This course examines the link between states and markets, between political institutions and their economic consequences. Students will be introduced to a variety of methods such as historical analysis, formal models, case studies and statistical analysis. This course seeks to answer several questions: (1) What is the role of government in the economy? (2) How has this role varied in time and across regions? (3) What do changes in this balance mean for political and economic institutions? Examples will be drawn from Eastern Europe, Russia, China, Brazil, and other parts of the developing world.
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Populism in 21st Century Politics
Populism is central to current debates about politics, from radical right parties in Europe to left-wing presidents in Latin America to the Tea Party, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump in the United States. But populism is also one of the most contested concepts in the social sciences. The first part of the course will discuss how scholars from different parts of the world studied populism since this phenomenon entered the political and social science agenda in the late 1960s. What distinguishes its various manifestations in Europe, Latin America, the United States, and elsewhere across time (old vs. new populisms), region (western vs. eastern; but also Nordic, Baltic, and Southern European), regime type in which they develop (democracy vs. non-democracy), and ideological hue (right vs. left populisms)? A second part of this course will look at actual populist strategies, how populist leaders gain their appeal, what social conditions increase the likelihood of a populist victory, how populists gain and maintain power. Cases such as Hungary, Greece and Venezuela are studied in order to understand the way in which populism comes to power and governs.
States and Markets.
Linking Political Institutions to Economic Outcomes
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This course is motivated by three questions at the heart of political science: (1) What is the appropriate role of government in the economy? (2) How do we explain the actual role of government in the economy? (3) What do changes in this balance mean for political and economic institutions?
This course aims to engage in an in-depth treatment of the link between states and markets, between political institutions and their economic consequences, as well as the possibility of reverse causality in this relationship and endogenous evolution of politics and economics. It will also connect theories of political institutions to broader topics in political science and political economy as well as regional instances of the state-market interaction. Finally, the course will expose students to the variety of methods used to study the relationship between states and markets such as historical analysis, case studies and statistical analysis. The syllabus can be found here. |
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Theories of International Relations
The goal of this course is to bring the theories of International Relations into dialog with the events of the world, to apply, analyze and evaluate the former with the reality of the latter, and to broaden your understanding of both. The course provides an introduction to the major theories of international politics. We examine theories designed to answer the most important questions about international politics: What determines stability and change in international politics? Why do states go to war? What are the prospects for international cooperation? Are democratic states more peaceful than authoritarian regimes? What role do international institutions, such as the United Nations, play in managing international politics? How has globalization altered the nature of international politics and the international economy? What are emerging threats, and do these threats alter the international system, if at all? The class provides a basic history of major international events of the twentieth century. Not only is this history intrinsically important, but it is with this empirical foundation that we will begin to apply theories of international relations, evaluate them and analyze their utility in understanding international political phenomena. For this class, we will focus on World War I, the interwar period, World War II, the Cold War and the Second Gulf War. Finally, this class evaluates the implications of theory and history for contemporary international politics by focusing on three subfields of International Relations: International Law, International Political Economy and International Security. This class is not a current events class, but a primary objective is to provide students with the tools to analyze current events in a rigorous, theoretically-informed manner. The syllabus can be found here.
PhD Math Camp
The purpose of this course is aimed at first year PhD students in the Government Department to refresh mathematical concepts that underlie the statistical techniques you will learn in future statistics classes. It is an intense one-week course that covers a range of topics that include calculus, linear algebra, and probability. Each day, there will be lectures, in-class exercises, and homework. The aim of this course is to refresh concepts that you have previously learned as well as introduce you to new concepts that will be important in future classes.
The syllabus can be found here and the class materials can be found here.
The syllabus can be found here and the class materials can be found here.