Political Science 234

Democracy and Democratization in Comparative Perspective

Nathan J. Brown

Wednesday 5:10-7:00

Monroe B35

1957 E Street, Room 502 A
Telephone: (202) 994-2123
Email: nbrown@gwu.edu

 

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 also (and perhaps especially) on more theoretical and abstract works related to democracy and democratization.

 

Requirements

 

The primary requirements is to read the assigned articles and books carefully and critically and come to class to disccuss them.

The other requirements are designed to support this primary requirement:

·         Each week, 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, 7, 8, and 13, 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.

 

 

 

Readings:

 

The following books are all required reading and I strongly urge students to purchase all of them (I recommend Amazon and other internet booksellers for ease of ordering and price):

 

·         Aristotle, Politics

·         Tocqueville, Democracy in America

·         Robert Putnam Making Democracy Work

·         Charles Tilly, Democracy

·         O’Donnell and Schmitter, Transitions from Authoritarian Rule: Tentative Conclusions about Uncertain Democracies

·         Nancy Bermeo, Ordinary People in Extraordinary Times

·         Larry Diamond, Developing Democracy: Toward Consolidation

·         Jon Elster and Rune Slagstad, Constitutionalism and Democracy

·         Jon Elster, Deliberative Democracy

·         Jason Brownlee, Authoritarianism in an Age of Democratization

·         Boston Review, Islam and the Challenge of Democracy

·         Adam Przworski, Democracy and Development

·         Thomas Carothers, Critical Mission

·         Robert Dahl, The Democracy Sourcebook

 

 

Course sequence

 

1.       January 16—no class

 

2.       January 23: Classical conceptions of democracy

  • Aristotle, Politics, Book IV, chapters iii-xvi; book VI, chapters i-v
  • Thucydides, “Civil War in Corcyra” Peloponnesian War, Blackboard

 

3.        January 30: Modern Conceptions

Tocqueville, Democracy in America:

§         Volume I, Part I, chapter 3

§         Volume I, Part II, chapters 1, 56, 7, 8, 9, 10

§         Volume II, Part II, chapters 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 17

§         Volume II, Part IV, chapter 6

 

4.       February 6: Neo-Tocquevillianism?

  • Robert Putnam, Making Democracy Work
  • Robert Putnam, “Bowling Alone,” Journal of Democracy, Blackboard
  • Michael W. Foley and Bob Edwards, “The Paradox of Civil Society,” Journal of Democracy, Blackboard

 

5.       February 13: Transitions: Early Formulations

  • O’Donnell and Schmitter, Transitions from Authoritarian Rule: Tentative Conclusions about Uncertain Democracies
  • Dankwart Rustow, “Transitions to Democracy,” Comparative Politics, Blackboard
  • Courtney Jung and Ian Shapiro, “South Africa’s Negotiated Transition,” in The Democracy Sourcebook

 

6.       February 20: Transitions in and out of Democracy: Later Approaches

  • Nancy Bermeo, Ordinary People in Extraordinary Times
  • Sheri Berman. “How Democracies Emerge: Lessons from Europe.” Journal of Democracy, Blackboard
  • Valerie Bunce. “Rethinking Recent Democratization: Lessons from the Postcommunist Experience.” World Politics, Blackboard

 

7.       February 27:  Constitutionalism

Jon Elster and Rune Slagstad, Constitutionalism and Democracy

 

8.       March 5:  Consolidation and Stability

  • Larry Diamond, Developing Democracy: Toward Consolidation
  • Ran Hirschl, “The Political Origins of Judicial Empowerment,” in The Democracy Sourcebook
  • Arend Lijpart, “Consociational Democracy,” in The Democracy Sourcebook
  • Donald Horowitz, “The Contest of Ideas,” in The Democracy Sourcebook

 

9.       March 12: In and Out of Democracy

Charles Tilly, Democracy

 

10.    March 26: Democracy and Development

  • Przworski, Democracy and Development
  • The Democracy Sourcebook, pp. 419-446
  • Valerie Bunce. “Democratization & Economic Reform.” Annual Review of Political Science 2001. Volume 4, 43–65.

 

11.    April 2: Structure of Democracy

The Democracy Sourcebook, pp. 257-349, 354-362

 

12.    April 9: Islam and Democracy

  • Boston Review, Islam and the Challenge of Democracy
  • Steven Fish, “Islam and Authoritarianism,” World Politics, Blackboard
  • Donno and Russett, “Islam, Authoritarianism, and Female and Empowerment: What Are the Linkages?” World Politics, Blackboard
  • Sathis Kalyvas, “Commitment Problems in Emerging Democracies: The Case of Religious Parties,” Comparative Politics, Blackboard
  • Nathan J. Brown, “Beyond analogy mongering?” Blackboard

 

13.    April 16: Deliberative Democracy

Jon Elster, Deliberative Democracy

 

14.    April 23: Semiauthoritarianism

  • Jason Brownlee, Authoritarianism in an Age of Democratization
  • Marina Ottoway, “The Challenge of Semi-Authoritarianism,” Blackboard
  • Steven Levitsky and Lucan A. Way. “Elections Without Democracy: The Rise of Competitive Authoritarianism.” Journal of Democracy 13.2 (2002), Blackboard

 

15.  April 29 (make-up date): Promoting Democracy

Thomas Carothers, Critical Mission

 

 

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