Undergraduate Program
Harold Shapiro, Univ. President Emeritus and Professor of Economics and Public Affairs
Upon Admission, each student prepares a program of study for the junior and senior years in consultation with the program director. Departmental courses should form a coherent program of study, normally combining both techniques of analysis from the social science disciplines and courses that give the student substantive depth in a particular policy area. Areas of specialization typically combine a policy issue (urban education, international trade, security, or environmental policy) and a particular geographic region or nation (Africa, Latin America, Europe, India, or the United States).
Undergraduate Course Descriptions
Spring 2012
WWS 301/POL 308/CHV 301Ethics and Public Policy(EM)The course examines major moral controversies in public life and differing conceptions of justice and the common good. It seeks to help students develop the skills required for thinking and writing about the ethical considerations that ought to shape public institutions, guide public authorities, and inform the public's judgments. The course will focus on issues that are particularly challenging for advanced, pluralist democracies such as the USA, including justice in war, terrorism and torture, paternalism, markets and distributive justice, abortion, the law of marriage and the place, if any, of religious arguments in politics.Stephen J. Macedo
WWS 306/POL 329Public Leadership and Public Policy(SA)This course will review key Presidential policy decisions on issues such as the Iraq wars, the Watergate tapes, the Voting Rights Act and the Cuban missile crisis, and will consider the ethical, legal, and operational frameworks for effective, responsible public leadership. Students will review relevant literature from history, psychology and politics, discuss the central policy issues in each case, and evaluate the decision-making process in view of these frameworks.Nathan B. Scovronick
LAS 318/WWS 498/POL 471US-Latin American RelationsThis seminar surveys US-Latin American diplomatic relations. The focus will be on old or recurrent historical myths and disparate perspectives on the nature of hemispheric links. Key Cold War crises will be reviewed, specially as they affect the present. Topics covered: The Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations' approaches to democracy, security, and economic policies; and new issues in relation to the larger emerging countries (Mexico and Brazil) and Andean governance in the context of the current crisis of globalization and evolving crosscurrents of power in the international system.Ricardo V. Luna
WWS 326Environmental Regulation: Law, Economics(SA)This course has two large topics. First, the conceptual foundations of environmental regulation, including economic and non-economic justifications for regulation, cost-benefit analysis, the choice among different regulatory techniques, and the political dimensions of environmental law. Second, the substance of American environmental law, including a (necessarily superficial) overview of the major federal pollution statutes. Because agencies loom so large in environmental law, we will also cover the forms and functions of federal agencies and the legal and political constraints under which they operate.Michael E. Herz
EEB 328/WWS 490Ecol & Epidemiology-Parasites & Diseases(STL)An introduction to the biology of viruses, bacteria, fungi, protozoa, worms, arthropods, and parasitic plants. The major emphasis will be on the parasites of animals and plants, with further study of the epidemiology of infectious diseases in human populations. Studies of AIDS, anthrax, and worms, and their role in human history will be complemented by ecological and evolutionary studies of fig wasps, measles, myxomatosis, and communities of parasitic helminths. The course combines lectures with daily field laboratories to explore the dynamics and abundance of parasite in a variety of host species in the Panama Canal zone.Andrew P. DobsonAndrea L. Graham
WWS 332Quantitative Analysis for Public Policy(QR)The course is designed for students preparing to incorporate statistical analysis in their policy research. In the context of case studies, it will cover the principal methods of data analysis and applied statistics in social science and policy research, including multiple regression, analysis of variance and nonparametric methods. Students are expected to have some knowledge of basic probability and statistical concepts.Graham Lord
WWS 336/POL 326/GSS 451Inequalities(SA)This seminar examines various types of human inequalities and considers several thought-provoking explanations for their occurrence. The focus is primarily conceptual and philosophical, although the discussions will include references to current instances of inequality and policies designed to alleviate them. The readings include both classics in political theory and more contemporary works.Nannerl O. Keohane
WWS 337/POL 398International Institutions and Law(SA)This course will focus on the continual tension between international law and international politics. It will examine the impact of this tension on issues of intervention and also on other issues of substantive importance, including environmental protection, trade, human rights, laws of war applicable to the "war on terror," and crimes of state. It will discuss recent developments affecting international institutions and recent changes in international law, such as the changing conception of "sovereignty."Robert O. Keohane
GHP 351/WWS 494EpidemiologyThis required course for GHP students focuses on the distribution and determinants of disease. Diverse methodological approaches for measuring health status, disease occurrence, and the association between risk factors and health outcomes will be presented via classic and contemporary studies of chronic and infectious illness and disease outbreaks. Emphasis on: causal inference, study design and sampling, bias and confounding, the generalizability of research, health policy and research ethics.Joseph J. Amon
HIS 393/AAS 364/WWS 492Race, Drugs, and Drug Policy in America(HA)From "Chinese opium" to Oxycontin, and from cocaine and "crack" to BiDil, drug controversies reflect enduring debates about the role of medicine, the law, the policing of ethnic identity, and racial difference. This course explores the history of controversial substances (prescription medicines, over-the-counter products, black market substances, psychoactive drugs), and how, from cigarettes to alcohol and opium, they become vehicles for heated debates over immigration, identity, cultural and biological difference, criminal character, the line between legality and illegality, and the boundaries of the normal and the pathological.Keith A. Wailoo
GHP 400/WWS 499/MOL 499/EEB 400Seminar in Global Health & Health PolicyThis seminar will examine four major topics in global health. Potential topics include: the importance of patents in healthcare; AIDS in America; synthetic biology and biosafety; vaccine safety; the business of biology; the state of US healthcare; healthcare in emerging economies; and drug discovery and development.Thomas E. ShenkAdel A. MahmoudBryan T. Grenfell
WWS 402Policy SeminarsIn policy seminars students work in groups first formulating the general problem, then engaging in individual research on subtopics, and finally presenting their inferences for discussion and debate and producing a collective policy report.Anne-Marie SlaughterHarold A. FeivesonCecilia E. RouseRobert O. KeohaneStephen A. SomersJames M. VerdierDaniel C. Kurtzer
MOL 425/WWS 341Infection: Biology, Burden, Policy(STN)This course will examine fundamental determinants of human microbe interaction at the biological and ecological levels. The focus will be on major global infectious diseases, their burden of illness and policy challenges for adequate prevention and control. Each infectious agent will be discussed in terms of its biology, mechanisms of pathogenesis, disease progression, epidemiology, as well as strategies for its control. Specific emphasis will be placed on the public health aspects of each disease.Thomas E. ShenkAdel A. Mahmoud
WWS 452Special Topics in Public Affairs: Muslim Immigration and Integration(SA)Immigration is one of the most important political issues in Western Europe; Muslim immigration seems to pose a particular challenge. This course will take a comparative approach to discuss reactions to Muslim immigration in Western Europe, including the response of right-wing parties. The course will address key questions such as: Which policies are implemented by states to regulate mass immigration and integration? How do natives react to Muslim immigration? How can we explain islamophobic attitudes?Marc A. Helbling
WWS 461/POL 399China's Foreign Relations(SA)This course will review and analyze the foreign policy of the People's Republic of China from 1949 to the present. It will examine Beijing's relations with the Soviet Union, the United States, Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Third World during the Cold War, and will discuss the future of Chinese foreign policy in light of the end of the Cold War, changes in the Chinese economy, the post-Tiananmen legitimacy crisis in Beijing, and the continuing rise of Chinese power and influence in Asia and beyond.Thomas J. Christensen
WWS 465Secrecy, Accountability & the National S(SA)National security secrecy presents a conflict of core values: self-government and self-defense. We need information to hold our leaders accountable, but if we know our enemies know too. This course explores that dilemma and the complex relationships that resolve it. Beginning with the traditional rubric of "government versus press," the course maps an increasingly fragmented information marketplace. We will apply competing legal and philosophical models to real-world cases of unauthorized disclosure. Among the subjects: weapons of mass destruction, the "war on terror," domestic surveillance, torture and Wikileaks.Barton D. Gellman
WWS 470/POL 391/CHV 470Comparative Constitutional Law(SA)This course will introduce students to the variety of forms of constitutional government and the way that human rights are understood and enforced by courts around the world. We will trace the emergence of a global constitutional culture and focus more directly on the constitutions of South Africa, India, Germany, France, Hungary, Israel and Canada We will give primary emphasis to the rights provisions in national constitutions, but will also take transnational constitutional regimes through examining decisions of the European Court of Human Rights.Gábor HalmaiKim Lane Scheppele
WWS 472Special Topics in Public Affairs: The Economics of the Welfare State(SA)All advanced countries have extensive "welfare state" programs that provide insurance against economic losses, support people with low incomes, etc.. But these programs vary widely in extent from the relatively small US welfare state, to the larger welfare states of much of Europe, to the generous programs of Scandinavia. At the same time, there is heated controversy about the effects of such programs. This course surveys welfare state programs, including health care systems, across various countries, analyzes the debates over their economic effects, and looks at the political economy of reform in the US and countries such as France.Paul R. Krugman
WWS 475/POL 393Special Topics in Public Affairs: Grand Strategy(SA)Military strategy was defined by Clausewitz as the use of battle to achieve the objectives of war. Grand strategy is broader, encompassing the attempted use by political leaders of financial, economic, and diplomatic, as well as military, power to achieve their objectives in peacetime and in war. This seminar will examine the theory and practice of grand strategy both to illuminate how relations among city-states, empires, kingdoms and nation states have evolved over the centuries and also to identify some common challenges that have confronted all who seek to make and execute grand strategy, from Pericles to Barack Obama.Aaron L. Friedberg
WWS 476/ECO 354Special Topics in Public Affairs: The Economics of Health Policy in Developing Countries(SA)Early death is arguably the worst manifestation of poverty in developing countries. Much of this premature death, and the low quality of life that goes with it, is avoidable with well conceived and executed public policy. But there's the rub. Setting priorities for what government (and well-meaning outsiders) should do with very limited means requires hard choices--matters of life and death. The choices are limited both by the severe resource constraints in poor countries and constraints of effective implementation of programs. This course focuses on how economic reasoning can help inform effective policy.Jeffrey S. Hammer
WWS 482Special Topics in Public Affairs: Business, Politics, and Public Policy(SA)This class will examine how business reacts to as well as affects public policy. Readings will cover US politics as well as issues associated with international trade and the overseas expansion of companies. The objectives of the class include: identifying the issues, interests, and institutions that characterize the political environments of business, to develop a set of conceptual frameworks for analyzing those issues, interests, and institutions, and to explore differences in business-government relations across countries and political conditions. We will consider the perspectives of the businesses, policy makers, and the general public.Brandice Canes-Wrone
WWS 488Special Topics in Public Affairs: Arts and Cultural Policy in Contemporary Cuba(SA)This course will address the creation, promotion and consumption of art and culture in Cuba--and will analyze the policy framework within which this takes place. It will examine the goals of the revolutionary government with respect to literacy and cultural democracy and will review how these objectives have been realized through changing circumstances since 1959. It will ask how cultural policy relates to diversity, emigration, tourism, the preservation of heritage, and the fraught histories of imperialism and nationalism.Shanti Pillai