Time Schedule:
Rebecca U Thorpe
POL S 398
Seattle Campus
Intensive and advanced studies in various aspects of political science. Open only to participants in the departmental Honors program.
Class description
The purpose of this course is to think critically about why political institutions fail to meet their expressed purposes and whom they fail in doing so. To address this question, students will examine major U.S. governmental initiatives—including the U.S. national security establishment, the war on drugs, the war on poverty, mass incarceration and efforts to reform inner-city schools—and consider why these programs persist unabated despite an inability to meet policymakers’ expressed aims, a clear departure from the founders’ regime goals, or their adverse consequences for certain segments of the population.
The course is divided into two main parts. First, we will examine leading theories of power relations in the United States during the constitutional founding and in contemporary society. This will provide a framework for students to assess what President Eisenhower famously called the U.S. Military-Industrial Complex and the balance of power between Congress and the president under a permanent national security establishment. Second, we shift our attention to urban politics, including relations between urban police departments, the drug trade, concentrated poverty, the education system and U.S. prisons. We will examine the role of federal institutions, state governments and local bureaucracies in waging a War on Crime, War on Drugs, War on Poverty and launching inner-city school reform, with particular focus on the gap between policymakers’ expressed aims and policy outcomes.
Student learning goals
Understand how the structure of political institutions & distribution of political power affect policymaking & propose institutional reforms
Students will evaluate competing theories & relate accounts from diverse sources, including inter-disciplinary scholarship, documentaries & fictionalized media (literature & television)
Gain experience conducting independent research projects
General method of instruction
Discussion-based class with lecture component
Recommended preparation
Class assignments and grading
Writing assignments, including quarter research paper & exam
Participation, research paper, exam
