Survey the governments and politics of several contemporary societies in the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East by exploring political leadership, representative mechanisms, legal processes, and the extra-institutional behaviors of voting culture, ethnic conflict, and corruption.
This course focuses its efforts on exploring the formal, public sphere of politics and power relations through a systematic study and comparison of types of government and political systems. Comparativists (practitioners of comparative politics) seek to identify and understand the similarities and differences between these systems by taking broad topics – say, for example, "democracy" or "freedom" – and breaking them down into factors that can be found in individual systems. We call this general approach "the comparative method". The goal of the comparative method is to identify the factors and/or categories of analysis to effectively compare and contrast different political phenomena. Using the comparative method, we can tackle broader and more complicated questions like:
- Are certain forms of representative democracy more effective than others?
- Why are some countries extremely prosperous, while others are extremely poor?
- How does the degree of authoritarian control by a government drive economic development?
- Does culture affect quality of governance?
Unit 1 introduces basic concepts in social science, comparative political theory, and methodology. Unit 2 examines the state and compares authoritarian, totalitarian, and democratic state forms. Unit 3 focuses on the concept of democracy and democratization. Unit 4 explores institutional features of government and governance. Unit 5 moves outside the realm of government structure to explore how variables including culture, interest groups, pressure groups, lobbying, the press, media campaigns, nongovernmental and quasi-nongovernmental organizations shape outcomes in politics. Unit 6 compares different ideologies and government policy processes. Unit 7 applies comparative methods to examine variations of government structure and economic development across four different regions of the world: the Americas, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.
Upon successful completion of the course, you will have the methodological background to understand and explain variations in political behavior and political institutions. You will also have a general understanding of the issues facing political systems in each of the regions covered.
- Unit 1: Social Sciences and Comparative Politics
- Unit 2: The Nation-State
- Unit 3: Democratic States and Democratization
- Unit 4: Comparing Political Structures and Institutions
- Unit 5: Political Behavior
- Unit 6: Comparing Ideology, Policy, and Decision-Making
- Unit 7: Comparative Case Studies
- Identify and differentiate between various theoretical research paradigms employed in the social sciences; apply comparative methodology to the study of political systems;
- Identify and differentiate between various methodologies used to compare political systems;
- Understand how past events in state’s developmental path lead to differences in long-term outcomes;
- Identify key factors in the economic competitiveness among states;
- Compare and contrast development outcomes among resource-rich and non resource-rich states;
- Explain key views on the evolution of the international system;
- Understand how states approach the issue of development;
- Understand the policymaking process and some of the forces that impact that process;
- Compare and contrast the various political systems in the world;
- Understand how party identification impacts voting; explain the latest trends in voter turnout;
- Explain the impact of media on the public and the state;
- Compare and contrast the key democratic institutions in various countries;
- Understand the reasons for bureaucracy;
- Describe and explain the political economy and development in selected countries;
- Identify and explain political challenges and changing agendas in selected countries;
- Compare and contrast the effectiveness of public and private sectors;
- Identify the various approaches for studying democracy; and
- Understand the development of various systems of government.