Courses - POSC Lower Division
100. Introduction to American Government (3)
Prerequisite/Corequisite: GE A1 requirement.
Introductory survey of American Political Institutions, politics, and policy, including government and politics in California. Constitutional foundations and current controversies. Satisfies the general education requirement and the California teaching credential requirement.
105. Introduction to Critical Thinking (3)
Prerequisites/Corequisite: ENGL 100 or GE Composition (Area A1).
Introduction to critical thinking through study of philosophical writing, political rhetoric, and political propaganda. Emphasis on distinguishing facts from values, inductive from deductive reasoning, emotional responses from reasoned judgments; relationship between language and logic; the role of inference; intellectual honesty.
199. Introduction to California Government (1)
Prerequisite: POSC 100.
Introductory survey of California political institutions, politics and policy. Satisfies the general education California state and local government requirement for students who have taken American government without a California component or who have received Advanced Placement credit for American Government. Not open for credit to students with credit in POSC 326.
212. How Democratic is the United States? (3)
Prerequisites: GE Foundation requirement; POSC 100.
Examination of persistent challenges to citizen control of government in the U.S., including growth of executive power; economic inequality; racial inequality; rise of infotainment; decline of political participation and civic engagement.
218. Global Politics (3)
Prerequisites: GE Foundation requirement; POSC 100.
Study issues central to politics in a global context, such as democracy, communism, fascism, democratization, revolution, liberalism, and anti-liberalism. Examine questions of national sovereignty, as well as the relation between nation states and the rise of non-state and trans-state actors.
225. Issues in Political Theory (3)
Prerequisites: GE Foundation requirement; POSC 100.
Study and discussion of issues including revolution, power, justice, alienation, the nature of democracy, and other important political concepts. Views of theorists such as Plato, Hobbes, Rousseau, Mill, and Marx will be examined.
