Government 131 Syllabus - Department of Government at Cornell ...

Introduction to Comparative Politics
Government 131
T-Th 1140-1255P KL B11
Professor Ronald Herring
Head TA Karrie J. Koesel" kjk32@cornell.edu
Website: http://www.blackboard.cornell.edu/
Syllabus
Course Objectives: This course introduces a field called “Comparative Politics” in most
political science departments in the United States. Comparative politics deals with both
substance and method: what is compared and how is it to be compared. In a way, we will
be exploring the social-science version of the common rhetorical point: “you can’t
compare apples and oranges.” Actually, you can – both are fruits, grow on trees, have
seeds inside, but differ in other ways. But comparison is possible, and might be fruitful –
apples are currently being re-validated as a uniquely healthful food: there is now
phytochemical evidence to confirm the adage that “an apple a day keeps the doctor
away.”
Apples and oranges then can be compared. Any sensible person would want to
know the terms of comparison, the purpose of the comparison and, as Donald Rumsfeld
famously said, the metric. Comparative strategies are common in political rhetoric and as
a method for testing out general tendencies across different social systems; comparisons
involve methodological choices, and often normative choices as well. These we seek to
elucidate. Comparative inquiry often leads to conditional findings of the general sort:
under the following conditions, ethnic conflict is more common in societies of this type
than of that type. Comparative analysis informs theory building in the social sciences and
feeds into policy choices: what happens if X is done instead of Y? We seek to find
comparative logics that are rigorous and useful in this sense.
Evaluation: There will be an exam early enough in the term to allow assessment before
the add/drop deadline; this exam will count for 20% of the final grade; a paper due on the
final day of class, and rooted in readings for 131, requiring no research beyond your own
case-study journal, will account for another 20%. Performance in section will account for
15% and the final examination for 45%.
Texts: Available at The Campus Store and on reserve at Uris.
Amy Chua, World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Dcmocracy Breeds
Ethnic Hatred and Global Insecurity
Siddarth Dube, In the Land of Poverty
Milton Esman and Ronald Herring, Carrots, Sticks and Ethnic Conflict:
Rethinking Development Assistance
Gosta Esping-Andersen, The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism
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Patrick O’Neil and Ronald Rogowski, Essential Readings in Comparative
Politics [Hereafter O and R]
Nicholas van de Walle, African Economies and the Politics of Permanent
Crisis
Additional Reading: Every student is to choose a society to follow all semester; track it
through the topics we cover in class. Becoming grounded in a particular place will make
help you grasp the abstractions in the theory we will be reading much better and will
improve conversations in section. Choose a society other than one you consider your
own. If you have not grown up in the United States, it makes a good case. Learn about
the case via whatever tools seem compatible with your learning style. The web is clearly
the most efficient source. Try the CIA World Fact Book
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/ for a broad overview of societies. The
United Nations Development Program: http://www.undp.org/regions/countries/ has
comparative data for substantive issues in different countries considered poor by global
standards; http://hdr.undp.org/statistics/ . For World Bank information
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/0,,pagePK:180619~theSi
tePK:136917,00.html . The Economist has both current news and basic comparative
data: http://www.economist.com/countries/ . If you are less economistic in outlook, you
might peruse Freedom House’s country indices: http://www.freedomhouse.org/ .
Transparency International [http://www.transparency.org/] ranks countries comparatively
by an index of corruption. Comparative public opinion data can be found through
Eurobarometer [ http://www.gesis.org/en/data_service/eurobarometer .] If you are
especially interested in repression and human rights, see comparative data in Amnesty
International’s country reports: http://web.amnesty.org/library/engworld/2am . These
links and others will be on the course website. There are other possibilities you can
discuss in section. Track how the press treats events in your case, how the case relates to
the larger generalizations the authors you read are making. Keep a diary of these notes;
you will write a short paper later in the semester based on these notes. In addition,
optional readings will be suggested in class and section.
Week of January 24: Compared to What? Logics of Inquiry
Chua: 1-17; O and R: 1-31
Browse heavily the recommended websites or other sources; select a case study to
follow for the semester. Peruse texts before choosing.
Week of January 3: What to Compare: Nations, States, Individuals, Processes
O and R: pp 70-105; 32-69
Week of February 7: Systemic Differences I: Conceptualizing Whole Political
Systems -- Authoritarianisms and Democracies
O and R: 152-229; 239-277
Week of February 14: Systemic Differences II: Comparative Political Economy--
Who Gets What and How?
O and R: 114-151
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Dube: 1-42
Week of February 21: Disaggregating Systems: Poverty, Social Justice and Symbolic
Politics
Dube : 43-184
Week of February 28: Review and Recapitulation
Tuesday March 1: Concepts So Far
Thursday March 3: Prelim
Week of March 7: Development: Patterns and Exceptionalism
O and R: 360-432
Van de Walle: 1-19
Week of March 14: The Regional Exceptionalism of Africa: Permant Crisis?
Van de Walle pp 20-63; 150-151; 188-234; 271-286
Esman and Herring 90-112
Week of March 21: Spring Break!
Week of March 28: Post-Communisms and Transitions
O and R: 322-359
Chua: 77-94
Esman and Herring: 175-209
Week of April 4: Globalization: Institutions, Processes, Ideas
Chua: 23-49; 95-125
O and R: pp 433-462
Esman and Herring: pp 1-25; 210-235. Optional: 26-48
Week of April 11: Primordial Loyalties: Ethno-nationalism, Ethnic Politics and
Democracy
Chua: 127-258
Week of April 18: Political Violence
O and R: 463-510
Esman and Herring, pp 113-174
Week of April 25: Why Does Human Welfare Vary Across High-Income
Democracies? Comparing Welfare States
Esping-Andersen: 1-78; 105-138; 221-229
Week of May 2: Futures
Esman and Herring: 235-254. Optional: 49-89
Van de Walle: 235-270
Chua: 259-294
3

O and R: 230-238; 278-321
Final Examination: Thurs 19-May
3:00- 5:30 pm
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