2009-2010 Bulletin 
    
    Apr 07, 2025  
2009-2010 Bulletin [ARCHIVED BULLETIN]

Political Science, Ph.D.

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The Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science degree program is designed to provide students with the in-depth knowledge of domestic and international politics and analytical skills required for careers in academia, the public sector, or private enterprise. Concentrations of study include American politics, comparative politics, political philosophy, public policy, world politics, and methods. Students may,within limits, design a second field relevant to their own interests and career objectives or choose from the existing fields.

Requirements. The basic requirements for the Ph.D. degree in political science are:

  1. A minimum of 72 units of graduate-level coursework:
    1. A two-course sequence in statistics and approaches to the field that fulfills the institutional requirement for one research tool (8 units).
    2. Demonstration of competence in a second research tool relevant to the student’s areas of study, such as an approved foreign language, advanced statistics, econometrics, or game theory (4 units).
    3. A 6-course sequence in each of two fields, a sequence that accords with the requirements set by the fields. (48 units).
  2. Successful completion of the written qualifying examinations in each of two major fields. Qualifying examinations are offered once in the fall and the spring semesters. An oral examination, if required, will be administered within two weeks of the written examination.
  3. Successful completion of the dissertation. The process begins with the preparation of a dissertation proposal, which must be defended by the student and approved by a three-person faculty committee. The final draft of the dissertation must be approved by the dissertation committee, and then orally defended in an open public forum.

Transdisciplinary Course Requirement. All students who enter the doctoral program are required to complete the transdisciplinary course requirement within the first two years of their program. For details on the requirement, see the “Doctor of Philosophy Degree ” section in this Bulletin.

Minimum GPA. A student must maintain a minimum of a B average (3.0) to remain in good standing within the Department of Politics and Policy. Falling below this level is grounds for terminating a student’s enrollment after 24 units of coursework. A Ph.D. candidate will not be permitted to take the Ph.D. qualifying exam if he or she does not have at least a B average.

American Politics Field

 

Core Course Requirement (4 units):

  • PP300 American Politics & Institutions 

Choose Five (5) additional courses from the following subfields (20 units) 

One (1) course from American Political Thought & Development 

  • PP301 American Political Development
  • PP310 The Presidency and the Constitution
  • PP315 Deliberative Democracy
  • PP451 The Federalist
  • PP457 John Locke 

Two (2) courses from National Institutions

  • PP326 American Constitutional Law I: Civil Liberties, OR
  • PP327 American Constitutional Law II: National Powers
  • PP305 Executive-Congressional Relations
  • PP306 Legislative Process & Public Policy
  • PP307 The Modern Presidency
  • PP315 Deliberative Democracy 

Two (2) courses from Individual & Collective Behavio

  • PP301 American Political Development
  • PP302 American Political Behavior
  • PP308 Political Psychology
  • PP309 Women and the Political Process
  • PP313 Representation and Elections
  • PP314 Political Parties in the U.S.
  • PP323 Racial, Ethnic & Social Minorities in American Politics
  • PP329 Public Opinion

 Students interested in designing a second major field must consult with a faculty advisor and submit the proposed field with coursework required and a field committee (from core faculty) to the Department Chair for approval.

 

 

Comparative Politics Field

 

  Core Course Requirement (8 units)   Choose two (2) courses from the following list: 

  • PP350 Comparative Political System
  • PP351 Comparative Institutional Analysis
  • PP352 Comparative Political Economy

  Choose at least two (2) thematic courses from the following list (8 units): 

  • PP354 Political Risk Analysis
  • PP360 Democracy & Democratization
  • PP362 Foreign and Defense Policy
  • PP368 Special Topics in Defense and Security Policy
  • PP369a Comparative Foreign Policy
  • PP371 Globalization & Diversity
  • PP373 The Domestic Politics of Foreign Economic Policy

  Choose at least two (2) regional courses from the following list (8 units): 

  • PP361 Comparative Politics of the Middle East
  • PP363 Asian Politics
  • PP366 Political & Economic Development in Latin America
  • PP375/POST 225 Politics of Africa

Political Philosophy Field

 

  Core Course Requirement (4 units):

  • PP450 Major Works in Political Philosophy

  Subfields: Choose one (1) course from each of the following subfields listed below (12 units):   Ancient & Medieval Political Philosophy

  • PP304 Ethics and Politics
  • PP456 Topics in Ancient Political Philosophy
  • PP456a Plato’s Laws
  • PP456b Thucydides
  • PP461a Classical Political Philosophy: Aristotle
  • PP461b Classical Political Philosophy: Cicero
  • PP464 Ethics and Politics: Aristotle and Cicero
  • PP465 Medieval Political Philosophy
  • PP466 Basic Concepts in Political Philosophy: Plato’s Republic

  Modern Political Philosophy

  • PP451 The Federalist
  • PP453 Idealism and Nihilism
  • PP457 The Political Philosophy of John Locke
  • PP457a The Political Philosophy of Rousseau
  • PP457b The Political Philosophy of Machiavelli
  • PP457c Political Philosophy of Montesquieu
  • PP458 The Problem of Freedom in Recent Political
  • PP459 Liberal Individualism and Communitarianism
  • PP468 American Political Thought and Development 

Contemporary Political Philosophy

  • PP454 Contemporary Figures in Political Philosophy: Ortega y Gasset and Arendt
  • PP455 Feminist Political Thought
  • PP462 Contemporary Political Theory
  • PP463 The Political Philosophy of Heidegger 

Expertise in Depth - Choose two (2) courses in one of the subfield areas (8 units) listed:

  • One (1) course should be a thematic, or “issue course
  • The second course should focus on the work of one theorist

Public Policy Field

 


  Core Courses (16 units)

  • PP330 Public Policy Process
  • PP338 Policy Design and Implementation
  • SPE318 Cost Benefit Analysis AND
  • PP331 Policy Evaluation

  Substantive Track (8 units) The following are examples of tracks in Policy:  Track 1: State and Local Economic Development  

  • PP346 Economic & Community Development
  • PP348 Seminar in Public Policy

Track 2: Environmental Policy 

  • SPE 349 Energy and Environmental Policy
  • SPExxx Environmental Economics (Pitzer) OR
  • SPE348 Regulatory Policy

  Track 3: Evaluation with SBOS  

  • PSY315z Comparative Evaluation Theory OR
  • PSY354 Evaluation Procedures (pre-requisite SPE315)
  • SPE348 Regulatory Policy (pre-requisite SPE315)

  Track 4: Education with SES  

  • EDUC525 The Politics of Inequality in Education
  • EDUC337 Issues in Contemporary Urban Education

  Track 5: Health Policy with SGH  

  • CGH300 Theoretical Foundations in Health Promotion and Education
  • CGH302 Epidemiology

  Track 6: National Institutions

  • PP306 Legislative Process & Public Policy
  • PP307 The Modern Presidency
  • PP328 Congress, The Presidency & The Administrative State

  Track 7: Political Participation

  • PP302 American Political Behavior
  • PP313 Representation and Elections
  • PP329 Public Opinion

  Track 8: Women and Policy

  • GOVT287 Women and the Law
  • GOVT290 Women & the Political Process

 

World Politics Field

 


  Core Course Requirement (12 units): 

  • PP400 World Politics
  • PP411 International Political Economy
  • PP362 Foreign & Defense Policy

 Choose one (1) course from each of three subgroups below (12 units): 

  • PP430 Perspectives in Conflict & Peace, OR
  • PP408 Seminar in World Politics 
     
  • PP438 Dynamic Modeling Seminar in Foreign & Defense Policy, OR
  • PP447 Seminar in Social Network Analysis, OR
  • PP448 Seminar in Computational and Agent Based Modeling
     
  • PP418 Seminar in International Political Economy, OR
  • PP412 Integration

 

Methods Field


  1. Complete one (1) of the following base sequences for your core tools requirements (16 units).  

Politics

  • TNDY401i Nature of Inquiry
  • PP481 Quantitative Research Methods
  • PP482 Advanced Quantitative Research Methods
  • PP487 Applied Data Analysis

  Economics

  • TNDY401i Nature of Inquiry
  • ECON308 Math for Economists I
  • ECON382 Econometrics I
  • ECON383 Econometrics II 


2. Complete Core Methods courses (8 units) 

  • SPE315 Game Theory
  • PP484 Experimental and Qualitative Methods 

3. Complete 4 additional classes from the list below (16 units):   Quantitative Methods

  • PP488 Bayesian Methods
  • PP489 Multilevel Modeling
  • ECON384 Econometrics III
  • PSYCH315 J Survey Research Methods
  • PSYCH315F Factor Analysis (only 2 units, combine with another 2 unit course)
  • PSYCH315H Structural Equation Modeling (only 2 units, combine with another 2 unit course)
  • PSYCH315N Meta Analysis (only 2 units, combine with another 2 unit course)

Formal Theory and Computational Modeling

  • PP448 Seminar in Computational Agent Based Modeling
  • SPE472 Complexity Theory in Economics and Politics
  • PP 438 Dynamic Modeling
  • Econ 317 Microeconomics II OR SPE317 Advanced Game Theory
  • Econ 316 Math Methods in Micro
  • PP447 Social Network Analysis

 

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