This course is about linear models, the major workhorses of statistics for description and prediction, and one of the most common quantitative methods in political science. We will use a linear models framework to discuss significance tests, graphical displays, tests of assumptions, interpretation of coefficients and interactions, and questions of causal inference. We will also work through statistical computing skills such that students can use all of the above in their own work.
Contrasting approaches to the study of voting, theories of the survey response, psychological theories of mental process, models of public opinion, dispositional explanations of behavior, political participation, and mathematical models of social interaction.
POLI_SCI 454-0-20 Social Movements and Mobilization
This graduate-level seminar explores the political conditions and processes shaping social and political mobilization, examining major theories from the fields of sociology and political science about social movements: collective challenges to authority that aim to change society or institute structural changes in an existing state or states.
POLI_SCI 471-0-20 Game Theory: Math Models of Individual Political Behavior
An introduction to game theory. Topics covered include individual decision-making under uncertainty; normal and extensive form games; games of incomplete information; repeated games. Applications to voting theory, collective action and institutional choice.
