INTRODUCTION TO COMPARATIVE POLITICS
POS V 3501y, Spring 1998
202 Altschul, M W 2:40-3:55
Elizabeth Wishnick 

This course will introduce students with a limited knowledge of Political Science to basic concepts, themes, issues in comparative politics as well as to various methodological approaches to the field.  The course will expose students to the uses of the comparative method in analyzing political systems, the dynamics of their development, and the sources of their breakdown and change.  The trend toward democratic change in the post-Cold War period is a key theme of the course.  During the course, the following questions will be addressed: How is democracy conceptualized in different countries?  What are its strengths and weaknesses?  How are they measured?  What are the forces which lead to democratic transitions?  What impedes democratic change?

The course begins with an overview of the comparative method and the main building-blocks in the study of comparative politics: states and regimes.  The next section of the course outlines four key themes in the study of comparative politics: new challenges to the state, the interaction of political and economic development, the role of collective identities in political development, and the dynamics of political participation.  A third section examines issues of political change and analyzes different paths: modernization, reform, revolution, and transitions to democracy.  In the fourth section, the concepts, themes, and issues studied will be applied to the comparative analysis of three pairs of countries:

1. Great Britain and Japan: Democratic Regimes
2. China and Russia: Regimes undergoing the transition from communism
3. Mexico and Nigeria: Democratizing and authoritarian regimes in developing countries

The first three sections of the course will be covered in the first half of the semester and the second half will be devoted to the comparative analysis of case studies.

Class Format and Requirements

Format.  The course aims to integrate lectures and discussion.  Students are encouraged to ask questions and participate in the discussion of the material.

Requirements.  Students are required to do all assigned readings and attend all lectures.  Attendance will be taken.  In the event that a student is in between grades, participation and attendance will be taken into account.

Exams.  Students will be tested on the material covered during the lectures and the assigned readings.

In-Class Mid-Term (40% of course grade): There will be an in class mid-term on March 11 covering the conceptual parts the course.  THERE IS NO MAKE-UP EXAM!!

In-Class Final Exam (60% of course grade): During the in class final, students will be asked to apply their knowledge of the concepts, themes, and issues covered in the first part of the course to the comparative analysis of the cases studied in the second part.

Make-Up Final Exam Policy.  If a student claims a scheduling conflict for the final exam, appropriate documentation from the registrar must be supplied and will be verified.

Students requesting a make-up exam for reasons other than a scheduling conflict MUST have either a letter from their academic dean or from the university health service, which will be verified.  Students are discouraged from making such requests because, even if granted, out of fairness to the other students, the make-up will be different from the scheduled exam and graded more stringently.

Required Readings

The following books are available for purchase at Posman Books and the Columbia University bookstore:

1. Mark Kesselman, et al., eds.  Comparative Politics at the Crossroads, (D.C. Heath, 1996)

2. Bernard Brown, et al., eds., Comparative Politics: Notes and Readings, 8th edition, (Harcourt Brace, 1996).

3. Frank L. Wilson, Concepts and Issues in Comparative Politics, (Prentice Hall, 1996).

4. Christian Soe, ed., Comparative Politics Annual 1997/98, 15th edition, (Dushkin, 1997).

5. Christopher Clapham, Third World Politics, (University of Wisconsin Press, 1985).

All books and articles listed on the syllabus are on reserve at both the Barnard and College libraries.

Part I: Overview and Basic Concepts

1/21 1. Overview of the Course

1/26 2. The Comparative Method: What and how to compare

Wilson, pp. 1-15.
Brown, pp. 16-41.

1/28 3. States and Nations

Brown, pp. 42-65.
Kesselman, pp. 1-11; 24-27.

2/2 4. Regime Types: Authoritarianism and Democracy

Kesselman, pp. 11-23.
Brown, pp. 87-147

Part II: Main Themes

2/4 1. New Challenges to the State

Brown, pp. 66-86.
Soe, #56, 60
Peter Evans, "The Eclipse of the State?"
Kenichi Ohmae "The Rise of the Region-State"

2/9 2. The Interaction of Political and Economic Development

Brown and Macridis, pp. 332-351
Soe, #55
Wilson, pp. 32-41; 181-199
Adam Przeworski and Fernando Limongi, "Modernization:
Theories and Facts"

2/11 3. Collective Identities

Wilson, pp. 17-31, 41-54
Soe, #57, 58, 59
Barrington Moore, Social Origins of Dictatorship, pp. 413-432
Anthony Marx, "Race-Making and the Nation-State"

2/16 5. Political Participation:
a. Citizen, State, and Society

Wilson, pp. 57-75
Brown, pp. 206-237

2/18 6. Political Participation:
b. Political Parties

Brown, pp. 243-277
Wilson, pp. 57-113

2/23 7. Political Participation:
c. Institutions and Leaders

Brown, pp. 309-323
Wilson, pp. 114-129, 149-178
Samuel Huntington, Political Order in Changing Societies, pp. 1-32

Part III: Processes of Political Change

2/25 1. Modernization and Political Development

Brown, pp. 361-414
Soe, #52, 53

3/2 2. Revolution and Reform

Wilson, pp. 200-215
Brown, pp. 156-195
Clapham, Ch 8

3/4 3. Transitions to Democracy

Brown, pp. 156-195
Doh Chull Shin, "On the Third Wave of Democratization"
Soe, #54
Muthiah Alagappa, "The Asian Spectrum"

3/9 Liberal Democracy

Soe #29
The Economist, "Full democracy"
Larry Diamond, "Three Paradoxes of Democracy"*

*this is a chapter in a book and it's listed at the Barnard library by its author and title, L. Diamond and M. Plattner, eds., The Global Resurgence of Democracy, 1993.

3/11 Mid-Term

3/14-3/22 Spring Break

Part IV: Case Studies

1. Great Britain and Japan

3/13 a. Parliamentary Democracy: How Does It Work?

Kesselman, Ch. 1 (sections 1, 3); Ch. 5 (sections 1, 3)
Soe, #4,5,21,30,32,33
Taichi, Sakaiya "The 1993 Watershed and the Agenda for Reform"

3/25 b. Political Participation and Political Reform

Kesselman, Ch. 1 (section 4); Ch. 5 (section 4) 
Soe, #2,3,6,7, 20
The Economist, "Britain after the landslide" Iwai, Tomoaki, "'The Madonna Boom': Women in the Japanese Diet"

3/30 c. Political Economy

Kesselman, Ch. 1 (section 2); Ch. 5 (section 2)
Arthur Gould, Capitalist Welfare Systems, pp. 1-16; 234-250*
Tony Judt, "The Societal Question Redivivus"
Soe, #37, 38, 39

*this is listed as a book in the Barnard library 2. Russia and China 4/1 Communist revolution in Russia and China

Kesselman, Ch. 6 (section 1) and Ch. 7 (section 1)
Brown, pp. 137-147
Ken Jowitt, New World Disorder, Ch. 8
Huntington, Political Order in Changing Societies, pp. 334-343

4/6 Political Leadership and Political Change

Kesselman, Ch. 6 (sections 3 and 4), Ch. 7 (sections 3 and 4)
Brown and Macridis, pp. 148-155
Soe #50
M. Steven Fish, "The Pitfalls of Russian Superpresidentialism"

4/13 Transition from Command Economies

Kesselman, Ch. 6 (section 2) and Ch. 7 (section 2)
Juliet Johnson, "Should Russia Adopt the Chinese Model of Economic Reform"
Marshall Goldman, "Russia's Reform Effort: Is there Growth at the End of the Tunnel?"
Business Week, "Can China Reform?"

4/15 Social and political change

Kesselman, et. al.  Ch. 6 (section 5) and Ch. 7 (section 5)
Soe #41, 43
Michael McFaul, "Democracy Unfolds in Russia"
Richard Smith, "Flies and Fresh Air: Culture and Consumerism in Contemporary China"
Journal of Democracy article on China - TBA

3. The Developing World

4/21 Colonialism and the Problem of State-Building

Clapham, Ch. 1-2
Kesselman, Ch. 9 (section 1) and Ch. 11 (section 1)
Soe #44, 45
Larry Diamond, "Nigeria's Perennial Struggle"

4/23 Nation-Building and Ethnic Conflict

Clapham, Ch. 6-7
Wilson, pp. 131-145
Kesselman, Ch. 9 (sections 3 and 4) and Ch. 11, (sections 3 and 4)
Crawford Young, "The Impossible Necessity of Nigeria"
Lucy Conger, "Mexico: Zapatista Thunder"

4/27 Political Economy of Development

Clapham, Ch. 5
Kesselman, Ch. 9 (section 2) and Ch. 11 (section 2)
Soe #46, 49
Mexico, "Second Revolution"

4/29 Political Change: Sources and Obstacles

Clapham, Ch. 3-4
Soe, #48
Kesselman, Ch. 9 (section 5) and Ch. 11 (section 5)
Chappell Lawson, "Mexico's New Politics: The Elections of 1997"
M.J. Balogun, "Enduring Clientalism, Governance Reform and
Leadership Capacity: A Review of the Democratization Process in Nigeria"

5/4 Recent Trends toward Political and Economic Change

Ken Jowitt, "Dizzy with Democracy"
Fareed Zakaria, "The Rise of Illiberal Democracy"
Samuel Huntington, "After Twenty Years: The Future of the Third Wave"
Jacques Attali, "The Crash of Western Civilization"