williams college political science course catalog

This capstone seminar will explore these and related questions through an examination of the life and work of Jamaican novelist, playwright, cultural critic, and philosopher Sylvia Wynter. How have leaders from James Madison to George W. Bush thought about U.S. vulnerabilities, resources, and goals, and how have those ideas influenced foreign policy decisions? 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. The course will consider these questions from an interdisciplinary perspective that combines political science concepts with an historical approach to the evidence. Contemporary social science and the humanities overwhelmingly portray it as a critique of black politics in the latter's liberal, libertarian, and conservative forms. [more], Up through the 1960s it was popular to claim that the world was becoming increasingly and inevitably secular, with the development of modern capitalist social relations as a signature cause. Political Science 2023-24 - Catalog - Williams College Catalog How (if at all) should we reconcile contemporary morality with historical context in assessing the leaders from our past? By the end of the term, students should have an enhanced understanding of the major dilemmas related to the region's place in the international system. In this tutorial, students will examine the origins of the Silicon Valley model and other countries' attempts to emulate it. and writings by the incarcerated). Acute observers have long seen the U.S. as a harbinger of the promise and peril of modern democracies. [more], In Ta-Nehisi Coates' best-selling book Between the World and Me, he says that in the wake of the non-indictment of former police officer Darren Wilson in the death of Michael Brown "I did not tell [my son] that it would be okay, because I have never believed it would be okay." Du Bois' great book, Black Reconstruction in America. [more], This tutorial will cover the Arab-Israeli dispute--from both historical and political science perspectives--from the rise of the Zionist movement in the late nineteenth century to the present day. What sparks political violence and how can countries emerge from conflict? they cannot do, and who can punish transgressions. Williams College Catalog Phone Number 413-597-4286 A phenomenal strategy? By the completion of the semester, students will understand both the successes and failures of modern environmental law and how these laws are being reinvented, through innovations like pollution credit trading and "green product" certification, to confront globalization, climate change and other emerging threats. Does freedom make us happy? Asking how algorithms are political and what that tells us about politics today (particularly in the U.S.), we will consider how their design expresses forms of power and their deployment shapes ways of living. but dictatorships in others? 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. If so, should they focus their efforts on relocation to the historical land of Israel? We will go on to discuss the U.S. support for Islamist political parties during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s and the consequent rise of the Taliban, and the role of Afghanistan in the September 11th attacks and the "War on Terror" that followed. We will carefully consider, for example, the drafting of the U.S. Constitution, continental expansion in the Manifest Destiny period, the Civil War, overseas expansion in the late nineteenth century, the presidency of Woodrow Wilson, the Second World War, the Cold War, and the "War on Terror." Looming environmental catastrophes capable of provoking humanitarian crises. In addition to addressing this important question about the health of American democracy, students will learn how the traditional media and social media influences Americans' political attitudes and behaviors. Drawing on Freud, and challenged by his philosophical exchanges with Angela Davis, Marcuse came to the view that these movements were addressing not only material deprivations such as poverty and structural oppression, but also the effects of social alienation and a damaged psychic life. How do resource gaps tied to inequality in society (such as race and class) influence who votes and for whom? We end by asking: Do anti-democratic means have to be employed to fully realize democracy? The course will begin--by focusing on the Manhattan Project--with a brief technical overview of nuclear physics, nuclear technologies, and the design and effects of nuclear weapons. Most readings will focus on contemporary political debates about the accumulation, concentration, and redistribution of wealth. Do the institutions produce good policies, and how do we define what is good? What are the root causes of racism? What explains this diverse and uneven pattern of democracy in South Asia? The second engages students with theory and methods for understanding and analyzing media contents (the stories, images, etc. Beginning with the 18th-century's transatlantic movement to abolish slavery, we will examine international movements and institutions that have affected what human rights mean, to whom, and where. Case studies will include antislavery politics and the American Civil War; the global crises of the 1930s and 1940s; and the social movements of the 1960s and 1970s. By the character of the occupant? than taking the Senior Seminar--in their subfield of specialization. And we will search her works and our world for embers of hope that even seemingly inexorable political tragedies may yet be interrupted by assertions of freedom in political action. Moving from the emergence of cybernetics during World War II through such contemporary examples as facial recognition software, this seminar approaches algorithms as complex technological artifacts that have social histories and political effects. 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. Readings are drawn from Supreme Court opinions, presidential addresses, congressional debates and statutes, political party platforms, key tracts of American political thought, and secondary scholarship on constitutional development. This class will involve students in close reading of, and exegetical writing about, core texts of ancient Chinese philosophy in English translation. Materials include classic texts, recent theoretical works, journalism, commentary, fiction, and a variety of sources related to current events in Ukraine and elsewhere. The candidate, designated the Sentinels of the Republic Scholar, receives a research stipend to cover costs associated with the proposed project. Alongside a selection of readings by canonical postcolonial writers and current political theorists, James and Du Bois provoke us to ask what it would take for the democratic world to be truly free. 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. Have some periods of American democratic politics been more amenable to particular kinds of leadership than others? In this class we draw these works into conversation with political theories of the "state of nature" and "state of exception" to better understand what political possibilities are opened and foreclosed in times of crisis. Ultimately, our goal is to determine how worried we should be---and what, precisely, we should be worried about---as a new era of American leadership begins. We will investigate theories about where they come from, what they do, and to whom they matter, and explore controversies surrounding their agency, legitimacy, efficiency, and accountability. Finally, we examine whether the emergence of a neoliberal economic order has affected the organization of political society? What does it mean today to be progressive? Riven by polarized partisanship and gridlock, the most powerful assembly in the world seemed incapable of representing citizens and addressing problems. Classics may include John Locke's. Where did Democratic and Republican foreign policy elites agree and disagree and what happened to proposals that were outside the elite consensus? What is the relationship between constitutional and political change? protagonists, the neoliberal philosophy it opposes, and the arena of democratic politics it inhabits today. [more], Geography has decreed that the futures of Mexico and the United States will be tightly bound. For each subject, we will ask several key questions. unprecedented global mobility in both destination countries and countries of origin? What is the relationship between leadership and morality-can the ends justify the means? Students will learn to evaluate the decisions that US leaders have made on a wide range of difficult foreign policy issues, including: rising Chinese power; Russian moves in Ukraine; nuclear proliferation to Iran; terrorist threats; humanitarian disasters in Syria and Libya; and long-term challenges like climate change. Why do relatively powerless interests sometimes win in American politics? Does the state and its policies make the nation, as many scholars claim? [more], Economic liberalism holds that society is better off if people enjoy economic freedom. And we will ask persistently: what constitutes a "Jewish justification" for a political claim in modern Jewish political theory? [more], What can a critical analysis of gender and sexuality bring to the study of law, constitutions, legal interpretation, and the task of judging? [more], Many academics, international nongovernmental organizations, international financial institutions, and the media assert that natural resource endowments--oil, gas, and diamonds--are like the touch of Midas. Assignments focus on crafting solutions to contemporary political challenges in the developing world. We then move on to the empirical section of the course in which we cover case studies of state failure in parts of Eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Williams Political Science Courses Courses PSCI 110(F, S) LEC Introduction to American Politics: Power, Politics, and Democracy in America Begun as an experiment over 200 years ago, the United States has grown into a polity that is simultaneously praised and condemned, critiqued and mythologized, modeled by others and remodeled [ more ] The title is inspired by C.L.R. The basic structure of the class is interdisciplinary; the goal of this approach is to utilize key conceptual arguments to gain greater leverage for the examination of major historical decisions in national security policy. We will investigate the founding of Garveyism on the island of Jamaica, the evolution of Garveyism during the early twentieth century across the Americas and in Africa, Garveyism in Europe in the mid-twentieth century, and the contemporary branches of the Garvey movement in our own late modern times. Rather than treating science as a monolith, we will endeavor to understand the implications of various sciences--as practiced and envisioned in various, historically specific situations--for gender and politics. Along the way we will discuss both the origins of capitalist society as well as its more recent transformations through the rise of the welfare state, consumerism, and globalization. The basic format of the course will be to combine brief lectures--either posted on the class website beforehand or given at the start of each class--with an in-depth discussion of each class session's topic. Polarization. But what do we mean when we claim to want freedom? Students will examine multi-disciplinary texts, such as academic historical narratives, memoirs, political analyses, in critical and comparative readings of mid-late 20th century struggles. and an unscientific, patriarchal worldview. [more], This course provides an overview of the central theories, concepts and debates in international relations. The emphasis will be on the study of social attitudes concerning ethnic groups, gender/sexuality and class as they pertain to a "penal culture" in the United States. Is it a coherent body of thought, a doctrine, or a collection of disparate and conflicting thinkers? What defines optimism, pessimism, enslavement, freedom, creativity, and being human? How effective are strategies like cross-domain deterrence? International law is similar to domestic law, with one very crucial difference: it is not enforced by a centralized, sovereign state. How and why have they changed over time? It may be tempting to conclude from these similarities--as some recent commentators have--that we are witnessing the return of "totalitarianism" as Arendt understood it. Can and should the link between humans and politics survive in an age in which "posthuman" or "transhuman" entities become central characters in the drama of politics? The UN Security Council, alongside national governments, decides on legitimacy and punishment. Senior Seminar in American Politics: Polarized America. 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 course, we will explore such questions as: What constitutes a party? Why do people vote or engage in other types of political action? This seminar will address these questions with the aim of introducing students to important theoretical topics and key concepts that are relevant to the comparative and critical study of Asia. Cases include piracy, claims in the South China Sea, bonded labor, refugee quarantine, Arctic transit, and ocean pollution. 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. The course concludes with a focus on the current debate over American meritocracy and inequality. Who gains and loses from the idea that people have human rights? This tutorial will intensively examine Wilson's efforts to recast the nature of the international system, the American rejection of his vision after the First World War, and the reshaping of Wilsonianism after the Second World War. We will ask: What explains why some leaders have succeeded where others have failed? To do so, we will draw on work in anthropology, critical theory, history, urban studies, and waste management science; representations of waste in popular culture; and experiences with waste in our lives. [more], The pursuit of wealth is an important feature of American political identity, captured by the ideas of the American dream and the Protestant work ethic. One might even claim that when Plato deployed the metaphor in an extended allegory, he constituted the fields of both philosophy and political theory. In addition to active class participation, students will be expected to write a 5-page proposal for a research paper on a leader of their choice, a 10-page research paper, an in-class midterm exam, and a cumulative, in-class final exam. important cultural differences, and mixed feelings about its neighbor to the north. Our examination of intellectuals and activists, with their explicit and implicit engagements with Wynter, shall facilitate assessing the possibilities, challenges, and visions of black living. What accounts for the continuities, and what for the changes? Why do we find the visible presence of certain kinds of things or persons to be unbearably noxious? This course takes up such questions by considering how key recent or contemporary theorists have sketched the defining features of their political worlds. bad? This course provides a historical and theoretical context for understanding what is unique about President Trump's approach to American foreign policy in the 21st century. The course will then examine the following subjects: the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan; theories of the nuclear revolution; the early Cold War period; the development and implications of thermonuclear weapons; the Berlin and Cuban missile crises; nuclear accidents; nuclear terrorism and illicit nuclear networks; the future of nuclear energy; regional nuclear programs; preventive strikes on nuclear facilities; nuclear proliferation; and contemporary policy debates. The course will focus on these questions using an interdisciplinary perspective that leverages political science concepts, historical case studies, and contemporary policy debates to generate core insights. Who is equal? If it is not itself a form of property, how can we explain the use of the human body to acquire possessions, create wealth, and mediate the exchange of other kinds of property? The questions have sparked controversy since the origins of political thinking; the answers remain controversial now. The course begins with the political economy of the colony, then covers the Cuba- US relationship from Jos Mart and 1898 through the Cold War to the present, emphasizing the revolutionary period. We will ask: How have city leaders and social movements engaged with urban problems? We will also explore the controversies and criticisms of his work from both the right and the left because of his political stance on issues ranging from the Arab-Israeli conflict to humanitarian intervention to free speech. Coverage will include: Jewish liberalism, political Zionism, Yiddishist autonomism, messianic quietism, and other views. Who benefits from the idea of universal human rights? What is the relationship between parties and presidents? But their worth is a continuing subject of debate. [more], Even before the pandemic, scholars, pundits, and the public thought Congress was in a state of crisis. In particular, this course examines the relationship between political and military objectives. Through the lens of coastal and ocean governance and policy-making, we critically examine conflict of use issues relative to climate change, climate justice, coastal zone management, fisheries, ocean and coastal pollution and marine biodiversity. It examines work on electoral systems, formal and informal institutions, bureaucratic politics, political parties, party systems, clientelism, ethnic politics, and political violence. The Political Science major is structured to allow students either to participate in the established ways of studying politics or to develop their own focus. [more], This seminar reviews contemporary theories of "anti-black racism"; their articulation or assimilation within current political movements and mobilizations; and the influence and impact such theories-expressed in and/or as activism-on social justice and civil rights. Particular attention will be given to the modern liberal tradition and its critics. To what extent do these calamities pose new, existential threats to the republic? If the U.S. is a nation of immigrants, why is immigration reform so difficult to achieve? the people. CLASSES DREQ INSTRUCTORS TIMES CLASS# ENROLL CONSENT PSCI 201 - 01 (S) LEC Power,Politics,Democracy Amer Division II Matthew Tokeshi MR 2:35 pm - 3:50 pm Griffin 6 [more], America's founders didn't mean to create a democracy. What does it mean to be an American? Most countries around the world have built elaborate institutions to ensure citizens' welfare by protecting some people from some risks, but not all people and not all risks. What types of institutions, dynamics, and processes animate American political life in the twenty-first century? Other critics take aim at the two-party system with the claim that the major parties fail to offer meaningful choices to citizens. What role does statecraft play in matters of war and peace? With Tocqueville as a guide to thinking about political ethnography, this course investigates four central elements of political life--religion, education, difference, and crime and punishment--that simultaneously pose problems for and represent sites of progress in American democracy. The course will show how Muslims were constructed as subjects in history, politics, and society from the very beginning of the making of Europe and the Americas to the end of the Cold War to the post-9/11 era. Is power the kind of thing held by individuals, races, genders, classes, discourses, causal mechanisms, institutions, or social structures? It looks at how difference works and has worked, how identities and power relationships have been grounded in lived experience, and how one might both critically and productively approach questions of difference, power, and equity. history and contemporary experience of authoritarianian regimes, beginning with political philsophical analyses of classcal theorists such as Montesquieu, Moore, and Arendt. What role does statecraft play in matters of war and peace? Here, we will discuss the role of religion in American political culture, the relation of religion to the state, the relevance of religious interests and their political mobilization, religious minorities in the United States, and many other aspects of religion in the US society. This course examines the history of American involvement in Afghanistan, beginning with the Cold War when the U.S. used Afghanistan as a test case for new models of political modernization and economic development. We will pay particular attention to the construction of "Jews" and "Judaism" in these arguments. [more], The People's Republic of China has experienced rapid and extensive economic, social and cultural transformation over the past forty years. argue) to virtually everything in American politics, including fundamental concepts that have no manifest racial content, like partisanship and the size and scope of government. Finally, could the Cold War have been ended long before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989? The first half is a historical survey of U.S.-Latin American foreign relations from the early Spanish American independence movements through the end of the Cold War and recent developments. Why do we end up with some policies but not others? The questions have sparked controversy since the origins of political thinking; the answers remain controversial now. Yet consider that while mineral abundance promises to give countries a platform for prosperity, equity, and political stability, it often produces poor economic performance, poor populations, weak authoritarian states, and widespread conflict. We will discuss theories of right-wing populism's appeal from both Left and Right perspectives. Class will be primarily driven by discussion, often preceded by brief lectures. The basic format of the course will be to combine very brief lectures with detailed class discussions of each session's topic. Third, how did the Cold War in Europe lead to events in other areas of the world, such as Cuba and Vietnam? This seminar considers our relationship with our ocean and coastal environments and the foundational role our oceans and coasts play in our Nation's environmental and economic sustainability as well as ocean and coastal climate resiliency. 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. Themes include: Where does political power come from? complex as the boundaries of "the human" become blurred by the rise of artificial intelligence, robotics, and brain implants: shifting attitudes towards both animal and human bodies; and the automation of economic and military decisions (buy! The emergence of an 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. In so doing, we will seek to use controversial and consequential moments in American politics as a window into deeper questions about political change and the narratives we tell about it. Yet inequality in wealth may conflict with the political equality necessary for democratic governance and public trust, leading to concerns that we are sacrificing community, fairness, and opportunity for the benefit of a small portion of the population. For instance, do the claims of individual freedom conflict with those of community? 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. Attention then turns to how post-World War II authoritariansm has been understood from a variety of perspectives, including: the "transitions to democracy" approach; analysis of problems of authoritarian control and authoritarian power-sharing; and examination of "authoritarian relience," among others.

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