"Comparative Politics": Political Science 111 (GenEd DGSB) Fall 2022
Students will live together in Wheeler Hall in the Central residential area.
Read what Fall 2022 instructor Elif Savas has to say about the course:
We are going through critical times; political reality has been changing recently in unprecedented ways and with unprecedented speed. Regardless of your major and academic trajectory, it is becoming more important to relate to the political world around you and understand how you connect to your political system and those around the world. This course will teach you the language of politics in a particular
manner, to speak it critically, conscientiously, and comparatively. Questions we will ask include, but are not limited to:
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How has the world become what it is today and what is our place in it?
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What is the meaning of and the history behind abstract and large political categories such as "states," "nations," and "markets"?
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How did the political institutions originate, how have they evolved together, and how will they continue to matter in an increasingly interconnected world?
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Why do some regions have obscene levels of wealth while others suffer from devastating poverty?
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What are the emerging forms of nationalism today across the world?
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And overall, what does it mean to "compare"; what tools might comparative politics provide to students, researchers, and citizens, and what is its relation to other subfields of Political Science and to the other disciplines?
This course will shift its focus to different parts of the world with each topic and use historically critical cases as central pieces of information to address all these questions. Apart from the knowledge of the different parts of the world and essential political concepts comparatively, you will learn to read, think, and question critically.