Ph.D. in Political Science Program

GENERAL OVERVIEW

The Ph.D. program in Political Science at Stony Brook is small and research-oriented, with concentrations in political economy, American politics, and political psychology/behavior. Our program is limited to about 30 students taught by 15 faculty members, and features close working relationships with faculty, a small class size, and numerous research opportunities for graduate students. The program provides an opportunity for students to develop skills as researchers and teachers, both through small seminars and hands-on experience. Graduate students have offices next to the faculty, other graduate students, graduate student seminar rooms, the graduate lounge, and extensive research facilities. All of this is located on a single floor of a modern building overlooking the Long Island Sound. This arrangement not only provides a delightful and friendly working environment but also creates close working relationships among faculty and students that are critical for the professional training we offer.

A graduate program can be no better than the faculty and the Stony Brook Political Science Department is one of the most productive research departments in the country. A recent study of articles published in the three major American political science journals (American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, and Journal of Politics) over the past ten years shows that Stony Brook is second in the country in total publications, exceeded only by the University of Michigan (other schools in the top ten include Stanford, Rochester, Harvard, and Ohio State). Considering the size of most of the other major graduate departments in political science, Stony Brook is clearly the most productive department per capita. What does this mean for the graduate program? Graduate students take courses from and do research with some of the most active researchers in political science. Seminars are taught by faculty who are familiar with the current controversies in that field and students have an opportunity to work on cutting-edge research in their area of interest. It is an exciting environment and a place where research is not just taught in the classroom but is experienced through direct participation. From your first semester, you will be involved in research projects with political scientists who are well-known throughout the discipline. By the time your dissertation is finished, you will have taught your own undergraduate courses and will probably have presented a research paper at a major professional meeting. Jointly authored student-faculty papers from our department have been published in the major political science journals on topics including urban politics, political psychology, regulatory enforcement, congress, and electoral studies.

The department is also one of the top in the country in obtaining research grants and external funding. These grants provide financial support for graduate students and, even more importantly, they open up even more possibilities for collaborative research. Faculty research grants often involve graduate students directly in the projects and those students later go on to co-author the resulting papers and books.

The graduate students in our program also contribute to the positive environment of the department. As a result of maintaining a small program, the department can be selective in admitting students. Our graduate students are highly qualified and hard-working. They have diverse backgrounds and wide-ranging interests. Sharing offices, research facilities, and the graduate student lounge promotes a friendly and intellectual environment. It is not at all uncommon for students to work together on research projects while in school and to continue joint research after graduating.

This emphasis on professional preparation and collaboration on research papers has given our graduates a competitive edge in the academic and research job markets. After finishing their degrees, our students have been successful in finding jobs at major research and teaching universities as well as in the public and private sectors. The program is designed so that finishing in four years is possible but most students require a fifth year of study. Over the past decade, the department has a perfect record of funding students who require the fifth year.

FIELDS OF STUDY

In order to provide a thorough background in the fields we offer, the department has focused research and teaching resources on three specialized fields -- American politics, policy and political economy, and political psychology. Students take foundation courses in these fields during their first year. In subsequent years they will do advanced coursework in two of these three fields, as well as select a specialized field for dissertation research. All students must pass qualifying examinations after their second year in two of these fields and in research methodology. All students receive thorough training in research methodology since this is essential to all fields.

American Politics

The American Politics concentration provides a broad perspective on national political institutions and processes, with particular emphasis on elections. Courses are taught in political parties and elections, the legislative process, the American judiciary, political ideology, electoral behavior, and social choice theory. Students become familiar with the kinds of quantitative and formal analysis techniques most often applied to the study of American politics. Members of the faculty are currently doing research on nominations to the Supreme Court, Congressional decision-making, voting in Congressional and Presidential elections, and public opinion.

Political Economy

The political economy program builds upon the department's strengths in political psychology, methodology, and laboratory experiments. The primary focus of the program is on applications of behavioral economics methods in political science and empirical testing of theoretical models in laboratory settings. Such a focus allows for cross-field collaboration and synergy within the political science department.

Substantively, experimental economics uses insights from psychology to test the traditional economic models of a man as a selfish utility-maximizing actor. Behavioral economics takes these psychological insights and experimental results further and offers alternative theoretical models that incorporate emotions, altruism, a sense of fairness, inequity aversion, and so on. The behavioral models can then be applied in any substantive field of political science.

Political Psychology/Behavior

The doctoral concentration in political psychology/behavior applies contemporary psychological theories, concepts, and research methods to the study of political behavior. Students are trained in topics and methods associated with psychology as well as political science. Methodological concerns focus on experimentation. In addition to formal training in experimental methods, students are apprenticed throughout their course of training to ongoing laboratory research projects. Students become familiar with the department's extensive and well-equipped laboratories and the regular subject pool.

The substantive concerns of the political psychology concentration include, but are not limited to, those facets of psychology that can be applied to the study of political behavior: e.g. communication and interaction, group influence, attribution, attitude change, political cognition, public opinion, cognitive processes and decision making.

Methodology

Since we believe that a strong background in research methods is essential for political scientists, we provide rigorous training in the application of statistical methods and formal models to political analysis. Coursework in analytic methods includes introductory training in mathematical methods and statistics as well as more advanced modeling, econometrics, measurement, and time series analysis. The "hands-on" approach is an integral part of our program. We believe, however, that it is the application of research methods, first as part of faculty and class research projects and then in your own dissertation research, that makes you a competent researcher with the skills required for success in research and academic careers.

DEGREE REQUIREMENTS

The most up-to-date degree requirements can be found in the current Graduate Catalog.

Candidates must meet the general requirements for the Ph.D. degree set by the Graduate School. Departmental requirements are as follows:

A. Required Courses

POL 600 - Research Project

POL 601 - Foundations: Public Policy and Political Economy

POL 602 - Applied Data Analysis I

POL 603 - Applied Data Analysis II

POL 604 - Applied Data Analysis III

POL 605 - Foundations: American Politics

POL 608 - Foundations: Political Psychology, Behavior

POL 610 - Foundations II: Experimental Design and Methods, OR,
POL 613 - Game Theory for Political Science

B. Electives

Students are expected to master the methods necessary to engage in scholarly work:

1. All students take a three-course sequence in mathematics, statistics, and research methods (POL 602, 603, 604).
2. All students are required to take at least one advanced methods course either in this department or in a cognate field (e.g., economics). The student’s choice of
advanced elective(s) is decided in conjunction with the student’s advisor.
3. In addition to requirements 1 and 2 above, political psychology students take POL 610, a graduate-level course in experimental design. Political economy and American
Politics students must take POL 613, Public Choice.
4. Students who have attended the ICPSR Summer Program in Quantitative Methods at the University of Michigan can have the advanced elective requirement waived.

C. Qualifying Examinations

Students take a minimum of four advanced seminars in their area of specialization and three in their minor area. The seminars are typically at the 600 level and can be within the department or can be in cognate fields such as psychology, economics, or applied math. The course of study is selected by the student in consultation with his or her advisor and must be approved by the graduate program director.

D. Dissertation

To ensure that all students become proficient in teaching and research, students work with the faculty on an individual basis. Funded students participate in faculty research projects and assist in teaching courses. Advanced students then prepare and teach their own undergraduate classes.

COURSES

Note: Most courses do not have a specific semester offering. Please refer to the Graduate Class Schedule for specific semester offerings.

A two-semester introduction to research for first-year students. The course introduces issues of research design through lectures and presentations of current research by faculty members. Each student designs his or her own research paper under the guidance of a faculty member familiar with his or her area of interest. Final papers are due in the beginning of May.
The application of statistical methods to the analysis of political data. The emphasis is on diagnosing and dealing with violations of assumptions of statistical models. Topics covered include advanced regression, models for discrete dependent variables, systems of equations, and selection bias.
This course on political socialization focuses on continuity and change in political attitudes and behavior across the life span. Topics include the stability of political attitudes-contrasting the greater durability of political partisanship and basic values with the relative instability of issue positions; the social psychology of attitude change, which lends some insight into the conditions under which attitudes are most likely to change; the importance of political period or era as a determinant of political attitudes and behavior; and the existence and coherence of distinct political generations. Some attention is also given to the political changes that accompany old age, including changes in attitude and behavior linked to growing dependency on the Social Security and Medicare systems.
A review and analysis of the political behavior literature, including such topics as attitude formation and change, belief systems, political socialization, demographic and small group influences on political beliefs and conduct, political leadership, electoral behavior, elite vs. mass politics, decision making, personality and politics, political conformity, and protest.
An overview of experimental research with an emphasis on experimental design, data analysis, and interpretation. Students develop the ability to critically evaluate experimental research. Students also participate in the development, implementation, and analysis of a laboratory experiment.
This course introduces students to behavioral economics. Behavioral economics seeks to build empirically realistic models of human decision making that are better integrated with insights from psychology. Will examine theoretical alternatives to the purely self-interested, optimizing, and cognitively unlimited caricature of homo-economicus, including bounded and ecological rationality, prospect theory, hyperbolic discounting, and reference dependence. Topics explored will include status and positional goods, altruism and social preferences, intertemporal choice, risk preferences, behavioral game theory, and heuristics and biases. Emphasis will be placed on applications to political behavior and decision making.
Introduction to formal models of strategic behavior in static, dynamic, and repeated games. Technical emphasis is formulation and solution of games of complete and incomplete information; a variety of equilibrium concepts will be introduced. Substantive applications include spatial models of candidate behavior in elections; agenda control and bargaining in legislatures; lobbying by interest groups; common pool resource problems; and cooperation between rivals.
A seminar on judicial process and behavior. Emphasis is placed on the Supreme Court, but trial courts and other appellate courts are examined as well. Topics include constitutional interpretation and both legal and extra-legal models of decision making. Students should possess basic methodological skills.
Models of voting choices; key attitudes such as party identification, issue orientations, and ideology; the impact of group affiliations, economic conditions; campaign strategies of candidates; congressional vs. presidential elections; historical change, e.g., party realignments.
This course examines American political ideology as it is reflected in public opinion, political debate, and public policy. The goal is to understand the underlying bases of conflict and consensus in American politics and the ways in which they influence and constrain debate over public policy. The course traces the development of political conflict in the United States and examines the basis of contemporary political debate.
This class consists of an overview and analysis of the public opinion literature, including the nature of public opinion, factors that shape public opinion, micro-level opinion dynamics, macro-level opinion dynamics, and the role of public opinion democracy. It is designed to be a collaborative enterprise in which we, as a class, consider the role of public opinion in American politics.
An examination of the scope of government regulation of business in the United States today-regulation at both the federal and state levels and by both economic and social agencies. The course compares market vs. regulatory policies as well as possible explanations for why some regulatory agencies change over time. Finally, the course considers proposed reforms, such as clearer legislative standards, curbs on “revolving door” practices, greater citizen participation in agency proceedings, and deregulation.
An introduction to theories of policy making, especially policy formulation, stressing reading and thinking about classics and acquiring skills necessary for theorizing, including mathematical modeling and formal theory. Laboratories focus on improving special skills (e.g., optimization) and theorizing about particular policy areas (e.g., pork barrel politics).
An examination of bureaucracy as part of the policy-making process. This course reviews theoretical explanations for the bureaucracy as a political institution and implications of its rapid growth since the New Deal. It also looks inside bureaucratic organizations, examining factors that influence the exercise of discretion and policy implementation.
Many political issues from poverty to same-sex marriage to the death penalty are moral issues. This course will apply moral psychology to understand public opinion, political debates, and political behavior. We examine how moral judgment differs from judgments based on self-interest and altruism. We will study moral condemnation in political debates and how moral accusations clash with arguments based on other considerations such as economics, loyalty, and authority. The topics include moral frames, metaphors, emotions, and differences between liberals and conservatives. We apply these concepts to political debates surrounding property, fairness, sexuality, religion, and violence.
An introduction to the study of race and ethnic politics through the lens of political psychology. It focuses primarily on applications of psychological theories and insights to questions involving racialized groups, but also engages with key literatures in race and ethnic politics to identify synergies across theoretical approaches. Likewise, even as content privileges the United States, it includes select comparative work to highlight principles and research design options. Throughout, it encourages consider when and among whom a given theoretical perspective holds, and whether the “whys” or “hows” behind reported opinions and observed behavior are similar, or different, across groups.
Students will learn about the major theories of ecological rationality and how they compare to classical conceptions of rationality and to bounded rationality. Students will learn how this approach has influenced research in political science, psychology, and economics. Course topics will include: theoretical foundations of ecological rationality, political decision making as a manifestation of ecological rationality, application to heuristics, the relationship between ecological rationality and prospect theory, applications to risk-taking, applications to behavioral economics, applications to trust and cooperation. At its core, ecological rationality is a vision of human psychology. Thus, this course provides a foundational perspective for our students who are emphasizing political psychology in their studies. The nature of human rationality is also a core topic in behavioral economics and political economy. Thus, this course is also foundational for students emphasizing BPE.
The course is designed to introduce students to the process of analyzing interdependent political actors. We will ultimately discuss using whole network data to conduct social network analysis’note, these networks need not be social; they could be international networks of countries, for example. It is important to realize, however, that whole network data is often not available and, further, it is very difficult to collect. We begin, therefore, by considering methods that take account of the interdependence of political actors without analyzing the entire network within which those actors operate. The different methods and measures we discuss in this class could be incorporated into almost all areas of political science. Thus, the ultimate goal of this class is to give students and a lexicon and a toolkit to use in their own research.
This course provides an overview of the theoretical and empirical studies of legislative politics. The course will place a particular emphasis on rational choice institutional perspectives. Briefly, this paradigm suggests that individual-level strategic calculations are paramount in understanding political phenomena, and institutions both emerge from and serve to constrain these rational, utility maximizing political actors. While the main focus of the course is the U.S. Congress, much of what we cover will have direct relevance to the study of legislatures more generally (both cross-nationally and American state legislatures). We will discuss congressional elections, the nature of congressional representation, positive theories of congressional organization, political parties, the committee system, institutional change, bicameralism, inter-branch relations, and comparative legislatures.
Surveys experimental tests of formal models derived from political economy and game theory, and applies behavioral and social-psychological theories to explain deviations from equilibrium behavior. The methodologies of psychological and economic experiments are contrasted and explored. Substantive applications include social trust, bargaining power, agenda control, committee decision making, common pool resource problems, and political persuasion.
This course introduces students to evolutionary psychology. It is based on two core ideas: evolution and computation. The human mind evolved by natural selection. An evolutionary perspective focuses on the functions performed by the mind. In general, the mind processes information and can therefore be understood as a computational system. We examine a variety of mental processes, asking what computations they perform and how they function to solve adaptive problems. The topics include perception, tools, family, mates, language, fighting, trade, culture, morality, emotions, and politics.
This course surveys research in the field of American Politics that employs the tools and concepts of formal theory (predominately noncooperative game theory) to address contemporary questions. The objective of the course is to solidify students’ understanding of game theory as a modeling technique in political science, and to enable students to use formal methods in their own research.
A continuation of POL 691. Students actively participate in either a second research project, where they will again prepare a research report, or continue their participation in the same project, where they are then assigned a subset of data for analysis or carry out a specific research aim of the project.