|
Peter Rutland |
2004-2005 |
| CSS Library | Emaill: prutland@wesleyan.edu |
[ Course Description ] [
Course Organization ]
[ Week
1 ] [ Week
2 ]
[ Week
3 ] [ Week
4 ] [ Week
5 ]
[ Week
6 ] [ Week
7 ] [ Week
8 ] [ Week
9 ]
[ Reserve Readings
] [ Books to Be Purchased
]
This course analyses the core political institutions of Western democracy as they have evolved over the past 200 years. The European model of the nation-state and capitalist economy became something which other countries around the world were forced to emulate or combat.
Political scientists pose the same questions as do philosophers and historians: the relationship between the individual and society, the conditions under which efficient and just systems of government emerge. It also ranges over the same historical evidence as the other disciplines, although political scientists tend to spend less time on dead people than do historians. The difference is mainly in method and approach. Political scientists look for systemic explanations, for structural patterns across many cases. Historians revel in the specificity of individual cases and the uniqueness of history, but political scientists feel uncomfortable when forced to deal with specific cases. While philosophers judge empirical reality against abstract principles, political scientists stick with evidence from the material world.
The purpose of this course is to introduce you to some of the most important writers on the evolution of the modern state and political movements. Unlike economics, which has a set of very clear and unified theoretical principles, there is no agreement among political scientists about how to analyze these topics. Liberalism is broadly accepted as the only legitimate frame of reference, having fought off the Marxist challenge, but within liberalism there are divergent approaches as to the scope for democracy, the role of the state, the relative merits of stability and change. Mid-range theories, more exactly approaches, come in and out of fashion. This tutorial introduces you to some of the most influential writers in the political science tradition and the box of tools they have used to tackle these problems.
Each week there is a principal source that everyone is required to read, and then a list of supplementary readings. You are expected to read a couple of these additional sources each week, and use them in preparing your paper. There is no need to coordinate coverage of the supplementary readings among the members of the class, students can follow their own nose in exploring which sources interest them. No individual is expected to read all the supplementary readings, in fact doing so would seriously damage your health, physical and mental. Just look at your tutors for proof of this.
Unlike other CSS tutors, I would like you to submit your papers to me BEFORE the class – by 10.00 am on Friday. You can put them on my door, or in my CSS box, or in extremis you can email them to me. I will then return the papers to you with comments at the beginning of the class.
What do states do? What was the role of the nation-state as it emerged in early modern Europe? What is the relationship between state, nation and empire? How has the role of the state shifted over time, from the warfare state to the welfare state (and back?)?
Gianfranco Poggi The
Development of the Modern State (1978)
Anthony Smith “State making and nation-building,” from John Hall
(ed.) States in History (1986)
Supplementary reading
Max Weber Economy
and Society (1978) pp. 901-40
Barrington Moore The Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy
(1971) chs. 1, 2
Martin Van Creveld The Rise and Decline of the State (1999)
Anthony de Jasay The State (1985)
Michael Mann Sources of Social Power Vol. 1 (1985)
Eric Hobsbawm Nations and Nationalism Since 1780 (1992)
Niccolo Machiavelli The Prince (1995)
How can the people rule over this thing called the state? What are the basic contours of democracy in its ancient (direct) and modern (indirect) versions? What are the advantages and disadvantages of democracy, its possibilities and its limitations? Is its goal to empower the people, or to disempower them?
Robert
Dahl On Democracy (2000)
Aristotle
Politics, Book 4.
Amartya Sen “Democracy as a universal value,” Journal of
Democracy, vol. 10, no. 3, July 1999, pp. 3-17 (JSTOR)
Robert A. Dahl Polyarchy (1971)
Supplementary reading
David Held Models of Democracy (1997)
Robert A. Dahl. Democracy and its Critics (1989)
What is special about the American political system? Why did it arise in America? Is it a model for the rest of the world? Traditionally, it has been the Right who claim that America is exceptional while the Left were saying no it isn’t. But with the rise of the “American empire,” maybe the Left is changing its mind.
What is special about the American political system? Why did it arise in America? Is it a model for the rest of the world? Traditionally, it has been the Right who claim that America is exceptional while the Left were saying no it isn’t. But with the rise of the “American empire,” maybe the Left is changing its mind.
Alexis de Tocqueville
Democracy in America Vol. 1 (1835) On the web at
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/DETOC/home.html
Buy the abridged edition by Richard Heffner, Mentor Books 1991.
Daniel Elazar “Liberty and American federal democracy”
http://www.jcpa.org/dje/articles2/blesslib.
Seymour M.
Lipset, “Still the exceptional nation?,”
Hoover Digest, 2000, no. 2.
http://www.hooverdigest.org/002/lipset.html
The Economist
“From sea to shining sea,” 6 November 2003.
www.economist.com/printedition/displayStory.cfm?Story_id=2172052
Supplementary reading
All the
Federalist Papers are on the web at:
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/const/fed/fed_10.html
“Tocqueville Reconsidered” special issue of Journal of Democracy, vol.
11, no. 1,
January 2000 (Available electronically in Olin JSTOR)
Seymour Lipset The First New Nation (1979)
Seymour Lipset American Exceptionalism
(1997)
Samuel P.Huntington
American Politics. The Promise of Disharmony (1981)
Ian Tyrrell, “American exceptionalism in an age of
international history,"American Historical Review 96 (Oct. 1991),
1031-55. (JSTOR) Byron E. Shafer (ed.) Is America Different? (1991)
Robert Putnam “Bowling alone: America’s declining social capital,”
in Journal of Democracy, January 1995, vol. 6, no. 1. (JSTOR)
The evolution of electoral democracy. In the 19th century democratic institutions responded to the challenge of organized labor by widening the franchise. How and why was the right to vote extended to women? What were the achievements and limitations of social democracy in the 20th century.
John Markoff
Waves of Democracy: Social Movements and Political Change (1996)
Caroline Pateman “Three questions about womanhood suffrage” from
Caroline Daley & Melanie Nolan (eds.), Suffrage and Beyond (1995)
Anthony Downs An Economic Theory of Democracy (1958) ch.
8.
Supplementary reading
Alexander Keyssar
The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States
(2001)
Dietrich Rueschemeyer Capitalist Development and Democracy (1992) ch. 2.
Ian Machin The Rise of Democracy in Britain, 1830-1918
(2000)
Adam Przeworski Paper Stones. A History of Electoral Socialism
(1986)
and John Sprague
Lenin came up with an alternative to “the pigsty of bourgeois democracy”: the totalitarian state. For 65 years, Soviet state planning was the main rival model to liberal capitalism. What were the strengths and weaknesses of central planning? In 1989-91 state socialism collapsed in the Soviet Union and East Europe, but elements live on in China, Vietnam and North Korea. Could planning stage a comeback?
Peter Rutland The Myth of the Plan. Lessons of Soviet Planning Experience (1985)
Supplementary reading
Paul R. Gregory The
Political Economy of Stalinism (2003)
James Scott Seeing Like a State (1998), ch. 6.
Vladimir Kontorovich The Destruction of the Soviet Economic System
(1998)
and Michael Ellman
Peter Boettke Why Perestroika Failed (1993)
Peter Boettke (ed.) The Collapse of Development Planning (1994)
6) THE CHALLENGE OF MODERNIZATION
The imperative of modernization, and the emergence in response of rival systems that challenged liberal democracy: fascism, communism, one party regimes, personal dictatorships, Islamic theocracy, etc. The paradox of reform: “If we want things to stay as they are, they will have to change.” (Tancredi, in Giuseppe di Lampedusa, The Leopard.)
Samuel P. Huntington Political Order in Changing Societies (1971)
Supplementary reading
Theda Skocpol
States and Social Revolutions (1979)|
Clive Thomas The Rise of the Authoritarian State in Peripheral
Societies (1984)
Myron Weiner and Understanding Political Development (1987)
Samuel Huntington (eds.)
How do groups overcome the collective action problem? What drives the formation and evolution of social movements?
Mancur Olson
The Logic of Collective Action (1971)
Garret Hardin “The Tragedy of the Commons” (1968) At: http://dieoff.org/page95.htm
Supplementary reading
Charles Tilly
“Models and realities of popular collective action,” Social Research, no.
52, 1985
Timur Kuran “Now out of never. The element of surprise in the
East European revolution of 1989,” World Politics, no, 44 October
1999, 7- 48 (JSTOR)
Sidney Tarrow Power in Movement, Social Movements, Collective
Action and Politics (1984)
Herbert Kitschelt “Political opportunity structures and political
protest: Anti-nuclear movements in four democracies,” British Journal of
Political Science,vol. 16 (1986), pp. 57-85 (JSTOR)
An introduction to elite theory: an alternative approach, which is neither liberal nor Marxist. What constitutes the political elite? What role do elites play in ensuring political stability? How has the character of elite power shifted over time? What role have elites played in the transition to democracy?
An introduction to elite theory: an alternative approach, which is neither liberal nor Marxist. What constitutes the political elite? What role do elites play in ensuring political stability? How has the character of elite power shifted over time? What role have elites played in the transition to democracy?
John Higley and G. Lowell Field Elitism (1980)
Supplementary reading
Alan
Wolfe “The power elite now” American
Prospect, (vol 10, no 44, 1999) JSTOR
C. Wright Mills The Power Elite (1956)
Peter Bachrach The Theory of Democratic Elitism (1967)
John Higley and Elites and Democratic Consolidation in Latin
America and
Ray Gunther (eds.) Southern Europe (1991)
John Higley and Elites After State Socialism (2000)
Gyorgy Lengyel (eds.)
Ruth Berins Collier Paths Toward Democracy: The Working Class and
Elites in Western Europe and South America (1999)
Guillermo O’Donnell Transitions from Authoritarian Rule (1986)
and Philippe Schmitter
Juan Linz and Alfred Stepan Problems of Democratic Transition and
Consolidation (1996)
Lisa Anderson (ed.) Transitions to Democracy (1999)
What factors influence the stability of democratic regimes? Why and how do authoritarian regimes collapse? How to explain the “third wave” of democratization” in the 1980s and 1990s? What are the prospects for democracy in the contemporary world? Is democracy over? What is the relationship between Islam and democracy?
Seymour M. Lipset “The social prerequisites of democracy revisited,” American Sociological Review, February 1994, vol. 59, pp. 1-22. (JSTOR) Freedom House 2003 Survey www.freedomhouse.org Larry Diamond “What went wrong in Iraq,” Foreign Affairs, September 2004. (JSTOR) Fareed Zakaria The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad (2004)
Supplementary reading
Samuel Huntington
The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century
(1993)
Samuel P. Huntington “After twenty years: The future of the Third
Wave,” Journal of Democracy, vol. 8, no. 4, October 1997 (JSTOR)
Seymour M. Lipset “Some social prerequisites of democracy,” American
Political Science Review, 1959, vol. 53, no. 1, pp. 69-105
Adam Przeworski Democracy and Development: Political Institutions
and Well-
et al. Being in the World, 1950-1990
(2000) Introduction
Marina Ottaway Democracy Challenged. The Rise of
Semi-Authoritarianism (2003)
Arend Lijphart. Patterns of Democracy
(1999)
Robert Kaplan, “Was democracy just a moment?” Atlantic
Monthly (December 1997), pp. 55-80 (JSTOR)
Jean Jaquette “Women and democracy” Journal of
Democracy, vol. 12, no. 3, July 2001
Adrian Karatnycky “Moslem countries and the democracy gap,” Journal of
Democracy, vol. 13, no 1, January 2002 (JSTOR)
Lisa Anderson
(ed.) Transitions to Democracy (1999)
Peter Bachrach The Theory of Democratic Elitism (1967)
Ruth Berins Collier Paths Toward Democracy: The Working Class and
Elites in Western Europe and South America
(1999)
Peter Boettke Why Perestroika Failed (1993)
Peter Boettke (ed.) The Collapse of Development Planning
Robert A. Dahl On Democracy (2000)
Robert A. Dahl. Democracy and its Critics (1989)
Caroline Daley & Melanie Nolan (eds) Suffrage and Beyond (1995)
Anthony Downs An Economic Theory of Democracy
(1958)
Paul R. Gregory The Political Economy of Stalinism (2003)
Anthony de Jasay The State (1985)
John Hall (ed.) States in History (1986)
David Held Models of Democracy (1996)
John Higley & Elites and Democratic Consolidation in Latin
America and
Ray Gunther (eds.) Southern Europe (1991)
John Higley & G. Lowell Field Elitism (1980)
John Higley and Gyorgy Lengyel (eds.) Elites After State Socialism
(2000)
Eric Hobsbawm Nations and Nationalism Since 1780 (1992)
Samuel Huntington Political Order in Changing Societies (1971)
Samuel Huntington The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late
Twentieth Century (1993)
Alexander Keyssar The Right to Vote: The Contested History of
Democracy in the US
(2001)
Vladimir Kontorovich & Michael Ellman The Destruction of the Soviet Economic
System (1998)
Arend Lijphart. Patterns of Democracy (1999)
Juan Linz & Alfred Stepan Problems of Democratic Transition and
Consolidation (1996)
Seymour M. Lipset American Exceptionalism (1997)
Ian Machin The Rise of Democracy in Britain, 1830-1918
(2000)
Michael Mann Sources of Social Power Volume 1 (1985)
John Markoff Waves of Democracy: Social Movements and
Political Change (1996)
C. Wright Mills The Power Elite (1956)
Barrington Moore The Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy
(1971)
Guillermo O’Donnell & Philippe Schmitter Transitions from
Authoritarian Rule (1986)
Mancur Olson The Logic of Collective Action (1971)
Marina Ottaway Democracy Challenged. The Rise of
Semi-Authoritarianism (2003)
Gianfranco Poggi The Development of the Modern State (1978)
Adam Przeworski Democracy and Development: Political Institutions
and Well-
et al. Being in the World, 1950-1990
(2000)
Adam Przeworski & John Sprague Paper Stones. A History of Electoral
Socialism (1986)
Dietrich Rueschemeyer Capitalist Development and Democracy
(1992)
James
Scott Seeing Like a State (1998)
Theda Skocpol States and Social Revolutions (1979)
Sidney Tarrow Power in Movement,
Social Movements, Collective Action and Politics (1984)
Clive Thomas Rise of the Authoritarian State in Peripheral
Societies (1984)
Martin Van Creveld The Rise and Decline of the State (1999)
Max Weber Economy and Society (1978)
Myron Weiner & Samuel Huntington (eds.) Understanding Political
Development (1987)
Fareed Zakaria The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy
at Home and Abroad (2004)
Robert Dahl
On Democracy [Yale Nota Bene
2000]
Alexis de Tocqueville Democracy in
America [Signet 2000]
Samuel Huntington Political Order in Changing Societies [Yale UP
1968]
John Markoff Waves of Democracy: Social Movements and
Political Change [Pine Forge Press,
1996]
Mancur Olson
The Logic of Collective
Action [Harvard UP
1971]
Gianfranco Poggi The Development of the Modern State [Stanford UP,
1978]
Fareed Zakaria The Future of Freedom Illiberal Democracy at
Home and Abroad [Norton 2004]
Rutland Myth of the Plan (week 5) and Higley Elitism (week 7) are out of print. I will provide you with copies of these books that you should return undamaged at the end of the semester. You can make photocopies as you wish.
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