Politics and History - 21002

In these paired courses, students will examine both the historical development and the current organization of political structures around the world. As historians, students will study the Westphalian system of state sovereignty and the development of absolutism, Enlightenment reform and reaction, the impact of the Industrial Revolution on political theory, and reactions to modernism in the form of fascism and communism. As political scientists, students will study concepts in comparative political analysis and look at political structures in the industrialized capitalist, (former) state socialist, and low-income or developing countries. They will compare the strengths and weaknesses of different kinds of political institutions (e.g., presidentialism vs. parliamentarianism in liberal democratic countries), the causes and consequences of shifts between types of political and economic systems (e.g., the collapse of state socialism); and the relationship between social, economic and political change (e.g., between social justice, economic growth and political democracy). This intro-level connection will introduce students to the history and implementation of political ideas that influence our world today.