SPRING 2022 SYLLABUS: English Writing for Politics & Public Administration (Juniors)
Meeting Time & Location: Tuesdays at 8AM & Thursdays at 10AM, on DingTalk.
Instructor: Mr. Julian Lee 李立安 Class Website: www.omnifoo.info/pages/OnlinePAWritingS22.html
Office: None. The instructor will be located in Thailand, India, & Sri Lanka, with hopes that China may open its borders before the end of the semester.
Email: omniscientfool@tom.com
Jump to: Grading Essay 1 Essay 2 Essay 3 Class Schedule Midterm
OVERVIEW: This course aims to improve students' English writing skills in general and specifically with regard to topics in politics & public administration, though all language skills will be addressed and topics in all subfields of political science may be discussed. A writing course entitled "English for Academic Purposes" (EAP) may be considered approximately analogous, though again the subject material for research and writing assignments will be focused rather than general.. In each session of class, students should expect to do some writing, so a notebook and pen or pencil are REQUIRED for each class! Students should keep the same notebook throughout class to observe the progress they make throughout the course of the semester. We will do A LOT of writing in this class! Some of the writing will be corrected by your peers, so try to sit next to someone you trust to read and comment on your writing. Writing topics will be provided by the instructor and will require some preparation and previous knowledge of topics such as U.S. global hegemony, specific wars, and current events. The class will include a review of basic grammar concepts, and this will involve many exercises to practice parts of speech, sentence and paragraph structure, improve vocabulary, and translation of basic sentences from Chinese to English. Exercises intended to advance students' writing from Chinese-style English or "Chinglish" toward a more standard, academic style of an American university will be emphasized. As the ultimate goals are to write English essays reviewing other scholarly works and containing some original research, extensive attention will be paid to proper quotation methods to avoid plagiarism. This course will share a similar structure, along with some materials and activities, with an international politics version. 讲课的语言是英语。 听/看不懂英语的学生千万要提前安排助学办法。
IN-CLASS ACTIVITIES: Depending on students' receptiveness, a variety of activities will be employed in this class. Above all, class sessions will be ACTIVE, with lots of student participation and a goal of minimizing lecture time by the instructor. Likely activities will include dictations (covering material from the previous session), individual & team games, grammar exercises, and correction of homework. Occasionally, while students are working on assignments in class, the instructor will meet with students 1-on-1 to read and correct past assignments, with the goals of explaining grading criteria and providing opportunities to make sure students can express their personal ideas precisely and clearly.
ASSIGNMENTS: Most class sessions will assign homework. Homework assignments will consist of both reading and writing. Reading assignments will mostly be to read an article, book chapter, or other text online to be prepared for in-class writing exercises. Some assignments, especially those completed in class, will be handwritten, while others may be either handwritten or typed and printed from a computer. Occasionally the instructor will ask students to turn in writing assignments from in-class exercises or homework to be used as "daily grades" (平时成绩). At least twice in the semester, a dictation will be used for a daily grade.
EXAMS: This class will not have exams, unless students or higher authorities request them.
GRADING (ESSAYS): (Note that the prompts & details are all from a previous version of the course and may not apply to the Spring 2022 version. As outlined in the ASSIGNMENTS section above, the daily grade will be worth 10% of the final grade. Students have a choice whether to write three essays on three different topics (likely due at the beginning & end of May and the end of the semester as late as July) or two essays & two revisions on two different topics (likely due at the beginning of May & mid-May for the revision, then mid-June for the second and the end of the semester as late as July for the revision). Deadlines for choosing whether to write 3 or 2 revised essays will be announced after the first essay is graded in mid-May. Changing one’s mind to write 3 instead of 2 revised essays would probably go more smoothly than choosing to revise late in the semester, and all students are encouraged to commit to one plan or the other before finishing the first essay. You may make your choice either with a text message on DingTalk or by including your choice in the file for the first essay.
Students writing three essays will have each worth 30% of the final grade (30% x3).
Students revising two essays will have each first draft worth 25% and each revision worth 20% (25% x2, 20% x2). Note that each revision will be required to be longer (adding paragraphs to the first draft) and may require extensive re-writing at the request of the instructor. Part of the graded revision will assess how well the instructor’s comments and suggestions are addressed. Prompts and requirements for such essays will be presented and discussed in class, then posted below. Students are encouraged to share drafts of essays with classmates before turning them in to the instructor. Essays will be graded on clarity, structure, and how well they meet the requirements in the next section. Addressing (not necessarily following) classmates' and the instructor's suggestions for revision of the rough draft will be taken into account for the final drafts' grades. Self-expression, i.e. being able to express your own, unique thoughts will also be increasingly important as the semester progresses and technical skills improve. Grading standards will become more strict as the semester progresses, and some consideration of overall improvement of writing skills (as shown in the progression from the first to the third essay) may factor into the final grade for the course.
ESSAY GRADING CRITERIA: The instructor will write prompts for the three essays and choose the topics in consultation with students. A student wishing to write ESSAY 2 or 3 in response to a previous prompt should ask first and be aware that standards will be higher and more strict after feedback on other students' writing is available. ESSAY 1: Due May 8th. Required length: 5-7 paragraphs (at least 1 introduction, 3 body paragraphs, 1 conclusion); not more than 5 double-spaced, typed pages. TOPICS & PROMPTS- See below.
Point Distribution : On Time? 20, Clarity & Cohesiveness 20, Grammar/Punctuation/Spelling/Capitalization 10, Title 5, Format (double-spaced, fonts, margins, paragraphs indented) 5, Evidence & two direct quotations 15, Persuasiveness 5, Analysis (Thesis w/ body paragraphs connected to it, At least two questions in the PROMPT answered, Counter-argument considered) 10, Interesting/Original? 10.
Topic 1: Chinese nationalism
Background: Much as you likely think of Trump supporters (and rightly so, in the instructor’s opinion) who call themselves “patriots” as American nationalists, foreign observers believe that decades of “patriotic education” in the PRC have made younger Chinese generations fiercely proud and possibly nationalistic as a whole. Furthermore, China specialists in the West warn those wanting regime change in the PRC (some to validate a teleological theory of political development, others for imperialist reasons, still others for genuine belief in universal civil/political human rights) that if China were to become a liberal/Western democracy, it would likely be one in which a bellicose, nationalist majority would be much more assertive internationally—in short, full Han chauvinism. Westerners also think that the CCP controls Chinese nationalists, using examples of how relations with Japan under Mao Zedong’s leadership were much less adversarial than they became under “100 Years of Humiliation” and “National Revitalization/Rejuvenation” propaganda since the 1990s, that the Party can turn popular nationalist sentiment on and off like a light switch.
PROMPT: What does the West, whether average people or “China Watchers,” misunderstand about Chinese nationalism and patriotism? How concerned should the rest of the world be about China of the 21st century being a nationalist superpower intent on taking revenge for the wrongs of imperialism while China was weak under the late Qing and early 20th century? To what extent is it OK to be a cosmopolitan or otherwise not patriotic in today’s PRC, and how do you know? As a whole, is the Chinese nation ethnic or civic, and to what extent are “ethnic Chinese” in the Chinese diaspora included? How far might Chinese irredentism and “Great Han Revivalism” go (claiming lands formerly under Chinese control in Outer Mongolia, Siberia, Northern Vietnam, Singapore, Chinatowns across the world)?
SUGGESTED TEXTS TO CITE: Chart on jingoism/nationalism/globalism/cosmopolitanism. Smith & Gellner’s book chapters.
Topic 2: Stateless Nations. Background: Most large states and not a few small ones today face challenges from ethnic minorities showing the characteristics of a nation, such as self identification with a sub-national group rather than the country of citizenship, the desire for an independent state based in a national homeland for the purposes of protecting their unique cultures and achieving “national self-determination.” Many “micro-states,” much smaller nations, and states without a national majority have achieved statehood despite having much smaller populations and weaker claims to deserve it than groups like the Tamils, Sikhs, Kurds, and more actively persecuted groups like the Palestinians and Rohingya. As mentioned in class and on the handouts, governments have a range of policy options towards such minorities such as allowing them to separate and form their own state (quite rare) and accommodation with autonomy on the side they would likely choose for themselves. Integration is somewhat of a middle option, but in the long term it is likely to have an assimilative effect that minority nationalists are likely to fear and oppose. Full assimilation, ethnic cleansing, and genocide are surprisingly still commonly chosen, despite these being obvious violations of human rights.
PROMPT: Choose an example of a stateless nation in the world and analyze its prospects (present and future) for survival and prosperity within its current state(s) and getting its own state. How much, if any, autonomy do they currently enjoy in their homeland? To what extent do their separatist/independence movements threaten national security/integrity? Do the majority of the state(s) they are in accept them as citizens, national members or want to do something like ethnic cleansing (or worse)? Do you think they are kept within the state by force/against their will of “national self-determination”? What exactly do its most fervent nationalists want, and how much support do they have among the population (the nation itself, the larger majority population of the country, and around the world)? More generally, should every nation get its own state? Why/why not? Should stateless nations focus instead of independence/separatism on integrating and assimilating into the majority nation for the economic benefits that would likely result (as Marx would argue)? To what extent can states distinguish between separatist movements and terrorism? What do you think of how “virtual states” like Canada, Britain, and Spain handle their separatist movements by allowing citizens to vote on whether to stay in or leave (as opposed to traditional states which would never allow a loss of territory/population)?
SUGGESTED TEXTS TO CITE: Smith & Gellner’s book chapters. Websites for nationalist separatist movements.
Topic 3: Categorizing China as a Country. Is China today a developing country, a “middle-income” country, or a developed country with some very poor areas, similar to the USA? (For an example of how poor some areas of the USA are, consider that the UN recently filed a report on poverty in the USA, concluding that 18 million Americans live in “extreme poverty,” which Xi Jinping recently declared to have eliminated in China.) How do you know? Points of Focus: Keep in mind that developing countries are assumed to be poor, pre-industrial (subsistence agriculture economies), and above all, weak in the world. China’s many recent achievements make it antithetical to that definition. China is fully industrialized and has the largest economy in the world at PPP, a space program, a world-class and innovative high-tech sector, the world’s best high-speed rail system, mostly replaced other forms of currency with phone payments, more billionaires and a higher life expectancy than the USA, and a military befitting a global superpower. And you surely know many more.
If you insist that China is still a developing country, state your condition(s) for when it would no longer be. In past years, students have emphasized per-capita income, but note that the World Bank in 2022 declared, "China is now an upper-middle-income country." Past students have argued on those grounds that China will remain a developing country for as many as 20-50 years, but see also this 2022 article from China Daily whose headline is "China to become high-income country in couple of years."
You are also encouraged to argue that the three terms are outdated, no longer applicable to entire countries as they exist today.
For the best grade, carefully consider counter-arguments to your position and evidence. Please don't make the mistake of assuming China must be as rich as the USA to be a "developed" country; it only needs to approximate the least wealthy developed countries like Poland, Slovakia, etc., and most Americans see China today as already well beyond that point.
Extreme poverty in the USA video to be sent via DingTalk.
Topic 4: Regime Types Background: Comparative politics rests on a foundational typology of totalitarian, authoritarian, and liberal democratic regimes and claims that these "ideal types" are objective, backed by empirical evidence/observation, and applicable to virtually all regimes around the world with little or no pro-Western bias. At the same time, the teleological sub-subfield of political development largely assumes that regimes will progress toward a procedural democracy based on "polyarchy," supplemented and enabled by the liberal rights and freedoms outlined in Schmitter & Karl's "What Democracy Is...And Is Not," even if such a regime does not help the economy. This assumption rests on a body of work called "human development theory," which in a very oversimplified form claims that economic development creates a middle class which gradually comes to prefer "self-expression values" and demand liberal democracy. Furthermore, living in a liberal democracy reinforces a political culture which makes any other regime type, including "illiberal democracy," unacceptable to citizens.
PROMPT: To what extent do you agree or disagree that the three basic regime types are objective and universally applicable, not Western impositions full of subjective value judgments? Do you think people in liberal democracies would really tolerate years or decades of economic stagnation rather than change their regime? Will all the world's political regimes, including China's, eventually converge in some form of liberal/"Western"/"bourgeois" democracy? Why/why not? Why are there so few totalitarian regimes left in the 21st century?
SUGGESTED TEXTS TO CITE: Stepan & Linz, Schmitter & Karl.
ESSAY 2: Due Sun., June 5th. GRADING OF ESSAY 2 POINT DISTRIBUTION: On Time? (15); Clarity & Cohesiveness w/ at least two questions from the prompt addressed (15); Grammar/Punctuation/Spelling/Capitalization (10); Title (5); Format (Student’s name in digital file and above title, paragraphs indented, length, margins, font) (5); Evidence (5); Persuasiveness (5); Analysis (10); Two direct quotations of outside sources, cited formally w/ bibliography (15); Interesting/Original? (15).
OTHER REQUIREMENTS: Outside Sources = use (quote directly) at least two sources originally in English. Bibliography = include a bibliography of outside sources at the end of the essay. The format will be discussed in class.
Topic 1: Environmental Politics & Activism
BACKGROUND: Since the 1970s, environmental movements in most countries of the world have gone from fringe grassroots activism to the mainstream, but environmental problems continue to worsen, most threateningly in the form of climate change & global warming. Pollution & carbon emissions have decreased somewhat during the Covid-19 pandemic, but most environmentalists think much more needs to be done to avert impending crises. Mass extinction of plant & animal species may already be in progress as part of The Anthropocene (geological era). Heat waves in South Asia are already bringing temperatures above 40 degrees regularly this year, with declines of 70% in the population animal species, according to the WWF in just the most recent decades. The infamous Chinese documentary “Under the Dome” concludes that China’s environmental protection laws are adequate, but they are easily corrupted and rarely enforced. China’s environmental activists generally work in the oxymoronic GONGOs rather than INGOs, due to distrust of foreigners & the desire to maintain social stability.
PROMPT: What is the appropriate level of concern governments should show for climate change, global warming, pollution, the preservation of ecosystems, etc. and how should governments treat activists who care so much that they are willing to go to extremes of “ecofascism” & “environmental terrorism”? What do you think of radical ideas & movements like deep ecology, the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement, and others? Why is either anthropocentrism or misanthropic “solutions” to environmental problems more extreme & dangerous? Are the activists right, or are they alarmists? What role, if any, should Green Parties play in government (at local versus federal levels) to achieve more sustainable economies? To what extent is “regulatory capture” of the EPA both the most common and worst kind? (How) Can activists really make a difference, or must we wait for the gov’t to realize itself that major policy changes are necessary (as with the One-Child Policy)? To what extent are foreign environmental NGOs & INGOs a threat to China’s social stability?
SUGGESTED TEXTS TO CITE: NY Times profile of Ou, profile of Green Parties, Lieven’s chapter on climate change & states, websites for VHEMt, Pentti Linkola’s ecofascism, Prof. Gellers’s chapters on animal rights & the rights of nature
Topic 2: Media, Transparency, & Corruption BACKGROUND: Utopian dreams for the internet in the 1990s have yielded to a world of intra-nets and firewalls in what China has innovated as “information sovereignty.” Wikileaks remains an outspoken NGO advocating “radical transparency” favored by many in the West, though notably not the USA, where Julian Assange is to be extradited and tried for the crime of revealing classified information. The slogan “lights on, rats out” apparently requires not only public access to information but also the processes by which policy decisions are made and a free press. Westerners generally assume that all other regime types enforce a kind of disinformation dystopia upon their benighted citizens, with nothing but pro-government propaganda published and broadcast into every home, with no alternatives. With the stall in political liberalization around the world, Westerners worry that the future of information will be one-sided brainwashing, governments insulated against against public scrutiny (and thereby unrestricted in their corruptibility), and neither global nor domestic agreement on basic facts. For its part, the USA may owe its critically polarized population to social & partisan media; “too much freedom” in the media may have destroyed all trust in the gov’t and other institutions and may ultimately lead to a new civil war. Knowing that one’s gov’t is corrupt (i.e. through legally mandated disclosures of political campaign contributions, what the USA refers to as its “institutionalized corruption,”) may not empower or satisfy citizens but simply make them prone to outrage & opposition.
PROMPT: Why are anti-corruption efforts best handled internally by the gov’t itself in relatively opaque meritocracies or by transparency activism, liberal independent investigative journalists (incl. liberalized media systems) & NGOs like Transparency International? To what extent can press freedom, corruption, and other concepts be accurately compared in different countries, as in the global “Corruption Perception Index” or Reporters Without Borders’ “Press Freedom Index” (which put China in the middle/average & very low, respectively)? Do you think Vladimir Putin’s “net worth” is really $200 billion, making him the richest man in the world, and why is this OK, not OK, or not important? To what exent do the “free & fair” elections of liberal/Western democracies really help citizens “throw the bastards out” of office? What role (if any) do term limits (rather than unlimited, lifelong terms) play in preventing or minimizing corruption?
SUGGESTED TEXTS TO CITE: Prof. Beattie’s book on mass media & political psychology, Haidt on social media, Gedan & Canton on Radical Transparency, Yuezhi Zhao on “Watchdog” Vs. “Lapdog” media
Topic 3 : Chinese political economy. Background: With each new chairman of the PRC, Western capitalists hope that he will be the one to reform (marketize/privatize) the Chinese economy to be just like those of Western countries, and they are repeatedly disappointed with the slow pace of change. Western economists are especially critical of the ongoing prevalence, size, and strength of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in the PRC, claiming that they are inefficient, financially unviable (often called “zombies” that will never turn a profit and only continue to take gov’t loans to keep people employed), or supposedly worst of all “outcompeting” private MNCs globally thanks to support from the Chinese state. Some critics also warn that having “soft budget constraints” may create overly high tolerance of risk and create “overcapacity” found in several heavy industries in the 21st century PRC (much more steel and other commodities can be produced than is demanded by the domestic economy, and exporting them at sub-market prices is considered anti-competitive “dumping”). Many assume that “mixed” economies like China’s today must be temporary and transitional towards one that more clearly resembles an ideal type of capitalism or communism in macroeconomic theory.
PROMPT: How far in either direction (nationalization & state planning versus privatization & marketization) should economic reforms continue in the PRC? To what extent are terms like “Red Capitalism” and “State Capitalism” accurate descriptions of the contemporary Chinese economy? We all know the benefits of “reform and opening” that Deng Xiaoping began, in terms of GDP growth and poverty reduction, but how do they compare today in terms of the drawbacks such as environmental degradation, species extinction, socioeconomic inequality, insecurity from the end of "the iron rice bowl," corruption, foreign influence (Westernization), etc.? To what extent is the current “mixed” economy in China sustainable in the medium to long term rather than transitional?
SUGGESTED TEXTS TO CITE: Article on Changchun in the LA Times, Arnold in TeenVogue, Tupy in The Atlantic, The six-hour documentary from 2002, “Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy”, Marx, Stalin, Mao, Deng, Xi, etc.
ESSAY 3: Those revising must turn in the first draft earlier, on Fri., June 17th. For all others, (& revised drafts) Essay 3 is due at the end of the semester on TBA. Required length: 800 words, but not longer than 7 double-spaced pages. GRADING OF ESSAY 3 (POINT DISTRIBUTION): On Time? (5); Clarity & Cohesiveness w/ at least two questions from the prompt addressed (15); Grammar/Punctuation/Spelling/Capitalization (10); Title (5); Format (Student’s name in digital file and above title, paragraphs indented, length, margins, font) (5); Evidence (5); Persuasiveness (5); Analysis (10); Three citations of outside sources, one direct quotation (w/ original 中文 text) from a Chinese source, cited formally w/ bibliography (20); Interesting/Original? (20).
OTHER REQUIREMENTS: Outside Sources = use (quote directly) at least one source originally in Chinese (to be translated into English while including the original text and citation with page # for academic articles & books). Bibliography = include a bibliography of outside sources, alphabetized by authors'/editors' surnames, at the end of the essay. The format will be discussed in class. TOPIC: Students may choose between Topic 1, Topic 2, OR Topic 3.
Topic 1: The Jan. 6th Sedition & Right-Wing Populism in the USA. Background: Jan. 6th, 2021, will be remembered as a dark day in American history. A mob of right-wing populists (mainly supporters of Pres. Trump who believe the 2020 election was fraudulently stolen from him) broke into the U.S. Capitol building, perpetrating acts of looting and vandalism, accompanied by the deaths of police and fellow citizens, threats to lawmakers requiring them to flee the floor of Congress for underground bunkers, and a crowd chanting to “Hang [Vice President] Mike Pence” for his ceremonial role in certifying the results of the Electoral College vote against the wishes of outgoing Pres. Trump. Surveys show that a majority of Republicans today still either support these seditious acts or think that they were actually committed by far-left activists trying to damage the reputation of Trump supporters and other right-wing populists. Social disorder in this case as well as violence in protests against police brutality across the country lead to the conclusion that while a military coup and the establishment of martial law in the USA might have been thought impossible and ridiculous four years ago, it may now be seen as not only possible but even desirable or necessary among some segments of the population (and for various reasons). Republicans in Congress, largely elites, may hope for the tide of populism—-and Trump’s popularity—-to subside, but for now it seems they are still firmly in the grips of the 45th president, even to the point of rejecting a bipartisan investigation into the events of Jan. 6th. The one Republican on the investigative committee in the House of Representatives is Liz Cheney, daughter of former Vice President (and architect of the 2nd Iraq War) Dick Cheney, and populists in her party voted to strip her of her leadership positions after she voted to impeach Pres. Trump for his role in encouraging the riot. Note that as of June 2022, the Jan. 6th Investigative Committee in Congress is set to have a publicly televised hearing in which members of the Trump Administration are expected to be formally charged with incitement & conspiracy of the insurrection, and several members of the Proud Boys have also been charged with sedition.
PROMPT: How do you and your fellow Chinese citizens view the events of Jan. 6th and retired Gen. Michael Flynn’s (denied) call for a military coup in the USA to reinstall Trump as president? Will social disorder and violence get better or worse in Pres. Biden’s four-year term as president, and why? How likely is an actual military coup in the future of the USA? To what extent are Trump’s followers members of a “cult of personality” similar to dictators in history? How accurate or inaccurate is it to call the white nationalists and white supremacists among Trump supporters “fascists,” and to what extent do you think the majority of Republicans today share those extreme views? How do elite versus populist divisions in the U.S. Republican Party (and/or the Democratic Party) support or complicate “economic-determinism” and other Marxist views that reduce politics to class struggle between the rich and the poor?
SUGGESTED TEXTS TO CITE: News articles and newspaper editorials in English & Chinese (incl. class reading by Schogol), Ross Douthat in the NY Times (http://www.omnifoo.info/images/NYT%20Douthat%20The%20Two%20Crises%20of%20Conservatism.pdf ) , Goldberg on “What it means to be a conservative today”. Marche & The Brookings Institution on the possibility of a new civil war in the USA. Text sent on DingTalk about The Proud Boys. Be especially careful to use your critical thinking skills if you cite any editorials on this subject!
Topic 2: Public Administration Versus Business Management. Background: We briefly discussed the idea taking hold in the West in recent decades that government should be both run and evaluated more like businesses, in terms of efficiency. U.S. political figures like Donald Trump, Mitt Romney, and countless others came to politics after successful business careers and campaigned on the promise to cut government “waste,” reduce budgets/spending, and generally shake up the public sector with ideas like monetized performance evaluations, deregulation to “set free” the forces of the market, downsizing bureaucracies, removing “red tape,” and ending the idea that a gov’t job is safe and stable (i.e. difficult to be fired or laid off). At middle management levels, there is indeed much overlap in the skill sets required for managing a for-profit business office and a non-profit public service organization (PSO) such as a gov't agency. However, many public administrators push back with objections such as the distinction that gov’t agencies and organizations providing essential services like fire control, public education, policing, taxation, and general governance should be judged more on their effectiveness—-are they achieving their objectives as stated in their mission statements or not? Reducing their size (staff, resources, etc.) and funding might appear to make them more efficient but is also likely to reduce their effectiveness as well. Morale at federal agencies, especially the U.S. Dept. of State, whose budget and staff were greatly reduced (including some positions which were simply left unfilled for four years), was said to be very low under the Trump Admin., for a U.S. example.
PROMPT: What does Chinese PA literature say about tradeoffs between (financial, time) efficiency and effectiveness in PSOs? Why should/shouldn’t gov’t agencies and other PSOs be subject to the “austerity” and fiscal discipline of corporate management, such as experiments to see how low a budget can be allocated while still accomplishing the main goal(s)? Should PSOs try to earn a profit to offset public budget reductions? In your view, what are the key similarities between business management and non-profit and PSO management? What, if anything, about the way provincial and local governments are administrated in China leads citizens to trust them less and find them more corrupt that the central gov’t in Beijing? If you plan to go to graduate school for PA or get a job immediately after graduating from NENU, what are your goals and likely career path (especially related to your prospects for entry-level employment related to your field of PA)?
SUGGESTED TEXTS TO CITE: Max Weber’s “Politics as a Vocation”, public administration & management literature in English & Chinese
Topic 3: Surveillance, Big Data, Social Credit, & Social Control Background: On the positive side, China leads the world in these technologies thanks to its large population willing to part with personal information, regime-specific conditions, and rapidly advancing technology like "super apps" WeChat & Alipay, the abandonment of cash for fully traceable cel-phone payment apps, etc. More negatively, Covid-19 has brought a lot of the privacy-invading scenarios you said you wouldn't accept and could not imagine into reality, such as tracking everyone's location 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Western media (which ran headlines saying "Shanghai is now Xinjiang" and other sensational claims) appears to have been wrong about how much or how quickly social credit systems would be implemented by the gov't and apps like Sesame Credit (see Brussee in
PROMPT: How sure are you that the gov't will "return to normal" and give up the emergency surveillance & lockdown powers after the Covid-19 emergency is over? Why does the West think Chinese citizens are controlled by technology & the gov't? How much more surveillance would you be willing to accept, if it helped your country to become stronger? Are differences between China & Western countries in these topics overstated, exaggerated, or outright false stereotypes? How would a citizen of any country know that it has "crossed a line" and entered a surveillance state dystopia similar to the panopticon? Can one "sleepwalk" into a dystopia with small steps and hardly notice until it is too late to reverse? Will all states find new surveillance technologies & big data "too useful" not to take advantage of, and how can citizens protect their privacy? How much do you and Chinese citizens care about privacy & other civil liberties?
SUGGESTED TEXTS TO CITE: Adelmant on social credit in China. Armstrong on the panopticon & Hvistendahl on Sesame Credit in
Topic 4: Fascism in Ukraine & Russia (& Globally) Background: Revisit your homework on this topic, and apply much of what Topic 1 mentions to a more global, context
PROMPT: To what extent are strongmen populist/nationalist leaders around the world a sign that we are witnessing a return of fascism as an acceptable ideology for political campaigns & entire gov'ts? To what extent is fascism an ideology that can recur in any part of the world at any time (as opposed to Nazism, which is a form tied specifically to Germany & Hitler in WWII)? Is a trans-national "global fascism" movement of the kind described by Stanley possible, and if so, is it underway (& how do you know)? You are encouraged to say why Westerners are wrong to see signs of fascism in the PRC in a similar way as rising Japan & Germany in the decade preceding WWII, such as the rise of "Wolf Warrior" nationalism & diplomacy & programs to make Chinese boys & men more masculine (by cracking down on "effeminate" or "sissy" men & androgyny in "boy band"/K-pop fashion, etc.). You may expand on any of the questions asked in that homework assignment.
SUGGESTED TEXTS TO CITE: Course readings used for this homework question (though the Azov Battalion is nearly wiped out by now), to which Snyder's mid-May article may be added.
For all essays, you will lose points if... 1. You try to answer more than one prompt/write on more than one topic (don't do it!); 2. You try to address every single thing in the "Background" section or very little (or worse, none) of it; 3. Your essay doesn't have a single, unifying thesis to tie your points together, or you don't directly address each part of the prompt; 4. (Essay 2 & 3 only) You don't have a bibliography/works cited section or citations (in-text or footnootes) for outside sources/direct quotes; 6. (Essay 2 & 3 only) Your Chinese source doesn't include the original text in Chinese; 7. Your essay is too long or short
SUGGESTED ONLINE FORUMS FOR YOUR PARTICIPATION (EXTRA WRITING PRACTICE): Global Voices
Care to see what Julian's other classes are doing and have done? Visit the NENU landing page for his reading, writing, public administration, and IR theory courses. All classes should have received a copy of EFL student guides to Western music and Western movies. Feel free to share and distribute them.
RECOMMENDED FILMS RELEVANT TO INTERNATIONAL POLITICS (EXTENDED FROM CLASS HANDOUT): DOCUMENTARY - The Act of Killing/The Look of Silence; The Age of Stupid; Blue Gold; Collapse; Crossing the Line; The Eleventh Hour; Enemies of the People; The Fog of War; Miscreants of Taliwood; Narco Cultura; No End in Sight; Qatsi series; Religulous; Shake Hands with the Devil; Soundtrack to War; Standard Operating Procedure; The Unknown Known; Water Wars; The Yes Men/The Yes Men Save the World. FICTION/DRAMATIZATION - Ararat; Argo; Blood Diamond; Canadian Bacon; Cloud Atlas; Come and See; Contagion; Dirty Pretty Things; Dr. Strangelove; Europa Europa!; Hotel Rwanda; The Hurt Locker; The International; The Killing Fields; Letters from Iwo Jima; Lilya 4Ever; The Lives of Others; Mammoth; The Mouse That Roared; The Pianist; Quilombo; Sicario; Sin Nombre; Sleep Dealer; Snowpiercer; Star Trek (all); When the Wind Blows; World War Z; Zero Dark Thirty
WEEK 1 (3-1, 3-3): TUES.- Course introduction. Distribute glossaries on Reading & Writing, Critical Thinking, Security & IPE, etc. Sentences, Paragraphs, and what they build to. Learn to "extend a sentence" without breaking grammar rules. HOMEWORK: Winter Vacation Story (Assignment)Sign up for 1-on-1 session to discuss your first assignment (Winter Vacation Story) Distribute glossaries on Reading & Writing, Critical Thinking, etc. Introduce dictation exercise and practice a test dictation. Sentences, Paragraphs, and what they build to. HOMEWORK: Winter Vacation Story (Assignment) THURS. - 1-on-1 meetings about "writing sample", goals, topics of interest.
WEEK 2 ( 3-8, 3-10): TUES.-Return & explain graded "test" dictations. Learn to "extend a sentence" without breaking grammar rules. Grammar point: Expressing regrets with past participles of verbs. Academic VS. Non-academic writing. HOMEWORK: Write three sentences using past participles of verbs to express how you wish your winter vacation had gone differently. (i.e. Do you have any regrets? What do you wish you had done/not done/done differently?) Be ready to talk about Sentence Structure exercise in next class. Handout on sentence structure. THURS. - Talk about sentence structure: simple, compound, complex, sentence fragments and run-on sentences.Give answers for Sentence Structure exercises.
WEEK 3 ( 3-15, 3-17): TUES. - TBA. THURS.- TBA
WEEK 4 (3-22, 3-24): TUES. - TBA HOMEWORK: THURS.- HOMEWORK:
WEEK 5 ( 3-29, 3-31): TUES.- valid & sound arguments, mapping the main argument in Stanley's article on Putin's antisemitism HOMEWORK: map the argument in one of the texts we have read for this course THURS.- Session canceled due to lack of electricity. HOMEWORK: Chinglish Elimination using fascism comparison homework
WEEK 6 ( 4-5, 4-7): TUES.- Qingming holiday NO CLASS. THURS.- Finish NYT documentary on the Jan. 6th Capitol insurrection.
WEEK 7 ( 4-12, 4-14): TUES.- Chinglish Elimination exercise Topic sentences practice. HOMEWORK: Unscramble an example paragraph, and prepare to talk about academic articles, using this guide and an article TBATHURS.-
WEEK 8 ( 4-19, 4-21): TUES.- Introduction paragraphs in an essay. THURS.- Conclusion paragraphs & counterarguments in an essay.
WEEK 9 ( 4-26, 4-28): THURS.- HOMEWORK: Essay 1 due.
WEEK 10 ( 5-3, 5-5): TUES.- Small conversation groups. THURS.- Titles exercises HOMEWORK:
WEEK 11 ( 5-10, 5-12): TUES. - Second quotations handout exercises. THURS.- Finish Quotations 2 exercises. General statements.
WEEK 12 ( 5-17, 5-19): TUES.- HOMEWORK: THURS.- Citation styles (in-line, footnotes, end notes) & bibliography/works cited/references sections.
WEEK 13 ( 5-24, 5-26): TUES.- THURS.-
WEEK 14 ( 5-31, 6-2): TUES.- THURS.-
WEEK 15 ( 6-7, 6-9): TUES.- THURS.-
WEEK 16 ( 6-14, 6-16): TUES.- Quoting & citing Chinese language sources THURS.- Final Chinglish Elimination Exercise
WEEK 17 ( 6-21, 6-23): TUES. - TBA THURS.- TBA
WEEK 18 ( 6-28, 6-30): TUES. - Final Review Game THURS.- Writing & Drawing "game"
ESSAY 3 DUE July 14th.
TBA = To Be Announced.
This syllabus is subject to change and will be updated throughout the semester. Check back regularly to be fully informed!
Potential Topics, Readings, Assignments, etc. (Including those suggested by students): Political Psychology; Research Methodology (Quantitative, Positivist);