The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies

Johns Hopkins University

 

Course Syllabus: Comparative National Systems

 

Prof. Fukuyama

 

Fall Semester, 2003

 

Prof. Francis Fukuyama                                            Office Hours by Appointment

Rome Building Room 732                                           

(202) 663-5765

 

email: fukuyama@jhu.edu                                           Tuesdays 2:15-4:30 pm

Web site:  www.francisfukuyama.com                   Rome Building, Room 203

 

Course Overview

This course, a SAIS core course, is a graduate-level introduction to comparative politics, focusing on the major institutions of modern liberal democracy and the political cultures in which they are embedded.  Much of the emphasis will be on how institutions work and differ in developed democracies, and in particular how those of the United States are exceptional and differ in many respects from those of other industrialized countries.  Another version of this course, focusing more heavily on developing countries, will be offered by Prof. Khadiagala spring semester 2004.  The course will however also deal with issues of developing, post-communist, and transitional societies, and with broad functional issues in the politics of nations around the world. 

 

Comparative politics is not just a matter of knowing something about more than one country or region of the world; it is the study of institutions, political culture, public policies, and development using as broad a base of experience from different societies as possible.  Understanding causality in politics poses special problems because the underlying phenomena are inherently complex, and it is not possible to run controlled experiments in which some variables can be held constant.  Comparative politics seeks to get around this problem by using data from a variety of similarly-situated societies, seeking relationships that vary systematically between countries, statically and over time.  You cannot understand any given society, including your own, unless you understand how it differs from others.

 

Students who would like to audit the course and then take the comparative politics core exam are welcome to do so.  Auditors are encouraged to keep up with the readings and to participate fully in class discussions.

 

 

Requirements:

            There will be a midterm exam on Oct. 14 based on the first five weeks of readings, and a take home final exam during exam week that will cover materials from the whole course.  All students are required to keep up with the readings for each week’s classes, and to participate actively in class discussions.

 

Bulletin Board:

            There is a class bulletin board which you can access over the internet at http://apps.sais-jhu.edu/bulletin_boards/Political_Economy/index.php.  This is a private bulletin board for the use of this class alone.  To get access you need to register by clicking on the register hyperlink.  You will not be able to immediately access the bulletin board until I have admitted you to the forum.  Thereafter, you can post anything you want or start a discussion thread, and only other registered members of the class will be able to look at your posting.  Please choose a username that is close to your actual name so I know who you are.

Required Books:

These books should be available at the SAIS bookstore.  It is just as easy (and cheaper) however to buy them through an on-line bookseller like http://www.amazon.com/ or http://www.barnesandnoble.com/.

 

·        Larry Diamond and Marc F. Plattner, The Global Resurgence of Democracy.  Second edition (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996).  ISBN 0-8018-5305-2.

·        Seymour Martin Lipset, American Exceptionalism:  A Double-Edged Sword, paperback edition (New York: W. W. Norton, 1997), ISBN 0393316149.

·        World Bank, 1997 World Development Report. The State in a Changing World (Oxford University Press and the World Bank, 1997), ISBN 0-19-521115-4.

WEEK 1 (September 9): INTRODUCTORY LECTURE:  Comparing Institutions

·        de Tocqueville, Alexis, Democracy in America, Book 3, Chapters 1-4, pp 561-580.

·        Almond, Gabriel, Powell G.B. and Mundt, Comparative Politics:  A Theoretical Framework (New York:  HarperCollins, 1993), pp. 1-22.

·        Gary W. Cox and Mathew McCubbins, “The Institutional Determinants of Economic Policy Outcomes,” in Stephan Haggard and Mathew D. McCubbins, eds., Presidents, Parliaments, and Policy (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press 2001), pp. 21-64.

Suggested Readings:

·        Richard Rose (1991). “Comparing Forms of Comparative Politics.” Political Studies 39(3): 446-62.

·        Almond, Gabriel A. and Verba, Sidney, "The Intellectual History of the Civic Culture Concept," in Almond and Verba, eds., The Civic Culture Revisited (Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, 1989).

WEEK 2 (September 16): INSTITUTIONS: THE STATE

·        World Bank, World Development Report, 1997:  The State in a Changing World, chaps. 1-3, pp. 19-60.

·        Andrew MacIntyre, The Power of Institutions: Political Architecture and Governance (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2003), chap. 2, pp. 17-36.

·        Michael Mann, "The Autonomous Power of the State: Its Origins, Mechanisms, and Results," European Journal of Sociology 25(2), 1984: 185-213.

·        Wilson, James Q., "Culture," in Bureaucracy:  What Government Agencies Do and Why They Do Them (New York:  Basic Books, 1989), Chapter 6, pp. 90-110.

·        Joel Migdal, Strong Societies and Weak States: State-Society Relations and State Capabilities in the Third World (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1988), chapter 1, pp. 3-41.

Suggested Readings:

·        Huntington, Samuel P., "The Gap: The American Creed Versus Political Authority," in Huntington, American Politics:  The Promise of Disharmony (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1981), pp. 31-60.

·        Wilson, James, Q., "National Differences," in Bureaucracy (1989), pp. 295-312.

·        Kelman, Steven, "Rule Making and the Social System," in Regulating America, Regulating Sweden:  A Comparative Study of Occupational Safety and Health Policy (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1981), Chapter 4, pp. 113-175.

·        Kelman, Steven, "Conclusions and Implications," in Regulating America, Regulating Sweden:  A Comparative Study of Occupational Safety and Health Policy (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1981), Chapter 7, pp. 221-237.

·        Nettl, J. P., "The State as a Conceptual Variable," World Po­litics 20, no. 4 (July 1968), pp. 559-592.

WEEK 3 (September 23): Institutions: PRESIDENTS AND PRIME MINISTERS

·        Arend Lijphart, Patterns of Democracy: Government Forms and Performance in Thirty-Six Countries (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1999), chaps. 1-2, pp. 1-30.

·        Juan J. Linz, "The Perils of Presidentialism," in Diamond and Plattner.

·        Lijphart, Arend, "Executive-Legislative Relations:  Patterns of Dominance and Balance of Power," in Arend Lijphart, De­mocracies: Patterns of Majoritarian and Consensus Government in 21 Countries (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984), chap. 5, pp. 67-89.

·        Neustadt, Richard E., "The Power to Persuade," in Neustadt, Richard E., Presidential Power and the Modern Presidents (New York: Free Press, 1990), chap. 3, pp. 29-49.

·        Yves Meny and Andrew Knapp, Government and Politics in Western Europe:  Britain, France, Italy, Germany (: Oxford University Press, 1990), chapter 6, “Presidents and Governments,” pp. 221-238.

Suggested Readings:

WEEK 4 (September 30): INSTITUTIONS: Legislatures and PARTY SYSTEMS

·        "Interest Aggregation and Political Parties," in Gabriel Almond et. al., Comparative Politics:  A Theoretical Framework (New York:  HarperCollins, 1993), pp. 104-128.

·        Donald L. Horowitz, "Comparing Democratic Systems," in Diamond and Plattner.

·        Juan J. Linz, "The Virtues of Parliamentarism," in Diamond and Plattner.

·        Arend Lijphart, "Constitutional Choices for New Democracies," in Diamond and Plattner.

·        Arend Lijphart and Carlos Waisman, Institutional Design in New Democracies:  Eastern Europe and Latin America (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1996), pp. 235-240.

·        Guy Lardeyret, "The Problem with PR," in Diamond and Plattner.

Suggested Readings:

·        Mainwaring, Scott and Scully, Timothy R., Building democratic institutions: party systems in Latin America (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1995), chap. 1.

·        Quentin Quade, "PR and Democratic Statecraft," in Diamond and Plattner.

·        Ken Gaddish, “The Primacy of the Particular,” in Diamond and Plattner.

Week 5 (October 7) : Institutions: Federalism and Individual Rights

·        James P. Pfiffner, "Federalism," in Governance and American Politics (New York:  Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1995), pp. 54-59.

·        Glendon, Mary Ann, Rights Talk:  The Impoverishment of Political Discourse (New York:  Free Press, 1991), chaps. 1-3, pp. 1-75.

·        Lijphart, Arend, "Division of Power: The Federal Unitary and Centralized-Decentralized Contrasts," in Democracies: Patterns Of Majoritarian And Consensus Government In 21 Countries (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984), Chap. 10, pp. 169-186.

·        Sebastian Saiegh and Mariano Tommasi, Argentina's Federal Fiscal Institutions: A Case Study in the Transaction-cost Theory of Politics (Buenos Aires: Fundacion Gobierno y Sociedad, 1998).

·        Wildavsky, Aaron (1990).  "A Double Security:  Federalism as Competition," Cato Journal: 39-58.

Suggested Readings:

·        Michael J. Sandel, Democracy's Discontent:  America in Search of a Public Philosophy (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996), chapter 2, pp. 25-54.

WEEK 6 (October 14)  MIDTERM EXAM

 

WEEK 7 (October 21): Comparative Politics:  Approaches

·        Fukuyama, Francis, (1995). "The Primacy of Culture," Journal of Democracy 6(1): 7-14.

·        Lipset, Seymour Martin, American Exceptionalism, “Introduction,” pp. 17-28.

·        Ronald H. Chilcote, Theories of Comparative Politics:  The Search for a Paradigm (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1981), Chapter 1 and appendix, pp. 3-26.

·        Roy C. Macridis and Bernard E. Brown, Comparative Politics:  Notes and Readings, Eighth Edition (Belmont, MA: Wadsworth Publishing Co., 1996), chapter 1, pp.  1-22.

·        David Landes, “Culture Makes Almost All the Difference,” in Lawrence Harrison and Samuel Huntington, Culture Matters, New York: BasicBooks, pp. 2-13.

·        Geertz, Clifford, "Thick Description:  Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture," The Interpretation of Cultures (New York:  Basic Books, 1973), Chapter 1, pp. 3-30.

Suggested Readings:

·        Ronald Inglehart (1988).  “The Renaissance of Political Culture,” American Political Science Review 82(4), pp. 1203-1230.

·        Thompson, Michael, Ellis, Richard and Wildavsky, Aaron "American Political Subcultures," in Cultural Theory (B­oulder, CO: Westview Press, 1990), pp. 233-246.

·        Ruth, Lane, "Political Culture: Residual Category or General Theory," Comparative Political Studies 25 (1992): 362-387.

WEEK 8 (October 28):  AMERICAN Institutions IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE

·        de Tocqueville, Alexis, Democracy in America, trans. George Lawrence (New York:  HarperPerennial, 1988), Vol. II, Book IV, chaps. 1-6, pp. 667-695.

·        Lipset, Seymour Martin, American Exceptionalism, pp. 31-67.

·        Lipset, Seymour Martin, Continental Divide:  The Values and Institutions of the United States and Canada (New York:  Routledge, 1990, chapters 1, 5, pp. 1-18, 74-89.

·        Amenta, Edwin and Skocpol, Theda, "Taking Exception: Explain­ing the Distinctiveness of American Public Policies in the Last Century," in Castles, Francis G., The Comparative His­tory of Public Policy (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989).

·        Huntington, Samuel P., "The Protestantism of American Politics," in American Politics:  The Promise of Disharmony (Ca­mbridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1981), pp. 154-166.

Suggested Readings:

·        Minxin Pei, "The Paradoxes of American Nationalism," Foreign Policy, 2003: 30-37.

·        Hartz, Louis, "The Fragmentation of European Culture and Ide­ology," The Founding of New Societies (New York:  Harcourt, Brace and World, 1964), Chap. 1, pp. 3-23, 319.

WEEK 9: (Nov. 4): CIVIL SOCIETY

·        Robert D. Putnam, "Bowling Alone," in Diamond and Plattner.

·        Larry Diamond, "Rethinking Civil Society," Journal of Democracy 5 (1994): 5-17.

·        de Tocqueville, Alexis, Democracy in America, trans. George Lawrence (New York:  HarperPerennial, 1988), vol. 2, part 2,chaps. 5-8, pp. 513-528.

·        Marina Ottaway and Thomas Carothers, Funding Virtue:  Civil Society and Democracy Promotion (Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment, 2000), chapters 1, 11, pp. 3-16, 293-310.

·        Robert D. Putnam, Making Democracy:  Civic Traditions in Modern Italy (Princeton, NJ:  Princeton University Press, 1993), chaps. 1, 4, 5, pp. 83-162.

·        Wilson, Graham K., "Interest Groups in the United States," Interest Groups (Cambridge:  Basil Blackwell, 1990), chap. 2, pp. 38-76.

Supplemental Readings:

·        Bronislaw Geremek, “Civil Society, Then and Now,” in Diamond and Plattner.

WEEK 10 (November 11): Democratization

·        Dankwart A. Rustow, "Modernization and Comparative Politics," Comparative Politics 1(1) (1968).

·        Samuel P. Huntington, "Democracy's Third Wave," in Diamond and Plattner.

·        Adam Przeworski and Michael Alvarez, "What Makes Democracies Endure?" in Larry Diamond, Marc F. Plattner, Yun-han Chu, and Hung-mao Tien, eds., Consolidating the Third Wave Democracies:  Themes and Perspectives (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997), pp. 295-311.

·        Guillerno O’Donnell and Philippe C. Schmitter, Transitions from Authoritarian Rule:  Tentative Conclusions about Uncertain Democracies (Baltimore:  Johns Hopkins University Press, 1984), pp. 3-14, 65-72.

·        Claude Ake, "Rethinking African Democracy," in Diamond and Plattner.

·        I. William Zartman, “The Cultural Dialectic:  Democracy and Islam,” in Bernard E. Brown and Roy C. Macridis, Comparative Politics:  Notes and Readings, Eighth Edition (Belmont, MA: Wadsworth Publishing Co., 1996).

·        Larry Diamond, "Economic Development and Democracy Reconsidered," American Behavioral Scientist 15 (1992): 450-499.

Week 11 (Nov. 18): Transitions in and Out of DEmocracy

·        Fareed Zakaria (1997).  "The Rise of Illiberal Democracy," Foreign Affairs 76(6): 22-43.

·        Thomas Carothers (2002).  "The End of the Transition Paradigm," Journal of Democracy 13(1) : 5-21.

·        Hector E. Schamis (2002).  "Argentina:  Crisis and Democratic Consolidation," Journal of Democracy 13(2): 81-94.

·        Richard Rose, "Postcommunism and the Problem of Trust," in Diamond and Plattner.

·        Michael McFaul (1999).  “What Went Wrong in Russia? The Perils of a Protracted Transition,” Journal of Democracy 10( 2): 4-18.

·        Juan J. Linz and Alfred Stepan, Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation: Southern Europe, South America, and Post-Communist Europe (Baltimore:  Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996), pp. 3-37.

WEEK 12 (November 25): Industrial Policy And the Developmental State

·        Johnson, Chalmers, MITI and the Japanese Miracle (Stanford, Ca.: Stanford University Press, 1982), Chap. 1, pp. 3-34.

·        World Bank, The East Asian Miracle:  Economic Growth and Public Policy.  (Washington:  World Bank:  Oxford University Press, 1993), chap. 1, pp. 27-60.

·        World Bank, World Development Report, 1997:  The State in a Changing World, chapter 4, pp. 61-75.

·        Shahid Yusuf, “The East Asian Miracle at the Millenium,” in Joseph Stiglitz and Shahid Yusuf, eds., Rethinking the East Asian Miracle (Washington:  World Bank and Oxford University Press, 2001), pp. 1-39.

·        Anthony Lanyi and Young Lee, Governance Aspects of the East Asian Financial Crisis (College Park, MD: IRIS Working Paper 226, 1999).

WEEK 13 (December 2): Governance, Corruption, and Reform

·        Anne O. Krueger, Political Economy of Policy Reform in Developing Countries (Cambridge:  MIT Press, 1993),  chaps. 2, 5, pp. 11-35, 75-90.

·        World Bank, World Development Report, 1997:  The State in a Changing World, chapter 6, pp. 99-109.

·        Moses Naim, "The Corruption Eruption," Brown Journal of World Affairs 2 (1995): 245-261.

·        Robert E. Klitgaard, Controlling Corruption (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), pp. 1-48.

·        Lipset, Seymour Martin, "Law and Deviance," in Continental Divide:  The Values and Institutions of the United States and Canada (New York & London: Routledge, 1990), pp. 90-116.