This course introduces students to recent work in the rational choice institutionalist tradition in comparative political economy. It focuses on the link between institutions and economic policy, starting with an examination of the effect on economic outcomes of specific democratic institutions, such as the separation of powers or delegation to unelected officials like central bankers. In so doing it also asks whether globalization has altered the relationship between democratic institutions and economic policy choices. Most of the readings rely on either formal models or quantitative empirics; students will therefore also acquire proficiency in the interpretation of such work.

The course offers an introduction to the seminal work of Jewish philosophy, 'The Guide of the Perplexed' by Moses Maimonides. We will delve into some of the basic themes of Jewish philosophical theology and religion as they are treated by Maimonides.

This course provides an in-depth understanding of the social and political origins of judicial power and the growing role that courts play in democracies and autocracies. Adopting a comparative perspective, we will probe when and why citizens, social movements, and policymakers turn to the courts and support judicial power, what factors shape how judges make decisions, when judicial decisions beget compliance and defiance, and how courts shape regime politics like democratization, democratic backsliding, and autocratic consolidation. Throughout we will bring cutting-edge research to life with concrete examples: from domestic courts like the US Supreme Court to international courts like the European Court of Justice; from judicial politics in liberal democracies like Canada, to backsliding regimes like Hungary, to consolidated autocracies like Egypt.

What is the state’s role in economic development? What caused the Industrial Revolution, and why was Britain at its forefront? This course examines a variety of competing, and complementary, explanations for historical (and present-day) variation in patterns of economic development, focusing on the state’s role in each.

The course provides an in-depth introduction to theories of the origins of democracy and dictatorship. In the first part of the course, we examine and compare theories rooted in economic development, voluntarism, institutional design, and historical institutionalism. The latter half of the course applies these different approaches to debates over the origins of Nazi rule in Germany in the 1930s, military dictatorship in Chile in the 1970s, and non-democratic rule in contemporary Russia.

This course explores both the substance and the theory of APD, using the second as a lens through which the first can be analyzed and interpreted. We begin by examining the methodologies, mechanisms, and patterns of APD, before turning to synoptic accounts of political development and then working through broad eras of political development. Throughout we will focus on questions of race, democracy, and inclusion/exclusion that both animate the American past and structure its present.

Canada as a key case in comparative federalism studies, with a particular focus on the management of diversity and conflict. Federal theory is applied to analyze federal institutions and dynamics in Canada (and other cases). Topics include the distribution of power, the judiciary’s role and group representation.

This course will explore processes of political change in post-Mao China through an examination of selected systemic challenges and regime responses. The primary focus will be on processes of institutional development and decay as the Party-State regime evolves from hard to soft authoritarianism.

Feminist theory offers basic challenges to the foundations of modern political and legal thought. It suggests a different conception of human nature and a different model of epistemology and of appropriate forms of argument about the traditional issues of legal and political theory: justice, power, equality and freedom. Introduction to the foundations of feminist theory, an analysis of its implications for traditional liberal theory, and an application of feminist theory to law.

Selected issues and topics in U.S. politics. Vary from year to year.

This seminar course examines the political power of business from an international and comparative perspective. Topics include the role of public authority in governing business behavior, the formation of business interests, corporate lobbying, structural and ideational business power, corporate social responsibility, and transnational private governance.

Selected issues in comparative politics. Vary from year to year.

The course examines contemporary Canadian social policy in light of the scholarly literature on the welfare states of advanced industrial societies. Topics include the variety of welfare state regimes in rich nations, and their comparative performance in reducing inequality and poverty, in labour market and economic outcomes, and in addressing the specific circumstances of women. Specific Canadian policy fields examined will include pensions, social assistance, child care and health insurance.

Content depends on instructor.

This course will be used for a new or short-term 400-level methods course, which requires only POL222H1, Introduction to Quantitative Reasoning I as its prerequisite.

Selected issues in Asian politics. Content in any given year depends on instructor.

This course explores Latin American protests and social movements since the late 20th century to the present. It focuses on subaltern mobilizing experiences shaping the region from the ground up. Course content emphasizes collective actors’ political agency and intellectual work, as well as intersections of coloniality, race, gender, and class.

Selected issues in comparative politics. Vary from year to year.

This seminar examines Indigenous politics through land. We explore transnational Indigenous politics by focusing on global struggles over land. The course considers how Indigenous land-based movements, connected across territories and oceans, are constituted through and cultivate relations between Indigenous peoples and their social ecologies and more-than-human existents.

The course examines the politics of economic growth in developing countries. It focuses on political factors to analyze why some developing countries have done better in terms of growth than others. Conceptual frameworks of growth and related themes such as regime type, institutions, inequality and ethnicity will be addressed.

The course explores the rise, evolution, and performance of the dominant neoliberal approach to development and poverty reduction. It also assesses the feasibility and efficacy of alternative development strategies. Case studies are drawn from Latin America, Asia, and Africa.

This course explores questions of political representation in Canadian politics. While the overwhelming focus will be on the Canadian case, the course often draws upon examples and readings from other countries/institutional contexts to highlight important differences and similarities. The course considers where political representatives come from, how representative our legislatures are, and what representatives do. Weekly topics include political ambition, recruitment, electoral systems and quotas, and substantive representation.

This course surveys two of the key themes related to the process of innovation in a knowledge-based economy: the process by which new knowledge is generated and effectively transferred to those organizations with the potential to commercialize it; and secondly, the paradoxical relationship between knowledge creation and proximity in a modern global economy.

(Offered in alternate years)

This course will focus on the evolution of Ukraine as a state from its failed struggle for independence after World War I, its existence as a Soviet Ukrainian state, to its full independence after the collapse of Communist rule and the Soviet Union.

The development, participants and performance of global summit governance, focusing on the Group of Seven and Group of Twenty as “soft law” plurilateral summit institutions and their relationship with the “hard law” multilateral organizations of the United Nations and Bretton Woods bodies in a globalizing world.

This seminar assesses the efficacy of the military instrument of foreign policy through the prism of various case studies that range geographically and historically. It examines the motivations and policy formulations of key states. The case studies focus on power projection, limited war, nuclear threats, and war termination strategies.

For advanced students of international relations. Various topics are taken up each year, the content of which depends on the instructor.

This course examines Canadian immigration and multiculturalism from theoretical, empirical and applied perspectives. It includes a discussion of normative foundations, an analysis of the components of the policy framework, and an assessment of the impact of immigration and multiculturalism on other aspects of social, cultural and political life.

The course aims to explore the requirements of justice and fairness in international affairs. It is common to theorize international relations in terms of interests and power. But even the most cursory look at what important actors actually do in their international interactions reveals that they use normative language all the time. This has not gone unnoticed, with investigations of ethics in the international arena multiplying in recent years. Drawing on readings from political philosophy, legal theory, and normative international relations theory, the course will take up practical ethical dilemmas encountered in world affairs. The main focus of the course will be on institutions. Examples will be drawn from the issue areas of trade, health, and the environment, among others.

Technological change transformed the way politics is reported by journalists. This course introduces students to debates at the intersection of media and politics in Western democracies. Topics include the changing information environment, framing and priming effects, agenda setting, media bias, and the rise of social and partisan media, and misinformation.

Major theories of public policy-making and related approaches to policy analysis are examined from the perspective of political science. Key contributions to the theoretical literature pertaining to leading models are read and discussed. Models of public policy-making are successively applied to analysis of cases of Canadian and comparative policy development.