Fall 2020 Courses

    Course Filter:

    Course Highlight:

PSCI/INTR 101 Introduction to Comparative Politics
G. Bingham Powell, Jr.
Fall 2020 — MWF 10:25 - 11:15
Display Tracks: New or Old

This course is an introduction to the study of domestic political institutions, processes, and outcomes across and within countries. The course surveys key concepts and major theoretical contributions in the field of comparative politics, including the challenges for democratization and democratic consolidation, the possibility of revolution, how countries vary in their political and electoral institutions and why these variations matter, and the power of social forces such as ethnicity, culture, and social capital. Country cases are drawn from different regions of the world and historical periods to ground students in the set of tools of comparative analysis.


PSCI 105 Introduction to U.S. Politics
Dan Alexander
Fall 2020 — TR 9:40 - 10:55
Display Tracks: New or Old

This course will introduce students to the foundations of the United States government. Students will examine important political institutions and the interactions among them to understand how they shape the behavior of political actors and ordinary U.S. citizens. Specific topics will include: the need for a state, the purposes of elections, federalism, the three branches of U.S. government, and the role of interest groups in U.S. politics. Throughout, the course employs concepts from the rational-choice approach to political science to model key concepts; however, no background in this is necessary. This course is appropriate for majors and non-majors with an interest in understanding how and why the U.S. political system works as it does.


PSCI 167M Democracy: Past and Present
Nicholas Gresens
Fall 2020 — TR 9:40 - 10:55
Display Tracks: New or Old

What would "a government of the people, by the people, for the people" really look like? Is the right to vote sufficient to make a society democratic? Is majority rule any better than tyranny? Can people be trusted to rule themselves? In this course, we examine the first democracy - that of ancient Athens. We will trace the historical development of democracy and explore the social factors and big ideas that shaped it into the form of government that almost every society in the world now looks to as a model. You will learn about the various institutions that allowed Athenian society to function and discover what the Athenians thought about their great experiment, even if they thought it was a very bad idea. We will also observe and discuss some of our own government institutions so that we can better understand our system of government, both in what it shares with ancient Athens and how it differs. Restriction: Open to freshmen only AS&E.


PSCI 200 Data Analysis I
Curtis S. Signorino
Fall 2020 — TR 9:40 - 10:55
Display Tracks: New or Old

Data analysis has become a key part of many fields including politics, business, law, and public policy. This course covers the fundamentals of data analysis, giving students the necessary statistical skills to understand and critically analyze contemporary political, legal, and policy puzzles. Lectures will focus on the theory and practice of quantitative analysis, and lab sessions will guide students through the particulars of statistical software. Core topics include descriptive statistics, probability, hypothesis testing, and linear regression. RESTRICTION: Students who have taken ECON 230, PSCI 205, PSY/CSP 211, STAT 212, STAT 213, or STAT 214 may not take the course. Must have laptop on which you can run R and R Studio.


PSCI 202W Argument in Political Science
Gerald Gamm
Fall 2020 — MWF 10:25 - 11:15
Display Tracks: New or Old

This course introduces students to the questions, concepts, and analytical approaches of political scientists and emphasizes careful reading and analytical writing. For its subject matter, this class focuses on the tension between majority rule and minority rights in the American political tradition. Topics include tyranny of the majority, slavery, constitutional design, representation, the paradox of voting, collective action problems, political ambition, the development of the American party system, congressional organization, racism and civil rights, women's rights, substantive due process, the politics of contraception and abortion and LGBTQ rights, partisan polarization, and democratic erosion. Readings are drawn from classic texts in American thought—the Declaration of Independence, The Federalist, Tocqueville's Democracy in America, speeches by Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln, Supreme Court cases—as well as from books and articles written by contemporary political scientists. Written requirements include a midterm, a final exam, and several short papers on the assigned readings.


INTR 205 Global Sustainable Development
Milena Novy-Marx
Fall 2020 — R 14:00 - 16:40
Display Tracks: New or Old

With world population of nearly 8 billion and global GDP of $70 trillion, human impacts on the environment have already reached dangerous levels. By 2050, world population could reach 9 billion and global GDP $250 trillion. Despite unprecedented growth in countries such as China and India, over 1 billion people still live in extreme poverty-mostly in South Asia and Africa. The central challenge for humanity in the 21st century is how to address the triple issue of ending extreme poverty, improving social inclusion, and achieving sustainability for the planet. The 13 weeks of the course include a significant practical element. Students will work in small groups for a partner organization (a business or non-profit) involved in this topic to complete a project that helps achieve the organization's mission and contributes to sustainable development. Enrollment in the course is limited and will be subject to the professor's review.


PSCI 211 Conspiracy Theories in American Politics
Fall 2020 — TR 14:00 - 15:15
Display Tracks: New or Old

Conspiracy theories are becoming an organizing principle in American politics. This course will explore the history and trends of conspiracy theories, the psychological and strategic underpinnings of persuasion in these theories and misinformation, and the political implications of current conspiracy theories. In order to understand the use (or misuse) of evidence and logic in conspiracy theories, several weeks will be dedicated to extended examples. These conspiracy theories are polarized and polarizing, a unit of the course will discuss political science research on polarization and place conspiracy theories within this trend. Assignments for the course include writing an individual short paper and group presentation on a conspiracy theory that applies the concepts in class. Readings include classics (e.g., Hofstadters The Paranoid Style in American Politics) and contemporary academic articles and books (e.g., Knights Conspiracy Nation: The Politics of Paranoia.


PSCI 212 The United States Supreme Court: The Constitution at a Crossroads
Fall 2020 — MW 14:00 - 15:15
Display Tracks: New or Old

This course is about our Constitutional system of government, particularly focusing on leading United States Supreme Court decisions, including those that address the separation of powers, the powers of the President, Congress and Judiciary, racial equality, freedom of expression and the religion clauses of the First Amendment, economic regulation, marital and voting rights.


PSCI 216 Environmental Health and Justice
Fall 2020 — WF
Display Tracks: New or Old

W 9:00-10:15, F 9:00-11:40
This course takes a systems-change approach to problems of environmental health and justice. It will provide students with a methodological, conceptual, and experiential foundation in addressing problems through policies, partnerships, and community engagement. We will closely examine several timely local issues such as subsistence fishing, climate adaptation, equitable transportation, and housing. For each major topic, students will engage in background research, practice diverse data collection strategies, interact with relevant community groups, and gain experience integrating multidisciplinary information. Students will also undertake a semester-long community engaged project to address an environmental justice issue of concern to a local organization. NOTE: This is a community-engaged class and will involve significant blocks of time in field work, trips, and guest speakers. To accommodate this, there is an extended Friday morning "lab" session. This class is designated as part of the Certificate in Community-Engaged Learning. PRE-REQUISITES: PH 101, PH 116, or PH 102; or by permission of instructor for students with significant policy, community change, or environmental management background.


PSCI 223 Constitutional Structure and Rights
Thomas H. Jackson
Fall 2020 — MW 11:50 - 13:05
Display Tracks: New or Old

Through the lens of the Constitution and Supreme Court cases, examines the structure of the American legal system (both separation of powers at the federal level and the authority of, and relationship among, states and the federal government), as well as the nature of civil rights of citizens.


PSCI 225 Cultural Politics of Prison Towns
Joshua Dubler, Kristin Doughty
Fall 2020 — W 9:00 - 11:40
Display Tracks: New or Old

Rochester sits in one of the worlds most explicitly carceral landscapes, with more than a dozen state prisons within a 90 min drive. This co-taught course is a collaborative ethnographic research project designed to examine how the presence of prisons in towns around Rochester reflects and shapes the political, economic, and cultural lives of those who live in the region. Students will be introduced to methods and practices of ethnography and conduct firsthand research on the cultural politics of prison towns. Through assigned reading, students will learn about the history, sociology, and cultural logics of Rochester and the wider region, and of mass incarceration. What does a prison mean for a person living near one? How does the presence of prisons shape peoples notions of justice, citizenship, and punishment? How do these nearby but largely invisible institutions shape the ways that we live in Rochester? Recommended prior courses: Being Human: Cultural Anthropology or Incarceration Nation.


PSCI 233W Innovation in Public Service
Stuart Jordan
Fall 2020 ("W" Required) — TR 11:05 - 12:20
Display Tracks: New or Old

Is politics anything more than a series of televised shouting matches? Yes, but much of what matters isn't televised. While politicians in Washington and state capitals make speeches for the cameras, hundreds of thousands of public servants work everyday outside of the limelight to determine the quality of government's essential services -- including policing, emergency services, education, and public health. This course exposes students to the problems faced and solutions invented by leaders of the Rochester area's public service agencies. By interacting directly with these leaders and the "street-level bureaucrats" who implement government policy, students will learn how to grapple with the practical problems of governance.


PSCI 234W The Past and Future of Our Financial System
Fall 2020 ("W" Required) — T 17:00 - 19:30
Display Tracks: New or Old

Financial Regulation will address the 2007-2009 near complete meltdown of the United States system of finance during which unemployment soared, debt markets ceased to operate and stock markets crashed. How was this possible in the most sophisticated system of financial regulation ever developed which had not seen a comparable breakdown since 1929-1933? The seminar will seek to address this question by studying the history and structure of banking, securities, insurance and housing regulation and then asking whether the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 was a sufficient response. If not, what is a wiser approach? Opportunities to write seminar papers are open for all students.


PSCI 236 Health Care and the Law
Molly McNulty
Fall 2020 — TR 14:00 - 15:15
Display Tracks: New or Old

An introduction to the legal foundations of the biomedical healthcare system; topics include national health reform, bioethics, the right to health care, genetic discrimination, and access to reproductive care. Primary law (judicial opinions, legislation) comprises the bulk of the reading assignments; students will learn how to brief cases and interpret statutes.


PSCI 241 Race, History and Urban Politics
Gerald Gamm
Fall 2020 ("W" Optional) — T 12:30 - 15:15
Display Tracks: New or Old

Through intensive reading and discussion, we examine the politics and history of American cities. While we read scholarship drawing on the experiences of an array of cities--including Chicago, New York, Detroit, Boston, Philadelphia, Phoenix, New Haven, Atlanta, Buffalo, and Charlotte--our emphasis is on commonalities in the urban experience as well as on systematic differences. We analyze the relationship of cities to their hinterlands in the early stages of urban development, the rise of ethnic neighborhoods, suburbanization, industrialization, de-industrialization, housing and jobs, concentrated poverty, and population changes. Race, ethnicity, and class are central to this course, not only in understanding changes in neighborhoods but also in the nature of politics and governmental arrangements.


PSCI 246 Environmental Law and Policy
Fall 2020 — TR 15:25 - 16:40
Display Tracks: New or Old

This course provides a foundational understanding of U.S. environmental law, with a focus on existing federal environmental statutes and regulatory programs. Topics include the common law origins of environmental law, the historical genesis of federal regulation over human impact on the environment, the enduring role of the States in environmental regulation, along with an overview of critical federal environmental laws (such as the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, and CERCLA/Superfund). Students will be introduced to how agencies implement and enforce these laws and how judicial decisions shape them. The course also touches on how and whether these decades-old laws are suited to address 21st-century challenges like climate change and environmental injustice.


PSCI 248 Discrimination
Kevin A. Clarke
Fall 2020 ("W" Optional) — TR 12:30 - 13:45
Display Tracks: New or Old

An examination of discrimination from a social scientific perspective. Topics covered include defining discrimination, types of discrimination under the law, testing for discrimination, discrimination experiments, and a survey of what social scientists have discovered about discrimination in the areas of policing, bail, retail sales, automobile sales, and home mortgages. Although there is considerable time devoted to lecture, students are encouraged to participate.


INTR 249 Israel/Palestine
Aaron Hughes
Fall 2020 ("W" Optional) — TR 12:30 - 13:45
Display Tracks: New or Old

This course will provide a non-partisan introduction to the conflict between these two national movements. Discussion will focus on an examination of historical documents, in addition to understanding of how it plays out in literature and film.


PSCI 249 Environmental Policy in Action
Fall 2020 — T 16:50 - 19:30
Display Tracks: New or Old

An examination of the role of environmental organizations in the development and implementation of environmental policy through experiential and academic learning. This is a small class that meets once a week. Through assigned readings, discussion and lectures, we will examine how environmental groups are formed, organized, funded and staffed to fulfill various objectives, and how the role/mission they play in developing and implementing environmental policy has evolved. Students will deepen their understanding of these issues through first-hand experience working on "real world" research for a local environmental organization. Each student will be responsible for a final paper examining these issues through the lens of a particular conservation or environmental group, completion of the project for the environmental group partner, and class discussion/participation.


PSCI/INTR 251 Politics of Authoritarian Regimes
Fall 2020 ("W" Optional) — TR 11:05 - 12:20
Display Tracks: New or Old

Despite three waves of democratization, many countries around the world are still governed by leaders who hold power by means other than free and fair elections. In this course we will examine topics including how authoritarian regimes survive, the conditions under which they democratize, and their human welfare consequences. We will cover historical authoritarian cases such as twentieth-century communist and fascist regimes, and current authoritarian regimes in China, the Middle East, and Africa. The course will cover political science theories of authoritarian regimes and individual country case studies. Class will be conducted in a weekly discussion format.


PSCI/INTR 257 The Origins of the Modern World
Alexander Lee
Fall 2020 ("W" Optional) — W 14:00 - 16:40
Display Tracks: New or Old

This course is designed to give students a background in the causes and consequences of the changes in political, economic and social changes that have so profoundly altered the world over the past five centuries, and a basic knowledge of both classic and contemporary scholarly accounts of these changes. After describing political and economic conditions in the pre-modern world, it describes how a distinctively ''modern'' political economy emerged in Western Europe, how this political economy became pervasive over the rest of the world, and the long term and continuing consequences of these changes. The reading mixes classic historical and social scientific accounts. While there are no prerequisites, students should note that the course will involve an unusually high, and enforced, level of required reading.


PSCI/INTR 260 Democratic Erosion
Gretchen Helmke
Fall 2020 ("W" Optional) — TR 11:05 - 12:20
Display Tracks: New or Old

Is American democracy under threat? What about democracy in the West, or the world more generally? How can we detect if democracies are eroding? Democratic Erosion is a new upper-level undergraduate seminar, based on a cross-university collaboration, which is aimed at evaluating threats to democracy both in the United States and abroad through the lens of theory, history and social science. Importantly, the class is not intended as a partisan critique, but rather teaches students how to answer questions about democratic erosion using both analytical and empirical tools.


PSCI/INTR 262 Elections in Developing Countries
Anderson Frey
Fall 2020 ("W" Optional) — TR 9:40 - 10:55
Display Tracks: New or Old

Examines the implications of economic globalization for domestic and international politics.


PSCI/INTR 268 International Organization
Randall Stone
Fall 2020 ("W" Optional) — MW 10:25 - 11:40
Display Tracks: New or Old

This course focuses on a key mechanism facilitating international cooperation - international institutions. The course examines institutions ranging from informal institutions, or regimes, to formal, intergovernmental organizations. We ask the following questions: how are institutions established? What makes them change over time? What impact (if any) do they have? How do they influence government policies? How do they operate? How do they structure decision-making? How do international institutions affect domestic politics? The course will begin by focusing on different theoretical perspectives on these questions, and continue by examining international institutions in specific issue areas. Instructor permission required for W section.


PSCI 284 Democratic Theory
James Johnson
Fall 2020 — MW 9:00 - 10:15
Display Tracks: New or Old

This advanced undergraduate course in political theory focuses on various topics in democratic theory such as the relation between democracy and other basic political principles (liberty, equality, justice), whether democratic institutions should best be aggregative or deliberative, and the role of referenda, lotteries and new telecommunications technology in democratic decision-making. Readings are drawn from both advocates and critics of democratic politics and will encompass historical and contemporary theorists. The class format will combine lecture and discussion.


PSCI 287 Theories of Political Economy
James Johnson
Fall 2020 — MW 11:50 - 13:05
Display Tracks: New or Old

In recent decades a number of important intellectual intersections have emerged between political science and economics. The course will explore these intersections as they appear in the work of several scholars who have won the Nobel Prize in economics. Our aim is to explore the analytical, explanatory and normative implications of this work in hopes of discerning lessons for thinking about enduring political issues and institutions. Some prior course work in economics or political science will be helpful but is not required.


PSCI 288 Game Theory
Paulo Barelli
Fall 2020 — TR 9:40 - 10:55
Display Tracks: New or Old

Game theory is a systematic study of strategic situations. It is a theory that helps us analyze economic and political strategic issues, such as behavior of individuals in a group, competition among firms in a market, platform choices of political candidates, and so on. We will develop the basic concepts and results of game theory, including simultaneous and sequential move games, repeated games and games with incomplete information. The objective of the course is to enable the student to analyze strategic situations on his/her own. The emphasis of the course is on theoretical aspects of strategic behavior, so familiarity with mathematical formalism is desirable.


PSCI 291 First Amendment and Religion
Thomas H. Jackson
Fall 2020 ("W" Optional) — T 14:00 - 16:40
Display Tracks: New or Old

The Constitution helps define, as it perhaps reflects, American society. In this scheme, religion has a special role. It, arguably uniquely, is given both Constitutional protection (free exercise) as well as Constitutional limitation (no establishment). Religion's placement in the Bill of Rights (as a part of the First Amendment) suggests its importance (both in protection and in limitation) to the founders, and religion's role in society today remains important and controversial. This course examines the historical forces that led to the adoption of the religion clauses of the First Amendment, the subsequent development of those clauses (importantly through the close reading of key Supreme Court opinions), and religion's role in modern American society.


PSCI 295W The Good Society
Fall 2020 — R 14:00 - 16:40
Display Tracks: New or Old

What is the Good Society, one that is fair and just and best satisfies the aspirations of its people? The question has been a fundamental quest of philosophy, religion and political theory for millennia. In this seminar we will consider six alternative versions of a Good Society, specifically Plato's Republic, Exodus, the New Testament, the Koran, Marx and Communism and Constitutional Democracy. Throughout the course, we will use the term society to describe governance, faith or ideology, and relations among those who live within a society and with those outside of the society. We will study each articulation of a Good Society within the context of the culture in which it originated. We will conclude the seminar by asking each student to write and present a paper describing her, his or their version of the Good Society.


PSCI/INTR 299 Communicating Your Professional Identity - Law, Policy, and Social Good
Kellie Hernandez
Fall 2020 — W 15:25 - 16:40
Display Tracks: New or Old

Two-credit course. Cannot be used to satisfy any requirements for the major or minor in Political Science or International Relations. This interactive course teaches "real life" communication skills and strategies that help students present their best professional selves and develop a fulfilling career. Students will explore and articulate their internship, career and graduate school goals for distinct audiences and purposes as they develop a professional communication portfolio of materials such as resumes, cover letters, statements of purpose, electronic communications, elevator pitches, and online profiles. Students will revise and refine their written and spoken work based on feedback from peers, instructors, and alumni. By the semester's end, students will have gained extensive experience with the communication skills expected in today's competitive environment. This course is suitable for second-semester sophomores through first-semester seniors; all others require permission of the instructor.


PSCI 304 Urban Crime and Justice
Craig Doran
Fall 2020 — R 18:15 - 19:30
Display Tracks: New or Old

This course offers a unique opportunity for students to engage critically with justice in courthouses in local communities. Students will participate in hands-on experiential work in a selected area of focus at the Monroe County Courthouse in Rochester. Areas of focus to choose from include adult criminal justice, juvenile justice, treatment courts, domestic violence court, court-community partnerships, or equity disparities in the court. Weekly class meetings include university faculty and Judge Craig Doran, Chief Supervising Judge of all courts in the region, who share their perspectives, research, and experience on the matters addressed by students at the courthouse. This provides students with immediate immersion in both the theoretical and practical applications of justice in society. This course requires students spend 6 hours per week at the Monroe County Courts at the Hall of Justice in Rochester.


PSCI 356 Political Institutions and Behavior
G. Bingham Powell, Jr., Tasos Kalandrakis
Fall 2020 — T 12:30 - 15:15
Display Tracks: New or Old

This course introduces the most distinctive configurations of democratic political institutions and the behaviors of citizens and elites that they induce. The political institutions include election rules, parliamentary and presidential executives, strong and weak legislatures, political parties and party systems. The behaviors studied include ideological and clientelistic party strategies and citizen voting, government formation and policymaking, and efforts to influence and to avoid constraints. We will consider multiple research approaches, the dynamics of stability and change, comparisons to electoral authoritarianism, and the effects of context. NOTE: PSCI 356 undergraduates need instructor permission.


PSCI/INTR 389W Senior Honors Seminar
Scott Abramson
Fall 2020 ("W" Required) — R 14:00 - 16:40
Display Tracks: New or Old

Through reading and critiquing political science research in American politics, comparative politics, and international relations, students learn how to select a research question, formulate testable hypotheses, find and evaluate relevant literature, locate or collect data that addresses their research question, analyze the data, and write a research report. Course requires instructor's permission.


PSCI 394 Local Law and Politics Internships
Lynda W. Powell
Fall 2020
Display Tracks: New or Old

Most internship placements are in the District Attorney's or Public Defender's offices or in the local offices of U.S. members of Congress or Senators. Other internships are available depending on student interest. Interns work 10-12 hours per week through the entire semester. Grades are primarily based on a research paper. Applicants should have an appropriate course background for the internship and at least a B average. Students must be accepted in the course before approaching an agency for an internship. Applications are available from Professor L. Powell and an interest meeting is held just before preregistration each semester.


PSCI/INTR 394C Washington Semester Internship
Lynda W. Powell
Fall 2020
Display Tracks: New or Old

Please contact Professor Stu Jordan for more information.


PSCI 399 Washington Semester
Lynda W. Powell
Fall 2020
Display Tracks: New or Old

These internships provide an opportunity to learn experientially one or more of the following: how government functions; how public policies are created, adopted and implemented; and how political campaigns work. Students intern in Congress, the executive branch, party campaign committees, and lobbying and advocacy groups. Please contact Professor Stu Jordan for more information.


PSCI 401 Math Fundamentals for Political Science
Xiaoyan Qiu, Jacque Gao
Fall 2020 — TR 11:00 - 11:50
Display Tracks: New or Old

This course provides students with the mathematical background that is needed for the graduate program in Political Science. Topics covered include set theory, functions, basic calculus, and probability. The course involves both lecture and problem-solving sessions. Instructor permission required for undergraduate students.


PSCI 404 The Art and Practice of Data Analysis
Kevin A. Clarke
Fall 2020 — TR 15:25 - 16:40
Display Tracks: New or Old

This course in mathematical statistics provides graduate students in political science with a solid foundation in probability and statistical inference. The focus of the course is on the empirical modeling of non-experimental data. While substantive political science will never be far from our minds, our primary goal is to acquire the tools necessary for success in the rest of the econometric sequence. As such, this course serves as a prerequisite for the advanced political science graduate courses in statistical methods (PSC 405, 505, and 506).

Prerequisites: Undergraduates must obtain the instructor's (or a Political Science advisor's) permission to take this course. Students must have taken a sequence in calculus and have attended the Political Science two-week Math Bootcamp. The Math Bootcamp may be waived in rare cases where a student has already taken courses in multivariable calculus, linear algebra, and probability.


PSCI 407 Mathematical Modeling
John Duggan
Fall 2020 — MW 9:15 - 10:30
Display Tracks: New or Old

This course is the first half of a two-course sequence consisting of PSC 407 and PSC 408. The goal of the sequence is to give a rigorous introduction to the main concepts and results in positive political theory. At the same time, we will teach you the mathematical tools necessary to understand these results, to use them and (if it suits you) to surpass them in your own research in political science. The course will emphasize rigorous logical and deductive reasoning - this skill will prove valuable, even to the student primarily interested in empirical analysis rather than modeling. The sequence is designed to be both a rigorous foundation for students planning on taking further courses in the positive political theory field and a self-contained overview of the field for students who do not intend to do additional coursework in the field.


PSCI 505 Likelihood + Topics
Curtis S. Signorino
Fall 2020 — MW 10:30 - 12:00
Display Tracks: New or Old

The classical linear regression model is inappropriate for many of the most interesting problems in political science. This course builds upon the analytical foundations of PSC 404 and 405, taking the latter's emphasis on the classical linear model as its point of departure. Here students will learn methods to analyze models and data for event counts, durations, censoring, truncation, selection, multinomial ordered/unordered categories, strategic choices, spatial voting models, and time series. A major goal of the course will be to teach students how to develop new models and techniques for analyzing issues they encounter in their own research.


PSCI 507 Experiments in Political Science Research
Mayya Komisarchik
Fall 2020 — TR 9:00 - 10:15
Display Tracks: New or Old

Researchers in comparative politics, American politics, international relations, political methodology, and political theory increasingly rely on data collected from various types of experiments to answer important questions in their fields. This graduate-level class is designed to introduce students to experimental techniques and the applications of experiments in political science. Students who take this course should have completed causal inference (PSC 504). While this is primarily a seminar course, students will cover statistical material and get a hands-on introduction to programming tools for experimental research in R. This course is not specific to a particular subfield; students will get exposure to a wide range of experimental methods (lab experiments, field experiments, surveys, etc.) used across different research areas.


PSCI 530 Race, History and Urban Politics
Gerald Gamm
Fall 2020 — T 12:30 - 15:15
Display Tracks: New or Old

Through intensive reading and discussion, we examine the politics and history of American cities. While we read scholarship drawing on the experiences of an array of cities--including Chicago, New York, Detroit, Boston, Philadelphia, Phoenix, New Haven, Atlanta, Buffalo, and Charlotte--our emphasis is on commonalities in the urban experience as well as on systematic differences. We analyze the relationship of cities to their hinterlands in the early stages of urban development, the rise of ethnic neighborhoods, suburbanization, industrialization, de-industrialization, housing and jobs, concentrated poverty, and population changes. Race, ethnicity, and class are central to this course, not only in understanding changes in neighborhoods but also in the nature of politics and governmental arrangements.


PSCI 535 Bureaucratic Politics
Lawrence Rothenberg
Fall 2020 — W 14:00 - 16:40
Display Tracks: New or Old

This course will survey recent research on the politics of bureaucracy. We will begin with a study of why and when elected politicians create bureaucracies and delegate authority to them. We will then study a series of topics regarding the operation and design of existing bureaucracies. Depending on the interest of students, topics may include: oversight and control of bureaucracies by elected politicians; bureaucratic capacity and performance; the political economy of regulatory bureaucracies; "red tape" and corruption; judicial control of bureaucracy; institutions and practices for the staffing of bureaucracies (e.g. patronage systems); advisory bureaucracies and bureaucratic expertise in policymaking; and military and intelligence bureaucracies. The course will draw heavily, but not exclusively, on formal theories and statistical evidence. Prerequisite: permission of the instructor, or at least one course in Techniques of Analysis at the 200 level or above and one course in Positive Theory at the 200 level or above.


PSCI 556 Political Institutions and Behavior
G. Bingham Powell, Jr., Tasos Kalandrakis
Fall 2020 — T 12:30 - 15:15
Display Tracks: New or Old

This course introduces the most distinctive configurations of democratic political institutions and the behaviors of citizens and elites that they induce. The political institutions include election rules, parliamentary and presidential executives, strong and weak legislatures, political parties and party systems. The behaviors studied include ideological and clientelistic party strategies and citizen voting, government formation and policymaking, and efforts to influence and to avoid constraints. We will consider multiple research approaches, the dynamics of stability and change, comparisons to electoral authoritarianism, and the effects of context.


PSCI 576 Graduate Research Seminar
Bethany Lacina, Sergio Montero
Fall 2020 — T 15:25 - 16:40
Display Tracks: New or Old

Designed as a forum for upper-level doctoral students who have completed formal coursework to present ongoing research. Students regularly present research either stemming from their dissertations or from ancillary projects.


PSCI 579 Politics of International Finance
Randall Stone
Fall 2020 — F 9:30 - 12:15
Display Tracks: New or Old

This course surveys the politics of international movements of capital, focusing on money as a power resource, the evolution of international cooperation in monetary policy, international financial institutions, and the domestic politics of macroeconomic adjustment.


PSCI 583 International Conflict: Theory and History
Hein Goemans
Fall 2020 — R 12:30 - 15:15
Display Tracks: New or Old

This is a course intended to provide graduate students with a survey of the history of international conflict, focusing on European and U.S. diplomatic history from 1763 to 1989.


PSCI 584 Game Theory
Mark Fey
Fall 2020 — TR 10:30 - 12:00
Display Tracks: New or Old

This course is the third semester of the formal theory sequence for graduate students. It focuses on teaching students more sophisticated tools for modeling more complex games. Specifically, the course concentrates on games of incomplete information such as signaling games and communication games and develops analytical tools such as Bayesian-Nash equilibrium, perfect Bayesian equilibrium, and equilibrium refinements. The course also covers repeated games, bargaining games and equilibrium existence in a rigorous fashion. The prerequisites for the course are PSC 407 and 408, or an equivalent background in complete information game theory. Grading is based on homework assignments and a midterm and final exam.