17.S950
Special Graduate Subject in Political Science
Open to qualified graduate students who would like to pursue special studies or projects. Please consult graduate administration prior to registration.
Fall 2018 · Emotions and Politics
This course is premised on the belief that emotions are a fundamental part of human nature. Accordingly, understanding emotions and incorporating emotions into our research can help us better explain variation in important political phenomena. Research on emotions and how emotions can influence decision-making has dramatically increased over the past two decades. This class aims to pick up on new findings from psychology and other disciplines and marshal this knowledge toward the most important issues of political science.
Readings
- Elster, Jon. “Emotional Choice and Rational Choice.” Chapter 11 in The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Emotion . Edited by Peter Goldie. Oxford University Press, 2012. ISBN: 9780199654376.
- Damasio, Antonio. “Emotions and Feelings.” Chapter 7 in Descartes’ Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain . Penguin Books, 2005. ISBN: 9780143036227.
- Smith, Adam. “Of the Corruption of Our Moral Sentiments, Which is Occasioned by This Disposition to Admire the Rich and the Great, and to Despise or Neglect Persons of Poor and Mean Condition.” Part I, Section III, Chapter III in The Theory of Moral Sentiments . Digireads.com, 2018. ISBN: 9781420958454.
- ———. “Resentment.” Chapter 3 in Understanding Ethnic Violence: Fear, Hatred, and Resentment in Twentieth-Century Eastern Europe . Cambridge University Press, 2002. ISBN: 9780521007740.
- ———. “We Teach These Things to Each Other.” Chapter 8 in The Politics of Resentment: Rural Consciousness in Wisconsin and the Rise of Scott Walker . University of Chicago Press, 2016. ISBN: 9780226349114.
- Tripp, Thomas M. and Robert J. Bies. “‘Righteous’ Anger and Revenge in the Workplace: The Fantasies, the Feuds, the Forgiveness.” Chapter 24 in International Handbook of Anger: Constituent and Concomitant Biological, Psychological, and Social Processes . Edited by Michael Potegal, Gerhard Stemmler, and Charles Spielberger. Springer, 2010. ISBN: 9780387896755.
- Petersen, Roger, and Sarah Zukerman. “Anger, Violence, and Political Science.” Chapter 32 in International Handbook of Anger: Constituent and Concomitant Biological, Psychological, and Social Processes . Edited by Michael Potegal, Gerhard Stemmler, and Charles Spielberger. Springer, 2010. ISBN: 9780387896755.
- Frijda, Nico H. “The Lex Talionis: On Vengeance.” Chapter 10 in Emotions: Essays on Emotion Theory . Edited by Stephanie H.M. Van Goozen, Nanne E. Van de Poll, and Joseph A. Sergeant. Psychology Press, 1994. ISBN: 9780805812084.
- Renshon, Jonathan, and Jennifer S. Lerner. “Decision-Making, the Role of Emotions in Foreign Policy.” The Encyclopedia of Peace Psychology . Edited by Daniel J. Christie. Wiley-Blackwell, 2012. ISBN: 9781405196444.
- ———. “Conclusion.” Chapter 6 in Emotional Choices: How the Logic of Affect Shapes Coercive Diplomacy . Oxford University Press, 2018. ISBN: 9780198794349.
- ———. “Globalization, Identity, and Emotions.” Chapter 1 in The Geopolitics of Emotion: How Cultures of Fear, Humiliation, and Hope are Reshaping the World . Anchor, 2010. ISBN: 9780307387370.
- ———. “The Culture of Humiliation.” Chapter 3 in The Geopolitics of Emotion: How Cultures of Fear, Humiliation, and Hope are Reshaping the World . Anchor, 2010. ISBN: 9780307387370.
- WEEK #: 13 · TOPICS: Wrap Up · READINGS: No readings assigned
Fall 2016 · Social Science and the Iraq and Syrian Wars
Topics
- Broad Theory
- Iraq Background and Empirical Overview
- State-Building, Nation-Building, Democracy
- Strategy I: Hearts and Minds; Not Winning Hearts and Minds; Mechanization/Indiscriminate Violence
- Partition and Homogenization
- Community Mobilization/Indirect Rule
- Decapitation and Collateral Damage
- Organizations and Networks
- Syria Reports, Getting Up to Speed
- Syria II Topics
- Syria III
- Comparing Across Space and Time
- Conclusions
Readings
- Required Text
- Chapters 1 and 2 in Christia, Fotini. Alliance Formation in Civil Wars . Cambridge University Press, 2012. ISBN: 9781107683488.
- Pages 69-91 in Schelling, Thomas C. Arms and Influence . Yale University Press, 2008. ISBN: 9780300143379.
- Chapters 4 and 5 in Kalyvas, Stathis N. The Logic of Violence in Civil War . Cambridge University Press, 2006. ISBN: 9780521670043.
- International Crisis Group reports have a short executive summary and a full report. Read the executive summaries from the reports below and skim over the full reports.
- Chapters 3 and 4 in Tilly, Charles. Coercion, Capital, and European States . Oxford: Blackwell, 1992. ISBN: 9781557863683.
- Jackson, Colin. “Government in a Box? Counterinsurgency, State Building, and the Technocratic Conceit” in Gventer, Celeste Ward, David Jones, and M. Smith, eds. The New Counter-Insurgency Era in Critical Perspective . Springer, 2014. ISBN: 9781137336934.
- Three sources put out reports that will present facts as well as brief analyses. Depending on the progression of the course, we will read specific reports and articles from all three. The sources are:
Prerequisites & course information
Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Spring) Units arranged Can be repeated for credit.
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026–2027
- MIT OpenCourseWare ↗Fall 2018
- MIT OCW readings ↗
- MIT OpenCourseWare ↗Fall 2016
- MIT OCW calendar ↗
- MIT OCW syllabus ↗
- MIT OCW readings ↗
- Historical MIT OpenCourseWare offering. Named reading entries and schedule topics are automatically extracted from the linked source pages.
- Historical MIT OpenCourseWare offering. Named reading entries and schedule topics are automatically extracted from the linked source pages.