POS W 4402y   THE POLITICAL COMMUNITY

Spring 2001 M W 10:35-11:50, 303 Altschul Professor Peter Juviler

Office: 408 Lehman Hall Office Hours: Wed 2-4 email: phj1@columbia.edu

 

The purpose of this course is to close the gap between the concern for political community in public discourse, and the virtual silence about it recently in research on politics--despite the significance of political community for stability, conflict resolution and minimizing of violence. To help close that gap this course explores four linked aspects of political life:

• the nature of political community as a particular form of social community and the importance of political community and the inclusiveness of its rules governing rights and duties for stability and peaceful contestation and conflict resolution;

• the value of human rights and duties ("mainstreamed" into this course as key variables) as standards and indicators of inclusion, and of the likelihood of peaceful consensus;

• the interdependence of how identity (ethnic, gender, religious, class) is asserted, on the one hand, and the inclusiveness of identity group members' rights and duties, on the other;

• the relationship between international and transnational communities, and human rights in states, both cohesive and failed.

As do a growing number of political science courses, this course takes an interdisciplinary approach that integrates comparative politics with human rights mainstreamed as norms and empirical categories of inclusion, political theory, politics and sociology of identity, and international relations and law.

1. Books on order at Columbia University Bookstore:

   Amnesty International, United States of America: Rights for All (New York, 1998).
   Brown, Seyom, Human Rights in World Politics. Longman, 2000.
   Ethics and International Affairs, Volume 13, 1999, Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs.
   Gustafson, Carrie and Peter Juviler, eds., Religion and Human Rights: Conflicting Claims?
   Gutmann, Amy, ed., Multiculturalism: Examining the Politics of Recognition. 2nd edit. Princeton U. Press, 1994.
   Human Rights Watch, Slaughter Among Neighbors. Yale University Press, 1995.
   Lean, Mary, Bread, Bricks, Belief: Communities in Charge of Their Future. Kumarian Press, 1995.
   UNDP, Human Development Report 2000. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000

   These books should also be on reserve at Barnard and the Lehman-Social Work Library.

2. Recommended:

   Kant, Immanuel, Perpetual Peace & Other Essays. Hackett, 1983.
   Twenty-Five Human Rights Documents. Obtainable from Columbia University Human Rights Center, 1108 SIPA Building, MC 3365, x42479.

3. Sources of other readings on reserve:

   Archibugi, Daniele, David Held & Martin Köhler, Re-imagining Political Community: Studies in Cosmopolitan Democracy Stanford: Stanford U. Press, 1998.
   Avineri, Shlomo & Avner de-Shalit, Communitarianism & Individualism. Oxford University Press, 1992.
   Crocker, Chester A., Fen Osler Hampson & Pamela Aall. Managing Global Chaos: Sources of and Responses in International Conflict. United States Institute for Peace, 1996.
   Donnelly, Jack, International Human Rights. 2nd edit Boulder: Westview, 1998.
   Henkin, Louis, The Age of Rights. Columbia U. Press, 1990.
   Linz, Juan and Alfred Stepan, Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation. Johns Hopkins, 1996.
   Pollis, Adamantia and Peter Schwab, eds., Human Rights: New Perspectives, New Realities. Boulder and London: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2000.
   Symonides, Janusz, ed., Human Rights: New Dimensions and Challenges. Brookfield USA and Aldershot: Unesco and Ashgate Dartmouth, 1998.
   UNDP. Human Development Report 1999. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999
   Weaver, James, et al., Achieving Sustainable Broad-Based Development. Kumarian, 1997.

Thanks to Heidi Nasr, Sherrill Stroschein, Peter Howard, Katharine Gratwick, Tamar Tamler, Sandra Pralong, Naomi Choi, David Burkoff, Naomi Onaga, & departmental colleagues, and the students in 1997-2000. The responsibility for the course is mine.

Your participation:

1. do the readings before our meetings and come prepared to join the lecturer in discussing the issues raised by readings (and by questions on syllabus) Certain topics will be forum topics for discussion in panels of three-four students each time.
2. write three comments of the four topics listed in the parts of the syllabus: comment for Part I and choice of two of the three comments for Parts II-IV, up to 4 pages double spaced 12 font type, basing your opinions on the readings (comments together with class discussion count 50% of grade).
3. an alternative to one of the three comments, such as a poll or media or web survey related to community;
4. a final examination, take home, based on course readings, lectures, and discussions (40%).

Outline

Subject to Possible Changes as Announced. (D) = materials distributed in class.
All but (D) should be on reserve at Barnard and Columbia; some as listed above are available for purchase. Subject to change, so keep informed.

Part I.   Communities and Conflict

1. 1/17   Communities and Survival
   Introductions to one another and to the course and its purpose. Groups, networks, active communities their ubiquity and their politics.

2. 1/22   The Political Community and Political Survival: Cooperation and Consensus
   A distinctive, vital form of active community.
   (D)Juviler and Stroschein, "Missing Boundaries of Comparison: The Political Community," Political Science Quarterly (Fall 1999), 435-440.

   1/24   Civil Society, Contestation, and Democratic Community
   What is civil society? Divergent views on its makeup, its role, and its condition in the USA, but the thesis here is, as defined in "Missing Boundaries" civil society is a essential for democratic consolidation, contestation, and accountability.

   Linz and Stepan, Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation, 1-37.

   (D)Juviler and Stroschein, "Missing Boundaries of Comparison" 440-41.

   Weaver etc., Achieving Broad-Based Sustainable Development, 210-19 (civil society).

   1/29   Civil Society in Community Revitalization: South and North
   What are keys to rallying and forming local and national, democratic communities?

   Lean, Bread, Bricks, Belief, pp. 138-170 (cities, Rio, Atlanta, three R's of community development, Pasadena).

   Linz and Stepan, Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation, 87-115 (Spain), 232-92 (Post-communism's prehistories; Poland).

   1/31   Communities: Failed and Cohesive
   What appears to have affected the communities' capacity for peaceful conflict resolution--were ethnic identity and history the only factors?

   Lean, Bread, Bricks, Belief: Communities in Charge of Their Future, Chapter 9 ("Building Bridges in Bradford").

   Human Rights Watch, Slaughter Among Neighbors: The Political Origins of Communal Violence, Ch. 2 (India), Ch. 6 (Sri Lanka).

   Comment on Part I due 2/7. One copy for you and one for PJ. Please support your opinions with specific references to readings and lectures (2-4 pages double spaced). How do political communities differ from other active communities and how does that make them especially vulnerable to the potential divisiveness of diversity?

Part II.   Human Rights, Inclusion, and Political Community

6. 2/5   Human Rights: Standards & Indicators of Inclusion--Out of Struggle, Crisis & Change
   Boutros Boutros-Ghali (former Secretary General of the UN): "Human rights are both absolute and historically determined." How have their content and validation changed over time?
   Brown, Human Rights in World Politics, 1-31, 40-64, 67-71 (overview of human rights in the world and philosophical issues).
   UNDP, Human Development Report 2000, 14-18 (UDHR and glossary); ch.2 (Struggle for human rights and freedoms).

   2/7   Human Rights: Condition of Democratic Empowerment
   Are human rights conditions of democratic empowerment, as well as standards of human entitlement?

   UNDP, Human Development Report 2000, iii-iv, 1-8, 19-24 (h.r. & development); ch. 4 ("Rights Empowering People to Fight Against Poverty"); 147-60 (human development indices).

   2/12   Are Human Rights Universally Valid or Western Impositions?
   Is community consensus so different around the world that it invalidates human rights as universal "standards of achievement"?

   Brown, Human Rights in World Politics, 67-71 (the non-western renaissance; the reassertion of universalism).

   Louis Henkin, The Age of Rights (1996 paperback edition), ix-xii, 1-10, 157-71 (on post cold war human rights and their universality; Introduction; "Rights: Here and There").

   UNDP, Human Development Report 2000, 113, (Mary Robinson, "Universality and priorities").

   2/14   Individual Rights & Community Obligations
   What are the differences among human rights, liberal, communitarian and libertarian viewpoints?

   Avineri & de-Shalit, Communitarianism & Individualism, ch. 1, 7, 12 (Sandel, "The Procedural Republic and the Unencumbered Self;" Gutmann, "Communitarian Critics of Liberalism;" Dworkin, "Liberal Democracy").

   Louis Henkin, The Age of Rights, 178-80 (individual rights and community).

   2/19   Economic and Ethnic Inequality: USA
   How inclusively does the U.S. political community reconcile the market (economic community) with inclusive standards of human economic, social, and cultural rights for all?

   (D)Juviler, and Stroschein, "Missing Boundaries of Comparison," Political Science Quarterly (Fall 1999), 441-444.

   Amnesty International, United States of America: Rights for All, 6-9 (Divisions).

   (D) Manning Marable, "Black (Community) Power." The Nation, December 22, 1997, 21-24; Loretta Ross on National Center for H.R. Education (USA).

   optional:  Twenty-Five Human Rights Documents, Nos. 3, 8 (Int'l Covenant on Econ., Soc. and Cultural Rights; Int'l Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination).

   2/21   Public Order, Human Rights, and Community": No Justice, No Peace"?

   Amnesty International, United States of America: Rights for All, pp. 1-5 and chs. 3-4, 7.

   Pollis and Schwab, Human Rights, 115-138. 185-208 (Juviler, "Political Community and Human Rights in Postcommunist Russia;" Roger Clark, "How International Human Rights Law Affects Domestic Law").

   Comment on Part II due 2/26. One copy for you and one for PJ. Please support your opinions with specific references to readings and lectures (2-4 pages double spaced). Human rights and political community: how are they connected?

Part III.   Identity (Religious, Gender. Ethnic) and Community

12. 2/26   Religion Validates Human Rights?
    (a) Does religion validate human rights?
    Juviler and Gustafson, Religion and Human Rights, pp. ix-xii, 3-6, ch. 2-3 (Shriver forward; Juviler on validation; Stackhouse vs. Henkin on religious validation)
    (b) Does religion contribute to the protection of human rights, and could it do better on the environment?
    Juviler and Gustafson, Religion and Human Rights, ch. 4-7 (Rasmussen and Daly on religion and human environmental rights; Crahan and Joyce on religion and human rights in Latin America).

    2/28   Religion and Inclusion: Ambiguities of the Divine
    Does religion as a social and political force contribute to or negate inclusion (of rights and participation), civil society, and human rights?

    Lean, Bricks, Bread, Belief, 1-14, 171-75 ("A Forgotten Factor;" "Long-Distance Runners).

    Juviler and Gustafson, Religion and Human Rights, pp. 7-9, ch. 10, 11, 14 (Juviler on ambiguities; Rao and Peters (India) and Mayer (Islam in Iran) on politization and context of religion.)

    3/5   Women's Rights and Community Development
    Should women be empowered, given more equal rights in family and community, or do traditions, religious beliefs and community traditions and solidarity take priority?

    Brown, Human Rights in World Politics, 132-37 ("the Campaign against Female Genital Mutilation").

    Weaver, Achieving Broad-Based Sustainable Development, 193-207.

    UNDP, Human Development Report 2000, 32, 161-68.

    3/7   Multiculturalism I The Politics of Recognition of Diverse Identities
    What are the issues involved in sustaining a political community and national identity while preserving individual and group identities?

    Gutmann, Multiculturalism (2nd edit., 1994), 3-51 (Gutmann and Taylor); 75-85 (Wolf); 149-62 (Appiah).

    3/19   Multiculturalism II Priority Recognition for Local (Francophone) Culture in Quebec.
    "Can citizens with diverse identities be represented as equals if public institutions do not recognize our particular identities...? Gutmann, 4. Question is how should those identities be recognized--do purposes of preserving the cultural identity of one group justify curtailing the rights of other groups?

    Brown, Human Rights in World Politics, 35-38 ("Autonomy movements in multi-cultural democracies").

    Gutmann, ix-xii, 51-73 (Taylor); 87-93, 99-103 (Rockefeller and Walzer on Quebec); 107-42 (Habermas), 162-3 (Appiah).

    3/21.   Exclusion, Conflict and Breakdown of Political Community
    What brings on the breakdown of multi-ethnic communities--"primordial" identity and diversity? political manipulation? discrimination?

    (D)Juviler, and Stroschein, "Missing Boundaries of Comparison," Political Science Quarterly (Fall 1999), 444-451.

    Crocker, Hampson and Aall; Managing Global Chaos, 53-78 (Ted Robert Gurr, "Minorities, Nationalities, and Ethnopolitical Conflict).

    Human Rights Watch, Slaughter Among Neighbors, 1-32 ("Introduction,"); Chs.1,3,4 (Rwanda, Israeli-Occupied Territories, South Africa).

    Comment on Part III due 2/23. One copy for you and one for PJ. Please support your opinions with specific references to readings and lectures (2-4 pages double spaced). Is diversity in religious, gender, or ethnic identity the cause of community strife and breakdown? If not, what is the cause and why?

    3/26   Discussion of project results

Part IV. International and Transnational Communities

19. 3/28   The Ideal of "International Community"
    How does Kant's vision of an international political community differ from today's "international community?" On what aspects of human rights and rationality does Kant's vision rest? How does it compare with Thompson's "cosmopolitanism?"
    Janna Thompson, "Community Identity and World Citizenship," in Archibugi, Daniele, David Held & Martin Köhler, Re-imagining Political Community: Studies in Cosmopolitan Democracy, 179-97.
    Immanuel Kant, Perpetual Peace & Other Essays, 29-40, 112-139 ("Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Intent," & excerpt from "To Perpetual Peace").

    4/2   The Human Rights Regime in the International Community: Accountability of State and Non-State Actors
    What limits do cultural diversity, sovereignty, and lack of central authority place on h.r. enforcement? How do such limits depart from Kant's vision of international community?

    Brown, Human Rights in World Politics, 12-20, 72-132 ("The Int'l Law of H.R.;" Obtaining Justice in the World System;"; South Africa and China).

    Henkin, The Age of Rights, xii-xiii, 51-64 ("Pardon or Punish: Peace and Justice;" International Criminal Justice;" "Human Rights and Domestic Jurisdiction").

    4/4   The United States and International Community

    Brown, Human Rights in World Politics, 149-160 ("Human rights in U.S. Foreign Policy").

    (D)Juviler, and Stroschein, "Missing Boundaries of Comparison," Political Science Quarterly (Fall 1999), 451-453.

    4/9   Peace, Security, International Community
    "Is the world coming together or coming apart?" (Joel Rosenthal, v) Can and should humanitarian intervention hold it together?

    Ethics and International Affairs, Volume 13, 1999, v-vi (Rosenthal intro); 1-42 "Principles, Politics, and Humanitarian Action (Weiss, Tanguy, Terry, Rieff).

    Crocker, Hampson and Aall, Managing Global Chaos, pp. 297-341 (Roberts, "The Crisis in UN Peacekeeping," McLean, "Peace Operations and Common Sense;" and Betts, "The Delusion of Impartial Intervention."

    (D)UN Charter excerpt.

    4/11   Humanitarian Intervention: Bosnia and Kosovo
    Justification, adequacy, tardiness of international intervention?

    Donnelly, International Human Rights, pp. 136-48 ("War and Genocide in the Former Yugoslavia")

    William Buckley, ed., Kosovo: Contending Voices on Balkan Interventions

    4/16   Closure: Justice, Truth, Reconciliation
    What responses to international crimes (war, against humanity, genocide)?

    Ethics and International Affairs, Volume 13, 1999, 43-150 (Reckoning with the Past," Crocker, Little, Dwyer, Popkin and Bhuta, Gordon, Lopez, Gordon).

    4/18   Globalization and Its Discontents: Power, Impact, and Accountability
    What is globalization? What is its balance of costs and benefits--and accountability for its impact in national, international and transnational communities?

    (D) Human Rights Watch World Report 2000, 464-69 (Corporations and human rights).

    UNDP. United Nations Development Report 1999, pp. 1-13 ("Overview; Globalization with a Human Face)

    Virginia A. Leary, "Globalization and Human Rights," in Janusz Symonides, ed., Human Rights: New Dimensions and Challenges, 265-79.

    4/23   Technology, Biotechnology, Human Rights and Communities
    How does technological change bear on the previous question?

    UNDP. United Nations Development Report 1999, Ch. Two (New technologies and the global race for knowledge).

    4/25   International Civil Society-How Civil?
    How effective, inclusive, and morally non-dogmatic?

    Ethics and International Affairs, Volume 13, 1999, 151-74 (Korey human rights NGO's).

    (D)Lawrence Wechsler, "Sentries;" Juviler on NGOs reconciling international and local interests and critical perspectives: Bahey El Din Hassan (Egypt) and David Rieff, "The Precarious Triumph of Human Rights."

    Comment on Part IV due 4/26. One copy for you and one for PJ. Please support your opinions with specific references to readings and lectures (2-4 pages double spaced). Human rights and globalization pose severe tests for "the international community" as regards the extent to which it can uphold proclaimed human rights and obligations, as a political community under enforceable and accepted rule of law. How is it doing?

    4/30   Summing Up: Rights in Human Communities