Approaches and Schools of Thought in Political Science 2015-2016
Prof. Gabriel Ben-Dor
Tel: 8240050
Room: 4031
Objectives
The seminar focuses on understanding the development, the status and the salient problems of political science in the 21st century. A special emphasis will be on the contribution of this development in strategy and national security studies.
The course deals with the following objectives:
- The evaluation of the status of political science as a science and its limitations
- The development of types of political conceptualization, and the uniqueness of political science as a social phenomena in the 21st century
- The analysis of the development of the main approaches in political science with reference to the history of the field, from early modern political science to post-modern era
- The evaluation of the approaches in political science, emphasizing the contribution of each approach and the connection between one approach and others
- To broaden the knowledge of the interdisciplinary aspects of political science to allow a better understanding of the relationship between the field and other social sciences as well as with other disciplines
- Discuss the interactions between the development of political science, national security and strategy
- Provide theoretical and methodological tool sets for developing critical thinking to examine political issues with reference to current approaches and methods.
Course Requirements
1. A presentation in class on two articles from the list of bibliography. One subject should be chosen from the reader "Approaches and Schools of Thought in Political Science", Vol.1 and Vol.2. The other article can be chosen from recent publications of the same issue.
2. Final Home Exam
3. Two transformative events have been chosen to help discuss and elaborate topics chosen for presentation in class:
ý The events in the Arab World
ý Iran Nuclear Deal
Selected bibliography for these events:
Samore G., (ed.), The Iran Nuclear Deal a Definitive Guide , Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School, 2015
Danahar P., The New Middle East : the World after the Arab Spring, London : Bloomsbury Press 2015
Ben-Dor G., “Democratization Processes in the Middle East and Israel” in Inbar E., (ed.), Israel in a Turbulent Middle East, Routledge Publication, 2012
Magen A., "Comparative Assessment of Israel’s Foreign Policy Response to the ‘Arab Spring’", Journal of European Integration Volume 37, Issue 1, 2015
Hinnebusch R., Syria from Reform to Revolt : Political Economy and International Relations, Syracuse, NY : Syracuse University Press 2015
Kenneth C., (ed.), State Formation and Identity in the Middle East and North Africa New York, NY : Palgrave Macmillan, 2013
Norton A., On the Muslim Question, Princeton : Princeton University Press 2013
Stepan A. & Juan J. Linz J. J. "Democratization Theory and the "Arab Spring", Journal of Democracy Volume 24, Number 2 April 2013, 2013 National Endowment for Democracy and The Johns Hopkins University Press
http://sites.davidson.edu/pol341/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Democrartization-Theory-and-the-Arab-Spring.pdf
Lust E., "Missing the Third Wave: Islam, Institutions, and Democracy in the Middle East" Studies in Comparative International Developments 2011 46:163–190
Huntington S., The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century, Norman: University of Oklahoma 2001
Rex B. Korany B. and Noble P. (eds) Political Liberalization and Democratization in the Arab World, Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner 1995
List of Issues
1. Political Science as Science: From Positivism to Post-Modernism READER pp.325-341; 230-271
Walker T.C. "The Perils of Paradigm Mentalities: Revisiting Kuhn, Lakatos, and Popper" Perspectives on Politics, Cambridge Journal 2010 8: 433-451
· Articleauthorquery
· walkertc[Google Scholar]
Schick T., (ed.), Readings in the Philosophy of Science: From Positivism to Postmodernism, CA: Mayfield Publishing Co., 2000
2. The Historical Development of Political Science READER pp. 1-19; 93-103; 200-229
Gunnell G.J., "The Reconstitution of Political Theory: David Easton, Behavioralism, and the Long Road to System", Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, Volume 49, Issue 2, pages 190–210, Spring 2013
Ma S. Y., "Political Science at the Edge of Chaos? The Paradigmatic Implications of Historical Institutionalism" International Political Science Review, 28 (1): 57-78 JAN 2007
Dryzek J.S., "Revolution Without Enemies: Key Transformations in Political Science” American Political Science Review, November 2006
Dowding K., "The Compatibility of Behaviouralism, Rational Choice and New Institutionalism", Journal of Theoretical Politics 6 (1): 105-117 JAN 1994
3. The psychological Approach
Greenstein Fred, "Can Personality and Politics be Studied Systematically?" Journal of Political Psychology, 20, 4 1991
Brader T. "The Political Relevance of Emotions: “Reassessing” Revisited" Political Psychology Vol. 32, No. 2, 2011
David S. O., Huddy L. , and Jervis R.,( eds.),. Oxford Handbook of Political Psychology. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press 2003
Kuklinski J.H., (ed)., Thinking About Political Psychology. London: Cambridge University Press. . 2002
4. The Cultural Approach
Pye, Lucian W. (1972), "Culture and Political Science: Problems in the
Evaluation of the Concept of Political Culture", Social Science Quarterly, Vol.
53, No. 2, pp.285-96
Kidwell K.S., "Politics, Perfomativity, Autopoiesis: Toward a Discourse Systems
Theory of Political Culture" Critical Methodologies, August1,2009; 9(4): 533 558
5. The Rational Approach
Karl-Dieter O. , "Norms and Rationality. Is Moral Behavior a Form of Rational
Action?"Theory and Decision, March 2013, Volume 74, Issue 3, pp 383-409
Bhattacharyya A. Pattanaik P.K. and Xu Y. , "Choice, Internal Consistency and Rationality" Economics and Philosophy Cambridge University Press 2011 27: 123-149
Schelling T.C., "Game Theory: A Practitioner's Approach" Economy and Philosophy Mar 2010 26(1)27
6. The Institutional-Structural Approach READER pp. 299-324
Bell S., "Institutionalism: Old and New" 2011
http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/eserv.php?pid=UQ:9699&dsID=Institutionalism.pdf
Vivien L. "Varieties of New Institutionalism: A critical Appraisal”, Public
Administration Volume 74 Issue 2,Pages181–197 2007
7. Political Science and Political Thought READER pp. 342-367
Sobel D., (ed.), Oxford Studies in Political Philosophy, Oxford, UK : Oxford University Press 2015
Béland D. and Cox H., Ideas and Politics in Social Science Research, New York:
Oxford University Press 2011
Corbett R. "Political Theory within Political Science" PS: Political Science &
Politics 2011 44: 565-570
Shapiro I., "Problems, Methods, and Theories in the Study of Politics, or What's
Wrong with Political Science and What to Do About it" Political Theory 2002; 30;
596
Rehfeld A., "Offensive Political Theory " Perspectives on Politics 8 (2): 465-486
Jun 2010
8. Political Science: Concepts, Theory, Method and Application READER pp. 104-435; 368-388; 272-298; 9-46 ; 36-45
Crasnow S. "Evidence for Use: Causal Pluralism and the Role of Case Studies
in Political Science Research" Philosophy of the Social Sciences March 2011 vol.
41 no. 1 26-49
Druckman J. Green D.P. Kuklinski J.H. Lupia A. (eds.), Cambridge Handbook
of Experimental Political Science, Northwestern Education 2011
Boix C. and Stokes S. ,(Eds), The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Politics
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008
Bernhard M. "Methodological Disputes in Comparative Politics" Comparative
Politic Vol. 4 Issue: 4 2009
9. Political Science as a Reservoir of Accumulated Knowledge READER pp. 136-199
Smith R.M. "In Forward Motion or Only in Orbit?" New Political Science, 2011
33:01, 93-96
10. Case Study and Theories in Political Science READER pp. 20-35
Remenyi D., Case Study Research, Reading, Berks, UK : Academic Publishing International, 2012
Thomas G., " A Typology for the Case Study in Social Science Following a Review of Definition, Discourse, and Structure" Qualitative Inquiry July 2011 vol. 17 no. 6 511-521
Gerring J. "What Is a Case Study and What is it Good for?" American Political Science Review 98, no. 2 341-354 2004
11. Political Science and Other Disciplines
Dunleavy P. , " New Worlds in Political Science" Political Studies 58 (2): 239-265 March 2010
Warleigh-Lack A. and Cini M. "Interdisciplinarity and the Study of Politics" European Political Science (1): March 2009
Moran M. "Interdisciplinarity and Political Science" Politics, Volume 26 Issue 2,Pages73–83 2006
Ross F., "Degrees of Disciplinarity in Comparative Politics: Interdisciplinarity, Multidisciplinarity and Borrowing" European Political Science, Volume 8,Number 1, March 2009 , pp. 26-36(11)
12 .Political Science and Other Social Sciences
Freedman D. (ed.), Statistical Models and Causal Inference : A Dialogue with the Social Sciences Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,2010
Gelman A. and Cortina J. (eds.), A Quantitative Tour of the Social Sciences,
Cambridge :Cambridge University Press,2009
Lipset S.M., Politics and the Social Science Oxford Univ. Press, 1969
Goodin R. & Klingemann H.D, A New Handbook of Political Science, (New-York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1996)
- Political Science and Sociology
Thornhill C., "Political Legitimacy: A Theoretical Approach Between Facts and Norms" Constellations Volume 18, Issue 2, 2011
Zafirovski, M., ”How New is the Political Economy in Relation to Political
Sociology? Economic and Sociological Approaches to Politics Contrasted”, Journal
of Political and Military Sociology, 27(1), Summer 1999, 81-108
Staudt K.A. & Weaver W.G., Political Science & Feminisms: Integration or
Transformation? New-York: Twayne, 1997
- Political Science and Statistics
Sovey A.J. Green D.P. , "Instrumental Variables Estimation in Political Science: A Readers’ Guide" American Journal of Political Sciences 2010 Volume 55, Issue 1
Manheim J.B. (et al) Empirical Political Analysis Quantitative and Qualitative
Research Methods, New York :Pearson/Longman,2008
Ragin C. C., Constructing Social Research London: Pine Forge Press 1994
- Political Science and Anthropology
Saunders Robert A., Ethnopolitics in Cyberspace : The Internet, Minority Nationalism, and the Web of Identity, Lanham, Md. : Lexington Books 2011
Armbruster H. and Laerke A., (eds.), Taking Sides :Ethics, Politics and Fieldwork in Anthropology, New York :Berghahn,2008
Geertz C., The Interpretation of Culture New-York, Basic Book 1973
Cohen R., “Anthropology and Political Science” in Lipset S.,(ed.), Politics and the Social Science Oxford Univ. Press, 1969
- Political Science and Geography
Dwyer C. and Bressey C., (eds.), New Geographies of Race and Racism, Aldershot, Hampshire,England: Ashgate,2008
Newman D., Boundaries, Territory and Postmodernity Frank Cass Pub., 1999
Newman D., “Forging a Cross-Boundary discourse: A Political Geography and Political Science”, Political Geography, Vol.8, Number 8, November 1999
- Political Science and History
Katznelson I. & Wawro G.J., Political Science and History: Enhancing the Methodological Repertoire 2011 http://www.columbia.edu/~gjw10/polisci_history.8_20_10.pdf
Steve Yetiv " History, International Relations, and Integrated Approaches: Thinking about Greater Interdisciplinarity" International Studies Perspectives Volume 12, Issue 2 2011
Iggers G. G, Historiography in the Twentieth Century – From Scientific Objectivity to the Postmodern Challenges Univ. of New England, 1997
- Political Science and Communication
Stephen D. McDowel S.D., Steinberg P.E. Tomasello T.K., Managing the Infosphere: Governance, Technology, and Cultural Practice in Motion, Philadelphia: Temple University Press,2008
13. Political Science, Strategy and National Security
Green J. A. (ed.), Cyber Warfare : a Multidisciplinary Analysis, Abingdon, Oxon : Routledge 2015
Browning C.S. and McDonald M., "The Future of Critical Security Studies: Ethics and the Politics of Security" European Journal of International Relations, 2013 19: 235
http://ejt.sagepub.com/content/19/2/235.full.pdf+html
Haklai O. "Authoritarianism and Islamic Movements in the Middle East: Research
and Theory-building in the Twenty-first Century" International studies review 2009
vol:11 iss:1 pp.: 27-45
Kessler O. "Toward a Sociology of the International? International Relations
between Anarchy and World Society", International Political Sociology, vol. 3, no. 1,
pp. 87-108, Mar 2009
Hoffmann, M. J.," Is Constructivist Ethics an Oxymoron?" International Studies
Review, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 231-252, June 2009
Smelser, Neil J. The Faces of Terrorism :Social and Psychological Dimensions,
Princeton :Princeton University Press,2007
Burns W.C.G. and Osofsky H.M., (eds.), Adjudicating Climate Change : State,
National, and International Approaches Cambridge :Cambridge University
Press,2009
Boix C. and Stokes S., (Eds), The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Politics (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2008
Rourke J., (ed.) Clashing Views in World Politics, Dubuque, IA :McGraw-Hill,2008
14. Contemporary Trends in Political Science
Flinders M., "The Future of Political Science", Political Studies Review, 2013 vol:11 pp. 222-227
Mead Lawrence M. "Scholasticism in Political Science "Perspectives on Politics, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 453-464, June 2010
Ira Katznelson and Helen V. Milner, Political Science: State of the Discipline (eds.) Washington, D.C.: APSA, 2002