williams college political science course catalog

Class will be driven primarily by discussion, typically introduced by a brief lecture. Who loses? [more], South Asia is home to around 2 billion people (over 24% of the world), making it the most populous and densely populated region in the world. In so doing, we will seek to use controversial and consequential moments in American politics as a window into deeper questions about political change and the narratives we tell about it. The emphasis will be on the study of social attitudes concerning ethnic groups, gender/sexuality and class as they pertain to a "penal culture" in the United States. Fortunately, in recent decades philosophers have made significant progress in theorizing causation. How does political leadership in the 21st century differ from leadership in earlier eras? Among the many specific questions we will consider are whether particular religious traditions might be incompatible with democratic values, the extent to which recent changes in higher education have affected the health of democratic politics, the effects of ideological polarization on democratic discourse, and the place of the jury system in securing democratic justice. Finally, we examine China's growing expansion into Africa and ask whether this is a new colonialism. One central concern will be to consider the different ways of understanding "Asia", both in terms of how the term and the region have been historically constituted; another will be to facilitate an understanding some of the salient factors (geography, belief systems, economy and polity)--past and present--that make for Asia's coherence and divergences; a third concern will be to unpack the troubled notions of "East" and "West" and re-center Asia within the newly emerging narratives of global interconnectedness. Throughout the semester we interrogate four themes central to migration politics: rights, representation, access, and agency. To provide a broader context for Marcuse's critical theory, we will read a selection of his writings alongside related texts by Kant, Marx, Freud, and Davis. We conclude the course with a look toward the future of global capitalism and of the liberal world order. However, with the election of Donald Trump, the American presidency is now in the hands of someone who proudly claims the America first mantle. Finally, we examine recent theories of screen and spectacle--read both for their resonances with and departures from debates over the Platonic legacy--and case studies in the politics of both military and racial spectacles in the U.S. What distinguishes that kind of life from others? Brown "I did not tell [my son] that it would be okay, because I have never believed it would be okay." This course introduces students to the dynamics and tensions that have animated the American political order and that have nurtured these conflicting assessments. In repeatedly examining the allegory over the centuries, later thinkers have elaborated their approaches not only to Plato but also to the nature of politics and the tasks of thinking. After examining general models of change and of leadership, we will consider specific case studies, such as civil rights for African-Americans, gender equality, labor advances, social conservatism, and populism. All students read common secondary materials and engage in research design workshops; each will write (and rewrite) an independent research paper grounded in primary sources. After addressing general theoretical issues, the course will consider what is meant by democracy in the United States, Latin America, South Africa, and the Arab world. Is it a capitalist strategy to divide the public in order to advance the interests of the wealthy corporate elite? Yet, more than ever before, the means exist in affluent regions of the world to alleviate the worst forms of suffering and enhance the well-being of the poorest people. Looming environmental catastrophes capable of provoking humanitarian crises. Escalating racial violence in cities. Today the 'secularization thesis' is largely defunct. Political scientists and historians continue to argue vigorously about the answers to all these questions. How does a state's nuclear posture affect basic political outcomes? Authors we will engage include Coates, bell hooks, Charles Mills, Melvin Rogers, Chris Lebron, Lawrie Balfour, and Danielle Allen. Over the course of the semester, we will look at ten different types of events, ranging from those that seem bigger than government and politics (economic collapse) to those that are the daily grist of government and politics (speeches), in each instance juxtaposing two different occurrences of a particular category of event. And is there anything that can be done to stop or slow them? The course introduces students to the comparative politics of South Asia, highlighting the complexities and potential of the region. Fortuitous events? The seminar will examine: original source materials; academic/popular interpretations and representations of the BPP; hagiography; iconography; political rebellion, political theory. Economically, the course will look at the institutional configuration of neo-liberalism, changes in economies, growing inequality, the financial crises, and prevalence of debt. Well-known contributions by feminist theorists include the conceptualization and critique of anti-discrimination frameworks, the legal analysis of intersecting systems of social subordination (particularly gender, race, class, sexuality, disability), and the theorization of "new" categories of rights (e.g. From there, the course will cover a number of important topics and case studies, such as Stuxnet, NotPetya, cyber espionage, intellectual property theft, threats to critical infrastructure, misinformation, propaganda, election interference, the potential implications of quantum computing, and the prospects for the establishment of an international cyber arms control regime. The second half of the course will look at leaders in action, charting the efforts of politicians, intellectuals, and grassroots activists to shape the worlds in which they live. Its first part examines major thinkers in relation to the historical development of capitalism in Western Europe and the United States: the classical liberalism of Adam Smith, Karl Marx's revolutionary socialism, and the reformist ideas of John Maynard Keynes. At the same time, worries about residual impunity or the effect that punishment might have on societies' futures has led to the development of national and social courts, as well as national military tribunals, to complement those at the international level. Through these explorations, which will consider a wide variety of visual artifacts and practices (from 17th century paintings to the optical systems of military drones and contemporary forms of surveillance), we will also take up fundamental theoretical questions about the place of the senses in political life. Topics include the politics of race; rapid urbanization, especially in the valley of Mexico; and the cultural impact of the turn toward the north, after 1990, in economic policy. What produces political change? What are the primary causes of war and conflict? They help us ask: What is freedom? By the character of the occupant? The course will begin by reading about both the general theoretical issues raised by conflicts in these "divided societies" and various responses to them. In general, the course will focus on competition between some the world's premier cyber powers, such as China, Iran, Israel, North Korea, Russia, and the United States. what is the polarization about and what caused it? By the end of the semester, you will gain both a general perspective and substantive knowledge on East Asian international politics. The course also investigates divergent conservative models in East Asia and Latin America as well as new 'illiberal' welfare states in contemporary Hungary and Poland. The course concludes with a focus on the current debate over American meritocracy and inequality. The structure of the course combines political science concepts with a detailed survey of the region's diplomatic history. The tutorial will address the evolution of Palestinian nationalism historically and thematically, employing both primary and secondary sources. The course will be divided into three parts. How are we to understand this contradiction as a matter of justice? How does all of that media consumption influence the American political system? How closely do candidates resemble the constituencies they represent, and does it matter? Can public policy reverse these trends? What functions does leadership fill, and what challenges do leaders face, in modern democratic states? What kinds of alternatives to objectivity exist, and should they, too, count as "science"? Currently over 281 million international migrants live in a country different from where they were born, about 1 out of every 30 humans in the world and a population that has roughly doubled since 1990. This class investigates one of the most polarizing and relevant issues of our time: the politics of migration. Others, whose ambitions and initiatives arguably undermined progress toward American ideals, were not recognized as dangerous at the time. This course will investigate this debate over parties by examining their nature and role in American political life, both past and present. is an investigation into this global liberal project, engaging both theory and practice. The pandemic, related economic distress, social protests and insurrection have only sharpened the precarious state of U.S. democracy. Yet, in spite of the state's efforts, opposition and dissent continue to bubble to the surface. In this tutorial, students will examine the origins of the Silicon Valley model and other countries' attempts to emulate it. We begin with examinations of these central notions and debates, and then move to investigations of the political thought of four key late modern Afro-Caribbean and African-American thinkers within the tradition: Walter Rodney, Sylvia Wynter, Cedric Robinson, and Angela Davis. Should this coincide with the cultivation of a distinctively Jewish modern language? Or agency? In this course we will assess various answers to these questions proffered by Jewish political thinkers in the modern period. and writings by the incarcerated). Political tumult around the globe in recent decades has put elites, and others, on edge as young democracies have collapsed and longer standing ones appear to be stumbling. The goal of this course is to assess American political change, or lack of, and to gain a sense of the role that political leaders have played in driving change. Then, after a few discussion classes on migration, organized crime, political corruption, the COVID-19 pandemic, and other issues facing the current government of Andrs Manuel Lpez Obrador, we turn to a seminar-style discussion of student research projects. What are the limits on presidential power? More recent arguments may come from John Rawls, Alasdair MacIntyre, Nicholas Wolterstorff, Martha Nussbaum, Jeffrey Stout, Winnifred Sullivan, Brian Leiter and Andrew Koppelman. We then interrogate dynamics central to political life in Africa over the 60 years since independence: the role of ethnic diversity in shaping competition, the prominence of patronage politics, and the evolution of elections. [more], This course explores racially-fashioned policing and incarceration from the Reconstruction era convict prison lease system to contemporary mass incarceration and "stop and frisk" policies of urban areas in the United States. We will do this by exploring different interpretations of the American political order, each with its own story of narrative tensions and possible resolutions. By the end of the semester, you will gain both a general perspective and substantive knowledge on East Asian international politics. Throughout the semester, our goal will be less to remember elaborate doctrinal rules and multi-part constitutional "tests" than to understand the changing nature of, and changing relationship between, constitutional rights and constitutional meaning in American history. citizens, migrants, refugees) have differential access to rights, services, and representation and why. and politics from the Founding to the present. The course extends over one semester and the winter study period. Also explored will be political imprisonment in the United States. This seminar, after discussing briefly the institutions and logic of neoliberalism, will address recent challenges to it from both the left and the right in the United States and Europe. Senior Seminar in Human Rights in International Politics and Law. Du Bois' great book, Black Reconstruction in America. The second introduces social science methodology, covering hypotheses, literature reviews, and evidence while continuing half time with materials about human rights. They see themselves as original, dynamic, serious. This seminar focuses on how Congress organizes itself to act as a collective body. We will examine leadership to better understand American democracy--and vice versa. Cuba, US, Africa, and Resistance to Black Enslavement, 1791-1991. country's birth rate is at an all-time low. We will address basic questions such as 'What is populism?' The course concludes with an examination of a number of major contemporary policy debates in security studies. To what extent do these calamities pose new, existential threats to the republic? Finally, could the Cold War have been ended long before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989? Dangerous Leadership in American Politics. relatively powerless interests sometimes win in American politics? To provide a broader context for Marcuse's critical theory, we will read a selection of his writings alongside related texts by Kant, Marx, Freud, and Davis. This course explores the causes and consequences of democratic erosion through the lens of comparative politics. Broad themes will include the city's role as a showcase for neoliberalism, neoconservatism, technocratic centrism, and progressivism; the politics of race, immigration, and belonging; the relation of city, state, and national governments; and the sources of contemporary forms of inequality. With this preparation, we then look more closely at major contemporary figures and movements in Venezuela, Bolivia, Mexico, Brazil, and other countries. Many of the seminar's themes, including democracy, power, inequality, judgment, deliberation, publicity, subjectivity, and agency, are central to political theory, but readings and course materials will also be drawn from such fields as media theory, surveillance studies, sociology, American studies, critical data science, film, and contemporary art. As a background to understanding the reasons for and histories of these policies, this course will read several important books that deal with the Great Depression, the financial crisis a decade ago, and the risks of debt. This course is an advanced seminar devoted to a comprehensive examination of Fanon's political thought. How can feminist power be realized? Other critics take aim at the two-party system with the claim that the major parties fail to offer meaningful choices to citizens. We will explore what the empirical literature on race in political science says about this debate and others. In substantive terms, the class covers the rise of the Zionist movement; the effects of the First World War on the Middle East; the international politics of the Arab-Israeli conflict; the geopolitics of the area's energy resources; the Cold War in the Middle East; the causes and consequences of the Iranian Revolution; the rise of Islamist movements; the Arab Spring; terrorism; the specter of nuclear proliferation in the area; the Syrian conflict; and the role of the United States in the Middle East. We study techniques to politically use media as well as research techniques to uncover political practices and relations. As we examine the debates over inclusion, we will consider different views about the relationship among political, civil, and social rights as well as different interpretations of American identity, politics, and democracy. use tab and shift-tab to navigate once expanded, Covid-19 is an ongoing concern in our region, including on campus. How are national security concerns balanced with the protection of civil rights and liberties? How does this idea about individual value liberate and entrap? Does it conform to how American politics is designed to work? [more], This tutorial focuses on the writings and autobiographies of women who have shaped national politics through social justice movements in the 20th-21st centuries. They are using debt to create liquidity, demand, and uphold credit markets. How and why has capitalism evolved in different forms in different countries? In much of the rest of the world, however, conservatives harbor no hatred of the state and, when in power, have constructed robust systems of social welfare to support conservative values. or a substance and what is the relationship between democratic government and market economies? The Trump Era and the Future of World Politics. The course concludes with an examination of a number of major contemporary policy debates in security studies. Finally we will entertain right-wing populism as both a cause and a symptom of a crisis in liberal democracy. speculative accounts in the Western tradition draw boundaries between past and present, as well as between self and other. Central notions such as democracy, identity, and their relation to far-right populism will be discussed alongside questions of contemporary mobilization strategies. democracies have collapsed and longer standing ones appear to be stumbling. The universal model is Silicon Valley. We will discuss cases of Buddhism, Christianity (Catholicism and Protestantism), Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam (Sunni and Shi'a), and Judaism. What is democracy, how does it arise, and how might it fail? This course interrogates the many perils that pundits and activists tell us we should worry about in 21st century America. In this course, we will look at feminist critiques of power, how feminists have employed notions of power developed outside of the arena of feminist thought, and efforts to develop specifically feminist ideas of power. Ultimately, our goal is to determine how worried we should be---and what, precisely, we should be worried about---as a new era of American leadership begins. What makes American political leadership distinctive in international comparison? The course traces the conservative welfare state's development from its origins in late nineteenth and early twentieth century corporatism, through the rise of Christian Democracy and the consolidation of conservative welfare regimes in continental Europe after World War Two, to its contemporary challenges from secularism, feminism, and neoliberalism.

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