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PROGRAMS OF STUDY & COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
Political Science (POL)

Courses in Political Science are grouped into the following categories:

American Politics
1040 American Government and Politics
1092 Fundamentals of Political Economy
1100 State and Urban Politics
1200 American Congress and Representative Institutions
1210 Media and Politics
1245 Public Policy
1250 State and Society
1260 Urban Politics
1441 Political Parties and Political Behavior
1460 American Presidency
1600 American Constitutional Law
1650 Civil Liberties
1825 Democracy
1900 Public Administration

Comparative Politics
1310 The European Union
1320 Political Development
1340 The Middle East
1364 Russian Politics
1370 Eastern Europe
1430 Pacific Rim
1895 Modernity

International Relations
1503 International Politics
1510 American Foreign Policy
1520 Great Powers
1540 International Law

Political Theory
1700 Empirical Research Methods
1801 Classical Political Philosophy
1802 Contemporary Political Ideologies
1810 Modern Political Philosophy
1811 Contemporary Political Theory
1820 Contemporary Political Philosophy
1862 American Political Thought
1895 Modernity
1896 Postmodernity

Major: Yeshiva College
Thirty-three credits. Required courses: POL 1001, 1040 plus one course from each of the above groups. The remaining five courses are electives within POL.

Minor: Yeshiva College
Eighteen credits. Required courses: POL 1001 or 1040 plus one course from each of the above groups. The sixth course is an elective within POL.

1001 Fundamentals of Political Science. 3 credits.
Meaning, principles, and major fields of political science; development of the state; civil and political rights; law and the judicial process; theories of the state such as democracy, socialism, communism, fascism; international relations.

1002 or 1002H Fundamentals of Political Science. 3 credits.
Designed to familiarize the beginning student with research objectives, analytical concepts, and research tools, this course provides assistance in learning how to think like and do the research work of the political scientist. Key component is an original project based on empirical research.
Students who have taken POL 1001 may register for POL 1002 as a sequence course, but may not register for POL 1001 after taking POL 1002. For students taking both POL 1001 and POL 1002H, the honors course (1002) counts as a POL elective.

1040 American Government and Politics. 3 credits.
Major institutions and functions of the national government; relationship of political elites, minority groups, political parties, and other groups to these institutions; federal-state relations, domestic and foreign policy issues and policy making.

1091 through 1099 Problems in Politics. 3 credits.
Specialized subtopics of American politics, comparative politics, or international relations. Courses may be repeated, since topics vary each semester. Recent topics have included American ethnic politics, international conflict resolution, and the United Nations.

1092 Fundamentals of Political Economy. 3 credits.
Introduction to the spheres of human behavior and activity—politics and markets—that greatly affect our daily lives. Understanding of the major issues of political economy, such as inflation and poverty, and of policies that can be used to rectify the major problems of the day. Economic criteria applied in political judgment, and economic assumptions of policy makers.
Prerequisite: POL 1001 or permission of the instructor.

1095 or 1095H Hannah Arendt. 3 credits.

1100 State and Urban Politics. 3 credits.
Role and functions of state and local government in the American federal system; impact of political parties, bosses, interest groups, racial/religious minorities, and social classes upon the policy-making process; development of the megalopolis and contemporary urban problems.
Prerequisite: POL 1001 or 1040.

1200 American Congress and Representative Institutions. 3 credits.
The practice and theory of representation. Congress and the national interest. Congress and interest groups. Capitol Hill alignments; relations with the executive branch. Political behavior and policy making. The “Washington establishment.” Constitutional restraints and democratic legislation. Alternative and comparative legislatures.
Prerequisite: POL 1040 or permission of the instructor.

1210 Media and Politics. 3 credits.
Politics in the multimedia age; power of print and broadcast media to influence the democratic political process and the voting public; packaging candidates for TV; issues such as right to privacy, governmental secrecy and media; political bias in media; media accountability.

1245 Public Policy. 3 credits.
How policy makers make policy: agenda setting and policy evaluation; cost-benefit analysis; and moral valuation. Covers issues such as health care, Social Security, First Amendment freedoms, budgeting, hazards in the workplace, etc., as well as actors and sites: experts in regulatory agencies, elected officials in representative institutions, and citizens in elections. Social science and public policy. Improving the democratic process.
Prerequisite: POL 1001 or 1040 or permission of the instructor.

1250 State and Society. 3 credits.
The classic and contemporary debate about the proper role of government in society: conservative and liberal views on government regulation. Nature of the state and civil society. The welfare-regulatory state in America; state and environment; use of the state to promote prosperity; cross-national comparisons; regulation and the social construction of preferences.
Prerequisite: POL 1001 or 1040 or permission of the instructor.

1260 Urban Politics. 3 credits.
The contemporary city, its role and function in American politics; impact of political parties, bosses, interest groups, racial/religious minorities, and social classes upon the policy-making process, current policy issues; the impact of globalization on the city.
Prerequisite: POL 1001 or 1040 or permission of the instructor.

1310 The European Union. 3 credits.
Development of the European Union as a regional “state”; EU as a new federalism; France and Germany as the EU’s power hub; Britain’s EU dilemma; the EU in the globalized market; security and foreign policy making; the EU as an international actor; EU-United States relations; EU expansion into eastern Europe; the EU and NATO; the EU and Russia; the EU and North Africa, Turkey, and the Middle East.
Prerequisite: POL 1001 or permission of the instructor.

1320 Political Development. 3 credits.
Meaning and process of political development; comparative analysis of selected African, Asian, and Latin American states; international political economy; role of International Monetary Fund (IMF) in political-economic development; great powers and the politics of development.
Prerequisite: POL 1001 or 1040.

1340 The Middle East. 3 credits.
Geopolitical and cultural characteristics of the “Middle” East; European historic legacy; rise of Zionism, Pan-Arabism and Pan-Islamism; political systems of Israel and selected Arab/Islamic states; Arab-Israeli conflict; political trends in the post–Cold War world order.
Prerequisite: POL 1001 or 1040.

1364 Russian Politics. 3 credits.
The rise and fall of the Soviet empire; emergence of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS); problems of democratization and privatization; the Yeltsin era, U.S.–Russian relations after the Cold War; Russia as an international actor; Russia and China; Russia and Japan.
Prerequisite: POL 1001 or permission of the instructor.

1370 Eastern Europe. 3 credits.

1430 Pacific Rim. 3 credits.
Pacific Ocean states as the power hub of the 21st century, with emphasis on Japan and China. Globalization dynamic in East Asia and the “Asian Tigers”; impact of the rise of East Asia upon the United States, Canada, and Latin America; regionalization prospects in East and Southeast Asia; foreign policy trends of China and Japan; relations with the United States.
Prerequisite: POL 1001 or permission of the instructor.

1441 Political Parties and Political Behavior. 3 credits.
American political parties; history, organization, functions, and sources of support; relationship between parties and pressure groups, and the influence both have on government policy.
Prerequisite: POL 1040 or permission of the instructor.

1460 American Presidency. 3 credits.
The conception of the modern executive. Types of presidential power. The modern institutional and plebiscitary presidency. Presidential policy making. Operating a system of separate institutions sharing power. Patterns of presidential authority over American history. The current officeholder. How the growth of presidential power affects democracy.
Prerequisite: POL 1040 or permission of the instructor.

1503 International Politics. 3 credits.
The nation–state system since World War I (national power, national interest, foreign policy formulation); the development of international relations from the League of Nations to the United Nations and present regional systems; the impact of modern weaponry; war and peace; globalization and the post-Cold War world order.
Prerequisite: POL 1001 or permission of the instructor.

1510 American Foreign Policy. 3 credits.
How American foreign policy is made and implemented; the interrelationship of foreign and domestic policies; the military–industrial complex; the media and the policy-making process; objectives of American foreign policy; the United States as an international actor in the post-Cold War order; the UN and the United States.
Prerequisite: POL 1040 or permission of the instructor.

1520 Great Powers. 3 credits.
Factors making a state a “great power”; regional and international relations between “core” and “peripheral” states; Japanese ascent and challenge; newly industrialized countries and the Great Powers; post-Cold War order building; the UN and Japan-USA-Europe triangle.

1540 International Law. 3 credits.
The development of principles of public law governing the relations of states, and analysis of these principles; problem of individual responsibility; role of diplomacy, international organizations, and international tribunals; review of selected international law cases.
Prerequisite: POL 1001 or 1040.

1600 American Constitutional Law. 3 credits.
The Constitution of the United States as developed primarily by judicial interpretation; role of the judiciary in the political process.
Prerequisite: POL 1040 or permission of the instructor.

1650 Civil Liberties. 3 credits.
The freedoms of speech, press, and religion; the right to privacy; and the new equal protection as developed primarily through judicial interpretation.
Prerequisite: POL 1040 or permission of the instructor.

1700 Empirical Research Methods. 3 credits.
Introduction to quantitative research methods used in the social sciences; development of research designs.
Prerequisite: POL 1001 or permission of the instructor.

1801 Classical Political Philosophy. 3 credits.
Philosophical analyses of and propositions about political power that have shaped the Western political tradition in its anti-democratic and democratic variants; emphasis on Plato and Aristotle; development of the classical Greek (and Roman) tradition in medieval thinkers; Machiavelli (Renaissance) and Rousseau (Modern).
Prerequisite: POL 1001 or permission of the instructor.

1802 Contemporary Political Ideologies. 3 credits.
Rise of ideology with mass politics; characteristics of ideology and its political function; modern revolutionary ideological movements such as liberalism, Marxism, and fascism; conservatism as an ideology; ideologies since the end of the Cold War; “New Politics” liberation movements and environmentalism; religious fundamentalism.
Prerequisite: POL 1001 or 1040.

1810 Modern Political Philosophy. 3 credits.
Political thought in the 17th to 19th centuries. Theories of rights and property; moral agency; theories of state, justice, and civil society. English, French, and German liberalism: Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, and Kant. Hegel’s social theory. Marx’s critique.
Prerequisite: POL 1001 or permission of the instructor.

1811 Contemporary Political Theory. 3 credits.
The recent renaissance in the theory and philosophy of the polity, legal order, and economy. The increasing application of the results of contemporary analysis to solving difficult policy questions. How contemporary theorists reason and disclose the principles of political life. Theories of rights; general political principles; just distribution of social resources; and modes of entitlement.
Prerequisite: POL 1001 or 1040 or permission of the instructor.

1820 Contemporary Political Philosophy. 3 credits.

1825 Democracy. 3 credits.
A survey of several major aspects of democracy in America. Who really rules? Wealth and power. Types of political power. Democracy’s relationship to social justice; its social requisites and historical development. Democracy and the public philosophy. Pathologies of pluralism and possible remedies. Feminist and Marxist analyses. Advanced democracy in the future.
Prerequisite: POL 1040 or permission of the instructor.

1862 American Political Thought. 3 credits.
Readings in classical and contemporary commentaries on the American political experience; analysis of historical and geographical factors shaping the American political mind and tradition; impact of religion from colonial times to the present; slavery, ethnicity and racism; anti-democratic thought in America; Vietnam as a watershed; contemporary issues.
Prerequisite: POL 1001 or 1040.

1895 Modernity. 3 credits.
    (Same as HIS 4695).
A history–political-science interdisciplinary course on the dominant characteristics, tensions, and problems of our revolutionary modern age. Change and how individuals and societies respond to it. Covers the French Revolution and the “new man” of modernity; the scientific establishment and new life choices; the atomic bomb and modern warfare; capitalism and anti-modern political ideologies; Western colonialism and its aftermath.

1896 Postmodernity. 3 credits.
For postmodernists, Hiroshima and the Holocaust nullified the idea of progress that had dominated Western modern thinking since the Enlightenment. Without the idea of progress, how should we understand who we are? This course focuses on the postmodern critique of modernity and its alternative mode of analysis (deconstruction); the postmodern problematic of identity, otherness, moral agency, context and meaning; political issues like power, justice, democracy, postnationalism, postcolonialism.
Prerequisite: POL 1001 or 1895 or HIS 4695 or permission of the instructor.

1900 Public Administration. 3 credits.
The process of implementing public policy/laws, with emphasis on American national government; contemporary theories of organization; styles of political management; internal bureaucratic politics; relations between administrators and politicians (e.g., Congress, the president) and between administrators and interest groups; political implications of the bureaucratic state.
Prerequisite: POL 1040.

4901 Independent Study.

4911 Guided Project
Meet with the Yeshiva College Academic Dean.

4921 Senior Thesis. 3 credits.
Seniors majoring in political science are encouraged to write a senior thesis on a topic of their choosing. See the senior professor for details.