Hear It from the Profs
Knock Knock, Who's There?
It's visiting A/P Piero Stanig!
A newer face in the PS Department, A/P Piero Stanig is teaching PS4308 in the upcoming semester PSSOC took this opportunity to get to know A/P Piero Stanig a little better before the semester begins!
Q: Introduce yourself to us!
Prof Stanig: I am an Associate Professor of Political Science at Bocconi University (Milan, Italy). I am on leave from Bocconi and I have been a visiting Associate Professor at NUS and Yale-NUS since January 2022. This is going to be my last semester in Singapore as I am retaking service at Bocconi in January 2024.
Q: What are your specialisations or fields of research?
Prof Stanig: I work at the intersection between comparative politics and political economy, and in particular my research deals with voting behaviour, as driven by phenomena like trade globalization, automation of manufacturing, climate change concerns, and the transition to a greener economy.
Q: How would you describe your teaching style?
Prof Stanig: I try to explain material at the correct level of complexity, without oversimplifying the insights proposed by the papers we read. Hence students will learn "the real thing", not a watered-down version of it. At the same time, I do not assume (nor require) familiarity with advanced statistical methods and political economy mathematical modelling, so I work hard to make sure that even complex ideas are always accessible to the entire class.
Q: Are you looking forward to the new semester? Why so?
Prof Stanig: This course is based on the literature for a chapter of a book I am writing, so I am also road-testing some (semi-)original ideas about how various pieces of the literature connect to each other and what are the open questions that need to be addressed. Feedback on these ideas, and fresh perspectives from students, are extremely useful at this stage. This semester I plan to incorporate also a bit more literature on the economic drivers of voting behaviour in large democracies outside of Western Europe and the U.S. (e.g., India, Brazil, Indonesia), an area that is less developed in the quantitative Political Science literature, and one I know less about, so it's going to be novel both for students and for myself.
Any other things pertaining to yourself that you might want to share with the PS community?
Prof Stanig: I am a prototypical product of the era of globalization: I was born in a sleepy mid-sized city in Italy, but for the past twenty-plus years I have lived and worked only in cities with millions of inhabitants, in three continents--and taught courses in four continents. My kid was born in a very small town in the Italian Alps, but his first language is English and half of his cousins live in Java, the other half in Brooklyn.
PAGE | 04
KNOCK KNOCK, WHO'S
THERE?
Knock Knock, Who's There?
It's Dr. Elaine Tan!
A familiar face in the PS Department, Dr. Elaine Tan is teaching PS1101E in the upcoming semester PSSOC took this opportunity to get to know Dr Elaine Tan a little better before the semester begins!
Q: Introduce yourself to us!
Dr. Elaine: I am currently a Senior Lecturer in the Political Science department at NUS. I joined NUS immediately after my PhD in International Politics at the University of Aberystwyth. Prior to that, I was at Singapore’s Ministry of Law. I also did my undergraduate studies in Political Science as well as the University Scholars Programme at NUS!
Q: What are your specialisations or fields of research?
Q: Are you looking forward to the new semester? Why so?
Dr. Elaine: Yes, I am! I am teaching PS1101E
Introduction to Politics in the upcoming semester, which is always fun (at least for me), because I am introducing many students to the concepts and tools of Political Science for the first time. We usually get quite a diverse class, with students from different disciplines and faculties, so there is often an interesting conversation between people with varied academic backgrounds. I am also going to be involved in the HSS1000: Understanding Social Complexity course, which is taught by faculty members across the social sciences. This semester, we will be talking about the topic of crisis, and I am excited to hear my colleagues’ take on this.
Dr. Elaine: I am interested in the ideas and practices of the region, how they have developed, and how they fit (or don’t fit) within our international society. I find the notion of ‘regions’ fascinating because it underpins so much of how we think about and move about in the world. This notion informs the ways in which we imagine identities and belonging, it informs the formulation of global strategies (for example, think about the United States’ Indo-Pacific strategy and how that relies on a particular regional vision), and diplomatic practice, global governance, and international organisations are also often regionalised.
I am also interested, broadly speaking, in how materially weaker actors navigate international politics. I specialise in African international relations, and I am interested in how African state and non-state actors, who do not necessarily have the resources or capabilities of other international actors, are nevertheless able to exercise their agency in significant ways.
KNOCK
PAGE | 05
KNOCK, WHO'S THERE?
Knock Knock, Who's There?
It's Dr. Elaine Tan!
A familiar face in the PS Department, Dr. Elaine Tan is teaching PS1101E in the upcoming semester PSSOC took this opportunity to get to know Dr Elaine Tan a little better before the semester begins!
Q: How would you describe your teaching style?
Dr. Elaine: The foundation of my teaching practice is building a relationship with my students based on trust and compassion. My starting point as an educator is recognising that learning is difficult in all sorts of ways for students. Apart from being intellectually challenging, learning is also emotionally taxing Learning has to begin from a position of ignorance (if you already know everything, you are not learning), and this can result in a lot of uncertainty and anxiety. Students also have to manage the pressure of grade expectations, anxieties over future careers, and the vulnerability of being judged by instructors and peers (tutorial participation, anyone?).
Therefore, it is very important to me that my students trust me enough to share with me when these challenges get a bit too overwhelming. It is unlikely that I can solve your problems for you, but speaking to your instructors often reduces your anxiety, and you might get some good advice as well. It is also important to me that my classrooms are safe environments for students to share their thoughts. This does not just mean that everyone should be polite and respectful; I also expect everyone (including myself) to be kind.
Any other things pertaining to yourself that you might want to share with the PS community?
Dr. Elaine: At the point of writing, I have just been told by my physiotherapist that I have recovered sufficiently from an ACL injury to return to my usual sports activities, which I am inordinately excited about. I have been sharing this news with everyone who will listen (which now includes you), and my friends and family are quite sick of hearing about it.
THERE? PAGE | 06
KNOCK KNOCK, WHO'S
Q: Why have you chosen to offer this course?
Dr. Rebecca: I am offering this course because I think that there is significant interest among Political Science majors to study Singapore politics in greater depth and thus wanted to offer a higher level Comparative Politics course.
Q: How can this course be potentially relevant to other aspects of political science?
Dr. Rebecca: As the name suggests, the course shifts away from studying Singapore as a singular case study but instead uses comparative analysis to better understand how Singapore is different and similar to other case studies. The value of this approach is that students can apply the skills of making comparisons, generalisations, and drawing distinctions between different cases to many other aspects of Political Science, such as explaining the different origins and ideologies of various parties both within one political system and across multiple political systems
Q: What is/are the challenge(s) of this course?
Dr. Rebecca: The challenge of this course is that students are simultaneously expected to go in-depth into the Singapore case study while also grasping the breadth of cases that are introduced For instance, we can better understand the nuances of Singapore’s Westminster parliamentary system by comparing it to the Presidential system used in many Latin American countries.
Q: What is one thing all students of this course should take away/look forward to?
Dr. Rebecca: Personally, I think that the exciting part of this course is the broad range of cases that we’re studying. As a Political Science student, I used to enjoy studying contexts and systems that were very different from those that were familiar to me So hopefully students can look forward to the course making the familiar strange, and the strange familiar!
SEM 1 COURSE ALERT! PAGE | 07
Dr. Rebecca Tan Instructor rgtan@nus.edu.sg
Course Search @ Canvas
The results should show something like this.
Do remember to check that the course has the code "[2310]" affixed to them, which means that that course is indeed offered for the upcoming semester.
Alternatively, if you are looking for a specific course, simply key in the course code.
COURSE SEARCH@CANVAS PAGE | 13
Political Theory Comparative Politics International Relations Core/Methods Colour Legend Monday Governance & Public Policy PS3252 | Human Rights in International Politics 1400 — 1600
PS4209 | Public Organisation Theory and Practice 1200 — 1500 PS3271 | Public Policy Making 0800 — 1000 Thursday PS4882A| Globalisation, Security and the State 0900 — 1200 PS3273 | Singapore Politics in Comparative Perspective 0900 — 1200 PS3311 | International Ethnics 0800 — 1000 PS1101E | Introduction to Politics PS2238 | International Relations of Northeast Asia PS2258 | Introduction to Political Theory 1000 — 1200 1000 — 1200 1200 — 1400 AY23/24 SEMESTER 1 COURSES PS3232 | Democratic Theory 1200 — 1400 PAGE | 14 PS5111/PS5111R | Research Design in Political Science 1800 — 2100 Wednesday PS3265 | Civil Military Relations 0800 — 1000 PS4201 | Contemporary Political Theory 0900 — 1200 PS3276 | Comparative Political Behaviour 1600 — 1800 PS4881G | Politics of the Korean Peninsula 1200 — 1500 PS4311 | International Relations in Political Thought 1500 — 1800 Tuesday PS4203 | China's Foreign Policy 0900 — 1200 1000 — 1200 PS4308 | Economic Interest, Identities and Voting Behaviour 1500 — 1800 PS2240 | Introduction to Public Administration 1200 — 1400 PS5314/PS5314R | Seminar in International Relations 1800 — 2100 PS3237 | Women and Politics GES1034/GESS1024 | We The Citizens - Understanding Singapore's Politics 1400 — 1600
AY23/24 Semester 1 Courses
Political Theory Comparative Politics International Relations Core/Methods Friday Governance & Public Policy PS4229 | Politics of Knowledge 1200 — 1500 AY23/24 Semester
Courses Colour Legend PS2237 | Introduction to International Relations 1200 — 1400 PS4882D | Topics in IR: Politics in Global Migration 0900 — 1200 PS2255 | Politics of the Middle East 1600 — 1800 PS3257 | Political Inquiry 1600 — 1800 PS5312/PS5312R | Seminar in Comparative Politics 1800 — 2100 AY23/24 SEMESTER 1 COURSES PS2249 |Government & Politics of Singapore 1000 — 1200 PAGE | 15 PS4884 | Topics in Public Administration 0900 — 1200 Information for this page can be found at https://fass.nus.edu.sg/pol/timetable/ This timetable is subject to changes, do double-check the website for the latest version of the course timetables for the most accurate information.
1
LEVEL 1000 COURSES
ALL course content is subject to change, and will only be finalised at the start of the semester.
Instructor polbilve@nus.edu.sg
The course initiates students into the workings of politics from the perspective of citizenship. What constitutes citizenship? What are the roles, duties and obligations of being a Singapore citizen? How do citizens interact and impact politics and decision making in Singapore? How have changes over the years, including (a) perspective of Singapore’s political history, (b) imperatives shaping national politics, (c) the political system, (d) its key structures and approaches to nation building, affected national politics and in turn, led to the political elites responding to changing demands of citizens? The role of civic and civil society will also be discussed.
Prerequisite(s)
None
Teaching Mode(s)
Lectures | F2F Tutorials | F2F
Preclusion(s)
None
Assessment
TBC
Final Examination | 50% (Sat, 25 Nov, 9am/LT13)
Course Content
404 Not Found
Tentative course content and assessment modes are not yet available at the point of compilation. Course information can be accessed through "All courses" in Canvas to check for latest updates, or the syllabi of previous iterations of the course.
GES1034/GESS1024 PAGE | 17
A/P Bilveer Singh
Political science is often defined as the study of ‘Who gets what, when and how’. This course introduces the field, highlighting some of the discipline’s debates, ideas and perspectives. Central to this course is the idea that politics is about power (or lack thereof). Throughout this course, students will be introduced to a variety of topics and asked to consider who holds power, how it is exercised, and who is contesting its usage. This will be done through a lecturetutorial style. Weekly online lectures will introduce a few key concepts, illustrated with one or two contemporary case studies. Each lecture will be followed by a live Q&A session lasting approximately 30 to 45 minutes. Bi-weekly tutorials will centre around group activities and discussions that encourage students to consider some of the challenging aspects of each topic.
Prerequisite(s)
None
Teaching Mode(s)
Lectures | Online
Tutorials | F2F
Course Content
Week 1 | Introduction - What is Political Science?
Preclusion(s)
GEM1003K, GEK1003, PS1101
Assessment
Tutorial Participation | 20%
UNITQ Quizzes (x2) | 10% (5% each)
Essay Prep Assignment| 10%
Research Essay | 30%
Final Exam | 30% (Tue, 28 Nov, 5pm/MPSH1)
Week 2 | Power as Sovereignty: States vs Governments & Regimes
Week 3 | Power as Process: Public Policy Making
Week 4 | Power as Legitimacy: Democracy and its Alternatives
Week 5 | Power as Collective Action: Civil Society
Week 6 | Power as Information: The Media
Week 7 | Power as Military Might: Conventional & Unconventional Warfare
Week 8 | Power as Economic Might I: International Trade
Week 9 | Power as Economic Might II: International Development
Week 10 | Power as Privilege I: Global Migration
Week 11 | Power as Privilege II: Ethnic Identities
Week 12 | Power as Privilege III: Gender Identities
Week 13 | Conclusion
PS1101E
PAGE | 18
Dr. Elaine Tan Instructor poletsy@nus.edu.sg
LEVEL 2000 COURSES
ALL course content is subject to change, and will only be finalised at the start of the semester.
Dr. Elaine Tan Instructor poletsy@nus.edu.sg
This is an introductory, theory-informed course for students with little to no academic background in the discipline of International Relations. Students will learn about major theoretical perspectives and approaches in the discipline. They will apply the concepts and theories they have learnt, but also reflect and critically question major international relations theories and concepts.
Students who have successfully completed this course would be able to:
Knowledgeably discuss and assess the relative merits of the major schools of thought in IR Utilise major academic concepts and theories in the analysis of contemporary global issues Summarise, analyse, and evaluate complex issues in verbal discussions and written formats
Prerequisite(s)
None
Teaching Mode(s)
Lecture | Online
Tutorials | F2F
Preclusion(s)
None
Assessment Tutorial Participation | 15% Midterm| 20% Essay | 30% Final Examination | 35% (Sat, 25 Nov, 1pm/LT8)
Course Content
This is an illustrative list of topics covered in this course. Please note that this list of topics is subject to change.
Introduction to International Relations
Realism
Liberalism: Interdependence and Democracy
Liberal Institutionalism
Constructivism
Foreign Policy-Making
Marxism
Postcolonialism
The Environment
Terrorism
Humanitarian Intervention
PS2237
PAGE | 20
Dr. Kim Hyejin Instructor
Northeast Asia is an exciting part of the world in the early 21st century. Decades on from devastating wars, the region has seen tremendous economic growth in parts as well as profound tensions. This term we go beyond a standard international relations perspective to study major internal and transnational themes in the region. How has the United States’ historic role shaped the region’s societies and politics? Why has inequality been exacerbated in recent years, and what are its consequences? How is the region responding to environmental disasters? What social contacts tie people in different parts of the region?
The course introduces students to the international politics of the region. Besides digesting readings and lectures on the subject, students will expand their understanding through tutorial discussions and writing assignments.
Prerequisite(s)
None
Teaching Mode(s)
Lecture | Online Tutorials | F2F
Course Content
Preclusion(s)
None
Assessment
Tutorial Participation | 20%
Response Papers (x5) | 50% (10% each)
Term Essay | 30%
Instead of preparing 13 2-hour lectures, I have organized the course around Five Major Themes. Each theme includes web lectures. With this structure, the course remains highly organized but also gives you, the student, flexibility. You need not listen to the lecture on a specific date but you need to keep up with our progress through the five themes. So there are dates set for completing the material related to each theme. The themes are tied to tutorials, which are scheduled after completing the material for the given theme. I have made web lectures based on the major themes and sub-themes. This organization will help students to have better concentration for learning the material for each theme. Students are supposed to listen to the theme lectures and study the reading materials. Every tutorial discussion will be based on one or more themes.
Theme 1: US Role in Northeast Asia
Theme 2: Flashpoints
Theme 3: Contentious Politics
Theme 4: Regionalism
Theme 5: Beyond the Big Powers
PS2238 PAGE | 21
polkimh@nus.edu.sg
A/P Gao Jie Instructor polgj@nus.edu.sg
This introductory course defines the scope of public administration in terms of its structures, functions, sectors, and institutions. It familiarises students with some basic concepts used in public administration, including authority, organisation, bureaucracy, accountability, meritocracy, representation, ethics, professionalism, leadership, and decision making. The course also examines major approaches to studying public administration. Practical cases and examples are used in presenting these topics. The course is available to all year 1-3 students at NUS.
Prerequisite(s)
None
Teaching Mode(s)
Lecture | F2F
Tutorials | F2F
Preclusion(s)
None
Assessment
TBC
Course Content
404 Not Found
Tentative course content and assessment modes are not yet available at the point of compilation. Course information can be accessed through "All courses" in Canvas to check for latest updates, or the syllabi of previous iterations of the course.
PS2240
PAGE | 22
A/P Bilveer Singh Instructor polbilve@nus.edu.sg
This course examines a number of areas in Singapore's objectives: identify the key determinants of Singapore's politics; understand the key structuralfunctional aspects of Singapore's domestic politics; examine the extent to which nation building has taken place in Singapore; and analyse the key challenges facing Singapore and its future as far as domestic politics is concerned. The course examines both the structural-functional aspects of domestic politics as well as issues related to nation building, state-society relations and the likely nature of future developments and challenges.
Prerequisite(s)
None Preclusion(s) GEK2003, GEM2003K, PS1102, PS2101, PS2101B, SS2209PS, SSA2209
Teaching Mode(s)
Lecture | F2F Tutorials | F2F
Assessment
TBC
Course Content
404 Not Found
Tentative course content and assessment modes are not yet available at the point of compilation. Course information can be accessed through "All courses" in Canvas to check for latest updates, or the syllabi of previous iterations of the course.
PS2249
PAGE | 23
Middle East is a recent name given to a region hosting a diverse social geography, and typically refers to the area bounded to the north by Turkey, to the east by Iran, to the west by Egypt, and to the south by the Arabian Peninsula. This course aims to introduce students to the contemporary comparative politics of the Middle East. This field of study explores the internal political dynamics of countries, including such questions as how Middle Eastern governments are structured, who/which political and social forces oppose those governments and why, how the incumbents manage to stay in power in the face of popular discontent, how the opposition works to bring about change, and so forth. To better comprehend broad political processes such as nation-state formation, democratic transition, authoritarian resilience or Islamic revivalism in the region, we will study the politics of a collection of countries both individually and in relation to one another. Our focus will be specifically (but not exclusively) on the following major players in the region: Iran, Egypt, and Turkey. In addition, we will draw upon a number of other key settings, depending on the weekly topic under analysis.
Prerequisite(s)
None
Teaching Mode(s)
Lecture | F2F
Tutorials | F2F
Course Content
Preclusion(s)
None
Assessment
Class Participation| 20%
Essay 1 | 30%
Essay 2 | 30%
Discussion Questions| 20%
In Part I of the course, we will explore how the dynamics and pressures emanating from different state actors (many of which are external to the region) have shaped the domestic politics of countries in the Middle East in the course of the twentieth century, and have left an enduring mark on the region’s politics that continues to the present.
In Part II of the course, we will focus on some of the most crucial current issues and puzzles that have marked the region’s politics in the post-World War II period.
PS2255
PAGE | 24
Dr. Dunya Deniz Lepori Instructor polldd@nus.edu.sg
Political theorizing considers basic questions about government, citizenship, equality, justice, rights, and the use of force. This course investigates these and related questions by reading and discussing classic and contemporary sources of different kinds, from letters, stories, and manifestos to systematic works of philosophy. By engaging with some of the most readable and interesting of these writings, one can learn how such questions have been answered in different times and places, as well as one’s own.
Prerequisite(s)
None
Teaching Mode(s)
Lecture | F2F Tutorials | F2F
Preclusion(s)
None
Assessment Class Participation | 10% Discussion Questions | 10% Midterm | 40% Finals | 40%
Course Content
404 Not Found
Tentative course content and assessment modes are not yet available at the point of compilation. Course information can be accessed through "All courses" in Canvas to check for latest updates, or the syllabi of previous iterations of the course.
PS2258 PAGE | 25
Dr. Matthew Lepori Instructor mlepori@nus.edu.sg
LEVEL 3000 COURSES
ALL course content is subject to change, and will only be finalised at the start of the semester.
Democracy has always been a controversial topic in Western political thought, and the debate about it is now a global one. In the ancient Greek world, Plato and Aristotle disagreed strongly over whether it was a stepping-stone on the road to tyranny, or the least worst form of government in practice. Medieval Christian thinkers tended to reject it in horror as against the divinely-created order of things. Its spread in the modern world has often been revolutionary. Modern Western politics has been defined by three great democratic revolutions, first in America, next in France, and then in Russia: in the second half of the twentieth century this revolutionary democratic spirit spread to the rest of the world in uprisings against imperialism and colonialism. This course takes students through some of the key texts associated with these debates and explores the ideas involved, including republicanism, citizenship, the rule of law, rights, representation, liberalism, and deliberation. Unlike many of the thinkers we will be reading, the point is not to champion democracy or to condemn it, but to try to understand it.
Prerequisite(s)
None
Teaching Mode(s)
Lecture | F2F
Tutorials | F2F
Preclusion(s)
None
Assessment
Class Participation | 10%
Term Paper 1|30%
Term Paper 2|40%
Presentation | 20%
Course Content
Week 1 | Introduction
Week 2 | Classical Democracy
Week 3 | From the Fall of Rome to Early Modern Europe
Week 4 | Early Modern Contractarianism
Week 5 | Montesquieu and the American Separation of Powers
Week 6 | Rousseau, Robespierre, and the French Revolution
Week 7 | The Bourgeois Nineteenth Century: Utilitarianism and Liberalism
Week 8 | Kant and Hegel: Freedom as the Meaning of History
Week 9 | Bureaucracy and Disillusion
Week 10 | Revolution and Totalitarianism
Week 11 | The Political Science of Democracy
Week 12 | Deliberative Democracy: Rawls and Habermas
Week 13 | Radical Theories of Democracy: Foucault, Derrida, Žižek
PS3232 PAGE | 27
A/P Luke O'Sullivan Instructor polldo@nus.edu.sg
Gender inequality is pervasive across the world in many walks of social life. In this course, we will focus on one arena where this inequality is perhaps most pronounced: the field of politics. Even though women, throughout history, have largely been excluded from political processes traditionally understood to refer to the processes and institutions of “making war, wealth, laws, and governments,” they have also made significant political gains in the course of the last century, and across the globe. Scholars have noted the gender “representation” gap (women’s disproportionate share of seats in national legislatures) since the mid-twentieth century, but in the last few decades, there has been a growing scholarly interest in understanding the divergent levels of women’s political participation and representation across countries.
Prerequisite(s)
None
Teaching Mode(s)
Lecture | F2F Tutorials | F2F
Preclusion(s)
None
Course Content
The first part of the course will focus on classical and contemporary scholarship in gender studies. We will specifically trace the development of major concepts in feminist theory and politics, study the theoretical variations in contemporary feminism, and explore specific facets of contemporary gender politics in the Anglo-American world as well as in Singapore. The first part of the course introduces students to a variety of disciplinary and methodological approaches in feminist scholarship, and thus has a multidisciplinary orientation: our reading set will draw on a blend of historical and social analysis, covering works in philosophy, geography, and sociology. The second part, entitled gender and governance, will explore women’s role in national politics. We will specifically examine 1) women’s political representation in national legislatures, their legislative behaviour and impact on public policy, 2) women’s movements and political activism in civil society. The reading set in Part II of the course will heavily draw upon scholarship in comparative politics and political sociology.
PS3237 PAGE | 28
Dr. Dunya Lepori Instructor polldd@nus.edu.sg
Assessment Class Participation | 20% Discussion Questions|20% Essay 1|30% Essay 2| 30%
The language of human rights is prevalent in international politics but its content, application and implications are heavily contested and understood differently by different actors. This course introduces students to some of the key theories, concepts and debates surrounding human rights. But rather than simply examining human rights as an abstract idea, this course presents human rights as the solutions to wrongs in the form of human rights violations.
This course is structured according to key debates surrounding human rights, such as their universality, how to define and enforce them. Within each debate one or two case studies will be introduced to highlight the complexities surrounding the topic. Through this approach, students will be exposed to the theoretical debates and the empirical messiness of the theory and practice of human rights. The course ends by asking students to consider the implications that human rights have for them – what duties are owed to them and what duties do they owe to others.
Prerequisite(s) None
| 30% (Tue, 5 Dec, 1pm/LT9)
Course Content
Week 1 | Introduction.
Week 2 | Origins of Human Rights: Where did they come from?
Week 3 | Universal or Culturally Relative?: The Claim of Western Imperialism.
Week 4 | Indivisibility or a Question of Priorities?: Development and/versus Democracy.
Week 5 | The Rights of the Many or the Few?: Liberty and Security in the Post-9/11 World.
Week 6 | Enforcement and the Question of Sovereignty: International Humanitarian Intervention and the Responsibility to Protect.
Week 7 | Enforcement and the Equality of States: War Crimes & the International Criminal Court.
Week 8 | Duties to the Foreigner: Refugees and Migrants’ Rights.
Week 9 | Duties to Future Generations: Environmental Justice and Climate Change.
Week 10 | Enforcement and Non-State Actors: Holding Corporations Accountable.
Week 11 | Evolving Technologies: Artificial Intelligence as bearer and/or threat to rights?
Week 12 | Ground-Up Rights Advocacy: Grassroots and Transnational Rights Movements.
Week 13 | Conclusion & Poster Discussion.
PS3252 PAGE | 29
Preclusion(s)
Teaching
Lecture
Tutorials
Assessment Lecture Participation | 10% Tutorial Participation
Written Debate Initial Submission
Written Debate Response Submission
Digital Poster
Final
None
Mode(s)
| Online
| F2F
| 20%
| 15%
| 15%
| 10%
Examination
Dr. Rebecca Tan Instructor rgtan@nus.edu.sg
Why do people vote the way they do? How do we know when a public policy is working? Does the discovery of oil in a country cause conflict? These are just some of the questions that this course seeks to provide you with the tools to answer. Special attention is paid to teaching students how to detect and diagnose potential sources of bias that may be threatening the credibility of inferences commonly made about social phenomena.
To this end, the goal of this course is to teach students how to understand and perform social science research, especially the sort being conducted in political science For students majoring in political science, this course will provide a foundation for you to understanding more advanced scholarly articles that make use of sophisticated techniques of causal inference. The course is also designed to give students a flavor of the broader world of causal inference, data science, and political inquiry in the social sciences. The tools developed in this course will thus make students a more sophisticated reader of political news, which often invokes data to draw claims about the social world.
Prerequisite(s)
Completed 12 UNITs in Political Science or 16 UNITs in GL or GL-recognized nonlanguage courses.
Teaching Mode(s)
Lecture | F2F
Tutorials | F2F
Course Content
Week 1 | Introduction
Preclusion(s)
None
Assessment Participation | 10%
Homework 1 | 30%
Homework 2 | 30%
Research design paper | 30%
Week 2 | What is causal inference? Introducing the potential outcomes framework
Week 3 | NO CLASS
Week 4 | Conceptualisation and measurement
Week 5 | Controlled comparisons
Week 6 | Survey sampling and random variables
Week 7 | Regression I
Week 8 | Regression II
Week 9 | Field and survey experiments
Week 10 | Natural experiments
Week 11 | Regression discontinuity and difference-in-differences
Week 12 | Ethical concerns in political science research
Week 13 | Summary and wrap-up
PS3257 PAGE | 30
Dr. Nicholas Kuipers Instructor nkuipers@nus.edu.sg
This module provides an understanding of the military’s role in modern state and society. The focus is on the political role of the armed forces in Southeast Asia. Throughout the semester we will examine important issues in the study civil-military relations, such as (1) why is civilian control of the military important, (2) what causes the military officers’ intervention and political domination via the coup d’état, (3) what is the armed forces’ role in political development and decay in non-Western societies, and (4) what is the most desirable civil-military relations in postdemocratization political settings. The class begins with the survey on classical literature on civil-military relations, comparative politics and then, looks into civil-military relations of individual countries in Southeast Asia, namely, Burma, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.
Prerequisite(s)
PS1101E Preclusion(s)
None
Teaching Mode(s)
Lecture | F2F Tutorials | F2F
Course Content
Week 1 | NO LECTURE
Week 2 | WHAT IS THE STUDY OF CIVIL-MILITARY RELATIONS?
Week 3 | WAR, STATES AND THE ARMED FORCES
Week 4 | SAMUEL HUNTINGTON & MORRIS JANOWITZ
Week 5 | COUPS & MILITARY INTERVENTION INTO POLITICS
Week 6 | CIVILIAN CONTROL OVER THE MILITARY
Week 7 | TRANSITIONS FROM AUTHORITARIAN RULE, MILITARY WITHDRAWAL & DEMOCRATIZATION
Week 8 | THE PHILIPPINES
Week 9 | NO LECTURE
Week 10 | INDONESIA
Week 11 | THAILAND
Week 12 | BURMA/MYANMAR
Week 13 | THE SAF & NATIONAL INTEGRATION
A/P Terence Lee Instructor terence_lee@nus.edu.sg PS3265 PAGE | 31
Assessment Tutorial Participation
20% Writing Assignment
Mid-Term
Final
|
| 30%
Quiz | 20%
Examination | 30% (Wed, 29 Nov, 5pm/LT8)
What makes a good public policy? How do we know when public policies are working—or aren’t? Where do policies come from? And why do they take the shape they do? These are just some of the questions that students will encounter in this course, which will introduce students to the topic of public policy making. Special attention will be given to understanding how public policies are made.
To this end, this course covers the institutional and procedural dimensions of public policymaking. It introduces theories of policymaking, and it explores how major political institutions—including executives, legislatures, bureaucracies, and interest groups—affect the policymaking process. Students will learn the stages of policymaking: (1) agenda setting and policy formulation, (2) implementation, and (3) evaluation and termination. Case studies are used to illustrate the complexities of the policymaking process. The course is designed for students who are interested in governance and public policy and may be considering a career in the public sector.
Prerequisite(s)
None
Teaching Mode(s)
Lecture | F2F
Tutorials | F2F
Course Content
Week 1 | Introduction
Preclusion(s)
None
Assessment
Participation | 10%
Policy Memo 1 | 25%
Policy Memo 2 | 25%
Final Exam | 40%
Week 2 | The policymaking process: Theoretical perspectives on the policymaking lifecycle
Week 3 | NO CLASS
Week 4 | Policy and politics: What’s the role of ideology and ideas in policymaking?
Week 5 | The policymaking players (I): Institutions and formal actors
Week 6 | The policymaking players (II): Informal actors
Week 7 | Agenda-setting and problem definition: When does something become a policy “problem”?
Week 8 | Policy design and formulation: Where do policy solutions come from?
Week 9 | Policy implementation: How do policies get implemented on the ground?
Week 10 | Policy monitoring and evaluation (I): Cost-benefit analysis
Week 11 | Policy monitoring and evaluation (II): Design-based analysis
Week 12 | Path dependence: Why is it so hard to "end" policies?
Week 13 | Summary and wrap-up
PS3271 PAGE | 32
Dr. Nicholas Kuipers Instructor nkuipers@nus.edu.sg
Dr. Rebecca Tan Instructor rgtan@nus.edu.sg
The study of Singaporean politics is often carried out in a singular fashion where we study Singapore as a standalone case study. In contrast, this course invites students to develop a deeper understanding of Singaporean politics through a comparative approach – studying key features of the Singaporean political system through comparing it to a wide variety of similar and dissimilar cases. By studying Singapore politics through comparing its political system to others, students will consider the factors leading to the emergence of different political practices, institutions and policies and their pros and cons. Throughout this course, we will constantly ask the following questions: “Is Singapore unique? What lessons can it learn from other societies? How can other societies learn from the Singaporean experience?”
In addition to a cross-case comparative approach to studying Singaporean politics, students will also be encouraged to draw links across the weekly topics to better understand how the different elements of the Singaporean political context connect to provide a more wholistic understanding of Singapore’s political scene.
Prerequisite(s)
None
Teaching Mode(s)
Lecture | F2F
Tutorials | F2F
Preclusion(s)
None
Assessment
Seminar Participation | 20%
Policy Paper Proposal + Annotated
Bibliography | 15% + 5%
Feedback on Peer's Proposal | 5%
Policy Paper | 30%
Reflection Assignments| 10% + 15%
Course Content
Week 1 | Introducing the Course and the Comparative Approach
Week 2 | Political Ideology & Culture
Week 3 | Government Structure: Whither Parliamentary Sovereignty?
Week 4 | Electoral Systems: Making our Vote Count
Week 5 | Party Systems: Team A or B?
Week 6 | Bureaucracy: Power to the Technocracy?
Week 7 | Trade Unions: Conflict, Cooperation or Co-option?
Week 8 | Trajectories of Economic Development
Week 9 | Media: Who Watches the Watchmen?
Week 10 | Civil Society: Power to the People?
Week 11 | Crafting a National Identity
Week 12 | Managing Ethnic Diversity
Week 13 | Conclusion: Looking to the Future
PS3273 PAGE | 33
This upper-level seminar surveys the literature on comparative political behaviour with cases drawn from South, Southeast, and East Asia. Given how broad the comparative political behaviour literature is, we will cover only some of the most studied topics. These topics include voting behaviour, political identities, and political participation. Since no individuals live in a vacuum, we also will cover how individuals and political behaviour are constrained by political system and political culture.
Prerequisite(s)
None
Teaching Mode(s)
Lecture | F2F Tutorials | F2F
Course Content
Week 1 | What is Political behaviour
Week 2 | Studying Political behaviour Comparatively
Week 3 | Rational Choice Models
Week 4 | Sociological Models
Week 5 | Psychological/Group-Based Models
Week 6 | No lecture, work on midterm essay.
Week 7 | Religion and Ethnicity
Week 8 | Religion and Ethnicity (continued)
Week 9 | Political Tolerance
Week 10 | Political Participation
Week 11 | Terrorism and Political Violence
Week 12 | The Political System
Week 13 | Culture and Society
Preclusion(s)
None
Assessment Participation | 15% Quiz 1 | 10% Quiz 2 | 10% Quiz 3 | 15%
Midterm Essay | 20% Final Essay| 30%
PS3276 PAGE | 34
Dr. Nathanael Sumaktoyo Instructor
nathanael.sumaktoyo@nus.edu.sg
polbww@nus.edu.sg
This course explores the ethical dimension of international relations. It takes as its point of departure the conviction that international relations, like all realms of human conduct, is intelligible in questions of obligation, right, good, and so forth. The course interrogates prominent ethical languages of international relations, including moral scepticism, sovereignty, war, international law, and human rights. It then considers how these languages arise and conflict in a range of contemporary international issues. Particular emphasis is placed on excavating the ground on which ethical choices are made, defended, and judged.
Prerequisite(s)
None
Teaching Mode(s)
Lecture | F2F Tutorials | F2F
Preclusion(s)
None
Assessment
Participation | 20%
Essay | 30%
Final Exam | 50%
Course Content:
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PS3311 PAGE | 35
Prof. William Bain Instructor
