Frontiers in Formal Theory and Comparative Politics

3 units

This course explores frontiers in comparative politics and political economy through formal modeling. Its aim is to equip PhD students to contribute to active literatures using contemporarytheoretical tools. Readings combine “pure” theory papers that have been fruitfully adapted into substantive political science research with comparative politics work that successfully incorporates formal-theoretic methods. This is not intended to be either a comparative politics survey or general-purpose course in formal theory. Our goal is instead to examine how selected cutting-edge formal tools can illuminate questions at the core of comparative politics, especially in settings where institutions are weak, politics is contested, and collective action is fragile. The course is organized around theoretical frameworks rather than substantive topics or regions. Each section pairs a “pure” theoretical paper (usually from economics) with an application in political science. The theory papers are demanding, but they represent the frontier of the modeling toolkit; the applied pieces demonstrate how these tools can be used to generate insights about autocracy, protest, representation, and democratic backsliding. Students are not expected to master every proof, but they are expected to engage the frameworks critically and think about how they might adapt them in their own work.