G53.1300: American Politics (Graduate) (Spring 2006)

V53.0344: The Electoral Process (Undergraduate) This course studies the American electoral process. We discuss turnout, candidates, political parties, interest groups, campaign advertising, mass media, term limits, and referenda and recall elections as well as certain types of elections—congressional and presidential. We will pay particular attention to the 2004 presidential and congressional elections and the 2005 mayoral race in New York. In the class we will emphasize the importance of American electoral institutions in shaping the behavior of voters, candidates, parties, etc., and the outcomes of elections. A notable feature of the American electoral process is the diversity of election rules and administration across the fifty states. We will explore that diversity and how it affects elections at all levels of government from local police commissioner to president. (Fall 2005)

V53.0395: Minority Representation in American Politics (Undergraduate) This course is an exploration of whether and how racial and ethnic minorities are able to organize effectively and press their demands through the American political system. Specifically, we will focus on the political behavior of minority citizens, the relative strength and effect of these groups at the polls and in political office, the theory and practice of group formation as it applies to minority groups, the responsiveness of elected officials, and the legal and constitutional obstacles and instruments that provide context and shape these phenomena. (Fall 2005)

G53.3300: Applications of Game Theoretic Models to American Politics (Graduate) This class focuses on how game theoretic models have and can be used to address substantive issues in American politics. (Spring 2004)

V53.0300: Power and Politics in America (undergraduate). In this class, we investigate how politics works in the United States. We will begin with an overview of the basic institutional setup of the American political system. We will focus on two significant institutional features of American politics - the use of winner-take-all, plurality rule elections to select elected officials and the fact that elected officials have shared but limited powers to implement policy. We will see how these features affect the winning and losing coalitions formed in American politics and the roles played by voters, candidates, political parties, interest groups, and the three branches of government. (Fall 2002)

V53.0912: Junior Honors (undergraduate). The purpose of this class is to provide you with the background for doing original modern research in political science. It is required of Honors Majors as a prelude for writing their Honors Theses. Students are expected to have completed Doing Political Science or to be registered in it concurrently. The goal of the class is to teach you to assess the state of a scholarly literature, identify the interesting questions, formulate strategies for answering them, acquire some of the methodological tools with which to conduct the research, and understand how to write up the results so that they can be published. (Fall 2002)