POLS0200 Introduction to Comparative Politics. Professor Melani Cammett Fall 2009 Office: Political Science/302 Prospect House

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1 POLS0200 Introduction to Comparative Politics Professor Melani Cammett Fall 2009 Office: Political Science/302 Prospect House M/W/F, 1-1:50PM Phone: Office Hours: Wed., 10am-12pm Course Description Why are some countries democratic and others authoritarian? Why and how do mass demonstrations unfold and why do some people risk their lives to participate in protests while others sit home and watch it on television? Why are some countries plagued by ethnic tensions and even violent conflict while others live peacefully? This course introduces students to big questions in the field of comparative politics, or the analysis of politics within states. At the same time, how we study politics is just as important as what we study. The course therefore begins by laying out major approaches and methods for analyzing politics and presents an important way to study politics in diverse places the comparative method. The goal is enable students to generate and evaluate competing explanations for important substantive questions and events in world politics. The course addresses a series of real world issues organized around broad themes, including the state, democracy and authoritarianism, social movements and identity politics. To ground theories of politics in real places, the readings and lectures will draw upon cases from diverse regions of the world, including Africa, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and Asia, with periodic references to the U.S. While this course is about politics within states, an important theme is that national politics are also shaped by the international political and economic systems. Course Requirements 1) Two short papers (approx. 5-7 pages) on topics to be assigned (15% each or 30% total) - 1 st paper due on course website: Fri., Oct. 9 at 11:59pm (Assignment will be posted on course website on Fri., Oct. 2) - 2 nd paper due on course website: Fri., Nov. 13 at 11:59pm (Assignment will be posted on course website on Fri., Nov. 6) 2) Final Exam: Fri., Dec. 18, 2-5pm (30%) 3) Project on Political Solutions to Ethnic Conflict: Fri., Dec. 11 at 11:59pm (30%) 4) Attendance and participation (10%) Class and section meeting attendance are mandatory. Participation is strongly encouraged. NB: Sections will meet every two weeks. NB: Late papers will lose ½ grade per day unless accompanied by a documented medical excuse.

2 Course Materials 1) The following books are available for purchase at the Brown Bookstore and elsewhere and are on reserve at the Rockefeller Library: E-textbook: Patrick H. O Neil. Essentials of Comparative Politics, 3 rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton, E-textbook: O Neil, et al. Cases in Comparative Politics, 2 nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton, Phillip Gourevitch. We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families: Stories From Rwanda. New York: Picador, Doug McAdam. Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, Carrie Wickham. Mobilizing Islam. New York: Columbia University Press, ) Most articles, some selections from books and films are available through the course website ( or on-line at any Brown-linked computer terminal. A Word of Advice Succeeding in this course is in part a function of your own effort. Here are some tips: 1) Do the reading. The lectures are not a substitute for the readings. Exams and papers will demand familiarity with material not covered in lecture but found in the readings. 2) Come to class. Likewise, lectures may include material not in the readings and will help you to build up critical thinking skills. 3) Go to section meetings. Discussions in section will help you to analyze the main points and arguments in the lectures and readings. 4) Read critically: Focus on the big picture to glean the main arguments in the texts. Think about the logics of the arguments and draw linkages and contrasts among the texts. This is a course on comparative politics, so think comparatively. 5) Ask questions. Do not hesitate to ask questions or raise issues in class. Your comments will enrich the course. 6) Come to the professor s office hours. I am here to help and also invite you to share your responses and reactions to the material. 7) Come to the TA s office hours. The TA is here to help you as well and will try to answer any questions about the material. 8) Follow relevant issues outside of class. Reading about current (or not so current) events in important journals and newspapers will help you to assess and apply the concepts you encounter in the course. Try to look at newspapers such as the New York Times, Washington Post, Financial Times and/or periodicals such as the Economist, New Yorker, and Atlantic Monthly. 2

3 Topics and Readings I: What is Comparative Politics and How Do You Do It? Introduction and Overview (Sept. 9) Arguments and Evidence (Sept. 11): Why the Conflict in Darfur? Samantha Power. Dying in Darfur: Can the Ethnic Cleansing in Sudan be Stopped? In New Yorker (August 30, 2004), pp International Crisis Group. Darfur Rising: Sudan s New Crisis. ICG Africa Report No. 76, Nairobi/Brussels, pp ONLY. Mark I. Lichbach and Alan S. Zuckerman. Research Traditions and Theory in Comparative Politics: An Introduction. In Comparative Politics : Rationality, Culture, and Structure, edited by Lichbach and Zuckerman, eds. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997, ch. 1. Why and How Should We Compare? (Sept. 14) O Neil, Essentials: pp Irving Copi and Carl Cohen. Mill s Methods. In Introduction to Logic, 8 th ed. (New York: Macmillan, 1990), pp (Skip the exercises.) Jean Dreeze and Amartya Sen. China and India. In Hunger and Public Action. Oxford: Clarendon Press, II. Why Democracy and Democratization? What is the State? What are Institutions? (Sept. 16) O Neil, Essentials, pp and States, ch. 2. Charles Tilly. War Making and State-Making as Organized Crime. In Bringing the State Back In, edited by Peters Evans, et al. New York: Cambridge U. Press, 1985, pp Liberal and Illiberal Democracy (Sept. 18) O Neil, Essentials, pp Philippe Schmitter and Terry Karl. What Democracy is... And is Not. Journal of Democracy 2(Summer 1991). Fareed Zakaria. The Rise of Illiberal Democracy. Foreign Affairs (November/December 1997). Institutional Design: Government Structure and Electoral Systems (Sept. 21, 23, 25) O Neil, Essentials, pp and pp Debate: Presidents v. Parliaments. In Journal of Democracy 1, no. 4(Fall 1990): pp Donald L. Horowitz, Comparing Democratic Systems - Seymour Martin Lipset, The Centrality of Political Culture - Juan J. Linz, The Virtues of Parliamentarism R. Kent Weaver. Electoral Rules and Governability. Journal of Democracy 13, no. 2(2002):

4 Rights and Civil Society: The Quality of Democracy (Sept. 28, 30) O Neil, Essentials, pp Robert Putnam with Robert Leonardi and Raffaella Y. Nanetti. Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993, chs. 1, 3-5. Sheri Berman. Civil Society and the Collapse of the Weimar Republic. World Politics 49, no. 3(1997): Recommended: Patrick Heller Degrees of Democracy: Some Comparative Lessons from India. In World Politics 52, no. 4(July): Why are Some Places Democratic? (Early democratizers/early theories) (Oct. 2) O Neil, Essentials, pp Barrington Moore. The Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy. Boston: Beacon, 1966, ch. 7 (pp ). O Neil, Cases: United Kingdom (ch. 2, pp ) and France (ch. 4, pp ). How do Countries Become Democratic? (Later Democratizers/more recent theories) (Oct. 5, 7, 9) Samuel Huntington. Will More Countries Become Democratic? Political Science Quarterly 99, no. 2(Summer 1984). Terry Lynn Karl. Dilemmas of Democratization in Latin America. Comparative Politics 23, no. 1(Oct. 1990): Ruth Berins Collier. Paths to Democracy, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, Introduction (pp. 1-32). O Neil, Cases: India (ch. 8, pp ). First writing assignment due Friday, Oct. 9 at 11:59pm (upload to course website) III. Why Not Democracy? NB: Columbus Day holiday: No class meeting on Mon., Oct. 12. Varieties of Authoritarian Regimes (Oct. 14) O Neil textbook, pp and Nondemocratic Regimes (ch. 6). Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Manifesto of the Communist Party. Available at: Larry Diamond. Thinking About Hybrid Regimes. Journal of Democracy 13, no. 2(2002). Persistent Authoritarianism? The Middle East as the Negative Case for Democratization (Oct. 16, 19) Marsha Pripstein Posusney and Michele Penner Angrist, eds. Authoritarianism in the Middle East. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2005, chs. 1 (Posusney) and 2(Bellin). Optional: ch. 5 (Posusney). David Remnick. Letter From Cairo: Going Nowhere. New Yorker (July 12 & 19, 2004): Ellen Lust-Okar. Elections Under Authoritarianism: Preliminary Lessons from Jordan. In Democratization 13, no. 3(June 2006):

5 III. Why and How do People Mobilize? Why do People Protest? (Oct. 21, 23) Elisabeth Jean Wood. The Emotional Benefits of Insurgency in El Salvador. In Passionate Politics, Jeff Goodwin, James M. Jasper, and Francesca Polletta, eds. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001, pp Doug McAdam. Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982, ch. 1. NB: No class meeting on Mon., Oct. 26. How do People Protest? (Oct. 28) Doug McAdam. Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982, chs Identity Politics I: Indigenous Movements in Latin America (Oct. 30) Deborah Yashar. Democracy, Indigenous Movements, and the Postliberal Challenge in Latin America. World Politics 52, no. 1(1999): Special Session on Research for the Final Project: Social Science Resources at Brown (Nov. 2) Dr. Michael Jackson, Social Sciences Librarian, Rockefeller Library, Brown University Identity Politics II: Islamism (Nov. 4, 6) Bernard Lewis. The Revolt of Islam. The New Yorker, Nov. 21, Carrie Wickham. Mobilizing Islam. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002, chs. 1-3, 5-7. Identity Politics III: The European Radical Right (9, 11) Peter Ford. Across Europe, the Far Right Rises. In Christian Science Monitor, May 15, Alkman Granitsas. Europe s Next Immigration Crisis: A New Wave of Intolerance Sweeps through Europe. In Yale Global, April 11, Luke Harding. Nazis out!: Sixty years after the end of Hitler's Reich, neo-nazis are winning alarming levels of support in eastern Germany The Guardian (London) 11. February 2005: 6. Rod Nordland. Charging To The Right; Austria's far-right parties may have modulated their tone, but their message is increasingly familiar. Newsweek 11. October Second writing assignment due on Fri., Nov. 13 (upload to course website) Ethnic Conflict: When is Ethnicity Politicized? (Nov. 13) O Neil textbook. pp Robert Kaplan. Balkan Ghosts: A Journey Through History. New York: Vintage, 1994, chs Daniel Posner. The Political Salience of Cultural Difference: Why Chewas and Tumbukas Are Allies in Zambia and Adversaries in Malawi. In American Political Science Review 98, no. 4(November 2004):

6 Ethnic Conflict: Rwanda (Nov. 16) Phillip Gourevitch. We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families: Stories From Rwanda. New York: Picador, Film: Hotel Rwanda. Institutional Design Revisited: Political Institutions for Divided Societies? (Nov. 18, 20) Arend Lijphart. The Power Sharing Approach. In Conflict and Peacemaking in Multiethnic Societies, edited by Joseph V. Montville. Toronto: Lexington Books, Donald Horowitz. Making Moderation Pay: The Comparative Politics of Ethnic Conflict Management. In Conflict and Peacemaking in Multiethnic Societies, edited by Joseph V. Montville. Toronto: Lexington Books, Reread: Debate: Presidents v. Parliaments. In Journal of Democracy 1, no. 4(Fall 1990): pp You may also choose to read the following: - Arend Lijphart. Constitutional Design for Divided Societies. Journal of Democracy 15(2004): Donald Horowitz. Electoral Systems: A Primer for Decision-Makers. Journal of Democracy 14 (2003): NB: Thanksgiving holiday: No class meetings on Mon., Nov. 23 and Wed., Nov. 26. V. Group Projects: Political Solutions to Ethnic Conflicts Discussion of Group Projects and Group Assignments (Nov. 30) No readings In-Class Group Meetings (Dec. 2) Readings TBD (specific to each conflict) VI. Conclusion and Wrap-Up Course Overview and Wrap-Up (Dec. 4) 6