Donald Trump's rise to the presidency was fueled in part by his pledge to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico. Complicating things further, the nature of democratic competition is such that those vying for power have incentive to portray the opposition's leadership as dangerous. Does freedom require leading (or avoiding) a political life? dispose of stuff deemed dirty or disorderly: waste management is regime management. It is no accident that tech became a symbol for economic growth in the 1970s, precisely when it also began to build powerful alliances in Washington. [more], Although many people have described America as inclusive, political debates about belonging have often been contentious and hard-fought. If so, should it be Hebrew or Yiddish? Should feminist theory embrace objectivity and model itself upon scientific procedures of knowledge production? Others suggest that most Americans have moved "beyond race" and that racism explains little of modern-day partisan and electoral politics. As an experiential education course, we will (virtually) attend a US naturalization ceremony as well as interview officials from organizations working with migrants and refugees here and abroad. Does Thomas Jefferson's statue belong on a university campus? How does this idea about individual value liberate and entrap? How does the mass media and campaigns influence public opinion? How do nuclear weapons affect great power politics? How (if at all) should we reconcile contemporary morality with historical context in assessing the leaders from our past? Do certain kinds of processes yield better policies than others? Why is immigration policy so contentious? 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. Topics include the politics of race; rapid urbanization, especially in the valley of Mexico; and the cultural impact of the turn toward the north, after 1990, in economic policy. Does economic development drive political change, or the other way around? Williams College Political Economy Website Political Economy Major Requirements Political Economy Course Offerings The Political Economy major is designed to give students a grasp of the ways in which political and economic forces interact in shaping public policy. The course integrates theoretical perspectives related to a range of international security issues--including the causes of war, alliance politics, nuclear strategy, deterrence, coercion, reassurance, misperception, and credibility concerns--with illustrative case studies of decision-makers in action. Must the freedom or fulfillment of some people require the subordination of others? This class begins with the. Is "religion" good or necessary for democratic societies? [more], Popular unrest. story. [more], This course explores racially-fashioned policing and incarceration from the Reconstruction era convict prison lease system to contemporary mass incarceration and "stop and frisk" policies of urban areas in the United States. Our primary questions will be these: Why does transformative leadership seem so difficult today? The Wilsonian Tradition in American Foreign Policy. To how we want American politics to work? 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. Is intense security competition between major states inevitable, or can they get along, provided their main interests are protected? We ask three central questions to inform our investigation: 1) What is democracy and its alternatives? Methodologically interdisciplinary, the course shall examine written and audiovisual texts that explore Wynter's inquiries into the central seminar queries. Rather, it is designed to provide an opportunity to engage, critically and carefully, with claims about the state of democracy in the US and elsewhere; to evaluate whether those claims are valid; and, if they are, to consider strategies for mitigating the risk of democratic erosion here and abroad. How, if at all, do nuclear weapons affect how political disputes run their course? Wherever they might go, should they aspire to build a modern Jewish nation-state, a semi-autonomous Jewish community, or some other arrangement? 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 rights and constitutional meaning in American history. [more], Conservative thinkers claim to be leading an intellectual transformation away from the tired nostrums of liberalism. How is property defined, and how far should law go to erode or reinforce distinctions between property and humanity? illegal migrants, refugees) have differential access to rights, services, and representation depending on how they are classified where they live (and where they are from). International Relations of the Middle East. [more], The recent history of Venezuela offers a window into many of the most important political and economic issues faced by people in developing countries. This seminar will address these questions with the aim of introducing students to important theoretical topics and key concepts that are relevant to the comparative and critical study of Asia. one of the poorest in the world and lags in human development. Utilizing primary source material ranging from presidential speeches to party platforms, newspaper editorials to novels, we will seek to interrogate -- reconciling where possible, distinguishing where necessary, interpreting in all instances -- the disparate visions and assessments of the American political experience offered by politicians, artists, intellectuals, activists, and ordinary citizens over the course of more than two centuries. The course is organized with a focus on status: which "categories" of people (i.e. social media. This course focuses on the adoption and development of policies to address poverty and inequality in the U.S. [more], George Kennan is widely considered to be the author of the containment strategy that ultimately won the Cold War. Donald Trump's rise to the presidency was fueled in part by his pledge to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico. This tutorial investigates the relationship between state and nation over time in the United States. It considers several themes, including the slow emergence of a stable national state and the interplay between politics and economic change. Does the structure of the international system necessarily cause conflict? 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. In investigating these topics, we explore questions such as these: How is power allocated? How, if at all, do nuclear weapons affect how political disputes run their course? Who loses? Who is equal? Black Jacobins, about the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804). We will engage primarily with political science, but also with scholarship in other disciplines, including sociology, history, geography, and legal studies, all of which share an interest in the questions we will be exploring. The course ends with a discussion of the successes and failures of the European Union as the principal embodiment of the liberal project today. [more], This weekly tutorial has alternating primary and secondary writers (5pages/2pages). Ill health, inadequate sanitation, and lack of access to safe drinking water are increasingly common. How should we decide what constitutes a good policy? theoretical problems that have occupied political thinkers from Plato and Confucius to Machiavelli and the American framers: What makes a leader successful? In this tutorial, we will investigate what Arendt's vision of politics stands to offer to those struggling to comprehend and transform the darkest aspects of the contemporary political world. We also attend to the. The course also will examine the arrival of Arab Jews in the 1950-60, the conflicts between them and European Jews, and the effects of their conflicts on Israeli politics. At the same time, Republicans and Democrats fight over the scope and limits of government power on policies ranging from taxation and spending, to abortion, immigration, healthcare, policing, gun ownership, and voting rights. Many who today are recognized as great leaders were, in their historical moment, branded dangerous. And who are the groups who shape how media portray the world to us? complex as the boundaries of "the human" become blurred by the rise of artificial intelligence, robotics, and brain implants: shifting attitudes towards both animal and human bodies; and the automation of economic and military decisions (buy! This course explores the relationship between citizens and their government by examining the growth of the American state in various arenas over time, as well as the assaults on government legitimacy in recent years. What's really at stake when we depict our leaders? James' famous book, Black Jacobins, about the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804). Why do we find the visible presence of certain kinds of things or persons to be unbearably noxious? The question, an important part of political theory at least since Socrates, has taken on renewed significance in recent years, as theorists have sought to rethink the political in response to twentieth century dictatorships and world wars; feminist, queer, anti-racist, post- and decolonial struggles; the transformations wrought by neoliberal globalization; the emergence of "algorithmic governance"; the recent resurgence of populist nationalism; and deepening recognition of climate crises. protagonists, the neoliberal philosophy it opposes, and the arena of democratic politics it inhabits today. We will then use our investigation of how different authors, and different traditions, understand the nation to help us assess contemporary politics and come to our own conclusions about what animates conflicts. Having done preliminary reading on these two issues, students will conduct in-depth research into aspects of one of these questions and write a research paper. Beginning from the presumption that change often has proximate as well as latent causes, this tutorial focuses on events as critical junctures in American politics. Readings draw on philosophy, history, sociology, and international relations, but as a political science class we emphasize politics. The tutorial will address the evolution of Palestinian nationalism historically and thematically, employing both primary and secondary sources. [more], Many academics, international nongovernmental organizations, international financial institutions, and the media assert that natural resource endowments--oil, gas, and diamonds--are like the touch of Midas. Attention then turns to how post-World War II authoritariansm has been understood from a variety of perspectives, including: the "transitions to democracy" approach; analysis of problems of authoritarian control and authoritarian power-sharing; and examination of "authoritarian relience," among others. How did we get to this point and what does the future hold? Complicating things further, the nature of democratic competition is such that those vying for power have incentive to portray the opposition's leadership as dangerous. First, it will consider the the terms of American foreign policy after the Cold War, how it sets these, and continuities and discontinuities between the Clinton and Bush administrations. It is multilateral institutions ruling in peacetime that is relatively new. In this course we will assess various answers to these questions proffered by Jewish political thinkers in the modern period. The goal of this course is to assess American political change, or lack of, and to gain a sense of the role that political leaders have played in driving change. Yet inequality in wealth may conflict with the political equality necessary for democratic governance and public trust, leading to concerns that we are sacrificing community, fairness, and opportunity for the benefit of a small portion of the population. International law is similar to domestic law, with one very crucial difference: it is not enforced by a centralized, sovereign state. Most readings will focus on contemporary political debates about the accumulation, concentration, and redistribution of wealth. Topics include the politics of race; rapid urbanization, especially in the valley of Mexico; and the cultural impact of the turn toward the north, after 1990, in economic policy. In so doing, we will seek to use controversial and consequential moments in American politics as a window into deeper questions about political change and the narratives we tell about it. These and other tensions between the concept of property and that of humanity will be the focus of this course. Political Theory and Comparative Politics. What economic, historical, and sociological theories have been advanced to explain poverty? CAPSTONE: Sylvia Wynter, Black Lives, and Struggle for the Human. On what basis? In this course, we look at this debate, examining what black thinkers in particular have said about whether racial equity can be achieved in a liberal democracy founded on racial domination and why they come to the conclusions they do. Do the mass media and political elites inform or manipulate the public? The aim is to identify and analyze the principal structural and situational constraints--both foreign and domestic--that limit leaders' freedom of action, and which they must manage effectively to achieve their diplomatic and military goals. As large as they loom in our daily experience and our historical memory, these sorts of events--concrete, discrete things that happen in and around the political world--are often underestimated as catalysts of political change. What, if anything, is the difference between an ecosystem and a political community? We will conclude by reflecting on what lessons the welfare state offers for managing this century's biggest social risk: climate change. Do nuclear weapons have an essentially stabilizing or destabilizing effect? The resurgence of authoritarian styles and practices in politics. 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. It goes back to the founding moments of an imagined white (at the beginning Christian) Europe and how the racialization of Muslim and Jewish bodies was central to this project, and how anti-Muslim racism continues to be relevant in our world today. Do East Asian countries seek security and prosperity in a way fundamentally different from the Western system? Paying attention to common oppositions such as nature/civilization, primitive/advanced, anarchy/social order, feminine/masculine, ruler/ruled and stasis/progress, we will investigate how these antagonisms work together to create the conception of the state that still dominates politics today. We ask three central questions to inform our investigation: 1) What is democracy and its alternatives? The Meaning of Life and Politics in Ancient Chinese Thought. Fortuitous events? George Orwell: Capitalism, Socialism and Totalitarianism. The region is home to the world's largest democracy in India, often cited as an unlikely and puzzling success story. Many who today are recognized as great leaders were, in their historical moment, branded dangerous. The Politics of Migration: Citizen, Immigrant, Alien, Refugee. Can the framers' vision of deliberative, representative government meet the challenges of a polarized polity? We will analyze texts and audio-visual works on the political economy of late colonial Jamaica, core Rastafari thinking, political theology, the role of reggae music, the notion of agency, and the influence of Rastafari on global politics. in East Asia: Security, economy, and culture by using some core concepts and theoretical arguments widely accepted in the study of international relations. This seminar, after discussing briefly the institutions and logic of neoliberalism, will address recent challenges to it from both the left and the right in the United States and Europe. Beliefs about music can serve as a barometer for a society's non-musical anxieties: Viennese fin-de-sicle critics worried that the sounds and stories of Strauss's operas were causing moral decline, an argument that should be familiar to anyone who reads criticism of American popular music. More recent perspectives and critical interpretations will be drawn from feminist theory (Spivak, Pateman, MacKinnon, Folbre) and critical anthropology (Cassirer, Fabian, Graeber & Wengrow). Possible texts include Hamilton, Madison, and Jay, The Federalist Papers; Alfred Thayer Mahan, The Influence of Sea Power Upon History; George Kennan, American Diplomacy; Richard Immerman, Empire for Liberty; Henry Kissinger, Diplomacy; James McPherson, Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief; and a collection of primary sources. Who, exactly, has been permitted to participate in American politics, and on what terms? This suggests that the better we can understand the nature of cause and effect, the better we can understand power. [more], This seminar examines incarceration, immigration detention centers, and the death penalty from historical and contemporary perspectives. We begin with examinations of these central notions and debates, and then move to investigations of the political thought of four key late modern Afro-Caribbean and African-American thinkers within the tradition: Walter Rodney, Sylvia Wynter, Cedric Robinson, and Angela Davis. If the U.S. is a nation of immigrants, why is immigration reform so difficult to achieve? 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). "rights"? Or ideology? The first part of the course focuses primarily on the Middle East's impact on the international system throughout the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, while the second part of the course examines contemporary issues. Should "religion" be singled-out for exclusion from government? Do black lives matter? Scholars, practitioners, and observers of American politics have debated whether the net effect is positive or negative. We will not only describe American involvement in various international issues but also seek to understand the reasons why the US perhaps should or should not be involved, and we will see why such careful reasoning only sometimes gains traction in actual US foreign policy debates. How do nuclear weapons affect great power politics? But the irony is that their oppressors were the leaders of the French Revolution across the Atlantic. The implications for political polarization, economic growth, social insurance programs, public health, military defense, even national survival are grim. We will study figures and movements for black lives whose geopolitics frame the milieu of Wynter's work. We will carefully consider, for example, the drafting of the U.S. Constitution, continental expansion in the Manifest Destiny period, the Civil War, overseas expansion in the late nineteenth century, the presidency of Woodrow Wilson, the Second World War, the Cold War, and the "War on Terror." This class investigates one of the most polarizing and relevant issues of our time: the politics of migration. Or could they go anywhere? Theorists studied include: Frank Wilderson; Angela Davis; Derrick Bell; Cheryl Harris. Comprised of nearly 50 countries and home to over 1 billion people, sub-Saharan Africa is remarkable in its diversity, particularly in regards to a number of outcomes central to the study of political science: how do institutions of the past shape current dynamics of political competition and economic growth? Themes include: Where does political power come from? And we will ask persistently: what constitutes a "Jewish justification" for a political claim in modern Jewish political theory? Four class debates will focus general concepts on a specific topic: the global implications of the Russo-Ukrainian War. What kinds of alternatives are considered as solutions to these problems? [more], The dominant world economies -- the USA, China, and the European Union -- are responding to the economic risks that might arise from the coronavirus with what have become the standard responses to economic crises. Others portray the feminist agenda as one of taking power, or of reconstructing society by exercising a specifically feminist mode of power. 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.
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