economic productivity, and rich cultural and historic value mark our coastal regions as nationally significant. Pessimists point out that most Americans know very little about politics and lack coherent political views, are easily manipulated by media and campaigns, and are frequently ignored by public officials anyway. Although parties have been celebrated for linking citizens to their government and providing the unity needed to govern in a political system of separated powers, they have also been disparaged for inflaming divisions among people and grid-locking the government. is an investigation into this global liberal project, engaging both theory and practice. Racial Equity, Liberal Democracy, and Democratic Theory. We cover the history, structures and functions of international organizations using case studies. Does freedom require leading (or avoiding) a political life? It will address how the Palestinian nation has been defined, who has defined it, what factions and classes have controlled its organizations, and the reasons why it has failed to achieve its goals. What aspects of politics will endure the ravages of fire or pestilence? From the perspective of the workplace, we investigate the firm as an arena of power, where workers and managers meet each other in continuous contests for control. The implications of Garvey's conflict with W. E. B. Among other issues, we will consider the points of conflict and consensus among different racial groups, how Americans of different racial backgrounds think about other groups, and the implications of demographic change (including the growth of the Latino and Asian-American populations and the shrinking white share of the electorate) for future elections. [more], Political Science independent study. Much of this work was inspired by his own experiences as a police officer in Burma, several years working and traveling with destitute workers in England and France, as well as his experiences fighting against fascism during the Spanish Civil War in the late 1930s. Central notions such as democracy, identity, and their relation to far-right populism will be discussed alongside questions of contemporary mobilization strategies. (As the list suggests, the most common comparisons are with Latin America and Western Europe, but several of our authors look beyond these regions.). In whose interest is the prevailing system? Despite this, national government has grown in scope and size for much of this history, including under both Democratic and Republican administrations. In the United States, basic stability and democratic expansion have been accompanied by increasing citizen distrust of institutions, growing social divisions, contestation over basic citizenship rights, and political violence. The course surveys the electoral politics of low and middle-income democracies in the developing world, investigating its similarities and differences with the historical and contemporary politics of developed democracies. Particular attention will be given to the modern liberal tradition and its critics. How does racism influence political choices? It aims not to address crises' causes nor to assist with solutions--which it considers political--just to keep human bodies alive. [more], This course will help students understand the US role in the world. U.S. Public Opinion and Mass Political Behavior. [more], We live in a society that takes liberalism and capitalism for granted, as the norm that naturally centers collective life. We next assess major dimensions that have historically shaped the study of African politics, including conflict and violence, economic development, and foreign aid. Do nuclear weapons have an essentially stabilizing or destabilizing effect? The course first briefly reviews Venezuelan post-Independence history, with an emphasis on the post-1958 democratic settlement. In addition to those who argue for an expanded and emancipatory conception of politics, we will consider arguments against politics as primary path to improvement or focus of commitment. 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. [more], What shape will politics take after the apocalypse? If so, should it be Hebrew or Yiddish? important cultural differences, and mixed feelings about its neighbor to the north. Transportation will be provided by the college. What's really at stake when we depict our leaders? This course is part of a joint program between Williams' Center for Learning in Action and the Berkshire County Jail in Pittsfield, MA. This research seminar examines the intent, process, meaning and consequence of these new practices, particularly in terms of national constitutions, international law, and principles of justice. But do the people actually govern, and should they? The course places the US in conversation not only with European countries, but also (and especially) considerations of migration governance in destination countries in Latin America, the Middle East, Asia and Africa. argue) to virtually everything in American politics, including fundamental concepts that have no manifest racial content, like partisanship and the size and scope of government. takes up such questions by considering how key recent or contemporary theorists have sketched the defining features of their political worlds. How does all of that media consumption influence the American political system? Or agency? What lessons might we derive for our own times from studying this history? [more], Palestinian Nationalism: This tutorial will cover the history, bases of support, objectives, and accomplishments and failures of Palestinian nationalism over the past century. How can it be known and pursued? The issues we will explore include: What is poverty, and how do Americans perceive its dangers to individuals as well as the political community? Does it reflect increased inequality in a fast-changing global economy? It will help students in the social sciences to understand the nature of causation in the social world, and it will help students interested in political action to better understand the nature of power. Third, how did the Cold War in Europe lead to events in other areas of the world, such as Cuba and Vietnam? Instead of a world order marked by alliances, arms races, and wars, Wilson offered a vision of a peaceful world and the rule of international law. In addition, the beginning of the course will include several classes on the theoretical implications of the advent of the cyber age, as well as a brief historical overview of information security in the post-World War II period. Should "religion" be singled-out for exclusion from government? [more], This weekly tutorial has alternating primary and secondary writers (5pages/2pages). The course introduces students to the comparative politics of South Asia, highlighting the complexities and potential of the region. Does Thomas Jefferson's statue belong on a university campus? confront. of politics generally--the state, legitimacy, democracy, authoritarianism, clientelism, nationalism--to comprehend political processes and transformations in various parts of the world. Who are the people, anyway? Can and should the link between humans and politics survive in an age in which "posthuman" or "transhuman" entities become central characters in the drama of politics? Designed not only to uncover these (sometimes melodious, sometimes cacophonous) values but also to place current ideological debates about them in a broader developmental context, this tutorial will offer a topical tour of American political thinking from the birth of nationalism in the colonial period to the remaking of conservatism and liberalism in the early twenty-first century. And how will the unfolding pandemic change how we respond to these stories? Might developments in artificial intelligence transform our sense of the human or even threaten the species? The class situates contemporary US migration policies within a global context and over time, placing the US case in conversation with considerations of migration politics and policies in countries around the world. Program Admission Requirements. The course draws from anthropology, gender studies, history, political science, religious studies, postcolonial studies, decolonial studies, and sociology. [more], American politics is often unequal, and well-organized advantaged interests tend to triumph. Before his death in 1950 at the young age of forty six, Orwell produced a stunningly large and diverse body of work in the fields of journalism, literature, and political commentary. This tutorial unsettles that framing, first by situating the black radical tradition as a species of black politics, and second through expanding the boundaries of black politics beyond the United States. The course is divided into three parts. Asking whether liberal thought, to borrow the famous joke about economists, assumes the can openers of liberalism and capitalism, taking as given that which is constructed historically, the course will look at leading theories about the role states play in constituting and maintaining capitalist economies, the definition and nature of power in liberal societies, and, more recently, the connection between identities, politics, classes, and states. We will apply our learning on many of these topics to the ongoing 2022 midterm elections. How can it be known and pursued? This course provides a historical and theoretical context for understanding what is unique about President Trump's approach to American foreign policy in the 21st century. [more], Every day, you interact with or through computer algorithms. How people ground this concept--what they think its origin is--does matter, but evaluating those foundations is not our focus. [more], Taught by: Galen E Jackson, James McAllister, This is a course about the Middle East in international politics. striving to keep marginal people alive until some solution can be found. The second half covers the most important current issues in hemispheric relations: the rise of leftist governments in Latin America; the war on drugs; immigration and border security; and competition with China for influence. What is the relationship between leadership and morality-can the ends justify the means? Our focus, then, is nothing less than the story of America -- as told by those who lived it. Although the study of religion and politics raises a host of deep philosophical questions, the principal aim of the course is to understand how religion affects politics (and vice versa), rather than to explore the normative dimensions of questions raised by the interaction of these two forces. As a writing intensive course, attention to the writing process and developing an authorial voice will be a recurrent focus of our work inside and outside the classroom. Are the politics of the presidency different in foreign and domestic policy? Throughout the semester, we will not only approach these questions from the joint perspectives of theory and practice but also seek to enrich our understanding by exploring American democracy as it happens all around us with several exercises in the community at large. and statehouses will likely determine what, if anything, President Biden achieves in the remainder of his term. 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 power and constitutional meaning in American history. Is "democracy" a procedure or a substance and what is the relationship between democratic government and market economies? move calling on those both within and outside of Europe to challenge the coloniality of the age and to forge a new vision of politics in the postcolonial period. The second part considers mid-20th-century writers who revise and critique economic liberalism from a variety of perspectives, including Joseph Schumpeter, Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman, Ronald Coase, Arthur Okun, and Albert O. Hirschman. It will not only survey the history of the nuclear age--and of individual countries' nuclear development--but also grapple with important contemporary policy dilemmas in the nuclear realm. Materials include classic texts, recent theoretical works, journalism, commentary, fiction, and a variety of sources related to current events in Ukraine and elsewhere. modernity and of politics offered by such thinkers as Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Marx, Mill, and Freud. Materials include journalism, official publications, biographies, travel accounts, polemics, policy statements of the US government, and a wide range of academic works. Fortuitous events? 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. The course will give a global perspective on Islamophobia and how it is structuring and used by political actors in various territories. It examines work on electoral systems, formal and informal institutions, bureaucratic politics, political parties, party systems, clientelism, ethnic politics, and political violence. The bulk of the course deals with the major events in the history of great power politics, such as the causes and conduct of World War I and World War II; the origins and course of the Cold War; the nuclear revolution; and the post-Cold War period. Or is economic crisis the key to understanding the conditions under which dictatorships fall? This seminar engages some of the major attempts at rethinking produced in the 20th and 21st centuries, particularly at those that, characterizing liberalism as masking structures of subordination and elements of conflict in political life, undervaluing the importance of citizen action and public space, or being ill-suited to altered technological and ecological conditions, seek to rework or move beyond it. Course readings touch briefly on social contract theories (Locke, Hobbes, Rousseau, Kant) before turning to the core material for our exploration: alternative accounts of the origins of the state based on ancient Greek and Roman mythology and the ethnological writings of nineteenth-century socialists (Marx, Engels, Bebel, and others). While the primary focus will be on the meaning of the texts in the context of their own times, contemporary applications of core concepts will also be considered. Must the freedom or fulfillment of some people require the subordination of others? (As the list suggests, the most common comparisons are with Latin America and Western Europe, but several of our authors look beyond these regions.) We will also discuss changes in religion under the influence of capitalism including romanticism, Pentecostalism, moralistic therapeutic Deism, and the 'God gap' between largely theist Africa, South and West Asia, and the Americas on the one hand and largely atheist Europe and East Asia on the other. Such cultural works depict futurities and possibilities for Black and Asian diasporas. What should be done to dissuade the authoritarian regime in North Korea from acquiring nuclear capabilities and lead it to different paths toward national survival? What are we to make of these different assessments? Then, we examine what contemporary democratic theorists have had to say about how racial equity might be achieved and how they have sought to advance this goal through their writing. Does this idea ultimately reinforce American hegemony, or plant the seeds of a non-American order? Meanwhile, efforts to reform the nation's immigration laws have been stuck in gridlock for years. This course confronts humanitarianism as an ideology through reading its defenders and critics, and as a political strategy assessing its usefulness, to whom. [more], This course explores the life, work, political thought, and activism associated with the Jamaican Pan-Africanist Marcus Mosiah Garvey and the transnational movement--Garveyism--that Garvey ushered into the modern world. Exploration of these and other questions will lead us to examine topics such as presidential selection, the bases of presidential power, character and leadership, congressional-executive interactions, social movement and interest group relations, and media interactions. Students will leave this course with a deeper understanding of contemporary urban problems, a knowledge of the political structures within which those problems are embedded, and a better sense of the challenges and opportunities leaders face in contemporary urban America. Are legal citizenship and formal political rights sufficient for belonging? We will discuss signature liberal theorists both classic and current as well as some of their most notable critics. 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. Students will develop a conceptual toolkit to study the politics of capitalism based in the economic history of the rich democracies (Europe, United States) in the twentieth century. [more], Is politics war by other means? Most countries around the world have built elaborate institutions to ensure citizens' welfare by protecting some people from some risks, but not all people and not all risks. This course focuses on the adoption and development of policies to address poverty and inequality in the U.S. How and why has capitalism evolved in different forms in different countries? What defines optimism, pessimism, enslavement, freedom, creativity, and being human? Through the lens of coastal and ocean governance and policy-making, we critically examine conflict of use issues relative to climate change, climate justice, coastal zone management, fisheries, ocean and coastal pollution and marine biodiversity. This course examines those institutions. Social unrest over the definition of American morality and over who counts as an American. Much of this work was inspired by his own experiences as a police officer in Burma, several years working and traveling with destitute workers in England and France, as well as his experiences fighting against fascism during the Spanish Civil War in the late 1930s. The course then will turn to Israeli settlement policies on the West Bank, the controversies surrounding the Oslo Agreement, and the contemporary situations in the West Bank and Gaza. legislation, balancing human needs and environmental quality has never been harder than it is today.