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POLITICAL SCIENCE DEPARTMENT -- SPECIAL TOPIC COURSE DESCRIPTIONS SPRING 2007POLSC 204.64 Conservative Political Thought This course will explore the distinctive nature of conservative political thought in American history. We will trace the lineages of varying strands of conservatism, including social conservatism, neo-conservatism, and libertarianism, back to their historical roots. In the process we will attempt to explain how conservatism has evolved over time and how it became a governing philosophy. Besides completing the assigned readings, students will be required to present on one of the authors we discuss, and write a research paper. POLSC 204.64 Conservative Political Thought See Department POLSC 204.66 Introduction To Political Ideologies What is ideology? Can we study ideology? Can we claim to know a truth beyond ideology? What is the relationship between ideology and knowledge? Where do our beliefs and values about society and politics come from? The first part of the course is designed as an attempt to answer these questions and provide the student with a clear account of the concept and the complexities involved in studying such a concept. The second part of the course is designed to examine the main political ideologies such as, Liberalism, Marxism, Nationalism, Fascism, Democracy, Feminism, Multiculturalism, Secularism and Religious political ideologies. POLSC 204.67 Introduction to Political Rhetoric This course serves as an introduction to classical and contemporary readings in rhetoric. Students will evaluate the role of speech in shaping political debate, including strategy, style, and setting. Readings will include Thucydides, Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Quintilian, Burke, Lakoff, and Luntz. Students will also analyze speeches, including T. Roosevelt, Churchill, the Lincoln-Douglas debates, DuBois, Booker T. Washington, Malcolm X, Goldman, and a range of contemporary American presidents. Students will complete a long paper analyzing rhetorical debates on a contemporary issue or event. POLSC 204.68 Democracy and Virtue Literally understood, democracy is a form of political power. It has no inherent, ethical compass or moral purpose, other than the preservation of the free and relatively equal exercise of political power (kratos) by the people (demos). In this respect, democracy operates in tension with any stable practical understanding of virtue understood as a moral or practical trait. Yet the sustenance of any democracy requires the habitual possession and practice of ethical and political responsibility by its citizens. How, then, are we to understand the relationship between democracy and virtue? Indeed, the relationship of democracy and virtue has been a source of contention for political theorists from ancient Greece to the present. This course will explore this contentious relationship as it has been understood by political thinkers in three historical contexts: (1) the ancient Athenian democracy; (2) the re-emergence in theory and practice of democracy as a desirable political form in Europe and America (@1748-1848); (3) contemporary, developed, capitalist societies. With respect to contemporary societies, we shall ask the following questions: can a majority of the citizenry legitimate social and political conditions that harm their interests as democratic citizens? If so, why? Are particular understandings of democracy and virtue involved? If so, what are they? what should we make of them? And finally, given the extent to which a virtue implies a standard of achievement not normally met, how shall we understand the relationship between democracy and virtue today “as one of contradiction, complementarity, or some other relationship of ethics and power? POLSC 204.69 Politics of Culture See Department POLSC 217.49 U.S. Immigration Policy The debate over immigration in the United States is one that inspires such strong emotion, public debates often obscure rational discussion and social scientific research on key topics. Assuming it is reasonable to ask questions about the fiscal costs of immigration, the appropriate role of guest workers, the impact of immigration on domestic wages and poverty levels, is it possible to search for answers in ways that do not simply cater to simplistic arguments “for immigrants” or “against-immigrants”? In this course, students will learn to move past common oversimplifications of a very complex policy issue. The course focuses on federal legislation of immigration and policy implementation. At the same time, we will consider how states, counties and other localities have tried to negotiate their own immigration issues amidst federal control. The central theme of this course is how immigration legislation has had specific impacts on migratory flows and settlement patterns of immigrants past and present. By looking at policy objectives and target populations, as well as political debates over citizenship, membership, assimilation and acculturation, we not only learn about the politics of immigration, we see how immigration cuts to the very core of how we define ourselves as a nation and a people. POLSC 273.06 The Jihadist Movement: Origins and Development The jihadist movement is a radical offshoot of the broader Islamist political movement that developed first in Egypt at the beginning of the twentieth century and spread thereafter throughout the Islamic world. This course will provide students with a context for understanding the origins and development of the jihadist movement in recent history. The first part of the course will elucidate the key ideological and material drivers of the jihadist movement in the twentieth century Middle East, with a focus on three countries: Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Iran. The second part of the course will pick up chronologically at the end of the Cold War and conclude in the present. This section will focus on the evolution of the jihadist movement through the various Afghan wars, and conclude with a review of the Iraq war and its implications for the future of the jihadist movement. The last part of the course will take up new analytical challenges, focusing on jihadist use of the Internet, Islamism in Europe, and issues in counter terrorism. POLSC 317.06 Introduction: Community Organization This course exposes students to the knowledge, skill and value base underpinning community organizing, development, planning and change. It emphasizes varied roles, goals and strategies used by community organizers in improving conditions and the quality of life for varies groups and neighborhoods. It examines the history of organizing, models of organizing at the grassroots, coalition and advocacy levels. Special attention is given to issues of race, class, gender, ethnicity and sexual orientation. Assignments include a 20-hour volunteer experience with a local organization. Guest speakers include organizers and leaders active in NYC today. POLSC 317.13 Public Policy Analysis After elections are won and seats are taken, the work of legislators begins. After all, elected officials at all levels make policy promises in exchange for you votes. The production of legislation is the focal point of this course, and we will apply analytical lenses to each stage of the policy process: problem definition, policy selection, implementation, and post-evaluation. Throughout the course we will ask whether and under what conditions policymaking is a rational process. We will also analyze policy as a crucial link between government and citizens that can tell us about social justice and democratic values. The readings for the course combine theories of policymaking, rational and critical analytic approaches with case studies that should illustrate the “real world” implications of the ideas we will discuss. POLSC 317.20 The Supreme Court in America See Department POLSC 317.21 Comparative Urban Politics POLSC 317.25 Communications Law, Business, and Policy This course will review the communications industry from Prof. Hamburg’s perspective as a former lawyer, teacher, writer and business executive. There will be guests from the industry as well, who will also speak of how to get involved in various aspects of television, radio, cable, satellites, communications technology, etc., including legal, business and policy matters. There will be some reading involved and assigned, but no text required. Classroom participation will be expected, and a paper on some aspect of communications chosen by the student, on which the grade for the course will be based. The course will be limited to 20 juniors and seniors. POLSC 372.06 Politics of Development See Department POLSC 373.07 U.S. Foreign Policy After 9/11 This course will examine the main challenges for U.S. Foreign Policy in the post 9/11 era: terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, Iraq, the North Korean issue, the rise of China, relations with Europe, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and globalization. POLSC 412 Seminar/Internship in New York City Government This course combines an 8-10 hour/week internship in New York politics with a weekly seminar. Recent student placements have included internships with members of the US Senate, the House of Representatives, the state legislature, the City Council, the Public Advocate, the New York City Comptroller, the state Attorney General, sitting judges and various civic and public interest advocacy groups. Students are expected to make in-class presentations, do assigned reading, maintain an internship diary, and to submit an end-of-the-semester portfolio including an analytic paper based on their internship as well as evidence of other assigned work in the course. For permission to enroll, contact Professor Kenneth Sherrill at POLSC 486.58 Colloquium in Political Behavior This course will analyze upon public opinion polls in a database that is a partnership between the Human Rights Campaign Foundation and Hunter College. While all of these polls have questions regarding LGBT rights, they also contain polls on a wide range of political beliefs and behaviors. Students will write a significant research paper analyzing these data and are free choose any topic measured in these studies for their papers. Students should understand that this is an advanced course that presumes some knowledge of American politics and the ability to write a research paper. Students are advised -- but not required -- to have some familiarity with computer applications, quantitative methods, and public opinion research. Class time will be divided between discussion of the assigned reading and hands-on use of the database. For permission to enroll, contact Professor Kenneth Sherrill at
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