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Political Science 2001-2002 Faculty: Calvert, Hill, Malik, Nasr (chair), O'Bannon, Peterson, Rafat, Raymond, Sahu, Stinebrickner.
Political Science involves the systematic study of how people and societies make the political decisions that affect their lives. Topics of interest to political scientists include: how governments function, as well as how governments should function; differences and similarities among political systems in different parts of the world; relations between and among the nations of the world; and ways of better understanding such phenomena as conflict, legitimacy, political parties, elections, international organizations, coup d'etats, interest groups; and executive, legislative and judicial decision making.
In the political science department at DePauw, as at virtually every college in the United States, a disproportionate number of courses focus on the American political system. But there are also many courses on political systems in other countries and regions (Russia and the CIS, the Middle East, Europe, China, India and the Third World more generally), on relations among and between nations, and on issues and questions that transcend the politics of any particular place. The department offers both a major and a minor in Political Science.
Students preparing for secondary teaching: review Section V, Teacher Education, and confer with the chair of the education department about requirements for admission and certification.
Many Political Science students enhance their understanding of politics through relevant off-campus experiences, including internships in various government offices, Winter Term travel, and studying overseas or in Washington for a semester.
Political Science majors have gone on to successful careers in appointed and elected government positions, journalism, business, research, teaching and law.
Students wishing to count courses taken off campus toward a major in political science must have prior approval from their academic advisor and the chair of the department. It is not recommended that courses substituting for POLS 110, 150, 230 or 270 be taken off campus.
Requirements for a major in Political Science: | Total courses required: | nine courses |
| Core courses: | POLS 110, POLS 150, POLS 230, POLS 270, POLS 450 |
| Other required courses: | NOTE:POLS 110 and POLS 150 should be taken by the end of the first semester of the student's junior year.POLS 230 and POLS 270 should be taken before the student's senior year. |
| # 300 and 400 level courses: | three courses |
| Senior requirement: | The senior requirement consists of the completion of POLS 450 with a grade of C or better. |
| Additional information: | POLS 156 cannot be counted as credit for a political science major. |
Requirements for a minor in Political Science: | Total courses required: | five courses | | Core courses: | POLS 150, POLS 230
| | # 300 and 400 level courses: | one course | Courses in Political Science POLS 110. American National Government --1 course
The constitutional basis of U.S. national government and the roles of political parties, elections, interest groups, public opinion, and the legislative, executive and judicial branches in the American political system.
POLS 150. Comparative Politics and Government --1 course
An examination of major theories of comparative politics and government applicable to modern liberal democratic, communist and developing Third World systems. Theories of modernization and development, functionalism, systems analysis, dependency and underdevelopment, political economy, state-society relations, corporatism and neo-corporatism in both Western and non-Western settings.
POLS 156. Advanced Placement in Political Science --1 course
Advanced placement credit for entering first-year students. A. U.S. Government. B. Comparative Politics.
POLS 160. Introduction to Government and Politics --1 course
The fundamental issues posed by government and politics as well as the conceptual and analytical tools used by political scientists in dealing with them. The nature and function of political institutions in relation to leading political theories and ideologies that have influenced their development. Such doctrines as liberalism, democracy, socialism, conservatism, communism and fascism as responses to such issues as the nature of political community, political power and leadership, and the freedom and rights of the individual.
POLS 197. First-Year Seminar --1 course
A seminar focused on a theme related to the study of political science. Open only to first-year students.
POLS 226. State and Local Government --1 course
The theory and especially the practice of subnational government in the USA. Topics include: intergovernmental relations; institutions; taxing, spending and economic development activities; and policy problems besetting state and local governments and metropolitan areas.
POLS 230. Elements of Political Theory --1 course
This course is a critical examination of the basic ideas in the history of political thought that have provided the philosophical foundations of modern political life. The purpose of the course is to help students locate themselves within, and to make disciplined moral judgments about, the traditions of political meaning and the institutions and practices they entail that condition their lives as citizens.
POLS 240. Contemporary Political Ideologies --1 course
A survey of contemporary worldviews based on value and belief systems that generate sets of attitudes and behaviors towards the institutions and political processes of society. Covering ideologies such as enthno-nationalism, religious fundamentalism, feminism, liberation theology, globalism, and environmentalism.
POLS 253. China and India in the 21st Century --1 course
Why do the two Asian giants, India and China, with more than 38% of the population of the world, matter to the rest of the world at the beginning of the 21st Century? What are China's superpower prospects? Will nuclear India attan great power status? What is the future of communism and the prospect of political freedom and democracy in China? Is Indian Democracy stable? What are the sources of instability of Indian government? What does a weak central government mean to Indian federalism? The dynamics of ethnic minorities in China? The future of secularism in India? The nuclear dynamics in Sino-Indian relations? These questions and many others will be explored in this course.
POLS 254. Government and Politics of Western Europe --1 course
Political systems of selected countries in Western Europe; their historical and cultural settings; parties and elections; decision-making; problems of foreign policy; considerable attention to European community, the movement toward economic and political integration; impact upon political systems of member countries.
POLS 270. International Politics --1 course
An analysis of world politics focusing on the units of analysis, patterns of conflict and collaboration, the international agenda (including trends and issues), the structure of the international system, and the current state and future of world order.
POLS 299. Internship in Political Science --1/2-1 course
Supervised participation in a special (and usually competitive) internship program outside the University.
POLS 310. Political Parties --1 course
This course treats parties, public opinion, elections and voting behavior in the context of the American political system.
POLS 315. The Legislative Process --1 course
Focus is on U.S. Congress. Examines rules, procedures and structures of Congress; sources and motivations of legislative behavior; and case studies. Emphasis is on the development of an understanding of how Congress works and why legislators (as individuals and as an institution) behave as they do.
POLS 316. The Presidency --1 course
Seeks first to develop students' understanding of the powers and imperatives of the American presidency, as well as an understanding of the president's role in the American political order. Primary attention also given to examination of presidential success in office: what makes a good president, what citizens look for in a president, what strategies and/or behaviors are more or less likely to result in successful presidencies.
POLS 318. Research Methods: Research Design --1 course
A critical examination of research designs used by political scientists, in the last half century, in attempts to understand political reality. The theory and practice of experimental designs will be compared and contrasted with other more feasible ways of gathering data that can lead to reliable inferences about political reality.
POLS 320. African American Politics --1 course
This course focuses on how the continuing struggle for Black political Empowerment has influenced and helped influence and shape the current African American political environment community. The examination will be an interdisciplinary approach incorporating economics, history and sociology into the overall understanding of the African American community and its critical influence upon the American political system.
POLS 323. The Politics of Race --1 course
This course explores the centrality and significance of race in the modern American political system. The course covers, but is not limited to, the role of race in electoral politics, urban politics, the political and social attitudes of Americans, and the debates about the scope and function of the federal government.
POLS 324. Politics of Civil Rights and Liberties --1 course
Analysis of civil rights and civil liberties policies in the United States and of the processes from which those policies emerge. Emphasis will be on policies relating to the practice of democracy (freedom of speech and associated freedoms), criminal justice, and equality and the Equal Protection Clause. Treatment of the policy process will include the roles of judicial, legislative and executive branches and the activities of interest groups.
POLS 330. Governments and Politics of the Middle East --1 course
This course focuses on the Middle East in international politics as well as the internal politics of the region. Special attention is given to the rise of the state system, the dynamics of modernization, major political movements, ideologies, religions and social and economic change.
POLS 341. American Political Thought --1 course
This course examines American political thought, its sources and structure, by concentrating on the most important debates and controversies through which Americans have sought both continuity (stability) and innovation (change) in their political lives. The conduct of the course is designed to make students participants rather than onlookers in those debates, and thus to be itself a laboratory of American political thought.
POLS 346. Marxism and Socialist Thought --1 course
The origins of the communalist critique of liberalism, the emergence of utopian socialism, and the development of the Marxian system as scientific socialism. Twentieth century variants of Marxism, especially Leninism and neo-Marxist-Leninist tendencies (Maoism, Sorel, Third World efforts and New Left).
POLS 351. Government and Politics of Russia and the CIS --1 course
Examines the origins and nature of Bolshevik movement and the 1917 revolution; the ideological and institutional sources of the Soviet state and party structures; Stalinism as totalitarian experiment; the erosion of the Soviet system; its economic decline and crisis; the reasons for the failure of the Gorbachev reform effort; the Moscow coup and implosion of the system; Russian political and economic reforms record subsequently; some attention to events in selected CIS republics.
POLS 352. Politics of Developing Nations --1 course
An introduction to the similarities and unifying characteristics of heterogeneous developing nations. Equal emphasis is put on the diversities to be found in different regions of the Third World. The focus is on the issues and problems and not on countries and regions, though case studies are used for illustrative purposes. The course covers theories and approaches to the study of the Third World; changes in the Third World (political, economic, governmental and regime); contemporary issues (hunger and famine, multinationals, foreign debt and the New International Economic Order); and Third World ideologies and movements (nonalignment, developmental socialism, anti-Americanism and Islamic revivalism).
POLS 370. American Foreign Policy --1 course
The process of formulating and implementing American foreign policy. The development of American traditions regarding foreign policy, the main factors influencing American foreign policy since World War II, and specific policies toward regions and countries of the world.
POLS 374. Foreign Policies of the Soviet Union and Successor States --1 course
Following an intensive analysis of the ideological and state imperatives shaping the record of the Soviet Union in international affairs, this course will examine the international effects of the collapse of the Soviet system and the post-Soviet Russian effort to fashion a new international role for the Russian state vis-a-vis the former Soviet republics and East European communist states, as well as the European Union, and the United States and the external world generally.
POLS 382. Global Issues --1 course
An analytical survey of global issues: their essence, management and their political implications. The course starts with a theoretical framework for the study of leading global issues such as global security, population growth, global political economy, food, ethno-nationalism, terrorism, human rights, consumption of non-renewable resources and the integrity of the environment. Institutions, values and policies are emphasized in the context of growing interdependence among nations and related issues of integration and conflict.
POLS 384. International Law --1 course
Contemporary problems on the role and effectiveness of law and legal institutions in the global community. The nature, sources and application of international law; international instruments; membership in the international community; state and non-state actors; duties and responsibilities at the global level; war and peace.
POLS 386. International Organization and Global Governance --1 course
This course surveys and analyzes the process of international organization and the evolution of the concept of global governance. It starts with a survey of the analytical concepts relating to the sources, inception, and maintenance of organization and governance at the international and global levels. These concepts and analytical tools are then applied to the study and analysis of samples of international organizations, regimes and institutions of international and global governance such as the UN, the EU, WTO, and a host of authoritative international institutions.
POLS 390. Topics in Government and Politics --1 course
An examination of selected topics in government and politics.
POLS 400SS. Teaching of Social Studies --1/2 course
See History 400SS. May not be counted toward a major in Political Science.
POLS 450. Senior Seminar --1 course
This course, to be offered in multiple-autonomous seminars, focuses on theory and analysis in the various sub-disciplines in political science, as well as significant topical components therein.
POLS 499. Independent Study --1 course
Intensive reading and research in American politics, political theory, comparative politics and/or international politics. Prerequisite: permission of instructor and department. May not be taken Pass-Fail.
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