CHINA IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE

Transcription

1 SOSC4000A/SOSC6030E SEMINAR: CHINA IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE Room 5486 (lifts 25-26), Wednesday, 1 pm Spring 2014 Hong Kong University of Science & Technology Last revised: January 25, 2014 Professor Kellee Tsai Secretary: Josephine Wong Room 2373 (lifts 13-15) Rm (lifts 13-15) ktsai@ust.hk sojowong@ust.hk Phone: Phone: Course Description: This course explores the empirical and analytic value of studying China in comparative perspective. Empirically, China has been compared to other communist regimes, former socialist countries, newlyindustrialized economies, large developing countries, and advanced industrialized countries. In these comparisons, social scientists typically draw on concepts and theories derived from other contexts to explain political, economic, and social phenomenon in contemporary China. What can we learn about China from these efforts? Analytically, the course also considers how the study of China can contribute to concept formation and broader debates in social science. The seminar is divided into three parts. The first part of this seminar reviews the comparative method; the evolution of Western social science literature on China s domestic politics; and some of the approaches that have been used to explain politics in modern China. The second part of the course turns to frameworks in the political economy of development, which have emerged from the study of East Asian countries, India, and Brazil. The final section of the course analyzes explanations for regime durability that explore the comparative puzzle of communist resilience in China in light of labor unrest, contentious politics among rural and urban citizens, and the rise of private entrepreneurs in China. Intended Learning Outcomes: After completing this seminar, students should be better equipped to: 1) Identify the methodological basis for case study comparisons 2) Distinguish between the empirical and analytic contributions of research on contemporary China 3) Diagram the (intended) causal arguments in political science scholarship 4) Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of comparative studies involving China 5) Prepare and deliver oral presentations 6) Write critical memos that go beyond mere summary of assigned readings

2 Tsai - 2 Recommended Background: This course assumes pre-existing knowledge about post-1949 Chinese politics. For a review of basic events and institutions, you may wish to read Kenneth Lieberthal, Governing China: From Reform Through Revolution (2 nd Edition) (New York: Norton, 2004). Prerequisites: No prerequisites required of graduate students. Undergraduates will be admitted to the seminar only if they are committed to keeping up with the rigorous, graduate-level reading load, and if they have completed at least two of the following classes: SOSC 1840 Government, Law & Society in China SOSC 2140 Research Methods in the Social Sciences SOSC 2780 Modernization & Social Change SOSC 3520 Understanding Comparative Politics SOSC 4600 Understanding Chinese Politics SOSC 4270 Social Change in Contemporary China If you have taken college-level classes on contemporary China at other universities and feel that they have prepared you adequately for this graduate seminar, please see me. Requirements and Grading: 1) Class attendance and active class participation (20%). Regular class attendance is essential for this course. I will hand out a sign-in attendance sheet at the beginning of each class. Given that there may be times when you are unable to attend class (for whatever reason excused or unexcused), you may miss three classes over the course of the semester without incurring any penalty. After the third absence, however, I will deduct 5% off your final grade for each additional absence. This means, for example, if a student misses five classes and had an A- average on all the other class requirements, then the final course grade would drop to a B. This is non-negotiable. The class participation portion of the grade will be evaluated based on high-quality contributions to the seminar discussion. Note on classroom etiquette: Please turn off your mobile phones prior to the beginning of class. You are, however, welcome to take notes on your laptop. 2) In-class class presentations (20%). All students will be expected to present the assigned reading to the class twice in the semester. The presentations should be approximately minutes long and include discussion questions that will complement the ones that I will also prepare prior to each class. 3) Required readings should be completed by the date corresponding with the lecture as indicated on this syllabus. All books and articles are available on reserve at the library. Any changes that are made to the syllabus will be announced in class.

3 Tsai - 3 As you do the readings for each week, please take notes and think about the following: a) What is the author s explanatory objective (or dependent variable)? Pay special attention to how this is defined and operationalized. b) What is the author s argument (or independent variables)? c) What is the logic connecting a) and b)? How convincing do you find this logic? d) What are the intellectual roots and/or empirical inspiration for the argument? e) Does the author exhibit an implicit (or explicit) normative agenda? Or is the argument relatively objective in the explanatory social scientific sense? f) Is the research design and methodology appropriate for the questions being asked? g) What type of evidence, if any, is provided for the argument? Does the evidence actually support the intended argument? What type of evidence would strengthen or weaken the argument? You should also think about the readings collectively each week. Specifically, h) Are all the authors trying to explain the same phenomenon? i) Are they having a direct dialogue with one another? If not, how do you imagine that they might react to one another s arguments (e.g., in a conference or symposium)? j) What is the intellectual contribution of the week s literature to our understanding of Chinese politics? k) What is the value of this research agenda? What further work could be done on the topic? 4) News about China. Please stay informed of current political, economic, and social events in China by reading news (on-line or in hard copy). We will start each class with a brief discussion of breaking news. I will hand out a sign-up sheet for students to present the top news items. When it is your turn to present the news, please pick only one or two news items. Be sure to make note of the source of the news and try to compare coverage of the same news from two different outlets (e.g., South China Morning Post, Economic Standard, Taipei Times, New York Times, China Daily, etc.) with a view to identifying their differences in framing. 5) Critical Memos (20%). Each student is required to write two critical memos (3-5 double-spaced typed pages, worth 10% each) concerning the assigned reading. Please refrain from merely summarizing the readings; instead, use the questions in 3) above as a guide for analyzing the readings, and be sure to state your argument clearly in the introduction. Excellent memos reflect original analysis and present a distinct interpretation, critique, or hypothesis of the issues at hand. Memos on a particular week s readings will only be accepted on the day for which the reading is due because a key purpose is to enhance the quality of class discussions. Memos may be written on assigned readings from February 12 to April 30. In other words, the last possible day that you can start handing in the memos and receive credit for them is April 23. I highly encourage you to start the memos early on the semester. If you hand in your first memo on April 23, it will be challenging to complete the research paper by May 9. 6) Research Paper (40%). Graduate students: pages. Undergraduates: pages. Both undergraduate and graduate students should aim to produce a paper that may be publishable as an article in a peer-reviewed social science journal such as China Quarterly, China Journal, Journal of Contemporary China, or Journal of Chinese Political Science. Alternatively, graduate students may write a 10-page research proposal, which will serve as an initial draft of the dissertation prospectus and a template for grant proposals. Undergraduates may use this seminar as an opportunity to write

4 Tsai - 4 their capstone paper if I am serving as the primary mentor. Please make an appointment with Ms. Josephine Wong at sojowong@ust.hk to discuss your topic. Paper topic: Paper outline: Final paper: Due Wednesday, February 26 in class Due Wednesday, April 2 in class Due Monday, May 12 by noon Please deliver them to Ms. Wong at Room 2382, and also submit an electronic copy to ktsai@ust.hk. Note on presentation of written assignments: In this profession, presentation is just as important as substance. Your papers should be written clearly and proofread carefully to eliminate any spelling and grammatical errors. I will ask you to re-write papers that do not meet a minimum standard for quality and effort. Please hand in stapled, hard copies of your papers in class. If you have a last-minute printer problem, then you may me your paper the day it is due to show that you made the deadline, but please get me a hard copy of the paper as soon as logistically feasible. NO EXTENSIONS OR INCOMPLETES WILL BE GIVEN. 7) As a HKUST student, you are expected to uphold the HKUST Academic Honor Code: Honesty and integrity are central to the academic work of HKUST. Students of the University must observe and uphold the highest standards of academic integrity and honesty in all the work they do throughout their program of study. As members of the University community, students have the responsibility to help maintain the academic reputation of HKUST in its academic endeavors. Sanctions will be imposed on students, if they are found to have violated the regulations governing academic integrity and honesty. Required Texts: [Available for purchase at the University Bookstore.] Vivek Chibber, Locked in Place: State-Building and Late Industrialization in India (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Place, 2006). Martin K. Dimitrov, Why Communism Did Not Collapse: Understanding Authoritarian Regime Resilience in Asia and Europe (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013). Wenkai He, Paths toward the Modern Fiscal State: England, Japan, and China (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013). Roselyn Hsueh, China s Regulatory State: A New Strategy for Globalization (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2011). Scott Kennedy, ed., Beyond the Middle Kingdom: Comparative Perspectives on China s Capitalist Transformation (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2011).

5 Tsai - 5 Kevin J. O Brien and Lianjiang Li, Rightful Resistance in Rural China (NY: Cambridge University Press, 2006). Dorothy J. Solinger, States Gains, Labor s Losses: China, France, and Mexico Choose Global Liaisons, (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2010). Kellee S. Tsai, Capitalism without Democracy: The Private Sector in Contemporary China (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2007). Schedule of Classes and Assigned Reading: I. THEORIES AND APPROACHES February 5 Introduction - Defining comparative politics and the comparative method - Identifying research puzzles: What interests you? - Why compare China? Please read the syllabus and start reading news about China on-line. February 12 The Study of China in Western Social Science - Harry Harding, The Study of Chinese Politics: Toward a Third Generation of Scholarship (Review Article), World Politics 36, 2 (January 1984): Available On-line here. - Lynn T. White III, Chinese Political Studies: Overview of the State of the Field, Journal of Chinese Political Science 14, 3 (September 2009): On-line here. - Marie-Eve Reny, What Happened to the Study of China in Comparative Politics? Journal of East Asian Studies 11 (2011): On-line here. - Scott Kennedy, Overcoming our Middle Kingdom Complex: Finding China s Place in Comparative Politics, in Kennedy, ed., Beyond the Middle Kingdom (2011), ch. 1. Chinese counterpoint: Wu Guoguang, Politics against Science: Reflections on the Study of Chinese Politics in Contemporary China, Journal of Chinese Political Science 16, 3 (September 2011): On-line here. February 19 The Comparative Method and Political Culture - Arend Lijphart, Comparative Politics and the Comparative Method, American Political Science Review (1971). On-line here. - David Collier, The Comparative Method, in Ada W. Finiter, ed., Political Science: The State of the Discipline II, American Political Science Association, On-line here. - Andrew J. Nathan, Is Chinese Culture Distinctive? A Review Article, Journal of Asian Studies 52, 4 (November 1993): On-line here. - Tianjian Shi, Cultural Values and Political Trust: A Comparison of the People s Republic of China and Taiwan, Comparative Politics (July 2001): On-line here.

6 Tsai Lucien Pye, Reassessing the Cultural Revolution, The Mandarin and the Cadre (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1988), Ch 4. February 26 Comparative-Historical Analysis: State Formation - James Mahoney, Comparative-Historical Methodology, Annual Review of Sociology, vol. 30, edited by Karen S. Cook and John Hagan (2004), pp On-line here. - Wenkai He, Paths toward the Modern Fiscal State: England, Japan, and China (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2013). Paper topics DUE in class II. COMPARATIVE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF DEVELOPMENT March 5 March 12 Origins of the East Asian Developmental State - Chalmers Johnson, MITI and the Japanese Miracle: The Growth of Industrial Policy, (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1982), Chs. 1 & 9 (pp. 3-34, ). - Ziya Onis, The Logic of the Developmental State (Review Article), Comparative Politics 24, 1 (October 1991): On-line here. - Meredith Woo Cumings, ed., The Developmental State (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1999), Chs. 1 and 2 (pp. 1-60). Late Industrialization in India and Latin America - Vivek Chibber, Locked in Place: State-Building and Late Industrialization in India (Princeton: Princeton University Place, 2006). - Ben Ross Schneider, Hierarchical Market Economies and Varieties of Capitalism in Latin America, Journal of Latin America Studies 41 (2009): On-line here. March 19 No class. Rescheduled for May 9. March 26 Reform-era China: Developmental or Regulatory State? - Arthur Kroeber, Developmental Dreams: Policy and Reality in China s Economic Reforms, in Kennedy, ed., Beyond the Middle Kingdom, Ch Roselyn Hsueh, China s Regulatory State: A New Strategy for Globalization (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2011), Chs. 1, 2, 8, 9, Margaret Pearson, Variety Within and Without: The Political Economy of Chinese Regulation, in Kennedy, ed., Beyond the Middle Kingdom, Ch. 2. III. EXPLAINING REGIME DURABILITY April 2 Comparative Politics of Labor - Dorothy J. Solinger, States Gains, Labor s Losses: China, France, and Mexico Choose Global Liaisons, (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2010). - Mary E. Gallagher, Reform and Openness: Why China s Economic Reforms have Delayed Democracy, World Politics 54, 3 (April 2002): On-line here. Paper outlines and bibliography DUE in class

7 Tsai - 7 April 9 April 16 April 23 Contentious Politics in China - Yongshun Cai, Power Structure and Regime Resilience: Contentious Politics in China, British Journal of Political Science, vol. 38, no. 3 (2008), pp On-line here. - Kevin J. O Brien and Lianjiang Li, Rightful Resistance in Rural China (NY: Cambridge University Press, 2006). No class. Mid-term break. Authoritarian Regime Resilience - Martin K. Dimitrov, Why Communism Did Not Collapse: Understanding Authoritarian Regime Resilience in Asia and Europe (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013). Recommended (earlier contributions): - Steven Solnick, The Breakdown of Hierarchies in the Soviet Union and China: A Neo-Institutional Perspective, World Politics 48:2 (January 1996): On-line here. - Andrew G. Walder, The Decline of Communist Power: Elements of a Theory of Institutional Change, Theory and Society 23 (1994): On-line here. April 30 May 7 May 9 (F) May 12 Capitalism without Democracy - Richard Snyder, Scaling Down: The Subnational Comparative Method, Studies in Comparative International Development 36, 1 (2001): On-line here. - Kellee S. Tsai, Capitalism without Democracy: The Private Sector in Contemporary China (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2007). Student presentations of research papers Student presentations of research papers Papers DUE to Ms. Wong at Room 2382 by noon. Please a copy as well.