POL 319 - The Politics of Political Concepts: Power and Inequality in Political Science

Political science rests on a set of core concepts - such as political knowledge, participation, ideology, trust, the state, and power - that shape how we understand political life. This course asks how those concepts illuminate some forms of political experience while rendering others less visible. Rather than treating these concepts as neutral and universal, the course interrogates the social and political assumptions embedded within them. How do core concepts reflect particular relationships to political institutions? For whom do they work well, and what do they overlook? Drawing on work in political behavior, political theory, comparative politics, political sociology, and methodology, students will analyze debates over concept formation and measurement, with particular attention to how race, gender, class, and inequality shape political experience. Throughout the semester, students will learn to read concepts critically, trace their intellectual and political origins, and evaluate how the categories we use define what counts as politics in the first place.

Unit(s): 1
Group Distribution Requirement(s): Distribution Group II
Prerequisite(s): One introductory political science course (POL 220, POL 230, POL 240, POL 260, or POL 280)
Instructional Method: Conference
Grading Mode: Letter grading (A-F)
Group Distribution Learning Outcome(s):

Evaluate data and/or sources.
Analyze institutions, formations, languages, structures, or processes, whether social, political, religious, economic, cultural, intellectual or other.
Think in sophisticated ways about causation, social and/or historical change, human cognition, or the relationship between individuals and society, or engage with social, political, religious or economic theory in other areas.