Stanford University Bulletin

Code	Name	Description
POLISCI1	The Science of Politics	Why do countries go to war? How can we explain problems such as poverty, inequality, and pollution? What can be done to improve political representation in the United States and other countries? We will use scientific methods to answer these and othe...
POLISCI101	Introduction to International Relations	The course provides an introduction to major factors shaping contemporary international politics, including: the origins and nature of nationalism; explanations for war; nuclear weapons; international implications of the rise of China; civil war and...
POLISCI101Z	Introduction to International Relations	Approaches to the study of conflict and cooperation in world affairs. Applications to war, terrorism, trade policy, the environment, and world poverty. Debates about the ethics of war and the global distribution of wealth.
POLISCI102	Introduction to American Politics and Policy: In Defense of Democracy	American democracy faces a series of unprecedented challenges. This course will identify the greatest areas of weakness in the American political system, make sense of the most pressing threats facing democracy, and contemplate how democracy can be s...
POLISCI103	Justice	Justice, as we use the term in this class, is a question about social cooperation. People can produce much more cooperatively than the sum of what they could produce as individuals, and these gains from cooperation are what makes civilization possibl...
POLISCI110C	America and the World Economy	Examination of contemporary US foreign economic policy. Areas studied: the changing role of the dollar; mechanism of international monetary management; recent crises in world markets including those in Europe and Asia; role of IMF, World Bank and W...
POLISCI110D	War and Peace in American Foreign Policy	The causes of war in American foreign policy. Issues: international and domestic sources of war and peace; war and the American political system; war, intervention, and peace making in the post-Cold War period. Political Science majors taking this co...
POLISCI110G	Governing the Global Economy	Who governs the world economy? Why do countries succeed or fail to cooperate in setting their economic policies? When and how do international institutions help countries cooperate? When and why do countries adopt good and bad economic policies? How...
POLISCI110X	America and the World Economy	Examination of contemporary US foreign economic policy. Areas studied: the changing role of the dollar; mechanism of international monetary management; recent crises in world markets including those in Europe and Asia; role of IMF, World Bank and W...
POLISCI110Y	War and Peace in American Foreign Policy	The causes of war in American foreign policy. Issues: international and domestic sources of war and peace; war and the American political system; war, intervention, and peace making in the post-Cold War period. Political Science majors taking this co...
POLISCI111	The Politics of Climate Change	This course explores domestic and international dimensions of the politics of climate change. Selected topics include mitigation efforts at the national, state, and local level; international climate bargaining and cooperation; and implications of a...
POLISCI113	Understanding Russia: Its Power and Purpose in a New Global Order	Russia presents a puzzle for theories of socio-economic development and modernization and their relationship to state power in international politics. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 brought into being the new Russia (or Russian Federation)...
POLISCI114D	Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law	This course explores the different dimensions of development - economic, social, and political - as well as the way that modern institutions (the state, market systems, the rule of law, and democratic accountability) developed and interacted with oth...
POLISCI114S	International Security in a Changing World	International Security in a Changing World examines some of the most pressing international security problems facing the world today: nuclear crises, the rise of China, war, terrorism, and climate change. Alternative perspectives - from political sc...
POLISCI115	Spies, Lies, and Algorithms: The History and Future of American Intelligence	This course examines the past, present, and future of American espionage. Targeted at first years and sophomores, the class surveys key issues in the development of the U.S. Intelligence Community since World War II. Topics include covert action, int...
POLISCI115B	Israel, the Middle East and Nuclear Weapons	Israel, the Middle East and Nuclear Weapons is intended for students who are interested to learn about Israel's national security policy in the context of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East. The course is divided into three parts, and combines...
POLISCI118P	U.S. Relations with Iran	The evolution of relations between the U.S. and Iran. The years after WW II when the U.S. became more involved in Iran. Relations after the victory of the Islamic republic. The current state of affairs and the prospects for the future. Emphasis is on...
POLISCI118Y	Shaping the Future of the Bay Area	The complex urban problems affecting quality of life in the Bay Area, from housing affordability and transportation congestion to economic vitality and social justice, are already perceived by many to be intractable, and will likely be exacerbated by...
POLISCI118Z	Shaping the Future of the Bay Area	Students are placed in small interdisciplinary teams (engineers and non-engineers, undergraduate and graduate level) to work on complex design, engineering, and policy problems presented by external partners in a real urban setting. Multiple projects...
POLISCI120B	Campaigns, Voting, Media, and Elections	(Graduate students enroll in COMM 262. COMM 162 is offered for 5 units, COMM 262 is offered for 4 units.) This course examines the theory and practice of American campaigns and elections. First, we will attempt to explain the behavior of the key play...
POLISCI120C	American Political Institutions in Uncertain Times	This course examines how the rules that govern elections and the policy process determine political outcomes. It explores the historical forces that have shaped American political institutions, contemporary challenges to governing, and prospects for...
POLISCI120Z	What's Wrong with American Government? An Institutional Approach	How politicians, once elected, work together to govern America. The roles of the President, Congress, and Courts in making and enforcing laws. Focus is on the impact of constitutional rules on the incentives of each branch, and on how they influence...
POLISCI121L	Racial-Ethnic Politics in US	This course examines the profound role race plays in American politics. Topics covered include the construction of political identity among Asian, Black, Latino, Native, and White Americans; the politics of immigration and acculturation; and the infl...
POLISCI124A	The American West	The American West is characterized by frontier mythology, vast distances, marked aridity, and unique political and economic characteristics. This course integrates several disciplinary perspectives into a comprehensive examination of Western North Am...
POLISCI124L	The Psychology of Communication About Politics in America	Focus is on how politicians and government learn what Americans want and how the public's preferences shape government action; how surveys measure beliefs, preferences, and experiences; how poll results are criticized and interpreted; how conflict be...
POLISCI125M	Latino Social Movements	Social movements are cooperative attempts to change the world. This course reviews historically significant and contemporary political and social movements in Latino communities in the U.S., including the movements of the 1960s and events of the mode...
POLISCI125P	The First Amendment: Freedom of Speech and Press	(Graduate students enroll in 251. COMM 151 is offered for 5 units, COMM 251 is offered for 4 units.) The First Amendment: Freedom of Speech and Press (Law 7084): Introduction to the constitutional protections for freedom of speech, press, and express...
POLISCI125S	Chicano/Latino Politics	The political position of Latinos and Latinas in the U.S.. Focus is on Mexican Americans, with attention to Cuban Americans, Puerto Ricans, and other groups. The history of each group in the American polity; their political circumstances with respect...
POLISCI126	Between Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, JR.: Race, Religion, and the Politics of Freedom	Malcolm X (El Hajj Malik El Shabazz) and Martin Luther King, Jr. are both icons of the twentieth-century civil rights and black freedom movements. Often characterized as polar opposites - one advocating armed self-defense and the other non-violence a...
POLISCI127A	Finance, Corporations, and Society	Both 'Free market capitalism' and democracy appear to be in crisis around the world. This interdisciplinary course, which draws from the Social Sciences, Business and Law, will help you gain a deeper understanding of the root causes of these intertwi...
POLISCI130	Liberalism and its Critics	In this course, students will learn and engage with the core debates that have animated political theory in modern times. What is the proper relationship between the individual, the community, and the state? Are liberty and equality in conflict, and,...
POLISCI131L	Modern Political Thought: Machiavelli to Marx and Mill	This course is an introduction to the history of Western political thought from the late fifteenth century through the nineteenth century. We will consider the secularization of politics, the changing relationship between the individual and society,...
POLISCI132A	The Ethics of Elections	Do you have a duty to vote? Should immigrants be allowed to vote? Should we make voting mandatory? How (if at all) should we regulate campaign finance? Should we even have elections at all? In this course, we will explore these and other ethical ques...
POLISCI133	Ethics and Politics of Public Service	Ethical and political questions in public service work, including volunteering, service learning, humanitarian assistance, and public service professions such as medicine and teaching. Motives and outcomes in service work. Connections between service...
POLISCI133Z	Ethics and Politics in Public Service	This course examines ethical and political questions that arise in doing public service work, whether volunteering, service learning, humanitarian endeavors overseas, or public service professions such as medicine and teaching. What motives do people...
POLISCI134	Ethics for Activists	Activists devote sustained effort and attention toward achieving particular goals of social and political change. Do we have an ethical obligation to be activists? And how should those who do choose to be activists (for whatever reason) understand th...
POLISCI134E	Universal Basic Income: the philosophy behind the proposal	Universal basic income (or UBI) is a regular cash allowance given to all members of a community without means test, regardless of personal desert, and with no strings attached. Once a utopian proposal, the policy is now discussed and piloted througho...
POLISCI134L	Introduction to Environmental Ethics	How should human beings relate to the natural world? Do we have moral obligations toward non-human animals and other parts of nature? And what do we owe to other human beings, including future generations, with respect to the environment? The first p...
POLISCI134P	Contemporary Moral Problems	In this course, we will explore contemporary moral issues that arise in the lives of students at higher education institutions and consider their implications beyond campus. Taking the university as a starting point for moral analysis, we will explor...
POLISCI135	Citizenship	This class begins from the core definition of citizenship as membership in a political community and explores the many debates about what that membership means. Who is (or ought to be) a citizen? Who gets to decide? What responsibilities come with ci...
POLISCI135D	The Ethics of Democratic Citizenship	We usually think about democratic citizenship in terms of rights and opportunities, but are these benefits of democracy accompanied by special obligations? Do citizens of a democracy have an obligation to take an interest in politics and to actively...
POLISCI135E	Philosophy of Public Policy	From healthcare to voting reforms, social protection and educational policies, public policies are underpinned by moral values. When we debate those policies, we typically appeal to values like justice, fairness, equality, freedom, privacy, and safet...
POLISCI136R	Introduction to Global Justice	Our world is divided into many different states, each of which has its own culture or set of cultures. Vast inequalities of wealth and power exist between citizens of the rich world and the global poor. International commerce, immigration, and climat...
POLISCI137	Philosophy of Law: Protest, Punishment, and Racial Justice	In this course, we will examine some of the central questions in philosophy of law, including: What is law? How do we determine the content of laws? Do laws have moral content? What is authority? What gives law its authority? Must we obey the law? If...
POLISCI137A	Political Philosophy: The Social Contract Tradition	(Graduate students register for 276.) What makes political institutions legitimate? What makes them just? When do citizens have a right to revolt against those who rule over them? Which of our fellow citizens must we tolerate?Surprisingly, the answer...
POLISCI138E	Egalitarianism and Anti-Egalitarianism	How do we argue for equality today? How did we argue for equality in the past? This class will introduce students to egalitarian and anti-egalitarian thought and to contemporary conceptions of equality. It will provide an in-depth introduction to the...
POLISCI13N	Identity Politics 101	How do we understand the political choices citizens make? Why do Black and White Americans disagree so vehemently about racially-charged incidents like officer-involved shootings? What explains disagreements over policies like welfare and immigration...
POLISCI140P	Populism and the Erosion of Democracy	What is populism, and how much of a threat to democracy is it? How different is it from fascism or other anti-liberal movements? This course explores the conditions for the rise of populism, evaluates how much of a danger it poses, and examines the d...
POLISCI141	Political Economy of Development	The last few decades have seen remarkable progress in lifting millions of people out of poverty worldwide. Yet, millions still are unable to meet even their most basic sustenance needs. This course examines foundational reasons for why some countries...
POLISCI141A	Immigration and Multiculturalism	What are the economic effects of immigration? Do immigrants assimilate into local culture? What drives native attitudes towards immigrants? Is diversity bad for local economies and societies and which policies work for managing diversity and multicul...
POLISCI143C	The Politics of Internet Abuse	There are many ways in which the internet is abused to cause human harm. Terrorists use social media for recruitment. Government trolls harass opposition politicians and mass report activist accounts for supposed platform violations. Foreign and dome...
POLISCI143S	Comparative Corruption	Causes, effects, and solutions to various forms of corruption in business and politics in both developing regions (e.g. Asia, E. Europe) and developed ones (the US and the EU).
POLISCI146A	African Politics	Africa has lagged the rest of the developing world in terms of economic development, the establishment of social order, and the consolidation of democracy. This course seeks to identify the historical and political sources accounting for this lag, an...
POLISCI147	Comparative Democratic Development	Social, cultural, political, economic, and international factors affecting the development and consolidation of democracy in historical and comparative perspective. Individual country experiences with democracy, democratization, and regime performanc...
POLISCI147B	Gender, Identity, and Politics	Identity, whether national, religious, racial, ethnic, gender, sexual, or otherwise, can importantly shape how people experience the political world. Why do some identities become politically salient and how does identity shape politics? This course...
POLISCI148	Chinese Politics	China, one of the few remaining communist states in the world, has not only survived, but has become a global political actor of consequence with the fastest growing economy in the world. Why has the CCP thrived while other communist regimes have fa...
POLISCI149S	Islam, Iran, and the West	Iran and Islam have had a long and complicated relationship. This course covers the rise of Islam, its expansion in Iran, forms of resistance to and acceptance of Islamic ideas in Iran, the rise of Shiism and the impact of Iran on the development of...
POLISCI149T	Middle Eastern Politics	Topics in contemporary Middle Eastern politics including institutional sources of underdevelopment, political Islam, electoral authoritarianism, and the political economy of oil.
POLISCI14SC	River and Region: The Columbia River and the Shaping of the Pacific Northwest	This seminar will explore the crucial role of the Columbia River in the past, present, and future of the Pacific Northwest. Topics will include the lives and legacies of the indigenous peoples that Lewis and Clark encountered more than two centuries...
POLISCI150A	Data Science for Politics	Data science is quickly changing the way we understand and and engage in the political process. In this course we will develop fundamental techniques of data science and apply them to large political datasets on elections, campaign finance, lobbying...
POLISCI150B	Machine Learning for Social Scientists	Machine learning - the use of algorithms to classify, predict, sort, learn and discover from data - has exploded in use across academic fields, industry, government, and the non-profit sector. This course provides an introduction to machine learning...
POLISCI150C	Causal Inference for Social Science	Causal inference methods have revolutionized the way we use data, statistics, and research design to move from correlation to causation and rigorously learn about the impact of some potential cause (e.g., a new policy or intervention) on some outcome...
POLISCI151	Tackling Big Questions Using Social Data Science	Big data can help us provide answers to fundamental social questions, from poverty and social mobility, to climate change, migration, and the spread of disease. But making sense of data requires more than just statistical techniques: it calls for mod...
POLISCI153	Strategy: Introduction to Game Theory	This course provides an introduction to strategic reasoning. We discuss ideas such as the commitment problem, credibility in signaling, cheap talk, moral hazard and adverse selection. Concepts are developed through games played in class, and applied...
POLISCI153Z	Strategy: Introduction to Game Theory	This course provides an introduction to strategic reasoning. We discuss ideas such as the commitment problem, credibility in signaling, cheap talk, moral hazard and adverse selection. Concepts are developed through games played in class, and applied...
POLISCI154	Solving Social Problems with Data	Introduces students to the interdisciplinary intersection of data science and the social sciences through an in-depth examination of contemporary social problems. Provides a foundational skill set for solving social problems with data including quant...
POLISCI181	Computers, Ethics, and Public Policy	Ethical and social issues related to the development and use of computer technology. Ethical theory, and social, political, and legal considerations. Scenarios in problem areas: privacy, reliability and risks of complex systems, and responsibility of...
POLISCI182	Ethics, Public Policy, and Technological Change	Examination of recent developments in computing technology and platforms through the lenses of philosophy, public policy, social science, and engineering. Course is organized around five main units: algorithmic decision-making and bias; data privacy...
POLISCI1Z	The Science of Politics	Why do countries go to war? How can we explain problems such as poverty, inequality, and pollution? What can be done to improve political representation in the United States and other countries? We will use scientific methods to answer these and othe...
POLISCI209	Curricular Practical Training	Qualified Political Science students obtain employment in a relevant research or industrial activity to enhance their professional experience consistent with their degree programs. Meets the requirements for Curricular Practical Training for students...
POLISCI209Z	Research in Political Science and International Relations	Students will assist faculty with research projects. They will also attend workshops/seminars and complete written assignments that demonstrate their knowledge of research design, data analysis, and software. Students must apply through Summer Sessio...
POLISCI20N	The American Electorate in the Trump Era	This seminar will introduce students to the methods social scientists use to analyze public opinion, voting and elections, with primary emphasis on the 2016 elections and the upcoming 2020 elections. Students will utilize major databases such as the...
POLISCI20Q	Democracy in Crisis: Learning from the Past	This January, an armed insurrection assaulted the U.S. Capital, trying to block the Electoral College affirmation of President Biden's election. For the past four years, American democracy has been in continual crisis. Bitter and differing views of w...
POLISCI211N	Nuclear Politics	Why do states develop nuclear weapons and why do some states, that have the technological capacity to build nuclear weapons, nonetheless refrain from doing so? What are the consequences of new states deploying nuclear weapons? Do arms control treatie...
POLISCI213	US-Russia Relations After the Cold War	A quarter century ago, the Soviet Union collapsed and the Cold War ended. At the time, Russian leaders aspired to build democratic and market institutions at home. They also wanted to join the West. American presidents Democrat and Republican encoura...
POLISCI213E	Introduction to European Studies	This course offers an introduction to major topics in the study of historical and contemporary Europe. We focus on European politics, economics and culture. First, we study what makes Europe special, and how its distinct identity has been influenced...
POLISCI214	Israel: Society, Politics, and Policy	The course "Israel: Society, Politics, and Policy" invites students to explore modern Israel in comparative perspective. Few countries in the world have captured the American imagination as much as Israel and are at the same time as poorly understood...
POLISCI214R	Challenges and Dilemmas in American Foreign Policy	This seminar will examine the complexities and trade offs involved in foreign policy decision-making at the end of the twentieth century and the dawn of the post-9/11 era. Students will analyze dilemmas confronting policymakers through case studies...
POLISCI216	Global Futures: History, Statecraft, Systems	Where does the future come from? It comes from the past, of course, but how? What are the key drivers of continuity or change, and how can we trace those drivers going forward, too? What are the roles of contingency, chance, and choice, versus lon...
POLISCI218T	Politics of Insurgency, Terrorism and Civil War	This seminar introduces students the politics of internal conflict and violence, which is the dominant form of political conflict in the contemporary world. We will examine dynamics of internal conflict onset, intra-conflict period, and processes by...
POLISCI219	Directed Reading and Research in International Relations	For undergraduates. Directed reading in Political Science with a focus on international relations. To be considered for enrollment, interested students must complete the directed reading petition form available on the Political Science website before...
POLISCI220C	The Politics of the Administrative State	Most studies of democratic government are about elected leaders, campaigns and elections, legislatures, and public opinion. But these aspects of government are, in some sense, the tail that wags the dog. To understand what government actually does an...
POLISCI220R	The Presidency	This course provides students with a comprehensive perspective on the American presidency and covers a range of topics: elections, policy making, control of the bureaucracy, unilateral action, war-making, and much more. But throughout, the goal is t...
POLISCI222F	Seminar on Political Change	This seminar will examine broad changes in American Politics in the modern era, roughly the beginning of the 20th Century to the present. A central theme of the seminar will be how sociological and economic change disrupts party alignments and leads...
POLISCI223	Gender & U.S. Politics	Why are women still underrepresented in US political office, and what evidence do we have that increasing women's political representation is important? This course discusses the following main topics: What is the status quo of female candidacy in th...
POLISCI223A	Public Opinion and American Democracy	This course focuses on the public mood and politics in America today. It accordingly examines, among other things, the coherence (or lack of it) of public opinion; the partisan sorting of the electorate; and the ideological and affective polarizatio...
POLISCI223B	Money, Power, and Politics in the New Gilded Age	During the past two generations, democracy has coincided with massive increases in economic inequality in the U.S. and many other advanced democracies. The course will explore normative and practical issues concerning democracy and equality and exami...
POLISCI225L	Law and the New Political Economy	(Same as LAW 7515) In this seminar, we consider key legal topics through the lens of political economy - that is, is the interplay among economics, law, and politics. This perspective has had a powerful and growing impact on how scholars and judges v...
POLISCI226A	The Changing Face of America	This upper-division seminar will explore some of the most significant issues related to educational access and equity facing American society in the 21st century. Designed for students with significant leadership potential who have already studied th...
POLISCI226T	The Politics of Education	America's public schools are government agencies, and virtually everything about them is subject to political authority--and thus to decision through the political process. This seminar is an effort to understand the politics of education and its im...
POLISCI227B	Environmental Governance and Climate Resilience	Adaptation to climate change will not only require new infrastructure and policies, but it will also challenge our local, state and national governments to collaborate across jurisdictional lines in ways that include many different types of private a...
POLISCI227C	Money in Politics	This course will cover campaign finance, lobbying, and interest group politics.
POLISCI228C	Law and Politics of Bureaucracy	Same as Law 7096. Modern government is bureaucratic government. In the words of Justice Jackson, the rise of the administrative state is likely "the most significant legal trend of the last century and perhaps more values today are affected by [agenc...
POLISCI229	Directed Reading and Research in American Politics	For undergraduates. Directed reading in Political Science with a focus on American politics. To be considered for enrollment, interested students must complete the directed reading petition form available on the Political Science website before the e...
POLISCI22SC	The Face of Battle	Our understanding of warfare often derives from the lofty perspective of political leaders and generals: what were their objectives and what strategies were developed to meet them? This top-down perspective slights the experience of the actual combat...
POLISCI230	Political Theology	In this course, we will study the phenomenon of politics by attending to its theological dimensions, as well as the historical and philosophical underpinnings of states both ancient and modern. Each week we will take up a specific theme, e.g., univer...
POLISCI230A	Classical Seminar: Origins of Political Thought	Political philosophy in classical antiquity, centered on reading canonical works of Thucydides, Plato, Aristotle against other texts and against the political and historical background. Topics include: interdependence, legitimacy, justice; political...
POLISCI231	High-Stakes Politics: Case Studies in Political Philosophy, Institutions, and Interests	Normative political theory combined with positive political theory to better explain how major texts may have responded to and influenced changes in formal and informal institutions. Emphasis is on historical periods in which catastrophic institution...
POLISCI232	The Science and Politics of Apocalypse	For millennia, an apocalypse has been just around the corner. This course examines how expectations surrounding the end of the world - and the role that human beings might play in bringing it about - have transformed over the last two centuries. Afte...
POLISCI232T	The Dialogue of Democracy	All forms of democracy require some kind of communication so people can be aware of issues and make decisions. This course looks at competing visions of what democracy should be and different notions of the role of dialogue in a democracy. Is it just...
POLISCI233	Justice and Cities	Cities have most often been where struggles for social justice happen, where injustice is most glaring and where new visions of just communities are developed and tested. This class brings political theories of justice and democracy together with his...
POLISCI233F	Science, Technology, and Society and the Humanities in the Face of Looming Disaster	How STS and the Humanities can together help think out the looming catastrophes that put the future of humankind in jeopardy.
POLISCI234	Democratic Theory	Most people agree that democracy is a good thing, but do we agree on what democracy is? This course will examine the concept of democracy in political philosophy. We will address the following questions: What reason(s), if any, do we have for valui...
POLISCI234N	The Concept of Society from Marx to Zuckerberg	What is society and what does it mean to be a member of one? This course examines these questions by looking at three different periods within the history of modern political thought in which the concept of society was debated and transformed. In the...
POLISCI234P	Deliberative Democracy and its Critics	This course examines the theory and practice of deliberative democracy and engages both in a dialogue with critics. Can a democracy which emphasizes people thinking and talking together on the basis of good information be made practical in the modern...
POLISCI234S	The Political Theory of Progress Reconsidered	This course will consider the origins and fate of Enlightenment theories of political progress. We will begin with the classic accounts of progress in Kant, Hegel, and Marx, before turning to conservative critics of progress (Burke, de Maistre), and...
POLISCI235	Chinese Political Thought: 1895-2021	Everybody is talking about China now. The competition between China and the Western world is not only about economic growth, technological advancement, and military strength. What is ultimately at stake is a key theoretical question: Can China's poli...
POLISCI235A	From Cold War to New Cold War: Politics and Political Theory in Contemporary China	"China lacks everything: middle managers, engineers and capital," so wrote French political thinker Raymond Aron. That was 1950, three years after Harry Truman's 1947 Address to Congress, which was usually considered the beginning of the Cold War, an...
POLISCI235B	Political Memory and Democratic Citizenship	We may not always realize it, but political discussions often invoke historical memory. As we debate about political ideas and praxes, we often draw on history to criticize our interlocutors and build our arguments. Meanwhile, historical memory also...
POLISCI235C	Misinformation and Democracy: Past and Present	Many today consider misinformation to be one of the most significant challenges faced by democratic societies. Some see this as a new phenomenon, arguing, for example, that modern technology - and, above all, social media giants like Facebook or Twit...
POLISCI235E	Philosophy of Public Policy	From healthcare to voting reforms, social protection and educational policies, public policies are underpinned by moral values. When we debate those policies, we typically appeal to values like justice, fairness, equality, freedom, privacy, and safet...
POLISCI235N	Political Thought in Modern Asia	The study of political theory in the United States has been accused of being Western-centric: We tend to focus on intellectual traditions from Plato to NATO, while ignoring the vast world of non-Western societies and the ways they think about politic...
POLISCI236	Philanthropy for Sustainable Development	This course teaches students how to pursue social change through philanthropy with a focus on sustainable development. Students learn about the approaches, history, and key debates in philanthropy, and apply their knowledge by collaboratively making...
POLISCI236S	Philanthropy for Sustainable Development	This course teaches students how to pursue social change through philanthropy with a focus on sustainable development. Students learn about the approaches, history, and key debates in philanthropy, and apply their knowledge by collaboratively making...
POLISCI237	Varieties of Conservatism in America	This seminar explores the conservative movement in America and its principal strands. It begins with an introduction to the modern tradition of freedom and America's founding principles since the understanding of conservatism - in the United States a...
POLISCI237R	Introduction to Apocalyptic Thinking	At the time of the European Enlightenment, the talk about the end of the world was taken to be a remnant of religious beliefs or the domain of insane people. The rational mind knew how to eliminate those obstacles to continuous scientific and technol...
POLISCI238	Philanthropy Fellows Seminar	This course is restricted to Philanthropy Fellowships students. Enrollment by instructor permission only.
POLISCI238R	Ancient Greek Rationality, Public and Private	In this seminar, we'll consider ancient Greek views about and theories of practical rationality and compare and contrast them with some modern theories, especially theories of instrumental rationality. We'll consider both philosophic authors, especi...
POLISCI239	Directed Reading and Research in Political Theory	For undergraduates. Directed reading in Political Science with a focus on political theory. To be considered for enrollment, interested students must complete the directed reading petition form available on the Political Science website before the en...
POLISCI241	The Political Economy of China: Policy and Development from Antiquity to Revolution	Welcome to the Political Economy of China! Over the course of the semester, you'll gain a rigorous, historically informed understanding of the long-term trajectory of policy and economic change in China from antiquity to the present day. By taking a...
POLISCI241S	Spatial Approaches to Social Science	This multidisciplinary course combines different approaches to how GIS and spatial tools can be applied in social science research. We take a collaborative, project oriented approach to bring together technical expertise and substantive applications...
POLISCI241T	Political Economy of Gender	This course provides an introduction to the political economy of gender. The course first explores the key areas of debate on women's representation. Why are womenunderrepresented in formal political institutions? How do political institutions affect...
POLISCI242	Foreign Policy Decision Making in Comparative Perspective	This seminar will examine how countries and multilateral organizations make decisions about foreign and international policy. The hypothesis to be explored in the course is that individuals, bureaucracies, and interest groups shape foreign policy dec...
POLISCI242G	Political Mobilization and Democratic Breakthroughs	Mass political mobilization occurs in both democracies and autocracies. Sometimes political protests, demonstrations, and acts of nonviolence civic resistance undermine autocracies, produce democratic breakthroughs, or generate democratic reforms. Ot...
POLISCI243A	Inequality	What is economic inequality? What forms does it take? How do we measure it? What are its political, social, and economic causes and consequences? Why are some people and some societies more or less concerned about inequality? What normative framework...
POLISCI244A	Authoritarian Politics	This course offers a thematic approach to the study of authoritarian politics. We will cover the major areas of political science research on authoritarian politics and governance while simultaneously building empirical knowledge about the politics o...
POLISCI244C	Wealth of Nations	Why are there economic disparities across countries? Why did some countries grow steadily over the past 200 years while many others did not? What have been the consequences for the citizens of those countries? What has been the role of geography, cul...
POLISCI244D	Societal Collapse	Sustained economic growth is an anomaly in human history. Moreover, in the very long term, sustained economic decline is common. Following a historical and cross-cultural perspective, we will study the causes of economic decline, the social and polit...
POLISCI244U	Political Culture	The implications of social norms, preferences and beliefs for political and economic behavior and societal outcomes.
POLISCI245C	The Logics of Violence: Rebels, Criminal Groups and the State	This course explore the logics of violence. The course offers an overview of the literature on civil wars as well as organized violence involving armed groups that do not seek formal state power, such as drug cartels, prison gangs, and paramilitaries...
POLISCI245R	Politics in Modern Iran	Modern Iran has been a smithy for political movements, ideologies, and types of states. Movements include nationalism, constitutionalism, Marxism, Islamic fundamentalism, social democracy, Islamic liberalism, and fascism. Forms of government include...
POLISCI246A	Paths to the Modern World: The West in Comparative Perspective	How and why did Europe develop political institutions that encouraged economic growth and industrialization? And why have many other regions lagged in the creation of growth-promoting institutions? This course uses a comparative approach to understan...
POLISCI247A	Games Developing Nations Play	If, as economists argue, development can make everyone in a society better off, why do leaders fail to pursue policies that promote development? The course uses game theoretic approaches from both economics and political science to address this quest...
POLISCI247G	Governance and Poverty	Poverty relief requires active government involvement in the provision of public services such as drinking water, healthcare, sanitation, education, roads, electricity and public safety. Failure to deliver public services is a major impediment to the...
POLISCI248A	Politics and Institutions in Latin America	The broad academic purpose of the course is to evaluate presidential democracies in Latin America and their impacts on the politics in this region. The goal is to give students an introduction to the main debates on political institutions in the Lati...
POLISCI248C	Key Issues in Chinese Politics	(Course is available only to students participating in Stanford's SCPKU study abroad program in Beijing, which is operated by the Stanford Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI).) A broad overview of China's politics and the role o...
POLISCI248D	China in the Global Economy	An examination of China in the global economy. Focus will be on China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The goal of the course is to provide students an in-depth understanding of a key initiative of China's efforts to globalize. The approach examines...
POLISCI248S	Latin American Politics	Fundamental transformations in Latin America in the last two decades: why most governments are now democratic or semidemocratic; and economic transformation as countries abandoned import substitution industrialization policies led by state interventi...
POLISCI249	Directed Reading and Research in Comparative Politics	For undergraduates. Directed reading in Political Science with a focus on comparative politics. To be considered for enrollment, interested students must complete the directed reading petition form available on the Political Science website before th...
POLISCI259	Directed Reading and Research in Political Methodology	For undergraduates. Directed reading in Political Science with a focus on political methodology. To be considered for enrollment, interested students must complete the directed reading petition form available on the Political Science website before t...
POLISCI25N	The US Congress in Historical and Comparative Perspective	This course traces the development of legislatures from their medieval European origins to the present, with primary emphasis on the case of the U.S. Congress. Students will learn about the early role played by assemblies in placing limits on royal...
POLISCI27N	Thinking Like a Social Scientist	Preference to freshman. This seminar will consider how politics and government can be studied systematically: the compound term Political SCIENCE is not an oxymoron. The seminar will introduce core concepts and explore a variety of methodological app...
POLISCI27SC	Policing and Violence in Latin America: Historical Origins and Contemporary Challenges	This course explores the origins of policing in Latin America and the contemporary challenges in the relationship between the State, organized crime, violence and police forces. By taking a long-term perspective we seek to understand why highly unequ...
POLISCI28SC	Energy in Hawaii: Forefront of Clean Energy Technology and Policy	We will explore practical, social, technical, and political issues surrounding energy production and use in Hawaii. Hawaii is at the forefront of changes in the electric grid and the uses of electricity, with an aspirational goal for 100% carbon-free...
POLISCI299A	Research Design	This course is designed to teach students how to design a research project. The course emphasizes the specification of testable hypotheses, the building of data sets, and the inferences from that may be drawn from that evidence. This course fulfills...
POLISCI299B	Honors Thesis Seminar	Restricted to Political Science Research Honors students who have completed POLISCI 299A.
POLISCI299C	Honors Thesis	Students conduct independent research work towards a senior honors thesis. Restricted to Political Science Research Honors students who have completed POLISCI 299B.
POLISCI299D	Honors Thesis	Students conduct independent research work towards a senior honors thesis. Restricted to Political Science Research Honors students who have completed POLISCI 299B.
POLISCI309	Curricular Practical Training for PhD Students	Qualified Political Science students obtain employment in a relevant research or industrial activity to enhance their professional experience consistent with their degree programs. Meets the requirements for Curricular Practical Training for students...
POLISCI311N	Nuclear Politics	Why do states develop nuclear weapons and why do some states, that have the technological capacity to build nuclear weapons, nonetheless refrain from doing so? What are the consequences of new states deploying nuclear weapons? Do arms control treatie...
POLISCI312	A New Cold War? Great Power Relations in the 21st Century	Thirty years ago the Cold War ended. Today, great power competition is back - or so it seems - with many describing our present era as a "New Cold War" between the United States and China and Russia. What happened? Is the Cold War label an illuminati...
POLISCI313	US-Russia Relations After the Cold War	A quarter century ago, the Soviet Union collapsed and the Cold War ended. At the time, Russian leaders aspired to build democratic and market institutions at home. They also wanted to join the West. American presidents Democrat and Republican encoura...
POLISCI314D	Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law	This course explores the different dimensions of development - economic, social, and political - as well as the way that modern institutions (the state, market systems, the rule of law, and democratic accountability) developed and interacted with oth...
POLISCI314R	Challenges and Dilemmas in American Foreign Policy	This seminar will examine the complexities and trade offs involved in foreign policy decision-making at the end of the twentieth century and the dawn of the post-9/11 era. Students will analyze dilemmas confronting policymakers through case studies...
POLISCI319	Directed Reading and Research in International Relations	For PhD students. Directed reading in Political Science with a focus on international relations. May be repeated for credit.
POLISCI31N	Political Freedom: Rights, Justice, and Democracy in the Western Tradition	Freedom is one of our core values. Most people can agree that freedom is a good thing. Yet there is far less agreement about how to understand the concept itself and what kinds of political arrangements are best suited to protect and enhance freedom....
POLISCI31Q	Justice and Cities	Cities have most often been where struggles for social justice happen, where injustice is most glaring and where new or renewed visions of just communities are developed and tested. What makes a city just or unjust? How have people tried to make citi...
POLISCI320C	The Politics of the Administrative State	Most studies of democratic government are about elected leaders, campaigns and elections, legislatures, and public opinion. But these aspects of government are, in some sense, the tail that wags the dog. To understand what government actually does an...
POLISCI320R	The Presidency	This course provides students with a comprehensive perspective on the American presidency and covers a range of topics: elections, policy making, control of the bureaucracy, unilateral action, war-making, and much more. But throughout, the goal is t...
POLISCI321	Graduate Seminar in Political Psychology	For students interested in research in political science, psychology, or communication. Methodological techniques for studying political attitudes and behaviors. May be repeated for credit.
POLISCI324L	The Psychology of Communication About Politics in America	Focus is on how politicians and government learn what Americans want and how the public's preferences shape government action; how surveys measure beliefs, preferences, and experiences; how poll results are criticized and interpreted; how conflict be...
POLISCI325L	Law and the New Political Economy	(Same as LAW 7515) In this seminar, we consider key legal topics through the lens of political economy - that is, is the interplay among economics, law, and politics. This perspective has had a powerful and growing impact on how scholars and judges v...
POLISCI326	Executive Power Under the Constitution	This new course will address the full range of issues involving executive power under the U.S. Constitution, including the process of election (Electoral College; voting disputes, the Electoral Count Act), impeachment, foreign affairs (including cont...
POLISCI326T	The Politics of Education	America's public schools are government agencies, and virtually everything about them is subject to political authority--and thus to decision through the political process. This seminar is an effort to understand the politics of education and its im...
POLISCI327C	Law of Democracy	Combined with LAW 7036 (formerly Law 577). This course is intended to give students a basic understanding of the themes in the legal regulation of elections and politics. We will cover all the major Supreme Court cases on topics of voting rights, rea...
POLISCI329	Directed Reading and Research in American Politics	For PhD students. Directed reading in Political Science with a focus on American politics. May be repeated for credit.
POLISCI330A	Classical Seminar: Origins of Political Thought	Political philosophy in classical antiquity, centered on reading canonical works of Thucydides, Plato, Aristotle against other texts and against the political and historical background. Topics include: interdependence, legitimacy, justice; political...
POLISCI331	High-Stakes Politics: Case Studies in Political Philosophy, Institutions, and Interests	Normative political theory combined with positive political theory to better explain how major texts may have responded to and influenced changes in formal and informal institutions. Emphasis is on historical periods in which catastrophic institution...
POLISCI332T	The Dialogue of Democracy	All forms of democracy require some kind of communication so people can be aware of issues and make decisions. This course looks at competing visions of what democracy should be and different notions of the role of dialogue in a democracy. Is it just...
POLISCI333M	Research and Methods in Political Theory	This seminar has two aims. First, we examine the methodological approaches of scholars working within political theory as well as those working at the intersection of political theory and empirical social science. Second, we discuss in an informal wo...
POLISCI334	Philanthropy and Civil Society	Cross-listed with Law (LAW 7071), Political Science (POLISCI 334) and Sociology (SOC 374). Associated with the Center for Philanthropy and Civil Society (PACS). Year-long workshop for doctoral students and advanced undergraduates writing senior these...
POLISCI334P	Deliberative Democracy and its Critics	This course examines the theory and practice of deliberative democracy and engages both in a dialogue with critics. Can a democracy which emphasizes people thinking and talking together on the basis of good information be made practical in the modern...
POLISCI335	Chinese Political Thought: 1895-2021	Everybody is talking about China now. The competition between China and the Western world is not only about economic growth, technological advancement, and military strength. What is ultimately at stake is a key theoretical question: Can China's poli...
POLISCI335A	From Cold War to New Cold War: Politics and Political Theory in Contemporary China	"China lacks everything: middle managers, engineers and capital," so wrote French political thinker Raymond Aron. That was 1950, three years after Harry Truman's 1947 Address to Congress, which was usually considered the beginning of the Cold War, an...
POLISCI335B	Political Memory and Democratic Citizenship	We may not always realize it, but political discussions often invoke historical memory. As we debate about political ideas and praxes, we often draw on history to criticize our interlocutors and build our arguments. Meanwhile, historical memory also...
POLISCI335C	Misinformation and Democracy: Past and Present	Many today consider misinformation to be one of the most significant challenges faced by democratic societies. Some see this as a new phenomenon, arguing, for example, that modern technology - and, above all, social media giants like Facebook or Twit...
POLISCI335N	Political Thought in Modern Asia	The study of political theory in the United States has been accused of being Western-centric: We tend to focus on intellectual traditions from Plato to NATO, while ignoring the vast world of non-Western societies and the ways they think about politic...
POLISCI336	Introduction to Global Justice	Our world is divided into many different states, each of which has its own culture or set of cultures. Vast inequalities of wealth and power exist between citizens of the rich world and the global poor. International commerce, immigration, and climat...
POLISCI336S	Justice	Justice, as we use the term in this class, is a question about social cooperation. People can produce much more cooperatively than the sum of what they could produce as individuals, and these gains from cooperation are what makes civilization possibl...
POLISCI337	Philosophy of Law: Protest, Punishment, and Racial Justice	In this course, we will examine some of the central questions in philosophy of law, including: What is law? How do we determine the content of laws? Do laws have moral content? What is authority? What gives law its authority? Must we obey the law? If...
POLISCI337A	Political Philosophy: The Social Contract Tradition	(Graduate students register for 276.) What makes political institutions legitimate? What makes them just? When do citizens have a right to revolt against those who rule over them? Which of our fellow citizens must we tolerate?Surprisingly, the answer...
POLISCI337R	Introduction to Apocalyptic Thinking	At the time of the European Enlightenment, the talk about the end of the world was taken to be a remnant of religious beliefs or the domain of insane people. The rational mind knew how to eliminate those obstacles to continuous scientific and technol...
POLISCI338	Universal Basic Income: the philosophy behind the proposal	Universal basic income (or UBI) is a regular cash allowance given to all members of a community without means test, regardless of personal desert, and with no strings attached. Once a utopian proposal, the policy is now discussed and piloted througho...
POLISCI338B	Unequal Relationships	Over the past three decades, a relational egalitarian conception of equality has emerged in political philosophy. Proponents of the view argue that the point of equality is to establish communities whose members are able to stand and relate as equals...
POLISCI338E	The Problem of Evil in Literature, Film, and Philosophy	Conceptions of evil and its nature and source, distinctions between natural and moral evil, and what belongs to God versus to the human race have undergone transformations reflected in literature and film. Sources include Rousseau's response to the 1...
POLISCI339	Directed Reading and Research in Political Theory	For PhD students. Directed reading in Political Science with a focus on political theory. May be repeated for credit.
POLISCI341	The Political Economy of China: Policy and Development from Antiquity to Revolution	Welcome to the Political Economy of China! Over the course of the semester, you'll gain a rigorous, historically informed understanding of the long-term trajectory of policy and economic change in China from antiquity to the present day. By taking a...
POLISCI342	Foreign Policy Decision Making in Comparative Perspective	This seminar will examine how countries and multilateral organizations make decisions about foreign and international policy. The hypothesis to be explored in the course is that individuals, bureaucracies, and interest groups shape foreign policy dec...
POLISCI342G	Political Mobilization and Democratic Breakthroughs	Mass political mobilization occurs in both democracies and autocracies. Sometimes political protests, demonstrations, and acts of nonviolence civic resistance undermine autocracies, produce democratic breakthroughs, or generate democratic reforms. Ot...
POLISCI343A	Field Methods	Familiarizes students with a variety of field methods potentially applicable to ongoing research projects and dissertations. Topics include case selection, process tracing, participant observation, interviewing, archival research, survey design, labe...
POLISCI343C	Public Opinion and Elections in the Populist Era	Brexit, Donald Trump, the collapse of party systems in established democracies like France and Italy - these striking developments have a common thread: the disruption of politics as usual by insurgent "populist" movements and/or parties. The seminar...
POLISCI344	Politics and Geography	The role of geography in topics in political economy, including development, political representation, voting, redistribution, regional autonomy movements, fiscal competition, and federalism.
POLISCI344U	Political Culture	The implications of social norms, preferences and beliefs for political and economic behavior and societal outcomes.
POLISCI347A	Games Developing Nations Play	If, as economists argue, development can make everyone in a society better off, why do leaders fail to pursue policies that promote development? The course uses game theoretic approaches from both economics and political science to address this quest...
POLISCI347G	Governance and Poverty	Poverty relief requires active government involvement in the provision of public services such as drinking water, healthcare, sanitation, education, roads, electricity and public safety. Failure to deliver public services is a major impediment to the...
POLISCI348	Chinese Politics	China, one of the few remaining communist states in the world, has not only survived, but has become a global political actor of consequence with the fastest growing economy in the world. Why has the CCP thrived while other communist regimes have fa...
POLISCI348A	Politics and Institutions in Latin America	The broad academic purpose of the course is to evaluate presidential democracies in Latin America and their impacts on the politics in this region. The goal is to give students an introduction to the main debates on political institutions in the Lati...
POLISCI348C	Key Issues in Chinese Politics	(Course is available only to students participating in Stanford's SCPKU study abroad program in Beijing, which is operated by the Stanford Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI).) A broad overview of China's politics and the role o...
POLISCI348D	China in the Global Economy	An examination of China in the global economy. Focus will be on China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The goal of the course is to provide students an in-depth understanding of a key initiative of China's efforts to globalize. The approach examines...
POLISCI348S	Latin American Politics	Fundamental transformations in Latin America in the last two decades: why most governments are now democratic or semidemocratic; and economic transformation as countries abandoned import substitution industrialization policies led by state interventi...
POLISCI349	Directed Reading and Research in Comparative Politics	For PhD students. Directed reading in Political Science with a focus on comparative politics. May be repeated for credit.
POLISCI34Q	Nationalism	Nationalist platforms have been on the rise for years across the globe. The success of nationalist parties and candidates is often accompanied by backlash against outgroups, from immigrants to religious and ethnic minorities. Nationalism often leads...
POLISCI35	Sustainability and Civilization	Our civilization faces multiple sustainability challenges. Climate change often dominates public conversation, but in fact, a whole range of environmental, economic, political, and cultural trends threaten the structures that sustain the societies we...
POLISCI351A	Foundations of Political Economy	Introduction to political economy with an emphasis on formal models of collective choice, public institutions, and political competition. Topics include voting theory, social choice, institutional equilibria, agenda setting, interest group politics,...
POLISCI351B	Economic Analysis of Political Institutions	Applying techniques such as information economics, games of incomplete information, sequential bargaining theory, repeated games, and rational expectations of microeconomic analysis and game theory to political behavior and institutions. Applicatoins...
POLISCI351C	Institutions and Bridge-Building in Political Economy	This course critically surveys empirical applications of formal models of collective-choice institutions. It is explicitly grounded in philosophy of science (e.g., Popperian positivism and Kuhn's notions of paradigms and normal science). Initial se...
POLISCI353A	Workshop in Political Methodology	Mathematical and statistical models and applications to political science. Guest speakers, faculty, and students present research papers. May be repeated for credit.
POLISCI353B	Workshop in Political Methodology	Continuation of POLISCI 353A. Mathematical and statistical models and applications to political science. Guest speakers, faculty, and students present research papers. May be repeated for credit.
POLISCI353C	Workshop in Political Methodology	Continuation of POLISCI 353B. Mathematical and statistical models and applications to political science. Guest speakers, faculty, and students present research papers. May be repeated for credit.
POLISCI354	Strategy: Introduction to Game Theory	This course provides an introduction to strategic reasoning. We discuss ideas such as the commitment problem, credibility in signaling, cheap talk, moral hazard and adverse selection. Concepts are developed through games played in class, and applied...
POLISCI355A	Data Science for Politics	Data science is quickly changing the way we understand and and engage in the political process. In this course we will develop fundamental techniques of data science and apply them to large political datasets on elections, campaign finance, lobbying...
POLISCI355B	Machine Learning for Social Scientists	Machine learning - the use of algorithms to classify, predict, sort, learn and discover from data - has exploded in use across academic fields, industry, government, and the non-profit sector. This course provides an introduction to machine learning...
POLISCI355C	Causal Inference for Social Science	Causal inference methods have revolutionized the way we use data, statistics, and research design to move from correlation to causation and rigorously learn about the impact of some potential cause (e.g., a new policy or intervention) on some outcome...
POLISCI356A	Formal Theory I	An introduction to noncooperative game theory through applications in political science. Topics will include the Hotelling-Downs model, the probabilistic voting model, contests, the tragedy of the commons, and political bargaining models, among other...
POLISCI356B	Formal Theory II	A continuation of Formal Theory I covering applications of asymmetric information game theory to political science. Topics include the Condorcet jury model, asymmetric information crisis bargaining, and political accountability models, among others.
POLISCI358	Data-driven Politics	Covers advanced computational and statistical methods for collecting and modeling large-scale data on politics. Topics will include automated and computer-assisted methods for collecting, disambiguating, and merging unstructured data (web-scraping, i...
POLISCI359	Advanced Individual Study in Political Methodology	For PhD students. Directed reading in Political Science with a focus on political methodology. May be repeated for credit.
POLISCI400	Dissertation	Pre-TGR dissertation research. Open to Poli Sci PhD students who have advanced to candidacy.
POLISCI400C	Research Design	This course is a research design practicum. Students are required to propose a research question that speaks to a consequential political issue, and one which can be successfully addressed relying on disciplinary tools. Over the quarter, they will be...
POLISCI410A	International Relations Theory, Part I	This course offers a PhD-level introductory overview of the field of international relations. The primary purpose is to understand and evaluate the main theories, arguments, claims, and conjectures made by scholars in the field so as to enable studen...
POLISCI410B	International Relations Theory, Part II	Second of a three-part graduate sequence. Security and armed conflict, both interstate and civil war. Nuclear weapons, terrorism, political economy of defense, and related topics. Prerequisite: POLISCI 410A.
POLISCI410C	International Relations Theory, Part III	Third of a three-part graduate sequence. History of international relations theory, current debates, and applications to problems of international security and political economy. Prerequisite: POLISCI 410A.
POLISCI410D	Research in International Relations	Part of the graduate sequence in international relations. Focus is on developing research papers and exploring active areas of research in the field. Prerequisites: POLISCI 410A and 410B. 410C should be taken before or concurrently.
POLISCI411A	Workshop in International Relations	For graduate students. Contemporary work. Organized around presentation of research by students and outside scholars. May be repeated for credit.
POLISCI411B	Workshop in International Relations	For graduate students. Contemporary work. Organized around presentation of research by students and outside scholars. May be repeated for credit.
POLISCI411C	Workshop in International Relations	For graduate students. Contemporary work. Organized around presentation of research by students and outside scholars. May be repeated for credit.
POLISCI42	Democracy Matters	Should the U.S. close its border to immigrants? What are the ramifications of income inequality? How has COVID-19 changed life as we know it? Why are Americans so politically polarized? How can we address racial injustice? As the 2020 election appr...
POLISCI420A	American Political Institutions	Theories of American politics, focusing on Congress, the presidency, the bureaucracy, and the courts.
POLISCI420B	Topics in American Political Behavior	For graduate students with background in American politics embarking on their own research. Current research in American politics, emphasizing political behavior and public opinion. Possible topics: uncertainty and ambivalence in political attitudes,...
POLISCI421A	Current Debates in American Political Institutions	Each week of this class will focus on a recent debate in the American political institutions literature, with the term institutions being broadly defined. Topics will span elected officials' behavior, including by congressional members, the president...
POLISCI421K	Questionnaire Design for Surveys and Laboratory Experiments: Social and Cognitive Perspectives	The social and psychological processes involved in asking and answering questions via questionnaires for the social sciences; optimizing questionnaire design; open versus closed questions; rating versus ranking; rating scale length and point labeling...
POLISCI422	Workshop in American Politics	Research seminar. Frontiers in mass political behavior. Course may be repeated for credit.
POLISCI422F	Seminar on Political Change	This seminar will examine broad changes in American Politics in the modern era, roughly the beginning of the 20th Century to the present. A central theme of the seminar will be how sociological and economic change disrupts party alignments and leads...
POLISCI423A	The Laboratory of the Study of American Values	Designed for graduate students who are writing dissertations about American public opinion. Students participate in all phases of the research process and include questions on nationally representative surveys. Enrollment requires permission of the i...
POLISCI423B	The Laboratory of the Study of American Values II	Designed for graduate students who are writing dissertations about American public opinion. Students participate in all phases of the research process and include questions on nationally representative surveys. Enrollment is limited to members of the...
POLISCI424A	Democratic Elections	How do democratic elections work? Do elections make representatives accountable, and if so, under what conditions? What preferences do electorates reveal to us when they choose candidates for office, and how do candidates and representatives respond...
POLISCI424C	Party Polarization	This seminar surveys the literature on party polarization in the U.S and other industrialized democracies, considers alternative conceptualizations of polarization, and what is known about the causes and consequences of polarization.
POLISCI425	Political Communication	An overview of research in political communication with particular reference to work on the impact of the mass media on public opinion and voting behavior. Limited to Ph.D. students.
POLISCI426	Identity Politics	Whether one considers the partisan and electoral choices citizens make or the judgements citizens render in response to officer-involved shootings or other salient social and political events, the centrality of identity in our politics is indisputabl...
POLISCI427C	Money in Politics	This course will cover campaign finance, lobbying, and interest group politics.
POLISCI428C	Law and Politics of Bureaucracy	Same as Law 7096. Modern government is bureaucratic government. In the words of Justice Jackson, the rise of the administrative state is likely "the most significant legal trend of the last century and perhaps more values today are affected by [agenc...
POLISCI430	Origins of Political Thought	Political philosophy in classical antiquity, focusing on canonical works of Thucydides, Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero. Historical background. Topics include: political obligation, citizenship, and leadership; origins and development of democracy; and...
POLISCI430A	Ancient Greek Economic Development	Historians have been arguing about ancient Greek economic development since the 1890s. By the 1980s, opinion had swung toward what is sometimes called - the Cambridge consensus. - This held that the Greek economy was a typical premodern one, in which...
POLISCI431	Grad seminar: Contemporary Political Theory	Graduate seminar.
POLISCI432R	Selections in Modern Political Thought	This graduate-level seminar explores 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...
POLISCI433	Workshop in Political Theory	For graduate students. Faculty, guest speakers, and graduate students conducting research in political theory present works-in-progress. May be repeated for credit.
POLISCI435	Asian Political Thought	The study of political theory in the United States has been accused of being Western-centric: We tend to focus on intellectual traditions from Plato to NATO, while ignoring the vast world of non-Western societies and the ways they think about politic...
POLISCI437C	20th Century and Contemporary Political Theory	This course provides a survey of some of the major contributions to political thought in the past century. The course will place special emphasis on the development of theories of political authority and legitimacy in the context of the modern burea...
POLISCI438R	Ancient Greek Rationality, Public and Private	In this seminar, we'll consider ancient Greek views about and theories of practical rationality and compare and contrast them with some modern theories, especially theories of instrumental rationality. We'll consider both philosophic authors, especi...
POLISCI440A	Theories in Comparative Politics	Theories addressing major concerns in the comparative field including identity, order, regime type, legitimacy, and governance.
POLISCI440B	Comparative Political Economy	Required of Political Science Ph.D. students with comparative politics as a first or second concentration; others by consent of the instructor. The origins of political and economic institutions and their impact on long run outcomes for growth and de...
POLISCI440C	Research Design in Comparative Politics	Current methodological standards in comparative politics. Students develop their own research design that meets these standards.
POLISCI440D	Workshop in Comparative Politics	Faculty, guest speakers, and graduate students conducting research in comparative politics present work-in-progress. May be repeated for credit.
POLISCI441L	Grad Seminar on Middle Eastern Politics	Survey of major topics in the study of Middle Eastern politics including state formation, authoritarian resilience and political Islam
POLISCI443S	Political Economy of Reform in China	Content, process, and problems of China's post-Mao reforms. Changes in property rights, markets, credit, and the role of the state in economic development. Comparative insights about reform in the Chinese communist system that distinguishes it from t...
POLISCI443T	Approaches to Chinese Politics	This graduate seminar is designed to give doctoral students bibliographic control of the major secondary literature on Chinese Politics. This course is organized around theoretical concepts and issues found in studies of China's political system and...
POLISCI444A	Authoritarian Politics	This course offers a thematic approach to the study of authoritarian politics. We will cover the major areas of political science research on authoritarian politics and governance while simultaneously building empirical knowledge about the politics o...
POLISCI445C	The Logics of Violence: Rebels, Criminal Groups and the State	This course explore the logics of violence. The course offers an overview of the literature on civil wars as well as organized violence involving armed groups that do not seek formal state power, such as drug cartels, prison gangs, and paramilitaries...
POLISCI446	Political Development Economics	There is a growing awareness that many of the key challenges in fostering development in poor societies are political challenges. What can we do to encourage trade, cooperation and peace in environments riven with social and ethnic divisions? How do...
POLISCI446A	Paths to the Modern World: The West in Comparative Perspective	How and why did Europe develop political institutions that encouraged economic growth and industrialization? And why have many other regions lagged in the creation of growth-promoting institutions? This course uses a comparative approach to understan...
POLISCI447	Gender and Development	Gender remains an identity that defines structures of opportunity and representation in markets, society, and importantly in politics. This course studies how gender conditions experiences in political, economic, and social institutions. This seminar...
POLISCI448R	Workshop: China Social Science	For Ph.D. students in the social sciences and history. Research on contemporary society and politics in the People's Republic of China. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.
POLISCI450A	Political Methodology I: Regression	Graduate level introduction to statistical research in political science, with a focus on linear regression. Teaches students how to rigorously apply multiple regression models as used in much of political science research. Also covers elements of...
POLISCI450B	Political Methodology II: Causal Inference	Graduate level survey of statistical methods for causal inference in political science research. Covers a variety of causal inference designs, including experiments, matching, regression, panel methods, difference-in-differences, synthetic control m...
POLISCI450C	Political Methodology III: Model-Based Inference	Provides a survey of statistical tools for model-based inference in political science with a particular focus on machine-learning techniques. Topics include likelihood theory of inference and techniques for prediction, discovery, and causal inferenc...
POLISCI450D	Political Methodology IV: Advanced Topics	Covers advanced statistical tools that are useful for empirical research in political science. Possible topics include missing data, survey sampling and experimental designs for field research, machine learning, text mining, clustering, Bayesian met...
POLISCI451	Directed Readings on Causal Inference with Panel Data	In this seminar, we will be reading recent papers from the emerging literature on causal inference using panel data. The class will meet once a week; each week, two papers will be discussed. Prerequisites for Political Science PhD students: POLISCI 4...
POLISCI452	Machine Learning with Application to Text as Data	Machine Learning methods are increasingly useful for the social sciences. This course introduces a framework for using machine learning methods to make social science inferences, with a particular focus on text as data. The course will explain how ma...
POLISCI460A	Political Economy I	Introduction to empirical and theoretical research in political economy. This course focuses on issues in democracies, while Political Economy II focuses on issues in non-democracies. Topics may include institutional foundations, social choice, elect...
POLISCI460B	Political Economy II	Continuation of ECON 220 / POLISCI 460A. Preparation for advanced research in political economy. This quarter will focus on topics related to culture, institutions, political and economic development, historical evolution, nondemocratic politics, con...
POLISCI461	Advances in Experimental Political Science	In recent years there has been a surge in the use of experiments, both survey and field, in political science. This has resulted in substantial advances in experimental research within political science. This course will explore these advances throug...
POLISCI462	How to Write and Publish a Quantitative Political Science Paper	This course helps students to write a publishable research paper in political science. We will focus on how to specify an important research question, how to identify appropriate research methods to answer that question, how to present evidence effec...
POLISCI464	Survey Design and Implementation	Surveys are one of the most important sources of data for political scientists. With the rise of field experiments, the design and implementation of surveys has become and even more critical component of a political scientist's tool kit. This course...
POLISCI46N	Contemporary African Politics	Africa has lagged behind the rest of the developing world in terms of three consequential outcomes: economic development, the establishment of social order through effective governance, and the consolidation of democracy. This course seeks to identif...
POLISCI480	The Science of Politics: Foundational Concepts for Political Science Graduate Students	This class is an introduction to the different ways that social scientists have proposed to understand politics. The emphasis is on understanding how the way a question is posed structures the way it can be answered, and how the way it can be answere...
POLISCI482A	Political Science Departmental Workshop	The Political Science Departmental Workshop provides a forum for graduate students and faculty involved in political science research to engage with the core themes and questions of research across the discipline. Meetings will include presentations...
POLISCI482B	Political Science Guest Speaker Workshop	The workshop brings in a distinguished speaker from outside the department each week, focusing on the sub-fields of international relations, comparative politics, American politics, and political methodology. The workshop will give participants a bro...
POLISCI62	Defending Democracy at Home and Abroad	The United States, once a key champion of democracy around the world, has experienced unprecedented polarization during the past decade, with divisions running deep over Covid, voting rights and election results, and questions of identity and inclusi...
POLISCI70	Dangerous Ideas	Ideas matter. Concepts such as equality, tradition, and Hell have inspired social movements, shaped political systems, and dramatically influenced the lives of individuals. Others, like race and urban renewal, play an important role in contemporary d...
POLISCI71	Current Issues in European Security	Russia's annexation of Crimea in Spring 2014 posed not only a threat to post-World War II Europe formed around the norm of national sovereignty, but possibly also the very real threat that Russia had awakened from its 20 years of peacefulness to once...
POLISCI73	Energy Policy in California and the West	This seminar provides an in-depth analysis of the role of California state agencies and Western energy organizations in driving energy policy development, technology innovation, and market structures, in California, the West and internationally. The...
POLISCI74	Pathways to Public Service	This one-unit lecture series explores potential careers in public service, including roles in government as well as in many other organizations; such as nonprofits, foundations, corporations, and arts organizations that help shape public policy and c...
POLISCI74B	Public Service and Social Impact: Pathways to Purposeful Careers	How do I translate my interests and skills into a career in public service and social impact? This course will introduce you to a wide range of roles that help shape public policy and civic life, including government, education, nonprofits, social en...
POLISCI76	Protagonists in Policy	Interested in learning from activists, academics, and politicians about the different ways you can be an agent of change and affect public policy? This course presents a lecture/discussion series in which students will have the opportunity to engage...
POLISCI801	TGR Project	No Description Set
POLISCI802	TGR Dissertation	No Description Set
POLISCI82	Politics 2022: America at a Crossroads	The historic convergence of social, economic, and public health challenges has profoundly impacted the lives of millions of Americans. In the midst of great uncertainty, the 2022 U.S. midterm elections will be among the most important in our lifetime...

The Science of Politics

Why do countries go to war? How can we explain problems such as poverty, inequality, and pollution? What can be done to improve political representation in the United States and other countries? We will use scientific methods to answer these and othe...

POLISCI101

Introduction to International Relations

The course provides an introduction to major factors shaping contemporary international politics, including: the origins and nature of nationalism; explanations for war; nuclear weapons; international implications of the rise of China; civil war and...

POLISCI101Z

Introduction to International Relations

Approaches to the study of conflict and cooperation in world affairs. Applications to war, terrorism, trade policy, the environment, and world poverty. Debates about the ethics of war and the global distribution of wealth.

POLISCI102

Introduction to American Politics and Policy: In Defense of Democracy

American democracy faces a series of unprecedented challenges. This course will identify the greatest areas of weakness in the American political system, make sense of the most pressing threats facing democracy, and contemplate how democracy can be s...

POLISCI103

Justice

Justice, as we use the term in this class, is a question about social cooperation. People can produce much more cooperatively than the sum of what they could produce as individuals, and these gains from cooperation are what makes civilization possibl...

POLISCI110C

America and the World Economy

Examination of contemporary US foreign economic policy. Areas studied: the changing role of the dollar; mechanism of international monetary management; recent crises in world markets including those in Europe and Asia; role of IMF, World Bank and W...

POLISCI110D

War and Peace in American Foreign Policy

The causes of war in American foreign policy. Issues: international and domestic sources of war and peace; war and the American political system; war, intervention, and peace making in the post-Cold War period. Political Science majors taking this co...

POLISCI110G

Governing the Global Economy

Who governs the world economy? Why do countries succeed or fail to cooperate in setting their economic policies? When and how do international institutions help countries cooperate? When and why do countries adopt good and bad economic policies? How...

POLISCI110X

America and the World Economy

Examination of contemporary US foreign economic policy. Areas studied: the changing role of the dollar; mechanism of international monetary management; recent crises in world markets including those in Europe and Asia; role of IMF, World Bank and W...

POLISCI110Y

War and Peace in American Foreign Policy

The causes of war in American foreign policy. Issues: international and domestic sources of war and peace; war and the American political system; war, intervention, and peace making in the post-Cold War period. Political Science majors taking this co...

POLISCI111

The Politics of Climate Change

This course explores domestic and international dimensions of the politics of climate change. Selected topics include mitigation efforts at the national, state, and local level; international climate bargaining and cooperation; and implications of a...

POLISCI113

Understanding Russia: Its Power and Purpose in a New Global Order

Russia presents a puzzle for theories of socio-economic development and modernization and their relationship to state power in international politics. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 brought into being the new Russia (or Russian Federation)...

POLISCI114D

Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law

This course explores the different dimensions of development - economic, social, and political - as well as the way that modern institutions (the state, market systems, the rule of law, and democratic accountability) developed and interacted with oth...

POLISCI114S

International Security in a Changing World

International Security in a Changing World examines some of the most pressing international security problems facing the world today: nuclear crises, the rise of China, war, terrorism, and climate change. Alternative perspectives - from political sc...

POLISCI115

Spies, Lies, and Algorithms: The History and Future of American Intelligence

This course examines the past, present, and future of American espionage. Targeted at first years and sophomores, the class surveys key issues in the development of the U.S. Intelligence Community since World War II. Topics include covert action, int...

POLISCI115B

Israel, the Middle East and Nuclear Weapons

Israel, the Middle East and Nuclear Weapons is intended for students who are interested to learn about Israel's national security policy in the context of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East. The course is divided into three parts, and combines...

POLISCI118P

U.S. Relations with Iran

The evolution of relations between the U.S. and Iran. The years after WW II when the U.S. became more involved in Iran. Relations after the victory of the Islamic republic. The current state of affairs and the prospects for the future. Emphasis is on...

POLISCI118Y

Shaping the Future of the Bay Area

The complex urban problems affecting quality of life in the Bay Area, from housing affordability and transportation congestion to economic vitality and social justice, are already perceived by many to be intractable, and will likely be exacerbated by...

POLISCI118Z

Shaping the Future of the Bay Area

Students are placed in small interdisciplinary teams (engineers and non-engineers, undergraduate and graduate level) to work on complex design, engineering, and policy problems presented by external partners in a real urban setting. Multiple projects...

POLISCI120B

Campaigns, Voting, Media, and Elections

(Graduate students enroll in COMM 262. COMM 162 is offered for 5 units, COMM 262 is offered for 4 units.) This course examines the theory and practice of American campaigns and elections. First, we will attempt to explain the behavior of the key play...

POLISCI120C

American Political Institutions in Uncertain Times

This course examines how the rules that govern elections and the policy process determine political outcomes. It explores the historical forces that have shaped American political institutions, contemporary challenges to governing, and prospects for...

POLISCI120Z

What's Wrong with American Government? An Institutional Approach

How politicians, once elected, work together to govern America. The roles of the President, Congress, and Courts in making and enforcing laws. Focus is on the impact of constitutional rules on the incentives of each branch, and on how they influence...

POLISCI121L

Racial-Ethnic Politics in US

This course examines the profound role race plays in American politics. Topics covered include the construction of political identity among Asian, Black, Latino, Native, and White Americans; the politics of immigration and acculturation; and the infl...

POLISCI124A

The American West

The American West is characterized by frontier mythology, vast distances, marked aridity, and unique political and economic characteristics. This course integrates several disciplinary perspectives into a comprehensive examination of Western North Am...

POLISCI124L

The Psychology of Communication About Politics in America

Focus is on how politicians and government learn what Americans want and how the public's preferences shape government action; how surveys measure beliefs, preferences, and experiences; how poll results are criticized and interpreted; how conflict be...

POLISCI125M

Latino Social Movements

Social movements are cooperative attempts to change the world. This course reviews historically significant and contemporary political and social movements in Latino communities in the U.S., including the movements of the 1960s and events of the mode...

POLISCI125P

The First Amendment: Freedom of Speech and Press

(Graduate students enroll in 251. COMM 151 is offered for 5 units, COMM 251 is offered for 4 units.) The First Amendment: Freedom of Speech and Press (Law 7084): Introduction to the constitutional protections for freedom of speech, press, and express...

POLISCI125S

Chicano/Latino Politics

The political position of Latinos and Latinas in the U.S.. Focus is on Mexican Americans, with attention to Cuban Americans, Puerto Ricans, and other groups. The history of each group in the American polity; their political circumstances with respect...

POLISCI126

Between Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, JR.: Race, Religion, and the Politics of Freedom

Malcolm X (El Hajj Malik El Shabazz) and Martin Luther King, Jr. are both icons of the twentieth-century civil rights and black freedom movements. Often characterized as polar opposites - one advocating armed self-defense and the other non-violence a...

POLISCI127A

Finance, Corporations, and Society

Both 'Free market capitalism' and democracy appear to be in crisis around the world. This interdisciplinary course, which draws from the Social Sciences, Business and Law, will help you gain a deeper understanding of the root causes of these intertwi...

POLISCI130

Liberalism and its Critics

In this course, students will learn and engage with the core debates that have animated political theory in modern times. What is the proper relationship between the individual, the community, and the state? Are liberty and equality in conflict, and,...

POLISCI131L

Modern Political Thought: Machiavelli to Marx and Mill

This course is an introduction to the history of Western political thought from the late fifteenth century through the nineteenth century. We will consider the secularization of politics, the changing relationship between the individual and society,...

POLISCI132A

The Ethics of Elections

Do you have a duty to vote? Should immigrants be allowed to vote? Should we make voting mandatory? How (if at all) should we regulate campaign finance? Should we even have elections at all? In this course, we will explore these and other ethical ques...

POLISCI133

Ethics and Politics of Public Service

Ethical and political questions in public service work, including volunteering, service learning, humanitarian assistance, and public service professions such as medicine and teaching. Motives and outcomes in service work. Connections between service...

POLISCI133Z

Ethics and Politics in Public Service

This course examines ethical and political questions that arise in doing public service work, whether volunteering, service learning, humanitarian endeavors overseas, or public service professions such as medicine and teaching. What motives do people...

POLISCI134

Ethics for Activists

Activists devote sustained effort and attention toward achieving particular goals of social and political change. Do we have an ethical obligation to be activists? And how should those who do choose to be activists (for whatever reason) understand th...

POLISCI134E

Universal Basic Income: the philosophy behind the proposal

Universal basic income (or UBI) is a regular cash allowance given to all members of a community without means test, regardless of personal desert, and with no strings attached. Once a utopian proposal, the policy is now discussed and piloted througho...

POLISCI134L

Introduction to Environmental Ethics

How should human beings relate to the natural world? Do we have moral obligations toward non-human animals and other parts of nature? And what do we owe to other human beings, including future generations, with respect to the environment? The first p...

POLISCI134P

Contemporary Moral Problems

In this course, we will explore contemporary moral issues that arise in the lives of students at higher education institutions and consider their implications beyond campus. Taking the university as a starting point for moral analysis, we will explor...

POLISCI135

Citizenship

This class begins from the core definition of citizenship as membership in a political community and explores the many debates about what that membership means. Who is (or ought to be) a citizen? Who gets to decide? What responsibilities come with ci...

POLISCI135D

The Ethics of Democratic Citizenship

We usually think about democratic citizenship in terms of rights and opportunities, but are these benefits of democracy accompanied by special obligations? Do citizens of a democracy have an obligation to take an interest in politics and to actively...

POLISCI135E

Philosophy of Public Policy

From healthcare to voting reforms, social protection and educational policies, public policies are underpinned by moral values. When we debate those policies, we typically appeal to values like justice, fairness, equality, freedom, privacy, and safet...

POLISCI136R

Introduction to Global Justice

Our world is divided into many different states, each of which has its own culture or set of cultures. Vast inequalities of wealth and power exist between citizens of the rich world and the global poor. International commerce, immigration, and climat...

POLISCI137

Philosophy of Law: Protest, Punishment, and Racial Justice

In this course, we will examine some of the central questions in philosophy of law, including: What is law? How do we determine the content of laws? Do laws have moral content? What is authority? What gives law its authority? Must we obey the law? If...

POLISCI137A

Political Philosophy: The Social Contract Tradition

(Graduate students register for 276.) What makes political institutions legitimate? What makes them just? When do citizens have a right to revolt against those who rule over them? Which of our fellow citizens must we tolerate?Surprisingly, the answer...

POLISCI138E

Egalitarianism and Anti-Egalitarianism

How do we argue for equality today? How did we argue for equality in the past? This class will introduce students to egalitarian and anti-egalitarian thought and to contemporary conceptions of equality. It will provide an in-depth introduction to the...

POLISCI13N

Identity Politics 101

How do we understand the political choices citizens make? Why do Black and White Americans disagree so vehemently about racially-charged incidents like officer-involved shootings? What explains disagreements over policies like welfare and immigration...

POLISCI140P

Populism and the Erosion of Democracy

What is populism, and how much of a threat to democracy is it? How different is it from fascism or other anti-liberal movements? This course explores the conditions for the rise of populism, evaluates how much of a danger it poses, and examines the d...

POLISCI141

Political Economy of Development

The last few decades have seen remarkable progress in lifting millions of people out of poverty worldwide. Yet, millions still are unable to meet even their most basic sustenance needs. This course examines foundational reasons for why some countries...

POLISCI141A

Immigration and Multiculturalism

What are the economic effects of immigration? Do immigrants assimilate into local culture? What drives native attitudes towards immigrants? Is diversity bad for local economies and societies and which policies work for managing diversity and multicul...

POLISCI143C

The Politics of Internet Abuse

There are many ways in which the internet is abused to cause human harm. Terrorists use social media for recruitment. Government trolls harass opposition politicians and mass report activist accounts for supposed platform violations. Foreign and dome...

POLISCI143S

Comparative Corruption

Causes, effects, and solutions to various forms of corruption in business and politics in both developing regions (e.g. Asia, E. Europe) and developed ones (the US and the EU).

POLISCI146A

African Politics

Africa has lagged the rest of the developing world in terms of economic development, the establishment of social order, and the consolidation of democracy. This course seeks to identify the historical and political sources accounting for this lag, an...

POLISCI147

Comparative Democratic Development

Social, cultural, political, economic, and international factors affecting the development and consolidation of democracy in historical and comparative perspective. Individual country experiences with democracy, democratization, and regime performanc...

POLISCI147B

Gender, Identity, and Politics

Identity, whether national, religious, racial, ethnic, gender, sexual, or otherwise, can importantly shape how people experience the political world. Why do some identities become politically salient and how does identity shape politics? This course...

POLISCI148

Chinese Politics

China, one of the few remaining communist states in the world, has not only survived, but has become a global political actor of consequence with the fastest growing economy in the world. Why has the CCP thrived while other communist regimes have fa...

POLISCI149S

Islam, Iran, and the West

Iran and Islam have had a long and complicated relationship. This course covers the rise of Islam, its expansion in Iran, forms of resistance to and acceptance of Islamic ideas in Iran, the rise of Shiism and the impact of Iran on the development of...

POLISCI149T

Middle Eastern Politics

Topics in contemporary Middle Eastern politics including institutional sources of underdevelopment, political Islam, electoral authoritarianism, and the political economy of oil.

POLISCI14SC

River and Region: The Columbia River and the Shaping of the Pacific Northwest

This seminar will explore the crucial role of the Columbia River in the past, present, and future of the Pacific Northwest. Topics will include the lives and legacies of the indigenous peoples that Lewis and Clark encountered more than two centuries...

POLISCI150A

Data Science for Politics

Data science is quickly changing the way we understand and and engage in the political process. In this course we will develop fundamental techniques of data science and apply them to large political datasets on elections, campaign finance, lobbying...

POLISCI150B

Machine Learning for Social Scientists

Machine learning - the use of algorithms to classify, predict, sort, learn and discover from data - has exploded in use across academic fields, industry, government, and the non-profit sector. This course provides an introduction to machine learning...

POLISCI150C

Causal Inference for Social Science

Causal inference methods have revolutionized the way we use data, statistics, and research design to move from correlation to causation and rigorously learn about the impact of some potential cause (e.g., a new policy or intervention) on some outcome...

POLISCI151

Tackling Big Questions Using Social Data Science

Big data can help us provide answers to fundamental social questions, from poverty and social mobility, to climate change, migration, and the spread of disease. But making sense of data requires more than just statistical techniques: it calls for mod...

POLISCI153

Strategy: Introduction to Game Theory

This course provides an introduction to strategic reasoning. We discuss ideas such as the commitment problem, credibility in signaling, cheap talk, moral hazard and adverse selection. Concepts are developed through games played in class, and applied...

POLISCI153Z

Strategy: Introduction to Game Theory

This course provides an introduction to strategic reasoning. We discuss ideas such as the commitment problem, credibility in signaling, cheap talk, moral hazard and adverse selection. Concepts are developed through games played in class, and applied...

POLISCI154

Solving Social Problems with Data

Introduces students to the interdisciplinary intersection of data science and the social sciences through an in-depth examination of contemporary social problems. Provides a foundational skill set for solving social problems with data including quant...

POLISCI181

Computers, Ethics, and Public Policy

Ethical and social issues related to the development and use of computer technology. Ethical theory, and social, political, and legal considerations. Scenarios in problem areas: privacy, reliability and risks of complex systems, and responsibility of...

POLISCI182

Ethics, Public Policy, and Technological Change

Examination of recent developments in computing technology and platforms through the lenses of philosophy, public policy, social science, and engineering. Course is organized around five main units: algorithmic decision-making and bias; data privacy...

POLISCI1Z

The Science of Politics

Why do countries go to war? How can we explain problems such as poverty, inequality, and pollution? What can be done to improve political representation in the United States and other countries? We will use scientific methods to answer these and othe...

POLISCI209

Curricular Practical Training

Qualified Political Science students obtain employment in a relevant research or industrial activity to enhance their professional experience consistent with their degree programs. Meets the requirements for Curricular Practical Training for students...

POLISCI209Z

Research in Political Science and International Relations

Students will assist faculty with research projects. They will also attend workshops/seminars and complete written assignments that demonstrate their knowledge of research design, data analysis, and software. Students must apply through Summer Sessio...

POLISCI20N

The American Electorate in the Trump Era

This seminar will introduce students to the methods social scientists use to analyze public opinion, voting and elections, with primary emphasis on the 2016 elections and the upcoming 2020 elections. Students will utilize major databases such as the...

POLISCI20Q

Democracy in Crisis: Learning from the Past

This January, an armed insurrection assaulted the U.S. Capital, trying to block the Electoral College affirmation of President Biden's election. For the past four years, American democracy has been in continual crisis. Bitter and differing views of w...

POLISCI211N

Nuclear Politics

Why do states develop nuclear weapons and why do some states, that have the technological capacity to build nuclear weapons, nonetheless refrain from doing so? What are the consequences of new states deploying nuclear weapons? Do arms control treatie...

POLISCI213

US-Russia Relations After the Cold War

A quarter century ago, the Soviet Union collapsed and the Cold War ended. At the time, Russian leaders aspired to build democratic and market institutions at home. They also wanted to join the West. American presidents Democrat and Republican encoura...

POLISCI213E

Introduction to European Studies

This course offers an introduction to major topics in the study of historical and contemporary Europe. We focus on European politics, economics and culture. First, we study what makes Europe special, and how its distinct identity has been influenced...

POLISCI214

Israel: Society, Politics, and Policy

The course "Israel: Society, Politics, and Policy" invites students to explore modern Israel in comparative perspective. Few countries in the world have captured the American imagination as much as Israel and are at the same time as poorly understood...

POLISCI214R

Challenges and Dilemmas in American Foreign Policy

This seminar will examine the complexities and trade offs involved in foreign policy decision-making at the end of the twentieth century and the dawn of the post-9/11 era. Students will analyze dilemmas confronting policymakers through case studies...

POLISCI216

Global Futures: History, Statecraft, Systems

Where does the future come from? It comes from the past, of course, but how? What are the key drivers of continuity or change, and how can we trace those drivers going forward, too? What are the roles of contingency, chance, and choice, versus lon...

POLISCI218T

Politics of Insurgency, Terrorism and Civil War

This seminar introduces students the politics of internal conflict and violence, which is the dominant form of political conflict in the contemporary world. We will examine dynamics of internal conflict onset, intra-conflict period, and processes by...

POLISCI219

Directed Reading and Research in International Relations

For undergraduates. Directed reading in Political Science with a focus on international relations. To be considered for enrollment, interested students must complete the directed reading petition form available on the Political Science website before...

POLISCI220C

The Politics of the Administrative State

Most studies of democratic government are about elected leaders, campaigns and elections, legislatures, and public opinion. But these aspects of government are, in some sense, the tail that wags the dog. To understand what government actually does an...

POLISCI220R

The Presidency

This course provides students with a comprehensive perspective on the American presidency and covers a range of topics: elections, policy making, control of the bureaucracy, unilateral action, war-making, and much more. But throughout, the goal is t...

POLISCI222F

Seminar on Political Change

This seminar will examine broad changes in American Politics in the modern era, roughly the beginning of the 20th Century to the present. A central theme of the seminar will be how sociological and economic change disrupts party alignments and leads...

POLISCI223

Gender & U.S. Politics

Why are women still underrepresented in US political office, and what evidence do we have that increasing women's political representation is important? This course discusses the following main topics: What is the status quo of female candidacy in th...

POLISCI223A

Public Opinion and American Democracy

This course focuses on the public mood and politics in America today. It accordingly examines, among other things, the coherence (or lack of it) of public opinion; the partisan sorting of the electorate; and the ideological and affective polarizatio...

POLISCI223B

Money, Power, and Politics in the New Gilded Age

During the past two generations, democracy has coincided with massive increases in economic inequality in the U.S. and many other advanced democracies. The course will explore normative and practical issues concerning democracy and equality and exami...

POLISCI225L

Law and the New Political Economy

(Same as LAW 7515) In this seminar, we consider key legal topics through the lens of political economy - that is, is the interplay among economics, law, and politics. This perspective has had a powerful and growing impact on how scholars and judges v...

POLISCI226A

The Changing Face of America

This upper-division seminar will explore some of the most significant issues related to educational access and equity facing American society in the 21st century. Designed for students with significant leadership potential who have already studied th...

POLISCI226T

The Politics of Education

America's public schools are government agencies, and virtually everything about them is subject to political authority--and thus to decision through the political process. This seminar is an effort to understand the politics of education and its im...

POLISCI227B

Environmental Governance and Climate Resilience

Adaptation to climate change will not only require new infrastructure and policies, but it will also challenge our local, state and national governments to collaborate across jurisdictional lines in ways that include many different types of private a...

POLISCI227C

Money in Politics

This course will cover campaign finance, lobbying, and interest group politics.

POLISCI228C

Law and Politics of Bureaucracy

Same as Law 7096. Modern government is bureaucratic government. In the words of Justice Jackson, the rise of the administrative state is likely "the most significant legal trend of the last century and perhaps more values today are affected by [agenc...

POLISCI229

Directed Reading and Research in American Politics

For undergraduates. Directed reading in Political Science with a focus on American politics. To be considered for enrollment, interested students must complete the directed reading petition form available on the Political Science website before the e...

POLISCI22SC

The Face of Battle

Our understanding of warfare often derives from the lofty perspective of political leaders and generals: what were their objectives and what strategies were developed to meet them? This top-down perspective slights the experience of the actual combat...

POLISCI230

Political Theology

In this course, we will study the phenomenon of politics by attending to its theological dimensions, as well as the historical and philosophical underpinnings of states both ancient and modern. Each week we will take up a specific theme, e.g., univer...

POLISCI230A

Classical Seminar: Origins of Political Thought

Political philosophy in classical antiquity, centered on reading canonical works of Thucydides, Plato, Aristotle against other texts and against the political and historical background. Topics include: interdependence, legitimacy, justice; political...

POLISCI231

High-Stakes Politics: Case Studies in Political Philosophy, Institutions, and Interests

Normative political theory combined with positive political theory to better explain how major texts may have responded to and influenced changes in formal and informal institutions. Emphasis is on historical periods in which catastrophic institution...

POLISCI232

The Science and Politics of Apocalypse

For millennia, an apocalypse has been just around the corner. This course examines how expectations surrounding the end of the world - and the role that human beings might play in bringing it about - have transformed over the last two centuries. Afte...

POLISCI232T

The Dialogue of Democracy

All forms of democracy require some kind of communication so people can be aware of issues and make decisions. This course looks at competing visions of what democracy should be and different notions of the role of dialogue in a democracy. Is it just...

POLISCI233

Justice and Cities

Cities have most often been where struggles for social justice happen, where injustice is most glaring and where new visions of just communities are developed and tested. This class brings political theories of justice and democracy together with his...

POLISCI233F

Science, Technology, and Society and the Humanities in the Face of Looming Disaster

How STS and the Humanities can together help think out the looming catastrophes that put the future of humankind in jeopardy.

POLISCI234

Democratic Theory

Most people agree that democracy is a good thing, but do we agree on what democracy is? This course will examine the concept of democracy in political philosophy. We will address the following questions: What reason(s), if any, do we have for valui...

POLISCI234N

The Concept of Society from Marx to Zuckerberg

What is society and what does it mean to be a member of one? This course examines these questions by looking at three different periods within the history of modern political thought in which the concept of society was debated and transformed. In the...

POLISCI234P

Deliberative Democracy and its Critics

This course examines the theory and practice of deliberative democracy and engages both in a dialogue with critics. Can a democracy which emphasizes people thinking and talking together on the basis of good information be made practical in the modern...

POLISCI234S

The Political Theory of Progress Reconsidered

This course will consider the origins and fate of Enlightenment theories of political progress. We will begin with the classic accounts of progress in Kant, Hegel, and Marx, before turning to conservative critics of progress (Burke, de Maistre), and...

POLISCI235

Chinese Political Thought: 1895-2021

Everybody is talking about China now. The competition between China and the Western world is not only about economic growth, technological advancement, and military strength. What is ultimately at stake is a key theoretical question: Can China's poli...

POLISCI235A

From Cold War to New Cold War: Politics and Political Theory in Contemporary China

"China lacks everything: middle managers, engineers and capital," so wrote French political thinker Raymond Aron. That was 1950, three years after Harry Truman's 1947 Address to Congress, which was usually considered the beginning of the Cold War, an...

POLISCI235B

Political Memory and Democratic Citizenship

We may not always realize it, but political discussions often invoke historical memory. As we debate about political ideas and praxes, we often draw on history to criticize our interlocutors and build our arguments. Meanwhile, historical memory also...

POLISCI235C

Misinformation and Democracy: Past and Present

Many today consider misinformation to be one of the most significant challenges faced by democratic societies. Some see this as a new phenomenon, arguing, for example, that modern technology - and, above all, social media giants like Facebook or Twit...

POLISCI235E

Philosophy of Public Policy

From healthcare to voting reforms, social protection and educational policies, public policies are underpinned by moral values. When we debate those policies, we typically appeal to values like justice, fairness, equality, freedom, privacy, and safet...

POLISCI235N

Political Thought in Modern Asia

The study of political theory in the United States has been accused of being Western-centric: We tend to focus on intellectual traditions from Plato to NATO, while ignoring the vast world of non-Western societies and the ways they think about politic...

POLISCI236

Philanthropy for Sustainable Development

This course teaches students how to pursue social change through philanthropy with a focus on sustainable development. Students learn about the approaches, history, and key debates in philanthropy, and apply their knowledge by collaboratively making...

POLISCI236S

Philanthropy for Sustainable Development

This course teaches students how to pursue social change through philanthropy with a focus on sustainable development. Students learn about the approaches, history, and key debates in philanthropy, and apply their knowledge by collaboratively making...

POLISCI237

Varieties of Conservatism in America

This seminar explores the conservative movement in America and its principal strands. It begins with an introduction to the modern tradition of freedom and America's founding principles since the understanding of conservatism - in the United States a...

POLISCI237R

Introduction to Apocalyptic Thinking

At the time of the European Enlightenment, the talk about the end of the world was taken to be a remnant of religious beliefs or the domain of insane people. The rational mind knew how to eliminate those obstacles to continuous scientific and technol...

POLISCI238

Philanthropy Fellows Seminar

This course is restricted to Philanthropy Fellowships students. Enrollment by instructor permission only.

POLISCI238R

Ancient Greek Rationality, Public and Private

In this seminar, we'll consider ancient Greek views about and theories of practical rationality and compare and contrast them with some modern theories, especially theories of instrumental rationality. We'll consider both philosophic authors, especi...

POLISCI239

Directed Reading and Research in Political Theory

For undergraduates. Directed reading in Political Science with a focus on political theory. To be considered for enrollment, interested students must complete the directed reading petition form available on the Political Science website before the en...

POLISCI241

The Political Economy of China: Policy and Development from Antiquity to Revolution

Welcome to the Political Economy of China! Over the course of the semester, you'll gain a rigorous, historically informed understanding of the long-term trajectory of policy and economic change in China from antiquity to the present day. By taking a...

POLISCI241S

Spatial Approaches to Social Science

This multidisciplinary course combines different approaches to how GIS and spatial tools can be applied in social science research. We take a collaborative, project oriented approach to bring together technical expertise and substantive applications...

POLISCI241T

Political Economy of Gender

This course provides an introduction to the political economy of gender. The course first explores the key areas of debate on women's representation. Why are womenunderrepresented in formal political institutions? How do political institutions affect...

POLISCI242

Foreign Policy Decision Making in Comparative Perspective

This seminar will examine how countries and multilateral organizations make decisions about foreign and international policy. The hypothesis to be explored in the course is that individuals, bureaucracies, and interest groups shape foreign policy dec...

POLISCI242G

Political Mobilization and Democratic Breakthroughs

Mass political mobilization occurs in both democracies and autocracies. Sometimes political protests, demonstrations, and acts of nonviolence civic resistance undermine autocracies, produce democratic breakthroughs, or generate democratic reforms. Ot...

POLISCI243A

Inequality

What is economic inequality? What forms does it take? How do we measure it? What are its political, social, and economic causes and consequences? Why are some people and some societies more or less concerned about inequality? What normative framework...

POLISCI244A

Authoritarian Politics

This course offers a thematic approach to the study of authoritarian politics. We will cover the major areas of political science research on authoritarian politics and governance while simultaneously building empirical knowledge about the politics o...

POLISCI244C

Wealth of Nations

Why are there economic disparities across countries? Why did some countries grow steadily over the past 200 years while many others did not? What have been the consequences for the citizens of those countries? What has been the role of geography, cul...

POLISCI244D

Societal Collapse

Sustained economic growth is an anomaly in human history. Moreover, in the very long term, sustained economic decline is common. Following a historical and cross-cultural perspective, we will study the causes of economic decline, the social and polit...

POLISCI244U

Political Culture

The implications of social norms, preferences and beliefs for political and economic behavior and societal outcomes.

POLISCI245C

The Logics of Violence: Rebels, Criminal Groups and the State

This course explore the logics of violence. The course offers an overview of the literature on civil wars as well as organized violence involving armed groups that do not seek formal state power, such as drug cartels, prison gangs, and paramilitaries...

POLISCI245R

Politics in Modern Iran

Modern Iran has been a smithy for political movements, ideologies, and types of states. Movements include nationalism, constitutionalism, Marxism, Islamic fundamentalism, social democracy, Islamic liberalism, and fascism. Forms of government include...

POLISCI246A

Paths to the Modern World: The West in Comparative Perspective

How and why did Europe develop political institutions that encouraged economic growth and industrialization? And why have many other regions lagged in the creation of growth-promoting institutions? This course uses a comparative approach to understan...

POLISCI247A

Games Developing Nations Play

If, as economists argue, development can make everyone in a society better off, why do leaders fail to pursue policies that promote development? The course uses game theoretic approaches from both economics and political science to address this quest...

POLISCI247G

Governance and Poverty

Poverty relief requires active government involvement in the provision of public services such as drinking water, healthcare, sanitation, education, roads, electricity and public safety. Failure to deliver public services is a major impediment to the...

POLISCI248A

Politics and Institutions in Latin America

The broad academic purpose of the course is to evaluate presidential democracies in Latin America and their impacts on the politics in this region. The goal is to give students an introduction to the main debates on political institutions in the Lati...

POLISCI248C

Key Issues in Chinese Politics

(Course is available only to students participating in Stanford's SCPKU study abroad program in Beijing, which is operated by the Stanford Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI).) A broad overview of China's politics and the role o...

POLISCI248D

China in the Global Economy

An examination of China in the global economy. Focus will be on China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The goal of the course is to provide students an in-depth understanding of a key initiative of China's efforts to globalize. The approach examines...

POLISCI248S

Latin American Politics

Fundamental transformations in Latin America in the last two decades: why most governments are now democratic or semidemocratic; and economic transformation as countries abandoned import substitution industrialization policies led by state interventi...

POLISCI249

Directed Reading and Research in Comparative Politics

For undergraduates. Directed reading in Political Science with a focus on comparative politics. To be considered for enrollment, interested students must complete the directed reading petition form available on the Political Science website before th...

POLISCI259

Directed Reading and Research in Political Methodology

For undergraduates. Directed reading in Political Science with a focus on political methodology. To be considered for enrollment, interested students must complete the directed reading petition form available on the Political Science website before t...

POLISCI25N

The US Congress in Historical and Comparative Perspective

This course traces the development of legislatures from their medieval European origins to the present, with primary emphasis on the case of the U.S. Congress. Students will learn about the early role played by assemblies in placing limits on royal...

POLISCI27N

Thinking Like a Social Scientist

Preference to freshman. This seminar will consider how politics and government can be studied systematically: the compound term Political SCIENCE is not an oxymoron. The seminar will introduce core concepts and explore a variety of methodological app...

POLISCI27SC

Policing and Violence in Latin America: Historical Origins and Contemporary Challenges

This course explores the origins of policing in Latin America and the contemporary challenges in the relationship between the State, organized crime, violence and police forces. By taking a long-term perspective we seek to understand why highly unequ...

POLISCI28SC

Energy in Hawaii: Forefront of Clean Energy Technology and Policy

We will explore practical, social, technical, and political issues surrounding energy production and use in Hawaii. Hawaii is at the forefront of changes in the electric grid and the uses of electricity, with an aspirational goal for 100% carbon-free...

POLISCI299A

Research Design

This course is designed to teach students how to design a research project. The course emphasizes the specification of testable hypotheses, the building of data sets, and the inferences from that may be drawn from that evidence. This course fulfills...

POLISCI299B

Honors Thesis Seminar

Restricted to Political Science Research Honors students who have completed POLISCI 299A.

POLISCI299C

Honors Thesis

Students conduct independent research work towards a senior honors thesis. Restricted to Political Science Research Honors students who have completed POLISCI 299B.

POLISCI299D

Honors Thesis

Students conduct independent research work towards a senior honors thesis. Restricted to Political Science Research Honors students who have completed POLISCI 299B.

POLISCI309

Curricular Practical Training for PhD Students

Qualified Political Science students obtain employment in a relevant research or industrial activity to enhance their professional experience consistent with their degree programs. Meets the requirements for Curricular Practical Training for students...

POLISCI311N

Nuclear Politics

Why do states develop nuclear weapons and why do some states, that have the technological capacity to build nuclear weapons, nonetheless refrain from doing so? What are the consequences of new states deploying nuclear weapons? Do arms control treatie...

POLISCI312

A New Cold War? Great Power Relations in the 21st Century

Thirty years ago the Cold War ended. Today, great power competition is back - or so it seems - with many describing our present era as a "New Cold War" between the United States and China and Russia. What happened? Is the Cold War label an illuminati...

POLISCI313

US-Russia Relations After the Cold War

A quarter century ago, the Soviet Union collapsed and the Cold War ended. At the time, Russian leaders aspired to build democratic and market institutions at home. They also wanted to join the West. American presidents Democrat and Republican encoura...

POLISCI314D

Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law

This course explores the different dimensions of development - economic, social, and political - as well as the way that modern institutions (the state, market systems, the rule of law, and democratic accountability) developed and interacted with oth...

POLISCI314R

Challenges and Dilemmas in American Foreign Policy

This seminar will examine the complexities and trade offs involved in foreign policy decision-making at the end of the twentieth century and the dawn of the post-9/11 era. Students will analyze dilemmas confronting policymakers through case studies...

POLISCI319

Directed Reading and Research in International Relations

For PhD students. Directed reading in Political Science with a focus on international relations. May be repeated for credit.

POLISCI31N

Political Freedom: Rights, Justice, and Democracy in the Western Tradition

Freedom is one of our core values. Most people can agree that freedom is a good thing. Yet there is far less agreement about how to understand the concept itself and what kinds of political arrangements are best suited to protect and enhance freedom....

POLISCI31Q

Justice and Cities

Cities have most often been where struggles for social justice happen, where injustice is most glaring and where new or renewed visions of just communities are developed and tested. What makes a city just or unjust? How have people tried to make citi...

POLISCI320C

The Politics of the Administrative State

Most studies of democratic government are about elected leaders, campaigns and elections, legislatures, and public opinion. But these aspects of government are, in some sense, the tail that wags the dog. To understand what government actually does an...

POLISCI320R

The Presidency

This course provides students with a comprehensive perspective on the American presidency and covers a range of topics: elections, policy making, control of the bureaucracy, unilateral action, war-making, and much more. But throughout, the goal is t...

POLISCI321

Graduate Seminar in Political Psychology

For students interested in research in political science, psychology, or communication. Methodological techniques for studying political attitudes and behaviors. May be repeated for credit.

POLISCI324L

The Psychology of Communication About Politics in America

Focus is on how politicians and government learn what Americans want and how the public's preferences shape government action; how surveys measure beliefs, preferences, and experiences; how poll results are criticized and interpreted; how conflict be...

POLISCI325L

Law and the New Political Economy

(Same as LAW 7515) In this seminar, we consider key legal topics through the lens of political economy - that is, is the interplay among economics, law, and politics. This perspective has had a powerful and growing impact on how scholars and judges v...

POLISCI326

Executive Power Under the Constitution

This new course will address the full range of issues involving executive power under the U.S. Constitution, including the process of election (Electoral College; voting disputes, the Electoral Count Act), impeachment, foreign affairs (including cont...

POLISCI326T

The Politics of Education

America's public schools are government agencies, and virtually everything about them is subject to political authority--and thus to decision through the political process. This seminar is an effort to understand the politics of education and its im...

POLISCI327C

Law of Democracy

Combined with LAW 7036 (formerly Law 577). This course is intended to give students a basic understanding of the themes in the legal regulation of elections and politics. We will cover all the major Supreme Court cases on topics of voting rights, rea...

POLISCI329

Directed Reading and Research in American Politics

For PhD students. Directed reading in Political Science with a focus on American politics. May be repeated for credit.

POLISCI330A

Classical Seminar: Origins of Political Thought

Political philosophy in classical antiquity, centered on reading canonical works of Thucydides, Plato, Aristotle against other texts and against the political and historical background. Topics include: interdependence, legitimacy, justice; political...

POLISCI331

High-Stakes Politics: Case Studies in Political Philosophy, Institutions, and Interests

Normative political theory combined with positive political theory to better explain how major texts may have responded to and influenced changes in formal and informal institutions. Emphasis is on historical periods in which catastrophic institution...

POLISCI332T

The Dialogue of Democracy

All forms of democracy require some kind of communication so people can be aware of issues and make decisions. This course looks at competing visions of what democracy should be and different notions of the role of dialogue in a democracy. Is it just...

POLISCI333M

Research and Methods in Political Theory

This seminar has two aims. First, we examine the methodological approaches of scholars working within political theory as well as those working at the intersection of political theory and empirical social science. Second, we discuss in an informal wo...

POLISCI334

Philanthropy and Civil Society

Cross-listed with Law (LAW 7071), Political Science (POLISCI 334) and Sociology (SOC 374). Associated with the Center for Philanthropy and Civil Society (PACS). Year-long workshop for doctoral students and advanced undergraduates writing senior these...

POLISCI334P

Deliberative Democracy and its Critics

This course examines the theory and practice of deliberative democracy and engages both in a dialogue with critics. Can a democracy which emphasizes people thinking and talking together on the basis of good information be made practical in the modern...

POLISCI335

Chinese Political Thought: 1895-2021

Everybody is talking about China now. The competition between China and the Western world is not only about economic growth, technological advancement, and military strength. What is ultimately at stake is a key theoretical question: Can China's poli...

POLISCI335A

From Cold War to New Cold War: Politics and Political Theory in Contemporary China

"China lacks everything: middle managers, engineers and capital," so wrote French political thinker Raymond Aron. That was 1950, three years after Harry Truman's 1947 Address to Congress, which was usually considered the beginning of the Cold War, an...

POLISCI335B

Political Memory and Democratic Citizenship

We may not always realize it, but political discussions often invoke historical memory. As we debate about political ideas and praxes, we often draw on history to criticize our interlocutors and build our arguments. Meanwhile, historical memory also...

POLISCI335C

Misinformation and Democracy: Past and Present

Many today consider misinformation to be one of the most significant challenges faced by democratic societies. Some see this as a new phenomenon, arguing, for example, that modern technology - and, above all, social media giants like Facebook or Twit...

POLISCI335N

Political Thought in Modern Asia

The study of political theory in the United States has been accused of being Western-centric: We tend to focus on intellectual traditions from Plato to NATO, while ignoring the vast world of non-Western societies and the ways they think about politic...

POLISCI336

Introduction to Global Justice

Our world is divided into many different states, each of which has its own culture or set of cultures. Vast inequalities of wealth and power exist between citizens of the rich world and the global poor. International commerce, immigration, and climat...

POLISCI336S

Justice

Justice, as we use the term in this class, is a question about social cooperation. People can produce much more cooperatively than the sum of what they could produce as individuals, and these gains from cooperation are what makes civilization possibl...

POLISCI337

Philosophy of Law: Protest, Punishment, and Racial Justice

In this course, we will examine some of the central questions in philosophy of law, including: What is law? How do we determine the content of laws? Do laws have moral content? What is authority? What gives law its authority? Must we obey the law? If...

POLISCI337A

Political Philosophy: The Social Contract Tradition

(Graduate students register for 276.) What makes political institutions legitimate? What makes them just? When do citizens have a right to revolt against those who rule over them? Which of our fellow citizens must we tolerate?Surprisingly, the answer...

POLISCI337R

Introduction to Apocalyptic Thinking

At the time of the European Enlightenment, the talk about the end of the world was taken to be a remnant of religious beliefs or the domain of insane people. The rational mind knew how to eliminate those obstacles to continuous scientific and technol...

POLISCI338

Universal Basic Income: the philosophy behind the proposal

Universal basic income (or UBI) is a regular cash allowance given to all members of a community without means test, regardless of personal desert, and with no strings attached. Once a utopian proposal, the policy is now discussed and piloted througho...

POLISCI338B

Unequal Relationships

Over the past three decades, a relational egalitarian conception of equality has emerged in political philosophy. Proponents of the view argue that the point of equality is to establish communities whose members are able to stand and relate as equals...

POLISCI338E

The Problem of Evil in Literature, Film, and Philosophy

Conceptions of evil and its nature and source, distinctions between natural and moral evil, and what belongs to God versus to the human race have undergone transformations reflected in literature and film. Sources include Rousseau's response to the 1...

POLISCI339

Directed Reading and Research in Political Theory

For PhD students. Directed reading in Political Science with a focus on political theory. May be repeated for credit.

POLISCI341

The Political Economy of China: Policy and Development from Antiquity to Revolution

Welcome to the Political Economy of China! Over the course of the semester, you'll gain a rigorous, historically informed understanding of the long-term trajectory of policy and economic change in China from antiquity to the present day. By taking a...

POLISCI342

Foreign Policy Decision Making in Comparative Perspective

This seminar will examine how countries and multilateral organizations make decisions about foreign and international policy. The hypothesis to be explored in the course is that individuals, bureaucracies, and interest groups shape foreign policy dec...

POLISCI342G

Political Mobilization and Democratic Breakthroughs

Mass political mobilization occurs in both democracies and autocracies. Sometimes political protests, demonstrations, and acts of nonviolence civic resistance undermine autocracies, produce democratic breakthroughs, or generate democratic reforms. Ot...

POLISCI343A

Field Methods

Familiarizes students with a variety of field methods potentially applicable to ongoing research projects and dissertations. Topics include case selection, process tracing, participant observation, interviewing, archival research, survey design, labe...

POLISCI343C

Public Opinion and Elections in the Populist Era

Brexit, Donald Trump, the collapse of party systems in established democracies like France and Italy - these striking developments have a common thread: the disruption of politics as usual by insurgent "populist" movements and/or parties. The seminar...

POLISCI344

Politics and Geography

The role of geography in topics in political economy, including development, political representation, voting, redistribution, regional autonomy movements, fiscal competition, and federalism.

POLISCI344U

Political Culture

The implications of social norms, preferences and beliefs for political and economic behavior and societal outcomes.

POLISCI347A

Games Developing Nations Play

If, as economists argue, development can make everyone in a society better off, why do leaders fail to pursue policies that promote development? The course uses game theoretic approaches from both economics and political science to address this quest...

POLISCI347G

Governance and Poverty

Poverty relief requires active government involvement in the provision of public services such as drinking water, healthcare, sanitation, education, roads, electricity and public safety. Failure to deliver public services is a major impediment to the...

POLISCI348

Chinese Politics

China, one of the few remaining communist states in the world, has not only survived, but has become a global political actor of consequence with the fastest growing economy in the world. Why has the CCP thrived while other communist regimes have fa...

POLISCI348A

Politics and Institutions in Latin America

The broad academic purpose of the course is to evaluate presidential democracies in Latin America and their impacts on the politics in this region. The goal is to give students an introduction to the main debates on political institutions in the Lati...

POLISCI348C

Key Issues in Chinese Politics

(Course is available only to students participating in Stanford's SCPKU study abroad program in Beijing, which is operated by the Stanford Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI).) A broad overview of China's politics and the role o...

POLISCI348D

China in the Global Economy

An examination of China in the global economy. Focus will be on China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The goal of the course is to provide students an in-depth understanding of a key initiative of China's efforts to globalize. The approach examines...

POLISCI348S

Latin American Politics

Fundamental transformations in Latin America in the last two decades: why most governments are now democratic or semidemocratic; and economic transformation as countries abandoned import substitution industrialization policies led by state interventi...

POLISCI349

Directed Reading and Research in Comparative Politics

For PhD students. Directed reading in Political Science with a focus on comparative politics. May be repeated for credit.

POLISCI34Q

Nationalism

Nationalist platforms have been on the rise for years across the globe. The success of nationalist parties and candidates is often accompanied by backlash against outgroups, from immigrants to religious and ethnic minorities. Nationalism often leads...

POLISCI35

Sustainability and Civilization

Our civilization faces multiple sustainability challenges. Climate change often dominates public conversation, but in fact, a whole range of environmental, economic, political, and cultural trends threaten the structures that sustain the societies we...

POLISCI351A

Foundations of Political Economy

Introduction to political economy with an emphasis on formal models of collective choice, public institutions, and political competition. Topics include voting theory, social choice, institutional equilibria, agenda setting, interest group politics,...

POLISCI351B

Economic Analysis of Political Institutions

Applying techniques such as information economics, games of incomplete information, sequential bargaining theory, repeated games, and rational expectations of microeconomic analysis and game theory to political behavior and institutions. Applicatoins...

POLISCI351C

Institutions and Bridge-Building in Political Economy

This course critically surveys empirical applications of formal models of collective-choice institutions. It is explicitly grounded in philosophy of science (e.g., Popperian positivism and Kuhn's notions of paradigms and normal science). Initial se...

POLISCI353A

Workshop in Political Methodology

Mathematical and statistical models and applications to political science. Guest speakers, faculty, and students present research papers. May be repeated for credit.

POLISCI353B

Workshop in Political Methodology

Continuation of POLISCI 353A. Mathematical and statistical models and applications to political science. Guest speakers, faculty, and students present research papers. May be repeated for credit.

POLISCI353C

Workshop in Political Methodology

Continuation of POLISCI 353B. Mathematical and statistical models and applications to political science. Guest speakers, faculty, and students present research papers. May be repeated for credit.

POLISCI354

Strategy: Introduction to Game Theory

This course provides an introduction to strategic reasoning. We discuss ideas such as the commitment problem, credibility in signaling, cheap talk, moral hazard and adverse selection. Concepts are developed through games played in class, and applied...

POLISCI355A

Data Science for Politics

Data science is quickly changing the way we understand and and engage in the political process. In this course we will develop fundamental techniques of data science and apply them to large political datasets on elections, campaign finance, lobbying...

POLISCI355B

Machine Learning for Social Scientists

Machine learning - the use of algorithms to classify, predict, sort, learn and discover from data - has exploded in use across academic fields, industry, government, and the non-profit sector. This course provides an introduction to machine learning...

POLISCI355C

Causal Inference for Social Science

Causal inference methods have revolutionized the way we use data, statistics, and research design to move from correlation to causation and rigorously learn about the impact of some potential cause (e.g., a new policy or intervention) on some outcome...

POLISCI356A

Formal Theory I

An introduction to noncooperative game theory through applications in political science. Topics will include the Hotelling-Downs model, the probabilistic voting model, contests, the tragedy of the commons, and political bargaining models, among other...

POLISCI356B

Formal Theory II

A continuation of Formal Theory I covering applications of asymmetric information game theory to political science. Topics include the Condorcet jury model, asymmetric information crisis bargaining, and political accountability models, among others.

POLISCI358

Data-driven Politics

Covers advanced computational and statistical methods for collecting and modeling large-scale data on politics. Topics will include automated and computer-assisted methods for collecting, disambiguating, and merging unstructured data (web-scraping, i...

POLISCI359

Advanced Individual Study in Political Methodology

For PhD students. Directed reading in Political Science with a focus on political methodology. May be repeated for credit.

POLISCI400

Dissertation

Pre-TGR dissertation research. Open to Poli Sci PhD students who have advanced to candidacy.

POLISCI400C

Research Design

This course is a research design practicum. Students are required to propose a research question that speaks to a consequential political issue, and one which can be successfully addressed relying on disciplinary tools. Over the quarter, they will be...

POLISCI410A

International Relations Theory, Part I

This course offers a PhD-level introductory overview of the field of international relations. The primary purpose is to understand and evaluate the main theories, arguments, claims, and conjectures made by scholars in the field so as to enable studen...

POLISCI410B

International Relations Theory, Part II

Second of a three-part graduate sequence. Security and armed conflict, both interstate and civil war. Nuclear weapons, terrorism, political economy of defense, and related topics. Prerequisite: POLISCI 410A.

POLISCI410C

International Relations Theory, Part III

Third of a three-part graduate sequence. History of international relations theory, current debates, and applications to problems of international security and political economy. Prerequisite: POLISCI 410A.

POLISCI410D

Research in International Relations

Part of the graduate sequence in international relations. Focus is on developing research papers and exploring active areas of research in the field. Prerequisites: POLISCI 410A and 410B. 410C should be taken before or concurrently.

POLISCI411A

Workshop in International Relations

For graduate students. Contemporary work. Organized around presentation of research by students and outside scholars. May be repeated for credit.

POLISCI411B

Workshop in International Relations

For graduate students. Contemporary work. Organized around presentation of research by students and outside scholars. May be repeated for credit.

POLISCI411C

Workshop in International Relations

For graduate students. Contemporary work. Organized around presentation of research by students and outside scholars. May be repeated for credit.

POLISCI42

Democracy Matters

Should the U.S. close its border to immigrants? What are the ramifications of income inequality? How has COVID-19 changed life as we know it? Why are Americans so politically polarized? How can we address racial injustice? As the 2020 election appr...

POLISCI420A

American Political Institutions

Theories of American politics, focusing on Congress, the presidency, the bureaucracy, and the courts.

POLISCI420B

Topics in American Political Behavior

For graduate students with background in American politics embarking on their own research. Current research in American politics, emphasizing political behavior and public opinion. Possible topics: uncertainty and ambivalence in political attitudes,...

POLISCI421A

Current Debates in American Political Institutions

Each week of this class will focus on a recent debate in the American political institutions literature, with the term institutions being broadly defined. Topics will span elected officials' behavior, including by congressional members, the president...

POLISCI421K

Questionnaire Design for Surveys and Laboratory Experiments: Social and Cognitive Perspectives

The social and psychological processes involved in asking and answering questions via questionnaires for the social sciences; optimizing questionnaire design; open versus closed questions; rating versus ranking; rating scale length and point labeling...

POLISCI422

Workshop in American Politics

Research seminar. Frontiers in mass political behavior. Course may be repeated for credit.

POLISCI422F

Seminar on Political Change

This seminar will examine broad changes in American Politics in the modern era, roughly the beginning of the 20th Century to the present. A central theme of the seminar will be how sociological and economic change disrupts party alignments and leads...

POLISCI423A

The Laboratory of the Study of American Values

Designed for graduate students who are writing dissertations about American public opinion. Students participate in all phases of the research process and include questions on nationally representative surveys. Enrollment requires permission of the i...

POLISCI423B

The Laboratory of the Study of American Values II

Designed for graduate students who are writing dissertations about American public opinion. Students participate in all phases of the research process and include questions on nationally representative surveys. Enrollment is limited to members of the...

POLISCI424A

Democratic Elections

How do democratic elections work? Do elections make representatives accountable, and if so, under what conditions? What preferences do electorates reveal to us when they choose candidates for office, and how do candidates and representatives respond...

POLISCI424C

Party Polarization

This seminar surveys the literature on party polarization in the U.S and other industrialized democracies, considers alternative conceptualizations of polarization, and what is known about the causes and consequences of polarization.

POLISCI425

Political Communication

An overview of research in political communication with particular reference to work on the impact of the mass media on public opinion and voting behavior. Limited to Ph.D. students.

POLISCI426

Identity Politics

Whether one considers the partisan and electoral choices citizens make or the judgements citizens render in response to officer-involved shootings or other salient social and political events, the centrality of identity in our politics is indisputabl...

POLISCI427C

Money in Politics

This course will cover campaign finance, lobbying, and interest group politics.

POLISCI428C

Law and Politics of Bureaucracy

Same as Law 7096. Modern government is bureaucratic government. In the words of Justice Jackson, the rise of the administrative state is likely "the most significant legal trend of the last century and perhaps more values today are affected by [agenc...

POLISCI430

Origins of Political Thought

Political philosophy in classical antiquity, focusing on canonical works of Thucydides, Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero. Historical background. Topics include: political obligation, citizenship, and leadership; origins and development of democracy; and...

POLISCI430A

Ancient Greek Economic Development

Historians have been arguing about ancient Greek economic development since the 1890s. By the 1980s, opinion had swung toward what is sometimes called - the Cambridge consensus. - This held that the Greek economy was a typical premodern one, in which...

POLISCI431

Grad seminar: Contemporary Political Theory

Graduate seminar.

POLISCI432R

Selections in Modern Political Thought

This graduate-level seminar explores 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...

POLISCI433

Workshop in Political Theory

For graduate students. Faculty, guest speakers, and graduate students conducting research in political theory present works-in-progress. May be repeated for credit.

POLISCI435

Asian Political Thought

The study of political theory in the United States has been accused of being Western-centric: We tend to focus on intellectual traditions from Plato to NATO, while ignoring the vast world of non-Western societies and the ways they think about politic...

POLISCI437C

20th Century and Contemporary Political Theory

This course provides a survey of some of the major contributions to political thought in the past century. The course will place special emphasis on the development of theories of political authority and legitimacy in the context of the modern burea...

POLISCI438R

Ancient Greek Rationality, Public and Private

In this seminar, we'll consider ancient Greek views about and theories of practical rationality and compare and contrast them with some modern theories, especially theories of instrumental rationality. We'll consider both philosophic authors, especi...

POLISCI440A

Theories in Comparative Politics

Theories addressing major concerns in the comparative field including identity, order, regime type, legitimacy, and governance.

POLISCI440B

Comparative Political Economy

Required of Political Science Ph.D. students with comparative politics as a first or second concentration; others by consent of the instructor. The origins of political and economic institutions and their impact on long run outcomes for growth and de...

POLISCI440C

Research Design in Comparative Politics

Current methodological standards in comparative politics. Students develop their own research design that meets these standards.

POLISCI440D

Workshop in Comparative Politics

Faculty, guest speakers, and graduate students conducting research in comparative politics present work-in-progress. May be repeated for credit.

POLISCI441L

Grad Seminar on Middle Eastern Politics

Survey of major topics in the study of Middle Eastern politics including state formation, authoritarian resilience and political Islam

POLISCI443S

Political Economy of Reform in China

Content, process, and problems of China's post-Mao reforms. Changes in property rights, markets, credit, and the role of the state in economic development. Comparative insights about reform in the Chinese communist system that distinguishes it from t...

POLISCI443T

Approaches to Chinese Politics

This graduate seminar is designed to give doctoral students bibliographic control of the major secondary literature on Chinese Politics. This course is organized around theoretical concepts and issues found in studies of China's political system and...

POLISCI444A

Authoritarian Politics

This course offers a thematic approach to the study of authoritarian politics. We will cover the major areas of political science research on authoritarian politics and governance while simultaneously building empirical knowledge about the politics o...

POLISCI445C

The Logics of Violence: Rebels, Criminal Groups and the State

This course explore the logics of violence. The course offers an overview of the literature on civil wars as well as organized violence involving armed groups that do not seek formal state power, such as drug cartels, prison gangs, and paramilitaries...

POLISCI446

Political Development Economics

There is a growing awareness that many of the key challenges in fostering development in poor societies are political challenges. What can we do to encourage trade, cooperation and peace in environments riven with social and ethnic divisions? How do...

POLISCI446A

Paths to the Modern World: The West in Comparative Perspective

How and why did Europe develop political institutions that encouraged economic growth and industrialization? And why have many other regions lagged in the creation of growth-promoting institutions? This course uses a comparative approach to understan...

POLISCI447

Gender and Development

Gender remains an identity that defines structures of opportunity and representation in markets, society, and importantly in politics. This course studies how gender conditions experiences in political, economic, and social institutions. This seminar...

POLISCI448R

Workshop: China Social Science

For Ph.D. students in the social sciences and history. Research on contemporary society and politics in the People's Republic of China. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.

POLISCI450A

Political Methodology I: Regression

Graduate level introduction to statistical research in political science, with a focus on linear regression. Teaches students how to rigorously apply multiple regression models as used in much of political science research. Also covers elements of...

POLISCI450B

Political Methodology II: Causal Inference

Graduate level survey of statistical methods for causal inference in political science research. Covers a variety of causal inference designs, including experiments, matching, regression, panel methods, difference-in-differences, synthetic control m...

POLISCI450C

Political Methodology III: Model-Based Inference

Provides a survey of statistical tools for model-based inference in political science with a particular focus on machine-learning techniques. Topics include likelihood theory of inference and techniques for prediction, discovery, and causal inferenc...

POLISCI450D

Political Methodology IV: Advanced Topics

Covers advanced statistical tools that are useful for empirical research in political science. Possible topics include missing data, survey sampling and experimental designs for field research, machine learning, text mining, clustering, Bayesian met...

POLISCI451

Directed Readings on Causal Inference with Panel Data

In this seminar, we will be reading recent papers from the emerging literature on causal inference using panel data. The class will meet once a week; each week, two papers will be discussed. Prerequisites for Political Science PhD students: POLISCI 4...

POLISCI452

Machine Learning with Application to Text as Data

Machine Learning methods are increasingly useful for the social sciences. This course introduces a framework for using machine learning methods to make social science inferences, with a particular focus on text as data. The course will explain how ma...

POLISCI460A

Political Economy I

Introduction to empirical and theoretical research in political economy. This course focuses on issues in democracies, while Political Economy II focuses on issues in non-democracies. Topics may include institutional foundations, social choice, elect...

POLISCI460B

Political Economy II

Continuation of ECON 220 / POLISCI 460A. Preparation for advanced research in political economy. This quarter will focus on topics related to culture, institutions, political and economic development, historical evolution, nondemocratic politics, con...

POLISCI461

Advances in Experimental Political Science

In recent years there has been a surge in the use of experiments, both survey and field, in political science. This has resulted in substantial advances in experimental research within political science. This course will explore these advances throug...

POLISCI462

How to Write and Publish a Quantitative Political Science Paper

This course helps students to write a publishable research paper in political science. We will focus on how to specify an important research question, how to identify appropriate research methods to answer that question, how to present evidence effec...

POLISCI464

Survey Design and Implementation

Surveys are one of the most important sources of data for political scientists. With the rise of field experiments, the design and implementation of surveys has become and even more critical component of a political scientist's tool kit. This course...

POLISCI46N

Contemporary African Politics

Africa has lagged behind the rest of the developing world in terms of three consequential outcomes: economic development, the establishment of social order through effective governance, and the consolidation of democracy. This course seeks to identif...

POLISCI480

The Science of Politics: Foundational Concepts for Political Science Graduate Students

This class is an introduction to the different ways that social scientists have proposed to understand politics. The emphasis is on understanding how the way a question is posed structures the way it can be answered, and how the way it can be answere...

POLISCI482A

Political Science Departmental Workshop

The Political Science Departmental Workshop provides a forum for graduate students and faculty involved in political science research to engage with the core themes and questions of research across the discipline. Meetings will include presentations...

POLISCI482B

Political Science Guest Speaker Workshop

The workshop brings in a distinguished speaker from outside the department each week, focusing on the sub-fields of international relations, comparative politics, American politics, and political methodology. The workshop will give participants a bro...

POLISCI62

Defending Democracy at Home and Abroad

The United States, once a key champion of democracy around the world, has experienced unprecedented polarization during the past decade, with divisions running deep over Covid, voting rights and election results, and questions of identity and inclusi...

POLISCI70

Dangerous Ideas

Ideas matter. Concepts such as equality, tradition, and Hell have inspired social movements, shaped political systems, and dramatically influenced the lives of individuals. Others, like race and urban renewal, play an important role in contemporary d...

POLISCI71

Current Issues in European Security

Russia's annexation of Crimea in Spring 2014 posed not only a threat to post-World War II Europe formed around the norm of national sovereignty, but possibly also the very real threat that Russia had awakened from its 20 years of peacefulness to once...

POLISCI73

Energy Policy in California and the West

This seminar provides an in-depth analysis of the role of California state agencies and Western energy organizations in driving energy policy development, technology innovation, and market structures, in California, the West and internationally. The...

POLISCI74

Pathways to Public Service

This one-unit lecture series explores potential careers in public service, including roles in government as well as in many other organizations; such as nonprofits, foundations, corporations, and arts organizations that help shape public policy and c...

POLISCI74B

Public Service and Social Impact: Pathways to Purposeful Careers

How do I translate my interests and skills into a career in public service and social impact? This course will introduce you to a wide range of roles that help shape public policy and civic life, including government, education, nonprofits, social en...

POLISCI76

Protagonists in Policy

Interested in learning from activists, academics, and politicians about the different ways you can be an agent of change and affect public policy? This course presents a lecture/discussion series in which students will have the opportunity to engage...

POLISCI801

TGR Project

No Description Set

POLISCI802

TGR Dissertation

No Description Set

POLISCI82

Politics 2022: America at a Crossroads

The historic convergence of social, economic, and public health challenges has profoundly impacted the lives of millions of Americans. In the midst of great uncertainty, the 2022 U.S. midterm elections will be among the most important in our lifetime...

Department: Political Science