The HomePage of Darius Rejali - Professor of Political Science at Reed College

	Comparative Politics Political Science 310 Spring 1999
	Prospectus I have two goals in this course. The first is for you to take apart and to examine carefully your main categories for how you think about politics, to understand them, and to rethink them critically if necessary. The second is for you to be fully prepared to read a professional social scientific article on comparative politics. I will call these two skills: "comparative classification" and "reading in comparative politics." Roughly, half the course will be devoted to each topic, although we may move back and forth between the two all semester. Whether you plan to study comparative politics or whether you are a non-major, these skills are fundamental skills, and my goal is to make sure that you have these. Comparative classification: What are ways we can compare and contrast the key elements of government and politics? What are the types of executives, courts, legislatures, bureaucracies; modes of voting; kinds of interest groups; types of comparative method; types of states; ways of policy making; and types of inter-governmental organization? Reading in comparative politics: I have selected about a dozen exemplary articles I believe illustrate or embody crucial ways of thinking in comparative politics. These articles will not be linked thematically but they will give you the opportunity to employ the categories and criteria you have learned. When we turn to these, we will examine one article per class very carefully. Required Texts Most of the material will be drawn from numerous, different books and journals. Hence most of this material will be on reserve. In one case, we will use more than a few articles: this is the collection by Diamond and Platter, The Global Resurgence of Democracy, and that is available in the bookstore. Two other texts, Structuring Politics and Bringing the State Back In are available in the bookstore, although we will not use as many articles from these. Requirements Constructive conference participation will be expected throughout the course. There will be a midterm and a final. There may be quizzes. There will be regular writing exercises throughout the semester. Often, we will write instead of reading. For example, I may ask all of you for your thoughts on writing on a particular issue for the next session. We may spend part of class time in editorial groups, working on clear summaries of what you have written. Or you may be asked to put your comments in a folder, and different people may be selected to summarize the key points in the material for the class. Participation This course will require considerable discipline and creativity on your part and mine. In this course, we will not read anything until we know why we are bothering to learn it. What do we hope to find there? What are you looking for? How will you recognize it? And when we complete a text, we will not turn immediately to another until we have asked whether our initial goals were satisfied. We will read to think, not to accumulate. So as long as it takes, until we have no more thoughts on our own, until we have exhausted all the resources at our disposal, we will inquire into what a particular topic could mean. We will not read anything until we have considered possible ways of conceptualizing and thinking about this problem and its relevance to us. You should draw on whatever resources with which you are familiar. A list of potential reference sources (hard copy or web-based) will be identified. Do not expect much help from the texts assigned for this course. The terms may not be as clearly defined as you think. Besides, isn't it more fun to try to think of something on your own than instinctively reach for a book? After all, what do you hope to find there if you don't know what you're looking for? Reading List Conferences, by their nature, are discussions that can run in many directions. Sometimes a particular text is not exhausted in one conference, and sometimes we can run through several articles at once. I have no interest in constraining your thoughts and reflections, but rather pushing them to their logical conclusions. In light of these facts about conferences, it would be premature for me to insist on a rigid timetable of readings for the course. What I offer instead is a reading list. By the time the course ends you will have read many of the attached texts. You will find a complete list of the articles and books that we will examine appended. These will come in two forms, classification articles and exemplary articles. Mastering this material alone would be the task of a graduate student. However, as the bibliographies of these texts make clear, this material scarcely scratches the surface of scholarship, and we may range a bit beyond this list if necessary. During each class, I will consider where we are and what we need to consider. Be cautioned that I may think it worthwhile not to read anything, but rather to ask you to write your thoughts on paper for discussion in the following class. I will then determine the next set of readings are based on your conference participation. Classification Articles Juan Linz, "An Authoritarian Regime: Spain" from Allard and Rokkan, ed. Mass Politics (New York: Free Press, 1970), pp. 251-283. Douglas Verney, "Parliamentary Government and Presidential Government" in Arend Lijphart, ed. Parliamentary versus Presidential Government (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992), pp. 31-47 Kenneth McRae, Consociational Democracy, (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1974), pp. 2-25. R.A.W. Rhodes, "Intergovernmental Relations: Unitary Systems" from Mary Hawkesworth and Maurice Cogan eds.The Encyclopedia of Politics and Government, Volume 1, (London: Routledge, 1992), pp. 316-335 Charles Tilly, Big Structures, Large Processes, Huge Comparisons (New York: Russel Sage, 1984), pp. 81-147. K.C. Wheare, Federal Government (London: Oxford University Press, 1953) pp. 1-35, 55-96 Theda Skocpol and Margaret Somers "The Use of Comparative History in Macro-Social Inquiry" from Skocpol, Social Revolutions in the Modern World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), pp. 72-98. Arend Lijphart "Comparative Politics and the Comparative Method" American Political Science Review (1971): 682-693. Charles Ragin "Introduction" (pp. 7-11 only) and "Casing and the Process of Social Inquiry" from Ragin, ed. What is a Case? pp. 217-226 Gregory Kasza "Parties, Interest Gorups, and Administered Mass Organizations" Comparative Political Studies (April 1993):81-110. Jonathan Bendor and Thomas Hammond "Rethinking Allison's Models" American Political Science Review 86:2 (June 1992): 301-322. E.O. Wright "Inequality" from Interrogating Inequality. (London, Verso), pp. 21-31 Exemplary Articles Theda Skocpol and Jeff Goodwin "Explaining Revolutions in the Contemporary Third World" from Skocpol, Social Revolutions in the Modern World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), pp. 259-278. James Douglas "How Actual Governments Cope with the Paradoxes of Social Choice: Some Anglo-American Comparisons" Comparative Politics (October 1984): 67-84. Ben Schneider "The Career Connection: A Comparative Analysis of Bureaucratic Preferences and Insulation" Comparative Politics (April 1993):330-350. Scott Mainwaring and Matthew Shugart Juan Linz, Presidentialism and Democracy: A Critical Appraisal Comparative Politics (July 1997):449-471. Juan Linz, The Perils of Presidentialism "The Virtues of Parliamentarianism" from The Global Resurgence of Democracy, ed. Larry Diamond and Marc Plattner (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University, 1993), pp. 108-126;138-145 Donald Horowitz, "Comparing Democratic Systems", The Global Resurgence of Democracy, ed. Larry Diamond and Marc Plattner (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University, 1993), pp. 127-134 Arend Lijphart "Constitutional Choices for New Democracies" and "Double Checking the Evidence" from, The Global Resurgence of Democracy, ed. Larry Diamond and Marc Plattner (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University, 1993), pp. 145-158; 171-177 Guy Lardeyret "The Problem with PR" in The Global Resurgence of Democracy, ed. Larry Diamond and Marc Plattner (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University, 1993), pp.159-164 Quentin Quade "PR and Democratic Statecraft," from The Global Resurgence of Democracy, ed. Larry Diamond and Marc Plattner (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University, 1993), pp. 165-170 Richard Simeon "Canada and the United States: Lessons from the North American Experience," from Knop, Ostry, Simeon and Swinton, eds., Rethinking Federalism. (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1995), pp. 250-271 Richard Howse "Federalism, Democracy, and Regulatory Reform: A Sceptical View of the Case for Decentralization" from Knop, Ostry, Simeon and Swinton, eds., Rethinking Federalism. (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1995), pp. 273-293