POLISCI 340
:
American Ideologies: Power & Choice
If there is a central organizing concept in political science, it is power. One of the fundamental
issues in the study of power is choice: who gets what, when, and why? This course examines the relationship
between power and choice. It focuses on the wide variety of ways political analysts have conceptualized power and
politics in the United States. Through a close and careful reading of a select number of representative texts, the
course examines the theoretical underpinnings, ideological content, and political implications of eight major
paradigms of American politics: liberalism, conservatism, Marxism, elite theory, pluralism, race, feminism, and
neo-conservatism. Lectures will provide students with the necessary background to situate each paradigm within its
proper historical, intellectual and analytical context.
