Presents various modes of understanding politics. Emphasis on basic approaches to political analysis, their uses in constructing theories, and their application to particular national political systems.

Introduction to American political processes and institutions. Topics include elections, political participation, parties, interest groups, the Presidency, Congress, the bureaucracy, and the judiciary.

Types of questions: What is politics? What are the theoretical and philosophical bases for different types of political arrangements? How do these perspectives get translated into reality? Among others, the works of Rousseau, Locke, Mill, and Marx are read.

Focuses on racial, ethnic, and gender diversity, multiculturalism, and their impact on our social and political ideals. Traces the sources of ideas about difference, equality, and toleration, and examines tensions that occur when forms of identity conflict with one another.

Analysis of political relations between and among nations with emphasis on explanations of conflict and cooperation. The role of ideologies and their relation to international problems are also examined.

Introduces comparative politics. Compares political systems in a variety of countries. Includes elections, parties, parliaments, presidents, protest movements, and other aspects of national politics. Addresses how to make meaningful comparisons across countries.

Examines major theories that attempt to explain the roles of race and ethnicity in U.S. politics.

An introduction to the study of judicial politics. Questions include: what is law?; what is a court?; who are the judges? Analysis of a wide range of judicial decisions illustrates the political importance of courts in the U.S. and elsewhere.

Covers qualitative and quantitative research methods relevant for the evaluation of educational programs. Students have the opportunity to plan, execute, and write-up a small evaluation project.

Theories concerning sources of public opinion, processes by which it is altered, organization of citizens’ belief systems, and role of public opinion in government policy. Students analyze survey data as a research project.

Presents a comprehensive survey of the American presidency and considers the question of political power.

Examines how voters evaluate political parties, candidates, and issues in electoral campaigns to reach their decisions. Numerous controversies concerning the degree of issue voting, sophistication of candidate evaluations, and the decline of political parties are discussed.

Reviews the actions and character of presidents from Harry Truman through Bill Clinton. Each week a different president is examined from a variety of perspectives. Students are expected to write a substantial original research paper.

Focuses on the development and implementation of public policy in the United States. Lectures cover theoretical models of the policy process as well as significant problems facing contemporary American decision-makers.

Imagines how White House staffers can help presidents with clear, focused, and effective writing. Through a variety of formats, students study, hone, and practice writing skills that will prove useful in and out of the White House.

Investigates the politics of the 60s through the lens of the presidents who defined them: John F. Kennedy (JFK) and Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ). Studies each president’s campaign and election, options and actions, successes and failures.

Examines the structure and function of California government, traces historical development of political power, with constantly changing casts of power-brokers and seekers. Explores California exceptionalism and the roles played by the electorate, legislature, executive, and organized interests in policy making.

Examines the Civil Rights, Black Power, and women’s movements in relationship to the Asian American movement. Uses social movement theories to illuminate the cases, and the cases to critique and revise the theories.

Comparing the political issues facing Latino groups by examining their migration histories, voting behavior, nonelectoral participation, and policy issues. Latino issues are examined on the national, state, and local levels, including formal representation, immigration, affirmative action, and language policy.

Examines politics of African Americans in order to gain a broader perspective of the American political process. Major developments in African American politics (including the civil rights movement, Black presidential bids), continuing problem of racism, responsiveness of key governing institutions.

Does the Congress do a good job of representing the American citizenry? Is it the most appropriate mechanism for the creation, resolution, and implementation of public policy?

Examines selected immigration policy debates since the nineteenth century, rationale and consequences of immigration law since 1965, problems of administration, implementation and enforcement, impact of immigration policy on foreign relations, and contemporary debate regarding the future of U.S. policy.

Examines animal rights/welfare movement’s efforts to transform moral, practical, and legal standing of nonhuman animals in contemporary U.S. Explores intersection of racism, sexism, and speciesism informed by theories of race and ethnicity, including Asian American Studies.

Why and how does the U.S. government prohibit, regulate, or try to control sex, drugs, and rock and roll? Reveals the motivations and politically strategic decisions that underpin these governmental efforts.

Politics has become divisive and ideological. But ideologies are poorly understood and have become mere labels for identifying friends and enemies. Course analyzes the nature of ideology, focusing on liberalism, conservatism, fascism, socialism, and contemporary "liberation" ideologies.

Examination of how psychological theory and research may be used to better understand political thought and behavior. Drawing on theories of learning, cognition, and personality, discusses such topics as the formation of political attitudes, and the process of political decision-making.

Studies in selected areas of American politics and society. Topics addressed vary each quarter.

Introduction to game theory and a survey of its political applications. Examples of topics covered include voting in small committees, legislatures, and mass elections; interest group activities and environmental issues; institutional design, and the evolution of cooperative behavior.

More advanced game theory and its political applications, beginning where Game Theory and Politics I ends. Examples of topics covered include revolutions; arms race; spatial models of party competition; political manipulation; political coalitions and their power.

Examines major thinkers and intellectual movements in the political thought of the 17th and 18th centuries.

Examines major thinkers and intellectual movements in the political thought of the 20th century.

Focus is on recent major work in social and political theory. An in-depth analysis of a relatively small body of writing. Authors discussed include Jurgen Habermas, Anthony Giddens, and Richard Rorty.

Examines the evolution of the doctrine of the just war across the history of Western political thought, the importance of changes in the doctrine and whether it applies today; examines international relations case studies to determine today's relevancy.

Examines critically the notion of the "other" by looking at the philosophical challenges difference poses in the context of the European discovery of the New World. Seeks to understand the naissance of the concept of human rights and tolerance.

Co-taught by professors from UC and Sciences Po, French and UCI students are brought together in a virtual classroom. Students engage in joint projects on issues of global import: democratic fragility, race relations, international security, and climate change.

Focuses on how we learn about ethics from stories, in the form of fables, bedtime stories, religious stories, soap operas, television, and movies as adults. Students bring in stories that informed their own ethical development.

Examines differences traditionally judged politically salient—race, ethnicity, religion, gender. Personal interviews with an elderly person encourage students to understand the social construction of difference and to reexamine their own attitudes by putting themselves in the place of another.

Can people keep their humanity during war? What does the term humanity signify when simply surviving requires faith, courage, and desperation? When facing wartime brutality, must we abrogate morality? What does it mean to compose a moral life during war?

Studies in selected areas of political theory and methods. Topics addressed vary each quarter.

Examination of problems in global political-economic relations through competing conceptual lenses or grand theories: mercantilism, liberalism, and Marxism. Surveys North-North and North-South issues relating power and wealth.

Integration of theoretical perspectives in international political economy with the study of economic development in East Asia, with special emphasis on regional integration.

U.S. policy toward the countries of East Asia: bilateral and regional security relationships, U.S. economic relations with the major Asian countries, the development of regional institutions, and human rights.

Surveys various aspects of relations between the nations of East Asia. Topics include the historical development of the region; current political and security relations, including the impact of the American military presence.

Looks at changing international perspectives, policy responses, and military strategies of presidential administrations from Truman to Reagan. In assessing the motives and objectives of U.S. foreign policy leaders during the “Cold War” era, the concept of “national interest” is examined.

Explores political, economic, social, and cultural ties that bind Latin America to the United States. Focuses on U.S. intervention and Latin American response from early nineteenth century to present day. Case studies include Mexico, Guatemala, Cuba, Chile, and Central America.

Provides an overview of issues in East Asian security including U.S.-China relations, economic interdependence, global supply chains, South China Sea, environmental cooperation, COVID-19, and others. Includes Oxford-style debates.

Examines the 9/11 origins of the concept of homeland security; assess the evolution, structure, and operations of the Department of Homeland Security; critically examines the evolution of threat assessment to the U.S. and the utilization of risk management methodologies.

Examines, analyzes, and evaluates the humanitarian phenomenon, the actors involved in it (including states, international organizations (IOs), and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)), the rise of a body of international humanitarian law, and the problems and debates associated with international humanitarianism today.

Active learning course that examines origins, decision-making processes, activities, and evolution of leading international organizations (e.g. U.N., NATO, EU, AU, WTO, World Bank, IMF). Activities include drafting reforms, applying theory, assessing dysfunctions, and participating in U.N. negotiation simulations.

Explores the complex phenomenon of aid to Africa (emergency and development aid), and the representational, cultural, historical, and other reasons why some participants and many observers critique it. Students occasionally engage with peers and faculty in African institutions.

Studies in selected areas of international relations. Topics addressed vary each quarter.

Analyzes the sources of political power in contemporary China, including historical legitimacy, political institutions, and Chinese Communist Party power. Identifies challenges to the CCP’s rule and rising socio-political issues such as mass protest, censorship, and the environment.

Introduction to social choice and cooperative games. Topics include majority rule, types of voting methods, apportionment and proportional representation, agenda manipulation, coalition formation, voting power, political consequences of electoral laws.

Why are some countries rich and some countries poor? In Political Economy of Development, students assess and evaluate competing hypotheses on what drives social, economic, and political development around the world.

Examines immigration politics in advanced democracies, analyzing trends and policy from the postwar period through to today. Topics include citizenship, immigrant integration, asylum, the far-right, and a rotating focus on contemporary issues, e.g., terrorism, birthright citizenship.

Explores the causes, development, and legacy of the 1959 Revolution. Themes include economic dependency, democracy, race, gender, culture, and the always volatile relations between Cuba and the United States.

Examines the cultures and political conflicts of the more than 130 indigenous ethnic groups in the European and Asian territories of the former U.S.S.R. Emphasis is on the theoretical issues of ethnicity, nationalism, and conflict management.

Examines theories of conflict management. Analyzes how conflict is mitigated in diverse cultures: at the interpersonal level, between groups, and on the international scale. Students discuss readings, hear from conflict management practitioners, and simulate negotiations.

Examines the relationship between the Jewish people and political power over a 3500 year period. How have Jews preserved their communal interests and personal safety? How have they defined the proper relationship of the people to political authority?

Covers the key concepts, sources, and dynamics of historical and contemporary antisemitism. Topics covered include the politics of anti-Jewish hatred, conspiracy theories, and the Holocaust.

Introduction to the United States in comparative perspective, covering general features of the United States and other countries, such as institutional design and policy choices. Addresses the debates about American exceptionalism and American decline.

How bureaucracies, formal organizations, and voluntary associations work, how/why they grow, and where they are going. History and structure of organizational rationality; dynamics of organized groups; behavior in organizations; limits of bureaucratization and attempts to overcome these limits through decentralization.

A survey of models of collective action drawn from sociology, economics, psychology, and political science. Focus on areas such as social movements, strikes, crowd psychology, cults, fads, fashions, public opinion, and symbolic and mythical elements in collective culture.

Investigates urban divisions in international cities where deep-seated nationalistic ethnic differences create pressures for intergroup conflicts, autonomy, or territorial separation, and can incite violence. Urban political polarization as it is manifest in the urban setting.

An overview of basic issues that shape the politics of the Middle East and North Africa. Themes include implication of the colonization era, nation-state formation, inter-Arab relations, nationalism, Arab-Israel conflict, Islamic resurgence, and more.

Studies in selected areas of comparative politics. Topics addressed vary each quarter.

Law and its various roles in society. The nature and meaning of law; legality and power in the American system; law as a mechanism for social change; the role of law in dispute processing, social control, compliance with judicial decisions.

American constitutional interpretation of cases involving separation of powers, federal-state relations, rights of property, free expression, privacy, criminal due process, political participation, and equality. Includes legal research methods, development of judicial review, legal reasoning, and impact of Supreme Court decisions.

Examination of the origin, changing structure, application of international law, and the role of legal norms in regulating the behavior of states and maintaining international order.

Political analysis of selected Supreme Court cases involving claims under the Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment. Topics include: race, sex, and other forms of discrimination; criminal justice; privacy; freedom of speech and related claims.

Overview and analysis of the role played by the U.S. Supreme Court in the American political system. Judicial review, appointment of justices, judicial activism and judicial restraint, process of case selection, court deliberation, land decision-making, impact of Supreme Court decisions.

Overview and analysis of the role played by the U.S. Supreme Court in the American political system. Judicial review, appointment of justices, judicial activism and judicial restraint, process of case selection, court deliberation, land decision-making, impact of Supreme Court decisions.

Studies in selected areas of public law. Topics addressed vary each quarter.

Course for students enrolled in the Honors Program in Political Science.

A weekly seminar/workshop to facilitate the exchange of ideas and research strategies among students and to review their progress in writing the thesis.

Thesis research with Political Science faculty.

Thesis research with Political Science faculty.

Field study with Political Science faculty.

Directed group study with Political Science faculty.

Independent study or research with a Political Science faculty member.

Doctoral training requires more than learning substantive debates and research methods; it also requires students learn professional practices, routines, and expectations. This workshop offers students a mix of professional development, outside speakers, and discussions regarding research with departmental faculty.

Students find an important question in ethics, search literature to assess topic's importance, post question to be researched, propose method of analysis and type of data, analyze data, and note how their works contribute to knowledge in the field.

Current research in politics and society.

Explores different approaches to public policy analysis, the diverse conceptions of the goals and objectives that should be served by policy, and the appropriate role of the policy analyst. Policy consequences are traced to indirect and subtle incentives and disincentives.

Current research in American Politics. Topics addressed vary each quarter.

Focuses on fundamental issues of knowledge in the study of politics, especially interconnections and tensions between politics and knowledge. Counts as the Field Seminar in Political Theory.

Examination of different theories of textual interpretation, including Straussian, hermeneutical, poststructuralist, feminist, postcolonial, and critical race theories. Key questions include: How does one go about the task of interpreting texts? What makes one interpretation better or more insightful than another?

Current research in political theory. Topics addressed vary each quarter.

Overview of the major theories guiding research and scholarship in international relations. Focus on major conceptual approaches (realism, neoliberalism, marxism) and levels of analysis (systemic, state, and subnational), as well as on methodological/epistemological debates engulfing the field.

Surveys research design primarily through substantive readings in international relations. The purpose is to familiarize students with choices/dilemmas relevant to IR-specific research. Students at various stages in the graduate program and with different methodological orientations are welcome.

Current research in international relations. Topics addressed vary each quarter.

Introduction to voting models. Substantive topics include majority rule, voting methods and their properties, apportionment and proportional representation, agenda manipulation, coalition formation, voting power, political consequences of electoral laws.

Introduction to non-cooperative games. The prisoner's dilemma, Nash equilibrium, sequential games, subgame perfection. Applications include collective action, agenda-setter models, spatial competition of political parties, models of revolution and arms race.

Current research in comparative politics. Topics addressed vary each quarter.

Introduction to the theory and practice of analyzing qualitative data. Students must have already learned about data collection and research design for qualitative research and must have qualitative data they can analyze.

Dissertation research with Political Science faculty.

Independent research with Political Science faculty.