Monday, 1:30-4:20 PM — Meg Jacobs

In 1932, in the depths of the Great Depression, Americans voted Franklin Roosevelt into office. Roosevelt promised the country a “new deal” to combat the economic hardship millions were facing since the stock market crash of 1929.  The New Deal provided jobs, relief, a social safety net, electrification, labor rights, and more.  This seminar will explore the political and policy obstacles and accomplishments of the 1930s as a way of thinking about contemporary economic challenges. Students will learn about what succeeded and what failed nearly a century ago to shed light on current policy proposals. After learning about the New Deal, students will then design their own research question, using history as a lens through which to evaluate and better understand policy.

Meg Jacobs is a Senior Research Scholar in Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. 

Tuesday, 1:30-4:20 PM — John Londregan

The seminar has a dual purpose, on the one hand we will survey the literature on the consequences of regime type.  On the other hand, this seminar will represent the first installment of your apprenticeship as contributors to the academic literature, and so we will delve into the craft of writing a research paper on the consequences of regime type. Of course, these goals complement one another in a very natural fashion; the more you know about how research is conducted, the better you will understand the strengths and shortcomings of the existing literature on political regime type, while it is self evident that knowing more about the subject will enhance your effectiveness as a researcher. 

A repeated theme in our discussion will be the futility of attempting to separate the central issues of dictatorship, democracy, and development into “economic" and “political" spheres, the subject matter of this course is an alloy of economics, politics, and even philosophy. Some of the readings are technical, and I will indicate which these are. You are encouraged to work through the more technical papers, but you are not required to master them in detail. 

Because the consequences of regime type, especially and most directly with respect to political freedom, are so fraught, the policy implications of this research are particularly salient. This isn't simply an interesting problem on intellectual grounds. It is almost impossible not to care about the outcome.

John Londregan is Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton, where he works on political economy and political methodology. He is the author of Legislative Institutions in Chile, and he has published in political science and economics journals including the APSR, IO, World Politics, Political Analysis, the QJE and the Rand Journal of Economics. He is a founding member of the Academic Freedom Alliance and currently serves as President of the Princeton chapter of Phi Beta Kappa.  He earned his PhD at Princeton, and he has also taught at UCLA and at Carnegie-Mellon. 

Monday, 1:30-4:20 PM — Alin Coman

The spread of misinformation has become a growing issue in our increasingly complex, technology-driven world. This epidemic ranges from the circulation of isolated false claims through social networks to the formation of deeply ingrained, resilient conspiracy theories supported by close-knit groups. As a result, our societies are at risk of becoming vulnerable, diverting attention away from the welfare of their citizens. In this seminar, we will explore key social science literature to better understand the factors that fuel the spread of misinformation and conspiracy theories. Drawing on existing research, we will focus on two main areas: (a) the psychological and social factors that drive people to believe in conspiracy theories, and (b) strategies to combat this epidemic in our societies. Throughout the seminar, we will collaborate to design innovative research projects aimed at addressing these challenges.

Alin Coman is a Professor of Psychology and Public Affairs, with a joint appointment between the Psychology Department and the School of Public and International Affairs. His research involves empirical investigations of the formation of collective memories, the dynamics of collective beliefs, and the synchronization of collective emotions in networked communities. 

Monday, 1:30-4:20 PM — Timothy Nelson

The United States has a higher poverty rate than almost any other developed nation. Between one-fifth and one-quarter of American children live below the poverty line, despite our government declaring a “War on Poverty” over fifty years ago. The causes and consequences of poverty touch many areas, including jobs, housing, neighborhoods, race and gender dynamics, families, schools, the criminal justice system, and political structures at both local and national levels.

In this seminar, we will explore how poverty has been defined and measured, examine its underlying causes, and discuss its impact on people's lives. Topics will include theories of the culture of poverty, discrimination, concentrated poverty and housing markets, work and family dynamics, unequal schooling, and mass incarceration. We will also review the history of U.S. policies aimed at addressing domestic poverty and evaluate the effectiveness of current programs.

Timothy Nelson is a Lecturer in Sociology and Public Policy. 

Monday, 1:30-4:20 PM — Sophie Meunier

European integration is much more than the common currency shared by 20 of the 27 members of the European Union (EU). It is a process that has brought peace to bitter historical enemies, facilitated the economic growth of its members, and served as an attractive beacon that has stabilized the whole region and beyond. Yet it is now facing a multiplicity of simultaneous crises, from the Russian war in Ukraine to the fallout from Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic, from challenges posed by refugee flows to challenges to the rule of law.

In this seminar, we will learn about the history, institutions, and policy functions of the European Union. We will analyze successive stages in the integration process and ask why member states transferred so much power to the EU over the years. We will read and discuss sample works using different empirical strategies and methodologies, which examine the political consequences of these transfers of power and competences to the supranational entity, both at the domestic and at the international levels. And we will reflect on the simultaneous crises currently challenging European integration from all angles. 

The main purpose of the seminar is to give you all the tools, both substantive and methodological, to be able to produce independent research and write an academic-style paper. The main challenge will be for you to do three things simultaneously: learn substantively about European integration; build on the analytical research skills taught in SPI 299; and produce independent research in your JP.

Sophie Meunier is Senior Research Scholar at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University. She is Director of the EU Program at Princeton, former Director of the Program in Contemporary European Politics and Society (2022-2024), and former Acting Director of the Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination (2023-2024). She is the author of Trading Voices: The European Union in International Commercial Negotiations (Princeton University Press, 2005) and The French Challenge: Adapting to Globalization (Brookings Institution Press, 2001), winner of the 2002 France-Ameriques book award. She is also co-editor of several books on Europe and globalization, most recently Developments in French Politics 6 (Palgrave MacMillan 2020) and Speaking with a Single Voice: The EU as an Effective Actor in Global Governance? (Routledge, 2015). Meunier is the former Chair of the European Union Studies Association (2023-2024). Her current work deals with the politics of investment screening mechanisms and the European Union's recent geoeconomic turn, including as part of the PRISM project and the Beauty Contests grant. She was made Chevalier des Palmes Academiques by the French Government.

Monday, 1:30-4:20 PM — Grigore Pop-Eleches

After a long period of democratic expansion in much of the developing world, in recent years political observers have increasingly started to worry about democratic backsliding. While this trend started more than two decades ago in places like Russia or Turkey, it has since spread to new EU members (e.g. Hungary) and even established democracies. How much backsliding has actually happened and how worried should we be about the survival of democracy?

To answer these questions, we will first analyze several democracy indicators to establish temporal trends in different countries (and along different aspects of democracy.) Drawing on social science debates about the drivers of democracy/authoritarianism, we will then try to assess several different explanations of backsliding by analyzing statistical data (including public opinion surveys) and comparative case evidence. Students can write their research papers on any country/region, and use whatever mix of quantitative or qualitative methods they find most useful for answering their research questions.

Grigore Pop-Eleches is a Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton and is the co-director of the Princeton Workshop of Post-Communist Politics. His work focuses on comparative political behavior in authoritarian and post-authoritarian regimes, with a regional focus on Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. He has also written on the drivers of democratic backsliding and electoral support for nationalist and populist parties and candidates. 

Monday, 1:30-4:20 PM — Markus Prior

Does public policy—laws, rules, and regulations—reflect what the public wants? This seminar offers an introduction to public opinion and its role in the policy-making process. How do we know “what the public wants”? What if “the public” cannot agree or does not know what “it” wants? What are the channels by which public opinion affects lawmakers? Under what conditions do elected officials ignore the public?

The seminar will prepare students to analyze survey data. This entails understanding question design, questionnaire development, as well as operationalization and measurement of issue opinions and policy preferences. Substantive topics include identity, the role of political knowledge, and non-attitudes. Readings and discussion will focus on the United States, but students may examine public opinion in other countries for their independent papers.            

Markus Prior is Professor of Politics and Public Affairs, Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. 

Monday, 1:30-4:20 PM — Eric Tate

Water is a critical resource, essential for sustaining life, growing food, producing energy, and supporting communities. Yet its availability, quality, and management are facing growing threats from human activities and climate change. Through the lens of water sustainability, this course examines major contemporary issues related to water resources, and the quantitative and spatial analysis methods employed to evaluate them.

The main objective of the seminar is to provide you with the thematic background and tools to pose research questions, analyze them with data, and document your findings in an academic-style paper. The course pairs research methodology with intersecting environmental, social, and policy dimensions of water. We will learn about the leading water resources challenges through readings, case studies, presentations, and discussion. Through instruction and independent research, you will build skills in research design, data collection, data analysis, and the writing process. At the conclusion of the course, you will have completed a junior paper that analyzes a water-related challenge and describes actionable policy solutions to address it.

Eric Tate is a professor of public affairs in the School of Public and International Affairs. His research areas include flood hazards, social inequity, and water resources, using spatial indicators to explore interactions among society and environment that generate disasters. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Anthropocene Alliance; on the Resilient America Roundtable of the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering, & Medicine; as co-chair of the National Academies study committee on spatial screening tools for environmental justice; and as co-author of the Adaptation chapter of the Fifth National Climate Assessment. He is also an HMEI associated faulty member where he is affiliated with the Climate Futures Initiative for Science, Values and Policy, and the Grand Challenges Program. 

Monday, 1:30-4:20 PM — Julian Zelizer

This seminar explores the Biden presidency through the lens of public policy, examining its impact across a range of key areas, including immigration, higher education, reproductive rights, race relations, economic development, health care, trade, Ukraine, the Middle East, and more. Students will engage in weekly readings and discussions to critically assess the administration’s policy agenda and legacy. Each participant will also conduct an original research project over the course of the semester, developed in consultation with Professor Zelizer.

New York Times best-selling author Julian E. Zelizer is the Malcolm Stevenson Forbes, Class of 1941 Professor of History and Public Affairs at Princeton University, a columnist for Foreign Policy, and publishes a Substack newsletter called The Long View. He is also a regular guest on NPR’s "Here and Now" and a popular analyst on multiple television and radio networks. He is the award-winning author and editor of 27 books, including The Fierce Urgency of Now: Lyndon Johnson, Congress, and the Battle for the Great Society, the winner of the D.B. Hardeman Prize for the Best Book on Congress and Burning Down the House: Newt Gingrich, The Fall of a Speaker, and the Rise of the New Republican Party. The New York Times named the book as an Editor's Choice and one of the 100 Notable Books in 2020. His most recent books are Abraham Joshua Heschel: A Life of Radical Amazement and The Presidency of Donald J. Trump: A First Historical Assessment (Editor), Myth America: Historians Take on the Biggest Lies and Legends About Our Past (co-edited with Kevin Kruse), and Our Nation at Risk: Election Security as a National Security Issue (co-edited with Karen Greenberg). He is currently working on a new book about the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and the 1964 Democratic Convention entitled ‘Is this America?’: Reckoning with Racism at the 1964 Atlantic City Democratic Convention and an edited volume, The Presidency of Joseph Biden Jr: A First Historical Assessment. Zelizer has published over 1400 op-eds and received fellowships from the Brookings Institution, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, the New York Historical Society, Penn Washington, and New America. His most recent book, published in January 2005, is In Defense of Partisanship (Columbia Global Reports).

Monday, 1:30-4:20 PM — Corinne McConnaughy

Do women want something different than men from the state? Do they need the state to provide for them in different ways? Has their formal incorporation into institutional politics changed how the policy process works? Can and have they made any particular demands upon the state more effectively than men because of gendered processes or influence? Does gender construct particular challenges to seeking policy change? These are the central questions of this course.

As we discuss a range of policy topics, we’ll consider the range of ways that gender enters—how it forms our normative notions of what the state should provide, how gendered life experiences can create differences in men’s and women’s policy needs and values, whether and how policies contribute to gender (in)equality, and how gender is strategically used to create political support or opposition for policies.

Corrine McConnaughy holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Michigan and is a Lecturer and Research Scholar in the Department of Politics and co-director of Princeton Research in Experimental Social Science (PRESS). Her research is focused on the function of American democracy, including its responsiveness to organized groups. Her work has appeared in journals such as the American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, Public Opinion Quarterly, Public Choice, Studies in American Political Development and American Politics Research and she is author of the book The Woman Suffrage Movement in America: A Reassessment (Cambridge, 2013). 

Monday, 1:30-4:20 PM — Stacy Mann

In this seminar we will examine efforts over time and around the world to grapple with grievous systemic wrongs perpetrated against indigenous and peasant communities. We employ a comparative framework to illuminate consistencies and nuances over time and space. We ask what lessons these distinct instances of harm – at the hemispheric, regional, national and subnational levels -- offer theories of repair.

Colonialism, imperialism, genocide, enslavement, apartheid, extra-judicial terror, land theft, exploitation, and exclusion: History testifies loudly to the human capacity for systemic domination and cruelty. Recognizing that the consequences of such harm can never be fully undone, we will study struggles for acknowledgement, reckoning, justice, reconciliation, repair, and in some cases transformation. We will consider why claims by some aggrieved groups find traction while others are thwarted. This requires paying close attention to grassroots organizing, diasporic movements and representation; to the role of states and transnational governing bodies; to racialized capitalism; and to fundamentalist movements and ideologies. In addition, we will take stock of the ways that language, popular culture, the media, and institutions including academia can strengthen (or quash) movements for liberation. Each student will devise an original research question and design a research agenda culminating in a junior paper. 

Anastasia Mann is an historian of the 20th and 21st Century US (PhD, Northwestern, 2003). Her teaching, writing, and organizing focus on the ways that states have systematically enhanced the capabilities of some groups while blocking others. Her work looks at creative and energetic often coalition-based movements for universal dignity and justice. 

Formerly a policy analyst at New Jersey Policy Perspective, Mann was inaugural director of Rutgers University’s Program on Immigration and Democracy. Appointed by the governor to the first-ever New Jersey Commission on New Americans, Mann is inaugural director of SPIA in NJ which takes an evidence-based and community-informed approach to policymaking at the state and local level by connecting The School to communities, advocates, and elected officials advancing democratic practice throughout the Garden State.

Monday, 1:30-4:20 PM — Florenica Torche

Despite widespread commitments to equality, stark disparities in income, opportunity, and mobility persist across the globe. In recent decades, inequality has risen in many high-income countries, while deep material deprivation continues to affect large populations in low- and middle-income countries. Why, despite economic growth and technological progress, does inequality remain so widespread? And what can public policy do to address it?

This seminar explores these questions by examining global trends in inequality and mobility, the mechanisms that produce and sustain unequal outcomes, and the consequences of inequality for individuals and societies. We will consider questions such as: Is inequality “too much of a good thing”? What are the effects of globalization on low-income countries? What are fair and effective strategies for addressing climate change in an unequal world? Is inequality bad for population health? Can intergenerational mobility compensate for high inequality? How can education systems contribute to greater equality?

Throughout the course, we will draw on empirical research, normative debates, and international case studies to understand how public policy both can reflect and reshape the distribution of opportunity around the world.

Florencia Torche is Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs. Her research studies intergenerational mobility, education, and early-life determinants of population health and wellbeing. Prior to joining Princeton, she has taught at CUNY, NYU, and more recently Stanford University. 

Monday, 1:30-4:20 PM — Hye Young You

What do Apple Inc., Princeton University, the National Rifle Association, and the American Farm Bureau Federation have in common? They are all interest groups - organizations that seek to shape public policy and political outcomes. Interest group politics lie at the heart of American democracy, influencing elections, policymaking, and representation.

This junior seminar explores how interest groups and citizens attempt to make their voices heard in the U.S. political system, with a focus on campaign finance, lobbying, and political access. Topics include:
(1) Who donates to political campaigns, and how do donors differ from non-donors?
(2) How do campaign finance laws shape electoral outcomes?
(3) How and why do interest groups target legislators, congressional staff, executive agencies, or the courts?
(4) How can we measure the policy influence of interest groups?
(5) Do different types of organizations—corporations, municipalities, foreign governments—pursue distinct political strategies?
(6) What role do political connections and officeholding play in interest group effectiveness?

As a junior seminar, this course emphasizes the development of independent research skills.

Students will engage closely with the academic literature, identify original research questions, and develop their junior papers under faculty guidance. The course is designed to support students through all stages of the research and writing process.

Professor Hye Young You is an expert on interest groups, campaign finance, and lobbying in American politics. Her research focuses on how interest groups influence democratic representation in the United States, with particular attention to the mechanisms and strategies they use to shape policy. By examining often-overlooked actors in the policymaking process, her work brings new insights into the role of organized interests in American democracy.

Monday, 1:30-4:20 PM — Nina Yancy

When you hear an American neighborhood described as “good” or “bad,” race is often lurking underneath. Why does the perception—and often the reality—of a place tend to differ based on the race of its residents? How did government policies (like redlining), market forces, and civil society help produce these differences? How does the legacy of segregation and the spaces it created (e.g., sensationalized Black ghetto, romanticized White suburb) inform contemporary policy debates? Is that legacy still relevant as metropolitan areas diversify and face new challenges like gentrification?

This seminar will examine the origins, severity, and implications of residential segregation by race across America’s cities and suburbs. We will explore how place has been “racialized” in the US; the relationship between segregation and inequality; the significance of both concentrated poverty and affluence; and potential strategies to address segregation’s harms. Throughout, we will discuss various methods in the study of race and place, such as interviews, case studies, survey research, and quantitative data analysis.

In their independent research, students will have the opportunity to investigate questions about the consequences of spatial inequality, the effectiveness of efforts to address it, the spatial dimensions of specific policy areas, and/or public opinion on related topics. Class discussions will focus on US metropolitan areas and emphasize the Black-White color line, but students are welcome to examine other contexts and lines of division in their junior papers.

Nina Yancy is a Lecturer at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. Her research interests lie at the intersection of geography, politics, and prejudice in the US context. She is the author of How the Color Line Bends: The Geography of White Prejudice in Modern America (Oxford, 2022), which explores the relationship between where White Americans live and their opinions on racialized policies. She also brings to her teaching several years of consulting experience, having advised public- and social-sector organizations on topics including workforce/economic development, education and reskilling, and promoting racial equity.

Monday, 1:30-4:20 PM — Xu Xu

Today, roughly half of the world's population lives under some form of non-democratic government—and this number is increasing. Although policymakers and human rights advocates have long celebrated the dawn of the Internet era, hoping that information and communication technology (ICT) would become a powerful tool for promoting freedom and democracy, two decades into the digital media age, a global wave of democratization has yet to materialize. In contrast, there is growing evidence that authoritarian governments and non-state actors are harnessing digital technologies to control information and maintain power.

In this course, we aim to understand how ICTs—including the Internet, social media, mobile devices, and computational methods—influence the ability of authoritarian regimes to exert control over their citizens. Specifically, we will address the following questions: Do the Internet and social media signal the end of authoritarian regimes? Do new technologies enable more extensive information control and surveillance? How do authoritarian governments employ censorship, propaganda, surveillance, and responsiveness to manage the ever-growing deluge of information? What factors shape the dynamics and mechanisms of information control? What are the implications of such control in authoritarian countries?

To answer these questions, we will review articles from leading social science and policy journals, as well as chapters from seminal academic books. A central objective in policy contexts is evaluating whether policies “work.” As such, this seminar will introduce students to methods of social science research and policy evaluation, with a particular focus on experiments and causal inference. The insights and skills gained from this course will equip students to undertake original research on the politics of information in authoritarian countries and beyond.

Xu Xu is Assistant Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University. Xu’s current research focuses on political repression and digital authoritarianism, with a particular emphasis on surveillance and social media propaganda. He is also working on projects that explore the politics of morality, public opinion on state repression, and state-society relations in China.