Explore the history and political science explanations of authoritarian governments.

Government 312L satisfies the second half of the mandated six hours of government that every UT student must take.  Course covers analysis of varying topics concerned with American political institutions and policies, including the United States Constitution, and assumes basic knowledge of government from GOV 310L, which is a prerequiste. May be taken for credit only once.

What economic and political systems are most likely to provide people a meaningful chance for a life of happiness, meaning, and decency? Since the time of the American and French Revolutions, the leading answers to this question have circled around the ideas of capitalism, socialism, and democracy. Capitalism is a system based on private owners controlling the productive establishments and workers pursuing wage labor to purchase the essentials of life. By contrast, socialism entails workers controlling production and distributing the material necessities throughout the population. Historically and currently, both the proponents of capitalism and the advocates of socialism have had trouble aligning their visions with the idea of democracy as rule by the people.

This class will investigate these tensions by considering the interdependence of economics and politics. For big ideas, we will draw on a range of philosophers and activists, including Karl Marx, Frederic Hayek, Joseph Schumpeter, Rosa Luxembourg, Angela Davis, Naomi Klein, Robert Jensen, Thomas Piketty, and Vivek Chibber. For empirical case studies, we will consider major historical moments, such as mid-19th century Europe (especially the year 1848), the United States during the Great Depression (1929-1939), and the United States the decade of and after the Great Recession (2007-2017).

Please check back for updates.

Please check back for updates.

Government 312L satisfies the second half of the mandated six hours of government that every UT student must take.  Course covers analysis of varying topics concerned with American political institutions and policies, including the United States Constitution, and assumes basic knowledge of government from GOV 310L, which is a prerequiste. May be taken for credit only once.

Please check back for updates.

GOV 312 – The United States, Iraq, and Iran

Description: Students will learn about how and why the United States has pursued a range of foreign policies toward Iraq and Iran, two of the most influential states in the Middle East. Readings, lectures, and videos will address the evolution of Washington’s relations with Baghdad and Tehran since World War II. Major events in this period include: the 1953 coup in Iran, the 1978-1979 Iranian Revolution, the 1979-1981 hostage crisis, the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq War, and the 1990-1991 and 2003 US wars with Iraq. Particular attention will be given to US dealings with President Saddam Hussein of Iraq and his successors, and US policies toward the Islamic Republic of Iran and the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA, also known as the “Iran nuclear deal”).

The final grade will come from three 1,000-word response papers on course films (10%, 10%, 10%); three in-class exams with multiple-choice and short-answer questions (20%, 20%, 20%); compliance with course policies during the first and second halves of the semester (5%, 5%).

Grades: Three 1,000-word response papers on course films (10%, 10%, 10%); three in-class exams with multiple-choice and short-answer questions (20%, 20%, 20%); compliance with course policies during the first and second halves of the semester (5%, 5%).

Selected texts: Course packet of accessible readings from scholars and commentators who have covered the subject. Approximately 30-50 pages of readings per week.

Ethics of Foreign Intervention - GOV 365N

Description: In a highly interdependent world, are there situations that justify violating national sovereignty in other (non-US, “non-western”) countries, including through military force?

Do outside powers have a "responsibility to protect" vulnerable populations?  Is it more ethical to "do no harm" above all else? Should the leaders of states who violate international law be charged with war crimes? Overall, on what basis, should such questions even be answered? A utilitarian cost-benefit analysis? Or some other metric?

Written and oral assignments will prompt students to consider whether it is ethical for non-indigenous forces (especially US and US-led forces) to intervene in the domestic affairs of other countries.

The focus will be on the ethics of interventions in the regions of South Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa. Periodic lectures (by the professor) and student-moderated discussion will allow students to reflect on major texts and cases about human rights and social justice issues in countries such as Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, and Libya. Students will deliberate on the ethical trade-offs of intervention versus the leading alternatives, i.e., self-determination, non-intervention.

The course’s mixed framework—introductory lectures and student-led discussions—enables students with little to no background in the subject to participate and benefit on par with students that may have encountered portions of the material elsewhere. Students will be expected to both articulate their own arguments and also imagine opposing viewpoints.

The final grade will come from two in-class short essay exams (20%, 20%, both with opportunities for revision), a five-page out-of-class ethical inquiry paper (20%, with opportunity for revision), and active readiness and participation in class, including Canvas posts and discussion co-leading (40%).

Assigned weekly moderators will read the Canvas posts, incorporate them into class discussion, and provide feedback. Students will also receive instructor feedback posts, essay exams, and the paper. Writing assignments will be returned 1 week later and students have 1 week beyond that to submit their revised essays.

Grades: Two in-class short essay exams (20%, 20%, both with opportunities for revision); one five-page out-of-class ethical inquiry paper (20%, with opportunity for revision); active readiness and participation in class, including Canvas posts and discussion co-leading (40%).

Assigned weekly moderators will read the Canvas posts, incorporate them into class discussion, and provide feedback. Students will also receive instructor feedback posts, essay exams, and the paper. Writing assignments will be returned one week later and students have one week beyond that to submit revised versions.

Selected texts: Course packet including selections from Feldman, What We Owe Iraq; Chomsky, 9/11; Fotion, Military Ethics; Powers, A Problem from Hell; Singer, The Life You Can Save; Bass, Stay the Hand of Vengeance; Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars; and others.

The Politics of Capital

Description: How and to what extent do material conditions influence how people think, behave, and live? For generations, this question has occupied the minds of countless students and workers. Many of these people identify something called “capital” as an integral force in modern human existence. This class examines the repercussions of capital and the systems based around capital known as “capitalism.” We will discuss some of the most influential theorists of capitalism, its challengers, and its intersections with issues of gender, race, and the state.

Because the relevant literature is vast our coverage will necessarily be selective. Nonetheless, students who take the class will acquire a critical familiarity with arguments from leading figures in this area, including Adam Smith, Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Émile Zola, W.E.B. DuBois, Vladimir Lenin, Rosa Luxembourg, John A. Hobson, Max Weber, Joseph Schumpeter, Karl Polanyi, Antonio Gramsci, Fernand Braudel, Hannah Arendt, Eric Williams, Murray Bookchin, Paulo Freire, Immanuel Wallerstein, Cedric Robinson, Bryan Turner, Angela Davis, Thomas Ferguson, Timothy Mitchell, Charles Mills, David Roediger, Naomi Klein, and Thomas Piketty.

Grades: The seminar grade has four main components: (I.) individual reading and homework outside of seminar (20%), (II.) weekly readiness for student-driven discussion (25%), (III.) three short writing assignments (30%), and (IV.) a research paper or exam (25%).  

Selected texts: Course packet. Ellen Meiksen Wood, The Origin of Capitalism: A Longer View; David Harvey, A Companion to Marx's Capital; Eric Williams, Capitalism and Slavery; Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition; Murray Bookchin, The Ecology of Freedom; Timothy Mitchell, Carbon Democracy; Thomas Piketty, Capital in the Twenty-First Century; others.

The Signature Course (UGS 302 and 303) introduces first-year students to the university’s academic community through the exploration of new interests. The Signature Course is your opportunity to engage in college-level thinking and learning.

No prerequisites.

Course description: 

This course addresses how United States officials have formed and pursued their ideas of national security from the Spanish-American War of 1898 to the Arab Spring of 2011. The class will focus on the patterns and effects of US political and military interventions abroad. We will give particular attention to US foreign policy in the Middle East, including the United States' relationships with such influential countries as Egypt, Iran, Israel, and Saudi Arabia. 

Grading policy: 

Map and history quiz (10%), Exam 1 (30%), Exam 2 (30%), Exam 3 (30%).

Texts:

There is no textbook for this course. 

Authoritarianism (GOV and MES) - upper division with writing flag and independent inquiry flags

Description:

This upper-division course is designed for students in Government, Middle Eastern Studies, and other fields who want to learn about the phenomenon of modern authoritarianism and how scholars study it. Authoritarianism is often defined, minimally, as any form of government short of electoral democracy. Some specialists and laypersons, however, consider authoritarianism not as the absence of democracy but as a system that violates individual liberty in the pursuit of some competing political goal. This course will address various forms of authoritarianism, from labor repression in the Appalachian Valley of the United States of America to the absolutist monarchies of the Middle East. By the end of the course, students will have a working knowledge of current theories and debates about authoritarianism, especially in political science.

Grades:

4 short quizzes (20%); 4  writing assignments (60%); End of semester presentation (20%)

Texts:

Course packet with significant articles and book sections on authoritarianism.

The most common regime type in history is authoritarianism, a category encompassing all forms of undemocratic rule, from absolutist monarchies to military juntas and single-party states. This graduate seminar considers modern manifestations of authoritarianism in comparison with popularly accountable rule, whether limited or democratic. The class will focus on explanations of large-scale variations in economic and social structures. Institutionalist and behavioral accounts will also be addressed. Students will be assigned to read and critique major scholarly monographs, chapters, and articles on the course topic. They may be asked to assess novels and films as well. Cases will come mainly, but not totally, from Europe and the Middle East.  

Grading policy: Grades will be based on a series of short and long writing assignments (50%), as well as active seminar participation, including in-class presentations (50%).

Texts: Williams and Colomb, Style: The Basics of Clarity and Grace (4th ed.); Thomas Ertman, The Birth of the Leviathan; Arno Mayer, The Persistence of the Old Regime;  Huntington, Political Order in Changing Societies; Brooker, Non-Democratic Regimes (2nd ed.); Kapuscinski, The Emperor; Boudreau, Resisting Dictatorship; Svolik, The Politics of Authoritarian Rule

The Signature Course (UGS 302 and 303) introduces first-year students to the university’s academic community through the exploration of new interests. The Signature Course is your opportunity to engage in college-level thinking and learning.

No prerequisites.

Course description:

This course addresses how United States officials have formed and pursued their ideas of national security from the Spanish-American War of 1898 to the Arab Spring of 2011. The class will focus on the patterns and effects of US political and military interventions abroad. We will give particular attention to US foreign policy in the Middle East, including the United States' relationships with such influential countries as Egypt, Iran, Israel, and Saudi Arabia. 

Grading policy:

Map and history quiz (10%), Exam 1 (30%), Exam 2 (30%), Exam 3 (30%).

Texts:

There is no textbook for this course. 

Authoritarianism (GOV and MES) - upper division with writing flag and independent inquiry flags

Description: This upper-division course is designed for students in Government, Middle Eastern Studies, and other fields who want to learn about the phenomenon of modern authoritarianism and how scholars study it. Authoritarianism is often defined, minimally, as any form of government short of electoral democracy. Some specialists and laypersons, however, consider authoritarianism not as the absence of democracy but as a system that violates individual liberty in the pursuit of some competing political goal. This course will address various forms of authoritarianism, from labor repression in the Appalachian Valley of the United States of America to the absolutist monarchies of the Middle East. By the end of the course, students will have a working knowledge of current theories and debates about authoritarianism, especially in political science.

Grades: 4 short quizzes (20%); 4  writing assignments (60%); End of semester presentation (20%)

Texts: Course packet with significant articles and book sections on authoritarianism.

The most common regime type in history is authoritarianism, a category encompassing all forms of undemocratic rule, from absolutist monarchies to military juntas and single-party states. This graduate seminar considers modern manifestations of authoritarianism in comparison with popularly accountable rule, whether limited or democratic. The class will focus on explanations of large-scale variations in economic and social structures. Institutionalist and behavioral accounts will also be addressed. Students will be assigned to read and critique major scholarly monographs, chapters, and articles on the course topic. They may be asked to assess novels and films as well. Cases will come mainly, but not totally, from Europe and the Middle East.  

Grading policy: Grades will be based on a series of short and long writing assignments (50%), as well as active seminar participation, including in-class presentations (50%).

Texts: Williams and Colomb, Style: The Basics of Clarity and Grace (4th ed.); Thomas Ertman, The Birth of the Leviathan; Arno Mayer, The Persistence of the Old Regime;  Huntington, Political Order in Changing Societies; Brooker, Non-Democratic Regimes (2nd ed.); Kapuscinski, The Emperor; Boudreau, Resisting Dictatorship; Svolik, The Politics of Authoritarian Rule

The Signature Course (UGS 302 and 303) introduces first-year students to the university’s academic community through the exploration of new interests. The Signature Course is your opportunity to engage in college-level thinking and learning.

Authoritarianism

The most common regime type in history is authoritarianism, a category encompassing all forms of undemocratic rule, from absolutist monarchies to military juntas and single-party states. This graduate seminar considers modern manifestations of authoritarianism in comparison with popularly accountable rule, whether limited or democratic. The class will focus on explanations of large-scale variations in economic and social structures. Institutionalist and behavioral accounts will also be addressed. Students will be assigned to read and critique major scholarly monographs, chapters, and articles on the course topic. They may be asked to assess novels and films as well. Cases will come mainly, but not totally, from Europe and the Middle East. 

Grading policy: Grades will be based on a series of short and long writing assignments (50%), as well as active seminar participation, including in-class presentations (50%).

Texts: Williams and Colomb, Style: The Basics of Clarity and Grace (4th ed.); Thomas Ertman, The Birth of the Leviathan; Arno Mayer, The Persistence of the Old Regime;  Huntington, Political Order in Changing Societies; Brooker, Non-Democratic Regimes (2nd ed.); Kapuscinski, The Emperor; Boudreau, Resisting Dictatorship; Svolik, The Politics of Authoritarian Rule

The Signature Course (UGS 302 and 303) introduces first-year students to the university’s academic community through the exploration of new interests. The Signature Course is your opportunity to engage in college-level thinking and learning.

no prerequisites

Course description:

This course addresses how United States officials have formed and pursued their ideas of national security from the Spanish-American War of 1898 to the Arab Spring of 2011. The class will focus on the patterns and effects of US political and military interventions abroad. We will give particular attention to US foreign policy in the Middle East, including the United States' relationships with such influential countries as Egypt, Iran, Israel, and Saudi Arabia. 

Grading policy:

Map and history quiz (10%), Exam 1 (30%), Exam 2 (30%), Exam 3 (30%).

Texts. There is no textbook for this course. 

Course Description:

The course will examine how social scientists have explained major problems in the Middle East and North Africa. Topics will include authoritarianism, women's rights, popular protests, natural resource wealth, war, and foreign intervention. We will read and discuss a variety of recent books and articles from the scholarly literature.     

Grading Policy:  

Grades will be based on a combination of writing assignments, oral presentations, and regular in-class participation,      

Texts:  

Bayat, Life as Politics; Charrad, States and Women's Rights; Jones, Desert Kingdom; Mitchell, Carbon Democracy; Stacher, Adaptable Autocrats,     

The Signature Course (UGS 302 and 303) introduces first-year students to the university’s academic community through the exploration of new interests. The Signature Course is your opportunity to engage in college-level thinking and learning.

Course Description

In spring 2011, Egypt was described in American media as the “anchor” of US policy in the Middle East, a “strategic cornerstone,” and “the most important Arab country.” This course helps explain how Egypt came to occupy such a prominent place. Our analysis will move chronologically from the struggle for independence in the early 20th century to the January 25, 2011 Revolution that toppled long-ruling Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak. Students will be asked to read carefully and write clearly. Class discussions and assignments will require comprehending and critiquing the assigned material.

Course Requirements

Upper-division standing required.

6 semester hours of lower-division coursework in government.

Grading policy

Grades will be based on response papers (20%), exams (40%), attendance (20%), and in-class debates (20%).

Texts

Rabab El Mahdi and Philip Marfleet, Egypt: The Moment of Change.

William Strunk, E. B. White and Roger Angell, The Elements of Style, 4th ed.

Other readings to be determined.

Research Methods and Qualitative Analysis in Social Science

Introduction to the theoretical debates and nuts-and-bolts surrounding the main tools of qualitative methodology, including archival research and interviewing.

Grading policy

Grades will be based on in-class participation (40%), response papers (30%) and project proposals (30%).

Texts

Catherine Boone, Political Topographies of the African State.

David Collier, ed., Rethinking Social Inquiry.

For a complete list of texts visit the Amazon.com Listmania page for Research Methods and Qualitative Analysis in Social Science.

In spring 2011, Egypt was described in American media as the “anchor” of US policy in the Middle East, a “strategic cornerstone,” and “the most important Arab country.” This course helps explain how Egypt, the most populous country in the Middle East, came to occupy such a prominent place. Our analysis will move chronologically from state-building under Muhammad Ali in the early 19th century to the January 25, 2011 Revolution that toppled long-ruling Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.

We will draw upon a range of works from the humanities and social sciences, including academic articles, novels, and films. Students will be asked to read carefully and write clearly. Class discussions and assignments will require comprehending and critiquing the assigned texts.

Course Requirements: 

Map quiz                                                                                                10%

Three short answer and multiple-choice exams (20% each)                        60%

Attendance and participation                                                                        30%

Primary course texts:

Afaf Lutfi Al-Sayyid Marsot, A Short History of Modern Egypt (1985). Additional texts to be determined. There will also be course packet of other readings.

Government 312L satisfies the second half of the mandated six hours of government that every UT student must take.  Course covers analysis of varying topics concerned with American political institutions and policies, including the United States Constitution, and assumes basic knowledge of government from GOV 310L, which is a prerequiste. May be taken for credit only once.

Government 312L satisfies the second half of the mandated six hours of government that every UT student must take.  Course covers analysis of varying topics concerned with American political institutions and policies, including the United States Constitution, and assumes basic knowledge of government from GOV 310L, which is a prerequiste. May be taken for credit only once.

Please contact the graduate coordinator for more information.

Government 312L satisfies the second half of the mandated six hours of government that every UT student must take.  Course covers analysis of varying topics concerned with American political institutions and policies, including the United States Constitution, and assumes basic knowledge of government from GOV 310L, which is a prerequiste. May be taken for credit only once.

Government 312L satisfies the second half of the mandated six hours of government that every UT student must take.  Course covers analysis of varying topics concerned with American political institutions and policies, including the United States Constitution, and assumes basic knowledge of government from GOV 310L, which is a prerequiste. May be taken for credit only once.

Please check back for updates.

Please check back for updates.

Please check back for updates.

Please check back for updates.

Please check back for updates.

Please check back for updates.

Please check back for updates.

Please check back for updates.