The Pomona Politics Department

Courses

Course Descriptions

1A. Classical Political Theory

Fall 2005 | PAC 10

Introduction to major works in ancient Greek, Hebraic, Roman, Christian, and Chinese traditions that have contributed to our understanding of political philosophy and practice. Emergence of the concept of politics; the political role of tragic theatre and poetry; the Socratic challenge to Athens; the Western tradition of epic heroism; the politics of class, race, and gender; and the early Christian challenge to Rome.

1B. Modern Political Theory

Spring 2006 | PAC 10

Second half of sequence, but does not require or presuppose Politics 1A (Classical Political Theory). Themes and concepts associated with modernity: social-contract theory; equality and rights; the origins of democracy, liberalism, and individualism; the origins of protest, revolution, and radicalism; and economics and the bureaucratic state. Development of Western political thought with readings in Islamic texts for contrast and discussion.

2. American Political Thought

Spring 2006 | PAC 10

Historical and topical review of American political philosophy from the Puritans to the present. Emphasis on such redated themes as equality, democracy, and racism.

3. Introduction to American Politics

Spring 2006 | PAC 7

An overview of the institutions, processes, and content of politics in the United States. Focus on selective policy issues and contemporary institutional conflicts. Includes a lab component in which students analyze political texts and data.

5. Comparative Politics

Spring 2006 | PAC 9

Introduces major analytical approaches in the field of comparative politics and investigates some of the challenging empirical case studies of the day. Focuses on cross-national similarities and differences in politics, economies, and societies. Examines the methodological tools and pitfalls of comparative analysis, including the role of the state in political and economic development.

6. Comparative Politics: Mexico Focus

Old | PAC 9

Introduces theories of state development, regime change, political culture, and industrialization through examination of Mexican politics and foreign policy. Special focus on democratization, human rights, indigenous politics, trade integration, impact of emigration and diaspora on economy and politics. Politics majors may substitute this course for Politics 5.

7. U.S. Foreign Policy

Spring 2006 | PAC 7

Examines the changes brought about in U.S. foreign policy by the end of the Cold War and the shock of 9/11. This course will look into the domestic and international factors that have led to a sweeping shift in foreign policy since 9-11 and at the potential impact on the new doctrine of preempting threats to American security before they materialize, as well as the implications of this and other aspects of the War on Terrorism for America and the world.

8. Introduction to International Relations

Spring 2006 | PAC 7

International conflict and cooperation, and the increasing importance of economic and transnational relations in contemporary international politics. A variety of analytic concepts concerning types of international systems and political behavior. Lecture and discussion.

10. Political Freedom

Old | PAC 10

A theoretical study of the pursuit of freedom. Topics include freedom and authority; equality and liberty; rights, revolution; community versus individuality; the constraints of culture, class, gender, race, and technology. Readings from Mill, Locke, Jefferson, Madison, Plato, Dostoevski, Rousseau, Marx, Shelley, Sartre, Freud, Wright, Douglass, Swift, Thoreau, Emerson, Arendt, Cervantes, Ignatieff, Weil, Havel; and a screening of Being There.

30. U.S. Congress

Spring 2006

An investigation of Congress from four perspectives: as an institution, as a collection of politicians, as a legislature, and as the focus of national government and policy.

35. City of Quartz, City of Angels

Spring 2005

Issues include: immigration, government reorganization, race relations and urban economics. What impact will increased immigration have on L.A.’s municipal services? Will the role of the federal government increase over time? Is L.A. becoming balkanized along racial lines? What are the prospects for sustained economic growth? As L.A. becomes an international city, what impact will international events have on Los Angeles? Can it continue to grow and maintain an environmental balance?

36. Urban Politics and Public Policy

Old

The political problems of cities and demographic movements in the United States.

37. Criminal Justice

Old

The roles of judges, attorneys, and law enforcement personnel in the administration of criminal laws; the relationship among various criminal justice agencies; and issues of policy such as police-community conflicts, plea-bargaining practices, sentencing patterns, and various forms of post-conviction correction/rehabilitation. Each student observes proceedings in nearby court for several hours.

38. Democracy, Freedom, and the First Amendment

Old

In the near future, our First Amendment tradition will need to accommodate a world saturated with interactive media. Explore the changing organizational context of mass media from the solitary printer to modern multimedia-multinational communications conglomerates. Focus on issues of free speech, equal access, and the protection of privacy in the fast-developing and rapidly changing world of modern mass communications.

42. Women and Politics

Spring 2006 | PAC 7

American politics from the perspective of women, highlighting the contributions of race, gender, and other social constructions to the diversity of women’s political experiences. Historical changes in women’s activism. Comparison with lives of women in other countries. Implications for traditional conceptions of politics, power, and democracy. Prerequisite: Politics 3 or equivalent.

43. Blacks in the American Political Process

Spring 2006

The role of Blacks in the American political process; strategies used by Blacks to gain political power and to influence political decision making; politics related to Blacks in southern and urban settings.

44. Race, Class, & Power

Spring 2005 | PAC 9

Analysis of relationship between social stratification and race, and of distribution of power and social status in American society. Historical and contemporary examination of various ethnic and racial groups and their incorporation into American society. Lecture and discussion.

45. Race and Public Opinion in the United States

Old

Examines public beliefs and sentiments about racial politics in the U.S. and what constitutes "public opinion." Explores the explicit and implicit linkages between "public opinion" and normative conceptions of democratic politics.

60. Global Politics of Food & Agriculture

Spring 2006 | PAC 9

Addresses interplay among states and growers, how environmental problems affect farms around the world, and various ways that producers and governments attempt to address such problems, dated issues in agricultural science and economics, and debates about genetic engineering, international patent law, and intellectual property.

72A. Traditional and Early Modern International Relations of Asia

Old

Assesses prominent explanations of how Asia (in particular China and Japan) emerged from "isolation" into the modern world. Cultural and historical sources of national identity are examined in terms of how each nation views itself in the context of a larger world system, and in shaping interactions with other countries.

72B. Contemporary International Relations of Asia

Fall 2005

Examines the great transformations that have taken place in the post-WWII system of international relations in Asia through a close study of the watershed events of the post-1945 period and participation in these events by the major states involved. Offered alternate years.

82. The Vietnam War

Spring 2006

A study of the Vietnamese conflict from both the Vietnamese and American perspectives. Special attention given to the ways in which the internal and the international contexts of the conflict changed over time, and the impact these situational changes had on the outcome of the war.

89G. Introduction to Middle East Politics

Fall 2005

This course aims to introduce students to the major questions of Middle East politics, with an emphasis on dated issues. While the course focuses on the Arab world, it will also take into account the politics of Israel, Turkey, and Iran. An important aspect of the course will be to situate the Middle East in the context of global politics, with an emphasis on the role of the United States in the region. The course will cover the political histories of the states in the region, and political dynamics and changes; it will also provide a theoretical, political, and conceptual framework that can facilitate analysis of the political changes and developments in the region.

90. Statistics for Politics & IR

Spring 2006 | PAC 4

Using data from politics and international relations, this course builds basic numeracy skills for social scientists. It develops knowledge of descriptive statistics and introduces students to inferential (parametric and non-parametric) statistical techniques, including rudiments of multiple regression analysis. Emphasis on computer applications.

100. Freedom, Markets, and Well-Being

Old | PAC 10

Our society embraces commitments both to safeguarding basic liberties and to facilitating the pursuit of happiness. Course takes up a range of views concerning the appropriate role of the market in such a society; and focuses upon the challenges involved in bringing these arguments to bear on issues of public policy. Prerequisites: One course in each of philosophy, politics, and microeconomics. Same course as Economics 160, Philosophy 160, and PPE 160. This is an integrative course for PPE majors.

114. The Idea of America

Spring 2006 | PAC 10

Explores from several angles, periods, and points of view, the idea of America as: an experiment in republicanism on a scale never before attempted, the New World, a promised land, a frontier space, and a dream (albeit often dashed). Examines critically the shifting images, ideologies, and mythologies surrounding the idea of America as portrayed through fiction, film, music, sports, art, poetry, and political theory.

130. Campaigns and Elections

Fall 2005

A course on how electoral politics works (or doesn’t) in the contemporary United States. On one hand, the “nuts and bolts” of campaigns and election processes and organizations. On the other hand, the issues, interests and values at stake at the time the course is offered. Class discussions will focus on sustained individual case studies. Prerequisite: Politics 30 or 131. Offered alternate years.

131. The American Presidency

Old

The American presidency from 1787 to the present. Presidential leadership, power, and influence in relationships with Congress, courts, parties, bureaucracy, and the public in the formulation and administration of foreign and domestic policy. Nominations, campaigns, and elections.

132. Democracy & Mass Communication Law

Spring 2005

This class intersects the fields of political theory, law, and media studies, focusing on the relationship between freedom of expression and self-government. It provides an introduction and overview of the First Amendment in the context of contemporary controversies in the fields of regulation of electronic communication, protection of privacy and reputation, and of governmental control of the flow of information. We observe how constitutional jurisprudence developed in the United States over the past two hundred years. To do this, the seminar focuses on a number of specific controversies:

1. Sedition and the protection of national security, libel & copyright
2. Government control of information, newspersons' privilege
3. Assuring fair and impartial trials in criminal cases, obscenity regulation and the protection of public morals

133A. Constitutional Law I

Fall 2005 | PAC 10

The nature and extent of constitutional power, the separation-of-powers doctrine, federal-state relations, and the power of Congress and the Presidency. Briefing and analysis of cases and statutes. Lecture, discussion, papers.

133B. Constitutional Law II

Spring 2006 | PAC 10

Political and civil rights in the American Constitutional system and the limitations on governmental powers with emphasis on the rights of the accused and individual liberties. Briefing and analysis of cases and statutes. Lecture, papers, discussion.

134. American Politics in a Media Age

Fall 2005 | PAC 5

Equips the student, already visually oriented from infancy, with ability to monitor and critically interpret political institutions and communications. Explores ways in which news media shape American politics and ways in which politicians seek to influence media. Focuses on effect of the media in specific events. Examines how new communications technologies structure political conflict and decision making.

135. Policy Implementation and Evaluation

Fall 2005

Public policy in the United States, the ways governments implement policy decisions, and alternative means of evaluating the impact of policy on society. Major field research-based term paper. Prerequisite: Politics 3 or 30.

136. Politics of Environmental Action

Spring 2006 | PAC 7

Examines political action aimed at enhancing ecological sustainability. Topics include new ecological challenges such as the rise of biotechnology; social movements and coalition-building; interactions with the political center (states and corporations); and outcomes of environmental action. Prerequisite: Politics 3 or STS I or ID 50.

137. Politics and Social Welfare Policy

Old

Seminar on public efforts to reduce poverty in America. First half considers the development of social-welfare policy during the New Deal, Great Society, and Reagan periods. Second half explores dependency, feminization of poverty, race and poverty, and Clinton-era efforts at welfare reform. Prerequisite: Politics 30 or 131.

138. Organizational Theory

Spring 2006 | PAC 7

Theories of complex organization, and their contributions to an understanding of organizational life and associated policy processes and outcomes. Focuses on the transition during the 20th century from scientifically managed to flexible organizations, including the social and political implications of this transition. Prerequisite: Politics 3. Identical to Sociology 133.

139. Politics of Community Design

Fall 2005

The design of things like cars, software, buildings, and cities is normally thought to be the exclusive province of highly trained professionals, such as architects and engineers. This course examines design as a political activity, with special emphasis on community efforts to create safe, prosperous, and livable spaces.

147. Education Politics and Policy

Spring 2006

Elementary and secondary schooling in the contemporary United States. Competing public expectations and political demands: schools as preparation for democratic citizenship and schools as preparation for economic productivity (among other goals). The politics of school reform. Prerequisite: Politics 3.

148. Education Policy Data Workshop

Spring 2005

Collaborative workshop in which students gather, analyze and compile data for annual "Conditions of K-12 Education in the Los Angeles Region," published online at SCCORE.org. Prerequisite: Statistics course.

160. Comparative Politics of Europe

Spring 2005

Analysis of political controversies and institutional change in the decade since European unification. Emphasis on social, historical, and structural forces influencing change. Topics include challenges to European models of governance (staticism, corporatism, liberalism), social movements, welfare and social justice, changing patterns of mobility, integration and disintegration, democratic transitions in eastern and central Europe.

161. Japanese Politics

Fall 2005

The Japanese political system, the relationship between the Japanese economy and domestic politics, foreign policy, and the growth of Japan's role as a world economic power.

162. Comparative Politics of Africa

Fall 2005 | PAC 9

Surveys the main political issues facing contemporary African states, including poverty, instability, ethnicity, class conflicts, integration in the world economy, corruption, authoritarianism, democratization andreversion to authoritarianism, state collapse, social disengagement, structural adjustment, and relations with former colonial powers. Emphasizes historical and structural determinants.

163. Comparative East Asian Politics

Spring 2005 | PAC 9

Analysis of the different political systems of Asia, the legacy of colonialism and international conflict on the domestic politics of China, Japan, and Southeast Asia, and changes in traditional political culture. The problems of ethnic conflict, human welfare, and rapidly expanding political participation.

165. Politics of Modern Latin America

Fall 2005 | PAC 9

Analyses of industrialization, global trade, immigration, and superpower conflict on political systems and societies. Examines domestic politics and foreign policy of the Southern Cone, Central America, the Andes, the Caribbean, and Mexico.

168. Revolution, Restoration, and Reform: The Rise of Modern East Asia

Spring 2006 | PAC 8

Examines main trends in Asian revolution and reform movements over the past 250 years, from peasant populism in China’s Taiping and Korea’s Tonghak revolts, to the disciplined cultural reformism of Japan’s Meiji leadership and modernizing ideas of Asian nationalists, from Rizal to Ho Chi Minh.

169. Revolution and Reform in Latin America

Old

Readings on insurgency, revolution, democratization, and social reform in Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking Latin America. The Cuban Revolution forward, guerrilla warfare, agrarian and/or environmental struggles, labor insurgency, solidarity and human rights movements, identity politics, and diasporic movements in the U.S. (e.g., United Farm Workers, Young Lords Party, Mixtec Indian organizations).

170. Introduction to International Political Economy

Spring 2006

International economic institutions, multinational corporations and transnationalism, dependency and imperialism. Issues in international trade and finance, including Third World debt and protectionism vs. free trade. Problems in managing the world economy. Prerequisite: Economics 51.

171. Remaking the World: Attempts to Achieve Global Hegemony from Britain to Bush

Fall 2005

An examination of attempts by great powers to restructure and dominate the international system from the 19th Century to present. Particular emphasis will be placed on historical lessons that may shed light on the dated U.S. efforts to reshape the Middle East and establish a new world order.

173. Worlds in Collision

Old

Examines great historical encounters between civilizations that have shaped our thinking about international relations (e.g., the Greeks and Persians, Islam and the West, Europe and the New World, Europe and Asia, and the Third World and the West). Considers the extent to which conventional international relations theory can account for the cultural, historical, and ideological causes and consequences of these encounters.

178. Political Economy of Development

Spring 2005

Building on the concepts of comparative politics, this course surveys contending explanations of the inequality of economic and political development, including modernization theory, dependency, liberalism, institutionalism, and new approaches such as social capital theory. Focuses on the interaction of political and economic variables, domestic and international facts. Prerequisite: Politics 5.

183. America's Pacific Century

Spring 2005 | PAC 9

Surveys the political and economic relationships between the United States and the Asia/Pacific nations over the past 150 years. Covers the steady expansion of American interests and commitments to East Asia, from Commodore Perry and the “China Trade” through the Japan occupation and wars in Korea and Vietnam up to present-day trade and security concerns, APEC, the stresses of a Pacific community, the economic surges of Japan, Korea, and China as well as militant Islamic movements in Southeast Asia.

189A. Ethics of Citizenship

Spring 2005 | PAC 10

Examines scholarly discourse among political and moral theorists on the enduring issues of citizenship in the context of economic globalization, migration, and the growing cultural, religious and ethnic diversity of contemporary nation-states. In an increasingly global world, what are the prooper duties, virtues and obligations of citizens? In the face of the mass migration of peoples, who has the right to immigrate? Who should receive political membership and under what conditions?

190. Senior Seminar in International Relations

Fall 2005

No description yet.

190A. Senior Seminar in American Politics

Old

Selected approaches to problems in American politics. Papers and research projects.

190B. Senior Seminar in Comparative & International Politics

Spring 2006

Topic: the politics of ethnicity and nationalism. Papers and research projects. Open to non-Politics majors.

190C. Senior Seminar in Contemporary Politics and Theory

Fall 2005

Survey of readings in contemporary political theory, both European and American, with occasional overtures toward greater cosmopolitanism. Topics will include the politics of interpretation, science and technology, mass culture, postmodernism and deconstruction, feminist theory and feminist politics, democratic theory and reconstructed liberalism, multiculturalism, and neo-conservativism. Open to non-Politics majors.

191. Senior Thesis

Spring 2005

By special application only. Deadline for fall thesis application: April 15; and for spring thesis application: November 15. Applications available in the department office.

195. Senior Oral Examination

Spring 2005

Covers four topics chosen by the student in the fall semester. No credit.

199. Independent Study

Spring 2005

Course or half-course.