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• Guide for Comparative Politics

Guide for Comparative Politics

Exam Questions

1. One of the questions will be on regime change: state formation, the transition to democracy, the stability of new regimes, internal conflict, and other factors that shape political regimes.
2. The second question will be on social-economic issues: state-society relations, the impacts of social change on government, and the role of economics on state strength and national policies.

Practice Questions (from the spring 2012 exam)

1. Despite the recent Arab Spring, the last few years have been marked by "democratic recession" (Diamond 2008). Describe how authoritarianism works and explain why it has such staying power. In your answer, use one example, such as Syria or Iran, which have had notable, recent civil uprisings yet the regime remains intact.
2. As decried by protestors participating in Occupy Wall Street, policymakers in many places around the world over the last two decades have made decisions that redistribute income not to the poor but to the wealthy. Describe the development theories of modernization and dependency, and discuss whether these theories help explain the growth in inequality in the global South and North. In your answer, describe the role played by at least two of the following which theorists tend to see as central: linkages between local economies and the international economy, class formations, the level of industrialization, and/or the role of the state.

Main Issue Areas and Key Readings

State Formation: Histories and Analysis of the Patterns That Led to the Formation of States and Why States Matter to Comparative Politics

1. Tilly, Charles. 1985. "War Making and State making as Organized Crime," in Bringing the State Back In, edited by Evans et. al., 169-191. Cambridge University Press.
2. Yousef Cohen et al. 1981. "The Paradoxical Nature of State Making: The Violent Creation of Order." American Political Science Review, 901–910.
3. Easter, Gerald M. 1996. "Personal Networks and Post-Revolutionary State-Building: Soviet Russia Re-Examined." World Politics, 48: 551–578.
4. Lustic, Ian. 1997. "The Absence of Middle Eastern Great Powers: Political 'Backwardness' in Historical Perspective." International Organization, 51: 653–683.
5. Reno, William. 1997. "War, Markets and the Reconfiguration of West Africa's Weak States." Comparative Politics, 29: 493–510.
6. Rubin, Barnett. 2006. "Peace Building and State-Building in Afghanistan: Constructing Sovereignty for Whose Security?" Third World Quarterly, 27: 175–185.
7. Kurtz, Marcus. 2009. "The Social Foundations of Institutional Order: Reconsidering War and the 'Resource Curse' in Third World State Building." Politics and Society, 4: 479–520.
8. Vu, Tuong. 2009. "Studying the State through State Formation." World Politics, 62: 148–175.
9. Skidmore, Thomas, and Peter Smith. 2005. Modern Latin America. New York: Oxford University Press.

Economic Development: Variations in Economic Development and Debating Why Some Countries Develop and Others Don't

Modernization Versus Dependency Theories

1. Lerner, Daniel, 1958. "The Grocer and the Chief: A Parable." The Passing of Traditional Society, 19–42. London: Collier-MacMillan Press.
2. Inkeles, Alex. 1966. "The Modernization of Man." In Modernization: The Dynamics of Growth edited by Myron Weiner, 138–50. New York: Basic Books.
3. Tipps, Dean C. 1973. "Modernization Theory and the Comparative Study of Societies: A Critical Perspective," Comparative Studies in Society and History 15:199–226.
4. Cardoso, Fernando Henrique. 2009. "New Paths: Globalization in Historical Perspective." Studies in Comparative International Development 44: 296–317.

The Debates on Globalization

1. Kohli, Atul. 2006. State-Directed Development: Political Power and Industrialization in the Global Periphery. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
2. Van de Walle, Nicholas. 2009. "The Institutional Origins of Inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa." Annual Review of Political Science. 12: 307–327.
3. Mahoney, James. 2010. "Conclusion." In Colonialism and Post-Colonial Development: Spanish America in Comparative Perspective. 253–270 Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.
4. Stallings, Barbara. 2007. "The Globalization of Capital Flows: Who Benefits?" Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences 610: 202–216.
5. Wade, Robert Hunter. 2003. "What Strategies are Viable for Developing Countries Today? The World Trade Organization and the Shrinking of Development Space." Review of International Political Economy: 10.
6. Caraway, Teri. 2005. "The Political Economy of Feminization: From 'Cheap Labor' to Gendered Discourses of Work." Politics and Gender 1: 399–429.
7. Nadvi, Khalid. 2009. "Globalisation and Poverty: How Can Global Value Chain Research Inform the Policy Debate?" IDS Bulletin 35: 20–30.
8. Mares, Isabella and Matthew E. Carnes. 2009. "Social Policy in Developing Countries." Annual Review of Political Science 12: 93–113.
9. Moghadam, Valentine. 2011. "Women, Gender, and Economic Crisis Revisited." Perspectives on Global Technology and Development 10: 30–40.

Regimes, Transitions, and Democratization

Regimes: The Balance of Power Between the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Branches; Parliamentary, Semi-presidential, Presidential Systems; Party Systems; Link to Regime Type

1. Duverger, Maurice. 1951. The Number of Parties: Paris: Armand Colin.
2. Stepan, Alfred and Cindy Skach. 1993. "Constitutional Frameworks and Democratic Consolidation: Parliamentarianism versus Presidentialism." World Politics 1: 1–22.
3. Fish, M. Steven. 2000. "The Executive Deception: Superpresidentialism and the Degradation of Russian Politics." In Building the Russian State, edited by Valerie Sperling, 177–191. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
4. Remington, Thomas F. 2010. "Parliament and the Dominant Party Regime." In After Putin's Russia, edited by Stephen K. Wengren and Dale Herspring, 39–58. New York: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers.
5. Krook, Mona Lena and Diana Z. O'Brien. 2010. "The Politics of Group Representation: Quotas for Women and Minorities Worldwide." Comparative Politics 42: 253–272.

Transitions: The Breakdown of Authoritarianism, Transitions to and Consolidation of Democracy, Rise of Hybrid Regimes, Comparative Processes in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and Europe

1. O'Donnell, Guillermo. 1993. "On the State, Democratization, and some Conceptual Problems."
2. Carothers, Thomas. 2002. "The End of the Transition Paradigm." Journal of Democracy 13: 5–21.
3. Bellin, Eva. 2004. "The Robustness of Authoritarianism in the Middle East." Comparative Politics 36: 139–157.
4. Gat, Azar. 2007. "The Return of Authoritarian Great Powers." Foreign Affairs 86.

Regime Change Through Revolution: How Ideology, Deprivation, and State-society Relations Cause and Shape Revolutions; Contemporary Examples

1. Skocpol, Theda. 1976. "France, Russia, China: A Structural Analysis of Social Revolutions." Comparative Studies in Society and History 18: 175–210.
2. Goldstone, Jack. 2001. "Toward a Fourth Generation of Revolutionary Theory." Annual Review of Political Science 4: 139–187.
3. Beissinger, Mark R. "Structure and Example in Modular Political Phenomena: The Diffusion of Bulldozer/Rose/Orange/Tulip Revolutions." Perspectives on Politics 5: 259–276.
4. Tucker, Joshua A. 2007. "Enough! Electoral Fraud, Collective Action Problems, and Post-Communist Coloured Revolutions." Perspectives on Politics 5: 537–553.
5. Lynch, Mark. 2011. "After Egypt: The Limits and Promise of Online Challenges to the Authoritarian Arab State." Perspectives on Politics 9: 301–310.
6. Dalacoura, Katerina. 2012. "The 2011 Uprisings in the Arab Middle East: Political Change and Geopolitical Implications." International Affairs 88: 63–79.

Society, Culture, Religion, and Politics

The Impact of Religious and Cultural Values on Political Policies and Regimes

1. Huntington, Samuel 1993. "The Clash of Civilizations." Foreign Affairs 72: 22–49.
2. Inglehart, Ronald and Pippa Norris. 2003. "The true clash of civilizations." Foreign Policy, 135: 62–67.

Collective Action and Violence

1. Tilly, Charles. 2003. "Introduction and Chapter 1." In The Politics of Collective Violence. Boston: Cambridge University Press.
2. Crenshaw, Martha. 1981. "The Causes of Terrorism." Comparative Politics 13: 379–399.

The Role of Gender, Race, Nation, and Sexuality on Politics

1. Debate on feminism and multiculturalism in Boston Review. Read Moller Okin's original article and the responses by Will Kymlicka, Bonnie Honig, Bhikhu Parekh, and Homi K. Bhabha, and Okin's response to the responses.
2. Yuval-Davis, Nira 1997. Gender and Nation. New York: Sage Publications.
3. Nnaemeka, O. 2004. "Nego-Feminism: Theorizing, Practicing, and Pruning Africa's Way." Signs: Journal of Women in Culture & Society 29: 357–385. Accessed March 2012.
4. Tripp, Aili Marie. 2006. "Why So slow? The Challenges of Gendering Comparative Politics." Politics & Gender 2: 249–263.
5. Basu, Amrita 2010. "Introduction” In Women's Movements in the Global Era. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.