An examination of current political issues. By examining an issue or problem students will be exposed to political institutions, processes and concepts in political science. The subject matter will change depending on the instructor and current political events.

An introduction to political science that provides both a framework for thinking about politics and the institutions of governance, and some of the vocabulary necessary for political analysis.
NOTE Also offered at the Bader International Studies Centre, Herstmonceux. Learning Hours may vary.

An examination of the institutions and constitutional foundations of government and politics in Canada.

An analysis of the processes, groups, parties, voters, and culture of Canadian politics.

This course provides a general introduction to the institutions and politics of the electoral process in the United States. The course integrates literature on the electoral system (including the system of primary elections), campaign financing, political parties, voting behaviour, political sociology, and political communication.

An examination of how and why societies change and the context in which transformation occurs.

The nature of political regimes in advanced industrial countries and the developing world.

A comparative examination of the ways in which selected polities respond to national, ethnic, linguistic, religious, and racial diversity.

A comparative exploration of the apparent disjuncture between the normative assumptions of liberal democratic theory and the realities of democracy-building.

An introduction to political theory. Students will learn how to interpret, and critically assess, a wide range of historical political thinkers and political concepts. Topics may vary year to year, but typically include Plato's critique of democracy, debates about human nature (between statists like Thomas Hobbes and anarchists like Emma Goldman), civil disobedience (MLK, Jr.), authority, colonialism, private property and arguments for the social contract tradition as well as criticisms against the social contract tradition from feminism, critical race theory and Indigenous rights.

This course introduces students to a range of contemporary ideologies, such as liberalism, socialism, conservatism, fascism, feminism, anarchism, ecologism, fundamentalism, and nationalism. It includes primary and secondary readings, and will focus on the critical interpretation of these competing belief systems.

An introduction to the major issues in the study of international relations: questions of war and peace, national security, the role of the 'state', foreign and defence policy, gender and international relations, and international institutions.

An introduction to the major issues in the study of international political economy, including transnationalism, integration, globalization, and underdevelopment.

This course introduces students to current theoretical and policy debates about the nature of 'international security.' In addition to addressing the meaning of this contested concept, we will examine three principal ways in which security has been organized by states, specifically: collective security, collective defence, and security communities.
NOTE Also offered at the Bader International Studies Centre, Herstmonceux. Learning Hours may vary.

This course examines the evolution of global politics in the modern era, from the institutionalization of sovereignty in the Peace of Westphalia to the contemporary period.

This course analyzes the status of women and men in domestic and global politics. It presents primary concepts used in political science to address: What is gender? How is it political? How have the women's movement and other collectivities addressed inequality and oppression? What does gender equality look like, and how can it be obtained?

This course is an introduction to quantitative approaches to political science research. You will learn how to use quantitative techniques to make causal and descriptive inferences. You will also gain basic familiarity with Stata, a widely used statistical software package. The course will consist of weekly lectures and tutorials. Tutorials will involve seminar-style discussions and computer and pencil-and-paper based problems. No prior background in statistics is assumed or required.

An examination of the evolution of constitutional principles in Canada. Topics include developments in federal-provincial relations, the role of the courts in federal-provincial disputes, and the nexus between the community values of federalism and the individual rights in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

This course provides an introduction to the principal theoretical perspectives and empirical debates in the study of elections, voting, public opinion, political participation and political culture in established democracies.

A critical examination of the relationship between the mass media and politics, focusing on the functions of the media in modern liberal democracies and the ways in which news stories are created and packaged.

How courts are responding to their responsibility to review legislative and executive decisions in terms of their impact on citizens; the impact of the Charter on the way government is viewed.

An examination of the character and functions of the Canadian welfare state. Theoretical explanations of the welfare state. The historical development of the Canadian welfare state. Proposals for social policy reform and their implications.

An introduction to Canadian political thinkers who have addressed important themes in contemporary Canadian public, legal and theoretical discourse, including multiculturalism, critical race theory, antipornography campaigns, sexual violence, globalization and modern alienation.

An examination of Indigenous politics in a Canadian context, including aboriginal self-government.

An examination of key issues in comparative politics. Topics will vary from year to year; consult department homepage.

An examination of key issues in European politics. Topics will vary from year to year; consult the department homepage.

An introduction to European politics. The themes and geographic focus vary from year to year; they may include current political institutions and forces, the historical evolution of the European polities, and both Western and Eastern Europe.

Survey of the political process in the United States; functioning and interaction of the principal formal and informal political institutions, the relationship between those institutions and their environment, the making of public policy, and current issues and trends.

The politics of the Russian Federation and selected countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

An examination of key issues in British politics. Topics will vary from year to year; consult the department homepage.
NOTE Offered only at the Bader International Study Centre, Herstmonceux.

Contemporary problems facing Britain as a result of its historical evolution: economic stagnation, centrifugal forces of nationalism and communal violence, and the decline of the two-party system.

An examination of the European union and the forces towards integration: origin, politics and future.
NOTE Also offered at the Bader International Studies Centre, Herstmonceux. Learning Hours may vary.

This course provides an overview of the society, economy, and politics of India through the lens of some of the most influential theories in comparative politics. This format is designed to engage with the key debates in the field and challenge the canonical texts by drawing on the experience of a large multiethnic non-western democracy.

The course begins with an historical overview of the late Qing dynasty, the origins of the Chinese revolution, and 50 years of the People's Republic of China. It then focuses primarily on political science concepts and approaches to the study of Chinese politics as well as issues of reform in various sectors of China's economy and polity.

Comparative study of Latin American politics. Topics include the political legacies of colonialism and independence, the evolution of class structures, populism, the role of the military, and the transition to democracy and free market policies. Emphasis is on the countries of continental South America.

A critical examination of the current theories of development influenced by various post-Marxist, postmodernist and post-colonial tendencies. Growth strategies practiced by the state and alternative visions offered by the social movements will also be discussed.
NOTE Students with third-year standing in the Development Studies Medial should contact the Department.

Major issues in the contemporary politics and political economy of sub-Saharan Africa. The development of the colonial and post-colonial state, capitalist development and the role of indigenous and international capital, and political and socio-economic aspects of class, ethnicity and gender.

An examination of the politics of the Middle East, including the legacy of the Ottoman Empire and European colonialism, the rise of nationalism, the role of religion, the nature of the state and political participation in different countries in the region.

An introduction to political theory, and a complement to POLS 250. Topics may vary year to year, but typically include historical thinkers from the late 18th century to the first half of the 20th century. POLS 350 surveys a diverse range of political traditions, such as conservatism, feminism, Black Political Thought, utilitarianism, and Marxism. Students will be expected to demonstrate an ability to both comprehend and critically evaluate the material.

An examination of the major theories and critiques of liberalism, focusing on the rival conceptions of freedom and equality that animate classical 'laissez-faire' liberalism, egalitarian liberalism, left-libertarianism, and perfectionist liberalism, and the critical responses these various kinds of liberalism have provoked from communications, feminists, Marxists, and others.

Drawing on historical texts, this course explores the representations of women and the constructions of femininity and masculinity, the body, and gender relations in the history of political thought, and explores contemporary feminist responses to these texts and ideas.

An analysis of the origin and development of certain major ideas in the western political tradition.

An exploration of the normative underpinnings of democracy, based on a survey of selected historical texts, contemporary theories, and current problems.

This course discusses important contemporary issues that arise in political theory. Examples include: liberty and paternalism, toleration, punishment, multiculturalism, climate change, intergenerational justice (or injustice) and violence.

Selected topics in the critique of capitalism, e.g. Marxism, democracy, the environment, globalization, employment and popular culture.

The course will focus on central issues that arise in political theory: citizens' relation to the state and to each other. Specifically, the course will discuss problems of liberty, toleration, punishment, and multiculturalism; and inter-state problems such as global justice, just war, justice and the environment, and inter-generational justice.

This course examines the theoretical approaches, concepts, and debates (e.g. levels of analysis, causality, methodology, historiography) that shape the evolution of International Relations as a discipline, including subfields (e.g. international security and international organizations) and how they relate to the conduct of international politics.

A survey of selected regional international organizations for political cooperation, military security and economic integration in Europe, Latin America, Africa and the Asia-Pacific region.

An examination of the concept of international security and the causes of war and conditions of peace. Topics include: the role of nuclear weapons after the Cold War; the economics of security; new security themes (environmental and ethnic factors); regional security and peacekeeping; alliance dynamics; and European security and the future of NATO.

An examination of the principles, institutions and politics of the United Nations, assessing its effectiveness in maintaining international peace and promoting cooperation among states.

An examination of American foreign policy, with particular emphasis on the analysis of concepts and issues and the study of decision-making processes.

An analysis of Canadian foreign policy, its major objectives and orientations. Topics covered include Canada's role and interests in major international organizations and its relations with key countries and regions.

The course introduces students to the scientific method and its application to various puzzles in Canadian and comparative political economy. Following a primer on research methods, several empirical and theoretical puzzles are examined (e.g. relationships between voting and economic interests, the origins and drivers of government taxation, etc.).

This course explores feminist questions about the role of social policy in alleviating gender inequalities. Through an intersectional analysis of gender, race and class, this course examines how social policies address poverty, un/employment, immigration and colonialism. Each student will explore one Canadian social policy in detail.

An examination of the role of law in politics, the differences between legal and political reasoning, the law and politics of constitution-making, and the political character of criminal and civil law. Topics include the victim's rights movement, pornography and censorship, and the role of litigation in political life.

An exploration of major issues and schools of thought in the philosophy of social science and an examination of contemporary approaches to the study of politics.
NOTE This course is open to POLS Majors and Medials who have completed 1.0 100-level credit in Political Studies.

The course explores contemporary approaches to understanding the politics of culture. In the everyday behaviours, attitudes and practices that form our culture, politics play a role. The course considers a range of diverse theoretical perspectives on the interrelationship of culture with social, political, and economic power.

A broad but detailed introduction to the politics of international and internal migration on a global scale. The first half of the course deals with core issues such as the differences between migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees; why people move; migrant legal status and rights; migration and integration policy and governance; and effects of and responses to migration. The second half applies this foundation to the world's major regions, including Canada, the rest of the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Asia-Pacific region.

This course introduces students to the various families of electoral systems in use around the world. It examines their variations and assesses the consequences of electoral systems on political parties, legislatures and governments.

An examination of selected aspects of Canadian politics and government, including institutions and behavioural approaches. The focus of this course will vary from year to year; consult the departmental website for further details.

A comparative examination of the politics and government of different countries, or theories or themes in comparative politics. The focus of this course will vary from year to year; consult the departmental website for further details.

An exploration of different aspects of political thought, political theory, and political philosophy. The focus of this course will vary from year to year; consult the departmental website for further details.

An examination of different topics and issues in global political economy, such as the role of international financial institutions, the politics of global trade, or the global distribution of wealth. The focus of this course will vary from year to year; consult the departmental website for further details.

Issues in global politics, international relations, international diplomacy, or foreign policy will be examined in this course. The focus of this course will vary from year to year; consult the departmental homepage for further details.

An investigation of selected problems in feminist and gender analysis, examining the different authors and issues. The focus of this course will vary from year to year; consult the departmental website for further details.

This course provides foundational knowledge about the relationship between international politics and international law. It then explores more specific aspects of international law, including international criminal law and the Law of Armed Conflict, and situates the central statutes, customs, and institutions of international law within the broader context of global governance.
NOTE Only offered at the Bader International Study Centre as part of the Field School in International Law and Politics.

This seminar will examine key texts in the discipline of political science. The focus of this course will vary from year to year. See the departmental website for further details.

This course will consider various theoretical writings and topics in political science. The focus of this course will vary from year to year. Consult the departmental website for further details.

The word 'science' comes from the Latin scientia, which means 'having knowledge'. What is the relation between science and normative political ideals such as democracy, justice and equality? The topics covered in any given year will vary, but may include the ethical, legal and social consequences of advances in the biomedical or environmental sciences.

An investigation of selected issues in gender analysis, considering a variety of perspectives and case studies. The focus of this course will vary from year to year. Consult the departmental website for further details.

An examination of key issues in Canadian Politics. Topics will vary from year to year; consult the departmental website for further details.

Issues in global politics, international relations, international diplomacy, or foreign policy will be examined in this course. The focus of this course will vary from year to year; consult the departmental homepage for further details.

A comparative examination of the politics and government of different countries, theories or themes in comparative politics. The focus of this course will vary from year to year. Consult the departmental website for further details.

An examination of key issues in Canadian politics. Topics will vary from year to year; consult the departmental website for further details.

Content varies from year to year; consult the departmental website for further details.

An introduction to the political history of Quebec: the development of ideologies (including nationalism), constitutional developments, and the building of the Quebec state during the Quiet Revolution. Some contemporary issues in Quebec politics, and the relationship between Quebec and the rest of Canada.

An examination of the evolution and operation of the Canadian federal system. Topics include the concept and meaning of federalism, the implications of provincial/federal interdependence, and the politics of constitutional reform.

A critical examination of the rhetoric of political persuasion, the framing and construction of political messages and the way in which meaning is interpreted and created in the political system. The mass media are an important, though not exclusive, focus of this course.

An examination of the importance of elections to the maintenance of democratic systems. Six themes are discussed: the history and theory of democratic participation; the legal framework; campaign organization; why people vote the way they do; the manifestation of social cleavages during campaigns; and the future of electoral participation. Canadian examples are placed in a comparative context.

This course provides an extensive survey of the principal theoretical perspectives and empirical debates in the study of public opinion.

Topics vary from year to year, and may include class, ethnic, and regional politics, law and politics, interests and interest articulation, and democracy and democratization. Consult the departmental homepage.

Multi-level politics in Europe: the European Union and its member states. Development of the EU, institutions and policy processes at the EU level, how the domestic politics of European states affects the EU and vice-versa. Economic union, supranationalism, political impulsion for economic integration, accession of new member states.

An exploration of the emergence and functioning of the modern welfare state in comparative perspective.

Focuses on recent debates about the sources of malaise in the American system, with a special emphasis on understanding the dynamics of mass public opinion and the factors influencing public disaffection from political institutions.

This course explores the political implications of multiculturalism from a variety of perspectives, including theory, policy, and historical meaning. Issues include: history and policy of multiculturalism in the Canadian, US and global contexts; the construction of 'race' and anti-racism; and the role of multiculturalism in citizenship inclusion and exclusion.

The course introduces students to some of the important questions about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. What is the history of the conflict? How did distinct national identities emerge? What issues are at stake for the actors involved? How do domestic factors shape Palestinian-Israeli relations? Why have peacemaking efforts been unsuccessful?

This course puts race front and center in American politics. Topics include the subjugation of Blacks, Latinos, and Asian Americans during the 19th and 20th centuries; the civil rights movement; contemporary manifestations of racial discrimination and their impact on who gets elected to positions of power and whose prerogatives become law.

Across democracies, marginalized groups - such as Black people, Indigenous people, people of colour, women, LGBTQ+ people, and people with disabilities - are under-represented in elected office. This course examines contemporary debates about the importance, causes, and consequences of the representation of marginalized groups in Canadian politics.

Focus varies from year to year depending on the research interests of the faculty members involved. See the departmental homepage for further details.

An exploration of the causes of ethnic conflict, but focuses in particular on the strategies which states use to manage or resolve such conflicts. The review of state strategies is comprehensive in nature: using case studies, it includes approaches which are morally unacceptable as well as approaches which many consider morally desirable.

This seminar investigates the central place of gender in international relations (IR). It introduces students to gender analysis of global politics, and feminist approaches to IR by interrogating how ideas about masculinity and femininity affect foreign policy, nationalism, international power relations, war, and peace. While the study of IR has long focused on states and their political and economic power in the international system, this class moves between the centres of power and the margins of international politics to see how power flows between gendered bodies and institutions.

Advanced research course focusing on problems relating to the consolidation of democracy in contemporary Latin America. Topics may include political parties and elections, economic policy, mass media, social movements, and political violence. Case studies are drawn largely from continental South America.

General issues and selected specific topics reflecting an interdisciplinary approach combining international political economy, feminist theory and comparative politics. Case studies from both industrialized and developing nations.

This course explores the dominant themes in the field of ethnic politics and development. We examine the role of social norms, group-differentiated rights, electoral politics and patronage, status inequality, and the historical role of ethnicity in the state-building process on development outcomes.

A critical examination of selected 'new' theories of development (neo-Marxism, postmodernism, new social movements, rational choice, flexible specialization, etc.), followed by a study of selected Asian countries' development strategies to evaluate the relevance of the theories.

An analysis of texts that take the nature of humans as the basis for political argument. Emphasis is on the search for foundations for political claims and the nature of 20th-century relativism, cultural and moral.

An examination of key issues in political theory. Topics will vary from year to year; consult the departmental homepage.

An examination of a particular problem or theme in Western political thought post-1500; issues covered might include property, revolution, sovereignty, republicanism, or gender.

An investigation into different theoretical perspectives on the issue of 'identity' and the import of these perspectives for the 'politics of identity'. Theories of gender, race, class, nation, and sexual orientation, from a variety of perspectives, including Marxist, feminist, postmodern, and psychoanalytic theory.

An exploration of issues in international politics from a theoretical and normative perspective, including global redistributive justice, just war theory, theories of secession, and normative theories of humanitarian intervention. Among the questions posed are whether we have an obligation to redistribute wealth to strangers, what can justify secession, intervention and war; and the terms on which people can migrate to other countries.

An examination of the debates about when it is (morally) justified to go to war - and when it isn't. Topics will include war as self-defense, humanitarian intervention, preventive war, and different conceptions of the morally proper way to wage war.

This course considers the contemporary possibility of anarchist politics, focusing on the politics that might come from resistance to rule. Anarchist politics come in a multitude of forms' from organized resistance to state authority and expressions of power, to mutual aid societies and cooperative politics, to Indigenous forms of resistance.

This IR seminar introduces students to major issues shaping the study and conduct of international politics in Southeast Asia, East Asia, and the Asia-Pacific. Seminar topics examine the involvement of major powers in the region, regional institutions and regimes, norms and identities, transnational crime, non-state actors, and natural disasters.

An exploration of problems of order and change in the international system with particular attention to the theory and practice of co-operation, ranging from classic concepts of international organization to current debates about international regimes.

Contemporary aspects of Canadian international security policy. Topics include: the evolution of policy towards NATO; bilateral defence arrangements with the US; collective security and cooperative security; peacekeeping; defence economics; the role of domestic factors in the shaping of strategy; and aid of the civil power.

Critical examination of selected themes, issues and works in classical and contemporary international relations theory.

An examination of the determinants of Russian Foreign Policy, and the extent to which they have changed over the last half-century. The course will cover both historical and contemporary issues in Russian foreign relations.

A consideration of the main types of war theory, including descriptive, legal, normative, causal, process, and consequential, with applications to selected case studies.

An examination of the political dimensions of violent conflict in Africa, including the causes of inter-state and intra-state conflict, and responses such as peace-building and global governance initiatives.

Theoretical approaches and issues within the field, while paying particular attention to hegemony and leadership, the economic dimension of post war and post cold war security, trade, money, debt, underdevelopment, regionalism, and international organization.

This course analyzes Middle Eastern politics from the perspective of international relations. Themes covered include the evolution of various identities in the region, the role of outside actors in the Middle East, contemporary Middle Eastern state and social relations, and the role that Middle Eastern states play in contemporary world politics.

This course focuses on Canadian-American relations, emphasizing the interaction in both bilateral and multilateral contexts. Primary concern with issues of trade, investment and resources, with some attention paid to security issues.

The theoretical problems of analyzing foreign policy and the practical issues of diplomatic action.

An examination of connections between politics, science and technology. Topics include: ideologies and the autonomy of science; science in the Warfare State; controlling the social uses of science.

An examination of key issues in the political economy of public policy. Topics will vary from year to year; consult the departmental homepage.

An examination of how contemporary theories of justice fare from the standpoint of gender (specifically inequalities in gender relations) and what a just, non-gendered society might look like.

An examination of the major theoretical debates and issues in contemporary globalization, including the historical roots of globalization, and the impact of globalization on culture, economics, trade, global governance, and global social movements.

An examination of key issues in gender and politics. Topics will vary from year to year; consult the departmental homepage.

A difficult challenge facing a liberal-democratic polity is how to distinguish allowable state action from the protected sphere of human activity. The course examines contemporary debates about whether rights provide an appropriate critical standard for evaluating state action and looks at different institutional methods to assess the justification of state actions.

Students arrange their course of reading in consultation with members of the Department. They are expected to write reports on their readings and to discuss them in seminars.

Students arrange their course of reading in consultation with members of the Department. They are expected to write reports on their readings and to discuss them in seminars.

Students arrange their course of reading in consultation with members of the Department. They are expected to write reports on their readings and to discuss them in seminars.

The thesis is optional and counts as one course toward an honours concentration in Political Studies. The thesis subject must be selected at the end of the penultimate year after consultation with members of the Department, and the thesis must be submitted by 31 March of the final year. The student can choose to pay for the binding of the departmental copy.

Exceptionally qualified students entering their third- or fourth-year may take a program of independent study provided it has been approved by the Department or Departments principally involved. A Department may approve an independent study program without permitting it to be counted toward a concentration in that Department. It is, consequently, the responsibility of students taking such programs to ensure that the concentration requirements for their degree will be met.
NOTE Requests for such a program must be received one month before the start of the first term in which the student intends to undertake the program.

Exceptionally qualified students entering their third- or fourth-year may take a program of independent study provided it has been approved by the Department or Departments principally involved. A Department may approve an independent study program without permitting it to be counted toward a concentration in that Department. It is, consequently, the responsibility of students taking such programs to ensure that the concentration requirements for their degree will be met.
NOTE Requests for such a program must be received one month before the start of the first term in which the student intends to undertake the program.

An internship and online experiential learning course. Internships should be in a setting relevant to political studies. Roles may include assisting with the day-to-day tasks of an organization, special projects, event planning, community activism, report writing, and/or other responsibilities that provide practical experience and enhance students' skillset.