Democracy and Democratization in Comparative Perspective / Nathan J. Brown
Wednesday 6:10-8:00
Monroe B37 / 1957 E Street, Suite 512
Telephone: (202) 994-2123
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Introduction
Beginning in the 1960s, most specialists in comparative politics turned their attention away from democracy for two reasons. First, most began to reject the idea that political structures throughout the world were converging on liberal democracy. Second, formal electoral structures seemed increasingly irrelevant to politics throughout the world.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, seemingly entrenched authoritarian regimes in southern Europe and South America collapsed or withdrew, making way for the reemergence of democracy. Scholarly interest in democracy began to rise. When the communist regimes of the Soviet bloc began to collapse in the late 1980s, a torrent of scholarly writings on democracy quickly followed.
Yet the new interest in democracy raised as many problems as it answered. Were we really witnessing a global wave of democratization or merely the simultaneous collapse of a diverse set of authoritarian regimes? Was democracy best understood in a narrow procedural sense or were broader definitions of democracy more appropriate? How was democracy related to economic liberalization or to political liberalism more broadly? In their rush to embrace democratization, were political scientists simply recreating modernization theory without realizing it?
The past decade has not witnessed any diminution of scholarly interest in democracy, but it has allowed for more reflective and nuanced scholarship to emerge.
In this course, however, we will begin not with the most recent scholarship but with some older writings that have colored much of our subsequent thinking about democracy. These writings often contain not only the seeds of current assumptions but also long-forgotten insights and cautions that can help us approach more recent writings with a more critical eye. After considering some of these older writers, we will proceed to some of the newer scholarship, drawing not only on empirical research but just as much to more theoretical and abstract works related to democracy and democratization.
Requirements
The primary requirement is to read the assigned articles and books carefully and critically and come to class to discuss them.
The other requirements are designed to support this primary requirement:
- For weeks 2, 3, 7, 8, and 12, all students should submit a short list (perhaps two or three) of discussion questions. I am particularly interested in questions that compare and contrast the readings or the approaches taken by various authors to the issues raised in the course. These questions should be posted on Blackboard at least 24 hours before the class begins.
- For weeks 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, and 11, I expect a group of short (approximately 500 word) essays presenting a critique of the major book assigned based on at least three book reviews that appeared in academic journals. Each student should volunteer to post a critique on one book; the essay should be posted on Blackboard at least 48 hours before the session discussing the book meets. Students should e-mail me their top three choices for books to critique; I will assign them on a first-come, first-served basis.
- At the end of the course, each student should a short research proposal (approximately 10 pages) in which s/he crafts a research question provoked by the course and designs an empirical study to answer the question. These will be presented in the last week of class.
Grades
Grades will be calculated on the basis of written work The three requirements described above will be weighted equally. Failure to attend class regularly or to complete the assigned readings will be penalized.
Learning Outcomes:
As a result of completing this course, students should be able to:
- Understand how political scientists define democracy;
- Understand some of the major scholarly debates among political scientists about democracy;
- Assess academic writings by political scientists on democracy. and
- Understand how political scientists conduct research on democracy;
Readings:
The following books are all required reading and I strongly urge students to purchase all of them:
- Aristotle, Politics
- John Locke, Second Treatise of Government
- O’Donnell and Schmitter, Transitions from Authoritarian Rule: Tentative Conclusions about Uncertain Democracies
- Robert Putnam Making Democracy Work
- Nathan Brown (editor), Dynamics of Democratization
- Nancy Bermeo, Civil Society Before Democracy
- Larry Diamond,Debates on Democratization
- Michael McFaul, Advancing Democracy Abroad
- Dan Slater, Ordering Power
- Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way, Competitive Authoritarianism
- Valerie Bunce and Sharon Wolchik, Defeating Authoritarian Rulers
Course outline
- January 23—introductory class
- January 30: Classical conceptions of democracy
- Aristotle, Politics, Book IV, chapters iii-xvi; book VI, chapters i-v
- Thucydides, “Civil War in Corcyra” Peloponnesian War, Blackboard
- Locke, Second Treatise of Government
- February 7: Modern Conceptions
- Tocqueville, Democracy in America: (selections posted on Blackboard)
- Adam Przworski, “Minimalist conception of democracy: a defense” Blackboard
- David Collier and Steven Levitsky, “Democracy with Adjectives” World Politics, Blackboard
- Schmitter and Karl, “What Democracy Is…and is Not,” Journal of Democracy, Blackboard
- February 14: Civil Society I:
- Robert Putnam, Making Democracy Work
- Robert Putnam, “Bowling Alone,” Journal of Democracy (Blackboard)
- February 21: Civil Society II
- Michael W. Foley and Bob Edwards, “The Paradox of Civil Society,” Journal of Democracy, Blackboard
- Nancy Bermeo, Civil Society before Democracy
- February 28: Transitions to Democracy: Early Formulations
- O’Donnell and Schmitter, Transitions from Authoritarian Rule: Tentative Conclusions about Uncertain Democracies
- Dankwart Rustow, “Transitions to Democracy,” Comparative Politics, Blackboard
- March 5: Transitions to Democracy: Later Approaches
- Brown, Dynamics of Democratization, Part I
- Diamond, Debates on Democratization, Parts II and III
- March 19: Transitions: The Color Revolutions
- Bunce and Wolchik, Defeating Authoritarian Rulers
- Diamond, Debates on Democratization, chapters 18, 20, 22, 25, and 26
- March 26 Hybrid Regimes I
- Dan Slater, Ordering Power
- April 2: Hybrid Regimes II
- Levitsky and Way, Competitive Authoritarianism
- April 9: Hybrid Regimes III
- Greene, Why Dominant Parties Lose
- April 16: Democracy and Development
- Brown, Dynamics of Democratization, Part II
- Ross, “Does Oil Hinder Democracy?” World Politics, Blackboard
- Ross, “But Seriously: Does Oil Hinder Democracy?” Blackboard
- Valerie Bunce. “Democratization & Economic Reform.” Annual Review of Political Science 2001. Volume 4, 43–65 (Blackboard)
- April 23: Democracy Promotion
- Michael McFaul. Advancing Democracy Abroad
- Brown, Dyanamics of Democratization, Part III
- April 30: Presentations
15. May 2:Presentations