Perspectives on the Liberal Arts and Sciences
Course Proposal
General Education Advisory Committee
Queens College, City University of New York
I. Course Information
Course Title:
Credits:
Introduction to Comparative Politics
3
Prerequisites:
None
PS 103
X Existing course, course number:
New course
Department:
Department Contact:
Political Science
Joe Rollins
Area of Knowledge and Inquiry
(select one)
Context of Experience
(select only if the course
emphasizes one of the
following)
Reading Literature (RL)
Appreciating and Participating
in the Arts (AP)
Extended Requirements
(select only if the course meets
one of the following)
x Pre-Industrial Society (PI)
United States (US)
X Abstract or Quantitative
European Traditions (ET)
Culture and Values (CV)
X Analyzing Social Structures (SS)
Reasoning (QR)
X World Cultures (WC)
Natural Science (NS)
The following information is useful to the subcommittee to estimate the college's progress toward the goal of
offering enough sections and seats in each Perspectives category. How often does the department anticipate the
course will be offered? Please also estimate the anticipated number of sections and number of seats per section.
X Every semester
Every Fall or
Other:
January 2008
number of sections:
1
number of seats per section:
Every Spring number of sections:
number of seats per section:
number of sections:
number of seats per section:
55
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Course Description
Please include a course description. If the course will include variable topics or be taught in various forms, please
provide as many descriptions of specific sections as possible.
Comparative Politics (CP) is the study of nations in cross-cultural contexts). The focus of inquiry
is on how, where and why political systems are different across nations. At its most general, the
subfield introduces students to these concepts through comparative analysis whereby their own
“orientalism” is destabilized by looking at the differences among political systems in historical,
cultural and political contexts; hence, the term “comparative.” Traditional approaches to the area
emphasize the influence of players from three levels of analysis: historical (economic
modernization and political development), cultural (political cultures and socialization), and
structural (party systems, government institutions). Faculty trained in CP specialize in particular
geographic areas (e.g., the Middle East, Latin America, Asia) and thus all courses are, by
definition, comparative and concerned with world cultures. The attached sample syllabus
emphasizes the theoretical elements of CP and apply these to the study of countries across three
worlds: early developers, late developers and developing countries (the Global North, Global East
and Global South). Other faculty in the Political Science Department rely on the same theories
and concepts, but may apply them to different regions of the globe. The methods favored by the
subfield of CP are two: qualitative and quantitative. Qualitative analytic strategies inform
students about the historical evolution of political forms, sources of political change and behavior,
and structures and functions of institutional features. The quantitative aspect of CP relies
primarily on economic modeling and game theory in order to provide students with a more
comprehensive, linear, set of analytic tools for exploring change and development in their world.
January 2008
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II. Criteria for Perspectives Courses
Justification
Please describe how the course will address criteria for Perspectives on the Liberal Arts and Sciences courses.
Be sure to include an explanation of the course’s specific learning goals for students to make a connection
between these and the general criteria for Perspectives courses.
Stated broadly, comparativists produce knowledge within the discipline by exploring historical
variations between and among cultures. Why, they ask, have some societies evolved into
theocratic or totalitarian regimes while others have evolved to secularism and democracy?
Influences included in these analyses emphasize not only macro-level variables such as
economics, natural resources, colonialism, and imperialism, but also the interaction of micro-level
variables as well, e.g., charismatic leadership, specific historical events, changes in technology
and resource demands. Courses begin with a theoretical introduction to the field during which
students explore the values and beliefs that shape our notions of culture and politics. An
important component of all CP courses is methodology; economic modeling, game theory, and
statistical analysis make CP an ideal setting to introduce students to abstract reasoning and
quantitative methods. These tools are then applied to analyses of specific geographic regions,
conflicts, economic issues, and the interactions among them. Courses on Comparative Politics
position Political Science within the liberal arts and society generally by emphasizing the roles
played by states, non-governmental actors and other formal as well as informal institutions in the
course of human history. This focus on the institutional and political elements of social life
distinguishes the discipline from others in the social sciences by placing the role of the nation and
the state at the center of analysis.
Criteria Checklist
Please be sure that your justification addresses all three criteria 1-3, below. For criteria 4-8, please check all that
apply and discuss these in your justification.
A Perspectives course must:
1. Be designed to introduce students to how a
particular discipline creates knowledge and
understanding.
2. Position the discipline(s) within the liberal
arts and the larger society.
3. Address the goals defined for the particular
Area(s) of Knowledge the course is designed to
fulfill.
In addition, a Perspectives course will, where
appropriate to its discipline(s) and subject matter:
X 4. Be global or comparative in approach.
X 5. Consider diversity and the nature and
construction of forms of difference.
6. Engage students in active inquiry.
X 7. Reveal the existence and importance of change
over time.
8. Use primary documents and materials.
January 2008
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III. Course Materials, Assignments, and Activities
Please provide an annotated list of course readings and descriptions of major assignments or exams for the course,
as well as distinctive student activities that will engage students in working toward the course goals discussed in
the course description and/or justification.
Please include the author and title for each reading or text, along with a short description providing information
about how the reading will contribute to course goals.
See attached syllabus.
IV. Assessment
Perspectives courses must be recertified every five years, and we are seeking ideas for how to best carry out this
assessment. What forms of evidence that the course is meeting its goals as a Perspectives course would be
appropriate to collect for this course during the next five years? How would you prefer assessment to be
conducted? How might evidence of effective teaching and student learning be collected and evaluated?
Assessment is part of the Political Science Department’s overall strategy for measuring our
success. As part of our ongoing commitment to maintaining high teaching standards, we
regularly collect samples of written work from our students so that we may track their
development across not only the span of a student’s undergraduate education, but across student
cohorts by using a time-series sampling design. Findings from this project allow the department’s
Curriculum Committee to monitor the progress and development of our undergraduate majors, as
well as stay to stay abreast of our success as teachers. Papers assigned for this class will be part of
that overall program.
January 2008
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V. Administration
What process will your department develop to oversee this course, suggest and approve changes, and conduct
assessment? Who will be in charge of this process? Also indicate whether the course will be primarily taught by
full-time or adjunct faculty, or by a combination of the two types of instructor.
For a description of the processes already in place, please see above at IV.
Administration of the assessment project is overseen by the Department’s Curriculum Committee.
Syllabi for all courses taught in the Department are collected and made available for review by
new, incoming instructors. All new instructors will be required to meet with members of the
Curriculum Committee whose research and teaching are within their subfield in advance of the
semester when a PLAS course will be taught. At these meetings, the interdisciplinary, pedagogic,
and cultural goals of PLAS will be spelled out in detail so that new teachers may incorporate
those requirements into their syllabi. Before syllabi are sent to Reprogrpahics for mass
production several weeks in advance of the semester, new instructors will be asked to submit
them to the Department Curriculum Committee for vetting and approval.
The course is taught by a combination of full-time and adjunct faculty.
VI. Syllabus
Please attach a sample syllabus (or set of syllabi, for courses on variable topics or courses that will be taught in
variable formats).
Some resources to guide syllabus construction:

The Provost's page outlining guidelines for syllabi:
http://qcpages.qc.cuny.edu/provost/Cur_stud/Syllabus expectations.htm

Sample syllabi for W courses, from Writing Across the Curriculum:
http://qcpages.qc.cuny.edu/writing/wsyllabi.htm

Goals for Student Writing at Queens College:
http://qcpages.qc.cuny.edu/writing/Goals.htm

Harvard’s Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, suggestions for syllabus planning:
http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k1985&pageid=icb.page29695

Lehman College’s Gen Ed Syllabi Project:
http://www.lehman.edu/lehman/programs/generaledu/gened_syllabi_project.html
Submit this completed form and a sample syllabus (or set of syllabi) by email to Eva Fernández
(eva.fernandez@qc.cuny.edu), Director, Center for Teaching and Learning.
January 2008
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