Courses

An introduction to government through the American experience. Concentrates on analysis of the institutions of government and politics as mechanisms of social control.

Students registering for introductory courses should register for the lecture only. Sections will be assigned during the first week of class. Introductory courses are also offered during summer session.

An introduction to the basic concepts and practice of international politics.

Students registering for introductory courses should register for the lecture only. Sections will be assigned during the first week of class. Introductory courses are also offered during summer session.

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This course is a special, writing intensive section of Government 181, designed to provide a small number of students the opportunity to practice and improve their writing skills as they learn about world politics. Students will complete a series of papers and be expected to take an active part in class discussion. Registration by instructor permission only. Interested students should register for and attend Government 181 in order to be considered for Government 182. (IR)

Students registering for introductory courses should register for the lecture only. Sections will be assigned during the first week of class. Introductory courses are also offered during summer session.

This course provides a broad overview of the evolution of Chinese politics from the early part of the 20th century to the present. It is roughly divided into three sections. Thr first traces the formation and the progression of modern state and party institutions following the collapse of the Qing Dynasty in 1911, through the communist rise to power and into the Mao era (1949-1976), culminating in the period of “opening up and reform” (1978-Present). The second part of the course examines China’s institutional apparatus, focusing on mapping out the government, Party and military bureaucracies; examining relations between Beijing and the localities; and on the institutionalization of these structures and processes over time. The third part of the course combines the insights of the course thus far to illuminate some of the current “hot button” issues facing the Chinese state and the world, combining politics and policy and examining the relationships between the two. No prior knowledge of China is required or expected.

This course surveys the history, politics, and society of the Middle East from World War I until the present day. We will think critically about the transformation of the Middle East from autonomous Islamic empires to colonized mandates to post-colonial states; the development of collective identities such as nationalism, pan-Arabism, and Islamism; the formation and mobilization of social classes and changing gender relations; the Middle East through the lens of the Cold War and subsequent American hegemony; revolution, war, and civil strife; and popular culture.

The United States is the mightiest military power in human history. How should this power be used? We will examine the meaning and the importance of central considerations usually invoked, including: the national interest including national security, the international rule of law including the laws of war, the promotion of fundamental values including human rights, and the equal sovereignty of states. Among the specific policy disputes discussed will be the Bush doctrine of preemptive war, ‘humanitarian’ intervention, and unilateralism/multilateralism. In all cases we will discuss how to integrate political and moral considerations into all-things-considered judgments about what to do here and now.

The major political actors, institutions, and political styles in large American cities: mayors, city councils, bureaucracies, ethnic and racial minorities, urban machine politics and the municipal reform movement. The implications of these political forces for policies pertaining to urban poverty, homelessness, and criminal justice.

This seminar will look at the politics of incarceration. Why is prison construction a growth industry? What is the role of public policy and of the law in this process of prison expansion? How does race and racism in American society figure in this? Are women’s prisons designed to respond to the needs of a "generic-male" prisoner or are they organized around women’s needs? Are there "spaces" within the prison (educational programs, libraries, chaplain’s offices) which alleviate the grim realities of prison life. We will devote a section of the course to reading about and discussing different forms of political activism on behalf of prison reform. Seminar members should plan on an occasional extra class time, likely to be Wednesday or Thursday evenings, to hear guest speakers and see films. (AM)

This course will explore and seek explanations for the performance of the 20-21st century presidency, focusing on its institutional and political development, recruitment process (nominations and elections), relationships to social groups, economic forces, and "political time", and foreign & domestic policy making.

Prerequisite: Government 1111 or permission of the instructor. This course examines campaigns and elections, focusing primarily on national elections in the United States. Topics typically include campaign finance, negative campaigning, the noncompetitiveness of congressional elections, presidential elections, why there are almost but not quite three parties, voter turnout, individual voting decisions, how the votes are counted (or not), and elections and the economy. We examine several theories that may explain some of these phenomena, including in particular theories of rational choice. Course requirements usually include two papers with one being based on original analysis of election survey data.

During the last three decades, American citizens have grown increasingly unequal in terms of income and wealth. Can democratic governance survive, in any meaningful way, amid such vast economic inequality? We shall examine this question by examining three major aspects of the American political system: political voice, governance, and public policy. We will also consider the extent to which public policies can mitigate inequality.

For description, see ILRIC 3320

For description, see ILRIC 4330

This course will examine the relationship between politics and modern Islamic movements. The course investigates Islamic political theory and the evolution of contemporary Islamic movements in the context of anti-colonial struggles, modern nation-state formation, neo-liberal reform, and in relation to forms of political opposition. We will explore cases from the Middle East, Central Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and West Africa in order to identify and account for variation in Islamic political mobilization.

This survey course provides an interdisciplinary overview of European social and political issues. Themes of the course will include, but will not be limited to, the political development of the nation-state, modes of governance, welfare state restructuring, party systems and elections, social movements, immigration and demography, culture and identity, external relations, and the special challenges posed by European political and economic integration. A series of background and contextual lectures will be complemented by presentations given by leading Europeanists. (CO)

German unification in 1990 and the accelerating movement toward European integration have created new political conditions for our understanding of German and European politics. The end of the Cold War has brought forth old fears about the domination of Europe by an unpredictable German giant. Alternately, these changes have also fueled new hopes for Germany and Europe as models of democratic pluralism in a more peaceful and prosperous world. This course analyzes the incomplete growth of a new polity in Europe that reflects two kinds of politics: the specter of the “Germanization” of Europe and the vision of a “Europeanization” of Germany. The course offers a historical analysis of German and European developments since 1945 (Part I) before developing competing realist (Part II), liberal (Part III) and institutionalist (Part IV) interpretations of German and European affairs. (CO/IR)

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This course will cover international current events as they unfold during the semester. Faculty from across the university will be invited to contextualize and deepen students’ understanding of elections, wars, complex humanitarian emergencies, international agreements, global health issues and other relevant international events that are in the news. The course will respond flexibly to unforeseen events. Special attention will be devoted to U.S. foreign policy issues and how U.S. foreign policies are formulated and implemented. The course will strive to expose students to different points of view on these issues.

For description, see PHIL 3460.

A survey of American political thought from the Eighteenth Century to the present. Particular attention will be devoted to the persistence of liberal individualism in the American tradition. Politicians, pamphleteers and poets will provide the reading. The professor offers insightful historical and social context.

Why Marx, Why Now? What is the relevance of the Marxist theoretical tradition to contemporary critiques of globalization, neo-imperialism, neo-liberalism, neo-conservatism, the digital-technological revolution, intellectual property, new enclosures, ecological crisis, global poverty, and the new social movements? We will return to the texts of Marx, and read classical essays in the Marxist tradition (by Althusser, Baudrillard, Benjamin, Fanon, Hall, Lukács) with an eye to contemporary articulations of his theories (Frederici, Harvey, Jameson, Midnight Notes, Hardt and Negri). We will end the course with Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein.

For description, see NES 3716

Many liberals and realists have regarded the triumph of neo-conservatism after 9/11 as a freak accident that will come to an end together with the Presidency of George W. Bush. And many neo-conservatives have regarded the war in Iraq as a noble experiment in democracy-building that the United States so successfully accomplished in Germany and Japan after World War II. In tracing the effects of America’s multiple identities on its foreign policies and analyzing how America relates to different world regions, this course disagrees with both views. Neo-conservatism is not a freak show but draws on America’s multiple political traditions and orders. And the Iraq war is not a noble experiment but arguably the greatest foreign policy disaster of the last generation, the consequence of a combustible mixture of arrogance and ignorance. The course develops these two overarching arguments. The first half of the course challenges the simplified view that on questions of foreign affairs the main faultline in American politics has divided realist-nationalists from liberal-internationalists. This interpretation reads religion and race out of the conflicts that have shaped American politics, and thus does not give proper importance to the pivotal role of the South in the dominant coalitions that have shaped American foreign policy. Furthermore, a multiplicity of different kinds of values (encompassing both power and prosperity, Protestantism and prostitution) shape the American imperium (which combines hard/territorial with soft/non-territorial sources of power). The second half of the course argues that America’s relationship to Europe and Asia differs from its relationship with other world regions. After their total defeat in World War II, American occupation and extensive domestic reforms converted Germany and Japan initially to client and later to supporter states that have made it easier for the United States to shape political outcomes in these two regions. In the Americas, Africa, and the Middle East the United States lacks supporter states and has engaged instead regional pivots such as Brazil, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and Israel that, compared to Germany and Japan, play different roles in their respective regions and in their relations with the United States. The intellectual hinge that connects the two arguments, and the two parts of the course, is the idea of multiplicity–of traditions and values motivating American politics and its foreign policies on the one hand and of forms of modernity that are distinguishing a number of different civilizations in a world of different regions on the other. When the multiple gears that connect America with the world mesh properly, mutual engagements are possible that preserves both diversity in values within a loosely shared sense of moral purpose and international order. When those gears do not mesh properly, mutual engagements are likely to feed misunderstandings and conflicts of interests that can lead to war. (IR)

For description, see NES 3697

This seminar explores the everyday political lives of individuals living under the authoritarian governments of the contemporary Middle East. We will examine how individuals interact with the state through formal and informal channels, respond to state policies and various forms of repression, and organize political opposition. We will seek to account for variation across countries and within countries over time. Readings will examine political life in at least seven Middle Eastern countries, including Syria, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen.

Apply on-line during the pre-enrollment period. Once classes have started, use an add-drop slip; professor’s signature is required.

This course explores the underlying constitutional and political structures influencing the development of constitutional law in the United States, with a focus on the Supreme Court. Discussed are major constitutional law decisions, their political contexts, and the social and behavioral factors that affect federal court jurisprudence.

Apply on-line during the pre-enrollment period. Once classes have started, use an add-drop slip; professor’s signature is required.

This seminar discusses the extent to which recent changes in U.S. politics can or cannot be understood as indicating an underlying “realignment” in American party politics.

Apply on-line during the pre-enrollment period. Once classes have started, use an add-drop slip; professor’s signature is required.

This course examines the growth and change of the American national state from the early 20th century to the present. It is concerned with the responses of the national government to changes and pressures originating in society, economy and the international distribution of power, as well as the state’s effect on society, market and world politics. We will explore pluralist, class-based, state-centered and other approaches in an effort to see which provides a better explanation for the rise (and contraction) of the national state in three main arenas: economic regulation, social welfare and rights; and national security.

This course will examine the presidencies of Reagan, G.H.W. Bush, Clinton, and G. W. Bush in relation to what scholars have called “the postmodern presidency”. While this term has been utilized by institutionalist students of the presidency as a periodizing hypothesis, our emphasis will be on the work of cultural critics and historians. We will address the slippage between fact and fiction in cinematic and popular representations of the presidency (biography, novels, television). The construction of gender normativity (especially masculinity) will be an attendant subtheme. The postmodern presidency will be read as a site of political as well as cultural contestation. The larger question of this approach to the presidency concerns the relationship between everyday life practices and citizenship as well as the role of national fantasy in American political culture today. (AM)

This course satisfies the seminar requirement.

Government 4281/7281 concentrates on history and criticism of US policies and the politics associated with them. Particular attention given to the origins and character of the regulatory state and the welfare state.

This semester we will focus on Derrida’s reading of Plato and St. Augustine. We will begin with Derrida’s close reading of Plato’s Phaedrus and trace his conceptual adumbration of the pharmakon to other critical and philosophical scenes: addiction and terrorism. The next textual encounter will be between St. Augustine’s Confessions and Derrida’s Circonfession. Here we consider the questions of national and religious identity in relation to other Derridean texts such as Monolinguism of the Other. We return to conclude with Plato’s Apology, Crito and Phaedo, read in tension with Derrida’s last extended interview, his writings on death and the death penalty. Throughout the seminar we will explore Derrida’s conceptual interrogation of globalization, citizenship, hospitality, friendship, pedagogy, eros and death. Graduate students are welcome to enroll in the seminar. (PT)

For description, see GERST 4090

The purpose of this course is to explore contemporary international law as it addresses the use of military force. It first explores jus ad bellum-- the law relating to the recourse to force, including its historical development, the UN Charter framework for the use of force, and a number of current issues relating to the jus ad bellum. These will include: preemptive force, rescue of nationals, humanitarian intervention, civil conflict, and terrorism. The course then turns to an examination of jus in bello-- the law relating to the conduct of hostilities. It evaluates the legal framework established by the Hague and Geneva Conventions and discusses a variety of contemporary issues, including the treatment of prisoners of war, the use of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction, and weapons targeting policies. Third, the course examines courts and other tribunals that have been established to try persons for violation of international legal rules dealing with the use of force. Such tribunals include: the Nuremberg Tribunal, the International Criminal Tribunals for Yugoslavia and Rwanda, and the International Criminal Court. Finally, we will explore the future of the law relating to the use of force. (IR)

For description, see S&TS 4831

For description, see CLASS 4683

This seminar creates a structured environment in which the student will study research approaches and methods for each of the four fields within the political science discipline, fully conceptualize his or her honors thesis, and complete the first phase of the thesis research. Each member of the class will develop a thesis proposal, give an oral presentation in class about his or her research project, and write the first chapter of the thesis. Students are also strongly encouraged to study past honors theses, both within and outside his or her subfield. The seminar will also serve as a "capstone" course by exposing each student to specialized research from each of the fields within the political science discipline.

This course satisfies the seminar requirement.

The major issues, approaches, and institutions of American government and the various subfields of American politics are introduced. The focus is on both substantive information and theoretical analysis. (AM)

Qualified undergraduates are encouraged to apply for seminars listed with 600 course numbers, but may only register with the permission of the instructor.

An in-depth, graduate-level introduction to qualitative and comparative methods of political analysis, with special emphasis on the application of these methods in comparative and international politics. Through readings, discussions, and written assignments, students will explore strategies for concept formation, theory construction, and theory testing, using the craft and tools of comparative political analysis.

Qualified undergraduates are encouraged to apply for seminars listed with 600 course numbers, but may only register with the permission of the instructor.

This course examines the growth and change of the American national state from the early 20th century to the present. It is concerned with the responses of the national government to changes and pressures originating in society, economy and the international distribution of power, as well as the state’s effect on society, market and world politics. We will explore pluralist, class-based, state-centered and other approaches in an effort to see which provides a better explanation for the rise (and contraction) of the national state in three main arenas: economic regulation, social welfare and rights; and national security.

Qualified undergraduates are encouraged to apply for seminars listed with 600 course numbers, but may only register with the permission of the instructor.

This course reviews the extensive literature on the political economy of comparative state formation, economic development, and institutional change. Among the topics covered will be war-making and state expansion, regime evolution and modernization, and market processes and class transformation. The focus will range from the micro-economic foundations of political choice through the grand historical forces that have shaped the contemporary world economy. Although much of the reading and discussion will focus on European cases, the limits of this experience as a theoretical model for the remainder of the world will also be considered.

Qualified undergraduates are encouraged to apply for seminars listed with 600 course numbers, but may only register with the permission of the instructor.

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This class offers an in depth examination of main problems of political representation from a comparative perspective. The main focus will be on the established Western democracies. The class is structured in three main parts. In its first part we will discuss core theoretical concepts guiding the comparative analysis of representative systems. The second part will consist of a discussion of the empirical literature on representative systems; of differences between democratic systems, of the causes for these differences and of their consequences. A third part deals with the question, whether representative democracy is in need of reform because of a lack of performance and/or because of a changing social and technological environment.

Qualified undergraduates are encouraged to apply for seminars listed with 600 course numbers, but may only register with the permission of the instructor.

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In contemporary political contexts "democracy" is often invoked as the very ground of political legitimacy. There is very little agreement, however, on what democracy means or how it is best embodied in state institutions and law. This seminar will introduce students to select debates in contemporary democratic theory over the normative meaning of democracy and the limitations of contemporary democratic practice. Beginning with the work of Rousseau and ending with debates over “radical democracy,” we will explore the following themes: How do democratic theorists and democratic actors negotiate the paradoxes of collective self-rule? What is the relationship between liberalism and democracy? Do rights suspend democracy or establish its preconditions? What are the best procedures for democratic decision-making? How does democracy deal with difference? Is democracy best understood as a form of government or a practice of resistance to domination? (PT)

Qualified undergraduates are encouraged to apply for seminars listed with 600 course numbers, but may only register with the permission of the instructor.

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The topic for fall 2008 is History as Political Philosophy. A politics of time is implicit in every intellectual endeavor. It manifests itself as a pedagogic disposition located somewhere between aesthetics (art, narration, construction of the past), critical exegesis (hermeneutics, literary critique), epistemology (empirical science), and theology (the meaning of the world and human life within it). How does time mean? Can historical interpretation exist without a theological residue? Is belief in progress any less secular or more Eurocentric than belief in the demise of the grand recit? Is there “history in general” or only multiple perspectives? How many times are there? Whose “time has come” (Obama)? After the Era of the Posts- (postmodern, postcolonial, postMarxist), Geschichtsphilosophie (the philosophy of historical processes) is vital for understanding not only today’s political realities, as well as contemporary theoretical debates, but also issues of qualitative methodology as they relate to empirical research. The question of time’s meaning crosses multiple disciplines and so shall we, reading texts of philosophy, history, sociology, political theory, literature, and literary criticism: Martin Heidegger and Walter Benjamin, Theodor W. Adorno and Hannah Arendt, W.E.B. Du Bois and Toni Morrison, Georg Simmel and Homi K. Bhaba, Max Weber and Aziz al-Azmeh, Patricia Crone and Alam Khundmiri, Hans-Georg Gadamer and Reinhart Koselleck, Roxanne Euben and Sayyid Qutb. We will end the course with Tomislav Longinovic, Vampires Like Us.

Qualified undergraduates are encouraged to apply for seminars listed with 600 course numbers, but may only register with the permission of the instructor.

This course will examine a variety of international relations theories in studying a broad range of security issues, including the causes of war, alliance formation, balance-of-power politics, security regimes, nuclear and conventional deterrence, the democratic peace, military strategy, international terrorism, and domestic constraints on the use of force. We will use a variety of theoretical perspective to investigate these and other issues, paying particular attention to evaluating the theoretical arguments with both historical and systematic evidence. (IR)

Qualified undergraduates are encouraged to apply for seminars listed with 600 course numbers, but may only register with the permission of the instructor.

Colloquium is the weekly seminar series hosted by the Cornell Institute for Public Affairs (CIPA). It is also a required, one-credit course for al CIPA Fellows, and is graded S/U based on attendance. The colloquium series is a collaborative effort between the CIPA Colloquium Committee and the faculty and staff of CIPA. While each CIPA Fellow must exhibit competency in many different areas in order to graduate, it is impossible to gain full exposure to the variety of policy issues that students may be confronted with as a practicing policy professional. Thus, the weekly colloquium series is structured to provide students with an opportunity to augment their education in a breadth of policy areas. The administration and faculty of CIPA consider the CIPA Colloquium Series to be an essential aspect of professional development, and as such, attendance is expected of CIPA Fellows.

Qualified undergraduates are encouraged to apply for seminars listed with 600 course numbers, but may only register with the permission of the instructor.

Government 428/728 concentrates on history and criticism of US policies and the politics associated with them. Particular attention given to the origins and character of the regulatory state and the welfare state.

Qualified undergraduates are encouraged to apply for seminars listed with 600 course numbers, but may only register with the permission of the instructor.