Prerequisites: graduate standing or consent of instructor

Description: Survey of basic mathematical tools relevant to research in political science and other disciplines of the social sciences, with an emphasis on concepts and applications. Topics include sets, matrix algebra, comparative-static analysis, optimization problems, exponential and logarithmic functions, equality con- straints in optimization, and integration. Political Science systems in Western Europe, with special attention to the role of such systems in modern representative democracies and to debates in the literature on this topic.