Teaching
Undergraduate/MA courses
Electoral Rules and Their Consequences
For representative democracy to work, it requires a set of rules to determine who wins elections and gets to govern. These rules, which we call the electoral system, can vary in terms of how votes are cast, counted, and translated into seats, and differences in the rules can produce significantly different political outcomes, both directly (due to the way in which votes are counted) and indirectly (due to incentives that affect the behavior of political actors, such as voters and candidates). This undergraduate seminar surveys and analyzes the electoral systems used around the world and across the United States to show how electoral systems can affect voters, politicians, parties, policymaking, and representation. Students will learn how to collect and analyze data in order to write their own original analysis of a recent election.
Who Gets Represented?
Who serves in Congress and other legislatures, and do the backgrounds of politicians affect how policies are decided and which policies get adopted? This undergraduate seminar explores the political representation of different groups in society, and the consequences of representation for policy outcomes. Topics include the representation of women, racial and ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+, religious groups, geographic regions, class interests, and other social divisions. Students will learn how to collect and analyze data in order to conduct their own original research on the topic of representation.
This undergraduate/MA lecture course introduces important aspects of postwar Japanese politics, including elections, the party system, the policymaking process, and foreign policy, and examines the various ways in which scholars have attempted to explain development and change in these aspects over time. In the process of evaluating these changes, students will learn about: (1) important actors in Japanese politics (e.g., voters, politicians, political parties, and bureaucrats), (2) the positions that different actors take with respect to various policies, as well as the sources of these policy preferences and changes over time, and (3) the role of political institutions and history in structuring contemporary political behavior.
Graduate (MA/PhD) courses
Comparative Political Institutions
This is a graduate-level introduction to the comparative study of political institutions and their impact on various aspects of political behavior. Topics include regime types, presidential and parliamentary forms of government, federalism, electoral systems, parties, and coalitions. Students will gain an understanding of the main concepts, approaches, and analytical tools needed to carry out their own independent research in this field.
Descriptive and Substantive Representation
This is a graduate-level seminar focused on the descriptive representation of groups in politics, and the consequences of representation for substantive policy outcomes. Topics include the representation of women, racial and ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+, religious groups, geographic regions, class interests, and other social divisions, and how to understand the sources of variation in representation across time and institutional contexts. Students will gain an understanding of the main concepts, approaches, and analytical tools needed to carry out their own independent research in this field.