PSCI 299A:    Topics: Transitional Justice 

(IR)                 Hunjoon Kim

 

The topic we will be examining for this course is democratic transition and transitional justice. This course examines a persistent challenge for democracies: settling accounts with a violent past. Numerous countries around the world have shifted away from repressive authoritarian regimes and begun the process of democratization. In the process, these countries have developed different strategies to settle accounts with the past. Among these transitional justice mechanisms we will explore in the course are trials (local and international), truth commissions, amnesties, reparations, and lustration. The course analyzes these processes in a variety of countries representing different regions of the world including Africa, Latin America, and Europe.

 

 

PSCI 299B:    Citizen Activism

 (COMP)         Nanaho Hanada

 This class explores different modes of political actions available in the contemporary world. The main questions that are pursued in the course are: who participate in politics? How do they make claims? Are there any systematic differences across countries? Political actions examined include voting, consumer actions, protest activities and social movement participation.  

 

PSCI 299C:    The Presidency in the Obama Era

(AMER)         Christopher Galdieri

 

The presidency has come to occupy center stage in modern American politics, and many Americans have placed high symbolic and substantive expectations on Barack Obama's presidency.  Yet the presidency remains an office created in the 18th century by men who were profoundly concerned about the potential of tyranny and abuse of power in their new government and who expected Congress to be the driving force of the federal government.  In this course, we will explore how the presidency has come to hold the central position it has today, as well as its role as envisioned by the framers of the Constitution.  We will also discuss how presidents relate to Congress, the courts, the public, and other political actors, and how presidents cope with the challenges and constraints placed on them by the Constitution, history, and their predecessors.  Throughout the semester, we will refer to President Obama's performance in office to help us understand the modern presidency and illustrate theories and explanations of presidential behavior.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PS311:            Sem:  American Politics – Chris Chapp

                        WRI (American)

This course explores the origins and consequences of cooperation and conflict in American democracy.  We will examine where voluntary cooperative behavior comes from – psychologically, socially, economically, and institutionally – as well as why conflictual behavior seems to be the norm in many aspects of American political life.  While the course will have interdisciplinary reach, readings and discussion will focus on several salient political topics, including race and politics, social capital, and partisan and ideological polarization.  From this theoretic vantage, students will develop their own original research projects aimed at assessing a conflict in American politics, and prescribing a set of political solutions.

 

 

PS321              Seminar: Power, Governance, and Soveriegn State – Anthony Lott

                        WRI (International Relations)

The historical emphasis on the institution of sovereignty has long been a cornerstone of international relations theory.  Recently, however, IR theorists have become increasingly aware that the transborder flow of ideas, people, money, and goods has altered our traditional understanding of the state system.  Some, like Susan Strange, argue that “the territorial boundaries of states no longer coincide with the extent or the limits of political authority over economy and society.”  If this is the case, then Political Scientists need to re-define our understanding of the sources of political authority and governance.  If the state no longer exists at the center of political life, then how are we to conceive of the world in which we live?  What does the global process of economic, cultural, and political integration mean for peoples around the world?

 

PS 382:           Geopolitics Eurasian Energy – Prof. Dale

                        WRI (Comparative)

Students examine the geopolitics and political economy of Russia as an energy producing and consuming ‘Petrostate.’  Beginning with the domestic political economy of the Russian Energy industries, students proceed to Russia’s relations with Central Asia from which it imports gas and Europe to which it exports oil and gas.  Russia’s energy relationships with the USA, India and China are also considered.  Special attention will be given to Russian/Norwegian energy relations in the Barents Sea.

PSCI 399:       Civil Society and Voluntary Organizations in the Contemporary World – Nanaho Hanada
WRI  (Comparative) 

This class teaches students theories and concepts associated with civil society and voluntary associations from a comparative perspective. Students will learn what civil society is; who actively participates in it; what effect the participation brings to the participants; factors explain cross-national variation of the third sector; political roles that the third sector can play and issues associated with its role. The class takes approaches from multiple disciplines including political science, sociology and economics.