The departmental aim is to cultivate in students a critical ability to interpret political questions from a variety of perspectives.
A student who enters Whitman without any prior college-level preparation in politics will have to complete 36 credits to fulfill the requirements for the politics major. Courses completed in the politics major apply to the social science and alternative voices (selected courses) distribution areas.
Major requirements: The major in politics consists of 36 departmental credits, distributed as follows:
(a) At least 12 credits of 300- and 400-level courses, exclusive of the required senior seminar, and exclusive of the senior thesis or honors thesis,
(b) Successful completion of the depart-ment’s senior seminar (four credits),
(c) Successful composition of a senior thesis or honors thesis; a grade of C- or better is required for the thesis (four credits).
The program for the major is to be planned by the student and his or her adviser so as to ensure adequate breadth in the courses taken. No more than eight credits earned in off-campus programs, transfer credits, and/or credits from cross-listed courses may be used to satisfy major requirements. Of these eight credits, no more than four may count toward 300- and 400-level courses. Courses taken P-D-F may not be used to satisfy the course and credit requirements for the major.
Minor requirements: A minimum of 20 credits of departmental offerings. These must include eight credits in courses 300-level and above, and must include courses taught by at least two different members of the department. No more than four credits earned in off-campus programs, transfer credits, and/or credits from cross-listed courses may be used to satisfy minor requirements. Courses taken P-D-F may not be used to satisfy the course and credit requirements for the minor.
The politics department also participates in various interdepartmental major study programs, including politics-environmental studies. Courses completed in this major apply to the social science and science (selected courses) distribution areas. For additional information, consult the department’s home page.
109 Introduction to U.S. Politics and Policymaking
x, 4 Beechey
This course introduces students to the various institutions, actors, and ideologies of contemporary U.S. politics and policymaking. We will make visible the multiple sites of policy formation in the United States as we move away from speaking of “the government” in the singular. Through a series of contemporary policy case studies we will explore the many openings to influence policymaking and discover the myriad ways that good ideas can die. Throughout the course we will view U.S. politics and policymaking with a critical eye toward the impacts of gender, race, class, sexuality, and other systems of power and difference.
119 Whitman in the Global Food System
x, 4 Bobrow-Strain
This course uses food as a window through which to examine the study of politics and its connections to our everyday lives. Topics range from the geopolitics of food aid and trade to the gendered politics of export agriculture in the Third World, from the political ecology of obesity in the United States to the causes of famine in Africa. The course is designed to get students out of the classroom and into the larger community. To this end, along with standard seminar readings, discussions, and occasional lecture, the course includes short field trips and small group projects in which students trace connections between food on campus and larger global processes.
121 Introduction to Ancient and Medieval Political Theory
4, x King
This course introduces students to the history of European political theory through an investigation of classical Greek and premodern Christian writings. Texts to be explored may include Aeschylus’s Oresteia, Thucydides’s Peloponnesian War, Plato’s Republic, Aristotle’s Politics, St. Augustine’s City of God, and St. Thomas Aquinas’s Summa Theologica. May be elected as Classics 221.
122 Introduction to Modern European Political Theory
4, x Morefield
This course introduces students to the history of European political theory from the 16th through the 19th centuries, focusing particularly on the origins and development of liberalism. Themes covered in this class may include: How did political theorists make sense of the developing nation state? How have modern political theorists conceived of the concepts of “justice,” “freedom,” and “equality”? What role did the growing dominance of capitalism play in altering political conceptions of the individual? How have Marxist and anarchist thinkers critiqued the language of liberalism? Authors to be considered may include Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Wollstonecraft, Tocqueville, and Marx. Politics 121 is not a prerequisite for Politics 122.
124 Introduction to Politics and the Environment
x, 4 Brick
An introduction to key concepts in the study of politics using environmental issues as illustrations. Designed for first- and second-year students, this course encourages critical thinking and writing about such political concepts as equality, justice, freedom, liberalism, power, dissent, individualism, and community. Strong emphasis is placed on developing critical writing skills and persuasive oral arguments. A field trip may be required. Three periods a week.
147 International Politics
x, 4 Magnusson
This course is designed as an introduction to the study of contemporary international politics. The course will explore contending approaches to the study of international politics, including political realism, political idealism and liberalism, feminism, political economy, and constructivism. We will discuss how these different approaches can help us understand major current issues, including war and peace, weapons proliferation, the environment, globalization, and human rights.
179 International Political Economy
4; not offered 2009-10
This course will look at the variety of ways that economics and politics intersect in the international system. Using a variety of theoretical approaches (mercantilism, liberalism, marxist-structuralism), we will explore critically the role of states in domestic and international markets, the functioning of the international finance and monetary systems, the role of multinational corporations, and other issues related to economic and political development. In thinking about each of these issues, the course will raise questions about the significance and implications of the current trends toward “globalization.”
200-204 Special Studies in Politics: Introductory Level
1-4
An introductory course designed to familiarize first- and second-year students with basic concepts and problems in the study of politics. Each time it is offered, the course focuses on a different topic or area, and will include lectures and discussion. Two or three meetings a week. The current offering follows.
200A ST: Media and Politics
x,
4 Esarey
This course
examines the relationship between the media and the empowerment of citizens,
politicians, political parties, and social movements around the world. How
do mass media influence public opinion and, thereby, affect political outcomes?
How do authoritarian regimes utilize media to shape the public's views and
strengthen state legitimacy? Under what conditions does media freedom
facilitate (or hinder) democracy? How has the Internet, and particularly blogs,
led to changing patterns of political communication and contestation? Distribution
Area: Social Sciences.
201A
ST: Japanese Politics
x,
4 Esarey
This introductory course explores key issues in Japanese postwar politics following the American Occupation. It covers the crafting of the Japanese Constitution, party politics, electoral reform, the rise and demise of one-party dominance, and the causes of economic recession since the 1990s. The course examines bilateral relations between the US and Japan and Japan's changing outlook toward foreign affairs during the age of China's rise. Distribution Area: Social Sciences.
202A ST: International Politics of Energy Development
2, x Raden
The central issue to be examined in this 1 month course is the influence of energy companies on foreign policy. The course will focus on international energy companies' practices and the supporting role of their home governments as well as the role of competing states and their state-owned energy enterprises. In particular, the course will examine the geo-strategic multi-billion dollar oil and gas pipelines that pass through Georgia, Azerbaijan and Turkey, the role of Russia and the active support of the US. Topics studied will include the phenomenon called the ‘Natural Resource Curse' with all of its legal, political, economic and social ramifications and the ethical, environmental and human rights concerns raised by energy politics. The course will include a one-week simulation based on a composite of real world energy industry experience in a resource-rich African nation. Enrollment Restrictions: Not open to first-year students. Distribution Area: Social Sciences.
219 Law and American Society
4; not offered 2009-10
This course explores three basic topics: 1) the debates between the Anti-Federalists and the Federalists concerning ratification of the U.S. Constitution; 2) competing theories of constitutional interpretation; and 3) controversies related to the meaning and application of the Bill of Rights. Specific issues to be debated include the separation of church and state, freedom of speech, abortion rights, and capital punishment.
220 American Political Theory
4, x King
This course provides an introduction to major works of American political theory from the founding to the present. We confront core philosophical questions about politics in general and politics in the United States specifically, including the following: What are the purposes of government, and what political institutions are most conducive to these ends? How can the American polity be democratic while preventing the tyranny of the majority? How has American nationality been defined through the exclusion of certain social groups, and how do historically excluded groups gain political power and inclusion? Readings usually include texts by J. Madison, J. Calhoun, E. Goldman, J. Dewey, and M. L. King, Jr., among others.
232 The Politics of Globalization
x, 4 Biswas
This course introduces students to some of the major scholarly works and central debates about globalization. The course will critically examine some of the competing perspectives on the historical origins of globalization, the shape and intensity of its many dynamics (economic, political and cultural), its inevitability and desirability, and its impacts on different communities around the world. Some of the central themes covered will include the future of the nation-state, the salience of various transnational actors, changing patterns of capital and labor mobility, rising levels of environmental degradation and new kinds of cultural configurations.
242 The Politics of Development in Latin America
4, x Bobrow-Strain
This course provides a broad introduction to critical themes in contemporary Latin American development. It begins with a survey of the political economy of Latin America from colonialism through 21st century neoliberal globalization. The bulk of the course then focuses on the present. Centered on the question of how market-society relations are being contested and reworked in contemporary Latin America, it looks closely at topics such as the drug trade, immigration, the WTO FTAA, indigenous uprisings, rapid urbanization, and maquiladora-style industrialization. Finally, it compares three national cases in which popular discontent with neoliberal development has produced dramatic political shifts (Bolivia, Venezuela, and Brazil).
247 American Foreign Policy
4; not offered 2009-10
Analysis and interpretation of trends in American foreign policy since World War II. After a discussion of contending theories of foreign policy and a review of developments during the Cold War, we will focus on current issues in American foreign policy, including arms control, nuclear proliferation, human rights, regional intervention and conflict management, foreign aid, environmental policy and relations with other great powers, including German and European Community states, Japan, Russia, and China.
254 Gender and Race in Law and Policy
4, x Beechey
This course offers an introductory survey of the ways in which gender and race have been constructed in and through law and policy in the United States. We will uncover the legacy of racism and sexism in U.S. law and policy and explore the potential as well as the limitations of using law and policy as tools for social and political change. Readings will draw from feminist and critical race theories to critically examine historic and contemporary debates in law and policy surrounding issues such as: employment, education, families, and violence.
255 Politics and Religion
4; not offered 2009-10
This course introduces students to crucial problems concerning the relation between politics and religion. Our approach is historical and critical, focusing on the modern world and examining the philosophical arguments found in primary texts. While we mainly study texts written in the United States, we also consider perspectives drawn from Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East. Key questions include: What obligations for public officials and citizens does the principle of religious toleration entail, and why should this principle be embraced or rejected? How has religion historically supported class, gender, and racial domination, and how have activists for social justice looked to religion to justify their struggles? How does Islam provide critical distance on both the modern conditions that Christian political movements have criticized and the Christian orientation of these critiques? Are the political methods and values of the contemporary Christian right consistent with U.S. liberal democracy or subversive of it?
258 Politics in Africa
4, x Magnusson
The end of the Cold War saw democratic movements emerge across Africa, offering hope that the continent could begin recovering from decades of political, economic and social crises. Key themes in this course include democratization, the patrimonial state, and state collapse. Specific topics will include the colonial legacy; ethnicity, religion, and national integration; economic development and the environment in a global economy; and state power and popular resistance.
259 Politics of Race, Ethnicity and Religion
4; not offered 2009-10
Most countries are characterized by significant political cleavages along racial, ethnic, or religious lines. This course introduces students to a variety of approaches for understanding the formation and institutional expression of cultural identities as political phenomena around the world. We will consider their gender and class dimensions, as well as the policy instruments states employ around the globe to reduce conflict, including varieties of affirmative action, systems of representation, and decentralization.
283 Development in Theory and History
4; not offered 2009-10
In recent years the concept of development has come under sustained attack from both the left and the right. Neoliberal critics and influential policymakers on the right assert the superiority of market forces over planned intervention while postmodern critics on the left roundly condemn development as a project of domination imposed on Africa, Latin America, and Asia by the West. Is development dead? This course situates contemporary critiques within the historical context of ongoing struggles over the meanings of development. It traces the multiple trajectories of development theory from their origins in European colonialism through contemporary debates over neoliberalism and globalization. Topics include development economics, Bretton Woods and its institutional legacies (the IMF, World Bank, and WTO), structuralism, dependency theory, “sustainability” and environmentalism, neoliberalism, national security, and 21st century globalization.
287 Natural Resource Policy and Management
4, x Brick
This course introduces the student to basic problems in natural resource policymaking in the American West. We will focus on the legal, administrative, and political dimensions of various natural resource management problems, including forests, public rangelands, national parks, biodiversity, energy, water, and recreation. We also will explore the role of environmental ideas and nongovernmental organizations, and we will review a variety of conservation strategies, including land trusts, various incentive-based approaches, and collaborative conservation. A field trip may be required.
307 Political Theory and the Body Politic
4; not offered 2009-10
This seminar examines the metaphor of the body politic in the history of western political thought, paying particular attention to the transformation of this political trope during the transition to modernity. Through a diverse set of reading ranging from Aristotle to Hobbes to Foucault, students focus on how these authors use the body politic to imagine political community as they see it and as they believe it ought to be. Often, but not always, these authors evoke metaphorical or material bodies to describe the contours of this community, its form and shape, its impermeable limits, who it naturally includes and excludes, the relationship between its origins and the contemporary polity, and the possibility of its violation. Whether the body emerges in these works as divine or profane, satirical or scientific, this class assumes that it always points beyond itself toward a variety of different political puzzles. Prerequisite: Politics 122 or consent of instructor.
308 Liberalism and Its Discontents
4; not offered 2009-10
This seminar explores the ongoing debate between liberal theory and its critics. The course will address questions such as: what are the limitations and promises of liberal individualism? How do liberal theorists reconcile human freedom with social good? Is the connection between liberal politics and free market capitalism necessary and inevitable? What are liberal ethics? What is the historic and contemporary relationship between liberalism and imperialism? How do liberal theorists explain or rationalize nationalism? How do liberal theorists reconcile a theory of universal human equality with the existence of state borders? Readings for this class focus on contemporary liberal authors and their conservative, communitarian, socialist, democratic, and feminist critics. Prerequisite: Politics 122 or consent of instructor.
309 Environment and Politics in the “New West”
4; not offered 2009-10
This seminar explores the changing political landscape of the American West, with emphasis on changing environmental values and on conflicts over natural resource policy. Amid dramatic social, economic, and demographic changes, the West is at war with itself over conflicting claims to public resources such as water, pasture, minerals, timber, fresh air, and recreation. What are the causes of these conflicts, and what kinds of approaches will be necessary to address them? Required of and open only to students accepted to Semester in the West.
311 Deservingness in U.S. Social Policy
4, x Beechey
Why are some beneficiaries of social policy coded as deserving assistance from the government while others are marked as undeserving? What impacts do these notions of deservingness have on social policies and the politics which surround them? What are the consequences for the material realities of individual lives? How do gender, race, class, and citizenship status work together to construct and maintain distinctions of deservingness? This course engages with these and other questions through historic and contemporary debates in U.S. social policies such as welfare, Social Security, and disability benefits.
314 The Christian Right in the United States
4; not offered 2009-10
This seminar explores the politics of the Christian right as both a social movement and a cultural phenomenon. It also uses the study of the Christian right to reflect more generally on American social movements, American political culture, and the relationship between religion and politics. We examine the mobilization of the Christian right in the context of the postwar new right more broadly. We also consider whether the movement’s emergence has fulfilled or violated theoretical principles concerning church/state separation, religious liberty, and the role of religion in a democratic society. In addition, we analyze Christian right popular culture as a structural feature of capitalist society and in terms of its formation of gender, racial, and sexual identities. One evening seminar per week.
316 Culture, Ideology, Politics
4; not offered 2009-10
This course explores the political meaning of culture, focusing on popular culture in the United States. Students experiment with different ways of understanding the political character of popular culture by examining a variety of cultural sources and reading the works of modern political theorists. Special attention is given to Hollywood films, the advertising industry, the news media, radicalism in the 1960s, popular music, and lesbian and gay activism. The course also discusses the concept of ideology and its usefulness in the critical analysis of popular culture (or “mass culture,” or “subcultures”). Two periods per week.
318 Community-Based Research as Democratic Practice
4, x Apostolidis
Students in this course design and carry out an original program of empirical research on a social or political problem affecting the local community, the state, or the region. This research is “community-based”: students perform it in partnership with professionals from organizations outside the college. The research contributes something tangibly useful to these organizations. It also enables students to develop new independent research skills (e.g., how to conduct interviews; how to refine research questions based on prior scholarship). Finally, the course prepares students to bring their research to policy makers, organization leaders, the media, and the public at large through an agenda of public communication activities. In all these ways, the research provides a concrete experience in the practices of democracy. Past projects have emphasized improving political and social conditions for racial minorities, women, and workers. May be elected as Sociology 318.
319 Public Communication about Community-Based Research
x, 4 Mireles
This course enables students who have completed community-based research projects in politics or sociology to develop their skills in public communication about their research. It also challenges them to think critically about the dilemmas regarding power and democracy that arise when policy investigators seek to make specialized research accessible to general audiences, non-English-speaking communities, professional policymakers, organizational leaders, and media representatives. Students carry out an extensive agenda of public outreach activities, “translating” their work into a variety of formats including comments and images for local public meetings, talking points for media interviews, remarks to state legislators, and text and visuals for online media. They engage in these activities in continuing consultation with the partners for their original community-based research projects.Prerequisites: Politics/Sociology 318, or Politics 458 (Fall 2008), or Politics/Sociology 402A (Spring 2008). May be elected as Sociology 319.
325 Queer Politics and Policy
4; not offered 2009-10
This seminar traces the development and impacts of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) politics in the United States from pre-Stonewall through ACT-UP and the Lesbian Avengers to the HRC, Log Cabin Republicans and contemporary transgender activism, with attention to the impacts of race and ethnicity, gender identity and expression, sex, class, and age on LGBTQ organizing. We will explore contemporary policy debates surrounding: civil unions, domestic partnership and marriage; citizenship; families and children; nondiscrimination in employment and schooling; the military; health; and hate crime, among others.
328 Contemporary Feminist Theories
4; not offered 2009-10
This course will begin by exploring various schools of contemporary feminist theory (e.g., Marxist feminism, liberal feminism, ecofeminism, psychoanalytic feminism, etc.). We will then ask how proponents of these schools analyze and criticize specific institutions and practices (e.g., the nuclear family, heterosexuality, the state, reproductive technologies, etc.). Throughout the semester, attention will be paid to the ways gender relations shape the formation and interpretation of specifically political experience.
329 Theories of Empire
4, x Morefield
This class examines some of the most influential and important political writings on empire from the late 18th century to the present. We will focus on the arguments of pro-imperial authors (e.g. James Mill), anti-imperial authors (e.g. Edmund Burke), and contemporary postcolonial and political theorists interested in troubling both the historical legacy and continuing presence of empire today (e.g. Edward Said). The class will consider a variety of general themes including: colonial ambiguity, the problem of sovereignty, cosmopolitanism, the status of women in the colony and postcolony, the invention of race and the persistence of hybridity, the relationship between capitalism and empire, the tension between liberal equality and colonial hierarchy, the role of history in the colonial imagination, the colonial and postcolonial search for authenticity, postimperial futures, and migration, forced migration, and exile. There are no prerequisites for this class but students are strongly encouraged to have taken or take in addition to this class Politics 122 Introduction to Modern European Political Theory.
331 The Politics of International Hierarchy
4; not offered 2009-10
This course examines the ways in which the international social-political system is hierarchical. The course looks at how such relations of hierarchy have been historically produced and continue to be sustained through a variety of mechanisms. The first part of the course focuses on the period of classical colonialism, examining the racial and gendered constructions of imperial power. The second part of the course turns to more contemporary North-South relations, studying the discourses and practices of development and human rights and critically examining the resuscitation of the project of empire in recent U.S. foreign policy practices.
334 The U.S.-Mexico Border: Immigration, Development, and Globalization
4, x Bobrow-Strain
This course examines one of the most politically-charged and complex sites in the Western hemisphere: the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border. The borderlands are a zone of cultural mixings, profound economic contrasts, and powerful political tensions. In recent years, the border has emerged as a key site in debates over U.S. immigration policy, national security, the drug war, Third World development, social justice in Third World export factories, and transnational environmental problems. This course examines these issues as they play out along the sharp line running from east Texas to Imperial Beach, as well as in other sites from the coffee plantations of Chiapas to the onion fields of Walla Walla. These concrete cases, in turn, illuminate political theories of the nation-state, citizenship, and transnationalism. Students are encouraged, but not required, to take this course in conjunction with the U.S.-Mexico border trip usually offered at the end of spring semester.
335 Globalization and the Cultural Politics of Development in Latin America
4; not offered 2009-10
This course examines the diverse ways in which class, race, and gender identities are being reworked in the context of contemporary globalization in Latin America. Using a series of recent ethnographies, it explores issues such as the construction of gender in sites such as maquiladora factories and the Caribbean sex-tourism industry, the making of transnational identities through migration, racial politics and indigenous movements in Mexico, Brazil, and Ecuador, and the recent growth of leftist political movements throughout the region (e.g. Venezuela and Bolivia). Prerequisites: Previous coursework on Latin America in any discipline.
338 North-South Relations
4; not offered 2009-10
With a focus on political economy, this course examines the construction and maintenance of inequality in the international system, and a consideration of the consequences of inequality for the possibility of state action in the “global south.” The first part of the course examines the construction of Northern domination, the expansion of the European state system and the global political economy (theories of imperialism, colonization, world systems, and international society). The second part will examine the maintenance of Northern power over the South, the effects of incorporating the South on political and economic structures, and the mechanisms reproducing global hierarchies (dependency, development, military intervention, global culture). The final part of the course will examine strategies employed by the South to oppose or to accommodate a globally disadvantageous position in the international system.
339 Nature, Culture, Politics
4, x Brick
In this seminar we explore changing understandings of nature in American culture, the role of social power in constructing these understandings, and the implications these understandings have for the environmental movement. Topics discussed will include wilderness and wilderness politics, management of national parks, ecosystem management, biodiversity, place, and the political uses of nature in contemporary environmental literature. The seminar will occasionally meet at the Johnston Wilderness Campus (transportation will be provided).
347 International Political Theory
4; not offered 2009-10
An exploration of major themes and issues in contemporary international political theory, including the nature of the international system and international society, topics in international political economy, the emerging role of international organizations, the role of ethics in international politics, and recent feminist, critical and postmodern international theory. Prerequisites: Politics 147 or consent of instructor.
348 International Politics of Ethnic Conflict
4; not offered 2009-10
This seminar will examine the causes and dynamics of ethnic conflicts, how they have been shaped by local and international political and economic systems, their implications for national and international security, and responses to them by the international community. In addition to considering alternative frameworks for understanding conflicts that become defined along ethnic or communal lines, the course will examine several cases in some depth. These might include Rwanda, Yugoslavia, and South Africa.
349 Background of African American Protest Rhetoric
4; not offered 2009-10
Students examine the conflicting strategies of assimilation, separation, and revolution, and the rhetoric of the civil rights movement used to promote and attack these strategies. Various stages of the social movement will be examined, with a primary focus on the nature of public argument about blacks in America beginning with the arrival of the first Africans in the early 17th century and ending with the era of vigorous African American protest in about 1965. May be elected as Rhetoric and Film Studies 340. This course may not satisfy both politics and rhetoric and film studies major requirements.
352 Political Campaign Rhetoric
4; not offered 2009-10
This course focuses on communication used in political campaigns, particularly the Presidential and to a lesser degree Senate and House races as well as ballot initiatives in the current election year. The course examines the recent history of campaigns, the importance of character and public policy, advertisements, speeches, media coverage, debates, new technologies, demographics, and after the election, implications of the results. May be elected as Rhetoric and Film Studies 352.
358 Capital Punishment
4; not offered 2009-10
This course examines various controversies concerning the practice of capital punishment in the United States. Topics to be explored include the relationship between capital punishment and other forms of state violence, recent federal and state court rulings on the death penalty, the relationship between race, gender, and the imposition of capital sentences, the morality of execution as a punishment, various methods of execution, and contemporary movements to abolish or restrict imposition of the death sentence.
359 Gender and International Hierarchy
4; not offered 2009-10
This course draws attention to the manner in which international hierarchies and gender relations intersect to have implications for the lives of Third World women. The course examines how the needs and interests of Third World women are addressed in various international discourses and practices, how Third World women are affected by international political practices and how Third World women sustain, resist and transform international power structures. We will cover a number of different issue areas that include security and war, development and transnational capitalism, media and representation, cultural practices and human rights, women’s movements and international feminism.
363 Genealogies of Political Economy
x, 4 Bobrow-Strain
What is capitalism? Where did it come from? How does it work, and what are the politics of its epochal expansion? This course explores the origins, dynamics, and politics of capitalism as they have been theorized over the past 200 years. It begins with classical political economy, closely reading the works of Ricardo, Smith, and Marx. It then traces the lineages of classical political economy through the works of theorists such as Weber, Lenin, Schumpeter, Gramsci, Keynes, and Polanyi. The course ends with an examination of theorists who critique Eurocentric political economy by approaching the dynamics and experiences of capitalism from Europe’s former colonies. Topics addressed in the course include debates about imperialism, the state, class struggle, development, and globalization.
365 Political Economy of Care/Work
x, 4 Beechey
Whether labeled work/family balance, the second shift, or the care gap, tensions between care and work present important challenges for individuals, families and states. This seminar interrogates the gendered implications of the political and economic distinction between care and work. How do public policies and employment practices construct a false choice between work and care? What role should the state play in the provision of care for children, the sick, the disabled and the elderly? How does the invisibility of carework contribute to the wage gap in the United States and the feminization of poverty globally? Course readings will draw from the literatures on political economy, feminist economics and social policy.
367 African Political Thought
x, 4 Magnusson
This course will explore themes in African politics such as colonialism, nationalism, development, authenticity, gender, violence, and justice, through the ideas of some of Africa’s most notable political thinkers of the past half-century, including Fanon, Nkrumah, Senghor, Nyerere, Mandela, and Tutu. The course also will consider the work of contemporary critics of the postcolonial African state. These may include writers, artists, and activists such as Ngugi wa Thiongo, Chinua Achebe, Wangari Maathai, Ken Saro-Wiwa, and Wambui Otieno.
373 Political Ecology of Latin America
4; not offered 2009-10
This course examines the environmental politics of Latin America. It focuses on struggles over different natural resources — water, land, minerals, forests, and even raw genetic material — with an eye toward understanding how these struggles affect environmental health and human livelihoods. Topics include water politics, rainforest deforestation, bioprospecting, mining, ecotourism, “sustainable development,” rapid urbanization, race, gender, and environmental justice movements. In the end, it uses these cases to explore the cultural politics of nature-society relations in Latin America by asking how our very conceptions of what constitutes “nature,” “resources,” and “the environment” are produced, and how those categories themselves are sites of material and symbolic struggle. Prerequisites: Consent of instructor based upon previous coursework on Latin America in any discipline.
378 Transnationalism
4; not offered 2009-10
This seminar examines the increasingly important political arena outside the exclusive control of the international system of states. Topics include transnational ideas and norms (neoliberalism, human rights), economic globalization, human migration, communications (global media and the Internet) and security issues (criminal networks and arms proliferation). The focus will be on how transnational processes work and how they affect both the structure of the international system and internal politics.
379 Freedom of Speech and the First Amendment
4, x Withycombe
Arguments over the “appropriate boundaries” of freedom of speech are among the most interesting and hotly debated issues addressed by the legal system. In this course, the evolution of current legal standards on freedom of speech will be traced from the earliest statements on free speech in ancient Athens, through British Common Law to Colonial America, and finally to a wide range of cases that made their way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Issues such as privacy, obscenity, “fighting words,” and commercial speech will be discussed, along with considerable discussion dealing with special issues of free speech such as free speech and fair trials, prior restraint, and free speech in prisons, schools, the military, and the marketplace. May be elected as Rhetoric and Film Studies 350. This course may not satisfy both politics and rhetoric and film studies major requirements.
380 Argument in the Law and Politics
4, x Hanson
This course emphasizes the study and practice of argument in the law and politics and involves three critical aspects. First, students engage in and evaluate legal argument in important court cases. Second, students participate in and evaluate political campaign and public policymaking processes. Third, students are exposed to argumentation theory as a way of interpreting the arguments they construct and evaluate. The goal of the course is to enhance the understanding and appreciation of the use of argument. May be elected as Rhetoric and Film Studies 351. This course may not satisfy both politics and rhetoric and film studies major requirements.
400-404 Special Studies in Politics: Advanced Level
4
Advanced seminars designed for students who have had considerable prior work in the study of politics. Each time they are offered, these seminars focus on different topics. Students are expected to complete extensive reading assignments, write several papers, and participate regularly in discussions. One period a week. The current offerings follow.
400A ST: Sustainability
x, 4 Brick
In this discussion and research seminar we will explore both critical and practical approaches to the concept of sustainability, which encompasses a key set of environmental principles and animates a remarkably wide spectrum of environmental practices. We will devote the first part of the semester to a critical analysis of the concept itself: what does sustainability mean? What political assumptions are built into sustainability? Who is empowered by the concept, and who is rendered invisible? The remainder of the semester will be devoted to individual and collaborative research on current or proposed sustainability projects, including energy, climate, development, water, design, agriculture, natural resources, and so on. Our objective will be to link our critical discussions with our empirical research, resulting in a more nuanced understanding of sustainability and the wide range of political claims and environmental practices that are made in its name. Distribution: social science.
400B ST: Conservative Political Thought
x, 4 King
This course will explore the history and evolution of conservative political thought from its origins in early modern Europe through to its contemporary iterations. We will engage with classic conservative thought in the works of thinkers like Filmer, Hobbes and Burke, and then turn to the development of American conservatisms in the 20th century. In particular, we will explore contemporary conservatism, neo-conservatism and libertarianism and the relationships and tensions among these schools of thought. Readings may include Oakeshott, Hayek, Strauss, Kristol and Fukyama, among others. Distribution: social science.
401A ST: Contemporary Chinese Politics
4,x
Esarey
This seminar examines major political developments since the fall of the Qing dynasty, and investigates major political concerns in contemporary China. It considers the emergence of socialism and the consequences of the ruling Chinese Communist Party's decision to embrace market economics. The course focuses on state strategies for addressing environmental protection, income inequality, the migrant worker population, social welfare, and political reform. Course readings range from selections by Marx, Lenin, and Mao to recent works in political science and economics on the transformation of state and society under Communist Party rule. Enrollment Restrictions: Open to sophomores or above. Distribution Area: Social Sciences.
401A ST: Chinese Foreign PolicyThis course explores the effect of China's rising power on foreign relations with its neighbors in Asia, and with the United States. Will China's rise lead to war, as the emergence of new great powers has in the past? Might Chinese nationalism generate strife with Japan in an effort to redress historical wrongs? Could Taiwan's emerging national identity provoke military conflict with the People's Republic? Or, will Chinese economic dynamism and "soft power" contribute to peace in the region? Drawing upon international relations theory, policy documents, film, and historical accounts, we evaluate Chinese perspectives toward foreign relations since 1949. Enrollment Restrictions: Open to sophomores or higher. Distribution Area: Social Sciences.
402A ST: Democracy in East AsiaIn this seminar we survey the emergence of democratic institutions in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and China. Japanese democracy has been characterized by decades of dominance by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). What has contributed to LDP dominance and what challenges does the party face? South Korea experienced authoritarianism and violence before democratic consolidation. In Taiwan, ethnic discrimination fueled opposition to the Nationalist Party, culminating in a "bloodless" transition to democracy. How have political unrest and corruption inhibited the performance of democratic institutions in the Philippines? Retrocession to Chinese rule undermined Hong Kong's democracy. Mass protest and civic activism, however, have re-invigorated the Hong Kong democracy movement. Has democratization at the township and village level in China helped to reduce endemic corruption? Will the Chinese Communist Party broaden the scope of democratization or retain its monopoly on political power? Enrollment Restrictions: Open to sophomores and above. Distribution Area: Social Sciences.
481, 482 Individual Projects
1-4, 1-4 Staff
Directed individual study and research. Prerequisites: appropriate prior coursework in politics and consent of the supervising instructor.
490 Senior Seminar
4, x Beechey, Bobrow-Strain, Kaufman-Osborn, Magnusson
This team-taught seminar will meet one evening a week throughout the semester. Its purpose is to engage senior majors in sustained discussion of contemporary political issues. Requirements include attendance at all seminar meetings; extensive participation in discussion; and the completion of several papers, one being a proposal for a senior thesis or honor thesis. Required of, and open only to, senior politics majors. (Fall degree candidates should plan to take this seminar at the latest possible opportunity.)
497 Senior Thesis
4, 4 Staff
During their final semester at Whitman, majors will satisfactorily complete the senior thesis launched the previous semester. Over the course of the semester, students submit sections of their thesis for discussion and review with their readers on a regular basis and defend the final thesis orally before two faculty members. Detailed information on this process is provided to students well in advance. No thesis will be deemed acceptable unless it receives a grade of C- or better. Required of, and open only to, senior majors not taking Politics 498.
498 Honors Thesis
4, 4 Staff
During their final semester at Whitman, senior honors candidates will satisfactorily complete the senior honors thesis launched the prior semester. Over the course of the semester, students submit sections of their thesis for discussion and review with their readers on a regular basis, and defend the final thesis orally before two faculty members. Required of and limited to senior honors candidates in politics. Prerequisites: admission to honors candidacy and consent of the department chair.
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