Authoritarian Regimes Political Science 4060 Prof Wm A Clark Summer 2013 240 Stubbs Hall 116 Stubbs poclark@lsu.edu M-S 900-1230 Course Description This course is an upper-level course focusing on various aspects of contemporary nondemocratic regimes, such regimes constituting roughly half of the countries of the world. While labeled generically as authoritarian regimes, these non- or pseudo-democracies take various forms, and have different political goals, different administrative styles, and different attitudes toward the societies they seek to govern. The course seeks to reflect this diversity within authoritarian regimes and to provide a useful introduction to literature in this sub-field. As such, it focuses on both theoretical concerns (concepts, categories, frameworks) as well as the substantive findings of empirical research on authoritarian regimes. Course Requirements Students are required to attend all class sessions, to stay current on the assigned readings, to participate in class discussions, to write 5 short one-page reaction papers (described below), and to sit for two non-cumulative examinations. The first examination will be held during the second half of the class session on Saturday, August 10. The second examination will be held during the intersession final examination period, on Saturday, August 17 at 9:00. The second exam will test material covered after the first examination. Each examination is equally weighted at 40 percent of the class grade, and will be based on a combination of the assigned readings and in-class lecture material. The remaining 20 percent of the course grade will be determined by the five short reaction papers. From the list of additional readings provided in the syllabus below, students will select any five articles and produce a one-page synopsis of / reaction to the findings presented in the article. All students taking this class for graduate credit must produce 10 such synopsis/reaction papers from the same list. Texts The main text for the class is: Paul Brooker (2012). Non-Democratic Regimes, 2 nd Edition (Palgrave Macmillan) All additional assigned readings on the syllabus are posted on the course Moodle site.
Syllabus of Topics & Readings Class Topic & Assigned Reading M August 5 Overview of Authoritarian Regimes in the Contemporary World www.freedomhouse.com T August 6 Democracy & Non-Democracy Brooker, Introduction, pp. 1-15 Joseph A. Schumpeter (1950). Another Theory of Democracy, pp 269-283 in Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy (New York: Harper & Brothers) Samuel P. Huntington (1991). What?, pp 3-30 in Huntington, The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press) W August 7 Theoretical Approaches: Totalitarianism & Authoritarianism Brooker, Theoretical Approaches, pp. 16-45 Carl J. Friedrich and Zbigniew Brzezinski (1961). The General Characteristics of Totalitarian Dictatorship, pp. 15-27 in Friedrich and Brzezinski, Totalitarian Dictatorship and Autocracy (New York: Praeger) Juan J. Linz (1964/1968). An Authoritarian Regime: Spain, pp. 129-148 in Frank Lindenfeld, editor (1968), Reader in Political Sociology (New York: Funk & Wagnalls) T August 8 Monarchies & One-Man Rule Brooker, Monarchical and Personal Rule, pp. 46-80 H. E. Chehabi and Juan J. Linz (1998). The Theory of Sultanistic Regimes I, pp. 3-23 in Chehabi and Linz, eds., Sultanistic Regimes (Johns Hopkins University Press) Jason Brownlee (2007). Hereditary Succession in Modern Autocracies, World Politics, vol. 59, no. 4: 595-626
F August 9 Military Regimes Brooker, Military Rule, pp. 81-104 Amos Perlmutter (1980). The Comparative Analysis of Military Regimes: Formations, Aspirations, and Achievements, World Politics, vol. 33, no. 1: 92-120 Karen L. Remmer (1989). Neopatrimonialism: The Politics of Military Rule in Chile, 1973-1987, Comparative Politics, vol. 21, no. 2: 149-170 S August 10 One-Party Regimes Brooker, One-Party Rule, pp. 105-129 Andrew J. Nathan (2003). Authoritarian Resilience: China s Changing of the Guard, Journal of Democracy, vol. 14, no. 1: 6-17 Benjamin Smith (2005). Life of the Party: The Origins of Regime Breakdown and Persistence under Single-Party Rule, World Politics, vol. 57, no. 3: 421-451 Examination #1 M August 12 Legitimation and Control in Authoritarian Regimes Brooker, Consolidation, Legitimacy and Control, pp. 130-161 Jennifer Gandhi and Ellen Lust-Okar (2009). Elections Under Authoritarianism, Annual Review of Political Science, vol. 12, no. 3: 403-422 Charles L. Davis (1976). The Mobilization of Public Support for an Authoritarian Regime: The Case of the Lower Class in Mexico City, American Journal of Political Science, vol. 20, no. 4: 653-670
T August 13 Policies & Performance of Authoritarian Regimes Brooker, Policies and Performance, pp. 162-196 Chong-Min Park (1991). Authoritarian Rule in South Korea: Political Support and Governmental Performance, Asian Survey, vol. 31, no. 8: 743-761 Jennifer Gandhi and Adam Przeworski (2007). Authoritarian Institutions and the Survival of Autocrats, Comparative Political Studies, vol. 40, no. 11: 1279-1301 W August 14 Exits from Authoritarianism Brooker, Democratization and the Demise of Dictatorship, pp. 197-232 Jay Ulfelder (2005). Contentious Collective Action and the Breakdown of Authoritarian Regimes, International Political Science Review, vol. 26, no. 3: 311-334 Stathis N. Kalyvas (1999). The Decay and Breakdown of Communist One-Party Systems, Annual Review of Political Science, vol. 2, no. 2: 323-343 T August 15 Hybrid Regimes: Semi-Dictatorships & Semi-Democracies Brooker, Semi-Dictatorships and Semidemocracies, pp. 233-268 Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way (2002). The Rise of Competitive Authoritarianism, Journal of Democracy, vol. 13, no. 2: 51-65 Larry Jay Diamond (2002). Thinking about Hybrid Regimes, Journal of Democracy, vol. 13, no. 2: 21-35
F August 16 The Future of Authoritarianism Brooker, The Future of Non-Democratic Regimes, pp. 269-277 Eva Bellin (2012). Reconsidering the Robustness of Authoritarianism in the Middle East: Lessons from the Arab Spring, Comparative Politics, vol. 44, no. 2: 127-149 David Art (2012). What Do We Know About Authoritarianism After Ten Years? Comparative Politics, vol. 44, no. 3: 351-373 S August 17 Examination #2