitutional Law

Development of American constitutional law and a study of the Supreme Court as a policy-making institution. Emphasis on landmark cases and the substantive impact of the Supreme Court in the American polity during different political eras.

661 Civil Liberties

Developments in American constitutional law with regard to the concept of civil liberty, including the fields of free speech and religion, fair trial, and race discrimination. The function of courts in determining the scope of these liberties.

662 Politics, Law and Judicial Behavior

American court systems, including examination of the processing of cases, judicial backgrounds and selection, judicial decisional behavior, some major court policies and the responses to them from groups and institutions within the larger political system.

740 Constitutional Interpretation

741 Tutorial in Public Law

742 Directed Studies in Public Law

743 Law and the Political Process

Interrelationships between law and politics, and the functions of law in organized societies.

744 Jurisprudence

Theories of law, jurisprudence, and judicial behavior.

Political Theory

670 Ancient and Medieval Political Thought

Examination of Western political theory from Classical Greek philosophy to its confrontation with the Judeo-Christian tradition. Focus on the relationship of political theory to history, drama, and theology, and consideration of particular issues of special interest to individual instructors such as: the problem of slavery, the function of prophecy, and the role of women and the family in the tradition.

671 Modern Political Thought

Development of political thought and its relation to culture and institutions from the rise of the modern state to the present.

674 Issues in Contemporary Political Theory

Some basic problems of political science, political ethics, and political philosophy through study of selected classical and modern political thinkers.

675 Feminist Theory and Politics

Examination of the foundation of different forms of feminism in relation to classical and contemporary political theory. The distinction between public and private, production and reproduction, and "difference" as an issue of race, class, sexual preference, religious and ethnic identity.

761 Tutorial in Political Theory

Seminars involving various problems and themes of mutual interest among faculty and graduate students. Recent topics have included studies of Christianity, Greek tragedy, theories of interpretation, theories of conspicuous consumption.

762 Directed Studies in Political Theory

763 Recent Political Theory

Consideration of themes and problems from contemporary political, social, and cultural theories.

Public Policy

685 Comparative Public Policy

Comparative analysis of policy formation; process of social and economic policy decision making in selected industrial societies; interaction of institutions, ideas, and power in decisions concerning social welfare, economic policies, and related policy areas.

687 American Public Policy

In-depth study of selected areas of American policy. May include theory of, and approaches to, the study of public policy.

780 Policy Studies

Theories and techniques of decision making and implementation, logical and ethical aspects of social choice, with illustrative case studies from different substantive policy fields.

782 The Political Economy of Public Policy

Nature and functions of public policy and problems of choice within the constraints of law, politics, and resource scarcity. Concepts of public interest and public goods; problems related to revenue and taxation. Basic economic and mathematical tools as appropriate.

783 Public Welfare Policy

Critical examination of American welfare state development. Analysis of the nature of social policy and of the social, political, economic, and cultural conditions that contribute to the adoption and implementation of particular policies at particular times.

784 Environmental Policy

The capacity of the American political system and the American political economy to cope with the challenge of ecological scarcity and environmental degradation. The policy-making process and the politics of implementation of selected environmental programs.

785 Criminal Justice Policy

Theories of criminal motivation and the philosophies of punishment related to them. The criteria by which one selects the most appropriate conceptual paradigm for the analysis of crime in a liberal society. Comparison of sociological, economic, and political perspectives on crime and deviant behavior.

786 Policy Evaluation

Information sources on state and federal governments, methods of legal research and census analysis, field research study design, data collection, tabular presentations, and report writing.

787 Policy Analysis and Choice

Survey of techniques for systematic analysis and evaluation of policy questions and programs, formulation of policy alternatives, cost-benefit analysis, and application of statistical computer models.