Concepts and theory regarding the U.S. policymaking process. Topics include political ideas; constitutional development and law; institutions of government; political parties, elections, and voting behavior; the significance of interest groups divided along race, gender, class, or other lines; and the role of the media and public opinion. Comparisons with other political systems are applied to several policy issues.
Basics of international relations (sources of national power, sovereignty, security, international law and organization, and international economics), and factors (historical, political, economic, social, and governmental) in the formation of American foreign policy, with emphasis on current problems.
Domestic politics and government structures examined comparatively across countries located in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America. Special emphasis on government-citizen relations, ethnic identities, and socioeconomic and political formations.
The nature and function of law, the process of legal growth, the roles of judges and lawyers, and the decision-making process; the use and retrieval of law-related materials.Prerequisite: 21:790:201 or permission of instructor.
Organization, functions, and administration of state and local governments in the United States; analysis of state constitutions and city charters; the political, administrative, and judicial processes; examination of various types of intergovernmental relationships.Prerequisite: 21:790:201 or permission of instructor.
Examine the stages of the policy process in the United States from problem identification, agenda-setting, policy design, and policy implementation with special emphasis on the federal government. Prerequisite: 21:790:201 or permission of instructor.
Study of political issues that involve science and technology such as arms control, energy resources, environmental pollution, public health, occupational safety, and technology transfer.Prerequisite: 21:790:201 or permission of instructor. This course fulfills the technology course requirement in the teacher certification program.
Structure and organization of administration machinery; fiscal and personnel management; methods of law enforcement; responsibility of administrators to voters, legislatures, and the courts. Prerequisite: 21:790:201 or permission of instructor.
The development of American political parties; party functions, organization, and methods; the nominating process, campaigns, and elections; money and politics. Prerequisite: 21:790:201 or permission of instructor.
Elections and voting behavior; political attitudes and opinions; the role of parties and interest groups in policymaking and government; party reform. Prerequisite: 21:790:201 or permission of instructor.
Political issues in the United States related to gender differentiation; sex-based discrimination in law and public policy; differences in political participation according to gender; ideological justifications for such differences; and political movements designed to rectify discrimination. Prerequisite: 21:790:201 or permission of instructor.
The formation of public opinion, opinion measurement, opinion change, and the relationships between public opinion and public policy; fieldwork in which students prepare their own survey and conduct an opinion poll; processing and analysis of data. Prerequisite: 21:790:201 or permission of instructor.
The institutions of N.J. government, including the governorship, legislature, court system, and bureaucracy. Current policy debates will be explored in relation to the state's history, political culture, state identity, and natural resources.
Prerequisite: 21:790:201 or permission of instructor.
Analysis of urban policy issues; municipal public policy areas: poverty, unemployment, education, housing, health, crime, transportation, and the environment; policy as an instrument of social change. Prerequisite: 21:790:201 or permission of instructor.
Examines the causes of poverty in the United States and the origins and consequences of public antipoverty policies, with special focus on welfare, welfare reform, and urban poverty. Prerequisite: 21:790:201 or permission of instructor.
Constitutional, political, and institutional relationships among federal, state, and local governments in the United States; grants-in-aid, revenue sharing, interstate compacts, and intergovernmental cooperation. Prerequisite: 21:790:201 or permission of instructor.
Tactics, goals, and impact of organized minorities in the American political arena; groups studied include African Americans, Chicanos, various ethnic groups, and selected third-party movements. Prerequisite: 21:790:201 or permission of instructor.
Examines LGBT political movements in the United States and globally and locates them within historical contexts and with reference to theories about intersecting identities such as gender, race, class, and sexuality.
Examination of the environmental movement and the politics of specific issues, from air and water pollution to biodiversity and global warming. American policy is assessed from a comparative perspective. Prerequisite: 21:790:201 or permission of instructor.
The influence of religious activities on politics and public policy. The influence of conservative evangelicals and fundamentalists, concerns of Muslims and Jews, efforts of religious groups to shape public policy, constitutional issues of religious liberty and church-state separation, and global fundamentalism. Prerequisite: 21:790:201 or permission of instructor.
Analysis of the formulation and administration of American foreign policy; political, economic, and social forces influencing the decision-making process; the background, alternatives, and principal issues since World War II.
The decision-making and policymaking roles of the Supreme Court in selected areas, including the executive and legislative branches, federal-state relations, the economy, reapportionment, welfare, civil liberties, and civil rights. Prerequisite: 21:790:201 or permission of instructor.
Impact of law on the political process and public policy in selected areas such as legislation, civil rights, civil liberties, and constitutional interpretation; the use of law as an instrument of social change. Prerequisite: 21:790:201 or permission of instructor.
The dynamics of the presidency: the president's powers and how they are used; the executive's relations with Congress, the courts, and the public; presidents' conceptions of their role.Prerequisite: 21:790:201 or permission of instructor.
Survey of the organization of the legislative power; working facilities; principles, procedures, and problems of statute making; the legislature as arbiter of conflicting interests; the relationship between the legislature and the executive. Prerequisite: 21:790:201 or permission of instructor.
How the U.S. political system balances individual liberty against the necessity to maintain a stable society; consideration of such topics as censorship, racial equality, and church and state; role of the federal courts. Prerequisite: 21:790:201 or permission of instructor.
Analysis of topics relating to law and social and political change drawn from legal history, jurisprudence, legal systems and institutions, law and public policy, and law and politics. Open only to juniors and seniors.
Selected problems of American government with respect to labor, business, agriculture, social welfare, and governmental reform. Open only to juniors and seniors.
Selected problems of political parties and political behavior in the United States. Open only to juniors and seniors.
Resistance movements struggle for many things: policy change, social change, fundamental changes in the structures of government. In this course, we will focus on how struggles to achieve justice interact with efforts to strengthen the accountability of states and the rule of law. The course will examine several case studies in the United States, transnationally, and globally.
The psychological roots of political behavior; theoretical formulations and applied studies; analyses of leaders (revolutionary leaders, American presidents, and movements); political implications of personality theories.
The course examines an array of feminist theories of politics in order to equip students to analyze political issues from a variety of different and sometimes contending feminist perspectives.