This First-Year Writing Seminar is devoted to the study of political power and the interaction of citizens and governments and provides the opportunity to write extensively about these issues. Topics vary by term.

Full details for GOVT 1101 - FWS: Power and Politics

Disagreement is at the heart of the university and at the heart of democracies. In universities, scholars in every discipline engage in disagreement every day, from the nature of the outer reaches of the galaxy, to the value and meaning of different works of literature, to the ideal forms of government. Similarly, democracies confront disagreement as often as they do agreement: for example, how should wealth be distributed? How do we balance rights with responsibilities? How fast should speed limits be? Effective scholars and effective citizens alike need to wrestle with how to disagree. This course addresses this challenge head on. First, it will expose students to compelling points of disagreement in the academy, crossing the physical sciences, the social sciences, and the humanities. Students will observe and engage with leading academics debating questions and issues like “There is life on other planets”, “We do not need to read Shakespeare”, or “Progress is an overrated concept.” These debates will be held live on campus, giving students a chance to experience them collectively, and then engaging in a moderated discussion about them afterwards. Second, students will undertake seminar discussions about these topics, and then complete various writing assignments that engage with the questions in the debates. This will happen under the supervision of a faculty member, who can engage students in the material from their own disciplinary perspective. Third, students will complete a set of common writing assignments online that are also linked into the course content, further reinforcing both their instruction in writing and their appreciation of the importance of disagreement.

Full details for GOVT 1109 - Disagreement

A policy-centered approach to the study of government in the American experience. Considers the American Founding and how it influenced the structure of government; how national institutions operate in shaping law and public policy; who has a voice in American politics and why some are more influential than others; and how existing public policies themselves influence social, economic, and political power. Students will gain an introductory knowledge of the founding principles and structure of American government, political institutions, political processes, political behavior, and public policy. (GOVT-AM)

Full details for GOVT 1111 - Introduction to American Government and Politics

At the inception of this department at Cornell University in 1969, the Africana Studies and Research Center became the birthplace of the field Africana studies. Africana studies emphasizes comparative and interdisciplinary studies of Africa, the U.S., the Caribbean and other diasporas. In this course, we will look at the diverse contours of the discipline. We will explore contexts ranging from modernity and the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and plantation complex in the New World to processes of decolonization and globalization in the contemporary digital age. This course offers an introduction to the study of Africa, the U.S., the Caribbean and other diasporas. This course will examine, through a range of disciplines, among them literature, history, politics, philosophy, the themes - including race/racism, the Middle Passage, sexuality, colonialism, and culture - that have dominated Africana Studies since its inception in the late-1960s. We will explore these issues in an attempt to understand how black lives have been shaped in a historical sense; and, of course, the effects of these issues in the contemporary moment. This course seeks to introduce these themes, investigate through one or more of the disciplines relevant to the question, and provide a broad understanding of the themes so as to enable the kind of intellectual reflection critical to Africana Studies.

Full details for GOVT 1503 - Introduction to Africana Studies

An introduction to the basic concepts and practice of international politics with an emphasis on learning critical thinking. The course is divided into two parts. In the first half, we will learn about different explanations. In the second half, we will apply these explanations to a set of international events. (GOVT-IR)

Full details for GOVT 1817 - Making Sense of World Politics

This course centers Black women who have often described their reproductive health experiences as fighting for our lives. While grounded in an exploration of Black women 's experiences in the US, this course also looks across the diaspora to issues of access, rights, and equity in reproductive health. Deeply inspired by the field of Black Feminist Health Science Studies, a field that advocates for the centrality of activism in healthcare and its importance for Black women's overall health and well-being, this course examines how issues of gender, race, class, ability, and power intersect to inform how reproductive health is conceptualized, practiced, and experienced. Ultimately, this course will yield a deeper understanding of how Black women have transformed existential and literal threats on their lives into a robust terrain of community-based activism and a movement for reproductive justice. We will read across a range of texts and genres from the historical and theoretical, to memoir and documentary. With what we learn together, we will craft contributions to public debates around healthcare issues impacting Black women. (HIST-HNA)

Full details for GOVT 2022 - Fighting for Our Lives: Black Women's Reproductive Health and Activism in Historical Perspective

This course offers an introduction to Latina/o/x politics in the United States. We examine the political experiences, participation, and representation of Latino/a/x communities, with attention to identity, leadership, media, social movements, and policy preferences. The course emphasizes the historical, cultural, and demographic factors that shape political engagement and influence. Students gain foundational tools for understanding Latino/a/x within the broader U.S. political system. (GOVT-AM)

Full details for GOVT 2031 - Introduction to Latino-a-x Politics

In recent years, poverty and inequality have become increasingly common topics of public debate, as academics, journalists, and politicians attempt to come to terms with growing income inequality, with the increasing visibility of inter-country differences in wealth and income, and with the persistence of racial, ethnic, and gender stratification. This course introduces students to ongoing social scientific debates about the sources and consequences of inequality, as well as the types of public policy that might appropriately be pursued to reduce (or increase) inequality. These topics will be addressed in related units, some of which include guest lectures by faculty from other universities (funded by the Center for the Study of Inequality). Each unit culminates with a highly spirited class discussion and debate.

Full details for GOVT 2225 - Controversies About Inequality

The course concerns the principles and philosophical arguments underlying conflicts and moral dilemmas of central and ongoing concern to society as they arise within legal contexts. We consider questions such as what justifies using state power to punish people for wrongdoing, what kinds of conduct are rightly criminalized, what justifies the Supreme Court's power to strike down Congressional legislation, what justifies the right to private property and its boundaries, what is the right to privacy and why it is important, what are human rights, and what is the morality and law of war. Throughout we will be reading legal cases and philosophical commentaries that engage with the deep issues that the cases pose.

Full details for GOVT 2432 - Moral Dilemmas in the Law

This course will cover current events in Europe as they unfold during the semester. Each week the two meetings will features a topic day in which students learn about a current issue of importance for Europe and a analytical day in which we see how social science tools and methods can help us better understand that issue. Faculty from across the university will be invited to deepen students' understanding of elections, European Union actions and debates, refugee issues, security issues, and other relevant political and social events occurring in Europe. The course will respond flexibly to unforeseen events, teach students to become intelligent consumer of high quality news sources on Europe, expose students to different points of view on these issues, and introduce them to relevant social science theories and methods. (GOVT-CP)

Full details for GOVT 2553 - Inside Europe

This course will examine key issues in social and political philosophy. Topics may include the legitimacy of the state, political obligation, the nature and demands of justice, equality, liberty, and autonomy. Selected readings may be drawn from historical as well as contemporary sources.

Full details for GOVT 2605 - Social and Political Philosophy

This class offers students a selective introduction to the work of Hannah Arendt, one of the most brilliant, maddening, controversial, and unclassifiable political thinkers of the twentieth century, through a sampling of her writings from the 1940s into the 1970s paired with writings on related themes by some of her contemporaries. Topics and pairings will change from year to year but may include the rise of authoritarian and totalitarian forms of government, ancient Greek and Roman philosophy and politics, the intersections between capitalism, bureaucracy, and technology, the meanings of fundamental ideas like ?freedom? and ?power,? the political significance of modern art, literature and culture, revolutionary politics in Europe and North America, racism and antisemitism, violence, war, and civil disobedience, among others. (GOVT-PT)

Full details for GOVT 2655 - Hannah Arendt And

This course offers a survey of American political thought from the colonial period to the present. We will read Puritan sermons, revolutionary pamphlets, philosophical treatises, presidential orations, slave narratives, prison writings, and other classic texts, in order to understand the ideas and debates that have shaped American politics. Topics to be discussed will include the meaning of freedom, the relationship between natural rights and constitutional authority, the idea of popular sovereignty, theories of representation and state power, race and national identity, problems of inequality, and the place of religion in public life. Lectures will be organized around both historical context and close reading of primary texts. (GOVT-PT, HIST-HNA)

Full details for GOVT 2665 - American Political Thought

This lecture class will explore the socio-cultural history of modern Egypt from the late 18th century to the 21st century Arab Spring. We will explore Egyptian history under the Ottomans and the Mamluks, the unsuccessful French attempts to colonize Egypt, and the successful British occupation of the country. We will then examine the development of Egyptian nationalism from the end of the 19th century through Nasser's pan-Arabism to the 2011 Egyptian Revolution. We will accomplish this with the aid of a variety of texts and media, including novels and films.

Full details for GOVT 2673 - The History and Politics of Modern Egypt

The course is an introduction to game theory for students from diverse disciplinary backgrounds and interests. Game theory is a discipline barely one hundred years old. Its rise to prominence, with implications for various subjects, from economics, politics, and philosophy, to finance, diplomacy and computer science, in such a short time, has few parallels. The course is meant to be a primer on the subject for students who have no background in it. It can serve as groundwork for students pursuing different disciplines and also for those who intend to later take more advanced courses in game theory.

Full details for GOVT 2803 - Game Theory: For Finance, Diplomacy and Everyday Life

Is Afghanistan part of Central Asia, South Asia, or the Middle East? Is it truly the 'graveyard of empires'? Why are great powers so interested in intervening in this country? Why did Britain, the Soviet Union, and the United States fail to maintain their presence there? How does Afghan society and politics function? In this course, students will have the opportunity to explore answers to these and other questions. (GOVT-IR)

Full details for GOVT 2847 - Political History of Modern Afghanistan

This course examines the history of the conflict between two peoples with claims to the same land (Palestine/Israel), from the rise of their national movements at the turn of the 20th century and their eventual clash down to the present crisis. We will investigate the various stable and shifting elements in the evolution of the conflict including conflicting Israeli and Palestinian narratives and mythologies about the nature of the conflict. Among many issues to be addressed are: the relationship of this conflict to the history of European colonialism in the Middle East, the emergence of Pan-Arabism and Islamism, the various currents in Zionism and its relationship to Judaism, the implication of great power rivalry in the Middle East, the different causes and political repercussions of the four Arab-Israeli wars, efforts at peacemaking including Oslo and Camp David, and the significance of the two Palestinian uprisings.

Full details for GOVT 2977 - History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

This seminar, using faculty-directed research projects, is intended to survey China's transformation through revolution and reform since 1949, and to examine major issues under the themes of modernity and sustainability in the reform era.

Full details for GOVT 3007 - China in Transition

This course, offered by faculty members of Peking University's School of International Studies, provides Chinese perspectives on contemporary China's international relations.

Full details for GOVT 3017 - Chinese Perspectives on International and Global Affairs

Climate policy is one of the most important and contentious areas of politics in the US today. In this course we will consider climate change in the United States, identifying how political institutions, everyday people, and the physical environment come together to affect climate policy. This course will consider climate policy at the local and federal level, as well as examine how the US participates in international climate agreements. Students will critically analyze contemporary US climate policy; develop and addresses pertinent research questions; and learn how to conduct and communicate policy-relevant research. (GOVT-AM)

Full details for GOVT 3061 - Climate Politics in the US

In this course, students will design, conduct, and analyze a national-level public opinion survey. Students will determine all survey questions based on their research interests. All necessary survey research skills will be learned in the class. (GOVT-AM)

Full details for GOVT 3189 - Taking America's Pulse: Creating and Conducting a National Opinion Poll

This course examines how media structures political power in the United States and how race/ethnicity shape who is heard, represented, and mobilized. Using a political science lens, we analyze how political actors use media to govern, how media shapes public opinion, and how marginalized communities develop alternative media systems to challenge exclusion. Treating media as a political institution, we explore its interactions with campaigns, movements, parties, and the state. The course concludes by examining ethnic media as a site of political power and community governance. (GOVT-AM)

Full details for GOVT 3252 - Media, Race, and Political Power in the United States

This course investigates the United States Supreme Court and its role in politics and government. It traces the development of constitutional doctrine, the growth of the Court's institutional power, and the Court's interaction with Congress, the president, and society. Discussed are major constitutional law decisions, their political contexts, and the social and behavioral factors that affect judges, justices, and federal court jurisprudence.

Full details for GOVT 3281 - Constitutional Politics

From a perspective based on comparative political economy, this course examines pressing contemporary issues such as the politics of growing inequality. We consider conflicts around markets, democracy, economic and social justice, including the efforts of actors such as governments and labor unions aimed at economic recovery, reducing inequality, and the reform of national and global economic policy and institutions. We also look at distinctive types of political and economic organization, especially in Europe and the United States, and the capacities of these societies to meet current economic, political, and social challenges, both domestic and international.

Full details for GOVT 3303 - Politics of the Global North

What explains authoritarian resilience in the Middle East? What are the causes and consequences of Islamist political attitudes and behavior? What is the historical legacy of colonialism and empire in the Middle East? This course will offer students the opportunity to discuss these and other questions related to the political, social, and economic development of the Middle East and North Africa. (GOVT-CP)

Full details for GOVT 3313 - Comparative Politics of the Middle East

The course will be thoroughly comparative in order to highlight both the specificity of each country as well as more generalizable dynamics of 21st century development. It will be divided into a number of inter-related modules. After a framing lecture, we will briefly cover the two countries' distinct experiences with colonialism and centralized planning. Then we will move on to dynamics of growth, which will seek to explain the relative success of China in the era of market reforms. In analyzing political consequences, we will assess how new forms of cooperation and conflict have emerged. This will involve attention to both internal dynamics as well as how rapid development has seen an increasing accumulation of political power in the East. It goes without saying that accelerating growth has led to huge social change, resulting in profound reorganizations of Chinese and Indian society. Finally, the course will conclude by returning to our original question - is this indeed The Asian Century? What does the rise of China and India mean for the rest of the world, and how are these two giant nations likely to develop in the future? (ASIAN-SC)

Full details for GOVT 3384 - The Asian Century: The Rise of China and India

Do you want to learn the discussion-based case method as taught at the Harvard Business School? Do you want to learn how to write a long research paper? Do you not want to take a final examination? If you answer these questions affirmatively, this course may be for you. We are told often that American primacy is in decline and that other powers are rising. What does this mean when we examine the experience of Government and Business in different countries around the world? Is the international political economy a hydraulic system in which some units rise and others fall? Are the dynamics of the international political economy all pointing in one direction? Or are they marked by cross-currents? This course seeks answers to these questions by teaching the basics of macro-economics, examining a range of powerful states (among others China, India, Russia and Japan) and persisting issues (financial globalization and foreign investment; oil and OPEC; trade and aid) as they play themselves out in different countries (such as Malaysia, Korea; Saudi Arabia, Nigeria; Mexico, Brazil, Uganda, Indonesia). (GOVT-AM, GOVT-CP, GOVT-IR)

Full details for GOVT 3547 - WIM: America, Business and International Political Economy

This course examines how domestic political institutions, interests, and decision-making processes shape states? behavior in the international arena, and how international forces feed back into domestic politics. It focuses on the areas where this interaction is most consequential: international political economy, security and foreign policy, and international organizations. (GOVT-IR)

Full details for GOVT 3617 - Domestic Politics of International Relations

This course introduces students to questions and debates around the role and effects of race and racism in international politics. Scholars of international politics have long neglected such questions in world affairs, even though the origins of international relations - as an academic discipline - can be traced back to the early years of the 20th century, when questions of imperialism and governance over different races necessitated the development of new ways of thinking about inter-state and inter-racial relations. Over the past two decades, however, prompted by insights from post-colonial theory and cultural studies but also by continued Western military engagements in the Middle East and Africa, new scholarly publications have sought to bring back the analysis of the color line into our conversations about global politics. The major themes covered in this course include critical debates around the meanings and salience of race; colonialism; race and IR; decolonization and Third Worldism; race and war on/and terror; and race and international law and climate justice. (GOVT-IR)

Full details for GOVT 3947 - Race and World Politics

China is often thought of as being isolated from the outside world. It is imagined as existing in historic seclusion, and, following the establishment of the People's Republic, as pursuing a path of autarky. Such separation has then only been somewhat modified by the set of economic reforms that Deng Xiaoping first instituted in the late 1970s. In this lecture we will seek to turn such conventional wisdom on its head through examining what China is via a consideration of transnational currents within the country's development. However, the course's primary focus will not be upon the past, but rather the present and attempting to determine just where the point of intersection between China and the rest of the world is. Coming to terms with such an issue will provide those who enroll in the class with a deeper, more nuanced, understanding of China's rise and this trend's implications for the rest of the world. We will accomplish this task through a combination of surveying the existing literature on China and transnational politics, and considering new theoretical perspectives on both. (ASIAN-SC, GOVT-IR)

Full details for GOVT 3967 - What is China?

Major seminars in the Government department are small, advanced courses that cover an important theme or topic in contemporary politics in depth. Courses place particular emphasis on careful reading and classroom discussion, and students can expect to write a significant research paper. These courses are open to all Cornell students, but preference in admissions is given to seniors over juniors, and to Government majors over other students. Topics vary by semester and section.

Full details for GOVT 4000 - Major Seminar

This is an advanced seminar on the political economy of East and Southeast Asia. Our central task is to uncover the political underpinnings of economic performance across countries and over time. Along the way, we will address issues such as corruption and rent-seeking, the developmental state, class conflict, ethnic politics, reform and stagnation, and democracy.

Full details for GOVT 4194 - Asian Political Economy

This seminar will look broadly at challenges to democratic institutions in the United States and Europe. To think about the present, we will delve into historical fascism as well as nationalism and populism. We will (1) respond to contemporary political events in the US and beyond; (2) explore the terms fascism and populism which in the last few years have come to dominate our political vocabulary in the media and the academy; (3) mobilize the instructor's area of academic expertise (fascism and populism) in the service of broad liberal arts concerns. The course focuses upon themes and readings. It is not chronological-rather it looks at different iterations of the same ideas, concepts, and fears as they emerge in different historical contexts. Seminar materials draw upon various sources: scholarly articles, films, and if possible, an occasional guest lecturer.

Full details for GOVT 4543 - Fascism, Nationalism and Populism

Full details for GOVT 4723 - Peace Building in Conflict Regions: Case Studies Sub-Saharan Africa Israel Palestinian Territories

This is an introduction to the three 'master thinkers' who have helped determine the discourses of modernity and post-modernity. We consider basic aspects of their work: (a) specific critical and historical analyses; (b) theoretical and methodological writings; (c) programs and manifestos; and (d) styles of argumentation, documentation, and persuasion. This also entails an introduction, for non-specialists, to essential problems of political economy, continental philosophy, psychology, and literary and cultural criticism. Second, we compare the underlying assumptions and the interpretive yields of the various disciplines and practices founded by Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud: historical materialism and communism, existentialism and power-knowledge analysis, and psychoanalysis, respectively. We also consider how these three writers have been fused into a single constellation, 'Marx-Nietzsche-Freud,' and how they have been interpreted by others, including L. Althusser, A. Badiou, A. Camus, H. Cixous, G. Deleuze, J. Derrida, M. Foucault, H.-G. Gadamer, M. Heidegger, L. Irigaray, K. Karatani, J. Lacan, P. Ricoeur, L. Strauss, S. Zizek.

Full details for GOVT 4735 - Marx, Nietzsche, Freud

Seminar intended to examine the increasingly complex relationship that has evolved between China and the rest of the international system, with particular focus on the rise of Chinese nationalism and the extent to which those in Tibet, Xinjiang, and, to a lesser extent, Taiwan, are contesting such a trend. In so doing, the course emphasizes the interrelated, yet often contradictory, challenges facing Beijing in regards to the task of furthering the cause of national unity while promoting policies of integration with international society and interdependence with the global economy. (ASIAN-SC, GOVT-IR)

Full details for GOVT 4827 - China, Tibet and Xinjiang

This seminar creates a structured environment in which honors students will examine different research approaches and methods and construct a research design for their own theses-a thesis proposal that probes a new or inadequately researched question of importance to the discipline of political science or political theory. Apart from being a thesis writing workshop, the honors research class serves as a capstone course giving an overview of the different topics and methods addressed by students of politics. Members of the class will do extensive reading in published work relevant to their topics, and write a critical summary of that literature. Each member of the class will present their research design and central question(s) to the class for constructive criticism. By the end of the class, each honors student will have written the first chapter of the thesis, including the statement of the question, literature review, key definitions, methodology, and identification of data source(s). They will be working closely with an individual faculty adviser, as well as interacting with the research class. Students are strongly encouraged to examine some past honors theses on reserve at Kroch library in order to get an idea of the standards a government thesis must meet.

Full details for GOVT 4949 - Honors Seminar: Thesis Clarification and Research

One-on-one tutorial arranged by the student with a faculty member of his or her choosing. Open to government majors doing superior work, and it is the responsibility of the student to establish the research proposal and to find a faculty sponsor. Applicants for independent study must present a well-defined program of study that cannot be satisfied by pursuing courses in the regularly scheduled curriculum. No more than 4 credits of independent study may count toward fulfillment of the major. Students who elect to continue taking this course for more than one semester must select a new theme or subject each semester. Credit can be given only for work that results in a satisfactory amount of writing. Emphasis is on the capacity to subject a body of related readings to analysis and criticism. Keep in mind that independent study cannot be used to fulfill the seminar requirement. The application form for independent study must be completed at the beginning of the semester in which the course is being taken.

Full details for GOVT 4999 - Undergraduate Independent Study

The goal of this course is to introduce probability and statistics as fundamental building blocks for quantitative political analysis, with regression modeling as a focal application. We will begin with a brief survey of probability theory, types of measurements, and descriptive statistics. The bulk of the course then addresses inferential statistics, covering in detail sampling, methods for estimating unknown quantities, and methods for evaluating competing hypotheses. We will see how to formally assess estimators, and some basic principles that help to ensure optimality. Along the way, we will introduce the use of regression models to specify social scientific hypotheses, and employ our expanding repertoire of statistical concepts to understand and interpret estimates based on our data. Weekly lab exercises require students to deploy the methods both 'by hand' so they can grasp the basic mathematics, and by computer to meet the conceptual demands of non-trivial examples and prepare for independent research. Some time will be spent reviewing algebra, calculus, and elementary logic, as well as introducing computer statistical packages. (GOVT-AM)

Full details for GOVT 6019 - Introduction to Probability and Applied Statistics

This course will explore the role of psychology in politics ? that is, rather than examining what happened in politics (e.g., who won an election) or how it happened (e.g., who voted for whom), we will look at why it happened by looking at the psychology of individuals. We?ll delve into enduring questions such as do the common liberal democratic assumption that citizens are rational and engaged in political affairs hold up to empirical scrutiny? If not, can the public still effectively participate in democracy? When do individuals engage with politics? What motivates them? More generally, what are the implications of psychology for the way politics works, and ought to work? In answering these questions, students will also learn about the variety of methodological tools used to study political psychology including lab experiments, online surveys, and field studies. (GOVT-AM)

Full details for GOVT 6032 - Political Psychology

An advanced graduate-level methods class that covers a mix of statistical and computational models and methods. These will include an introduction to generalized linear models, machine learning models, and models for non-standard data types (spatial, text, audio-visual). (GOVT-CP)

Full details for GOVT 6039 - Statistical and Computational Models

General survey of the literature and propositions of the international relations field. Criteria are developed for judging theoretical propositions and are applied to the major findings. Participants are expected to do extensive reading in the literature as well as research. (GOVT-IR)

Full details for GOVT 6067 - Field Seminar in International Relations

The seminar will explore readings in the history of political thought from Homer to the Twenty-first century. (GOVT-PT)

Full details for GOVT 6075 - Field Seminar in Political Thought

This course, Analysis of Natural Experiments, will cover topics in the study of observational causal inference. We will focus on quantitative methods for analyzing time-series cross-sectional (?panel?) data to study the effects of political shocks, policy rollouts, institutional changes, and more. Methods studied will include difference-in-differences, event study, and regression discontinuity designs. (GOVT-AM)

Full details for GOVT 6129 - Analysis of Natural Experiments

This course provides graduate students in political science with a survey of the major works in the subfield of American Political Development centrally concerned with race, racism, and their institutionalization in American government and society. These works will provide a framework for engaging with major debates in the wider political science field of American Politics. Each week is organized a central text, with ancillary readings intended to situate it within relevant debates. (GOVT-AM)

Full details for GOVT 6211 - Racism and Democracy in American Political Development

The course examines the political relationship between ethno-racial diversity and economic redistribution. We assess the wide range of literature relevant to this subject, including that on the comparative politics of public goods provision, the political development of the American welfare state, and the political economy of globalization. Emphasis is placed on synthesizing theoretical proposals and integrating methodological approaches. We then explore how to apply these insights to pressing research areas, such as the study of populism, immigration, and economic growth. (GOVT-AM, GOVT-CP)

Full details for GOVT 6323 - Diversity and Distribution

This seminar is an overview of the field of comparative politics targeting Ph.D. students in the Government department. This course introduces students to classic works as well as recent contributions that build upon those works. Readings draw from leading theoretical approaches-including structural, institutional, rational choice, and cultural perspectives-and cover a broad range of substantive topics, such as regime types, democratization, states and civil society, political economy, violence, mobilization, voting, and representation. (GOVT-CP)

Full details for GOVT 6353 - Field Seminar in Comparative Politics

This course investigates variation in the quality of governance and development in developing areas. Rather than providing a survey, the objective of this course is to discuss select open research areas at the intersection of politics and development and the tools necessary to contribute to them. Topics will include institutions and economic growth, colonial legacies, origins of the state, state capacity, social identity, and conflict. Students will complete a final research paper that develops an analytically rigorous argument about governance or development using the tools discussed in class. (GOVT-CP)

Full details for GOVT 6354 - Comparative Politics of Developing Countries

The course will be thoroughly comparative in order to highlight both the specificity of each country as well as more generalizable dynamics of 21st century development. It will be divided into a number of inter-related modules. After a framing lecture, we will briefly cover the two countries' distinct experiences with colonialism and centralized planning. Then we will move on to dynamics of growth, which will seek to explain the relative success of China in the era of market reforms. In analyzing political consequences, we will assess how new forms of cooperation and conflict have emerged. This will involve attention to both internal dynamics as well as how rapid development has seen an increasing accumulation of political power in the East. It goes without saying that accelerating growth has led to huge social change, resulting in profound reorganizations of Chinese and Indian society. Finally, the course will conclude by returning to our original question-is this indeed The Asian Century? What does the rise of China and India mean for the rest of the world, and how are these two giant nations likely to develop in the future? (ASIAN-SC)

Full details for GOVT 6384 - The Asian Century: The Rise of China and India

Democracy has been in retreat on the global stage for much of the past two decades, reversing many of the democratic gains of the post-Cold War period. What explains this reversal of fortunes, and what, if anything, can be done about it? This course examines democracy in theory and in practice, exploring the origins and institutional forms of democratic rule, transitions to and from democracy, the fragilities and discontents that leave democratic regimes vulnerable to backsliding, and the institutional and civil society sources of democratic resiliency. (GOVT-CP)

Full details for GOVT 6483 - Authoritarianism and Democracy

After having been reduced to a mere ideological formation of bourgeois origin, aesthetics has recently made a strong comeback in the field of theory. This course probes the reasons for this historical change. From the arguments of the critics we will derive a catalogue of criteria for a viable aesthetics in order to examine how contemporary aesthetic theory relates to cognitive theories, the historicity of art and taste (including specific practices and institutions), and the emancipatory potentials of ethics and politics. Readings may include Adorno, Berger, de Bolla, Bourdieu, Noël Carroll, Cavell, Danto, Derrida, Dickie, Eagleton, Goodman, Guillory, Gumbrecht, Halsall, Luhmann, Lyotard, de Man, Walter Benn Michaels, Obrist, Ohmann, Scarry, Seel, Shustermann, Barbara Herrnstein Smith, Williams and others.

Full details for GOVT 6517 - Contemporary Aesthetic Theory and its Discontents

This seminar will look broadly at challenges to democratic institutions in the United States and Europe. To think about the present, we will delve into historical fascism as well as nationalism and populism. We will (1) respond to contemporary political events in the US and beyond; (2) explore the terms fascism and populism which in the last few years have come to dominate our political vocabulary in the media and the academy; (3) mobilize the instructor's area of academic expertise (fascism and populism) in the service of broad liberal arts concerns. The course focuses upon themes and readings. It is not chronological-rather it looks at different iterations of the same ideas, concepts, and fears as they emerge in different historical contexts. Seminar materials draw upon various sources: scholarly articles, films, and if possible, an occasional guest lecturer.

Full details for GOVT 6543 - Fascism, Nationalism and Populism

This is a course on networks and text in quantitative social science. The course will cover published research using text and social network data, focusing on health, politics, and everyday life, and it will introduce methods and approaches for incorporating high-dimensional data into familiar research designs. Students will evaluate past studies and propose original research.

Full details for GOVT 6619 - Text and Networks in Social Science Research

It is often argued that the Liberal International Order is facing serious challenges ? or even a crisis ? which may likely give rise to a different world order where the US and Western Europe would no longer be the main arbiters of international law, norms, and rules. This new world order, we are told, may be less rules-based, less free, less liberal, and less democratic. This course revisits the history of the Liberal International Order and its current state, while questioning the hegemonic discourses and the values it claims. The themes covered in the course include world orders and order-making; anarchy, hierarchy, and order in international politics; race, empire, and the Liberal International Order; non-western world orders and order-making otherwise; law and international order; and the future of the Liberal International Order. (GOVT-IR)

Full details for GOVT 6817 - The Liberal International Order and Its Discontents

This seminar is intended to examine the increasingly complex relationship that has evolved between China and the rest of the international system, with particular focus on the rise of Chinese nationalism and the extent to which those in Tibet, Xinjiang, and, to a lesser extent, Taiwan, are contesting such a trend. In so doing, the course emphasizes the interrelated, yet often contradictory, challenges facing Beijing in regards to the task of furthering the cause of national unity while promoting policies of integration with international society and interdependence with the global economy. (GOVT-IR)

Full details for GOVT 6827 - China, Tibet and Xinjiang

The Proseminar in Peace Studies offers a multidisciplinary review of issues related to peace and conflict at the graduate level. The course is led by the director of the Judith Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies and is based on the Institute's weekly seminar series, featuring outside visitors and Cornell faculty. (GOVT-IR)

Full details for GOVT 7937 - Proseminar in Peace Studies

Individualized readings and research for graduate students. Topics, readings, and writing requirements are designed through consultation between the student and the instructor. Graduate students in government who are looking to use this as an option to fulfill their course requirements should check with their chairs to be certain that the program of study is acceptable for this purpose. Applications must be completed and signed by the instructor and by the chairs of their special committees. They are available from, and must be returned to, the graduate assistant in 212 White Hall.

Full details for GOVT 7999 - Independent Study