Political Science (POLSC-UH)

This course introduces students to the study of comparative politics and the study of domestic political institutions around the world. The course emphasizes the use of theory and evidence to generate and test hypotheses about both the causes and the consequences of the observed variation in domestic political institutions. For example, the course investigates the factors that lead some countries to democratize, and others to institute authoritarian governments, as well as the consequences of those institutional choices for policy outcomes. The course also looks at the variations in institutional arrangements within both democratic and non-democratic governments.

The goal of this course is to introduce the basic analytical concepts and techniques that are essential for understanding international politics. The course is especially concerned with analytically exploring major issues in international politics, such as the causes of war, the emergence of cooperative trade relations between states, the origins and functioning of international organizations such as the United Nations, and the political determinants of financial crises. The focus of the course is neither historical nor descriptive; rather, it requires students to exercise skills in logic and to think of imaginative ways to apply subtle techniques to gain a clearer grasp of the above political issues.

What is the "war on terrorism" - a concept made famous by the United States' response to the September 11, 2001 attacks - and how is this war, which has become a key feature of international relations in the decades since, different from other wars? Who defines what constitutes a terrorist, what differentiates terrorism from legitimate resistance and contestation, and what political factors drive its continuation, as well as its demise? This course invites students to probe these controversial questions by anchoring their understanding in the most cutting-edge research on these debates. The course explores the USA's experience in combatting and fomenting terrorism in Afghanistan and Iraq post-9/11. It also immerses students in globally diverse comparative case studies - including Spain, Ireland, Israel-Palestine, South Africa, the Gulf, right-wing terrorism in the USA and Europe and left-wing terrorism in Peru and Colombia - that encourage them to critically parse patterns in combatting real and alleged terrorism. What strategic, conceptual, and political achievements versus mistakes have been made across those experiences? And how are those lessons shaping international responses to terrorism in emerging domains such as AI and cybercrime?

How do political scientists conduct research to answer the questions they are interested in? How do they communicate these ideas? How should students engage with political science research? This addresses the basics of doing political by introducing students: 1) how to consume political science research; 2) to the basics of research design; and 3) how to communicate political science ideas. The course will include writing memos, exams, presentations, and will end with students making a research proposal.

Social scientists and policy analysts rely heavily on research drawing on observational data. Students learn to manage and analyze such data and to employ statistical techniques that are common in these applications, with an emphasis on how to translate social science theory into empirical research. Topics include review of basic regression analysis, building multivariate analytical models, and regression analysis with limited dependent variables. The course emphasizes practical training in these skills as well as evaluation, replication, and critical analysis of research conducted in the social science literature. The course is designed as an alternative for students in the social sciences who are not taking Introduction to Econometrics.

This course addresses key theoretical and empirical topics in political psychology, drawing on both the experimental tradition of social psychology and the survey-based tradition of political science. Consideration is given to the political psychology of collective public behavior, including issues of social identity, intergroup relations, and group interaction, as well as individual political attitude formation and decision-making. Social and psychological antecedents and consequences of political orientation and ideological opinions are also addressed.

This course is an introduction to political economy. It focuses on the interaction between states, citizens, private enterprises, and markets. It starts by introducing some of the core concepts in game theory, such as simple normal and extensive form games; and pure and mixed strategy equilibria. It then reviews some of most influential works in contemporary political economy. The rest of the course is divided into three parts. The first part examines the support for, and the effects of domestic economic policies on welfare and inequality. The second part focuses on policies for economic development, from a comparative perspective, as well as hindrances. The final part studies the role of media and information on political accountability and state control of media.

It is now widely acknowledged that politics plays a central role in influencing economic development. This makes the political economy of development a central area of research. While a student with an introductory background to political economy will have familiarity with theories based on voting, this course stresses a variety of other factors that explain why some countries are rich and democratic while others are poor, corrupt, and unstable. After discussing the real meaning of development, the course surveys classical and contemporary theories of economic growth and development ranging from neoclassical to structural to recent endogenous growth theories. Specific topics reviewed in the second part of the course include population growth, migration, the security of property rights, the creation of market and non-market institutions, lobbying and rent-seeking, corruption, social conflict, and the political economy of redistribution. Examples from historical experience as well as modern developing countries would be used throughout the course.

What role does identity play in politics? Does culture affect political behavior? What is culture? In this course students examine the formation and role of identity in politics - and how identity and culture affect outcomes such as public goods provision, inter-group violence, democratization, and economic growth. Here, identity is not treated as fixed but as constructed, and its formation itself an outcome to be explained. Students will examine identity and its relation to distributive politics, representation, political mobilization, conflict, and coordination. Similarly, culture is not treated as static, but is dynamic. Students will seek to understand changes in culture over time as well as their effect on behavior, and assess different approaches to the study of culture.

This course examines how legislation and regulation influence the structure of financial markets, and how players in these markets intervene in the political process to create or modify legislative and regulatory outcomes. Particular emphasis will be placed on the United States, although international comparisons will also be present. The approach will be similar to that used in microeconomics, except that transactions will be made through voting institutions rather than through economic exchange.

Studying comparative politics sheds light on political outcomes in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) by examining divergent trajectories among countries in the region. As such, the course will focus on both the modern political history of MENA states since independence up to the contemporary period, but with an emphasis on the application of social-scientific theories that explain these historical processes. The topics of this course include the dynamics of authoritarianism and democracy in the Arab region, political Islamist movements, the weight of its professional and entrepreneurial middle classes, and the role of youth and the unemployed in maintaining or challenging the regime. Students will also examine the organization of the state, including the military and the intelligence services, the role of parliaments and elections, and the distribution of wealth.

How did the borders of South Asian countries come to be formed? What explains the variation in the types of regimes - democratic and authoritarian - across South Asia? To what extent do these countries vary in the structure of their states as well as regimes? How does ethnic diversity affect the politics of South Asian countries? What is the pattern of economic growth across these countries, and their human development record and why? What explains the high levels of violence in some South Asian countries and patterns of variation across these countries? These are some of the questions that this course addresses, with a primary focus on India and a secondary focus on Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Burma, and Bhutan. Although students learn a vast number of facts about the history and politics of the region, the primary purpose of the course is to identify overarching patterns that characterize the politics of these regions - and to teach students to think analytically and comparatively about these patterns.

This course has as a central focus the political institutions of the United States and the effects of those institutions on policy outcomes. The course also places these institutions in the context of those of other wealthy democracies, as a means of illustrating several of the unique features of US political institutions. Topics covered in the course include separation of powers, federalism, and single-member district electoral rules.

The goal of this course is to introduce participants to the study of African politics from multiple methodological approaches and in a number of African contexts. The course begins with the historical roots of contemporary African politics, exploring how pre-colonial institutions and colonialism shaped African politics at independence. Next the course will survey the political and economic strategies of leaders post-independence and the factors shaping those strategies. The course includes an examination of the causes and consequences of poor governance, and evaluates the recent patterns of redemocratization on the continent. The course closes with a discussion of present-day challenges: electoral malfeasance, public health crises, the "new" populism, and China in Africa.

This course examines the political ramifications of the way that economic resources are produced and distributed in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Students will examine a range of political-economic issues both in historical context and current debates. The class will cover post-colonial development initiatives and their long-term ramifications on MENA states; current issues of economic redistribution, social services and inequality; the implementation of liberalization programs and the rise of crony capitalism; the role of oil in economic development and state formation in the Gulf; and the ramifications of widespread youth unemployment in the region. Students will be expected to write a research paper examining data on a current political-economic topic from the region and its relevance to politics in one or more Middle Eastern countries.

This seminar-style course constitutes a comparative study of the post-colonial politics of the North African region - specifically the states of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya. Through a combination of intensive reading, in-class discussion, and writing, students will develop an in-depth understanding of the politics in these four individual states and comparisons between them. The first part of the course focuses on essential aspects of North African politics across the four countries, including post-independence nation-building, the role of the military, Islamist movements, and Berber movements. The second dives into the political dynamics that have shaped, and in some cases transformed, politics in North Africa during and since the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings.

This course examines the relationship between media and politics: how mass and social media influence political beliefs and behavior, and how political forces shape media landscapes. The class will study the role of media in ensuring a well-informed citizenry and improving government accountability through elections and collective action. It will then focus on institutional and personal constraints that hinder the ability of media to fulfill these goals. In particular, this class will cover media slant, censorship, fake news, and polarization on the institutional side, and motivated reasoning, correlational neglect, and selective exposure on the personal side. The readings are meant to familiarize students with classical and recent research on media and politics, as well as raising issues of relevance. The questions discussed in this course will not always have easy answers. This will especially be true when we discuss the role of social media in contemporary politics.

This course familiarizes students with high-quality research and writing in a particular area of comparative politics: the politics of representative government in industrialized democracies. We read and discuss work in four categories. We begin with voters and examine drivers of their behavior, including policy preferences, valence considerations, and economic motivations. We then move to electoral systems and their effects on politicians' behavior and policy choices, paying particular attention to how electoral systems influence particularism. Next, we consider why politicians form parties and weigh up competing theories of the functions served by parties. Finally, we study questions of governance, including why certain coalitions are formed and not others, how coalitions are managed, and how ministerial portfolios are allocated. Class discussions are focused on understanding why the authors tackled the questions they did and how they went about crafting and evaluating answers to those questions. One of the course's goals is to provide students with an opportunity to write a research paper of their own. To this end, the bulk of assessment will be writing-based.

This introductory course on Latin American politics delves into the critical issues highlighted in the literature regarding the region's historical political developments while exploring the main theoretical approaches and concepts used to elucidate these events. The course spans Latin American history, seeking to identify the changes that occurred in different periods, the driving forces behind these changes, and their repercussions. It begins with an examination of colonialism and its enduring effects, progressing to the processes of independence and nation-building in the early 19th century. Subsequently, it explores the region's shift to capitalism, leading to oligarchic political regimes and liberal institutions (late 19th to early 20th centuries). The course then examines the era of early democratization, industrialization, and corporatism (1920s-60s), as well as the erosion of democracy and the ascent of authoritarianism throughout the region. Finally, it concludes with an exploration of more recent transitions to democracy, the persistent challenges of instability, weak rule of law, and violence, as well as debates about climate change and the environment.

This course focuses on a key mechanism facilitating international cooperation - international institutions. The course examines institutions ranging from informal institutions, or regimes, to formal, intergovernmental organizations. We ask the following questions: how are institutions established? What makes them change over time? What impact (if any) do they have? How do they operate and structure decision making? How do international institutions affect domestic politics? What challenges are international institutions facing? The course will begin by focusing on different theoretical perspectives on these questions, and continue by examining international institutions in specific issue areas.

This course provides a gentle introduction to modeling political behavior, using game theory to investigate political problems. Topics will include the policy position of political parties (the median voter problem), allocating cabinet positions within governments (divide the dollar problem), use of the Presidential veto (and other agenda setting problems) and how political institutions affect the types of policies government implement (selectorate theory). International relations problems will also be considered: models of bargaining and war, arms expenditures, the democratic peace and the provision of foreign aid. For instance, recently US President Trump has told NATO members that they need to spend more of defense. Using a model of collective action we will see why the US spends so much more that its NATO allies and how changes in threats over time have affected the imbalance in spending. The course assumes no prior mathematical modeling, although students should not be afraid of math. Students should expect to use basic algebra to solve problems (if you can solve two equations for two unknowns then you have all the required math skills).

This course focuses on the politics of nuclear weapons. Why do states seek nuclear weapons? What advantages do they provide to states in international crises? What explains the variation of states' reactions to another state's pursuit of nuclear technology? When do non-proliferation deals emerge, and what explains their content? To answer these questions, we will review the relevant academic literature on the spread of nuclear weapons, and study the histories of various nuclear programs. While some of the literature we will cover uses game theory, there are no prerequisites for this course.

Business, Politics, & Society (BPS) is a case-based MBA-style course that introduces students to the political economy of firms. Substantively, the course focuses on the political and social underpinnings of the market system, analyzes corporate political strategy and corporate social responsibility, and presents tools for assessing and mitigating risks, especially as they relate to politics, law/regulation, ethics, and other actors in society. The goal of the course is to help students to learn to structure and solve complex problems in dynamic global markets. Case studies from a variety of countries and industries will be supplemented with academic readings.

This seminar-style course introduces students to the most important principles and practical tools of qualitative research on politics in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. It aims to prepare students to undertake their own, high-quality original research on MENA politics using one or more qualitative methods.

This course offers a comprehensive survey of topics in international security and prepares students to conduct original research in this field. It covers a broad range of security challenges: interstate war, nuclear deterrence, coercive diplomacy, alliance formation, arms control, civil war, and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The course is organized around key debates in the field: Does backing down in a crisis invite further aggression? Are nuclear weapons effective in compelling adversaries, or are they only good at deterring attacks? Why is arms control so rare, and when does it constrain adversaries? Is unipolarity good for global order, or does it generate its own conflict dynamics? Can military alliances mitigate the risk of conflict, or do they increase it? A structured series of assignments helps students learn how to identify puzzles in existing literature, formulate analytical research questions, develop coherent theoretical arguments, and test their empirical implications. By the end of the course, students will have a thorough understanding of key theoretical and policy debates in international security and will complete an original research paper.

This seminar examines two aspects of modern political life: election administration and electoral malfeasance. Election administration describes the set of policies and practices that determine how an election is carried out. Electoral malfeasance describes the strategies political actors use to rig the electoral process or manipulate results. These topics are intertwined. Election administration can be used as a political tool to the benefit or detriment of a candidate, using election policies to create an uneven playing field. And while well-designed election administration can minimize the chances of fraud, mere perceptions of fraud can undermine the legitimacy of even high-quality electoral institutions, bringing the result of an election into doubt. This research seminar focuses on the methods and research designs used in quantitative social science to study (i) the effects election administration has on voter behavior and (ii) the presence of fraud in a set of election returns. Students will dissect recent work in the field, present on cutting edge work, and complete a replication-and-extension or pre-analysis plan that they may carry out as a capstone project.

Foreign policy decisions, like any other decisions state leaders make, are products of the pulls and pushes of domestic and international actors whose capabilities, tastes, and stakes compete to determine policy outcomes. These decisions are, thus, strategic. To teach the implications of various strategic settings for decision-making processes, the first seven weeks of the course offer an introduction to the toolbox of analytic techniques that are essential for understanding, analyzing, predicting, and eventually engineering policy choices in international politics. The second seven-week part of the course will cast the students as advisors on the most challenging decisions any political leader has to make. Using the analytical tools students mastered in the first part of the course, they will advise leaders in deciding how they should act in the face of foreign policy crises such as the Iran nuclear deal or disputes over natural gas drilling in the Mediterranean Sea. Throughout this part of the course, students will engage in red-teaming, write short strategic options memos and detailed case studies to inform policymaking with a model-based approach.

This course focuses on the forces shaping countries' foreign economic policies. Why do governments choose to protect some industries behind high tariff walls while leaving others exposed to international competition? Why have many countries removed barriers to crossborder financial flows - and what are the political consequences of financial market openness? Have the series of economic crises over the past couple of decades shifted the distribution of global economic and political power? In this course, we will develop an analytical toolkit to provide insight into these and other questions. The course is organized thematically. We start with an (1) overview of globalization and the world economy today. Following the introduction, we discuss (2) theoretical building blocks devoted to the main issue areas that concern IPE specialists: international trade, money, and finance. (3) Then we apply the theoretical frameworks in the historical context from 1896 to today. The rest of the course focuses on (4) current issues in IPE.

Civil war continues to be one of the most vexing problems in comparative and international politics. Why do civil wars break out? Aside from the obvious physical destruction caused by civil conflict what are the effects of civil conflict on society? How can the international community help end civil conflicts? This course will address these questions. It is broken into five substantive blocks, starting with an introduction to the concepts and patterns of war-related conflict around the globe, the factors that bring about civil wars, the dynamics of civil conflicts, followed by its consequences, and then moving on to what, if anything, countries and the international community can do to ameliorate this problem. The inter-disciplinary course draws on political science, behavioral economics, social psychology, history and anthropology, along with some research in natural sciences.

This course examines how authoritarian regimes navigate and reshape global governance. As autocracies govern a majority of the world’s population and have emerged as central players in major international institutions, understanding their role in global politics is essential. The course introduces core concepts and classifications of authoritarianism before analyzing authoritarian states’ behavior and impact. Substantive modules explore authoritarian regimes across key domains of international relations: security, human rights, international trade, and global finance. Building on these analyses, the course examines the emergence of “clubs of autocrats” – IOs dominated by authoritarian states – as well as authoritarian interactions with liberal institutions. The final weeks focus on the rise of China and debates over the future of global governance amid growing authoritarian influence. Throughout the course, students engage with cutting-edge research, conduct original research, and receive structured feedback through workshops. The course is suitable for advanced undergraduate students interested in international relations, comparative politics, and global governance.

Students develop a research question, construct a research design that allows them to test potential answers to that question, collect relevant data, analyze the results, and write a senior thesis.

Students develop a research question, construct a research design that allows them to test potential answers to that question, collect relevant data, analyze the results, and write a senior thesis.