Comparative Politics
James M. Quirk, Ph.D.
Fall 2003 · PS 350 · jquirk2@loyola.edu · 410-617-5560
Welcome! You are about to engage in an ambitious combination of "comparative politics" and "comparative democracies." We will explore the evolution and various approaches to comparative politics, and gain substantive knowledge as well as practice in comparative politics with the study of four countries: Russia, Turkey, Mexico and Japan, and the European Union.
Your goals in this course should be two. Comparative politics is both an analytical approach (with a variety of evolving models) and the subject matter of (usually non-U.S.) governments and politics. You should be able to (1) identify, evaluate and employ various approaches of comparative politics and (2) gain some knowledge of our selected nation-states so that you can recognize various topics in the analysis of country-studies, increase your knowledge of the four countries we will examine and pick up on the general state of the political world.
The two primary texts are available at the bookstore: Introduction to Comparative Politics, 2nd ed., by Howard Wiarda, and Concepts and Issues in Comparative Politics, 2nd ed., by Frank Lee Wilson. If you pursue these books from online vendors, be sure to get the correct editions.
Wiarda's book outlines the study of comparative politics within the academic field of political science. The first chapter asks "what is comparative politics?" Chapters 2 to 6 consider various approaches to comparative politics, historically and presently. The last chapters evaluate the place of comparative politics as an area of research, the practical, policy value of comparative politics, and the presumed future of comparative politics. Wilson's book takes us through the several characteristics of governments and societies that comparativists consider. Among these are the political actors, the government structures and evaluation of political performance. We will complement these texts with a number of journal articles on our four countries. The articles are chosen to reveal not only the countries' different political actors, etc., but to give you an opportunity to evaluate different political environments, processes and outcomes.
You are expected to blend your study of comparative politics with current events. You will want to spend time with the cultural richness of the New York Times and the "inside-the-Beltway" (I-495, not I-695) mentality of the Washington Post. (We will discuss the relevant shortcomings of each paper as necessary, but they remain essential daily reading.) Additionally, you will see the web site of the International Herald Tribune newspaper - www.iht.com - on a regular basis (a few minutes daily is best). N.b.: iht.com is updated only once each day. Although it is a product of the WP and NYT, the contribution of additional foreign perspectives and the consciousness of the foreign audience in its preparation make IHT an appropriate news provider for this course. You are encouraged also to see the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, St Petersburg Times, and others. All political science majors would benefit from a subscription to the Economist. We will discuss good approaches to each of these. But you are specifically responsible for material on the IHT web site.
Your responsibilities include class attendance, thorough reading of the assignments and class participation. Attendance is not optional; you need to meet with me to discuss any absences, preferably before class. More than one unexcused absence will count against your grade. You will also follow national and world news on nytimes.com, washingtonpost.com and ft.com (or of course in the actual newspapers). You will take three exams, worth 20, 20 and 25 points respectively, and a short (8-10 pp.) but intensely-analytical paper, worth 25 points. Each class will begin with at least one student selected, without prior notice, to discuss and answer questions about the readings or some other relevant topic of my choosing; these presentations will sum to 5 points of your final grade. (The pedagogy here is to prepare you for meetings when you are, unexpectedly, asked to give a presentation to a client, boss, etc., not just to ensure you do the readings.) You may earn up to five discretionary points based upon consistent, quality class participation and contribution to the course.
I will ask to meet with each of you in my office during September; we will schedule these shortly. I will also let you know as soon as my office hours are set. You are advised that Disability Support Services is located in 4502A Seton Court, ext. 2062 and TTD 410-617-2141; the Student-Athletes office is in Jenkins 015, ext. 5391. Please meet with me to discuss these as necessary. All students are presumed to know and adhere to the Loyola honor code, information on which is available at http://www.loyola.edu/campuslife/honorcode/index.html. If you are unclear on what constitutes plagiarism, ask me and/or other appropriate College personnel.
This syllabus is flexible and may be changed at any time. Email is the surest way to reach me: jquirk2@loyola.edu.
Required Books
I encourage you to
consider purchasing these books online to get the best price -
campus
bookstores often include a sizeable markup.
* Howard
Wiarda, Introduction to Comparative Politics, 2nd ed. (July 1999),
Wadsworth, ISBN 0155078690.
* Frank Lee Wilson, Concepts and Issues in Comparative Politics, 2nd ed. (Oct 2001), Prentice Hall, ISBN 0130950203.
Schedule of Readings and Discussions
| Week 1: | ∙ Introduction |
| 9/2-9/4 | ∙ What is Comparative Politics – Wiarda, ch1 and Wilson, ch 1. |
| Week 2: | ∙ What is Comparative Politics |
| 9/9-9/11 | ∙ Wiarda, ch2 and Wilson, pp. 16-22: History of CP |
| ∙ Donald Rogowski, "Comparative Politics," in Finifter, ed., | |
| Political Science: State of the Discipline, APSA 1993, on electronic reserve | |
| ∙ David Laitin, "Comparative Politics: The State of the Subdiscipline,"in Katznelson and | |
| Milner, eds., Political Science: State of the Discipline, APSA 2002, elec. reserve. | |
| **A portion of class on Thursday will note the second anniversary of the attacks | |
| of September 11, 2001, including video and discussion. If you need to, please | |
| meet with me about this by September 9. | |
| Week 3: | ∙ Wiarda, ch 3, Political Development |
| 9/16-9/13 | ∙ Wiarda, ch 5, Challenges and Alternatives to Political Development |
| Week 4: | ∙ Wiarda, ch. 4, Political Culture |
| 9/23-9/25 | ∙ Wilson, pp 22-27 |
| ∙ Samuel Huntington, "Clash of Civilizations," Foreign Affairs, Summer 1993. | |
| EXAM 1 Thursday, 25 September | |
| Week 5: | ∙ Gabriel Almond, "Comparing Political Systems" in Comparative Politics Today |
| 9/30-10/2 | (7th ed., 2000), on electronic reserve. |
| ∙ Wiarda, ch 11, selections. | |
| Week 6: | ∙ Wilson, ch 9, Political Institutions |
| 10/7-10/9 | ∙ L. Shevtsova, "Russia's Hybrid Regime," Journal of Democracy (Oct 2001) pp. 66-70 |
| ∙ M. Steven Fish, "Putin's Path," Jl of Democracy (Oct 2001), pp. 71-78. | |
| ∙ Z. Onis, E. Keyman, "A New Path Emerges [in Turkey]," Jl of Democracy | |
| (April 2003), pp. 95-107. | |
| ∙ R. Blum, "The Weight of the Past [Mexico]," Jl of Democracy (Oct 1997), pp. 28-42. | |
| ∙ G. Poitras and R. Robinson, "The Politics of NAFTA in Mexico," Journal of | |
| Interamerican Studies and World Affairs (Spring 1994), pp. 1-35. | |
| ∙ Chalmers Johnson, "The Japanese 'Miracle'," in MITI and the Japanese Miracle | |
| (1982), pp. 3-34, on electronic reserve. | |
| Week 7: | ∙ Wilson, ch 5, Political Parties |
| 10/14-10/16 | ∙ Thomas Remington, Politics in Russia (2nd ed., 2002), pp. 185-195, on |
| electronic reserve. | |
| ∙ S. Ozel, "After the Tsunami [Turkey]," Jl of Democracy (April 2003), pp. 80-94. | |
| ∙ A. Schedler, "The Democratic Revelation [in Mexico]," Jl of Democracy (Oct 2000), pp. 5-19. | |
| ∙ D. Shirk, "Vicente Fox and the Rise of the PAN," Jl of Democracy (Oct. 2000), pp. 25-32. | |
| ∙ T. Shinoda, "Koizumi's Top-Down Leadership in the Anti-Terrorism Legislation: The | |
| Impact of Political Institutional Changes," SAIS Review 23.1 (2003) pp. 19-34. | |
| Week 8: | ∙ Wilson, ch 3 and ch 6: Economics and Interest Groups |
| 10/21-10/23 | ∙ C. Freeland, "The Faustian Bargain," in Sale of the Century (2000), electronic reserve. |
| ∙ C. Kutschera, "Mad Dreams of Independence: The Kurds of Turkey and the PKK," | |
| Middle East Report July-Aug 1994, pp. 12-15. | |
| ∙ D. Ergil, "The Kurdish Question in Turkey," Jl of Democracy, July 2000, pp. 122-135. | |
| ∙ V. Chand, Mexico's Political Awakening, selections from; on electronic reserve. | |
| ∙ Richard Katz, "Japan's Phoenix Economy," Foreign Affairs 82.1, Jan-Feb 2003. | |
| Week 9: | ∙ Wilson, ch 8, Foreign Policy and the Military |
| 10/28-10/30 | ∙ Igor Ivanov, "The New Russian Identity: Innovation and Continuity in Russian |
| Foreign Policy," The Washington Quarterly, Summer 2001, pp. 7-13. | |
| ∙ M. Teitelbaum, P. Martin, "Is Turkey Ready for Europe," Foreign Affairs 82.3, | |
| May-June 2003, pp. 97-111. | |
| ∙ S.A. Quezada, "The External Factor [for Mexico]," Jl of Democracy 11.4 | |
| (Oct 2000), pp. 33-36. | |
| ∙ E.Heginbotham, R. Samuels, "Japan's Dual Hedge," Foreign Affairs, Sept-Oct 2002. | |
| EXAM 2 Thursday, 30 October | |
| Week 10: | ∙ Wiarda, ch 6, Comparative Democratization |
| 11/4-11/6 | ∙ Wilson, pp 209-216. |
| ∙ Amartya Sen, "Democracy as a Universal Value," Jl of Democracy 10.3 | |
| (July 1999), pp. 3-17. | |
| ∙ L.Diamond, "Is Pakistan the (Reverse) Wave of the Future?" Jl of Democracy | |
| (July 2000), pp. 91-106. | |
| Week 11: | European Union |
| 11/11-11/13 | ∙ Constitution of the European Union – official page: http://european-convention.eu.int/ |
| ∙ Constitution of the EU – analysis: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2950276.stm | |
| ∙ Christilla Roederer-Rynning, "Impregnable Citadel or Leaning Tower? Europe's | |
| Common Agricultural Policy at Forty," SAIS Review 23.1 (2003) 133-151. | |
| ∙ E. Pond, "European Shock and Awe," Washington Quarterly 26.3 (2003), pp. 191-203. | |
| Week 12: | Globalization |
| 11/18-11-20 | ∙ A. Bressand, "Mastering the 'Worldeconomy'," Foreign Affairs, Spring 1983 |
| ∙ M. Plattner, "Globalization and Self-Government," Jl of Democracy (2002) pp. 54-67. | |
| ∙ S.Hoffmann, "Clash of Globalizations," Foreign Affairs 81.4, July/August 2002. | |
| ∙ Video selections from Yergin and Stanislaw's Commanding Heights. | |
| Tuesday, 25 November – no class. Thurs, 27 Nov – Thanksgiving. | |
| Week 13: | ∙ Wiarda, ch 8, 9 and 10 – Comparative Politics: What Works? What Future? |
| 12/2-12/4 | |
| Tuesday, December 9 - last class. | |
| EXAM 3 and PAPER DUE - dates to be announced. | |