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BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF POLITICS
INTRODUCTION TO COMPARATIVE POLITICS
Spring 2017
“Thinking without comparison is unthinkable.
And, in the absence of comparison, so is all
scientific thought and scientific research.”
Guy Swanson
Professor Eva Bellin
Lemberg 225
Phone: 781- 736- 5336
Email:
Office Hours: Mondays 1-3 and by appointment
General Information
This course offers an introduction to foundational concepts and questions in comparative politics and seeks to provide students with a grounding in the basic tools of comparative analysis. It applies and evaluates competing theoretical approaches (social structural, cultural, institutional, and leadership-centered) to explain several important political phenomena including (1) democracy, democratization, and the persistence of authoritarianism; (2) revolution; (3) ethnicity and ethnic conflict. It also explores recent debates about the importance of civil society and political institutions in shaping political outcomes. Cases will be drawn from Africa, Asia, Western Europe, the Americas, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East.
Course Objectives
In addition to mastering the substantive material described above, this course aims to improve your critical thinking skills by training you in abstract concepts and theories and practicing you in testing those concepts and theories against empirical evidence. The course also aims to build your writing skills and your capacity to make compelling arguments through practice in writing clear thesis statements and the mobilization of persuasive evidence in support of your positions.
Course Requirements
1. Class participation/attendance (5% of final grade). All students are expected to keep up with weekly readings and participate in class discussions. Class attendance is mandatory.
2. Essay writing (50% of final grade). Students will write two short analytic essays (each one 5 pages, double spaced) based on class materials. Essays are due in class on February 28 and April 20 . Each essay will count for 25% of the final grade.
3. Mid-term exam (20% of final grade). A mid-term will be held in class on March 16.
4. Final exam (25% of final grade). Date of final exam is to be announced by registrar (May).
Course Material
The following books will be available for purchase
William Sheridan Allen, The Nazi Seizure of Power (Franklin Watts, 1984)
Philip Gourevitch, We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families (Picador USA, 1998)
All other readings will be collected in a reader available for purchase through the Politics Department (Olin-Sang 204)
Students with Disabilities
If you are a student with a documented disability on record at Brandeis University and wish to have a reasonable accommodation made for you in this class, please speak to Professor Bellin at the start of the semester.
Academic Intergrity
You are expected to be familiar with and to follow the University’s policies on academic integrity (see http://www.brandeis.edu/studentlife/sdc/ai ). Any suspected instances of alleged dishonesty will be referred to the Office of Student Development and Conduct. Instances of academic dishonesty may result in sanctions including but not limited to, failing grades being issued, educational programs, and other consequences.
Work Load
Success in this 4 credit hour course is based on the expectation that students will spend a minimum of 9 hours of study time per week in preparation for class (readings, papers, discussion sections, preparation for exams, etc.).
Cell Phone/Laptops in the Classroom
Use of cell phones in class, for talking, texting or reading/writing email is prohibited. If you wish to leave your cell phone on in “Silent” mode because of an ongoing emergency situation, please alert Professor Bellin at the start of class.
Use of laptops in class is prohibited. If you have a documented disability that requires note taking on a laptop, please consult with Professor Bellin at the start of the semester.
Schedule and Readings
Class 1: What Is Comparative Politics? (Tuesday, January 17)
Politics as puzzles; the utility of comparison; unleashing the political imagination
No assigned reading
Class 2: Comparative Politics: Concepts and Categories (Thursday, January 19)
What is politics? What is the state? Patrimonial vs. Legal-rational states; Dimensions of state power: autonomy and capacity; State vs. Regime
Max Weber, Theory of Social and Economic Organization (Free Press, 1947):152-157; 333-345.
Ryszard Kapuscinski, The Emperor: Downfall of an Autocrat (Vintage, 1983):5-12; 26-56.
Class 3: Comparative Politics: Concepts and Categories; Theory Building (Tuesday, January 24)
Comparing regime types: democracy, authoritarianism, totalitarianism Independent variables, dependent variables, correlation vs. causation, hypothesis testing, evidence vs. assertion
Terry Karl, “What Democracy is...and is not,” in Larry Diamond and Marc Plattner (eds.), The Global Resurgence of Democracy (Johns Hopkins, 1996): 49-62.
Juan Linz, “An Authoritarian Regime: Spain,” in Erik Allardt and Stein Rokkan (eds.), Mass Politics (Free Press, 1964):251-269.
Stephen Van Evera, Guide to Methods for Students of Political Science (Cornell University Press, 1997):7-21.
Class 4: Democracy and Democratization: Competing Approaches (Thursday, January 26)
Third wave phenomenon; social bases and economic preconditions of democracy
Seymour Martin Lipset, “Social Requisites of Democracy,” American Political Science Review 53 (1959): 69-85.
Barrington Moore, Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy (Beacon Press, 1966): 413-432 .
Class 5: Democracy and Democratization: Competing Approaches (Tuesday, January 31)
Leader-centered explanations; institutional preconditions; cultural factors
S.M. Lipset, “George Washington and the Founding of Democracy,” Journal of Democracy 9, No. 4 (1998):24-38.
Guiseppe Di Palma, To Craft Democracies (University of California Press, 1990): 1-9; 14-21; 27-32; 40-43
Larry Diamond, “Political Culture and Democracy,” in Larry Diamond, ed. Political Culture and Democracy in Developing Countries (Lynne Rienner, 1993): 10-15.
Samuel Huntington, “Democracy’s Third Wave,” in Larry Diamond and Marc Plattner (eds.) The Global Resurgence of Democracy (Johns Hopkins, 1996) :13-21.
Michael Bratton and Nicolas van de Walle, Democratic Experiments in Africa (Cambridge University Press:1997): 37-41.
Class 6: Democracy and Democratization: Cases: Mexico (Thursday, February 2)
Testing explanations
Andreas Schedler, “Mexico’s Victory: The Democratic Revelation,” Journal of Democracy 11:4 (2000):5-19.
Kevin Middlebrook, “Mexico’s Democratic Transitions: Dynamics and Prospects,” in Kevin Middlebrook (ed.), Dilemmas of Political Change in Mexico (Center for US-Mexican Studies, University of California, San Diego, 2004):1-22.
Todd Eisenstadt, Courting Democracy: Party Strategies and Electoral Institutions (Cambridge, 2004):33-59.
Class 7: Democracy and Democratization: Cases: India (Tuesday, February 7)
The puzzle of Indian democracy; the role of institutional legacy and leadership vs. socio-economic and cultural conditions
Richard Sisson, “Culture and Democratization in India,” in Larry Diamond, ed. Political Culture and Democracy in Developing Countries (Lynne Rienner, 1993):37-51.
Ashutosh Varshney, “India Defies the Odds: Why Democracy Survives,” Jouranl of Democracy 9:3 (July 1998):36-50.
Maya Tudor, “Explaining Democracy’s Origins: Lessons from South Asia,” Comparative Politics 45:3 (April 2013):
Read handout: Tips for Writing an Effective Essay
Class 8: Persistence of Authoritarianism in the Middle East? (Thursday, February 9)
The puzzle of Middle East exceptionalism; the role of socio-economic factors; the role of culture; The role of institutions
Michael Ross, “Does Oil Hinder Democracy?” World Politics 53:3 (April 2001):325-361.
Stephen Fish, “Islam and Authoritarianism,” World Politics 55:1 (2002):4-37.
Eva Bellin, “The Robustness of Authoritarianism in the Middle East: Exceptionalism in Comparative Perspective,” Comparative Politics 36:2 (2004): 139-158.
Eva Bellin, “Reconsidering the Robustness of Authoritarianism in the Middle East: Lessons from the Arab Spring,” Comparative Politics 44:2 (January 2012): 127-149
Class 9: Persistence of Authoritarianism in China? (Tuesday, February 14)
Yu Liu and Dingding Chen, “Why China Will Democratize” The Washington Quarterly 35:1 (Winter 2012): 41-63.
Minxin Pei, “Is CCP Rule Fragile or Resilient?” Journal of Democracy (January 2012).
Zhenhua Su, Hui Zhao, and Jingkai He, “Authoritarianism and Contestation,’ Journal of Democracy ( January 2013).
Xiao Ziang, “The Battle for the Chinese Internet,” Journal of Democracy (April 2011)
ESSAY # 1 Handed Out. Due in Class Tuesday February 28
Class 10: Wiggle Day (Thursday, February 16)
Class Attendance Required. No additional assigned reading
February Break: February 20-25. Happy Break!
Class 11: Explaining Revolution: Competing Approaches (Tuesday, February 28)
What is a revolution? Socio-economic and cultural explanations of revolutions
Karl Marx and Frederick Engles, “The Communist Manifesto,” in Christopher Pierson, ed., The Marx Reader (Polity Press, 1997):128-146.
Theda Skocpol and Ellen Kay Trimberger, “Revolution and the World Historical Development of Capitalism,” in Theda Skocpol, Social Revolutions in the Modern World (Cambridge University Press, 1994):120-32.
James Davies, “Toward a Theory of Social Revolution,” American Sociological Review 27, no. 1 (1962): 5-19.
Class 12: Explaining Revolution: Competing Approaches (Thursday, March 2)
Institutional explanations; leadership-centered explanations
Theda Skocpol, States and Social Revolutions, Cambridge University Press 1989: 3-32.
Eric Selbin, “Revolutions in the Real World: Bringing Agency Back in” in John Foran (ed.) Theorizing Revolutions (Routledge, 1997): 123-136.
Class 13: Explaining Revolution: Cases: Russia (Tuesday, March 7)
Testing socio-economic, cultural, institutional, and leadership-centered explanations
Sheila Fitzpatrick, The Russian Revolution (Oxford University Press, 1994):15-79
Class 14: Iran (Thursday, March 9)
Testing institutional and socio-economic explanations cultural and leadership centered explanations
Said Arjomand, The Turban for the Crown (Oxford University Press:1988):91-145.
Theda Skocpol, Social Revolutions in the Modern World (Cambridge University Press, 1994):240-256.
Class 15: Explaining Revolution (Wiggle Day) (Tuesday, March 14) (Attendance Required, No assigned reading).
Class 16: MID-TERM EXAM (Thursday, March 16)
Class 17: The Politics of Ethnicity and Ethnic Conflict: Competing Approaches (Tuesday, March 21)
What is ethnic identity? Why do people identify ethnically? Primordial vs. Instrumentalist explanations
Clifford Gertz, The Interpretations of Culture (Basic Books, 1973): 255-279; 306-310.
Harold Isaacs, "Basic Group Identity: The Idols of the Tribe," in: Nathan Glazer and Daniel P. Moynihan (eds.), Ethnicity: Theory and Experience (Harvard University Press, 1975): 29-52.
Nelson Kasfir, "Explaining Ethnic Political Participation," World Politics 31(April 1979): 365-388.
Class 18: The Politics of Ethnicity and Ethnic Conflict: Competing Approaches (Thursday, March 23)
The role of politics, politicians, and institutions in the mobilization of ethnic identity
Joan Nagel, "The Political Construction of Ethnicity," in Susan Olzak (ed.) Competitive Ethnic Relations (Acdemic Press, 1986):93-111.
Daniel Posner “The Political Salience of Cultural Difference: Why Chewas and Tumubukas are Allies in Zambia and Adversaries in Malawi,” American Political Science Review 98:4 (2004):529-545.
Eric Hobsbawm, "Introduction: Inventing Traditions," in: Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger (eds.) The Invention of Tradition (Cambridge University Press , 1990):1-41.
Class 19: The Politics of Ethnicity and Ethnic Conflict: Competing Approaches (Tuesday, March 28)
Why did Yugoslavia dissolve into ethnic civil war? Primordial cultural difference vs. politics? The role of institutions and leaders
Mihailo Crnobrnja, The Yugoslav Drama (McGill-Queens University Press, 1994):15-127; 141-188.
Class 20: The Politics of Ethnicity and Ethnic Conflict: Competing Approaches (Thursday, March 30)
The role of institutions and leaders
Aleksa Djilas, "A Profile of Slobodan Milosevic," Foreign Affairs (Summer 1993): 81-96.
Michael Ignatieff, Blood and Belonging (Viking, 1993):12-43.
Class 21: The Politics of Ethnicity and Ethnic Conflict: Cases (Rwanda) (Tuesday, April 4)
Why did Rwanda succumb to ethnic civil war and genocide? Primordial cultural difference vs. politics?; Institutional legacy and political leadership
Philip Gourevitch, We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families (New York: Picador USA, 1998): 5-144
Essay # 2 Handed out in Class. Due in class on Thursday, April 20
Class 22: The Politics of Ethnicity and Ethnic Conflict (Wiggle Day) (Attendance Required, No assigned reading). (Thursday, April 6)
Class 23: Does Civil Society Matter? (Thursday, April 20)
What is civil society? Associational life and its contribution to vibrant democracy; Declining Social Capital in the US and its Impact
Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (Harper Perennial, 1988): 189-195; 513-524.
Robert Putnam, Making Democracy Work (Princeton University Press, 1993): 3-16; 83-120; 163-185.
Class 24: Does Civil Society Matter? Cases (US) (Tuesday, April 25)
Robert Putnam, “Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital,” Journal of Democracy 6 (1): 65-78.
Class 25: Does Civil Society Matter? Cases (Germany) (Thursday, April 27)
The nature of civil society in Nazi Germany; Did civil society make a difference?
William Sheridan Allen, The Nazi Seizure of Power (Watts, 1984): 11-167; 183-200; 217-232; 293-303.
Sheri Berman, “Civil Society and the Collapse of the Weimar Republic,” World Politics 49 (April 1997):401-429.
Class 26: Do Institutions Matter? Electoral Design and the Quality of Democracy (Tuesday, May 2)
Defining Electoral systems: Majority (single member districts) vs. Proportional Representation; Single Member Districts vs. PR: Advantages and Disadvantages
Andrew Reynolds and Ben Reilly, The International IDEA Handbook of Electoral System Design (Stockholm, 1997): 1-31; 60-66; 88-92.
Arend Lijphart, “Constitutional Choices for New Democracies,” in Larry Diamond and Marc Plattner, eds. The Global Resurgence of Democracy (Johns Hopkins, 1996):162-174
Guy Lardeyret, “The Problem with PR,” in Diamond and Plattner, Global Resurgence of Democracy: 175-180.
Quentin Quade, “PR and Democratic Statecraft,” in Diamond and Plattner, Global Resurgence of Democracy: 181-187.
Arend Lijphart, “Double-checking the Evidence,” in Diamond and Plattner, Global Resurgence of Democracy: 187-193.