(Offered as POSC 467 [CP] [SC starting with the class of 2015] and WAGS 467) The goal of this seminar is illuminate the complex character of social movements and civil society organizations and their vital influence on Indian democracy. Social movements have strengthened democratic processes by forming or allying with political parties and thereby contributed to the growth of a multi-party system. They have increased the political power of previously marginalized and underprivileged groups and pressured the state to address social inequalities.

[PT] [PT - starting with the Class of 2015] Should Marx be given yet another chance? Is there anything left to gain by returning to texts whose earnest exegesis has occupied countless interpreters, both friendly and hostile, for generations? Has Marx’s credibility survived the global debacle of those regimes and movements which drew inspiration from his work, however poorly they understood it? Or, conversely, have we entered a new era in which post-Marxism has joined a host of other “post-”phenomena?

[CP, IR] [G - starting with the Class of 2015] Can small and non-powerful nations ever profit from a relationship with a more powerful hegemon? Who gains and who loses in this type of asymmetrical relationship? This seminar attempts to answer these questions by looking at the relations between the U.S. and Latin American nations. The seminar begins by presenting different ways in which intellectuals have tried to conceptualize and analyze the relations between the U.S. and Latin America.

(Offered as POSC 372 [CP, IR] and EUST 372.) [SC - starting with the Class of 2015] This seminar discusses political and economic ideas and ideologies in 20th-century Europe.  Some of the recurring themes are:  nationalism; Marxism/socialism/communism; fascism; anti-Semitism; Catholicism and the role of the church in politics; existentialism; the expansion of liberalism and the collapse of Communism; the role of the U.S.

[AP, PT] IL - starting with the Class of 2015] This course considers a fundamental issue that faces all democratic societies: How do we decide when and whether to include or exclude individuals from the rights and privileges of citizenship? In the context of immigration policy, this is an issue of state power to control boundaries and preserve national identity. The state also exercises penal power that justifies segregating and/or denying privileges to individuals faced with criminal sanctions.

[CP] [SC - starting with the Class of 2015] The rich countries of the world annually give more than $100 billion in aid to promote social and economic change in the developing world--a type of planned social change that has come to be known as "development."  But this is not only the preserve of big bilateral and UN agencies.

[CP] [IL - starting with the Class of 2015] Nationalist fervor seemed likely to diminish once so-called Third World nations achieved independence. However, the past few years have witnessed the resurgence and transformation of nationalism in the post-colonial world. Where anti-colonial nationalist movements appeared to be progressive forces of social change, many contemporary forms of nationalism appear to be reactionary. Did nationalist leaders and theoreticians fail to identify the exclusionary qualities of earlier incarnations of nationalism?

(Offered as POSC 312 and HIST 257 [US].)  [G - starting with the Class of 2015] A 1992 still-classified Pentagon Defense Policy Guidance draft asserts that America’s political and military mission in the post-cold war era will be to ensure that no rival superpower be allowed to emerge in world politics. This course will examine American foreign relations from the fall of the Berlin Wall to the present. We will study the similarities and differences in the styles of statecraft of all post-cold war U.S.

[ CP ] [ SC - Starting with the class of 2015 ] What is power? How and why do people resist power? This course begins by analyzing theories of power and resistance and then proceeds to examine case studies of social movements and other forms of resistance. We will critically evaluate examples of resistance politics, asking questions such as: How do people bring about social change? Which strategies of resistance are justifiable? Under what conditions are social movements successful? What are the implications of contentious politics for democracy and good governance?

 [PT] What is “Democracy”? Sometimes this phrase refers to a set of beliefs and values, including freedom, equality, and the opposition to any domination. But "democracy" can also refer to a specific set of political institutions, including free and fair elections, open civil society, and variation in rule and office. It seems this phenomenon can be understood equally well as a political ideal or as the practice of achieving that ideal. How these different meanings operate--how they do and don’t work together--is not always clear.