Colgate University

First-Year Course Offerings — Fall 2022

FSEM 189   Intro to Comparative Politics
Credits1
RestrictionsNo 2025 2024 2023 Instr perm req during Drop/Add
Pre-Requisites
Co-Requisites
Core Area
Area of InquirySocial Relations,Inst.& Agents
Liberal Arts Practices

Faculty Profile for Professor Ibarra Del Cueto

Offers an introduction to the main theoretical and methodological issues in the comparative study of politics. The goal is to provide students with the basic tools to understand the nature of the research questions that political scientists ask, the theories that they produce to answer them, and the empirical evidence that they garner to substantiate their theoretical claims. The coursework is organized around five macro-components (states and nations, political regimes, institutions, contentious politics, and political economy), which in turn are subdivided into narrower topics. By the end of the semester, students should be able to conceptualize varied political phenomena and their determinants, including, among others: state capacity, nationalism, political violence, democratization, parties, forms of government, and development. The empirical material covered in the course draws from different regions of the world including Africa, South and North America, East and Southeast Asia, and Western Europe. Students who successfully complete this seminar will earn credit for POSC 153 and satisfy one half of the social relations, institutions, and agents area of inquiry requirement.

Professor Ibarra Del Cueto’s field of specialty is Comparative Politics, with a focus on the Latin American region. His research interests include the study of state capacity, democratization, and the relationship between political and economic development. He is currently finishing a book manuscript that seeks to explain different trajectories of state-building among Latin American nations.