| 1 | Introductory class |
| Part I: Theory and Method |
| 2 | Explaining social action |
| 3 | Rationality |
| 4 | Psychological approaches, relative deprivation |
| 5 | Norms |
| 6 | Emotions |
| 7 | Structural explanations |
| 8 | In-class quiz |
| Part II: Contentious Politics |
| 9–11 | Dynamics of Contention |
| Part III: Riots |
| 12 | U.S. Riots I |
| 13 | U.S. Riots II: Relative deprivation and the 1960's urban riots |
| 14 | U.S. Riots III: The Rodney King riots in LA |
| 15 | Threshold-based models |
| 16 | Student presentations of agent-based modeling exercises
|
| Part IV: Rebellion |
| 17 | Background to Eastern European cases |
| 18 | Cascade models applied to Eastern Europe |
| 19 | Violent rebellion in Kosovo |
| Part V: Revolutions |
| 20 | Revolutions I |
| 21 | Revolutions II |
| 22 | Revolutions III |
| Part VI: Arab Spring |
| 23 | Readings from the October 2011 edition of the Journal of Democracy
|
| 24–25 | Student presentations of comparative analyses of some aspect of the Arab Spring |
| 26 | Final exam |
