Political Science 552 Communist and Post-Communist Politics State University of New York at Albany Spring 2010

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1 Political Science 552 Communist and Post-Communist Politics State University of New York at Albany Spring 2010 Professor Cheng Chen Thursday 5:45-8:35 Office: Milne Hall 214A Office Hours: Thursday 4:30-5:30 Phone: Course Description This course provides a survey of the politics of post-leninist transition in Russia, Eastern Europe, and China. It begins with an overview of the origin and development of Leninism in the Soviet Union, China, and Eastern Europe, stressing both the similarities and differences between these countries experiences under Leninism. The second part of the course examines and analyzes the profound political, economic, and social changes in former Leninist societies during the post-leninist transition. Specifically, we will cover regime transition; institution-building; economic reforms; social transformation; as well as nationalism and ethnic conflicts. The course will conclude with a broad discussion of the comparative prospects of liberal capitalist democracy taking root in former Leninist countries. The primary aims of the course are to familiarize students with the major challenges confronting former Leninist countries as they move away from socialism, and to provide students with not only the theoretical tools necessary for understanding the collapse of Leninism, but also the perspectives crucial to making wellgrounded evaluations of the emerging political and socio-economic trajectories in these countries. Course Requirements Your grade in this course will be determined in the following manner: Seminar participation 20% Oral presentations 20% page research paper 60% Class attendance and active, informed participation are mandatory. Students must complete the assigned readings prior to the seminar meetings. The oral presentations require each student to analyze and report on a number of assigned readings for a given week. In addition, students are required to write a major research paper on any aspect of transition in post-leninist countries, but the topic must be finalized in consultation with the instructor. To facilitate the writing process, a 3-page paper proposal (1 page description, 1 page outline, 1 page bibliography) will be due at the beginning of seminar on March 11, The final draft of the paper must be placed in my box by 2 p.m., Monday, May 3, Late papers without university-approved reasons will result in grade reduction. 1

2 Readings Archie Brown, The Rise and Fall of Communism (New York: Ecco, 2009) Richard D. Anderson, Jr., M. Steven Fish, Stephen E. Hanson, and Philip G. Roeder, Postcommunism and the Theory of Democracy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001) Grzegorz Ekiert and Stephen E. Hanson, eds. Capitalism and Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe: Assessing the Legacy of Communist Rule (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003) Cheng Chen, The Prospects for Liberal Nationalism in Post-Leninist States (University Park, PA: Penn State University Press, 2007) These books are available at Mary Jane Bookstore downtown. The rest of the readings will be included in a course pack available also at Mary Jane. Those marked with available on-line can be retrieved by clicking on Journals - Print and Online from the Libraries web page and typing in the title of the journal in the search box. PART I: HISTORICAL BACKGROUND January 21: Introduction Course syllabus January 28: Leninism: Vision and Strategy Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto, Robert Tucker, The Marxian Revolutionary Idea (New York: Norton, 1969), 3-32 Richard Lowenthal, Development vs. Utopia in Communist Policy, in Chalmers Johnson, ed. Change in Communist Systems (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1971), Archie Brown, The Rise and Fall of Communism, 9-55, February 4: Leninism in the Soviet Union V. I. Lenin, The State and Revolution, in R. Tucker, ed. The Lenin Anthology (New York: Norton, 1969), , Robert Tucker, Stalinism as Revolution from Above, in Robert Tucker, ed. Stalinism: Essays in Historical Interpretation (New York: Norton, 1977), Archie Brown, The Rise and Fall of Communism, 56-77, , Andrew Janos, What Was Communism? Communist and Post-Communist Studies 29:1 (1996): 1-24 [available on-line] 2

3 February 11: Leninism in China and Eastern Europe Archie Brown, The Rise and Fall of Communism, , , (skim) Chalmers A. Johnson, Peasant Nationalism and Communist Power (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1962), 1-30 Harry Harding, China s Second Revolution: Reform After Mao (Washington D.C.: The Brookings Institution, 1987), Alec Nove, Reform Models: Hungary, Yugoslavia, Poland, China, Economics of Feasible Socialism (London: Allen and Unwin, 1983): PART II: POLITICAL TRANSFORMATION February 18: The Collapse of Leninism in Eastern Europe and Russia Archie Brown, The Rise and Fall of Communism, Daniel Chirot, What Happened in Eastern Europe in 1989? in D. Chirot, ed. The Crisis of Leninism and the Decline of the Left (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1991), 3-32 Z Martin Malia, To the Stalin Mausoleum, Daedalus 119:2 (1990): Alexander Dallin, Causes of the Collapse of the USSR, Post-Soviet Affairs 8:4 (1992): Valerie Bunce, Subversive Institutions: The End of the Soviet State in Comparative Perspective, Post-Soviet Affairs 14:4 (October-December 1998): February 25: The Decline of Leninism in Comparative Perspective Merle Goldman and Roderick MacFarquhar, eds. The Paradox of China s Post-Mao Reforms (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999), chapter 1. Joseph Fewsmith, The New Shape of Elite Politics, The China Journal 45 (January 2001): Andrew Walder, The Quiet Revolution from Within: Economic Reform as a Source of Political Decline, in A. Walder, ed. The Waning of the Communist State: Economic Origins of Political Decline in China and Hungary (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995), 1-24 Stephen Solnick, The Breakdown of Hierarchies in the Soviet Union and China: A Neoinstitutional Perspective, World Politics 48 (1996): [available on-line] March 4: Building Democratic Institutions Ekiert and Hanson, eds. Capitalism and Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe, Richard Anderson et al., Postcommunism and the Theory of Democracy, entire book. 3

4 PART III: ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION March 11: Economic Reforms in Russia and Eastern Europe James Millar, From Utopian Socialism to Utopian Capitalism, Problems of Post- Communism (May-June 1995): 7-14 [available on-line] Joel Hellman, Winners Take All: The Politics of Partial Reform in Postcommunist Transition, World Politics 50 (1998): [available on-line] Timothy Frye, The Perils of Polarization: Economic Performance in the Postcommunist World, World Politics 54 (2002): [available on-line] Ekiert and Hanson, eds., Capitalism and Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe, , M. Steven Fish and Omar Choudhry, Democratization and Economic Liberalization in the Postcommunist World, Comparative Political Studies 40:3 (2007): [available on-line] March 18: Economic Reforms in Comparative Perspective Jean Oi, Fiscal Reform and the Economic Foundations of Local State Corporatism in China, World Politics 45:1 (October 1992): [available on-line] Steven M. Goldstein, China in Transition: The Political Foundations of Incremental Reform, in A. Walder, ed. China s Transitional Economy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), Harley Balzer, Russia and China in the Global Economy, Demokratizatsiya 16:1 (Winter 2008): [available on-line] PART IV: SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION March 25: Post-Communist Social Conditions Rudra Sil and Cheng Chen, State Legitimacy and the (In)significance of Democracy in Post-Communist Russia, Europe-Asia Studies 56:3 (2004): [available on-line] Ekiert and Hanson, eds., Capitalism and Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe, Marc Morje Howard, Postcommunist Civil Society in Comparative Perspective, Demokratizatsiya 10:3 (Summer 2002): [available on-line] PART V: TRANSFORMATION OF NATIONAL IDENTITY April 8: National Identity in Russia and Eastern Europe 4

5 Gail Lapidus, Asymmetrical Federalism and State Breakdown in Russia, Post-Soviet Affairs 15:1 (1999): Ekiert and Hanson, eds., Capitalism and Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe, Cheng Chen, The Prospects for Liberal Nationalism, 1-94, April 15: Post-Communist Nationalism in Comparative Perspective Veljko Vujacic, Historical Legacies, Nationalist Mobilization, and Political Outcomes in Russia and Serbia: A Weberian View, Theory and Society 25 (1996): Alexander Motyl, Why Empires Re-Emerge: Imperial Collapse and Imperial Revival in Comparative Perspective, Comparative Politics 31:2 (January 1999) Cheng Chen, The Prospects for Liberal Nationalism, , April 22: The International Dimension of Post-Communist Transition Archie Brown, Transnational Influences in the Transition from Communism, Post- Soviet Affairs 16:2 (2000): Andrew Janos, From Eastern Empire to Western Hegemony: East Central Europe under Two International Regimes, East European Politics and Society 15:2 (2001): Ekiert and Hanson, eds., Capitalism and Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe, Mary E. Gallagher, Reform and Openness : Why China s Economic Reforms Have Delayed Democracy, World Politics 54:3 (April 2002) [available on-line] Christopher Marsh, Learning from your Comrade s Mistakes: The Impact of the Soviet Past on China s Future, Communist and Post-Communist Studies 36 (2003): PART VI: CONCLUSION: FROM THE PAST TO THE FUTURE April 29: Making Sense of Post-Communist Transitions Michael McFaul, The Fourth Wave of Democracy and Dictatorship: Noncooperative Transitions in the Postcommunist World, World Politics 54:2 (2002) [available on-line] Ekiert and Hanson, eds., Capitalism and Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe, Grigore Pop-Eleches, Historical Legacies and Post-Communist Regime Change, Journal of Politics 69:4 (November 2007) [available on-line] Cheng Chen and Rudra Sil, Stretching Postcommunism: Diversity, Context, and Comparative Historical Analysis, Post-Soviet Affairs 23:4 (2007):