Graduate Course Catalog

“Civil society” is one of the more elusive entries in the social science lexicon, and not a few have argued that we could do well without it. In a critical but appreciative spirit, this seminar introduces to the various meanings and uses that have been attributed to, or made of, civil society across time and national contexts. A constant in its various meanings is the reference to an elementary capacity of social self-organization beyond states and markets. This has made civil society an attractive alternative to diminished states and unfettered markets in the era of globalization, interestingly for the political left and right alike.

This course focuses on the concept of the/a public. Discusses how media and political actors rhetorically constitute the public; how they (and occasionally governments) constitute “public spaces”(virtual and material) in which public discourse takes place, and how institutional and technological forces constitute “public opinion” and articulate “the public interest.” On the other hand, we will consider how political economy of media and social practices facilitate or stifle spaces, political actors, and publics. The course will also compare contemporary manifestations of public-making with Habermas’s theory of the public sphere, which he thought was an area of social life vital to a legitimate democracy. The potentiality, control, and use of new communication technologies are explored in relation to the existence and future of a global public sphere.

This course covers three topics: 1. The process of policy formation – Students will gain an understanding of the process by which policy decisions are made in societies with democratic governmental institutions. They will be able to utilize alternative models of the policy process to make judgments about the likely participants in and outcomes of policy debates. 2. The nature of policy analysis and its role in policy formation – Students will know the tasks involved in professional policy analysis and how they are typically completed. They will develop an ability to assess policy analysis as consumers of analytic reports and will gain a foundation for further work in developing the skills used in conducting policy analysis. They will also understand the limits of policy analysis and how it relates to political considerations in the policy formation process. 3. The nature of program evaluation and its role in public management and policy making – Students will understand the purposes of evaluations, the alternative methods available for evaluation including their strengths and weakness, and the ways manger can use evaluations to improve program performance. Particular attention will be paid to considerations in the design of evaluations and the use of logic models in the design.

America's predominant position in the modern world system derives from a continuous process of expansion. Using a pluridisciplinary approach with a strong historical focus, this course critically explores the US’s ascending movement from the confines to the center of the world system and the ways in which America has shaped the global political economy. It will allow students to anchor controversial contemporary debates (imperialism and hegemony, cooperation and conflict, multilateralism and unilateralism, globalization, transnationality and the nation state, etc.) in historic and comparative perspective. Major IR and IPE theoretical frameworks (realism, liberalism, Marxism, transnational theories) will be discussed and their relevance assessed when applied to different issue areas.