WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY

DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE

COMPARATIVE POLITICS

Political Science 6410 (Fall 2011)

Monday 7-9:30pm Friedman 3309

Instructor:

Dr. Priscilla Lambert Friedman Hall Rm. 3410

Office hours: Monday 1:30-3pm Tuesday 1:45-3pm and by appointment

Telephone: 387-5693

e-mail: priscilla.lambert@wmich.edu

Course Description: This is the core course for comparative politics for the doctoral program and fulfills the comparative politics requirement for the master’s program. This course is an introduction to comparative methods and theories, dominant approaches and great books in comparative politics. The main objectives of this course are to help students prepare for the comprehensive exam in comparative politics and for comparative research. This course covers a wide range of subjects but cannot cover the very large subfield of comparative politics exhaustively. Students preparing for the comprehensive exam should seek other opportunities to study these and other topics in greater detail. We will begin with a brief overview of methods in comparative research and follow up with some of the early comparative classics. The readings are then organized according to dominant approaches: political economy, cultural, and institutional approaches to comparative politics.

Books to purchase:

• Almond, Gabriel and Sidney Verba. 1965. The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in Five Nations. Boston: Little, Brown and Co.
• Bates, Robert. 1981. Markets and States in Tropical Africa. Berkeley: University of California Press.
• Dahl, Robert. 1971. Polyarchy: Participation and Opposition. New Haven: Yale University Pres.
• King, Gary, Robert Keohane, and Sidney Verba. 1994. Designing Social Inquiry: Scientific Inference in Qualitative Research. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
• Laitin, David. Hegemony and Culture: Politics and Religious Change among the Yoruba. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• Lijphart, Arend. 1999. Patterns of Democracy. New Haven: Yale University Press.
• Moore, Barrington. 1966. Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy. Boston: Beacon Press.
• North, Douglas. 1990. Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance. New York: Cambridge University Press.
• Popkin, Samuel. 1979. The Rational Peasant: The Political Economy of Rural Society in Vietnam. Berkeley: University of California Press.Putnam, Robert. 1993. Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
• Skocpol, Theda. 1979. States and Social Revolutions: A Comparative Analysis of France, Russia, and China. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Also assigned but not required to purchase:

• Cox, Gary. 1997. Making Votes Count. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Duverger, Maurice. 1954. Political Parties. London: Methuen.
• Sartori, Giovanni. 1976. Parties and Party Systems. New York: Cambridge University Press.
• Tsebelis, George. 1990. Nested Games: Rational Choice in Comparative Politics. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Course requirements and grading:

Critical Reviews. Students will submit a total of seven short papers (up to five pages) analyzing and critiquing the week’s readings by 8 a.12 noon on Thursdays to the professor and fellow students. These critical reviews should briefly recap the basic argument, methods and data, and offer some analysis of the strong and weak points of the books and articles assigned that week.

Final Exam. The final exam is comprehensive—students will be responsible for all the topics covered in class. The exam will take place during finals week and will be closed book, closed note. This exam will be similar to and help prepare students for MA and PhD comparative field exams.

Presentations & Participation. Students will also be responsible for leading class discussion on a rotating basis. For these presentations, students will summarize and compare the major arguments and methods in the readings on the required list and at least one from the recommended reading list. (Students are welcome to present on the topics they cover in critical reviews or in the research design). Class attendance, preparation of readings, and participation in seminar discussions are essential for a successful seminar. Students are expected to attend all classes and to participate regularly in discussions. During any seminar you may be asked to begin the discussion with some questions or to summarize key arguments of the assigned reading.

Final grades are based on the following formula:

Critical reviews 50%

Final exam 25%

Participation and oral presentations 25%

Academic Integrity:

Students are responsible for reading and understanding the policies and procedures for Student Academic Conduct in the Undergraduate (pp. 268-271) and Graduate (pp.26-28) catalogs. These policies include cheating, fabrication, falsification and forgery, multiple submission, plagiarism, and computer misuse. If there is reason to believe that a student have been involved in academic dishonesty, I will report the student to the Office of Student Conduct. See me if you have any questions about academic honesty prior to submitting an assignment or taking a test.

Course schedule

Week 1

September 12 (First class).

Week 2

September 19

1. Comparative Methods (I) and Definitions
1. Lijphart, Arend, 1971. “Comparative Politics and the Comparative Method.” APSR. 65(3): 682-693.
2. Dahl, Robert. 1971. Polyarchy. Ch. 1-2.
3. Philippe Schmitter and Terry Karl, “What Democracy Is…and Is Not.” Journal of Democracy 2 (Summer 1991): 75-88.
4. Gerring, John. 2007. Case Study Research: Principles and Practices. Ch. 2 “What is a case study?” and Ch. 3 “What is a case study good for?” (pp. 17-64).

Recommended:

• Dogan, Mattei and Ali Kazancigil eds. 1994. Comparing Nations: Concepts, Strategies, Substance. Oxford and Cambridge: Blackwell. Ch. 1.
• Fearon, James. “Counterfactuals and Hypothesis Testing.” World Politics. Vol. 43 (1991): 169-195.
• Lichbach, Mark and Alan Zuckerman. Comparative Politics: Rationality, Culture and Structure. New York: Cambridge University Press. chapter 1, p. 3-16.

• Przeworski, Adam and Henry Teune. 1970. The Logic of Comparative Social Inquiry. New York: Wiley.
• Ragin, Charles. 1987. The Comparative Method: Moving Beyond Qualitative and Quantitative Strategies. pp. 1-68.
• Collier, David and James Mahony. 1993. “Conceptual ‘Stretching’ Revisited: Adapting Categories in Comparative Analysis.” APSR. 87(4): 845-955.
• Sartori, Giovanni. 1970. “Concept Misinformation in Comparative Politics.” APSR. 64(4): pp. 1033-53.
• Schumpeter, Joseph R. [1942]. Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy. Part IV: Socialism and Democracy, (ch. 20-23).

Weeks 3 & 4

2. Political Economy: Democracy and Development

September 26

1. Lipset, Seymour Martin. 1959. “Some Social Requisites of Democracy” APSR 53(1): 69-105.
2. Dahl, Robert. 1971. Polyarchy. Ch. 3-10.
3. Diamond, Larry. 1992. “Economic Development and Democracy Reconsidered.” American Behavioral Scientist, vol. 35, No. 4/5 (March/June): 450-499.

October 3

4. Moore, Barrington. 1966. The Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy. Boston: Beacon Press. Ch. 1, 2, 4, 5, 7-9.

Recommended:

• Hall, Peter. “The Role of Interests, Institutions, and Ideas in the Comparative Political Economy of the Industrialized Nations.” Lichbach & Zuckerman, pp. 174-207.
• Gerschenkron, Alexander. 1962. Economic Backwardness in Historical Perspective. pp. 5-30.
• Rustow, Dankwart A. 1970. “Transitions to Democracy: Toward a Dynamic Model.” Comparative Politics. (April): 337-363.
• Lipset, Seymour Martin. 1959. Political Man: The Social Bases of Politics. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
• Skocpol, Theda. 1973. “A Critical Review of Barrington Moore’s Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy.” Politics and Society. (Fall): 1-34.
• Hall, Peter. 1986. Governing the Economy: The Politics of State Intervention in Britain and France. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Burkhart, Ross and Michael Lewis-Beck. 1994. “Comparative Democracy: The Economic Development Thesis.” APSR. 88(4): 903-910.
• Rueschemeyer, Dietrich; Evelyne Huber Stephens, and John D. Stephens. 1992. Capitalist Development and Democracy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• Luebbert, Gregory. 1991. Liberalism, Fascism, or Social Democracy: Social Classes and the Political Origins of Regimes in Interwar Europe.
• O’Donnell, Guillermo. 1973. Modernization and Bureaucratic Authoritarianism.
• Rostow. 1960. Stages of Economic Growth: A Non-Communist Manifesto. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Weeks 5 & 6

Political Economy: Rational Choice Approaches

October 10

5. Tsebelis, George. 1990. Nested Games: Rational Choice in Comparative Politics. Ch. 2, “In Defense of the Rational Choice Approach.” pp. 18-51. Ch. 5, “Why Do British Party Activists Commit Political Suicide?” pp. 119-158.
6. Green, Donald and Ian Shapiro. 1994. Pathologies of Rational Choice. New Haven: Yale University Press. Ch. 1, 2, 3. (pp.1-46).
7. Cox, Gary. 1999. “The Empirical Content of Rational Choice Theory: A Reply to Green and Shapiro.” Journal of Theoretical Politics. 11(2): 147-69.
8. Hirschman, Albert O. 1978. “Exit, Voice and State.” World Politics. Vol. 31. No. 1 (October): 90-107.

October 17

9. Bates, Robert H. 1981. Markets and States in Tropical Africa: The Political Basis of Agricultural Policies. Berkeley: University of California Press.
10. Popkin, Samuel. 1979. The Rational Peasant: The Political Economy of Rural Society in Vietnam. Berkeley: UC Press. ch. 1, 2, & 6.

Recommended:

• Alt, James and Kenneth Shepsle. 1990 “Introduction.” in Alt and Shepsle, eds. Perspectives on Positive Political Economy.
• Cox, Gary. 1987. The Efficient Secret.
• Hirschman, Albert O. 1970. Exit, Voice and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
• Olson, Mancur. 1965. The Logic of Collective Action. Cambridge: Harvard University Press
• Olson, Mancur. 1982. The Rise and Decline of Nations: Economic Growth, Stagflation, and Social Rigidities. New Haven: Yale University Press.
• Ostrom, Elinor. 1990. Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action. New York: Cambridge University Press.
• Levi, Margaret. 1988. Of Rule and Revenue.
• Ames, Barry. 1987. Political Survival: Politicians and Public Policy in Latin America. Berkeley: University of California Press.
• Ramseyer, Mark and Frances Rosenbluth. 1993. Japan’s Political Marketplace. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
• Geddes, Barbara.1994. The Politician’s Dilemma. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Weeks 7 & 8

3. Political Culture

October 24

1. Almond, Gabiel A. and Sidney Verba. 1965. The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in Five Nations. Boston: Little, Brown and Co. Ch. 1, 2, 4, & 12 (1965 version)
2. Putnam, Robert. 1993. Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

October 31

3. Laitin, David. 1986. Hegemony and Culture: Politics and Religious Change among the Yoruba. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Ch. 1, 2 (skim), 3, 5, 7, & 8.
4. Inglehart, Ronald. 1997. Modernization and Postmodernization: Cultural, Economic and Political Change in 43 Societies. Princeton: Princeton Unversity Press. Ch. 6 & 7 (pp.160-236).

Recommended:

• Weber, Max. 1904. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.
• Tocqueville, 1848. Democracy in America.
• Lipset, Seymour M. 1997. “American Exceptionalism and Japanese Uniqueness,” in American Exceptionalism: A Double-edged Sword. pp. 211-263.
• Inglehart, Ronald. 1997. Modernization and Postmodernization: Cultural, Economic and Political Change in 43 Societies. Princeton: Princeton Unversity Press. Ch. 1, 3, & 5.
• Tarrow, Sidney. 1996. “Making Social Science Work Across Space and Time: A Critical Refection on Putnam’s Making Democracy Work,” APSR. 90: 389-97.
• Laitin, David. 1995. “The Civic Culture at 30.” APSR. vol. 89 (1): 168-173.
• Putnam, Robert. 1995. “Bowling Alone,” Journal of Democracy. 6(1).
• Inglehart, Ronald. 1990. Culture Shift in Advanced Industrial Societies. Princeton: Princeton University Press
• Huntington, Samuel P. 1993. “The Clash of Civilizations?” Foreign Affairs. 72(3): 22-49.

Week 9

November 7

4. The State:
1. Skocpol, Theda. States and Social Revolutions: A Comparative Analysis of France, Russia, and China. New York: Cambridge University Press.
2. Nordlinger, Eric. 1981. On the Autonomy of the Democratic State. TBA

Recommended:

• Evans, Rueschemeyer, and Skocpol eds. 1985. Bringing the State Back In. New York: Cambridge University Press.
• Evans, Peter. 1995. Embedded Autonomy: States and Industrial Transformation. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
• Krasner, Stephen. 1978. Defending the National Interest.
• Mitchell, Timothy. 1991. “The Limits of the State: Beyond Statist Approaches and Their Critics.” APSR. 85(1): 77-96.
• Woo-Cumings, Meredith. 1991. Race to the Swift: State and Finance in Korean Industrializtion.
• Marx, Karl. 1963. The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, with Explanatory Notes. New York: International Publishers.
• Spruyt, Hendrik. 1994. The Sovereign State and Its Competitors: An Analysis of System Change. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
• Brian Downing. The Military Revolution and Political Change.
• Thomas Ertman. Birth of the Leviathan.

Week 10

November 14

5. Comparative Methods (II)
1. King, Gary, Robert Kohane, and Sidney Verba. 1994. Designing Social Inquiry. Scientific Inference in Qualitative Research. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Ch. 1, 3, 4.
2. George, Alexander and Andrew Bennett. 2005. Case Studies and Theory Development in the Social Sciences. Ch. 8 & 10 “Comparative Methods” and “Process Tracing and Historical Explanation.”

Recommended:

• Laitin et al., “The Qualitative-Quantitative Disputation: Gary King, Robert O. Keohane and Sidney Verba’s Designing Social Inquiry,” American Political Science Review. Vol.89, No. 2 (June 1995): pp. 454-481.
• Munck, Gerardo. “Canons of Research Design in Qualitative Analysis.” Studies in Comparative International Development. Vol. 33, No. 3 (Fall 1998): 18-45.
• Bates, Robert. 1997. “Comparative Politics and Rational Choice: A Review Essay.” APSR, 91: 699-704.
• Comparative Politics Newsletter: 7:1 (1996); 8:1 (1997); 8:2 (1997); 9:1 (1998) (available on www.apsanet.org).

• Munck, Gerald. 2001. “Game Theory and Comparative Politics: New Perspectives and Old Concerns.” World Politics. 53: 173-204.
• Geddes, Barbara. “How the cases you choose affect the answers you get: Selection bias in comparative politics.” Political Analysis. 1990.
• Sabatier, Paul, “Public Policy: Toward Better Theories of the Policy Process.” In William Crotty, ed. Political Science: Looking to the Future. 1991.
• Skocpol, Theda and Margaret Somers, “The Uses of Comparative History in Macrosocial Inquiry.” Comparative Studies in Society and History. Vol. 22, No. 2 (April 1980): 174-97.
• Steinmo, Sven; Kathleen Thelen and Frank Longstreth eds. 1993. Structuring Politics: Historical Institutionalism in Comparative Analysis. New York: Cambridge University Press.
• Yin, Robert K. Case Study Research: Design and Methods. London: Sage, 2003.

Week 11

November 21

6. Political Institutions

New Institutionalism

1. Hall, Peter and Rosemary Taylor. 1996. “Political Science and the Three New Institutionalisms.” Political Studies. 44: 936-57.
2. North, Douglas. 1990. Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Week 12

November 28

Parties and Electoral Rules

3. Lijphart, Arend. 1999. Patterns of Democracy ch. 1, “Introduction” 2, “Westminster Model” ch. 3, “Consensus Model” ch. 5, “Party Systems”, and ch. 8, “Electoral Systems.”
4. Sartori, Giovanni. 1976. Parties and Party Systems. New York: Cambridge University Press. Ch. 5 & 6
5. Duverger, Maurice. 1954. Political Parties. London: Methuen. pp. 4-38, 422-27. Bok 2, Ch. 1 (pp. 206-280)
6. Gary Cox, Making Votes Count, ch. 1 & 2

Week 13

December 5

Institutional Performance

7. Liphart, Arend. 1999. Patterns of Democracy: Government Forms and Performance in Thirty-six Countries. New Haven: Yale University Press. ch. 15, 16.
8. Tsebelis, George. 1995. “Decision Making in Political Systems: Veto Players in Presidentialism, Parliamentarism, Multicameralism and Multipartyism.” British Journal of Political Science. Vol. 25. pp. 289-325.
9. Persson, Torsten and Guido Tabellini. 2005. The Economic Effects of Constitutions. MIT Press. Ch. 1, 2, & 6

Recommended:

• Powell, Robert. 1982. Contemporary Democracies: Participation, Stability and Violence. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
• Weaver, R. Kent and Bert Rockman, eds. 1993. Do Institutions Matter? Government Capabilities in the United States and Abroad. Washington D.C.: Brookings Institute.
• Shugart, Matthew and Richard Carey. 1992. Presidents and Assemblies: Constitutional Design and Electoral Dynamics.
• Moe and Caldwell. 1994. “The Institutional Foundations of Democratic Government: A Comparison of Presidential and Parliamentary Systems.” Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics. 150(1): 171-210.
• Linz, Juan and Arturo Valenzuela, eds. 1993. The Failure of Presidential Democracy. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.
• Lijphart, Arend. 1994. Electoral Systems and Party Systems: A Study of Twenty-Seven Democracies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

***Final Exam: Monday Dec. 12^th 7:15-9:15 pm***