This course is an introduction to the most prominent historical, cultural, institutional, and ideological features of Middle Eastern politics. Typical of the questions we shall address are why processes of modernization and economic change have not produced liberal democracies, why Islamic movements have gained enormous strength in some countries and not others, why conflicts in the region--between Israel and the Arabs, Iran and Iraq, or inside of Lebanon--have been so bitter and protracted; why the era of military coups was brought to an end but transitions to democracy have been difficult to achieve; why Arab unity has been so elusive and yet so insistent a theme; and why oil wealth in the Gulf, in the Arabian Peninsula, and in North Africa, has not produced industrialized or self-sustaining economic growth.

A survey of politics in Africa focusing on the complex relationships between state, society, the economy, and external actors. It will cover colonial rule, the independence struggle, authoritarian and democratic statecraft, international debt, economic development, military rule, ethnicity, and class.

A survey of politics in Africa focusing on the complex relationships between state, society, the economy, and external actors. It will cover colonial rule, the independence struggle, authoritarian and democratic statecraft, international debt, economic development, military rule, ethnicity, and class.

A survey of politics in Africa focusing on the complex relationships between state, society, the economy, and external actors. It will cover colonial rule, the independence struggle, authoritarian and democratic statecraft, international debt, economic development, military rule, ethnicity, and class.

A survey of politics in Africa focusing on the complex relationships between state, society, the economy, and external actors. It will cover colonial rule, the independence struggle, authoritarian and democratic statecraft, international debt, economic development, military rule, ethnicity, and class.

Supervised readings and research in various areas of political science. Section numbers must be obtained from the Political Science office.

What we call "economics" was originally part of a larger science, the queen of the sciences: the study of politics. Constitutions, laws, governments, citizenship, war, peace, prosperity and poverty - all these were dimensions of an inquiry into what is necessary and useful to the good life of mankind. Indeed the English phase political economy translates two Greek words /oikos/ or " house" and /nomos / "law". In this course we will be concerned with texts in political economy from the early 18th century to the recent past. Our purpose is the interrogation of those along three dimensions: the constitutive intellectual parts of a science of profit and loss; the relation of such a science to moral questions; and finally the effects of economics as an ideology on the polit ical constitutions of our time. Originally optimistic, its foundations were challenged in the 19th century by reactionary pessimism and radical critique but in the last decade of the 20th century, the collapse of soviet communism seemed to confirm what neo-liberals had long proclaimed: the supremacy of market economies and the universal denominator of money, or exchange, value. The benefits of global markets were expected by some to dispel the very sources of conflict among peoples and states, and enthusiasts even proclaimed "the end of history". That brief period is now behind us and we confront a new pluralism of beliefs and opinion about what is "valuable" that challenges the central tenets of western political discourse.

What we call "economics" was originally part of a larger science, the queen of the sciences: the study of politics. Constitutions, laws, governments, citizenship, war, peace, prosperity and poverty - all these were dimensions of an inquiry into what is necessary and useful to the good life of mankind. Indeed the English phase political economy translates two Greek words /oikos/ or " house" and /nomos / "law". In this course we will be concerned with texts in political economy from the early 18th century to the recent past. Our purpose is the interrogation of those along three dimensions: the constitutive intellectual parts of a science of profit and loss; the relation of such a science to moral questions; and finally the effects of economics as an ideology on the polit ical constitutions of our time. Originally optimistic, its foundations were challenged in the 19th century by reactionary pessimism and radical critique but in the last decade of the 20th century, the collapse of soviet communism seemed to confirm what neo-liberals had long proclaimed: the supremacy of market economies and the universal denominator of money, or exchange, value. The benefits of global markets were expected by some to dispel the very sources of conflict among peoples and states, and enthusiasts even proclaimed "the end of history". That brief period is now behind us and we confront a new pluralism of beliefs and opinion about what is "valuable" that challenges the central tenets of western political discourse.

What we call "economics" was originally part of a larger science, the queen of the sciences: the study of politics. Constitutions, laws, governments, citizenship, war, peace, prosperity and poverty - all these were dimensions of an inquiry into what is necessary and useful to the good life of mankind. Indeed the English phase political economy translates two Greek words /oikos/ or " house" and /nomos / "law". In this course we will be concerned with texts in political economy from the early 18th century to the recent past. Our purpose is the interrogation of those along three dimensions: the constitutive intellectual parts of a science of profit and loss; the relation of such a science to moral questions; and finally the effects of economics as an ideology on the polit ical constitutions of our time. Originally optimistic, its foundations were challenged in the 19th century by reactionary pessimism and radical critique but in the last decade of the 20th century, the collapse of soviet communism seemed to confirm what neo-liberals had long proclaimed: the supremacy of market economies and the universal denominator of money, or exchange, value. The benefits of global markets were expected by some to dispel the very sources of conflict among peoples and states, and enthusiasts even proclaimed "the end of history". That brief period is now behind us and we confront a new pluralism of beliefs and opinion about what is "valuable" that challenges the central tenets of western political discourse.

What we call "economics" was originally part of a larger science, the queen of the sciences: the study of politics. Constitutions, laws, governments, citizenship, war, peace, prosperity and poverty - all these were dimensions of an inquiry into what is necessary and useful to the good life of mankind. Indeed the English phase political economy translates two Greek words /oikos/ or " house" and /nomos / "law". In this course we will be concerned with texts in political economy from the early 18th century to the recent past. Our purpose is the interrogation of those along three dimensions: the constitutive intellectual parts of a science of profit and loss; the relation of such a science to moral questions; and finally the effects of economics as an ideology on the polit ical constitutions of our time. Originally optimistic, its foundations were challenged in the 19th century by reactionary pessimism and radical critique but in the last decade of the 20th century, the collapse of soviet communism seemed to confirm what neo-liberals had long proclaimed: the supremacy of market economies and the universal denominator of money, or exchange, value. The benefits of global markets were expected by some to dispel the very sources of conflict among peoples and states, and enthusiasts even proclaimed "the end of history". That brief period is now behind us and we confront a new pluralism of beliefs and opinion about what is "valuable" that challenges the central tenets of western political discourse.