Professor: S. Baruah
CRN: 92395
Distribution: C
Time: M W 10:30 am - 11:50 am OLIN 204
of related interest: MES
The study of
economic development of the Third World has gone through several intellectual phases. The first
generation of scholars viewed the process somewhat optimistically as the global extension of
modernity or capitalism. Neo-Marxist critics tried to locate Third World underdevelopment in the
history of colonialism and in the persistence of structures of dependency of Third World
countries. There is now a tendency to get away from general theories of development or
underdevelopment and to distinguish among various paths to progress. The scholarly uncertainties
reflect dilemmas facing development planners. Although development has produced many gains, it
does not automatically improve people's conditions, and sometimes segments of the poor even
lose their traditional entitlements during the process of development. Yet no one has made a
persuasive case for ameliorating poverty and hunger without development. The course will
introduce students to problems of Third World development and to debates on development
among scholars and development planners.
Professor: J. Kahn
CRN: 92396
Distribution: A/C
Time: Tu Th 10:30 am - 11:50 am OLIN 202
Cross-listed: American Studies
This
course will examine the Constitution as it structures relations of power and authority among the
three branches of the national government and between the national government and the state. We
will examine the nature of judicial review, the limits of Congress's authority under the Commerce
Clause, and the development of presidential power in the national security state. Prerequisite:
college-level background in American politics or permission of the instructor.
Professor: J. Chace
CRN: 92408
Distribution: C
Time: M 1:20 pm - 3:20 pm OLIN 203
Cross-listed: American Studies,
History
Students must commit themselves to enroll in both this course and PS 295,
"Dreams of Perfectability, Part 2: The Cold War from FDR to Bush,"* over a full academic year.
From the early days of the Republic, America's intense drive for absolute security has shaped our
history and national character. Americans have, of course, gone to war for a variety of specific
reasons--to expand their territory for economic gain, in response to affronts to their national
honor and territorial integrity, to secure their nation's role as the guardian of freedom and the
promoter of democratic values. Moreover, the overarching response to America's need to
counter real or imagined foreign threats has been the use of unilateral action as the surest method
of achieving national security. But American foreign policy has always been justified by appeals
to American exceptionalism. America as an exemplar or as a crusader--these are the moral poles
of U.S. foreign policy. Yet no American foreign policy can be successful in long term without a
moral component. Should America have a democratizing mission? What are the consequences of
this search for perfectionism in an imperfect world?
*Spring 1998: PS, Dreams of Perfectability, Part
2: The Cold
War from FDR to Bush. Immediately after the Second World War, a clash of ideologies
developed into a Cold War
between the two victors, the United States and Soviet Russia. To what extent was this a moral
struggle and to what
degree, a classic conflict of great powers. This course will analyze the direction of American
foreign policy during an era
that has been characterized as a pax americana. It will also make use of new material dealing with
the Soviet approach to
the postwar world by studying excerpts from recently released Soviet archives. The Cold War
also traces a trajectory from
American predominance to American decline, from Soviet assertion as a superpower to the
collapse of the Soviet Union.
The end of the Cold War paradoxically marks the end of the superpower phenomenon.
Professor: J. Kahn
CRN: 92409
Distribution: A/C
Time: Tu Th 2:50 pm - 4:10 pm OLIN 205
Cross-listed: American Studies, CRES
of related interest: MES
How, why, and to what extent should the American legal system
protect the natural environment? If it protects the natural environment, should it also protect
aspects of the human-made environment? This course will begin by exploring the logic of
preservation underlying the laws protecting endangered species, wilderness, and national parks.
We will move beyond environmental law itself to consider such issues as what is wilderness? what
makes a natural wonder different from a cultural or human-made wonder? what makes either, or
both, deserving of preservation? To address these questions we will compare the logic of
environmental preservation laws with laws protecting historic buildings and historic artifacts such
as the Elgin Marbles. Finally, we will consider whether distinct cultural communities can or should
be accorded legal protection on a par with natural communities.
Professor: O. Levin-Waldman
CRN: 92410
Distribution: C
Time: Tu 3:30 pm - 6:00 pm OLIN 304
The course will explore a variety of topics in public policy analysis including policy formation, implementation and evaluation. The course will focus on the process by which policy is formulated--the interaction of policy entrepreneurs, interest groups, politicians and public officials--as well as issues involving the politics of policy choice. Why do some policy alternatives become more viable than others? We will look at structural variables such as the constitutional system that define the limits of policy debate. The course will examine the relationship between social science methods and policy analysis. With the use of social science methods does policy analysis become a neutral enterprise or are these methods used to promote particular ideological and political agendas?
Professor: D. Kettler
CRN: 92411
Distribution: C
Time: Tu 1:20 pm - 3:20 pm OLIN 303
What do words like Citizen, Democracy, Dictatorship, Politics, Rights, Regulations, and State mean in the Age of Globalization? Some recent widely-read books maintain that the language that has organized and oriented political action since the sixteenth century is being fundamentally disrupted by current trends of globalization and localized religious and/or ethnic militancies. This course opens with a consideration of the theoretical issues in such a claim, drawing on James Boyd White and J. G. A. Pockok, among others. Students then read some writers representative of the current dispute, including Saskia Sassen, Benjamin Barber, and Samuel Huntington. After midyear, classes will be devoted to theoretically-informed case studies prepared by students in the course. No examination.
Professor: J. Kahn
CRN: 92412
Distribution: C
Time: M 3:30 pm - 5:30 pm OLIN 308
Cross-listed: American Studies, History,
MES
This course will examine how individuals come to see themselves as political actors
through identification with larger associations or groups. Through a series of historical case
studies ranging from the late nineteenth century to the present, we will explore how awareness of
race, class, gender, and authenticity shape political identity and inspire political action. Topics
may include the urban political machine, women's suffrage, labor in the Depression, the civil rights
movement, the New Left, the Moral Majority, and contemporary feminism. Prerequisite:
college-level background in American politics or American history, or permission of the
instructor.
Professor: J. Chace
CRN: 92413
Distribution: C
Time: W 10:30 am - 12:30 pm OLIN 304
An Upper College seminar. The realist tradition in international relations has long been central to the method by which rulers and policy-makers deal with the foreign policy of the state. This seminar will concentrate on analyzing the classic works of the so-called realist tradition. Readings will include selections from Thucydides, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Hume, Lorenzo de Medici, Harold Nicolson, Hajo Holborn, Henry Kissinger, Hamilton and Madison, E. H. Carr, George Kennan, Walter Lippmann, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Hans Morgenthau. We will combine our analysis of theory with a historical study of power politics from 1815 to 1940. In this context, we will examine the exercise of the balance of power in Europe and the Wilsonian tradition in twentieth-century America.
Professor: S. Baruah
CRN: 92414
Distribution: C
Time: Tu 10:30 am - 12:30 pm OLIN 309
of related interest: MES Colonialism in a general sense is as old as history. In this course, however, our concern will be more specific: the conquest of Africa and Asia by European powers. The experience is constitutive of the "modern" world; the countries that we now call the Third World are almost all former colonies, and they participate in a global economy, global political arrangements, and a global culture. The course will provide an introduction to the history of European expansion into these areas and the debates on the impact of colonialism. We will consider arguments defending colonialism on grounds such as extending the benefits of civilization, critiques of colonialism by nationalist intellectuals, and theoretical writings on the subject ranging from J. A. Hobson, Joseph Schumpeter, and V. I. Lenin to contemporary works on "postcoloniality."