University of Washington
Political Science
Political Institutions, Culture & Strategy
Spring Quarter 2026
Lectures Tuesday and Thursday, 12:30 to 2:20 PM
Professor Victor Menaldo
31 Gowen Hall
Office hours: by appointment
Teaching Assistant: Chan Yoon (chanyoon@uw.edu), office hours by appointment
Course Description:
In this class we explore interesting puzzles and questions about contemporary politics and political history by drawing on anthropology, sociology, and economics.
Here are some of those puzzles:
- Why are most contemporary human societies sedentary, and how did the transition from nomadism to settled societies affect politics and development?
- Why do some societies adopt sexist cultural practices like foot binding and female genital mutilation that hurt both women and most men and retard their economies?
- Why do individuals organize themselves politically around ethnicity, language, religion, and ideology, and not around their hair color, their height, or their hobbies? When are these differences politicized and polarized? When do these differences explode into violent conflict?
- Why do political revolutionaries who espouse utopian visions about a better society end up engaging in massive repression and impose illiberal institutions and scorched earth campaigns to destroy cultural practices they don’t approve of?
- What are the gravest threats to liberal democracy today and how can we arrest them?
To address these questions, in this class we look at how human beings construct institutions and cultural practices collectively as they pursue their individual interests. We therefore focus on coordination problems and other dilemmas of collective action. We assume that individuals are rational and engage in optimizing behavior in the face of constraints. We also look at how power is universally exercised to shape and control political, cultural, and economic institutions and, in turn, how these institutions generate policies that affect what we learn, what we earn, how long we live, and even who we are.
Grading and Exams:
- Participation (20%)
- Exam I (40%)
- Exam II (40%)
Tips on Written Reading Responses
There are two elements of participation in this class. The first is participation during lectures. You should always attend these. I will grade you on the relevance, cogency, and persuasiveness of your oral contributions. During class discussion, you should draw from the week’s readings—which means that you should complete them before each class.
Tips on Reading Reflections: make sure that you have done the reading and done it carefully. Make sure that these emails are well crafted and thoughtful. Credit for participation is not about quantity, in other words. It is about quality. Discuss the reading’s questions and/or puzzles and your reactions to the author’s explanation for these questions and puzzles and how it relates to the big topics we’re exploring in class and to prior readings and lectures. Also discuss any new questions that the reading provokes.
Send those responses to:
AND
Course Materials:
I uploaded to Canvas all of the books (in electronic form), journal articles, and unpublished papers that will be assigned as required readings. YOU DON’T NEED TO PURCHASE ANY BOOKS OR COURSE PACKETS!
Accommodations:
Washington state law requires that UW develop a policy for accommodation of student absences or significant hardship due to reasons of faith or conscience, or for organized religious activities. The UW’s policy, including more information about how to request an accommodation, is available at Religious Accommodations Policy (https://registrar.washington.edu/staffandfaculty/religious-accommodations-policy/). Accommodations must be requested within the first two weeks of this course using the Religious Accommodations Request form (https://registrar.washington.edu/students/religious-accommodations-request/)
Course Schedule:
The following course schedule lists the required readings for each day under each lecture’s topic.
WEEK 1, DAY 1: Meeting 1: “Introduction”
Read the syllabus. We go over the class basics and review the syllabus in class.
Read Fryer, "On Valentine's Day, I want to Hold Your Invisible Hand"
WEEK 1, DAY 2: Meeting 2: “Politics and Science”
Watch the webcast featuring professors Francis Fukuyama and Jared Diamond in conversation about the origins and basis of political order:
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374533229
WEEK 2, DAY 1: Meeting 3: “Human Beings as Strategic Actors & Creators and Spreaders of Culture”
Harari, “Sapiens: a Brief History of Humankind”, Chapters 1-4
WEEK 2, DAY 2: Meeting 4: “The Agricultural Revolution”
Harari, “Sapiens: a Brief History of Humankind”, Chapters 5-8
WEEK 3, DAY 1: Meeting 5: “Institutions 1: Basic Coordination & Solutions to Opportunism”
Mackie, “Ending Footbinding and Infibulation: A Convention Account”
WEEK 3, DAY 2: Meeting 6: “Institutions 2: Coordination with Conflict & Social Conflict Theory”
Knight, “Distribution Fights, Coordination & Lobster Management”
WEEK 4, DAY 1: Meeting 7: “Strategy and Constitutions”
Elster, “Forces and Mechanisms in the Constitution-Making Process”
WEEK 4, DAY 2: Meeting 8: “Demand & Supply Side Explanations for States & Centralized Political Authority/Order”
- Harari, “Sapiens: a Brief History of Humankind”, Chapters 9-11
- Tilly, “War Making and State Making as Organized Crime”
WEEK 5, DAY 1: Meeting 9: “Constructing Nations, Nationalism & National Identity”
Gellner, “Nations & Nationalism”
WEEK 5, DAY 2: Meeting 10: “Subnational Identity & the Social Construction of Ethnicity”
- Fearon, “Why Ethnic Politics and Pork Tend to go Together”
- Posner, “The Political Salience of Cultural Difference”
WEEK 6, DAY 1: Meeting 11: “Civil War & the Bargaining Theory of War/In Group Policing Logic”
- Fearon, “Commitment Problems and the Spread of Ethnic Conflict”
- Latin & Fearon, “Explaining Inter-ethnic Cooperation”
WEEK 6, DAY 2: Meeting 12: “Review for Exam 1”
Come to class prepared with questions about previous lectures and readings!
EXAM 1: Essay questions projected at the end of our review and due back, after take home test, on Tuesday at the start of class.
WEEK 7, DAY 1: Meeting 13: “Revolutions—Rational Causes and Why they Don’t Usher in Utopia”
- Kuran, “Now out of Never”
- Chirot, “So you say you want a Revolution?”, Chapter 1
WEEK 7, DAY 2: Meeting 14: “How do Dictators Rise to & Cling to Power?”
Haber, “Authoritarian Government”
WEEK 8, DAY 1: Meeting 15: “Punishing Dictators with Sanctions—Does this Actually Work or Does it Backfire?”
Listen to Podcast on the Origins of Sanctions: The Economic Weapon, the Rise of Sanctions:
https://podcasts.apple.com/fr/podcast/nicholas-mulder-the-economic-weapon-the-rise-of/id426479249?i=1000551257562
WEEK 8, DAY 2: Meeting 16: “How & Why do Dictators Transition to Democracy & Legacies of Authoritarianism in Democracy”
Albertus and Menaldo, “Chapter 2”
WEEK 9, DAY 1: Meeting 17: (The subject undefined)
WEEK 9, DAY 2: Meeting 18: “Should you Punish Democratically Elected Executives who do bad things to Consolidate Democracy or Let them go Free?
Levitsky and Ziblatt, “How Democracies Die” [electronic version available from the UW Library], Chapters 4-6
WEEK 10, DAY 1: Meeting 19: “Is Cancel Culture a threat to Democracy?”
Listen to the Podcast on the Political Economy of Cancel Culture:
https://anchor.fm/uw-politcal-economy/episodes/40---Political-Economy-of-Cancel-Culture---w-Victor-Menaldo-e112ff0
WEEK 10, DAY 2: Meeting 20: Review & Exam
Come to class prepared with questions about previous lectures and readings!
Second exam distributed to class and due on the following Tuesday, June 9th at 12:30 PM.