Serious inquiry into waste is rare in political theory and political science--perhaps understandably, given that the study of politics is shaped by the same taboos that shape politics. We will assess traditional theories about the weakness of the American state in light of arguments about the state as: regulator of family and "private" life, adjudicator of relations between racial and ethnic groups, manager of economic inequalities, insurer of security, and arbiter of the acceptable uses of violence and surveillance. The course extends over one semester and the winter study period. We will take a very wide definition of "politics," as music can have political meaning and effects far beyond national anthems and propaganda. Does this mean that we have descended to barbarism? This course examines the political dynamics of disputes in which disadvantaged interests push for major change. Along the way, we will ask: Are some concepts of power more useful to feminism? Although we will attempt to engage the readings on their own terms, we will also ask how the vast differences between the ancient world and our own undercut or enhance the texts' ability to illuminate the dilemmas of political life for us. What are we to make of these different assessments? Then we will look at some important factors which shape how followers approach would-be leaders: inequality and economic precarity; identity and group consciousness; notions of membership, community, and hierarchy; and declining local institutions. Throughout the semester, we will not only approach these questions from the joint perspectives of theory and practice but also seek to enrich our understanding by exploring American democracy as it happens all around us with several exercises in the community at large. cooperation? The course is based on the literature of multidisciplinary studies by leading scholars in the field, drawing from anthropology, gender studies, history, political science, religious studies, postcolonial studies, decolonial studies, and sociology.This course's goal is to show how the racialization of Islam and Muslims has been constitutive to the latter's imagination. [more], Taught by: Galen E Jackson, James McAllister, This is a course about the Middle East in international politics. But since the Revolution, leaders have been fighting to make real for all Americans the promise of government of, by, and for the people. democracies have collapsed and longer standing ones appear to be stumbling. These failures have created space for a politics of populism, ethno-nationalism, and resentment--an "anti-leadership insurgency" which, paradoxically, has catapulted charismatic (their critics would say demagogic) leaders to the highest offices of some of the largest nations on earth. Those whose proposals are accepted by a committee of faculty chosen by the department will continue on as thesis students, under the supervision of an advisor to be assigned by the department, for the remainder of the academic year; those whose proposals are not accepted will complete an abridged version of their project as an independent study in Winter Study but not continue in the honors program in the spring semester. A similar story can be told for most other developed countries. Does how Americans define themselves as a nation inform the shape of the American state and the types of policies it creates? Was his caution warranted? This course seeks to understand the origins of this new left, the ideas and character of its protagonists, the neoliberal philosophy it opposes, and the arena of democratic politics it inhabits today. immigration, and the politics surrounding American immigration policy have intensified as a result. Designed not only to uncover these (sometimes melodious, sometimes cacophonous) values but also to place current ideological debates about them in a broader developmental context, this tutorial will offer a topical tour of American political thinking from the birth of nationalism in the colonial period to the remaking of conservatism and liberalism in the early twenty-first century. Central notions such as democracy, identity, and their relation to far-right populism will be discussed alongside questions of contemporary mobilization strategies. itself, with its inclinations, its character, its prejudices, and its passions, in order to learn what we have to fear or hope from its progress." The seminar will examine: original source materials; academic/popular interpretations and representations of the BPP; hagiography; iconography; political rebellion, political theory. And is there anything that can be done to stop or slow them? Should they be? To what extent do these calamities pose new, existential threats to the republic? When inequities are built into a design, can that be addressed by rooting out "bias," or do such efforts miss something more inherent in the kinds of artifacts algorithms are or what they can be in a capitalist economy? This course will examine the political underpinnings of inequality in American cities, with particular attention to the racialization of inequality. This seminar explores such questions by investigating the political use of media in the organization of power. Third, through ongoing, self-guided reading on students' individual topics as well as feedback from both the seminar leader and other seminar participants on their written work about that topic, it endeavors to guide students to frame a viable and meaningful research project. Should this coincide with the cultivation of a distinctively Jewish modern language? The first part focuses on different theoretical approaches to making sense of the relation between religion, politics, and society, discussing especially the concept of the 'secular' in Western thought and decolonial critique thereof. Well-known contributions by feminist theorists include the conceptualization and critique of anti-discrimination frameworks, the legal analysis of intersecting systems of social subordination (particularly gender, race, class, sexuality, disability), and the theorization of "new" categories of rights (e.g. Does it conform to how American politics is designed to work? While a fairly obscure and struggling author for much of his life, Orwell achieved worldwide fame after the Second World War with the publication of Animal Farm (1945) and 1984 (1949). What constitutes dangerous leadership, and what makes a leader dangerous? Students will leave this course with a deeper understanding of contemporary urban problems, a knowledge of the political structures within which those problems are embedded, and a better sense of the challenges and opportunities leaders face in contemporary urban America. Political science attends to the ways that social power is grasped, maintained, challenged, or justified. Are legal citizenship and formal political rights sufficient for belonging? We ask three central questions to inform our investigation: 1) What is democracy and its alternatives? Finally, could the Cold War have been ended long before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989? Instead one sees the vibrant return of religion to social, economic, and political prominence in most parts of the world--at the very same time we are experiencing through globalization and the information revolution the most dramatic economic advances in a century. What lessons might we derive for our own times from studying this history? Why has the U.S. adopted some approaches to reduce poverty but not others? We begin with examinations of these central notions and debates, and then move to investigations of the political thought of four key late modern Afro-Caribbean and African-American thinkers within the tradition: Walter Rodney, Sylvia Wynter, Cedric Robinson, and Angela Davis. Although parties have been celebrated for linking citizens to their government and providing the unity needed to govern in a political system of separated powers, they have also been disparaged for inflaming divisions among people and grid-locking the government. Readings will be drawn from such authors as Adorno, Allen, Arendt, Berlant, Brown, Butler, Connolly, Dean, Foucault, Galli, Honig, Latour, Moten, Rancire, Rawls, Sen, and Sexton. What conditions are necessary to sustain effective leadership in the contemporary world? We will begin with an analysis of primary texts by Fanon and end by considering how Fanon has been interpreted by his contemporaries as well as activists and critical theorists writing today. The course surveys the electoral politics of low and middle-income democracies in the developing world, investigating its similarities and differences with the historical and contemporary politics of developed democracies. Wars and assassinations. This course explores the politics and practices that arise from UNCLOS. This course explores the politics and practices that arise from UNCLOS. The second half of the course challenges students to apply this toolkit to the twenty-first century, focusing on attempts to transition from industrial manufacturing to services. Throughout the semester we interrogate three themes central to migration politics (and political science): rights, access, and agency. Terrorist attacks at home and abroad. social conventions that treat the human body as a form of property. [more], America's founding documents explicitly state that the will of the people is the authority upon which our government rests. There is a similar dismal irony to the American Revolution, as captured by the title of Frederick Douglass' famous 1852 speech, "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" modernity and of politics offered by such thinkers as Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Marx, Mill, and Freud. Does the concept fit well with, and reinforce, some institutions and configurations of power, and make others difficult to sustain (or even to conceive)? This course explores the relationship between citizens and their government by examining the growth of the American state in various arenas over time, as well as the assaults on government legitimacy in recent years. Skepticism of government has deep roots and strong resonance throughout American political history. Does this idea ultimately reinforce American hegemony, or plant the seeds of a non-American order? From there, the course will cover a number of important topics and case studies, such as Stuxnet, NotPetya, cyber espionage, intellectual property theft, threats to critical infrastructure, misinformation, propaganda, election interference, the potential implications of quantum computing, and the prospects for the establishment of an international cyber arms control regime. [more], The comparative study of politics looks mainly at what goes on inside countries, the domestic dynamics of power, institutions, and identities. Do East Asian countries seek security and prosperity in a way fundamentally different from the Western system? They also have produced attempts by both internal and external actors to resolve the issues. How can it be known and pursued? We will read mostly primary sources, including texts by: Hermann Cohen, Theodore Herzl, Chaim Zhitlowsky, Franz Rosenzweig, Leo Strauss, Hannah Arendt, and many others. Drawing on political speeches, documentary films, humanitarian campaigns, and a variety of academic texts, we critically analyze how those categories are constructed, as well as the political work they do in making claims, justifying policies, and shaping public opinion. In this class, we will consider the promise and limits of political theory to illuminate present day environmental crises and foster movements to overcome them. course focuses on the adoption and development of policies to address poverty and inequality in the U.S. This course explores the causes and consequences of democratic erosion through the lens of comparative politics. What do disadvantaged interests do in light of these power dynamics? arrival of Zionists, the pursuit of statehood and the in-gathering of Jews, and the responses of neighboring Arab states and local Palestinians. The course investigates family models in historical and comparative context; the family and the welfare state; the economics of sex, gender, marriage, and class inequality; the dramatic value and behavioral changes of Gen Z around sex, cohabitation, and parenthood; and state policies to encourage partnership/marriage and childbearing in both left-wing (Scandinavia) and right-wing (Central Europe) variants. To how we want American politics to work? Environmental Studies 307 analyzes the transformation of environmental law from fringe enterprise to fundamental feature of modern political, economic and social life. Examples of internationalized transitional justice abound. We will also investigate cases of right-wing populism including France's National Rally and the Eric Zemmour phenomenon, Sweden's Sweden Democrats, Hungary's Fidesz, Poland's Law and Justice Party, and Trumpism, the alt-right and QAnon. We will address basic questions such as 'What is populism?' This class will consider these questions through readings, films and artifacts that bring political theory into conversation with science fiction, popular literature on the so-called "singularity" (the merger of humans with computers), science and technology studies, evolutionary anthropology, "new materialist" philosophy, and feminist theory. What kinds of violations and deprivations can be recognized as harms in need of redress? [more], An unprecedented assault on the U.S. Capitol, the rise of white nationalism, a pandemic, a volatile economy, racial reckoning, and rapidly evolving environmental crises have all rocked American politics in the last year. Cold War Intellectuals: Civil Rights, Writers and the CIA. [more], Concerns about 'misinformation,' 'fakenews,' and 'propaganda' abound in discussions of politics in social media, news, entertainment and movies, and in daily conversations. Must the freedom or fulfillment of some people require the subordination of others? Throughout the course, we will explore such questions as: What constitutes a party? In investigating this theme, our cornerstone will be Max Weber's famous argument from The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. How does power relate to technology? We will examine when and how individuals and leadership have mattered vis--vis broader historical and contextual factors, including economic developments, demographic change, war, and constitutional and institutional parameters. We also attend to the. What is our individual and collective responsibility for creating and disposing of waste? [more], A central tenet of political science is that once a country reaches a certain level of political and economic development, democracy will endure indefinitely. Conflicting groups regularly accuse each other of being 'duped' by 'biased' sources of information on crucial issues like war, elections, sexuality, racism, and history. Is leadership that privileges desirable ends, such as justice or security, at the expense of democratic means acceptable? The last section of the course covers contemporary policy challenges confronting the Middle East. Who is equal? This course draws on foundational thinkers in political theory and comparative politics to explore that premise. and moderate reform are struggling to build sufficient popular support for their programs. There is no world government. This course explores theories of the origins of the state, asking how myths and other speculative accounts in the Western tradition draw boundaries between past and present, as well as between self and other. Yet at the same time, others worry that the U.S. has abandoned the Anglo-Protestant traditions that made it strong and has entered a period of moral decay and decline. From Tocqueville to Trump: Leadership and the Making of American Democracy. We will study figures and movements for black lives whose geopolitics frame the milieu of Wynter's work. How should we respond to the fact that these unbearable beings persist in existing, despite our best efforts to eliminate them? For more complete course descriptions, students should consult the Williams College Online Catalog or the Williams College Bulletin. Scholars, practitioners, and observers of American politics have debated whether the net effect is positive or negative. Importantly, this course is not intended as a partisan critique of any particular American politician or political party. Senior Seminar in American Politics: The Politics of Belonging. The Politics of Migration: Citizen, Immigrant, Alien, Refugee. Near the end of the semester, students will receive feedback on their complete draft from their advisor and two additional faculty readers selected by the workshop leader; following revisions, the final work--a roughly 35 page piece of original scholarship--will be submitted to and evaluated by a committee of faculty chosen by the department for the awarding of honors as well as presented publicly to the departmental community at an end-of-year collective symposium. the spring semester Senior Thesis Research and Writing Workshop provides a focused forum for the exchange of ideas among thesis writers, who will regularly circulate excerpts of their work-in-progress for peer review and critique. citizens, migrants, refugees) have differential access to rights, services, and representation and why. The purpose is to gain an understanding of a number of different perspectives on life and politics, especially Confucianism, Legalism and Daoism. This tutorial has two main objectives. (As the list suggests, the most common comparisons are with Latin America and Western Europe, but several of our authors look beyond these regions.) What are the necessary conditions for peace and stability? What institutions and social conditions make political freedom possible? Have some periods of American democratic politics been more amenable to particular kinds of leadership than others? [more], This seminar will introduce students to the study of Black Political Thought as a set of critical normative and diagnostic gestures that help theorize the Black experience. [more], We rely on environmental laws to make human communities healthier and protect the natural world, while allowing for sustainable economic growth. life -- define the American political tradition and consume the American political imagination. It looks at processes of racialization of Muslims within the Muslim community and between Muslim communities, while also considering which agencies Muslims take to determine their own future. This course is part of a joint program between Williams' Center for Learning in Action and the Berkshire County Jail in Pittsfield, MA. [more], This seminar examines incarceration, immigration detention centers, and the death penalty from historical and contemporary perspectives. The course also will examine the arrival of Arab Jews in the 1950-60, the conflicts between them and European Jews, and the effects of their conflicts on Israeli politics. It will pay particular attention to the ANC and corruption, and it will address why, thus far, the ANC has won national elections handily amidst growing dissatisfaction with overt and pervasive official corruption and misgovernment and the role racial solidarities and memories play in sustaining the ANC in office. Can they be the same thing? Economically, the course will look at the institutional configuration of neo-liberalism, changes in economies, growing inequality, the financial crises, and prevalence of debt. Or should feminists reject objectivity as a myth told by the powerful about their own knowledge-claims and develop an alternative approach to knowledge? Why has historical commemoration gotten so contentious--or has it always been contentious? Are there forms of unequal social power which are morally neutral or even good? The course concludes with an examination of a number of major contemporary policy debates in security studies. Illustrative cases to aid our inquiry will be drawn primarily from the USA and Canada, with additional examples from India, South Africa, and possibly European law. They contend that it legitimates a view of the status quo, in which such terrible things are bound to happen without real cause. [more], This course examines the rise and fall of the Cold War, focusing on four central issues. In this course we will respond to these and related questions through an investigation of "religion" as a concept in political theory. Toward that end, we begin by considering competing explanations of political violence (ethnicity, democratization, natural-resource endowments, and predatory elites). Throughout the semester, our goal will be less to remember elaborate doctrinal rules and multi-part constitutional "tests" than to understand the changing nature of, and changing relationship between, constitutional power and constitutional meaning in American history. Economically, the course will look at the institutional configuration of neo-liberalism, changes in economies, growing inequality, the financial crises, and prevalence of debt. As large as they loom in our daily experience and our historical memory, these sorts of events--concrete, discrete things that happen in and around the political world--are often underestimated as catalysts of political change. A phenomenal strategy? We will begin with an analysis of primary texts by Fanon and end by considering how Fanon has been interpreted by his contemporaries as well as activists and critical theorists writing today. How does racism influence political choices? Finally, the course will address contemporary controversies about what it means to be a Jew in Israel, about the feasibility of a "two-state" solution to the Palestinian issue, about the prospects and implications of a "one-state" solution, and about the implications for Israel of not resolving the Palestinian issue to the mutual satisfaction of Israelis and Palestinians. Pessimists point out that most Americans know very little about politics and lack coherent political views, are easily manipulated by media and campaigns, and are frequently ignored by public officials anyway. In this class, we will consider the promise and limits of political theory to illuminate present day environmental crises and foster movements to overcome them. [more], Noam Chomsky emerged as one of the most influential figures in the development of modern linguistics during the 1950's. The specific disputes under these rubrics range from secession to impeachment, gun control to child labor, waging war to spurring commerce; the historical periods to be covered include the Marshall and Taney Court years, the Civil War and Reconstruction, the Progressive Era, the New Deal, the Warren Court, and the contemporary conservative ascendancy. Readings draw on philosophy, history, sociology, and international relations, but as a political science class we emphasize politics. Over the course of the semester, we will look at ten different types of events, ranging from those that seem bigger than government and politics (economic collapse) to those that are the daily grist of government and politics (speeches), in each instance juxtaposing two different occurrences of a particular category of event. This course offers an analysis of the conservative welfare state with particular interest in public policies around social insurance, employment, the family, and immigration. Optimists counter that, even if individuals are often ignorant and/or confused about politics, in the aggregate, the public sends a coherent signal to public officials, who usually carry out the public's general wishes. Readings and discussions provide a view on the past and ongoing use of media in the shaping of popular knowledge, collective actions, and public policies. This course focuses on the adoption and development of policies to address poverty and inequality in the U.S. Utilizing primary source material ranging from presidential speeches to party platforms, newspaper editorials to novels, we will seek to interrogate -- reconciling where possible, distinguishing where necessary, interpreting in all instances -- the disparate visions and assessments of the American political experience offered by politicians, artists, intellectuals, activists, and ordinary citizens over the course of more than two centuries. international system of sovereign states--the core foundation of international relations--presumes the process of dismantling systems of domination, extraction, and exclusion ended long ago. Finally, we will also examine how Chomsky's views, largely considered to be radical for much of his life, have become far more mainstream over time. Specific topics will include policing, school reform, and gentrification. We will read classic philosophical texts on art and politics by Schiller, Kant, Schopenhauer, Marx, Adorno, and others, and pair them with contextual studies of works of Western classical music from the last two hundred years and popular music of the last hundred years. The last section of the course covers contemporary policy challenges confronting the Middle East. Who should rule? Our primary questions will be these: Why is transformative leadership so difficult today? This course confronts humanitarianism as an ideology through reading its defenders and critics, and as a political strategy assessing its usefulness, to whom. Should they ally themselves with the liberals or the communists? Rastafari has evolved from a Caribbean theological movement to an international political actor. The purpose is to gain an understanding of a number of different perspectives on life and politics, especially Confucianism, Legalism and Daoism. Cases include piracy, claims in the South China Sea, bonded labor, refugee quarantine, Arctic transit, and ocean pollution. "politics," as music can have political meaning and effects far beyond national anthems and propaganda. At the same time, worries about residual impunity or the effect that punishment might have on societies' futures has led to the development of national and social courts, as well as national military tribunals, to complement those at the international level. In the mid-1970s, New York was a poster child of urban crisis, plagued by arson and housing abandonment, crime, the loss of residents and jobs, and failing public services. What enduring political conflicts have shaped the U.S. welfare state? By the character of the occupant? We will begin by surveying institutional constraints confronting contemporary political leaders: globalization, sclerotic institutions, polarization, endemic racism, and a changing media environment, among others. Must the freedom or fulfillment of some people require the subordination of others? What is the significance of death and arbitrary threats to our existence? [more], Globally, refugees seem to create, and be caught up in, chronic crisis. Yet the visual dimensions of political life are at best peripheral topics in contemporary political science and political theory. [more], Contrasted as "model minorities" or "incorrigible minorities" Asian Americans and African Americans have been pitted against one another in social standing and political objectives. In the latter half of the course, students will have the opportunity to design, conduct, and present their own final research projects.
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