DEMOCRACY (AND ITS UNCERTAIN FUTURE)

POLISCI 442

In-depth exploration of the origins, functions, and societal impacts of states from a global and historical perspective. Engage critically with theories of state formation, state capacity, and governance, analyzing how states are created, sustained, and challenged across various contexts. Special attention will be given to the role of states in shaping and responding to war, environmental challenges, and social dynamics. Draws on interdisciplinary sources from political science, history, economics, and anthropology. Develop and defend nuanced arguments on the state's role as an agent of both stability and change.

POLISCI 182

Introduction to Comparative Politics, one of the four sub-fields in Political Science, which involves the comparative analysis of political institutions, processes, and outcomes at the national level. Examines how to usefully compare politics in a variety of countries and makes comparisons explicit and systematic in order to determine how governments work, how power is organized and contested at the national level, and how people can participate and pursue their interests in different political settings. Includes key concepts, theories, methods, and country case studies.

CLASSICS/HISTORY/POLISCI 362

Explores key issues in the ideology and practice of Athenian democracy. Examines democratic values, institutions, rhetoric, and sociology in order to provide the basic tools to understand democracy in its ancient context. Engages with a variety of source material (literary, archaeological, epigraphic) in order to develop multiple skills of interpretation. Some questions examined include: What are the key features of Athenian democracy, how did it change over time, and how did it differ from modern democracy? How did the Athenians justify and critique this political system? How did they reconcile citizen egalitarianism with social inequalities of wealth, gender, and status? To what extent were women, foreigners, slaves, or the poor included or excluded from politics? Was Athenian democracy a robust political system or a system in crisis?

POLISCI 844

Democracies frequently depart from their ideal type. We focus on select problems with democracy, and examine their causes and effects, and remedies for them. Topics vary from year-to-year, and include inequalities in political representation and participation, a lack of accountability and ethnic voting.

POLISCI 339

Studies the varieties and characteristics of non-democratic regimes from around the world: how they form, why they endure, and when they collapse, engaging along the way with theories of electoral behavior, political psychology, political violence, popular mobilization, and democratization.