Comparative Politics: POL UA 500

Transcription

1 Comparative Politics: POL UA 500 Spring 2013 Syllabus Professor Alexandra Scacco Tues. and Thurs., 9:30 10:45 am Wilf Family Department of Politics GSACL (238 Thompson Street), Room C95 Office: 19 W. 4th Street, Room 415 Office hours: Thurs., 2 4 pm E mail: alex.scacco@nyu.edu Head TA: Shana Warren, sw1480@nyu.edu Course Description: This course offers an introduction to comparative politics, with an emphasis on key issues of importance to countries of the developing world. Our goal is to introduce students to the most pressing problems developing countries face today and have faced since independence. Four central questions motivate the lectures: (1) Why are state institutions in the least developed countries generally so weak? (2) Why do some countries have democratic governments while others have authoritarian governments? (3) Why have some countries developed more quickly than others? (4) Why have some developing countries been plagued by high levels of political violence while others have not? By the end of the semester, students should have a richer understanding of the current state of knowledge within political science on these four topics. The course lectures will present cutting edge theoretical and empirical research on the politics of developing countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. As we address core themes, we will study events in particular countries but our main goal will be to use social science concepts and methods to examine more general patterns within and across countries. Requirements and Prerequisites: This is an introductory lecture course geared toward all students with an interest in comparative politics. There are no prerequisites to enroll in the course. Students will be evaluated on the following: (1) Attendance and Participation (20%) You are expected to attend all lectures and to read the required readings in advance of each lecture. In order to do well in this course, you must attend and actively participate in weekly discussion sections, led by graduate student TAs. In section, emphasis will be placed on the 1

2 quality of your participation, including responses to the TA's questions about the readings and reactions to other students comments. In addition to contributing to the general discussion in section, students will serve as the lead discussant for one of the required course readings. Discussant presentation assignments will be made by the TA during the first week of section. Student presentations will take place at the beginning of each class. As a discussant, your task is to raise questions and offer critical comments about the reading s argument and the evidence offered in its support. Your TA will discuss expectations for the discussant presentations during the first section meeting. (2) Map Quiz (5%) Included below is a set of four maps listing the names and locations of 118 countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. Students will be expected to know the name and location of approximately 40 of these 118 countries. This background information will help you understand the material presented in the lectures, and will help you with the readings. The map quiz will be held in class on Thursday, February 14. Students can study for the quiz by reviewing the maps at the following links: Africa Map Quiz: Asia Map Quiz: Middle East Map Quiz: South America Map Quiz: (3) In class Midterm Exam (20%) The midterm exam will take place on Thursday, March 14, and will include a combination of identification questions and short essay answers. It will include material presented both in the required readings and in the lectures. (4) Essay (25%) The main written requirement for the course is a short paper of approximately 6 to 7 pages, due on Tuesday, April 16. Students will choose from a set of topics handed out in lecture on Thursday, March 28. Essays will include: (i) a clear argument linked with one of the main themes of the course, and (ii) evidence in support of the argument, drawn from materials from the course and your own research. (5) In class Final Exam (30%) The final exam will be a closed book exam covering only material from the second half of the semester. It will include several short essay questions related to core themes of the course. The final exam, as set by the registrar, will take place on Thursday, May 16. 2

3 Readings: The amount of weekly reading assigned for the course is not particularly heavy, but students are expected to read each of the required readings carefully before coming to class. Students should come to class with a sense of the strengths and weaknesses of each reading on its own terms, and in relation to the other readings for the week. When you read an article, you should consider the following questions: What is the paper s main claim or argument? Is it convincing? What are the strengths and limitations of the evidence offered? Is there additional evidence you would like to see before you accept the paper's claims? We will be reading large portions of the following four books, including a textbook Comparative Politics by David Samuels. These four texts are available for purchase at the NYU Bookstore. I would recommend buying these books, but copies of each have also been made available on reserve at Bobst Library. Samuels, David J. Comparative Politics. Pearson, Herbst, Jeffrey. States and Power in Africa. Princeton University Press, Banerjee, Abhijit and Esther Duflo. Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty. New York: Public Affairs, Weinstein, Jeremy. Inside Rebellion: The Politics of Insurgent Violence. Cambridge University Press, Other required readings, such as academic articles and single book chapters, will be available online through the course s NYU Classes webpage or through the library's website. 3

4 Syllabus: Part I: Introduction Session 1 [January 29]: Introduction Session 2 [January 31]: What is Comparative Politics? Samuels, Comparative Politics, chapter 1. Almond, Gabriel and Stephen Genco "Clouds, Clocks, and the Study of Politics," World Politics 29(4), pp Part II: States Sessions 3 4 [February 5, 7]: The State in Comparative Perspective Samuels, chapter 2. Tilly, Charles War Making as Organized Crime in Peter Evans et al, Bringing the State Back In, pp Herbst, Jeffrey States and Power in Africa: Comparative Lessons in Authority and Control. Princeton: Princeton University Press, chapters 1 and 9. Jackson, Robert and Carl Rosberg Why Africa s Weak States Persist: The Empirical and Juridical in Statehood. World Politics 35: 1, pp Robinson, James States and Power in Africa: A Review Essay, Journal of Economic Literature XL, pp Sessions 5 6 [Feb. 12, 14]: Colonial Rule and its Legacies *Note: Map quiz in class on February 14.* Lange, Matthew K British Colonial Legacies and Political Development, World Development 32 (6), pp

5 Banerjee, Abhijit and Lakshmi Iyer Colonial Land Tenure, Electoral Competition and Public Goods in India, in Natural Experiments in History. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press, pp Mamdani, Mahmood Citizen and Subject: Contemporary Africa and the Legacy of Late Colonialism. Princeton: Princeton University Press, chapter 2 Nunn, Nathan "Shackled to the Past: The Causes and Consequences of Africa's Slave Trade," Jared Diamond and James A. Robinson, eds., Natural Experiments of History. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, pp Part III. Political Regimes and Political Change Session 7 [Feb. 19]: Democracy and its Alternatives Samuels, chapter 3. Karl, Terry and Phillipe Schmitter What Democracy Is and Is Not. Journal of Democracy 2 (3), pp Cheibub, José Antonio, Jennifer Gandhi and James Raymond Vreeland Democracy and Dictatorship Revisited, Public Choice 143 (1), pp Sessions 8 10 [Feb. 21, 26, 28]: Why are Some Countries Democratic (or Not)? Samuels, chapter 5. Lipset, Seymour Martin Political Man: The Social Bases of Politics, chapter 2. Inglehart, Ronald and Christian Welzel How Development Leads to Democracy: What We Know about Modernization, Foreign Affairs (March/April), pp Bueno de Mesquita, Bruce and George Downs Development and Democracy, Foreign Affairs 84 (5), pp Robert Putnam What Makes Democracy Work? National Civic Review (Spring). 5

6 Sessions [March 5, March 7]: When Do Countries Transition to Democracy (or Not)? Anderson, Lisa Demystifying the Arab Spring: Parsing the Differences Between Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, Foreign Affairs 90 (3), pp Goldstone, Jack Understanding the Revolutions of 2011, Foreign Affairs 90 (3), pp Gandhi, Jennifer and Adam Przeworski Authoritarian Institutions and the Survival of Autocrats, Comparative Political Studies 40 (11), pp Brownlee, Jason Bound to Rule: Party Institutions and Regime Trajectories in Malaysia and the Philippines, Journal of East Asian Studies 8, pp Session 13: [March 12]: Midterm Review Session Session 14: [March 14]: In class Midterm *Note: No Class March 19 21: SPRING BREAK* Session 15: [March 26]: Clientelism and Democracy in Developing Countries Auyero, Javier The Logic of Clientelism in Argentina: An Ethnographic Account, Latin American Research Review 35 (3), pp Wantchekon, Leonard Clientelism and Voting Behavior: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Benin, World Politics 55: 3, pp Scott, James C Patron Client Politics and Political Change in Southeast Asia, American Political Science Review 66: Part IV. Economic Development Sessions 16 17: [March 28, April 2]: Economic Policy Choices and the Sources of Development Failure Samuels, chapter 11. 6

7 Siegle, Joseph, Michael Weinstein and Morton Halpenn Why Democracies Excel, Foreign Affairs (Sept/Oct). Banerjee, Abhijit and Esther Duflo Poor Economics. New York: Public Affairs, chapters 1, 3, and 10. Acemoglu, Daron, Simon Johnson, James Robinson Institutions as the Fundamental Cause of Long Run Growth, NBER Working Paper No (May). Collier, Paul and Willem Jan Gunning Why Has Africa Grown Slowly? Journal of Economic Perspectives 13: 31, pp Humphreys, Macartan, Jeffrey Sachs, and Joseph Stiglitz, Introduction: What is the Problem with Natural Resource Wealth? in Escaping the Resource Curse. New York: Columbia University Press, Session 18 [April 4]: The Politics and Economics of Foreign Aid Easterly, William The Cartel of Good Intentions, Foreign Policy (July/August). Sachs, Jeffrey The Development Challenge, Foreign Affairs (March/April). Radelet, Steven A Primer on Foreign Aid, Center for Global Development Working Paper 92. Rodrik, Dani Goodbye Washington Consensus, Hello Washington Confusion? A Review of the World Bank s Growth in the 1990s, Journal of Economic Literature XLIV, pp Pitcher, M. Anne Conditions, Commitments and the Politics of Restructuring in Africa, Comparative Politics 36:4, pp Part V: Political Violence and Post Conflict Recovery Sessions 19 21: [April 9, 16, 18]: Explaining Political Violence *Note: There is NO LECTURE on April 11. Short Essays are due in class on April 16.* Samuels, chapter 10. 7

8 Langer, Arnim 'Horizontal Inequalities and Violent Group Mobilisation in Côte d'iviore, Oxford Development Studies 33: 1, pp Ross, Michael Blood Barrels: Why Oil Wealth Fuels Conflict. Foreign Affairs (May/June). Weinstein, Jeremy Inside Rebellion: The Politics of Insurgent Violence. New York: Cambridge University Press, chapters 1, 2 and 6. Fearon, James D. and David D. Laitin Ethnicity, Insurgency, and Civil War, American Political Science Review 97: 1, pp Sessions 22 23: [April 23, 25]: Why do Ordinary People Participate in Violent Conflict? Scott, James The Moral Economy of the Peasant: Rebellion and Subsistence in Southeast Asia, New Haven, Yale University Press, introduction and chapter 7. Petersen, Roger D Understanding Ethnic Violence: Fear, Hatred, and Resentment in Twentieth Century Eastern Europe. New York: Cambridge University Press, chapter 2. Scacco, Alexandra, Anatomy of a Riot: Why Ordinary People Participate in Ethnic Violence, book manuscript, chapters 1 3. Roy, Beth The Quarrel, in Some Trouble with Cows: Making Sense of Social Conflict. Berkeley, University of California Press, chapter 1. Session 24 [April 30]: Case Study: Sudan s Civil Wars International Crisis Group, God, Oil and Country: Changing the Logic of War in Sudan, ICG Africa Report 39, chapters 1 and 4. Johnson, Douglas H The Root Causes of Sudan s Civil Wars. Oxford, UK: James Currey, pp Sessions [May 2, May 7]: Recovering from Conflict Fisman, Raymond and Edward Miguel The Road Back from War, chapter 7 in Economic Gangsters. Princeton: Princeton University Press, pp

9 Fearon, James D. and Laitin, David D., Neotrusteeship and the Problem of Weak States, International Security 28: 4, pp Snyder, Jack L. and Leslie Vinjamuri Trials and Errors: Principle and Pragmatism in Strategies of International Justice, International Security 28 (3), pp Blattman, Christopher From Violence to Voting: War and Political Participation in Uganda, American Political Science Review 103: 2, pp Gibson, James L Does Truth Lead to Reconciliation: Testing the Causal Assumptions of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Process, American Political Science Review 48: 2, pp Session 27 [May 9]: Overview and Final Exam Review 9