Political Science

Contemporary analysis of the structure and function of American Government and California state government, both their constitutional and political systems at the federal, state and local levels. Focus on the following topics: paradigms in the social sciences, models of justice and models of democracy, evolution of American elites and American constitutionalism, role of media in American political culture, political parties and political socialization, concept of the separation of powers: legislative, executive and judiciary branches, protest and protest movements, Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1991.

Introductory analysis of comparative governmental systems and politics emphasizing a variety of political forms, theory of political differentiation and development, and patterns, processes and regularities among political systems in developing and developed world.

Analysis of the history of political thought, the development of forms of political ideologies and their manifestation in forms of the state. Philosophical formulations of concepts of state of nature, natural law, natural rights, civil and political society explored as integral parts of philosophies of: Plato and Aristotle, Augustine and Aquinas, Machiavelli and Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau, Bentham and Mill, Hegel, Marx, and Antonio Gramsci.

Provides students with the opportunity to develop and formulate their own perspectives on California politics. The course will explore policymaking and the exercise of power within the federal framework, including but not limited to state and local issues and institutions. The course will begin by studying the basic constitutional framework of the state government, compare and examine the state's relationship with the federal government, and then focus on political issues that California is currently facing.

 Analysis of the contending theoretical formulations of International Political Economy (IPE), emphasizing the interconnection between economics and politics in the broad context of a global economy and the formulation of national public policy. Economic and political policy issues of current national and international significance are emphasized.

Analysis of the central elements of international relations, including: contending theoretical formulations of international relations, factors of sovereignty, nationalism, relations between the core, semi-periphery and peripheral countries, the role of the World Trade Organization in international trade relations, international terrorism and global warming. The international struggle for global hegemony and the impact of terrorism on world politics are systematically analyzed in the context of an increasingly unipolar world.

A seminar in directed readings, discussions and projects in political science. Specific topics to be determined by the instructor.