Introduction to Comparative Politics (PSC 001) Fall 2007
Monday, Wednesday 12:45-1:35 p.m., 1957 E Street, room 113
Professor Kimberly Morgan
Office: Hall of Government, Rm. 418
Phone: 994-2809
Email: kjmorgan@gwu.edu
Office Hours: Monday, Wednesday 1:45-3:00
Summary
This class is an introduction to the study of comparative politics. You will learn not only about politics in a select group of countries, but also about some of the major concepts used in the study of comparative politics. The course will cover a wide range of issues, including the formation of the nation-state, democratization, authoritarianism, political culture, and political institutions. We also will discuss some debates in comparative politics that have been important in the policy-making community in recent years, such as the “clash of civilizations,” the concept of social capital, and the effort to promote democracy in the world.
There is one required text for this class that you can purchase at the GWU bookstore.
Michael J. Sodaro, Comparative Politics: A Global Introduction, 3rd edition.
The other required readings are available as pdf files through e-reserves on the Blackboard system – you can either read them on-line or print them out.
Blackboard
In addition to the required reading, you will find other useful information on Blackboard, such as helpful websites, a copy of the syllabus, information about exams, and your grades. For each class, I also will post an outline of the lecture as well as any tables or graphs shown as overheads in that day’s lecture.
To access Blackboard, you must have a Colonial e-mail account and be registered for this course. To log in, go to http://blackboard.gwu.edu and type in your NetID and email password. If you have problems or questions, try going to http://helpdesk.gwu.edu. Please try to access Blackboard as soon as possible, to make sure that you are in the system and that you understand its various features.
NOTE: you may have trouble accessing the articles posted on blackboard if you are not using a university-networked computer. In that instance, you should download the articles on a university-networked computer and print or save them to read at home.
Current events
One of the goals of the class is to make you a more sophisticated consumer of news. To keep up with current events, I strongly suggest you regularly read one of the major national newspapers (The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal) or international newspapers (Financial Times {www.ft.com}, International Herald Tribune {www.iht.com}). Some useful magazines and journals that are available through Gelman include The Economist, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and The Washington Quarterly.
Exams
Midterm/Final: Both exams will consist of identifications and essays. The first exam, on October 29, will cover the first half of the course. The second exam will cover the entire class and will be given during exam week.
Discussion sections: the weekly discussion sections are extremely important for this class, as it is at these sessions that you will have a chance to discuss the reading and themes of the course. Attendance is mandatory, and you will be evaluated on your contributions to the discussion. This means you must do the assigned reading for each week prior to the discussion section meeting.
Your participation
in the section will be evaluated on the following basis: each week, you will
receive a number grade for the quantity and quality of your participation in
class. This grade is based on a scale of
0-5 and will be assigned in the following way:
0 points: absent.
2 points: being
present but saying nothing.
3 points: barely
participating in the discussion.
4 points:
participating some, but not at a very high level.
5 points:
participating and offering high-quality remarks.
Your TA will post
the weekly grade on blackboard so that you can see how well you are doing in
the section. At the end of the semester,
we will drop the two lowest grades you received in section when calculating
your final section grade. Note that this
will allow you to miss two meetings of the section with no questions asked, and
this will not affect your grade. If you
miss any more classes, each missed class will count as a zero in calculating
your participation grade.
Grading
Class participation (discussion section): 20%
Midterm exam: 35%
Final exam: 45%
(1) Introduction, the comparative method
September 5: Introduction, overview of class.
September 10: The comparative method.
-- Timothy Lim, “Introduction: Doing Comparative Politics,” pp. 3-30.
(2) The Nation-State
September 12: The concept of the state.
--
Sodaro, pp. 124-32, optional sections on
-- Francis Fukuyama, “The Imperative of State-Building.”
September 17: Formation and collapse of states.
--
Jeffrey Herbst, “War and the State in
-- Robert Rothberg, “The New Nature of Nation-State Failure.”
September 19: Nationalism, creator and destroyer of states.
-- Sodaro, pp. 147-66.
-- Jack Snyder, From Voting to Violence, 15-43.
(3) Regimes: democracy and authoritarianism
September 24: What is democracy, and is it the best form of government?
-- Sodaro, pp. 171-88.
-- Amartya Sen, “Democracy as a Universal Value.”
September 26: The emergence of democracy; correlates of democracy.
--
Sodaro, pp. 221-40.
--
Sheri Berman, “How Democracies Emerge: Lessons from
-- Thomas Carothers, “The ‘Sequencing’ Fallacy.”
October 1: Nature and variants of authoritarianism.
--
Patrick O’Neil, “Authoritarianism.”
-- Steven Levitsky and
-- Nancy Birdsall and Arvind
Subramanian, “Saving
(4) Political institutions
October 3: Political institutions; parliamentary vs. presidential forms of government.
-- Sodaro, “Democracy: How Does It Work?” pp.194-205.
-- Serio Fabbrini, “Presidents, Parliaments, and Good Government.”
October 8: Electoral systems, political parties, and consociational democracy.
-- Sodaro, “Democracy: How Does It Work?” pp. 205-18; 274-83.
-- Arend Lijphart, “Constitutional Design for Divided Societies.”
(5) Political
culture and civil society.
October 10: Globalization and culture.
Guest lecture: Prof. Harvey Feigenbaum.
October 15: Civil society.
-- Robert Putnam, “Bowling Alone.”
-- Michael
Foley and Bob Edwards, “The Paradox of Civil Society.”
October 17: Political culture.
-- Sodaro, pp. 293-309.
-- Samuel Huntington, “The Clash of Civilizations?”
(6) Political identities.
October 22: Class
and religion.
-- Sodaro, pp. 312-37.
-- Vali Nasr, “The Rise of ‘Muslim Democracy.’”
October 24: Ethnicity/race and gender.
--
Mala Htun, “Is Gender Like
Ethnicity? The Political Representation of Identity Groups.”
-- Pippa Norris and Ronald Inglehart, “Cultural Obstacles to Equal Representation.”
October 29:
MIDTERM.
Country cases
(7) Advanced Industrialized States
October 31:
-- Sodaro, pp. 395-440.
November 5:
-- Sodaro, pp. 445-93.
November 7: Contemporary challenges: aging societies and immigration.
-- Stéphanie Giry, “France and Its Muslims.”
-- Paul S. Hewitt, “The End of the Postwar Welfare State.”
(8) Post-Communist
Regimes
November 12:
-- Sodaro, 594-98; 614-46.
pp. 599-614 provide historical background; read only if you need this background.
--
Lilia Shevtsova, “
November 14:
-- Sodaro, pp. 653-98.
--
Joseph Kahn and Jim Yardley, “As
--
Lianjiang Li, “Driven to Protest:
(9) Brazil/Latin
American politics
November 19: The Latin American political context.
--
Jorge Castañeda, “
--
Kurt Weyland, “Reform and Corruption in
November 21:
Class cancelled for Thanksgiving break.
November 26:
-- Sodaro, 733-58.
-- Mala Htun, “Racial Quotas for a ‘Racial Democracy.’”
(10) Nigeria/African
politics
November 28: The context of African politics.
-- Richard Joseph, “
-- Carol Lancaster, “Development in
December 3:
--
Darren Kew and Peter Lewis, “
(11) Iraq/Middle East
December 5: The
--
-- Alfred Stepan and Graeme B. Robertson, “An ‘Arab’ More
than ‘Muslim’ Electoral Gap.”
--
-- Elliot Hen-Tov, “Understanding Iran’s New
Authoritarianism.”
December 10:
-- Sodaro, chapter 10, pp. 242-3, 251-68.
-- Eva Bellin, “The Iraqi Intervention and Democracy in
Comparative Perspective.”