2009-10 Catalog: Political Science

Introduction to the tools and concepts of analytical political science. Subject matter is primarily American political processes and institutions. Topics: spatial models of voting, redistributive voting, games, presidential campaign strategy, Congress, congressional-bureaucratic relations, and coverage of political issues by the mass media.

Development and presentation of a major research paper on a topic of interest in political science or political economy. The project will be one that the student has initiated in a political science course he or she has already taken from the PS courses required for the PS option, numbered above 101. This course will be devoted to understanding research in political science, and basic political science methodology. Students will be exposed to current research journals, work to understand a research literature of interest, and work to formulate a research project. Fulfills the Institute scientific writing requirement.

A consideration of existing literature on the voting behavior of the citizen, and an examination of theoretical and empirical views of the strategies followed by the parties.

Theory, practice, and consequence of political representation in the electoral context. Topics include the concept of representation; how the degree of representation of various groups and interests (such as ethnic and racial) is affected by different electoral rules; and the impact of representation of minorities on public policies. The primary focus is on the empirical literature pertaining to the United States, but examples from other countries are also examined for comparative purposes.

This course will examine the historical origins of several regulatory agencies and trace their development over the past century or so. It will also investigate a number of current issues in regulatory politics, including the great discrepancies that exist in the cost- effectiveness of different regulations, and the advent of more market-based approaches to regulations instead of traditional "command- and-control." Not offered on a pass/fail basis.

The aim of this course is to introduce students to theoretical and applied research in political economy. The focus will be on formal analysis of the strategic interaction between rational individuals, political institutions, and economic outcomes. Some of the questions will be: Why do people vote? What are the incentives of elected politicians, and what is the effect of these incentives on the policies they will implement? To what extent do differences in political institutions account for differences in redistributive policies? Topics may include the theory of voting, models of direct democracy, models of electoral competition, the political economy of redistribution, and comparative political institutions.

. This class studies the relationships among business, government, and interest groups as strategic actors in the nonmarket environment. Methods of influencing public policy are analyzed using the tools of modern political theory and ethical frameworks. Topics may include media, private collective action, international business, and corporate social responsibility. Knowledge of basic political and economic theory will be useful.

Axiomatic structure and behavioral interpretations of game theoretic and social choice models and models of political processes based on them.

The purpose of this course is to understand legislative elections. The course will study, for example, what role money plays in elections and why incumbents do better at the polls. It will also examine how electoral rules impact the behavior both of candidates and voters, and will explore some of the consequences of legislative elections, such as divided government.

This class will examine budgetary conflict at key junctures in U.S. history. Topics include the struggle to establish a viable fiscal system in the early days of the Republic, the ante bellum tariff, the "pension politics" of the post-Civil War era, the growth of the American welfare state, and the battle over tax and entitlement reform in the 1980s and 1990s.

The development of the Supreme Court, its doctrines, personalities, and role in U.S. history through analyses of selected cases. The first half of the course, which is a prerequisite for the second half but may also be taken by itself, will deal with such topics as federalism, economic regulation, political rights, and free speech. The second half will cover such issues as the rights of the accused, equal protection, and privacy.

An examination of recent work in laboratory testing in the social sciences with particular reference to work done in social psychology, economics, and political science. Students are required to design and conduct experiments.

Axiomatic structure and behavioral interpretations of game theory models in social science. Axiomatic utility theory and general noncooperative games.

This course offers advanced undergraduates the opportunity to pursue research in political science or economics. Graded pass/fail.