Welcome to PLS 342, Politics of Developing Areas
Welcome to Political Science 342! You will learn about all sorts of political
systems in all corners of the world and how these are intertwined with economic
and social systems in which they are embedded. I have established a number of
goals in this course, namely:
- To break down parochial thinking
that assumes that our political system is the best system in all respects
and that other political systems have value only to the extent that they
resemble the political system of the United States;
- To show the relationships
that exist between social systems, economic systems, and political
systems;
- To examine the social and
economic cleavages that produce conflict in political systems;
- To examine the global
inequalities in resources and the causes of global inequalities in their
economic, political, and moral dimensions;
- To examine recent
developments in six political systems and to illustrate how events all
over the world have an impact on our lives as U.S. citizens and residents.
I hope this is an interesting journey around
the world in 80 days! To access the course outline, lecture outline menu,
research sources/links, and important announcements, please click onto the
links at the beginning of this page.