First-Year Courses in Political Science (Division 450)

Fall Term, 1999 (September 8 - December 22, 1999)

Section 001.

Instructor(s): Elizabeth Wingrove (ewingrov@umich.edu)

Credits: (4).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

An introduction to some classic accounts of politics in the Western tradition, and to some critiques thereof. Readings include: Plato, Machiavelli, Locke, Rousseau, Marx, Arendt, and King. Among the themes to be addressed: What, if anything, makes state authority legitimate? Do people benefit from political participation, or is it inevitably corrupting, confusing, irritating, and/or tiresome? What constitutes a public, rather than a private, concern?

Section 001.

Instructor(s): Hanes Walton

Credits: (4).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

This is a broad survey of government and politics in the United States which explores a wide range of topics including elections, interest groups, the presidency, Congress, and the courts. The kinds of questions considered might include the following: What impact do interest groups have on governmental policy? Are there real differences between the two major political parties? What accounts for swings in voting behavior and election outcome from one time to another? How do members of Congress decide how to vote? In what ways do presidents and bureaucrats affect public policies? This is not a comprehensive list but suggests the kinds of issues that are discussed in this course. There are two lectures and two discussion section meetings each week. There is generally a midterm, a final examination, and some other written work.

Section 001.

Instructor(s): Ronald Inglehart (rfi@umich.edu)

Credits: (4).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

This course examines how democracy evolves and functions in different settings around the world. We start with the emergence of democracy in Western Europe, examining the factors that give rise to it and help it survive. We then examine the origins of fascism in Germany and Japan; and the rise of communism in Russia and China, attempting to understand why these alternatives to democracy flourished in those settings – and why they later collapsed. This leads to an analysis of the current struggle between reformers and hardliners over the move to market economies and liberal democracy in Russia, China, and Eastern Europe, and an assessment of the prospects for democracy in Mexico and Nigeria. Finally, we examine the probable evolution of democracy in advanced industrial societies. In addition to two lectures, there are two meetings a week in relatively small discussion sections, designed to encourage active discussion of these topics.

Section 001.

Instructor(s): Douglas Lemke (dlemke@umich.edu)

Credits: (4).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

This course is designed to introduce students to the concepts and ideas that are used in social science efforts to understand politics in an international setting. As such, it stresses theory and inference and uses historical anecdote and contemporary events only as illustrations to illuminate behavior in larger classes of events. The course begins with consideration of who the actors in world politics are, and what the international system they interact within looks like. We then turn our attention to influences on those actors arising from a variety of levels of social aggregation (e.g., the overall international system, the characteristics of states, domestic politics, and idiosyncratic factors). After that we will focus on the military, economic, and diplomatic tools with which the actors can express themselves, and end the class with detailed consideration of the prospects for collaboration and cooperation in world politics. There will be one midterm examination, one 8 to 10 page writing assignment, a final exam, and such additional assignments as may be made by individual section leaders.