graduate seminars
PLSC 433: International Organizations
Professor Alexandru Grigorescu
Th 7:00pm / LSC
This course is designed to introduce students to the major concepts and theories in the study of international organizations (IOs). In order to illustrate various theoretical approaches, we will discuss some of the best known organizations (such as the U.N., the European Union, and the World Trade Organization). We will try to understand why such organizations have been created in the first place and why they function the way they do. We will compare the successes of IOs (or lack thereof) in different realms such as security, trade, human rights, environment, development and international law. As a final project, students will conduct in-depth research of an international organization of their choosing.
PLSC 475: Political Analysis I
Professor Vincent Mahler
M 7:00pm / LSC
This course, which is the first of a two-course sequence, offers an introduction to statistical analysis in political science. Among the major topics covered will be research design; measures of central tendency and variability; probability theory; statistical inference; significance tests; difference of means tests; the Chi Square statistic; and bivariate correlation and regression. Emphasis will be on practical applications and extensive use will be made of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and Stata, statistical programs that are commonly used in the social sciences.
PLSC 502: Women and Politics
Professor Richard Matland
T 4:15pm / LSC
This graduate seminar is designed as an American politics course with an emphasis on political behavior. This class will start with a focus on the impact of the women’s movement, including the fight to win the right to vote. We also look at women as voters, political candidates, and whether women as members of the legislature legislate differently than men. The questions we will spend the greatest time on are questions of representation. Today, women hold eight out of 50 governorships, sixteen out of one hundred Senate seats, and 70 out of 435 House seats. There are two major questions that come out of these simple facts. Why are women so poorly represented? And does it matter? We spend a considerable amount of time on both of tthese questions within the American context.
PLSC 520: Advanced Industrial Societies
Professor Vincent Mahler
W 4:15pm / LSC
This course will explore political institutions, behavior and policy in the advanced industrial societies of Western Europe, North America and Australasia. Among the broad approaches discussed will be convergence theory; taxonomies of regime types; and theories of post-industrialism. The course will also explore a number of narrower topics relating to economic policy and performance, including taxes and social transfers; pubic sector budgets; and economic productivity and growth. Third, it will examine aspects of participatory democracy, such as the effect of partisan orientation on policy, the causes and consequences of cross-national variance in electoral turnout, and the effects of electoral institutions on electoral and policy outcomes. Finally, the course will focus closely on the politics of the contemporary welfare state, examining ideological perspectives on social protection; growth and retrenchment in social benefits; the impact of economic globalization on domestic well-being; and the effect of social transfers on income inequality.
PLSC 546: The Scottish Enlightenment
Professor John Danford
T 7:00pm / LSC
The type of society we live in is properly called a large modern commercial republic, not a democracy. It has its roots in modern liberal thought, of course, but such societies were not designed by philosophers: they developed “organically,” out of particular historical circumstances, not by design. The thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment are best regarded as the true “theorists” of modern commercial societies, and they understood themselves to be modifying or criticizing earlier thinkers such as Locke in the process of giving an accurate account of the principles which undergird large commercial republics. The reflected on the conception of the human good and the configuration of priorities which serve to justify such a social order, and they were acutely aware of deficiencies and disadvantages of such societies. The two central figures of the Scottish Enlightenment were David Hume and Adam Smith, but a host of less famous thinkers, including Adam Ferguson, made important contributions. The thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment had a profound effect on American political prudence as well as on continental thought of the next century. Students should expect to come to grips with major works by Hume, Smith, and Ferguson, and may explore lesser figures (Hutcheson, Reid, Kames, Monboddo, Sir James Steuart, for example) in research papers. We will conclude with Edmund Burke, who was both sympathetic to, and in some respects a critic of, the Scots.
PLSC 499: Directed Readings
Professor Peter Sanchez / permission required
A special readings course designed for students with particular topics in mind. Interested students should discuss the proposed topic with a faculty member prior to the beginning of the semester. The Graduate Program Director's permission is required before students may register for this course.