Gov 94pt: Political Parties in Developed Democracies Fall 2017

Transcription

1 Gov 94pt: Political Parties in Developed Democracies Fall 2017 Instructor: Dr. Colin Brown Wednesdays 2:00pm 4:00pm, Sever 307 Course Objectives: Creative Commons License Why do we have political parties? Why do we only have two in the United States, when some countries have stable parties with 6, 8, or even 10 parties? Why are Green parties similar in many countries, while conservative parties vary so widely in their ideology, organization and power? Can't we just get rid of parties? This course will introduce students to the idea of a political party in a number of different historical and geographic contexts. It will attempt to look at parties from a number of political science perspectives (e.g., institutionalism, rational choice, etc.), but also to give a basic descriptive and historical background. This course is limited in scope to North America and Western Europe, but it should be helpful to students who wish to go on and explore other types of democratic system. Learning Goals Students should leave the course able to: Identify normative arguments for and against the existence of political parties, and defend both sides Be able to compare and critique political science models of party development and competition. Identify the types of party system that exist in developed democracies, and explain the factors such as electoral rules that help generate different types of party system. Describe the historical origins 1) of the Republican and Democratic parties in the U.S., 2) of the British and Dutch party systems, and 3) of social democratic, Christian democratic, and populist right parties across Europe. Make predictions about developments in American and European party politics, and defend their predictions using theoretical models and evidence. Prerequisites: Students are expected to have some basic understanding of political science and of terminology but no background in parties or party systems---an introductory course (e.g., Gov 20 or Gov 30) should be sufficient.

2 Assignments: Participation: 20% o Active participation in discussion section, coming to class having done the readings for the week, contributing to collaborative readings online. Short Response Papers: 15% o Due: Tuesday night at midnight, any 6 weeks of class (your choice) o 1-2 pages, unedited, initial reaction to at least one (or more) readings from the week In-Class Presentation: 5% o Due: One time, somewhere between Week 8 and 12 (your choice) o You will summarize one of the assigned readings from these weeks, offer critical commentary, and lead minutes of class discussion 2 Short Essays: 25% o Due: Sept. 27 and Nov. 8 by start of class o 5-7 pages, edited and polished, in response to a choice of prompts Book Review: 10% o Due Dec. 1, 5pm o You will read one additional book in its entirety from a selected list, and write a 3-4 page critical book review (as for an academic journal) Final Paper: 25% o Due Dec. 14, 5pm o ~15 pages, will refine and extend your argument from Short Essay #1 or #2 o Can be submitted as a draft research prospectus, with approval of instructor Late Policy: In-Class Presentations and Short Response Papers must be turned in/presented on time, as they are necessary for the flow of the seminar. Extensions are impossible. (Don t wait until the last few weeks for all your response papers!) The Final Paper is assigned as late as Harvard will allow. Extensions are impossible without extremely unusual circumstances and permission of the Ad Board/ABAD The Short Essays and Book Review may be turned in up to 4 days late, no questions asked, but will incur a penalty equal to a full letter grade if turned in after the deadline. If there are extenuating circumstances, please convey them to the instructor via the ABAD. Accommodations for students with disabilities Students needing academic adjustments or accommodations because of a documented disability must present their Faculty Letter from the Accessible Education Office (AEO) and speak with the professor by the end of the second week of the term. Failure to do so may result in the Course Head's inability to respond in a timely manner. Collaboration Policy Discussion and the exchange of ideas are essential to academic work. You are encouraged to consult with your classmates on the choice of topics, to share sources, and to engage in peer review. However, you should ensure that any written work you submit for evaluation is the result of your own research and writing and that it reflects your own approach to the topic. You must also adhere to standard citation practices in this discipline and properly cite any books, articles, websites, lectures, etc. that have helped you with your work. If you received any help with your writing (feedback on drafts, etc), including from classmates or friends, you must acknowledge this assistance in the submitted paper. Resources like the College Writing Center and the Bok Writing Fellow are also encouraged, but this assistance must also be acknowledged. Students who acknowledge they have read and agree to this collaboration policy should the instructor by the beginning of the second class section, ensuring they receive a (edible) reward during that meeting, while their classmates who did not send an get nothing but a disapproving look from the instructor.

3 Required Books: Brian F. Schaffner, Politics, Parties and Elections in America. Wadsworth: 2011 (7 th ed.) Robin T. Pettitt, Contemporary Party Politics, Palgrave MacMillan: 2014 Note these first two are much cheaper online! John Aldrich, Why Parties?, Chicago: 2011 (2 nd ed.) Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamilton, Original Broadway Cast Recording, 2015 Available on Spotify and Amazon Prime Streaming Recommended (all available on reserve at Lamont): Peter Mair, ed. The West European Party System, Oxford, 1990 Anthony Downs, An Economic Theory of Democracy, Addison-Wesley: 1957 (expensive: worth it if you're strongly considering grad school in political science or economics, probably not otherwise) Philip Norton, The British Polity, Prentice Hall: 2010 (5 th ed.) Rudy B. Andeweg and Galen I. Irwin, Governance and Politics of the Netherlands, Palgrave: 2014 (4th ed.) Reading Schedule Unit 1: The Origins of Political Parties Week 1: Intro Session Week 1-2: Why Parties? - Sept. 6 Pettitt, Contemporary Party Politics, Introduction (pp.1-20) E.E. Schattschneider, Party Government, Farrar and Reinhart: Chapter 1, In Defense of Political Parties and Chapter 3, What is a Political Party? Aldrich, Why Parties, Chapters. 1-2 pp Federalist #10 Nancy Rosenblum, On the Side of Angels, Princeton: Introduction, Progressive Antipartyism (pp. 1-21) LaPalombara and Weiner, The Origin of Political Parties pp , and Duverger Caucus and Branch pp in Mair The West European Party System Week 3: The American Party System (Part 1) Sept. 13 Aldrich, Chaps. 3-5 (pp ) Hamilton: "What'd I Miss", "Cabinet Battle #1", "The Room Where It Happens", "Schuyler Defeated", "Cabinet Battle #2", "Washington on Your Side", "One Last Time", "The Adams Administration", "The Election of 1800", Your Obedient Servant Martin Shefter, Political Parties and the State, Princeton Chapter 3. Week 4: The American Party System (Part 2) Sept. 20 (NO CLASS SESSION THIS WEEK) Schaffner, pp. 1-74; Unit 2: Comparative Party Systems Week 5: Party Systems and Electoral Competition Sept. 27 Seymour Martin Lipset and Stein Rokkan, Cleavage Structures, Party Systems, and Voter Alignments pp and Giovanni Sartori, A Typology of Party Systems pp in Mair The West European Party System, Pettit, Chaps. 2-3 (pp ) Anthony Downs, An Economic Theory of Democracy, Addison-Wesley: Chps. 7 and 8 (pp )

4 Week 6 : British Political Parties October 4 Norton, Politics UK Chaps. 3 and 6 (pp , ) Norton, The British Polity, Chaps. 5 and 6 (pp ) Week 7 : Dutch Political Parties October 11 Andeweg and Irwin, Governance and Politics of the Netherlands, Chapters 2-4 (pp ) lightly skim rest of book Unit 3: Types of Political Party Week 8: Left-Wing Parties in Comparative Context October 18 Pettit, Ch. 4 & 10 (pp , ) Adam Przeworski and John Sprague, Paper Stones: A History of Electoral Socialism, Chicago: Prologue, Chapters 1-2 (pp. 1-56) Stephen Driver and Luke Martell, New Labour, Polity: Chapter 1 (pp ) Week 9: Right-Wing Parties in Comparative Context October 25 Zig Layton-Henry, Conservative Politics in Western Europe, MacMillan: 1982, pp Kees van Kersbergen, The Christian Democratic Phoenix and Modern Unsecular Politics. Party Politics, 2008, 14(3): Jan-Werner Mueller, Has Christian Democracy reached a dead end in Europe? The Guardian, June 2010 Cas Mudde, The Populist Radical Right: A Pathological Normalcy, West European Politics 33(6): Matthijs Rooduin, Sarah Leah de Lange, Wouter van der Brug, A populist Zeitgeist? Programmatic contagion by populist parties in Western Europe, Party Politics 20(4): Stathis Kalyvas and Kees van Kersbergen, Christian Democracy, Annual Review of Political Science, 2010, 13: Paolo Alberti and Robert Leonardi, The Consociational Construction of Christian Democracy, in Steven van Hecker & Emmanuel Gerard, pp in Christian Democratic Parties in Europe since the End of the Cold War, Leuven University: 2004 Week 10: New Parties: Independents, Ethnic and Green November 1 Jan-Werner Mueller, The Party's Over, London Review of Books 36(10): May 2014 Ronald Inglehart, From Class-Based Politics to Value-Based Politics pp in Mair The West European Party System Bonnie M. Meguid, Party Competition Between Unequals: Strategies and Electoral Fortunes in Western Europe, Cambridge: Chapter 5: Stealing the Environmental Title: British Mainstream Party Strategies and the Containment of the Green Party (pp ) Thomas Poguntke, Green Parties in National Governments: From Protest to Acquiescence? Environmental Politics 11(1): Dennis Simon and Barbara Palmer, The Trail Blazers: Women as Third-Party Candidates in Elections to the U.S. House of Representatives, , Politics, Groups & Identities, forthcoming

5 Unit 4: Inside Political Parties Week 11: Mobilization and Party Identity November 8 Pettitt, Chap. 5 (pp ) James H. Fowler, Laura A. Baker and Christopher T. Dawes, Genetic Variation in Political Participation. American Political Science Review 2008, 2: (just skim pp and ) Jeffrey A. Karp, Susan A. Banducci, and Shaun Bowler, Getting Out the Vote: Party Mobilization in a Comparative Perspective, British Journal of Political Science, 2007, 1: Schaffner, pp Steven J. Rosenstone and John Mark Hansen, Mobilization, Participation, and Democracy in America, Macmillan: Chapter 2: The Political Logic of Political Participation (pp ) Schaffner, pp ; Week 12: Interest Groups and Internal Constituencies November 15 Pippa Norris (ed.), Passages to Power: Legislative Recruitment in Advanced Democracies, Cambridge: pp Introduction, and , United Kingdom. Magda Hinojosa (2009). Whatever the Party Asks of Me: Women's Political Representation in Chile's Unión Demócrata Independiente. Politics & Gender, 5(3), Kathleen Bawn et al, A Theory of Political Parties: Groups, Policy Demands and Nominations in American Politics. Perspectives on Politics. 2012, 10(3): Donatella Della Porta and Mario Diani, Social Movements: An Introduction, Chapters 2 and 9 Andrew Prokop: Political scientists think "the party" will stop Trump. They shouldn't be so sure, Vox, 9/23/15 Week 13: Red vs. Blue? November 29 David Brooks, One Nation, Slightly Divisible, The Atlantic, December 2001 Larry M. Bartels, What s the Matter with What s the Matter with Kansas, Quarterly Journal of Political Science, 2006, 1: Shanto Iyengar and Sean J. Westwood, Fear and Loathing Across Party Lines: New Evidence on Group Polarization, 2014, American Journal of Political Science, 59(3): Seth Hill and Chris Tausanovitch, No, Americans have not become more ideologically polarized, Monkey Cage, October 2015 Jennifer Victor, A science-backed New Year's resolution to help fix American politics, Mischiefs of Faction, January Clay Shirky, "Social media has turned Republican & Democratic Parties into host bodies for 3rd party candidates," Twitter (@cshirky), February 2016 James Adams, Jane Green, Caitlin Milazzo, Has the British Public Depolarized Along With Political Elites? An American Perspective on British Public Opinion, Comparative Political Studies 45(4): Current Events Readings, TBD