Special Topics in Political Science (390-0-23)
Topic
Labor in America: Power, Politics, and Policy
Instructors
Daniel J Galvin
847 491 2641
601 University Place, 103 Scott Hall
Office Hours: http://www.polisci.northwestern.edu/people/core-faculty/daniel-galvin.html
Meeting Info
Scott Hall 212: Mon, Wed 2:00PM - 3:20PM
Overview of class
This course examines the political, legal, and economic factors that have shaped workers' capacities to build power and mobilize in collective action in the United States from colonial times to the present. From enslaved persons and indentured servants to immigrant contract laborers, Bracero workers, industrial workers at midcentury, contemporary low-wage workers, and "gig" workers, we consider the complex ways in which capitalism, public policy, employer power, and issues of race, ethnicity, and gender have interacted to influence the content and meaning of work, workers' rights, and the employment relationship. Attention is also given to the rise and fall of labor unions and the emergence of new forms of labor organizing. In addition to political science, readings are drawn from history, philosophy, economics, industrial and labor relations, sociology, and legal studies.
Registration Requirements
Recommended for juniors and seniors; first and second-years should contact the professor
Learning Objectives
1) Describe historical trends in work and in labor organizing in the United States
2) Analyze key political, economic, and legal factors that have shaped and constrained labor organizing in the U.S.
3) Interpret and critique prominent theories and ideologies (like classical liberalism, Marxism, and American exceptionalism)
4) Assess arguments about the impact of institutions (like slavery), policies (like immigration), and practices (like discrimination) on workers and workers' rights
5) evaluate arguments about the dynamics of power in the American workplace
Teaching Method
seminar-style discussion, lecture, group work
Evaluation Method
Research paper, midterm, final exam
Class Materials (Required)
Nelson Lichtenstein, State of the Union: A Century of American Labor (Princeton University Press, 2003) ISBN-13: 978-0691116549
-or-
Nelson Lichtenstein, State of the Union: A Century of American Labor - Revised and Expanded Edition (Princeton University Press, 2013) ISBN-13: 978-0691160276