williams college political science course catalog

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. about how history is portrayed in high school textbooks, national identity is hotly debated and politically mobilized all across the region. Readings may include texts by Rene Descartes, Andreas Vesalius, Londa Schiebinger, Anne Fausto-Sterling, Helen Longino, Nancy Harstock, Sandra Harding, bell hooks, Donna Haraway, Mary Hawkesworth, and Octavia Butler. Accompanying these interventions in the legal field is a deep and sustained inquiry into the subject of law: Who can appear before the law as the proper bearer of civil and human rights? And what are their views on diversity, citizenship, and race, and how do heterodox leftists fit with conservative critiques of managerial liberalism? What is the relationship between justice and equality, and what do we owe one another in a deeply divided world? This course explores the relationship between citizens and their government by examining the growth of the American state in various arenas over time, as well as the assaults on government legitimacy in recent years. Particular attention will be given to the modern liberal tradition and its critics. Third, how did the Cold War in Europe lead to events in other areas of the world, such as Cuba and Vietnam? To answer these questions we read works by Moore, Lipset, Schumpeter, Przeworski, Rueschemeyer et al., Haggard & Kaufman, among others. By the end of the term, students should have an enhanced understanding of the major dilemmas related to the region's place in the international system. How does a state's nuclear posture affect basic political outcomes? [more], When Donald Trump campaigned in 2016 to "drain the swamp," he built on the idea held by Republicans since Ronald Reagan's 1981 pronouncement that "government is not a solution to our problem, government is the problem." Some commentators argue that racial attitudes were at the center of opposition to Obama's candidacy and legislative agenda and are foremost on voters' minds in 2016. What types of institutions, dynamics, and processes animate American political life in the twenty-first century? Is there a single best way to maintain regional order and cooperation across regions? We examine both traditional and revisionist explanations of the Cold War, as well as the new findings that have emerged from the partial opening of Soviet and Eastern European archives. [more], In theory, self-determination means that it is those who are ruled who decide who rules them and how. The Meaning of Life and Politics in Ancient Chinese Thought. Does Thomas Jefferson's statue belong on a university campus? Can they be the same thing? Escalating racial violence in cities. We will consider some of the complicated legacies of change. If so, should it be Hebrew or Yiddish? The class is divided into four sections. Political dissent has taken various forms since 1979 but the regime has found ways to repress and divert it. Rather than treating science as a monolith, we will endeavor to understand the implications of various sciences--as practiced and envisioned in various, historically specific situations--for gender and politics. Du Bois' great book, Black Reconstruction in America. Assignments focus on crafting solutions to contemporary political challenges in the developing world. student activism, feminism, black liberation movements and Third World anti-colonialism during that period, publicly affirming their efforts to integrate ethical idealism with concrete concerns for the economic wellbeing and political freedom of oppressed groups. How do resource gaps tied to inequality in society (such as race and class) influence who votes and for whom? Guided by a Black diasporic consciousness, students will explore the canon's structural and ideological accounts of slavery, colonialism, patriarchy, racial capitalism, Jim Crow, and state violence and, subsequently, critique and imagine visions of Black liberation. Why are some countries stable democracies while others struggle with military coups or authoritarian rule? Acute observers have long seen the U.S. as a harbinger of the promise and peril of modern democracies. The accumulation of wealth has been lauded as both a worthy individual activity and a vital component of the nation's public interest. [more], Politics in the USA is often considered unique and incomparable, and US political science separates the study of American politics from comparative politics. Readings include: cyberweapons changed how international politics works? Beyond the authors mentioned, readings may include such authors as Allen, Bruno, Clark, Debord, Friedberg, Goldsby, Joselit, Mitchell, Nightingale, Rodowick, Rogin, Silverman, and Virilio. However, there is increasing recognition that International Relations in all forms, including theory, research, and policy, continue to be structured by traditional paradigms of power (e.g. We focus on the ways in which the Silicon Valley model can threaten social welfare through economic inequality and precarious employment, and engage a variety of perspectives, including workplace ethnography, to examine these threats, as well as potential regulatory responses. forty six, Orwell produced a stunningly large and diverse body of work in the fields of journalism, literature, and political commentary. This course seeks to understand the origins of this new left, the ideas and character of its protagonists, the neoliberal philosophy it opposes, and the arena of democratic politics it inhabits today. With what limits and justifications? The course will then examine the following subjects: the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan; theories of the nuclear revolution; the early Cold War period; the development and implications of thermonuclear weapons; the Berlin and Cuban missile crises; nuclear accidents; nuclear terrorism and illicit nuclear networks; the future of nuclear energy; regional nuclear programs; preventive strikes on nuclear facilities; nuclear proliferation; and contemporary policy debates. Paying attention to common oppositions such as nature/civilization, primitive/advanced, anarchy/social order, feminine/masculine, ruler/ruled and stasis/progress, we will investigate how these antagonisms work together to create the conception of the state that still dominates politics today. Why do people vote or engage in other types of political action? [more], This course is an introduction to the contemporary politics of Africa, with the aim of sparking a life-long interest in the affairs of the region. We will apply our learning on many of these topics to the ongoing 2022 midterm elections. How do we distinguish truly dangerous leadership from the perception of dangerous leadership? We consider why and how the spread of capitalism led to the birth of democracy in some countries, but dictatorships in others? Why not simply claim that something is an interest rather than also a right? Then we will look at some important factors which shape how followers approach would-be leaders: inequality and economic precarity; identity and group consciousness; notions of membership, community, and hierarchy; and declining local institutions. How have they tried to make cities more decent, just, and sustainable? This course investigates the historical and contemporary relationship between culture and economics, religion and capitalism, in their most encompassing forms. This tutorial investigates the relationship between state and nation over time in the United States. American independence movements through the end of the Cold War and recent developments. Does the concept fit well with, and reinforce, some institutions and configurations of power, and make others difficult to sustain (or even to conceive)? We will examine factors that shape election outcomes such as the state of the economy, issues, partisanship, ideology, social identities with a special focus on race, interest groups, media, and the candidates themselves. By the early 21st century, the city had largely met these challenges and was once again one of the most diverse and economically vital places on earth-but also one marked by profound inequality. Our primary questions will be these: Why does transformative leadership seem so difficult today? How has globalization changed the international system? This course will examine how we conduct the most fundamental of democratic processes in the United States: the people's choice of their representatives. The core of the course is made up of analyses of global trade, global finance, natural resources, and migration, with special attention to subjects such as free trade, currency wars, and border walls. How do visions of politics without humans and humans without politics impact our thinking about longstanding questions of freedom, power, and right? Does it matter? In most other respects, it is the same: it protects the status quo, including the unequal distribution of power among its members; it spells out legitimate and illegitimate ways of resolving conflicts of interest; it is biased toward the powerful and legitimates their interests; it tells its members how to act to coordinate their interests and minimize direct conflict; some of it is purely aspirational, some of it necessary for survival. in East Asia: Security, economy, and culture by using some core concepts and theoretical arguments widely accepted in the study of international relations. We will discuss cases of Buddhism, Christianity (Catholicism and Protestantism), Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam (Sunni and Shi'a), and Judaism. What would Tocqueville see if he returned to America today, almost 200 years later? Will a strong China inevitably claim its traditional place under the sun? This course explores the relationship between politics and economics by surveying influential works of political economy. The structure of the course combines political science concepts and historical case studies, with the goal of generating in-depth classroom debates over key conceptual, historical, and policy questions. What kinds of alternatives to objectivity exist, and should they, too, count as "science"? The Politics of Migration: Citizen, Immigrant, Alien, Refugee. Importantly, this course is. Politics is our focus. What is the relationship between leadership and morality-can the ends justify the means? Neo-liberalism: What Is It and Why Does It Matter? [more], George Kennan is widely considered to be the author of the containment strategy that ultimately won the Cold War. = 30%; final paper/project (10-12 pp.) [more], This is a course about international politics in the nuclear age. We will also explore the controversies and criticisms of his work from both the right and the left because of his political stance on issues ranging from the Arab-Israeli conflict to humanitarian intervention to free speech. It concludes with a discussion of the prospects of right-populist politics in the United States. Does freedom make us happy? By the end of the semester, you will gain both a general perspective and substantive knowledge on East Asian international politics. This course confronts these questions through readings drawn from a variety of classic and contemporary sources, including works of fiction, autobiography, journalism, law, philosophy and political theory, and social science. I sought the image of democracy itself, with its inclinations, its character, its prejudices, and its passions, in order to learn what we have to fear or hope from its progress." How does the mass media and campaigns influence public opinion? Is partisanship good or bad for democracy? Utilizing primary source material ranging from presidential speeches to party platforms, newspaper editorials to novels, we will seek to interrogate -- reconciling where possible, distinguishing where necessary, interpreting in all instances -- the disparate visions and assessments of the American political experience offered by politicians, artists, intellectuals, activists, and ordinary citizens over the course of more than two centuries. Where does it apply? members are private groups and individuals, include the International Seaweed Association as well as Doctors Without Borders and Human Rights Watch. Is democracy dangerous to the planet's health? The course will give a global perspective on Islamophobia and how it is structuring and used by political actors in various territories. 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. speculative accounts in the Western tradition draw boundaries between past and present, as well as between self and other. [more], Although fewer than 1% of Americans have a degree from the country's top 30 colleges and universities, 39% of Fortune 500 CEOs, 41% of federal judges, 44% of the writing and editorial staff at the New York Times, 64% of Davos attendees, and 100% of Supreme Court justices do. Or is it the reverse? How significant of a threat are concerns like nuclear proliferation, nuclear terrorism, and nuclear accidents? takes up such questions by considering how key recent or contemporary theorists have sketched the defining features of their political worlds. At the conclusion of the seminar, each student will submit a substantial and rigorous 10-12 page research proposal, with an annotated bibliography, for a roughly 35 page "article-length" thesis to be completed during Winter Study and the spring semester. The tutorial will address the evolution of Palestinian nationalism historically and thematically, employing both primary and secondary sources.

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