Government and Politics in Global Perspective

Government and Politics in Global Perspective

Syllabus and Course Information, Winter 2008

This course offers an introduction to key concepts and theoretical approaches in comparative politics and seeks to provide students with grounding in the basic tools of comparative analysis. It examines and evaluates competing theoretical approaches to four important phenomena in world politics: democracy and democratization, economic development, revolution, and ethnic conflict. In so doing, it considers the value of cultural, institutional, structural, demographic, geographic, and agency-based explanations for these phenomena. To do so, we explore cases ranging from India and Rwanda to the United States, Germany, and England, as well as Russia, Iran, Nicaragua, and countries in Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

Course Requirements:

The material in this course consists of lectures and a significant amount of reading. The reading and lectures will not always overlap, and students will be responsible for the material in both formats. The nature of assignments for this class reflects its introductory nature – written work is designed to guide students through the process of learning how to think about politics in comparative perspective. All written work is due in class on the day stated in the syllabus. Barring an extraordinary excuse and documentation from the Dean of Students, all late papers will be marked down a third of a grade (e.g. A to A-) for each day following the due date.

1)Two short papers (4-5 pages) based on course materials, on topics to be handed out in class, due February 8 and March 21. (First paper worth 15% of final grade, second worth 20% of final grade)

2)In-class midterm examination on February 27 worth 20% of grade

3)Final examination (30% of grade)

4)Class participation (15% of grade)

I reserve the right to penalize students who do not attend class regularly in calculating final course grades.

Course Material:

There are three books and a reading packet on sale at the campus bookstore, and a number of readings on reserve and electronic reserve at Ladd Library. The syllabus will indicate where you can locate each item for the week. Please let me know as soon as possible if there are problems in locating the reading for the week.

The books for the course are:

Sheila Fitzpatrick The Russian Revolution
Max Weber The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
Philip Gourevitch We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow we will be Killed with our Families

Course Schedule and Readings:

Week 1: Introduction and Approaches to Comparative Politics

Monday January 7: Introduction to course and approaches

NO READING ASSIGNED

Wednesday January 9: Defining Democracy – and why should we care?

Amartya Sen ‘China and India’ in Dreze and Sen Hunger and Public Action (Oxford University Press, 1991) (Lyceum)
Robert Dahl Polyarchy pp.1-9, 14-40, 48-61 (Lyceum)

Week 2: Democracy and Democratization: Economic theories of Democracy

For Monday January 14: Inequality, Wealth, and Democracy

Acemoglu and Robinson Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy (Cambridge University Press, 2006) pp.22-64 (Lyceum)
Seymour Martin Lipset Political Man (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1959/1981), pp.27-63 (Lyceum)

For Wednesday January 16: Class-based approaches to democracy

Ruth Berins Collier Paths Toward Democracy (Cambridge University Press, 1999) pp.1-33 (Lyceum)
Gregory Luebbert ‘Social Foundations of Political Order in Interwar Europe’ World Politics (1987) Vol.39 #4 pp.449-478. (Electronic Reserves)

Week 3: Democracy and Democratization II

MONDAY JAN 21: NO CLASS – MLK DAY

For Wednesday January 23: Other Explanations for Democracy

Samuel Huntington ‘Democracy’s Third Wave’ in Diamond and Plattner, eds. The Global Resurgence of Democracy (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997) pp.3-25 (Lyceum)
Seymour Martin Lipset ‘George Washington and the Founding of Democracy’ Journal of Democracy vol.9 #4 (1998) pp.24-38. (Electronic Reserves)

Week 4: Democracy and Democratization III

For Monday January 28 DISCUSSION SECTIONS:

Eva Bellin ‘The Robustness of Authoritarianism in the Middle East in Comparative Perspective’ Comparative Politics vol. 36 #2 (January 2004) pp.139-157. (Lyceum)
Kopstein and Reilly ‘Geographic Diffusion and the Transformation of the Postcommunist World’ World Politics vol.53 #1 (2000) pp.1-37. (Electronic Reserves)

For Wednesday January 30:

Levitsky and Way ‘The Rise of Contemporary Authoritarianism’ Journal of Democracy vol.13 #2 (April 2002) pp.51-65. (Electronic Reserves)

Week 5: Economic Development I:

NOTE PAPER I IS DUE ON FRIDAY FEBRUARY 8

For Monday February 4:

Charles Mann ‘1491’ Atlantic Monthly (March 2002) Available online at

For Wednesday February 6: DISCUSSION SECTIONS

Max Weber The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism Chapters 1-3, 4A (on Calvinism), 5 (Bookstore)

Week 6: Economic Development II:

For Monday February 11:

W.W. Rostow The Stages of Economic Growth pp.1-12 (Lyceum)
Alexander Gerschenkron Economic Backwardness in Historical Perspective pp.5-30 (Lyceum)

For Wednesday February 13:

Joel Hellmann ‘Winners Take All: The Politics of Partial Reform in Postcommunist Transitions’ World Politics January 1998, pp.203-234. (Electronic Reserves)

Week 7: Winter Recess – ENJOY!

Week 8: Economic Development III and Midterm Exam

Monday February 25:

Hernando de Soto The Other Path (Harper and Row, 1989) pp.3-12, 151-187. (Lyceum)
Sachs and Malaney ‘The Economic and Social Burden of Malaria’ Nature vol.415 Feb. 7, 2002, pp.680-685. (Electronic Reserves)

Wednesday February 27: MIDTERM EXAMINATION

Week 9: Revolutions I

For Monday March 3:

Marx and Engels ‘The Communist Manifesto’ (Lyceum)
James Davies ‘Toward a Theory of Revolution’ American Sociological Review vol.27 #1 (1962) pp.5-19 (Electronic Reserves)

For Wednesday March 5: The Russian Case

Skocpol Social Revolutions in the Modern World (Cambridge, 1994) pp.120-166 (Lyceum)
Sheila Fitzpatrick The Russian Revolution (entire book) (Bookstore)

Week 10: Revolutions II: Nicaragua in Comparative Perspective

For Monday March 10:

Farhi ‘State Disintegration and Urban-Based Revolutionary Crisis: A Comparative Analysis of Iran and Nicaragua’ Comparative Political Studies vol.21 #2, pp.231-256 (Electronic Reserves)

For Wednesday March 12:

Richard Snyder ‘Paths Out of Sultanistic Regimes’ in Chehabi and Linz Sultanistic Regimes (Johns Hopkins, 1998) pp.49-81. (Lyceum)
Jeff Goodwin No Other Way Out (Cambridge, 2001) pp.137-213. (Lyceum)

Week 11: Ethnic Conflict I:

NOTE PAPER II IS DUE ON FRIDAY MARCH 21

For Monday March 17: Theories of Ethnicity

NO READING ASSIGNED

For Wednesday March 19: Using Cases to Consider some Arguments

Daniel Goldhagen Hitler’s Willing Executioners (Vintage, 1997) pp.375-406 (Lyceum)
Stewart Tolnay and E.M. Beck A Festival Of Violence: An Analysis of Southern Lynchings 1882-1930 (University of Illinois Press, 1995) pp.17-54 (Lyceum)

Week 12: Ethnic Conflict II: The Case of India

For Monday March 24:

Suketu Mehta Maximum City pp.39-112 (Electronic Book available through Ladd catalog)

For Wednesday March 26:

Steven Wilkinson Votes and Violence: Electoral Competition and Ethnic Riots in India (Cambridge University Press, 2004) pp.1-9, 154-171. (Electronic Book available through Ladd catalog)
Ashutosh Varshney ‘Ethnic Conflict and Civil Society: India and Beyond’ World Politics vol.53 #3 (2001) pp.362-398 (Electronic Reserves)

Week 13: Ethnic Conflict III: The Rwandan Genocide of 1994

For Monday March 31:

Philip Gourevitch We Wish to Inform You… (Entire Book) (Bookstore)

For Wednesday April 2 DISCUSSION SECTION:

Jared Diamond Collapse pp.311-328 (Lyceum)
Jean Hatzfeld Machete Season (Picador Press, 2003) (selections) (Lyceum)