比较公共政策
课程教师
Iza (Yue) Ding
教师简介
Iza Ding (Ph.D. Harvard, 2016) is Associate Professor of Political Science. Her research explores the paradoxes and pushbacks attending economic, political, and cultural modernization, such as creative resistance against institutional rigidities, lingering moral traditions against legal development, enduring historical memories against rapid socioeconomic transformations, and humans' simultaneous degradation of nature and attachment to nature. Ding is the author of The Performative State: Public Scrutiny and Environmental Governance in China (Cornell University Press, 2022). She is currently working on a monograph on global historical waves of environmentalism.
课程内容
This course introduces students to important questions, theories, and concepts in comparative politics and policy, as well as basic tools of comparative political analysis. Every session, we explore one theoretical debate about an important phenomenon in world politics, such as economic development, political regimes, inequality, and climate change. We also explore debates about the role institutions, the state, and identity play in shaping public policy outcomes. These theoretical debates are examined through analyses of cases from across the globe, including countries in Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. In addition to knowledge of countries and history, this course teaches students how to be a critical consumer of political information, how to use the scientific method to analyze politics, and how to produce sound political analysis.
预期目标
Students will be familiar with some of the main concepts, theoretical debates in comparative and basic tools of the comparative method. They will learn how to look beyond the surface of events to look for deeper causes and explore how the past and present interact.
课程安排
Lecture | Topic (2.5 teaching hours) |
1 | Why and How to Compare |
2 | Modernization Theory and Its Critics |
3 | The Invisible Hand and Its Critics |
4 | The Politics of “Late Development” |
5 | Political Regimes |
6 | The State and State Capacity |
7 | Inequality and the Welfare State |
8 | Political Identity and Civi Society |
9 | Climate Change and the New Economy |
10 | Conclusion |
Reading list
Selected readings:
Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson. Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty. Crown Currency: 2012. Pages TBA.
Mariana Mazzucato, The Entrepreneurial State: Debunking Public vs. Private Sector Myths. Anthem, 2013. Pages TBA.
Diane Coyle. GDP: A Brief but Affectionate History. Princeton University Press: 2014. Pages TBA.
Documentary by Justin Pemberton. Capital in the Twenty-First Century. 2019. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5723056/
Thomas Piketty. Capital and Ideology. Harvard University Press: 2019. Pages TBA.
Branko Milanovic. “The illusion of ‘degrowth’ in a poor and unequal world.” Nov 18, 2017.
Jason Hickel. “Degrowth: A Response to Branko Milanovic.” Nov 2017, updated Oct 27, 2020.
Branko Milanovic. “The illusion of degrowth: Part II.” Nov 21, 2017.
Jason Hickel. “De-growth is feasible: people want a new economy.” Nov 22, 2017.
Student Assessment
Participation in class discussion
Quizzes
Midterm
Final
