Comparative Politics (POLS 510)

2021 Spring
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Political Science(POLS)
3
10
Özge Kemahlıoğlu ozgekemah@sabanciuniv.edu,
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English
Doctoral, Master
--
Seminar
Interactive
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Programs\Type Required Core Elective Area Elective
Business Analytics - With Thesis *
Computer Science and Engineering - With Master's Degree *
Leaders for Industry Biological Sciences and Bioengineering - Non Thesis *
Leaders for Industry Industrial Engineering - Non Thesis *
Leaders for Industry Materials Science and Engineering - Non Thesis *
Leaders for Industry Mechatronics Engineering - Non Thesis *
Political Science - Non Thesis *
Political Sciences - With Bachelor's Degree *
Political Sciences - With Master's Degree *
Political Science - With Thesis *
Turkish Studies - Non Thesis *
Turkish Studies - With Thesis *

CONTENT

This course is designed to introduce the graduate students to the comparative study of politics. The objectives of the course are: 1. To enable students to develop skills in analysing political institutions, processes, and structures through comparisons of political systems embedded in different cultural contexts; 3. To introduce the students to the main issues and topics of the field of comparative politics; and 4. To introduce the students to the analysis of how major human concerns with freedom, social justice, equality, democracy etc. take shape and influence the emerge and structure of political institutions, processes, and practices in different polities.

OBJECTIVE

The objectives of the course are: 1. To introduce students to the ideas of quasi-experimental research and control in political science; 2. To enable students to develop skills in analyzing political institutions, processes, and structures through comparisons of political systems embedded in different cultural contexts; 3. To introduce the students to the main issues and topics of the field of comparative politics; and 4. To introduce the students to the analysis of how major human concerns with freedom, social justice, equality, democracy etc. take shape and influence the emergence and structure of political institutions, processes, and practices in different polities.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

  • describe the main objectives and questions of comparative politics
  • identify the major concepts, theories, and approaches in comparative politics
  • comprehend the key issues and themes in comparative analysis

PROGRAMME OUTCOMES

1. Develop and deepen the current and advanced knowledge in the field with original thought and/or research and come up with innovative definitions based on Master's degree qualifications 4

2. Conceive the interdisciplinary interaction which the field is related with ; come up with original solutions by using knowledge requiring proficiency on analysis, synthesis and assessment of new and complex ideas. 2

3. Evaluate and use new information within the field in a systematic approach. 4

4. Develop an innovative knowledge, method, design and/or practice or adapt an already known knowledge, method, design and/or practice to another field; research, conceive, design, adapt and implement an original subject. 3

5. Critical analysis, synthesis and evaluation of new and complex ideas. 5

6. Gain advanced level skills in the use of research methods in the field of study. 3

7. Contribute the progression in the field by producing an innovative idea, skill, design and/or practice or by adapting an already known idea, skill, design, and/or practice to a different field independently. 2

8. Broaden the borders of the knowledge in the field by producing or interpreting an original work or publishing at least one scientific paper in the field in national and/or international refereed journals. 2

9. Demonstrate leadership in contexts requiring innovative and interdisciplinary problem solving. 3

10. Develop new ideas and methods in the field by using high level mental processes such as creative and critical thinking, problem solving and decision making. 4

11. Investigate and improve social connections and their conducting norms and manage the actions to change them when necessary. 2

12. Defend original views when exchanging ideas in the field with professionals and communicate effectively by showing competence in the field. 5

13. Ability to communicate and discuss orally, in written and visually with peers by using a foreign language at least at a level of European Language Portfolio C1 General Level. 5

14. Contribute to the transition of the community to an information society and its sustainability process by introducing scientific, technological, social or cultural improvements. 2

15. Demonstrate functional interaction by using strategic decision making processes in solving problems encountered in the field. 2

16. Contribute to the solution finding process regarding social, scientific, cultural and ethical problems in the field and support the development of these values. 2

1. Develop the ability to use critical, analytical, and reflective thinking and reasoning 5

2. Reflect on social and ethical responsibilities in his/her professional life. 2

3. Gain experience and confidence in the dissemination of project/research outputs 4

4. Work responsibly and creatively as an individual or as a member or leader of a team and in multidisciplinary environments. 4

5. Communicate effectively by oral, written, graphical and technological means and have competency in English. 5

6. Independently reach and acquire information, and develop appreciation of the need for continuously learning and updating. 5

1. Develop, interpret and use statistical analyses in decision making. 1

1. Develop a thorough knowledge of theories, concepts, and research methods in the field and apply them in research design and data analysis. 5

2. Assess the impact of the economic, social, and political environment from a global, national and regional level. 5

3. Know how to access written and visual, primary and secondary sources of information, interpret concepts and data from a variety of sources in developing disciplinary and interdisciplinary analyses. 5

1. Begin to grasp historical evolution and contemporary character of world politics. 5

1. Begin to grasp historical evolution and contemporary character of world politics. 5

1. Gain the skills to analyze, understand, evaluate, and make policies in key public areas. 5

2. Develop a policy area of specialization. 4

3. Gain work experience in one of the centers or forums affiliated with Sabancı University. 3

1. Gain the skills to analyze, understand, evaluate, and make policies in key public areas. 5

2. Develop a policy area of specialization. 4

3. Gain work experience in one of the centers or forums affiliated with Sabancı University. 3

ASSESSMENT METHODS and CRITERIA

  Percentage (%)
Final 40
Assignment 40
Participation 10
Presentation 10

RECOMENDED or REQUIRED READINGS

Readings

State

Charles Tilly, Coercion, Capital and European States. Cambridge, Blackwell, 1992. Chapters 1 and 3

Miguel Angel Centeno, ?Blood and Debt: War and Taxation in Nineteenth?Century Latin America?, American Journal of Sociology, 102, 6, 1565-1605.

Karaman, Kivanc and Sevket Pamuk. ?Different Paths to the Modern State in
Europe: The Interaction between Warfare, Economic Structure , and Political Regime?, American Political Science Review, 2013, Vol. 107, 3, 603-626

Joel S. Migdal, State in Society: Studying How States and Societies Transform and Constitute One Another, 2001. Chapters 1 and 3

Recommended Reading:

Jeffrey Herbst, States and Power in Africa: Comparative Lessons in Authority and
Control, Princeton: Princeton UP, 2000.

Cameron G. Thies, ?The Political Economy of State Building in Sub-Saharan Africa?, Journal of Politics, 69, 3, 716-731.

Cameron G. Thies, ?War, Rivalry, and State Building in Latin America?, American Journal of Political Science, 49, 3, 451-465.

Schenoni, Luis L. ?Bringing War Back in: Victory and State Formation in Latin America. American Journal of Political Science, 2020.

Andreas Wimmer and Yuval Feinstein. ?The rise of the nation-state across the world, 1816 to 2001?, in American Sociological Review 75(5):764-790, 2010.

Institutional Approach

Peter Hall and Rosemary Taylor, ?Political science and the three new institutionalisms?, Political Studies 44 (1996), pp. 936-957.

Barry Weingast, Rational Choice Institutionalism. In Political Science: State of the Discipline, edited by I. Katznelson and H. Milner. New York: Norton, 2002.

David, Paul A., ?Clio and the Economics of QWERTY? (in Economic History: A Necessary Though Not Sufficient Condition for an Economist), American Economic Review, Vol. 75, No. 2, Papers and Proceedings of the Ninety-Seventh Annual Meeting of the American Economic Association. (May, 1985), pp. 332-337.

Greif, Avner, Institutions and the Path to the Modern Economy: Lessons from Medieval Trade. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Chapter 6 and 7

Political Culture

Gabriel Almond and Sidney Verba. The Civic Culture, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1963, Chapter 1 and 11-13.

Robert D. Putnam. 1993. Making Democracy Work. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. Chapters 1, 4 and 6.

Christian Welzel and Ronald Inglehart. 2007. ?Mass Beliefs and Democratic Institutions.? In Carles Boix and Susan Stokes, eds. Oxford Handbook of Comparative Politics. Oxford University Press. Chapter 13.

Norris, Pippa and Ronald Inglehart. 2019. Cultural Backlash Trump, Brexit, and Authoritarian Populism, Cambridge University Press. Chapters 2 and 8

Recommended reading:

Posner, Daniel. 2004. ?The Political Salience of Cultural Differences: Why Chewas and Tumbukas are Allies in Zambia and Adversaries in Malawi.? American Political Science Review. 98:529-46.

Eefje Steenvoorden and Eelco Harteveld. 2018. `The appeal of nostalgia: the influence of societal pessimism on support for populist radical right parties.? West European Politics, 41(1): 28-52.

Section II POLITICAL REGIMES

Democratic Regimes

Joseph Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy, 1942 Chapters 21 and 22.

Dahl, Robert A, Polyarchy: Participation and Opposition. New Haven:
Yale University Press, 1971. Chapter 1.


Schmitter, Philippe, and Terry Karl. 1991. ?What Democracy Is ? And Is Not.? Journal of Democracy 2(3): 75-88.

Gerardo L. Munck and Jay Verkuilen, ?Conceptualizing and Measuring Democracy: Evaluating Alternative Indices,? Comparative Political Studies 35 (2002): 5-34


Authoritarian Regimes

Linz, Juan. 2000. Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes. Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Rienner. Chapters 2 and 4.

Steven Levitsky and Lucian A. Way, ?The Rise of Competitive Authoritarianism,? Journal of Democracy (April 2002), 51-65.

Magalone, Beatriz. 2006. Voting for Autocracy: Hegemonic Party Survival and its Demise in Mexico. New York: Cambridge University Press. Introduction, Chapters 1 and 9.

Barbara Geddes, "What Do We Know About Democratization After Twenty
Years?" Annual Review of Political Science 2 (1999): 115?44.


Democratic Transitions ? Structural explanations

Seymour M. Lipset. 1959. ?Some Social Requisites of Democracy: Economic Development and Political Legitimacy,? American Political Science Review 53: 69 105.

Barrington Moore. 1966. Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy : Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World. Boston : Beacon Press. Chapters 7-9 and Epilogue.

Dietrich Rueschemeyer, Evelyne Huber Stephens and John D. Stephens. 1992. Capitalist Development and Democracy. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Chapter 3.

Przeworski, Adam, Michael Alvarez, Jose Antonio Cheibub, and Fernando
Limongi. 2000. Democracy and Development. Political Institutions and
Well--?Being in the World, 1950--?1990: Cambridge University Press, Chapters 1 and 2.

Recommended reading:

Boix, Carles and Susan Stokes. 2003. Endogenous Democratization.
World Politics. 55: 517-549

Haber, Stephen and Victor Menaldo. 2011. ?Do Natural Resources Fuel Authoritarianism? A Reappraisal of the Resource Curse,? American Political Science Review 105 (1).

Democratic Transitions ? Other approaches

Guillermo O'Donnell, Philippe C. Schmitter, and Laurence Whitehead, eds. Transitions from Authoritarian Rule: Comparative Perspectives. Volume 4: Tentative Conclusions and Uncertain Democracies. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986. Chapter 1

Acemoglu, Daron and James Robinson. 2006. Economic Origins of Democracy. Cambridge University Press. Introduction and Chapter 6

Haggard Stephan and Robert R. Kaufman. ?Inequality and Regime Change: Democratic Transitions and the Stability of Democratic Rule?. 2012. American Political Science Review. 106, 3, 495-516.

Mainwaring, Scott and Aníbal Pérez-Liñán. 2013. Democracies and Dictatorships in Latin America Emergence, Survival and Fall. Cambridge University Press. Chapters 1 and 2.

Recommended reading:

Haggard Stephen and Kaufman Robert R., The Political Economy of Democratic Transitions (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995)

Thomas Carothers, ?The end of the transition paradigm? Journal of Democracy

Breakdown of Regimes

Bermeo, Nancy. 2016. ?On Democratic Backsliding? Journal of Democracy
Volume 27, Number 1.

Svolik, Milan. 2015.? Which Democracies Will Last? Coups, Incumbent
Takeovers, and the Dynamic of Democratic Consolidation,? British Journal of Political Science Volume 45 / Issue 04 / October 2015, pp 715 - 738

Schedler, Andreas. ?What is Democratic Consolidation?? 1998. Journal of Democracy. 9, 2, 91-107.

Juan J. Linz, The Breakdown of Democratic Regimes Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1978, 50-74.

Recommended reading:

Skocpol, Theda. 1979. States and Social Revolutions: A Comparative Analysis of France, Russia, and China New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, Chapter 1.


Section III POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS

Executive Legislature Relations

Shugart, Matthew Soberg and John M. Carey, Presidents and Assemblies. Constitutional Design and Electoral Dynamics Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995, chapters 1-4.

Cheibub, Jose Antonio. Presidentialism, Parliamentarism and Democracy New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Chapters 1 and 6

Cheibub, Jose and Zachary Elkins, and Tom Ginsburg. 2013. ?Beyond Presidentialism and Parliamentarism? British Journal of Political Science.

Laver, Michael & Kenneth A. Shepsle. 1996. Making and Breaking Governments: Cabinets and Legislatures in Parliamentary Democracies. New York: Cambridge University Press. Chapters 3, 4 and 7

Recommended reading:

Juan J. Linz, ?The Perils of Presidentialism,? in Larry Diamond and Marc Plattner.(eds.), The Global Resurgence of Democracy Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, 124-142.

Political Parties and Party Systems

John H. Aldrich. 1995. Why Parties? Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Chapter 1

Seymour Lipset and Stein Rokkan, ?Cleavage Structures, Party Systems, and Voter Alignments: An Introduction,? pp. 1-64 in Lipset and Rokkan (eds.), Party Systems and Voter Alignments: Cross-National Perspectives,1967

Lupu, Noam. ?Party Brands and Partisanship: Theory with Evidence from a Survey Experiment in Argentina,? American Journal of Political Science 57(1): 49-64 (2013)

Recommended reading:

Duverger, Maurice. (1959) Political parties, their organization and activity in the modern state. Trans. by Barbara and Robert North. Introduction, pp. 40 ? 60, 90 ? 116, 135 ? 157, 206 ? 255, 391 ? 412

Stokes, Susan. (1999) ?Political Parties and Democracy,? Annual Review of Political Science vol. 2, 1999

Schattschneider, E. E. (1960) The semisovereign people: a realist's view of democracy in America. Chapters 2 and 4.

Downs, Anthony (1957) An Economic Theory of Democracy. Chapters 2, 3, 7 and 8.

Elections

Gary Cox, Making Votes Count: Strategic Coordination in the World?s Electoral Systems Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997, Chapters 1-5 and 10.

Powell, Bingham. Elections as Instruments of Democracy, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000, Part I

Golder, Matt and Gabriella Llyod, ?Re-evaluating the relationship between electoral rules and ideological congruence.? 2014. European Journal of Political Research. 53, 1, 200-212

Recommended reading:

Chong, De La O, Karlan, and Wantchekon, 2015, ?Does Corruption Information Inspire the Fight or Quash the Hope? A Field Experiment in Mexico on Voter Turnout, Choice, and Party Identification,? Journal of Politics

Federalism and Decentralization

Brancati, Dawn. 2006. ?Decentralization: Fueling the Fire or Dampening the Flames of Ethnic Conflict and Secessionism?? International Organization 60: 651-685.

Rodden, Jonathan. 2006. Hamilton?s Paradox: The Promise and Peril of Fiscal Federalism. Cambridge UP Chapter 4.

Conclusion to institutions discussion:
Arendt Lijphart, Patterns of Democracy, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999 Chapters 1-3 and Conclusion

George Tsebelis. 2002. Veto Players. Princeton University Press. Chapter 1

Recommended reading:

León, Sandra (2012), ?How Do Citizens Attribute Responsibility in Multilevel States? Learning, Biases, and Asymmetric Federalism. Evidence from Spain,? Electoral Studies 31: 120-30, pp. 120-124, 128-129.

Section IV POLITICAL ECONOMY

Development

Huntington, Samuel. 1968. Political Order in Changing Societies. New Haven: Yale University Press. Chapters 1

Acemoglu, Daron and James A. Robinson. Why Nations Fail The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty. Crown Business 2012. Chapters 2, 3, 13 and 15

Bates, Robert. 1981. Markets and States in Tropical Africa: The Political Basis of Economic Policy Berkeley: University of California Press, Introduction, Chapter 5 and the Conclusion

Kasara, Kimuli. 2007. Tax Me If You Can: Ethnic Geography, Democracy, and the Taxation of Agriculture in Africa. American Political Science Review 101 (1).

Recommended Reading:

Alexander Gerschenkron, Economic Backwardness in Historical Perspective, 1962, Chapters 1 and 2

Bates, Robert. 1981. Markets and States in Tropical Africa: The Political Basis of Economic Policy Berkeley: University of California Press, rest of the book

Bates, Robert. 2020. Political Economy of Development. Cambridge University Press.

Political Economy of ?Developed? Countries

Peter A. Hall and David Soskice, ?An Introduction to Varieties of Capitalism,? in Peter A. Hall and David Soskice, eds., Varieties of Capitalism: The Institutional Foundationsof Comparative Advantage, pp. 1-68, 2002.

Iversen, Torbin and John Stephens. ?Partisan Politics, The Welfare State, and Three Worlds of Human Capital Formation,? Comparative Political Studies. 20:10 (2008).

Mares, Isabella, ?The Sources of Business Interest in Social Insurance?? World Politics, Jan 2003, p. 229

Conclusion to political economy section:
Boix, Carles. 2003. Democracy and Redistribution. Cambridge University Press, Chapter 5.

Recommended readings:

Esping-Andersen, G?sta. 1990. The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP.

Scheve, Kenneth & David Stasavage (2009) "Institutions, Partisanship, and Inequality in the Long Run." World Politics 61(2): 215-253.

Christoph Arndt (2013), The Electoral Consequences of Third Way Welfare State Reforms: Social Democracy`s Transformation and its Political Costs. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.