The concepts of freedom, power and equality are what have been called “essentially contested concepts.” These three concepts take a particular significance in the 20th and 21st centuries due to the proliferation of war, industrialization, technology, as well as the growth of democracy and the accompanying shifts in social relations these have all brought about. We think that we have a pretty clear and straightforward understanding of what they mean—freedom means doing what I want, power is domination, equality is sameness. But when we look at how these ideals are lived in real life, we can see that they are in fact a lot more complicated than that. For instance, does poverty reduce freedom and wealth enhance it, or is really only a matter of inequality and people’s choices as many maintain? How do categories like race, gender, and sexuality affect the ways that freedom, power, and equality are experienced? Can power be exercised in relations of equality or does it always suggest inequality? How do we know when power is a hindrance to freedom, or when it is an enhancement of it? How do these three concepts intersect and intertwine to alter their meanings in different settings and in response to different sorts of events?

The concepts of freedom, power and equality are what have been called “essentially contested concepts.” These three concepts take a particular significance in the 20th and 21st centuries due to the proliferation of war, industrialization, technology, as well as the growth of democracy and the accompanying shifts in social relations these have all brought about. We think that we have a pretty clear and straightforward understanding of what they mean—freedom means doing what I want, power is domination, equality is sameness. But when we look at how these ideals are lived in real life, we can see that they are in fact a lot more complicated than that. For instance, does poverty reduce freedom and wealth enhance it, or is really only a matter of inequality and people’s choices as many maintain? How do categories like race, gender, and sexuality affect the ways that freedom, power, and equality are experienced? Can power be exercised in relations of equality or does it always suggest inequality? How do we know when power is a hindrance to freedom, or when it is an enhancement of it? How do these three concepts intersect and intertwine to alter their meanings in different settings and in response to different sorts of events?

The concepts of freedom, power and equality are what have been called “essentially contested concepts.” These three concepts take a particular significance in the 20th and 21st centuries due to the proliferation of war, industrialization, technology, as well as the growth of democracy and the accompanying shifts in social relations these have all brought about. We think that we have a pretty clear and straightforward understanding of what they mean—freedom means doing what I want, power is domination, equality is sameness. But when we look at how these ideals are lived in real life, we can see that they are in fact a lot more complicated than that. For instance, does poverty reduce freedom and wealth enhance it, or is really only a matter of inequality and people’s choices as many maintain? How do categories like race, gender, and sexuality affect the ways that freedom, power, and equality are experienced? Can power be exercised in relations of equality or does it always suggest inequality? How do we know when power is a hindrance to freedom, or when it is an enhancement of it? How do these three concepts intersect and intertwine to alter their meanings in different settings and in response to different sorts of events?

This is a mandatory seminar for all students planning to submit an honors thesis for the purpose of possibly earning distinction in Political Science upon graduation. The course is aimed at helping students identify a useful and feasible research question, become familiar with the relevant literatures and debates pertaining to that question, develop a basic understanding of what might constitute "good" and "original" research in different subfields, and set up a plan for conducting and presenting the research. The course is also aimed at building a community of like-minded student researchers, which can complement and enrich the honor student's individual experience of working one-on-one with a dedicated faculty thesis advisor. Students apply in the spring of their junior year for admissions to the honors program and enrollment in PSCI497.

In 1960, a Democratic candidate won a very narrow Presidential victory with just 100,000 votes; in 2000, the Democratic candidate lost but received 500,000 more votes than his opponent. Still, contemporary scholars and journalists have made a variety of arguments about just how much the American political landscape changed in the intervening 40 years, often calling recent decades a transformation. This course explores and critically evaluates those arguments. Key questions include: how, if at all, have Americans political attitudes and ideologies changed? How have their connections to politics changed? What has this meant for the fortunes and strategies of the two parties? How have the parties base voters and swing voters changed? What changes in American society have advantaged some political messages and parties at the expense of others? Focusing primarily on mass-level politics, we consider a wide range of potential causes, including the role of race in American politics, suburbanization, economic transformations, the evolving constellation and structure of interest groups, declining social capital, the changing role of religion, immigration, and the actions of parties and political elites. For three weeks in the semester, we will take a break from considering broader trends to look at specific elections in some depth.

There is little question that inequality along the lines of race and ethnicity remain a constant problem in American society. And over time, the federal government has implemented several policy initiatives to address these inequities. However, less well understood is the success of these federal policies or the process in which they emerge from government as a viable solution. This course will provide an overview of the link between federal government action and changes in minority inequality. We will analyze several issue spaces that cover health, crime and incarceration, social policy and equal rights, education, welfare, and economics. We will take a multi-method approach to exploring the success of federal policies by conducting historical assessments and statistical analysis. Advanced undergraduates are welcome to take the course with permission.

This course will provide an overview of major figures and themes of modern political thought. We will focus on themes and questions pertinent to political theory in the modern era, particularly focusing on the relationship of the individual to community, society, and state. Although the emergence of the individual as a central moral, political, and conceptual category arguably began in earlier eras, it is in the seventeenth century that it takes firm hold in defining the state, political institutions, moral thinking, and social relations. The centrality of "the individual" has created difficulties, even paradoxes, for community and social relations, and political theorists have struggled to reconicle those throughout the modern era. We will consider the political forms that emerged out of those struggles, as well as the changed and distinctly "modern" conceptualizations of political theory such as freedom, responsibilty, justice, rights and obligations, as central categories for organizing moral and political life.

The course is intended for Andrea Mitchell Centre Undergraduate Fellows to present their research ideas, share with the class progress on their ongoing projects, and receive constructive feedback from fellow students and the course instructor.

Through reading texts of Plato (Socrates), Aristotle, Augustine and Aquinas, the student encounters a range of political ideas deeply challenging to--and possibly corrosive of--today's dominant democratic liberalism. Can classical and medieval thinking offer insight into modern impasses in political morality? Is such ancient thinking plausible, useful, or dangerous?

Through reading texts of Plato (Socrates), Aristotle, Augustine and Aquinas, the student encounters a range of political ideas deeply challenging to--and possibly corrosive of--today's dominant democratic liberalism. Can classical and medieval thinking offer insight into modern impasses in political morality? Is such ancient thinking plausible, useful, or dangerous?