Ph.D. Program in Political Science SPRING 2011 COURSE SCHEDULE Time Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday 2:00 to 4:00 pm Cronin (IR) International Organization PSC 76200 [14607] Room 5382 O'Brien (G) How to Publish; and/or Performing Politics PSC 89100 [14645] 0 credits Room 5383 Buck-Morss (PT) Conceptualizing the Global: Problems and Possibilities PSC 80605 [15104] Room 3307 Mehta (PT) Violence & Non-Violence, War & Peace PSC 80602 [14621] Room 3212 O'Brien (AP) American Political Thought PSC 82009 [14641] Room 6421 4:15 to 6:15 pm Wolin (PT) Debating Totalitarianism PSC 71901 [14072] (Crosslisted with HIS 71400) 3 Credits Room 5383 Altenstetter (G) Qualitative Research Methods PSC 85501 [14617] Room 8203 Gould (PT) Philosophy of Human Rights (Crosslisted with PHIL 78600) PSC 80604 [15057] 4 Credits Room 7314 Piven (AP) American Electoral Politics (Crosslisted with SOC 84600) PSC 72420 [14614] Room 6494 Gornick (PP) Social Policy and Socio-Economic Outcomes in Industrialized Countries: Lessons from the Luxembourg Income Study (Crosslisted with SOC 85902) PSC 83502 [14625] Room TBD Petchesky (PT) Modern Political Thought PSC 70200 [14627] Room 6421 Mollenkopf & Duneier (PP) Ethnography and Public Policy PSC 83503 [14644] (Crosslisted with SOC 82800) Room 8203 Woodward (IR)
Peace and War: A Research Seminar PSC 86206 [14613] / Room 5200.07 6:30 to 8:30 pm Beinart (G) Writing Politics Seminar PSC 79001 [14610] Room 5383 DiGaetano (PP) Urban Politics PSC 73901 [14608] Room 8203 Woodward (G) Dissertation Proposal Workshop PSC 89100 [14611] 0 credits Room 7395 6:30-9:30pm Jones (AP) Congress PSC 72210 [14619] Room 8202 Ungar (CP) Democratization PSC 77903 [14620] Room 5382 Erickson (CP) Latin American Politics PSC 87306 [14628] Room 8203 Robin(PT) Conservatism and Counterrevolution PSC 80603 [14640] Room 5383
SPRING 2011 COURSE DESCRIPTIONS American Politics :: Comparative Politics International Relations :: Political Theory :: Public Policy General, Crossfield, & Related Courses American Politics American Electoral Politics, Professor Piven, PSC 72420 [14614] (Crosslisted with SOC 84600),, Tuesdays 4:15-6:15pm This course will examine the interplay between the distinctive American party system, the issues and cleavages which emerge at different periods in American politics, and the changing shape of the American electorate, as well as shifting patterns of voter alignment. We will begin by discussing the important features of the national elections in 2000 and 2008. We will then turn to the literature that might caste light on these events. We will consider some of the main perspectives which purport to explain the behavior of voters, the literature on the role of parties, and writings on the historical origins of electoral systems. Then we will turn to a review of long term shifts that have occurred in the United States in the scale of voter participation, in the class, racial and gender skew of the electorate, and in the cleavages which organize the electorate, paying particular attention to the character of the party system that developed after the Civil War and its persisting impact on national elections. Lastly, we will turn to developments in American electoral politics in the past two decades, including changes in the socio-economic context of electoral politics, changes in the character of the American parties, and changes in the conduct of electoral campaigns. Finally, we will consider the prospects for a democratic reinvigoration of electoral politics in the United States. Congress, Professor Jones, PSC 72210 [14619],, Tuesdays 6:30-8:30pm American Political Thought, Professor O'Brien, PSC 82009 [14641],, Tuesdays 2:00-4:00pm This seminar prepares students for the American politics comprehensive examination, both the national institutions section; and the American political thought section. It examines American political thought in cultural, theoretical, and historical perspective. The breaks this perspective down into the revolutionary; founding; Civil War; populist; Social Darwinist; bourgeois individualist; progressive; industrial capitalist; New Deal; and identity politics periods. Original texts ranging from Alexander Hamilton and James Madison's Federalist Papers and John Dewey's The Public and Its Problems to Malcolm X's Autobiography and Gloria E. Anzaldua's This Bridge Called My Back will be read. In addition to the standard interpretations of these texts, some radical interpretations will be emphasized, particularly black feminist thought. The seminar gives more weight to the latter half of American political thought, addressing capitalism and identity politics in the late-19th, 20th, and 21st centuries, than to the founding and Civil War eras.
Top Comparative Politics Democratization, Professor Ungar, PSC 77903 [14620],, Tuesdays 6:30-8:30pm This course critically assesses the strength and quality of the democratic regimes that have spread throughout the world in the past thirty years. Drawing on the histories and contemporary developments of countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Europe, it examines the oftenstalled progress from transition to consolidation through the role of civil society, the balance of powers, the effectiveness of policymaking, the rule of law, and other elements of democratic governance. It also looks at democratization's international dimension, ranging from the impacts of United Nations pro-democracy efforts to the threats posed by global non-state actors. Latin American Politics, Professor Erickson, PSC 87306 [14628],, Wednesdays 6:30-8:30pm Examination of major issues and processes in selected Latin American countries. Issues and concepts include democracy, authoritarianism, and redemocratization; political corporatism; socialism; revolution; political institutionalization; public policy, governance, and social justice in the neoliberal political economy; role of social movements and such sectors as workers, peasants, technocrats, the military, and the Church; political-economic dependency; economic development; political behavior; and social justice. The readings have been chosen so as to present many of the principal concepts employed in comparative political analysis of Latin America, while also illustrating the reality of specific country cases. As the discipline of political science has addressed politics in Latin America (and indeed in the Third World as a whole) over the Cold War era and into the post-cold War, scholars have several times advanced an interpretive paradigm, and then refined, revised, and, ultimately, replaced it. The trajectory of concepts presented here is designed to illustrate this process while providing students with an array of useful interpretive tools. Class sessions will be part lecture and part colloquium on the assigned readings. Students will prepare a research paper and make a presentation on their research. I will open each session by asking students to introduce items for discussion on the assigned materials. All students should post their items on Blackboard's discussion board by the morning of each class session, so that discussion will be well informed. I am currently teaching a Hunter College course in Brazil, and several new books I intended to examine had not reached me before I left New York. Here is a partial list of books I will use: Jan K. Black (ed.), Latin America: Its Problems and Its Promise, 5th ed. (Westview, 2010); John A. Booth, et al, Understanding Central America: Global Forces, Rebellion, and Change, 5th edition (Westview, 2010); Peter Kingstone & Timothy J. Power (eds.), Democratic Brazil Revisited (U Pittsburgh P, 2008); Steve Ellner, Rethinking Venezuelan Politics: Class, Conflict, and the Chávez Phenomenon (Lynne Rienner, 2008). I will add some more after I return to New York.
I can be reached (sporadically) by email here in Brazil: kpe973@gmail.com. Top International Relations International Organization, Professor Cronin, PSC 76200 [14607],, Mondays 2:00-4:00pm This seminar provides both an overview and in-depth examination of the institutions that facilitate cooperation and governance in the international community. It focuses on theoretical approaches toward understanding the processes, structures, and environments through which international/global relations occur. Specifically, it examines international and regional institutions, regimes, global governance, international law, transnational movements, and nongovernmental organizations. In doing so, we explore how organizations in specific issue areas -- such as security, international political economy, and the environment -- try to implement the goals of collective security, social and economic development, humanitarianism, global ecology, and economic stability. Peace and War: A Research Seminar, Professor Woodward, PSC 86206 [14613],, Tuesdays 4:15-6:15pm Top Political Theory Debating Totalitarianism, Professor Wolin, PSC 71901 [TBD] (Crosslisted with HIS 71400), 3 credits, Mondays 4:15-6:15pm In the eyes of most scholars, totalitarianism constitutes the central political problem of the twentieth century. It represents a uniquely modern form of political rule, one that was unknown in ancient times, the Middle Ages, or the Renaissance. Nevertheless, the term's analytical and prescriptive value has always been hotly disputed. After all, it became a term of art for political purposes during the Cold War. And can a single political concept adequately explain political forms as different as communism, Nazism, and Italian fascism? We will begin with Hannah Arendt's classic study on the Origins of Totalitarianism, and then move on to discuss leading interpretations of Bolshevism, Nazism, Stalinism, and fascism, before concluding with an examination of whether or not "political Islam" fits the paradigm. Conceptualizing the Global: Problems and Possibilities, Professor Buck-Morss, PSC 80605 [TBD],, Tuesdays 2:00-4:00pm With the 21st-century shift away from Western hegemony, the concepts and categories that have determined the way we think the modern world are under scrutiny. Historically evolved, their future is not eternally guaranteed. Can we still think political life solely in terms of sovereign and secular nation-states? Does democracy today mean what it did for Locke or Rousseau? Is
capitalism the same as the market? How should freedom be defined? And, fundamental for a new humanism, how is history (and temporality more generally) to be understood? Will terms like progress, development, growth, or the avant-garde survive? Can we imagine universal history in a different way? How would that entail a reimagining of the past and its periodizations? Does globalization itself have a history, one that undermines existing ideas of discrete cultures, civilizations, religions, or social formations? Readings will be from a variety of disciplines/cultures/time-periods. Students will read widely, and develop (and report on) their own research projects. Enrollment is limited, by permission of instructor. To apply, please send one paragraph describing your relevant research interests by January 3, 2011, to sbuckmorss@gc.cuny.edu. Philosophy of Human Rights, Professor Gould, PSC 80604 [TBD] (Crosslisted with PHIL 78600), 4 Credits, Tuesdays 4:15-6:15pm Appeal to human rights has become commonplace in both contemporary political philosophy and in international political practice. But the philosophical foundations of human rights remain relatively obscure, and the status of human rights as moral and/or legal rights and the form of the claims and obligations that they entail also remain unclear. The rejection of various forms of foundationalism in philosophy, the problematization of the notion of the human, and the emphasis on social construction of norms within social scientific theories leave the basis and justification of human rights an open question. The diversity of culture has given rise to the critique that the institution of human rights unavoidably involves the imposition of "Western" norms on global governance. In view of these significant difficulties, can human rights fulfill the ambitious role of serving as new and well-justified transnational norms or should they remain restricted to their traditional significance as claims holding only against particular nation-states? This seminar will address philosophical questions regarding the justification and scope of human rights including the critical ontological and epistemological issues. We will go on to consider certain hard questions and concrete problems that are implicated in their interpretation and institutionalization: 1) Do human rights properly extend to the private sphere to address harms to women and if so, how can they be enforced? 2) Are the "positive" economic and social rights (e.g. means of subsistence, education) as important as the traditional ("negative") civil and political rights, or is this even a viable distinction? and 3) Can environmental rights be considered human rights? Finally, we will tackle the difficulties that arise in conceptualizing a human right to democracy, especially in view of the role of democratic deliberation in the process of agreeing on and constitutionally establishing these human rights. Seminar readings will include a brief review of some traditional theories and conventions of human rights, but will focus primarily on the contemporary approaches offered by such philosophers as Henry Shue, Alan Gewirth, Thomas Pogge, Jurgen Habermas, James Nickel, Martha Nussbaum, and James Griffin. Attention will also be given to more critical perspectives offered from the standpoint of Marxist theory, post-modernist theory, feminist theory, and select Confucian and African communitarian theories. Seminar members will be encouraged to relate the course materials to their ongoing research projects through oral presentations and analytical term papers, and will be expected to be active participants in the seminar discussions.
Violence & Non-Violence, War & Peace, Professor Mehta, PSC 80602 [14621],, Wednesdays 2:00-4:00pm Modern Political Thought, Professor Petchesky, PSC 70200 [14627],, Wednesdays 4:15-6:15pm This course is designed primarily for Political Science graduate students preparing a major or minor in Political Theory but is also open to students in Women's Studies, Philosophy, History, and other allied fields in the social sciences. Its purpose is not only to familiarize you with a number of canonical texts but also to introduce you to a critical perspective for viewing "modern" political and philosophical debates and the historical and social contexts in which those debates emerged. We will begin by asking what we mean when we call an idea "modern" and what we understand by "political theory," reviewing the set of theoretical frameworks that will guide our study of selected works. We will then go on to examine a range of well-known political thinkers, all of whom can be classified as modern not mainly because of the time period in which they wrote but because of the kinds of ideas they had and the ethos surrounding those ideas. They include Machiavelli in the 16th century; the Levellers, Hobbes and Locke in the17th century; Rousseau and Wollstonecraft in the18th century; Hegel, Rammohun Roy, Marx and Engels, Mill, Douglass, and Nietzsche in the 19th century; and Aimé Césaire in the 20th. Throughout this inquiry, we shall address concepts that political theory has traditionally staked out as its peculiar territory, such as human nature, liberty, property, equality, citizenship, and the nation. At the same time, we shall refocus those concepts through a multicultural and feminist lens, to interrogate the Eurocentric, orientalist and misogynist underpinnings of western political theory and of the modernist project itself. In so doing, we shall complicate the debates about power, liberty, equality, and the nation with a different cast of characters that were always lurking in the background slavery, colonialism, class, race/ethnicity, gender and sexuality; as well as the global context of power relations in which liberal humanist concepts arose. Conservatism and Counterrevolution, Professor Robin, PSC 80603 [14640],, Wednesdays 6:30-8:30pm We live in a counterrevolutionary age. With the exception of the demand for LGBT rights the one social movement of the last forty years that still retains some stamina every struggle for greater freedom and equality has been brought to a standstill or put in reverse. The scourges of the late nineteenth century capitalism, imperialism, and war are the idols of the twenty-first. The left lacks traction, the right is in command. Despite the success of the right, its political thought remains unexplored. This course seeks to remedy that through a close reading of the works of Edmund Burke, Friedrich Nietzsche, Joseph Schumpeter, Carl Schmitt, Leo Strauss, Ludwig von Mises, and Friedrich Hayek. We examine their writings as counterrevolutionary texts, designed to resist and ultimately defeat modernity's various movements of emancipation: the radical republicanism of the French Revolution; struggles in the nineteenth century on behalf of abolition, women's rights, and the working classes; and the socialist and anti-colonial revolts of the twentieth century. Along the way, we discuss the right's defense of inequality, its valorization of violence and racial supremacy, its toxic blend of populism and elitism, and how the right came to terms with capitalism and defended it (and imperialism) as recreated forms of
feudalism. We will pay especially close attention to Nietzsche and Hayek as the premier theoreticians of the twin fetishes of our age: war and the market. Top Public Policy Urban Politics, Professor DiGaetano, PSC 73901 [14608],, Mondays 6:30-8:30pm Social Policy and Socio-Economic Outcomes in Industrialized Countries: Lessons from the Luxembourg Income Study, Professor Gornick, PSC 83502 [14625] (Crosslisted with SOC 85902),, Wednesdays 4:15-6:15pm This course which is crossed-listed in sociology and political science will provide an introduction to cross-national comparative research based on the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS), a data archive located in Luxembourg. LIS has made comparable over 200 large microdatasets from nearly 40 high- and middle-income countries. (See http://www.lisproject.org/techdoc/datasets.htm for the list of countries.) These datasets contain comprehensive measures of income, employment and household characteristics. A smaller, companion dataset provides microdata on wealth and debt. Since the mid-1980s, the LIS data have been used by more than 2000 researchers mostly sociologists, economists, and political scientists to analyze cross-country and over-time variation in diverse outcomes such as poverty, income inequality, employment status, wage patterns, gender inequality and family structure. Many researchers have combined LIS' microdata with various macrodatasets to study, for example, the effects of national social or labor market policies on socio-economic outcomes, or to link micro-level variation to nationallevel outcomes such as immigration, child well-being, health status, political attitudes and voting behavior. The course has two goals: (1) to review and synthesize 25 years of research results based on the LIS data; and (2) to enable students with programming skills (in SAS, SPSS, or Stata) to carry out and complete an original piece of empirical research. (The LIS data are accessed through an internet-based "remote access system". All students are permitted to use the LIS microdata at no cost and without limit.) The course will require a semester-long research project. Students with programming skills (which will not be taught in the course) will be encouraged to complete an empirical analysis, reported in a term paper ultimately intended for publication. Students without programming skills will have the option to write a synthetic research paper. A minimum requirement is the capacity to read articles that present quantitative research results. Ethnography and Public Policy, Professors Mollenkopf and Duneier, PSC 83503 [14644] (Crosslisted with SOC 82800),, Thursdays 4:15-6:15pm
Top General and Crossfield Writing Politics Seminar, Professor Beinart, PSC 79001 [14610],, Mondays 6:30-8:30pm Doctoral students spend their days reading scholarly work about politics. This class aims to teach them how to write about it so non-scholars will care. To that end, students will read a lot of political writing, most of it fabulous, some of it awful, and try to figure out what distinguishes the two. They will also come up with many, many ideas for political columns, essays and blog posts of their own, see those ideas dissected by their classmates and the instructor, and then write the best ones up. After that, the process will begin again: dissection, followed by rewriting, followed by more dissection. In between, we will discuss the less edifying aspects of publishing in newspapers, magazines and on the web, such as why editors don t always answer their email. Two prominent editors will join us to help explain. Dissertation Proposal Workshop, Professor Woodward, PSC 89100 [14611], 0 credits, Mondays 6:30-9:30pm How to Publish; and/or Performing Politics, Professor O'Brien, PSC 89100 [14645], 0 or 3 credits, Tuesdays 2:00-4:00pm This serves two distinct yet overlapping purposes. First, students can take it as a 0-credit Professional Development, designed as a "How to Publish" seminar. The seminar helps students prepare for publishing their dissertation as a book, or pieces of it as articles, in preparation for the job market. And second, students can take the seminar as the third seminar in the Writing Politics Specialization sequence. The mission of the Writing Politics Specialization is teaching how to write for public purpose. (When choosing this option, please sign up for a 3-credit independent study with Professor Ruth O'Brien.) Drawing upon my experience as an academic book-series editor for an elite university press, I will review the academic publishing process from start to finish. This process includes determining your audience, deciding what publishing house best suits your book or article, writing a prospectus, pitching an idea (particularly your dissertation) to a book editor, anticipating reader responses, and responding to readers, among other topics. The seminar will teach you how to avoid the common pitfalls associated with publishing a dissertation or turning it into a book. It focuses on the perils of publishing inter-, intra-, and trans-disciplinary books and articles. Guest speakers will share their experiences in academic publishing, particularly in academic journal writing. In addition to the "how to," or practical, aspects of publishing, the seminar concentrates on how writing "performs politics." How can first-time authors bring ideas that resonate into the public sphere? Who writes for public purpose today, anyway? Can writing be considered a form of political activism? Who are the subversive writers of our age? What types of genres work best? Is academic non-fiction, trade non-fiction, fiction, poetry, or essays most effective at creating a
political impact? Finally, what medium works best in the fast-moving Internet age? Are blogging and twittering expressions of writing politics? Do these expressions shape political discourse? Can bloggers practice the public intellectualism of a Ralph Waldo Emerson, William Du Bois, George Orwell, or Hannah Arendt? Students who take this seminar for credit will write a paper on the role public intellectuals (or a public intellectual) have played in shaping political discourse. Qualitative Research Methods, Professor Altenstetter, PSC 85501 [14617],, Tuesdays 4:15-6:15pm Theory, data and methods are the foundation of scientific work. Course learning goals: Upon successful completion of the course, students will demonstrate A mastery of qualitative research methods An understanding of the tradeoffs of analytical and methodological choices Competencies in the application of qualitative techniques and methods Skills in constructing the link between a research project's theoretical framework and the empirical case(s), including identifying data needs An ability to engage in sophisticated data analysis. The focus of the seminar is on how to move from theory to data and methods and back to theory. What is distinctive about qualitative research? What distinguishes a qualitative research strategy from a quantitative research strategy? What are the implications of choosing a qualitative research strategy for methods, techniques, data and interpretation? While we will review the state-of-the-art literature on qualitative research, the primary focus of the course is on doing qualitative research and engaging in practical applications. Please note: this course does not duplicate the dissertation workshop and the course on research design. During the semester each participant will work on seven specific research assignment directly related to plans for a dissertation or a master thesis howsoever tentative. Course participants are expected to present the assignment to the class which will serve as a basis for class discussion along with the assigned readings.