Political science has taken a developmental turn. Across multiple subfields, political scientists are returning to key historical events and periods to understand how political systems develop and evolve. Central to this exercise are the concepts, theories, and tools developed in the American Political Development tradition, and now being applied in other countries. This course will provide an in-depth introduction to these concepts, and then explore their application in a Canadian and comparative perspective. We will consider various developments, including the extension of the franchise, the emergence and evolution of political parties, the creation and reshaping of the welfare state, and the evolution of representational institutions. The final aim of the course will be for students to write a paper applying the tools of political development to a Canadian or comparative case.

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.

Welfare states receive considerable attention in political science due to their prominence among state functions; their central role in determining the level of inequality and poverty in society, now a much-discussed issue; and because of the fiscal and demographic pressures they face in an age of globalization. They are also the focus interesting theoretical and empirical debates. This course explores the recent comparative politics literature on welfare states in liberal democracies, before examining selected cases in Canadian social policy-making. The course material as about equally divided between comparative and Canadian content.

This course examines Canadian immigration and multiculturalism from theoretical, empirical, and applied perspectives. It includes a discussion of normative foundations, an analysis of the policy framework, and an examination of how immigration and multiculturalism influence Canada’s social, economic, and political life.

The purpose of the core course in international relations is to familiarize doctoral students with competing and complementary theoretical approaches to international politics; to develop students' ability to assess these literatures critically; and to help students refine the theoretical foundations of their subsequent dissertations.

This is the second course in the international relations core sequence. The course has three principal objectives. 1) To continue providing the students with a brief introduction to the large academic literature on international politics, with the goal of helping them to prepare for the synthesis and analysis they will be required to carry out on the field examination. 2) To introduce students to a variety of frontier research problems that animate current work in the field, so they can see and evaluate examples of how empirical research is actually conducted rather than just commenting on "the classics" or reading pure theory. 3) To initiate their own research projects, to gain practical experience in elaborating a theoretical argument, drawing out testable implications, assembling, and analyzing relevant evidence, and presenting the work before colleagues.

Specialty courses taught by rotating instructors on topics in International Relations. Consult the departmental website for details on annual offerings.

Specialty courses taught by rotating instructors on topics in International Relations. Consult the departmental website for details on annual offerings.

Specialty courses taught by rotating instructors on topics in International Relations. Consult the departmental website for details on annual offerings.

The major theme for the course is the relationship between international developments in human rights and domestic applications of those developments. We will examine the evolution of the international human rights regime, mostly from the post-World War II era, and understand how the radical steps forward in international law affect domestic lawmakers and leaders. We will also look at how domestic efforts shift the international debate, and how non-state actors engage in building the lingua franca of the 21st century.

Examines the challenges faced by humanity in dealing with global environmental problems and the politics of addressing them. Focuses on both the underlying factors that shape the politics of global environmental problems such as scientific uncertainty, North-South conflict, and globalization and explores attempts at the governance of specific environmental issues.

This course analyses the relationship of military force to politics: nuclear war and deterrence, conventional war, revolutionary war, terrorism, and counter insurgency are examined from the perspectives of the U.S., Russia, and other contemporary military powers.

In light of endemic international threats and conflicts, the seminar analyzes the use of the military instrument of foreign policy. We meld theoretical and pragmatic approaches. Among the subjects covered are civil-military relations, grand strategy, the development of nuclear weapons, deterrence and nuclear deterrence, arms control, and war termination strategies. We will also look at a number of case studies to illuminate seminal issues in security and strategic studies.

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.

This course overviews the origins, dynamics, and outcomes of civil war and counterinsurgency. It provides a theoretical and empirical foundation for understanding these forms of conflict and the logic of their violence. An additional objective of the course is to consider questions of definition, empirical strategy, and methodology relevant to conducting rigorous research on these topics. The course is organized in three parts. The first reviews the general concept of civil war and provides an overview of various theoretical approaches to understanding it. We will consider arguments concerning identity and ethnic conflict, the political economy of violence, and rationalist explanations for war. The second part of the course examines the dynamics of insurgency and counterinsurgency, including recruitment and rebel alliances, combatant strategies, and third-party intervention. The final section considers the outcomes and aftermaths of civil war, including conflict duration, recurrence, and the challenges of post-conflict statebuilding.

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 course will examine the field of policy analysis in modern liberal-democratic governments. We will examine different approaches, concepts, and theories of policy analysis to help us understand the core debates that have shaped its evolution and contemporary practice. We will examine recent developments such as the shift from 'modern' to 'post-modern' analytical techniques, and the 'evidence-based' policy movement. The various orientations and techniques surveyed will be further explored through discussion and debate centering on specific Canadian and international policy sectors and issues.

This course serves as one of the core courses for doctoral students who plan to write the major field exam in public policy. The course offers an overview of the main theoretical approaches in the field of public policy. Students will read widely in the public policy literature and be expected to reflect on what they learn in class discussions and written essays.

This course serves as one of the core courses for doctoral students who plan to write the major field exam in public policy. It builds on the theories and approaches explored in POL2318H and applies them to a major area of public policy. Students will read widely in the public policy literature and be expected to apply what they learn in class discussions and written essays.

Specialty courses taught by rotating instructors on topics in Comparative Politics. Consult the departmental website for details on annual offerings.

Specialty courses taught by rotating instructors on topics in Comparative Politics. Consult the departmental website for details on annual offerings.

This course provides an in-depth introduction to theories of the origins of democracy and dictatorship. We examine a range of structural and voluntarist approaches. In the final weeks of the course, we explore the extent to which these theories help us to understand regime transitions in China, Chile, Iran, and Poland.

This seminar course explores the political power of business from an international and comparative perspective. We examine the ways that business acquires and exerts political power and the ways politics shapes business power. We draw from international and comparative political economy, global governance studies, and related disciplines such as management and sociology. Topics of discussion include the role of public authority in governing business behaviour, the formation of business interests, business' instrumental, structural and discursive power, civil society activism toward business, corporate social responsibility, transnational private governance, and economic crises.

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.

This course focuses on the political economy of growth in the developing world. It is organized around the question of why some parts of the developing world have done better in terms of growth and growth-related inputs than others. While qualifying what success and failure may mean, the analytical focus will be on how best to understand the political determinants of such variation. The course is divided into three parts. It will begin with a brief overview of different conceptual frameworks related to growth. It will then examine the broad growth experiences of some regions of the developing world — East Asia, Latin America, Africa, and South Asia. The main portion of the course will be devoted to a variety of themes related to growth that cut across regions such as regime type, the role of the state, institutions, globalization, foreign aid, inequality, and ethnicity.