Upset by the dominance of American pop music and movies, the French grant a multimillion dollar subsidy to the most expensive French movie ever made. The plot? Plucky Gauls (in horned hats and hides) fight off cultural invasion. China welcomes Mulan but would have preferred Mickey Mouse. The Iranian Parliament bans the word "sandwich"; McDonald's opens in Moscow to a waiting line of hundreds. Bombs go off in a Planet Hollywood restaurant in Cape Town. If Americans notice these events, they respond either by pointing out that cultural restrictions are not only antidemocratic but also thinly disguised economic protectionism, or by feeling embarrassed and guilty over the power of their trashy culture-or both. Yet small-town Americans, as Emily Thorson points out, often react with the same outrage to a proposed new Walmart. This seminar will focus on the (alleged) phenomenon of cultural imperialism, exploring its nature, its extent, its effects, its mechanisms, its variety, and its defensibility. Format: seminar. Requirements: four papers, class participation. No prerequisites. Enrollment limit: 18. (Restricted to first- and second-year students.)
PSCI 101(F) (Section 04) Activism
Acting up politically gets people in trouble, but it also gets things done.
When the people and the issue they attack stretch across national borders, the
consequence is not only to affect the way governments deal with a problem, but
also to reorient patterns of political interest, fellow feeling, knowledge,
and value from state-centered to transnational networks: international activists
create new institutions as they avoid old ones. Yet activists can cause problems
for the people they intend to help, infantilizing the needy, screwing up, and
then running back to headquarters, leaving local people with the mess. Although
the activities of international nongovernmental organizations (NGO) and social
movements are often seen as inept and harmless, in reality they present opportunities
to do a great deal, of both good and harm. This seminar will review the tradition
of direct action, consider whom action is supposed to benefit (the doer or the
done-to?), and look at cases of success and failure. Examples which will ground
our discussion include the anti-slavery movement, environmentalism, anti-war/nuclear
freeze, AIDS activism, and social justice.Requirements: three papers.
Prerequisites: none Restrictions: this class is limited to 18 and open only
to first- and second-year students; preference will be given to those who have
not taken another 101.
PSCI 101 (Section 02) Seminar: Moral and Political Reasoning (Not offered 2001-2002; to be offered 2002-2003)+
How do we make difficult moral decisions: from empathy and concern, or impartial reason? How should we make moral decisions? Do justice and morality require that we give equal consideration to everyone in society? And what about concern for the lives and conditions of people outside one's country? Moral and political thinkers have always disagreed on the motives and considerations that should guide people's judgements. Nowhere is this disagreement more apparent than in political theory and practice. When considering whether a public policy is fair and just, some say we should consider only whether it contributes to the overall or public good. Others say we should pay attention to how a policy affects specific groups-or even how a policy or action affects those we love. This course examines these and other dilemmas in our moral and political reasoning and decision-making by examining both classic texts in moral and political theory and recent readings on concrete issues, such as abortion, the morality of public officials, refugee policy, and human rights. Seminar style, discussion based format. Requirements: class participation, a weekly 1-page critical response piece, three written assignments of 5 to 8 pages (with mandatory drafts and rewrites), and final exam. Enrollment limit: 18. Open only to first-year students; others with permission of instructor.
PSCI 101(S) (Section 03) Small is Beautiful: The Greens and Globalization
While best known for their environmental politics, Greens are interested in considerably more than just dolphin-safe tuna and renewable energy. Their political agenda includes reorienting global trade, reducing the power of transnational corporations, even advancing alternative models for the organization of the international system. Greens in Europe, North America and around the world are offering an increasingly distinctive critique of globalization rooted not so much in the evils of capitalism as in the size of human institutions. In short, they contend that the destruction of not only the natural environment but of political democracy and even human society is an outgrowth of the largeness of our states and our economies. This course examines contemporary global trends-including expanding international trade and investment, the growth of international political authority, the industrialization of food production, global climate change-from a Green perspective and critically engages the fundamental Green strategy of subsidiarity and localization. We will read some classic texts of Green decentralist thinking (including Leopold Kohr's The Overdeveloped Nations and E. F. Schumacher's Small is Beautiful), assess what globalization is, evaluate the Green critique of it, study the successes (and failures) of Green parties in Europe, and debate the feasibility of Green alternatives to the liberal new world order. Format: lecture/discussion. Requirements: three short papers, final exam, class participation. No prerequisites. Expected enrollment: 50-60.
Hour: PAUL