Adv. Topics in Formal Political Theory

This course will prepare graduate students in political science and economics who have completed their basic formal and quantitative training for research in formal political theory. The specific substantive focus of the course will depend on the distribution of students’ interests, but topics will include electoral and legislative institutions, autocratic politics, political behavior, persuasion, and conflict. The topics should be of broad relevance for graduate students interested in political economy across the social sciences.

The course will be conducted primarily in seminar format, complemented by frontal instruction. For each topic, we will focus on a small number of relatively recent articles and working papers. Students will also present on topics related to their own research.