POLI_SCI 403-0-20 Introduction to Probability and Statistics
This course provides the opportunity to develop skills to empirically evaluate questions about the world. As social scientists, we seek to understand the world around us and our research often involves the analysis of data. During this quarter, we will work to develop the ability to summarize and analyze this data while exploring the pitfalls that can occur in careless research. Topics include probability theory, experimental and theoretical derivation of sampling distributions, hypothesis testing, and analysis of variance. Some familiarity with algebra and calculus will prove helpful and familiarity with the concepts from the department’s math prefresher course will be presumed. Please have a decent calculator (nothing too fancy but your phone calculator will likely be insufficient) and plan to bring it regularly to class with you. If you’re looking for a specific recommendation, something like the TI-30XS would be helpful (price: $15). We’ll often do calculations in class and on the exams.
Experiments are a central methodology in political science. Scholars from every subfield regularly turn to experiments. Practitioners rely on experimental evidence in evaluating social programs, policies, institutions, and information provision. The design, implementation, and analysis of experiments raise a variety of distinct epistemological and methodological challenges. This is particularly true in political science due to the breadth of the discipline, the varying contexts in which experiments are implemented (e.g., laboratory, survey, field), and the distinct methods employed (e.g., psychological or economic approaches to experimentation). This class will review the challenges to experimentation, discuss how to implement experiments, and survey prominent applications. The class also will touch on recent methodological advances in experiments and ongoing debates about the reliability of experimental studies. To do so, we will read parts of a new, yet to be published, volume on experimental methods.
POLI_SCI 410-0-20 American Political Institutions and Behavior
The American Politics Field Seminar will give students exposure to trends in the empirical study of American politics. The course will cover current debates in the fields of political behavior, public opinion, legislative politics, presidential politics, American political development, and race and politics.
This graduate seminar surveys classic and frontier research in Comparative and International Political Economy. Half of the course focuses on the main analytical traditions in IPE (emphasizing interests and material incentives, power, institutions, and ideational factors) and explores the major research topics in the field (international trade, finance, foreign investment and sovereign debt, and immigration). The other half deals with CPE topics, including national varieties of capitalism, redistribution, institutions and economic performance, and development.
The seminar will be of interest to graduate students and advanced undergraduates with interests in International Relations and Comparative Politics, in addition to students from other disciplines (e.g. economic sociology).
POLI_SCI 450-0-20 Contemporary Theory and Research in Comparative Politics
This seminar exposes students to some of the foundational works in Comparative Politics. We will read Karl Marx, Max Weber, Perry Anderson, Karl Polanyi, Joseph Schumpeter, Barrington Moore, Theda Skocpol, Sam Huntington, Jim Scott, and Ben Anderson. The focus is on the generation and architecture of major theories in the field. The concepts and analyses contained in these readings provide essential building blocks for you to pursue further reading on your own and in other courses in comparative politics and political economy.
POLI_SCI 490-0-20 Political Theories of Membership
