Syllabus Bank
Why has climate change proven to be such a challenging issue for global governance? How will climate disruptions and decarbonization transform the global economy and politics? Which groups will win or lose from these transitions, and how are they shaping climate governance today? This course addresses these questions in a research-focused survey of the political economy of climate change. We explore cutting-edge scholarship on climate politics and critically analyze various theoretical concepts and models, assess the (dis)advantages of varied empirical approaches, and draw links to core debates in international political economy. Students gain familiarity with the frontier of climate politics scholarship, learn how to constructively critique academic work, and develop skills in designing and executing rigorous political economy research.
The course emphasizes close reads of political science and economics scholarship, with special attention paid to theory development, empirical methods, and causal inference. Prior training in quantitative analysis is neither assumed nor necessary, but students should be ready to explore these methods in class. The course material is meant to challenge, not intimidate. The familiarity students gain with research approaches during the term is valuable for many private sector, non-profit, policy, and academic careers.
Weekly lectures offer a broad overview of various topics. In discussion sections, we do deep dives into assigned readings and discuss their implications for climate politics. Students should attend their section having critically read the assigned work, ready to assess the readings’ arguments, empirical designs, and interconnections. Is an author’s reasoning logically sound? What happens if we adjust some theoretical assumptions? Do the empirics support the theory? What research ideas are sparked by a reading?