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POLISCI 427R: Race and Racism in American Politics

Topics include the historical conceptualization of race; whether and how racial animus reveals itself and the forms it might take; its role in the creation and maintenance of economic stratification; its effect on contemporary U.S. partisan and electoral politics; and policy making consequences.

Terms: not given this year | Units: 5 | Grading: Letter or Credit/No Credit

POLISCI 428: Political Economy and Political Behavior

[Same as POLECON 677] This seminar will expose students to cutting-edge research in political behavior and political economy published in the leading political science (and other social science) journals. The aim is for students to learn the contemporary literature so that they can be producers of research. To that end, the required assignments in the class will be aimed at professional development: writing an original research note, writing a review, and delivering a scholarly presentation.

Terms: Spr | Units: 4 | Grading: Letter or Credit/No Credit

Instructors: Malhotra, N. (PI)

POLISCI 430A: Wealthy Hellas

Drawing on Herodotus and other literary sources, ancient historians have traditionally seen classical Greece as a very poor land. Recent research, however (much of it conducted here at Stanford), suggests that Greece in fact saw substantial economic growth and rising standards of living across the first millennium BCE. This seminar tests the poor Hellas/wealthy Hellas models against literary and archaeological data. We will develop and test hypotheses to explain the rate and pace of economic change in the Greek world.

Terms: not given this year | Units: 4-5 | Grading: Letter (ABCD/NP)

POLISCI 430B: Wealthy Hellas

Drawing on Herodotus and other literary sources, ancient historians have traditionally seen classical Greece as a very poor land. Recent research, however (much of it conducted here at Stanford), suggests that Greece in fact saw substantial economic growth and rising standards of living across the first millennium BCE. This seminar tests the poor Hellas/wealthy Hellas models against literary and archaeological data. We will develop and test hypotheses to explain the rate and pace of economic change in the Greek world.

Terms: not given this year | Units: 1-5 | Grading: Letter (ABCD/NP)

POLISCI 432R: Selections in Modern Political Thought

This graduate-level seminar will explore selections from the canon of Western political thought from the late fifteenth through nineteenth centuries. Throughout the course, we will engage in close textual readings of individual thinkers and consider some of the larger questions raised by political modernity. The readings will expose students to the republican, liberal, conservative, and democratic traditions that had a formative influence on the United States. The thinkers covered will include: Niccolò Machiavelli, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Edmund Burke, Publius (Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay), and Alexis de Tocqueville.

Terms: Aut | Units: 5 | Grading: Letter or Credit/No Credit

Instructors: McQueen, A. (PI)

POLISCI 433: Workshop in Political Theory

For graduate students. May be repeated for credit.

Terms: Aut, Win, Spr | Units: 1-2 | Repeatable for credit | Grading: Satisfactory/No Credit

Instructors: Olson, K. (PI)

POLISCI 434: Egalitarianism

This seminar will explore different theories of equality in contemporary political philosophy. Topics include: the currency of equality (equality of what?); equality versus sufficiency or prioritarianism; the relationship between equality and responsibility; the value of equality; and different interpretations of equality of opportunity. Readings will be drawn from the work of Elizabeth Anderson, G.A. Cohen, Ronald Dworkin, Thomas Nagel, Derek Parfit, John Rawls, Thomas Scanlon, Amartya Sen, and others.

Terms: Win | Units: 5 | Grading: Letter (ABCD/NP)

Instructors: Olson, K. (PI)

POLISCI 435R: Political Realism (PHIL 372R)

This seminar will explore various articulations of political realism in their historical contexts. Realism is generally taken to be a pragmatic approach to a political world marked by the competition for material interests and the struggle for power. Yet beyond a shared critique of idealism and an insistence on the priority and autonomy of the political, realists tend to have very different normative visions and political projects. We will consider the works of several political realists from the history of political and international relations thought, including: Thucydides, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Carr, Niebuhr, and Morgenthau.

Terms: not given this year | Units: 3-5 | Grading: Letter or Credit/No Credit

POLISCI 436R: Amartya Sen's capability theory (PHIL 378)

Amartya Sen's pioneering work attempts to open up economics to missing informational and evaluative dimensions. This seminar will explore Sen's "capability approach" and its implications for the study of economics, gender, and justice. It will look at different ways that the capability approach has been developed, in particular, by Martha Nussbaum, but also by other political philosophers.

Terms: not given this year | Units: 2-4 | Grading: Letter or Credit/No Credit

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