Spring, 2024
- POL SCI 103-201 Introduction to Political Science
Instructor: Enes Ayasli (eayasli@uwm.edu)
Meets: No Meeting Pattern
This course is designed to be a broad introduction to the systematic study of politics, or Political Science. It will explain fundamental concepts and theories, introduce you to the main areas of research we, political scientists, are interested in studying, and guide you through the several subfields of the discipline. In other words, we will cover topics that are important to the studies in Comparative Politics, American Politics, and International Relations. The course has three primary objectives. First, it will increase your conceptual and theoretical knowledge on several topics of interest. Throughout the semester, I will provide lecture notes and readings that will help you achieve this goal. Second, you will learn how to apply this knowledge to events/issues in the past and current political world. In online discussions, you will practice interpreting real-life political problems by means of the knowledge you will accumulate. Third, it will increase your critical thinking abilities and help you critically analyze problems you deem politically important. I will teach you the fundamentals of doing scientific research, after which you will be given the opportunity to practice those skills in doing a presentation and writing a paper. Additionally, this course will introduce you to some of the big questions in the study of politics, show how political scientists have tackled those questions, and whether we have conclusive evidence to answer them. That said, you will have a broad idea of how the complex world of political science tries to solve the most vexing problems facing our societies today. - POL SCI 104-202 Introduction to American Government and Politics
Instructor: Kathleen Dolan (kdolan@uwm.edu)
Meets: No Meeting Pattern
"Introduction to American Government and Politics is a survey course designed to acquaint you with the fundamental ideas, institutions, and actors that make up our governmental system. During the session, we will examine the legal and structural basis of our government, evaluate the institutions that carry out its day-to-day functions, and analyze the role the individual citizen can play in influencing and affecting government. Also, since government and politics are things that go on around us all the time, we will follow the actions of the President, the Congress, the Courts, and the public. For this reason, current political events, like the primary elections, will be of special interest and importance to our studies." - POL SCI 104-001 Introduction to American Government and Politics
Instructor: Hong Min Park (hmpark1@uwm.edu)
Meets: MW 10am-11:15am
This course is an introduction to American Politics. However, it will go beyond a simple survey of the civics, law, and history of the American political system. Our focus will be on the scientific understanding of politics. We will examine how various agents and institutions inside and outside governments interact with each other. More specifically, we will emphasize goal-directed behavior on the part of political agents, who operate within an institutional setting and an historical context. In addition, we will develop strong and transferable intellectual and practical skills such as analytical and problem-solving skills, and a demonstrated ability to apply knowledge and skills in real-world settings. The topics that we will intensively discuss include: (1) Constitution; (2) federalism; (3) civil rights and liberties; (4) Congress; (5)the presidency; (6) bureaucracy; (7) courts; (8) public opinion; (9) voting behavior; (10) political parties; and (10) interest groups. - POL SCI 105-201 State Politics
Instructor: Thomas Holbrook (holbroot@uwm.edu)
Meets: No Meeting Pattern
This course focuses on state politics and political systems in the U.S. There is remarkable variation in how the states conduct business and in the policies that they produce. You don’t need to look any farther than recent developments such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 presidential elec- tion, or abortion politics to gain an appreciation for the important role of state politics in the U.S. political system. Some states have suffered many more COVID-related deaths and case counts than other states, and there are stark differences in the way state governments have responded to the pandemic; there are vast differences across the states in voter registration and election admin- istration systems that affect levels of voter turnout and, potentially, vote shares for the candidates; and some states have very few restriction on access to legal abortions, some states have quite a few restrictions, and in the wake a recent Supreme Court ruling (Dobbs v. Jackson), many states effectively have banned abortions. Setting aside these contemporary issues, states differ in a number of other ways: some states have highly professional state legislatures, where the job is considered full-time, while others are part-time and considered “amateur”; some states produce relatively liberal and expensive public policies, while others produce conservative policies; and some states use elections to select judges, while in other states the judges are appointed. The list of differences could go on for quite a while. At the same time, because all fifty states are bound by the U.S. Constitution, as well as what remains of the broader U.S. political culture, there are many similarities in how states conduct business. For instance, all states have governments modeled after the U.S. government, with three independent and interconnected branches of government: the legislative, judicial, and executive branches. It is these and other similarities and differences that are the focus of this class. While the primary emphasis of this course is on politics across the fifty states, special attention will be given to Wisconsin politics; in particular how Wisconsin fits into to the patterns found across the fifty states. We will also spend some time studying the structure of local governments and how they are connected to state governments. - POL SCI 106-001 Politics of the World's Nations
Instructor: Kristin Horowitz (trenholm@uwm.edu)
Meets: TR 1pm-2:15pm
This introductory course will compare the political and socio-economic systems of several states—industrialized and developing, democratic and authoritarian. We begin with a theoretical introduction and consider central issues such as political culture, institutions, political crises, and discontinuity (i.e., revolution and dictatorship), and economic development. We then examine the following six case studies: two Western European democracies (Britain and France), a former communist regime (Russia), a reformed communist regime (China), a developing state (Mexico), and finally our own presidential democracy (the United States). - POL SCI 175-201 Introduction to International Relations
Instructor: Uk Heo (heouk@uwm.edu)
Meets: No Meeting Pattern
This course examines some of the major theories and issues in the study of international relations for a better understanding of international political phenomena. These include approaches (traditional and scientific) and perspectives in international relations (idealism, realism, constructivism, and feminism), actors in international system (nation-state, sub-state and non-state actors, such as IGO and NGO), power and measurement of power, international conflict, foreign policy, international political economy (Mercantilism, Liberalism, Marxism, International Trade and Monetary Regime, North-South Relations etc.), international law & organization, environment issues, and international development. - POL SCI 203-001 Introduction to Political Science Research
Instructor: Kyle Mcwagner (mcwagnek@uwm.edu)
Meets: MW 1pm-2:15pm
"This is an introductory research methods course. The purpose of this course is to: A) Introduce students to the science part of political science. B) Expose and give experience to students in many different types of research methods C) Introduce students to performing their own statistical analysis. Leaving this class students will be able to: D) Read and understand social science research E) With supervision be able to conduct simple research" - POL SCI 216-001 Environmental Politics
Instructor: Joel Rast (jrast@uwm.edu)
Meets: W 1pm-2:15pm
This is an introductory course on environmental politics and policymaking, focusing mainly but not exclusively on the U.S. As most of you have no doubt observed, efforts to safeguard the environment through government action are frequently controversial. While almost everyone believes the environment requires protection of some kind, there is vast disagreement over how much protection is appropriate and what form environmental protection should take. This course will examine how the policymaking process for safeguarding the environment functions in this atmosphere of conflicting values, beliefs, and priorities. Through careful examination of the political context for environmental policymaking, we will see why effective government action on pressing environmental problems such as climate change and pollution control is so difficult to achieve. The course is divided into four parts. Part I examines the policymaking process and the role of key players—including environmental organizations, government agencies, and institutions such as Congress and the Presidency—in environmental decision making. Part II examines the tensions between environmental sustainability and our economic system of capitalism. We will consider some of the threats that capitalism poses to the environment, but also ask whether market mechanisms can be pressed into service as tools for safeguarding the environment. Part III examines contemporary debates in environmental politics, including the politics of climate change, the impact of developing countries on efforts to safeguard the environment, and the issue of environmental justice. Finally, in Part IV of the course, we will examine some initiatives that show promise in moving toward a more environmentally sustainable future. - POL SCI 255-201 Great Issues of Politics
Instructor: Ivan Ascher (ascher@uwm.edu)
Meets: W 2:30pm-3:45pm
Are you pro-choice, or pro-life? Do you think there is sufficient gun control in the United States, or too much? Should the government have the authority to mandate vaccinations? Chances are you have an answer to these questions, and you didn’t have to think about it too hard. In fact, you might even be able to guess what your crazy uncle would say in response to any of these questions. If the topic comes up over Thanksgiving dinner you know you will have the better argument, but you also know you aren’t likely to persuade him. Now consider these questions instead: Is democracy worth dying for? Is it worth killing for? Or this one: If people are not equal, should they be treated as such? It gets a little harder, doesn’t it? Do you know what your uncle would say in answer to these questions? And be honest: do you even know what you would say? If you are interested in political and philosophical discussions but are tired of overly predictable debates, this course may be for you. Don’t get me wrong: debates about abortion rights, gun control and vaccines are undeniably important; but they are also terribly predictable. In large part, that is because they are reflective of our ideologies: the worldviews and clusters of beliefs that we have inherited from our surroundings or that we have somehow embraced. Of course these ideologies can be helpful: they help us make sense of the world’s problems, they help us evaluate policy proposals; they even give us a sense of our place in the world and can tell us what is to be done. But they can also make it difficult to relate to others who may not share our worldview, and they can certainly get in the way of thinking. In this course, we will learn to identify the various ideologies that structure our political discourse, in order that we might begin to move beyond them. More precisely, we will return to the original arguments made by the various political theorists, historians, or economists whose writings first gave rise to these ideologies. This will help us understand where our existing ideas and commitments come from, while also freeing us to decide for ourselves what we may want to do with them. By distinguishing between the articles of faith associated such ideologies as liberalism, conservatism, socialism, etc. and the various arguments put forth by the likes of John Stuart Mill, Edmund Burke, or Karl Marx, we can loosen the grip these ideologies have had on our political imagination, while also availing ourselves of the resources they contain. - POL SCI 310-001 Russian and Post-Soviet Politics
Instructor: Ora John Reuter (reutero@uwm.edu)
Meets: TR 11:30am-12:45pm
Comparative politics uses the general to explain the specific and the specific to illuminate the general. This course uses Russia and other countries in the post-Soviet world to illuminate general themes, topics, and questions in the study of comparative politics. The collapse of the Soviet Union left in its wake fifteen sovereign states--Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. Nearly twenty years later, each continues to bear the traces of its Soviet past, but they have also diverged in important ways. This is a course on the politics of the states of the former Soviet Union. It stresses both similarities in their political processes and areas of divergence. As the largest, most important, and most studied post-Soviet country, Russia will receive special attention. The countries in this region are bound together by two things. First, to varying degrees, they are bound by the cultural, political, linguistic, ethnic, and economic ties that were cultivated by geographic proximity and empire. Second, they are bound together by their shared experiences as constituent parts of the Soviet Union. Thus, this course begins with a brief examination of politics, economics, and society in the Soviet Union. In this section of the course, we will consider how the legacies of communism affect politics in contemporary post-Soviet states. The course then moves to consider the collapse of the Soviet Union and the new political institutions that took its place. The middle part of the course undertakes a thematic examination of autocracy in Russia. Here we will focus on the causes and characteristics of autocracy in Russia. The course concludes by considering issues related Ukrainian politics and the war in Ukraine. - POL SCI 314-201 Chinese Politics and Foreign Policy
Instructor: Shale Horowitz (shale@uwm.edu)
Meets: No Meeting Pattern
This course provides an introduction to China’s politics in the modern period. We will focus on top leaders, political institutions, and policies under Chinese Communist Party (CCP) rule. We begin by reviewing the historical background, from the late Qing Dynasty, through Nationalist Party rule, civil wars, and the Japanese invasion, to the CCP takeover in 1949. In the area of foreign relations, this period is often called China’s “century of humiliation.” We then analyze the main stages in the history of CCP rule: the Mao Zedong period, 1949-1976; the Deng Xiaoping period, 1977-1994; and the rule of the so-called third-, fourth-, and fifth-generation leaders, Jiang Zemin, 1995-2002, Hu Jintao, 2002- 2012, and Xi Jinping, 2012-present. How did political institutions and government policies evolve through these successive periods? We will concentrate on three main policy areas: economic development policies; society, culture, and civil liberties; and ethnic minority relations and foreign policies. This will include detailed coverage of watershed events, such as the CCP takeover of China’s state and society in the years after 1949; the Korean War of 1950-1953; the “Great Leap Forward” Famine of 1958-1962; the “Cultural Revolution” of 1966-1976; Deng Xiaoping’s market reforms, starting in 1979; and the Tiananmen Square Uprising of 1989. There are a number of important factors that explain policy developments over time: the ideologies and preferences of China’s top leaders; CCP and state political institutions; the size and structural characteristics of China’s society and economy; the interests of important factions or interest groups, such as national or regional CCP leadership networks, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), large state enterprises, and more recently, public opinion as well as private or “quasi-private” businesses; and the international environment, including relations with great powers such as the United States and the Soviet Union, regional developments in East Asia, and trends in the international economy. Our goal is to assess the interaction and the relative importance of these factors in determining policy developments over time. We will also discuss important current issues, such as China’s present and future economic performance; the prospects for democratization and improved human rights; conditions in restive regions such as Tibet, Xinjiang, and Hong Kong; and China’s rise to superpower status, along with its changing relations with the United States, Japan, India, Taiwan, and other countries. - POL SCI 316-001 International Law
Instructor: Robert Beck (rjbeck@uwm.edu)
Meets: R 10am-11:15am
1. To teach the essentials of positive international law against the background of the realities of international politics and the normative requirements of international law. 2. To improve the student's (a) analytical ability and (b) capacity for legal argument through a modified form of the "case method" typically followed in law schools. Prerequisites and Expected Work: Junior Standing is required. For this 3-credit hybrid modality course, to achieve its learning objectives, students are expected to view all weekly online lecture and reading assignments (roughly 2-2.5 hours per week), and to devote an additional 6 hours per week studying and working on reading and written assignments. - POL SCI 340-001 Politics of Nuclear Weapons
Instructor: Steven Redd (sredd@uwm.edu)
Meets: MW 1pm-2:15pm
“Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” Vishnu, Bhagavad-Gita. This line from the Hindu holy text was famously recalled by J. Robert Oppenheimer, the architect of the nuclear bomb, upon seeing the first nuclear test at the Trinity test site near Alamogordo, NM, on July 16, 1945. While this event occurred nearly 80 years ago, we might be tempted to ask ourselves, “Are nuclear weapons and deterrence still relevant in the 21st Century?” The answer is “Most emphatically . . . yes!” The nuclear rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War transformed the nature and conduct of world politics that exists even to this day. In this class, we will discuss nuclear arsenals and force structures, nuclear jargon, nuclear ethics and psychology, arms control, strategic and civil defense, and the effects of a possible nuclear exchange. In addition, we will also address strategies of deterrence and nuclear weapons decision making. We will also examine the implications stemming from both the vertical and horizontal proliferation of nuclear weapons. - POL SCI 371-201 Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict
Instructor: Shale Horowitz (shale@uwm.edu)
Meets: No Meeting Pattern
"The course begins with a theoretical introduction. What is a nation? How is a nation different from an ethnic group? Under what conditions do national self-determination movements gain greater ideological influence and political power? What are the most common kinds of conflicts between such self-determination movements and existing states? What are the various means of settling such conflicts? When are such conflicts most likely to become violent and stay violent? When violence breaks out, why are some techniques and strategies of warfare used more than others? Why do some conflicts involve mainly conventional warfare, while others see more guerrilla warfare or terrorism? When is “ethnic cleansing”— forced transfer of one or more ethnic populations from a given region—more likely to occur? What role is played by international intervention? What international legal norms govern involvement in ethnic conflicts? What determines whether other countries will contemplate military intervention? What form will this intervention take? What role if any is played by international organizations, such as the United Nations, the European Union, or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)? Why? For each major political actor, we take the following explanatory approach: How do factors such as the history of the conflict, the objective characteristics of states and groups, and political institutions influence leaders’ political objectives? These goals or preferences of political actors, along with material and political factors such as initial political and economic conditions, the balance of military power, and likely responses of other actors, lead to choices of political and military strategies. Taken together, these strategies produce the political and military outcomes we are interested in explaining. Following this introduction, we will apply the theory to understand three major ethnic conflicts. Like many major ethnic conflicts, these three conflicts are heavily influenced by international intervention. We begin with a major post-communist ethnic conflict, which broke out between Armenians and Azeris in the former Soviet Republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan, and from 1991, continued between the independent states of Armenia and Azerbaijan. We then examine two perennial ethnic conflicts of the post-World War II period—that between Hindus and Muslims in India and Pakistan, and that between Jews and Muslim Arabs in Israel and the surrounding Arab states and territories. In all of these cases, we are interested in explaining why we see a certain level and character of conflict. Again, these outcomes reflect strategy choices of the major political actors, and these strategy choices reflect factors such as political goals or ideologies, political institutions, the military balance of power, and various other material and political conditions and constraints. To understand these conflicts, we therefore need to understand how these ideological, political and material factors have developed over time. Such an understanding will also help us to see why these conflicts might wind down or end, why they might escalate, or why they drag on more or less as they are." - POL SCI 379-201 Morality, Conflict and War
Instructor: Kristin Horowitz (trenholm@uwm.edu)
Meets: No Meeting Pattern
This course examines the conditions that make for war and peace in world politics and considers relevant moral and ethical arguments about war. In the first part of the course, we examine historical patterns and trends in warfare, as well as the many causes of war. In the second part, we consider the morality and ethics of war, the outcomes and consequences of war, and proposals to help prevent or limit war. - POL SCI 383-001 Environmental Political Theory
Instructor: Kennan Ferguson (kennan@uwm.edu)
Meets: TR 2:30pm-3:45pm
The discipline of Political Science pays considerable attention to global and international issues. Transnational relations, global non-governmental organizations, and questions of world orders: all are studied closely by political scientists under the rubric of "security." Environmental issues somehow exceed or have long been ignored by the traditions of security studies, and by extension international political science. The unpredictable dynamics of climatology, the long history of antistate activism on the part of environmentalists, and lingering assumptions of state sovereignty have all coincided to make global climate issues seem external to the usual dynamics of politics. But this is changing. Some areas of study are emerging, especially as institutions and leaders recognize global climate as one of the preeminent threats to the current global order and the people it purports to serve. In fact, many of the traditional areas of international political st1,1dy have begun to note that climate warming has precipitated new crises in their areas: control of international (and Arctic) waters; increased refugee flows, border conflicts over water. Recent attention to these issues from other parts of the world (including the papal Laudato Si' and the global youth strikes inspired by G.reta Thunberg) have helped show the centrality of environmental issues to global politics. This course examines environmental political theory from a global perspective, emphasizing the interlinked nature of security and sustainability. Moving between the local and the planetary, it not only brings into question the conditions for environmental activism and problems, but also the ethics of political thinking about nature. Upon completion of the course, students will be able to critically analyze environmental political claims, differentiating the possible from the likely, the individual from the structural, and the relative claims of emergency, technological solutions, and political action. There are no prerequisite courses; junior or senior standing is required except with consent of the instructor. This course counts toward the Political Science major, serves a component of the Global Sustainability Track Curriculum in Global Studies, and fulfills the political theory requirement for the major in Political Science. - POL SCI 386-001 Contemporary Political Theory
Instructor: Kennan Ferguson (kennan@uwm.edu)
Meets: TR 11:30am-12:45pm
Many of the central presumptions of Western political theory - that logic would lead to a better world, that philosophy could show people how to behave kindly and properly, and that political behavior could be explained using scientific principles - were exploded by the rise of Nazi Germany and the death camps and World War that followed. Germany had been a profoundly philosophical society, and many of the great lights of political theory had come from there, but the Holocaust emerged there nevertheless. Philosophers were thus faced with a conundrum: was political theory good for anything? Just as importantly, could it do anything? And yet it has continued. New arguments have been made; new politics have been enacted; new movements have emerged. In this course we will investigate this continuation by looking at the theoretical underpinnings of a few political movements in the latter 20th century to the present. these are not meant to be a complete rendition of the political issues of the past 75 years, but representative of how political philosophies have emerged and affected the contemporary world. None of these issues is "solved" (in the way that we generally now say: "slavery is wrong and illegal," or that "women should be able to vote") so it is vital that we listen to, and respectfully argue with, other students' views on the subjects. - POL SCI 390-201 Political Data Analysis
Instructor: Thomas Holbrook (holbroot@uwm.edu)
Meets: No Meeting Pattern
This course provides you with a broad introduction to quantitative analysis in political science, emphasizing methods that give you a foundation for multiple regression analysis. Although you will learn about statistics, this is not a statistics course. You can take a statistics course in the Math department, if that is what want or need. Instead, this a course on doing quantitative research in political science. While a minimum amount of mathematical ability is required, the goal of this course is not just to teach you how to calculate and produce statistics, but, more importantly, how to use and interpret those statistics in the context of studying the social and political world. This type of work can be intimidating if you’ve never done it before, and I come into this class assuming that none of you are experienced in this area (even though some of you are). But I also come in knowing that you are upper-level college students at a good university, so I expect that you are prepared to learn. Based on my experience teaching this course for several years, I expect that the anxiety some of you are feeling at the beginning of the semester will be replaced by a sense of pride (or at least relief) by the end of the semester. - POL SCI 398-001 Cyberpolitics
Instructor: Robert Beck (rjbeck@uwm.edu)
Meets: TR 2:30pm-3:45pm
Cyberpolitics will explore some of the most critical questions of our time. What is the nature of the contemporary cyber world? What is “Generative Artificial Intelligence” and how might it be used for nefarious political purposes? How does cyberpower operate in foreign affairs, including in conventional warfare and nuclear strategy? How do large corporations, cyber arms companies, authoritarian regimes, and cyberterrorists seek to resist or control cyberspace? How has global governance sought to engage issues of privacy, cybercrime, and openness in cyberspace? How do existing international legal rules on sovereignty and the use of force address our cyber world? Students will be introduced to “Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI)” and will be given opportunities to use that revolutionary technology both in the classroom and for a course assignment. - POL SCI 417-001 The Supreme Court
Instructor: Erin Olsen (ekaheny@uwm.edu)
Meets: MW 11:30am-12:45pm
This course will entail a detailed examination of the Supreme Court of the United States, including the justices who staff the bench and their selection, the lawyers who argue before the Court, the process by which cases are accepted for review and decided, the factors that drive the justices' decision making, Court dynamics during oral arguments and in the opinion writing process, the Court's role as a policy maker, and its relationships with respect to lower courts, the legislature, the executive branch, and the citizenry. Moreover, as a research experience course, attention will be given to relevant research undertaken by social scientists-especially political scientists-in studying the Supreme Court and the justices. Hence, students will gain valuable skills in understanding, discussing, and analyzing social science research. Through participation in a mock Supreme Court exercise, students will also gain valuable skills in conducting, discussing, and citing legal research. - POL SCI 452-201 Administrative Law
Instructor: Erin Olsen (ekaheny@uwm.edu)
Meets: No Meeting Pattern
Courses in American politics often highlight the important role played by administrative agencies in the regulatory process. Much of their power, of course, is exercised through rulemaking and adjudication. In this class, we will explore various legal rules and doctrines that have emerged to structure the processes by which agency decisions/actions are to be developed and reviewed. Attention will also be paid to the larger political context in which agencies operate.