Middle East Studies 203 - Introduction to Middle East Comparative Politics

This course provides an introduction to the comparative politics of the Middle East. Readings, lectures, and discussions examine political environments in the Middle East, with a focus on states as units of analysis, and on the general processes and conditions that have shaped state formation, the formation of national markets, and state-society relations in the region. The course equips students to understand and critically assess how political interests are organized; the development of major political, social, and economic structures and institutions; and sources of political contestation within Middle Eastern societies.