COMPARATIVE POLITICS
Degree Course in WORLD POLITICS AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Teacher: Prof. Stefano Procacci
The course explores the basic principles of comparative analysis as a method for theory building in
political science, focusing on the intellectual process of concept formation, classification,
elaboration of typologies and frameworks for the study of the world’s political systems.
It will provide an overview of the progress of comparative studies through the different theoretical
approaches adopted in this field and will offer a close examination of the most important issues of
contemporary research: democracy, authoritarian and totalitarian regimes, party system and interest
groups, participation and mass mobilization, political culture, state/society relationships,
civilizational and religious identity. It will explain differences as well as similarities among
countries according to the variation in political institutions and processes, economic and social
structures, and civil-military relations. Moreover, it will ask how these domestic features
respectively influence foreign policy and how international politics influences both the
constitutional and process features of political systems.
Case-studies belonging to different regional areas of the international system will be offered in
order to substantiate the above concepts and frameworks.
Course structure: Lectures 20h; seminars 20h
Week 1 (3/10-4/10)
Introduction: what is Comparative Politics
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Readings:
Lectures:
Newton - Van Deth, Foundations of Comparative Politics, Cambridge [etc.], 2010,
“Introduction”, pp. 1-10 and “Postscript: how and what to compare”, pp. 400-415.
Landman, Issue and Methods in Comparative Politics, Routledge, 2008, chs. 1-2.
Seminar:
Aristotle, Politics, III, 6-8; IV 3-7.
Machiavelli, Discourses, I, 1-6.
Richter, «Comparative Political Analysis in Montesquieu and Tocqueville», Comparative
Politics, 1, 2, 1969.
Week 2 (10/10-11/10)
Modernization and state/society relationship
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Readings:
Lectures:
Huntington, «Political Modernization: America vs. Europe», World Politics, XVIII, 3, 1966.
Bendix, Nation-building and Citizenship, University of California Press, 1977, (“The
Transformation of Western European Societies Since the 18th Century”), pp. 66-140,
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Seminar:
Tocqueville, Selection from ‘The Old Regime and the French Revolution’, in Bendix (ed.),
State and Society, pp. 200-215.
Moore, The social origins of dictatorship and democracy, p. 413-52.
Week 3 (17/10-18/10)
The classification of political systems: democratic and non-democratic regimes (1)
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Readings
Lectures:
Almond, Political Systems and Political Change, in Bendix (ed.), State and Society, pp. 28-42.
Landman, Issues and Methods, ch. 9.
Dahl, Shapiro (eds.), The democracy sourcebook, The MIT Press, 2003, chs. 1 (Schumpeter;
Dahl) and 2 (Huntington; Przeworski-Alvarez-Cheibub-Limongi).
Lijphart, Patterns of democracy, New Haven: CT, 1999, pp. 1-42.
Seminar:
Lipset, «Some social requisites of democracy», American Political Science Review, 53, 1, 1959
Schmitter - Karl, «What democracy is…and is not», Journal of Democracy, 2, 3, 1991.
Week 4 (24/10-25/10)
The classification of political systems: democratic and non-democratic regimes (2)
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Readings
Lectures:
Hague - Harrop, Comparative Government and Politics, Palgrave, 2004, ch. 4.
Kamrava, Understanding Comparative Politics, Routledge, 1996, chs. 6, 8, 9.
Wintrobe, «Dictatorship: Analytical Approaches», in Boix - Stokes (eds.), The Oxford
Handbook of Comparative Politics, Oxford [etc.], ch. 16.
Seminar:
Weber, Economy and Society, University of California Press, 1978, chs. XI (“Bureacracy”, pp.
956-965; 971-989), XII (“Patriarchalism and Patrimonialism”, pp. 1006-1044), XIV
(“Charisma and its Transformations”, pp. 1111- 1148).
Carothers, «Democracy’s Sobering State», Current History, December 2004.
Diamond, «The Democratic Rollback, The Resurgence of the Predatory State», Foreign Affairs,
March/April 2008.
Week 5 (7/11-8/11)
Political culture and civil society
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Readings
Lectures
Hague-Harrop, Comparative Government and Politics, ch. 6.
Almond - Verba, The Civic Culture, Sage Publications, 1989, chs. 1, 12, 13.
Kamrava, Understanding Comparative Politics, Routledge, 1996, ch. 4.
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Putnam et al., Making Democracy Work, Princeton University Press, 1993, ch. 6.
Seminar:
Welzel - Inglehart, Mass beliefs and democratic institutions, in The Oxford Handbook of
Comparative Politics, ch. 13.
Putnam, «Civic Disengagement in Contemporary America», Government and Opposition, 36,
2, 2001.
Week 6 (14/11-15/11)
Political parties and party systems
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Readings
Lectures
Boix, The Emergence of Parties and Party Systems, in The Oxford Handbook of Comparative
Politics, ch. 21.
Lipset – Rokkan, Cleavage Structures, Party Systems, and Voter Alignments, in Mair (ed.), The
West European Party System Oxford: [etc.] 1990, pp. 91-111.
Maor, Political parties and party system, Routledge, 1997, chs. 1-2
Seminar:
Lipset, Party systems and the representation of social groups, in Bendix, State and society.
Norris, Political Activism: New Challenges, New Opportunities, in The Oxford Handbook of
Comparative Politics, ch. 26.
Week 7 (21/11-22/11)
The political influence of religion
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Readings
Lectures:
Norris and Inglehart, Sacred and Secular: Religion and Politics Worldwide, Cambridge [etc.],
2004, chs. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
Haynes (ed.), Religion and politics in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, Routledge,
2009, chs. 1, 7, 8.
Seminar:
Haynes, Routledge Handbook of Religion and Politics, Routledge, 2008, chs. 5, 6.
Almond, Strong religions, The University of Chicago Press, 2003, ch. 2.
Week 8 (28/11-29/11)
Political comparison in regional perspective: theories and cases
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Readings
Lectures:
Magstadt, Nations and Governments. Comparative Politics in Regional Perspective,
Wadsworth, 2011, chs. 1, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12.
Diamond, «Why Are There No Arab Democracies?», Journal of Democracy, 21, 1, 2010.
Miller et al. (eds.), Latin American Democracy, Routledge, 2009, chs. 1, 2.
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Seminar:
Case studies: Africa, India, Russia, Latin America, the Middle East.
Week 9 (5/12-6/12)
Comparative foreign policy
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Readings
Lectures
Landman, Issues and methods, ch. 12
Putnam, «Diplomacy and Domestic Politics: The Logic of Two-Level Games», International
Organization, 42, 3, 1988.
Seminar:
Risse-Kappen, «Public Opinion, Domestic Structure, and Foreign Policy in Liberal
Democracies», World Politics, vol. 43, 1991, pp. 479-512.
Breuning, Foreign Policy Analysis, Palgrave, 2007, ch. 2.
Week 10 (12/12-13/12)
International systems and societies in comparative perspective
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Readings
Lectures:
Watson, «Hedley Bull, States Systems and International Societies», Review of International
Studies, 13, 2, 1987.
Wight, Systems of States, chs. 1-2
Seminar:
Watson, The Evolution of International Society, selected chs.
Huntington, «The Clash of Civilizations», Foreign Affairs, 1993.
Course requirements:
1) Full attendance is required (and will be checked by the teacher).
(Student guidelines: “Credible justifications and excuses for non-attendance at individual classes
will be taken into account, and should be addressed directly to the relevant course teacher. We are
reasonable people and will therefore treat these justifications and excuses reasonably. However,
having a job is not considered a reasonable excuse in this context”)
Active participation in class will be considered as a part of the student performance. During the
course, every single student will be asked to give a presentation (15 minutes) on one of the readings
included in the course material.
2) At the end of the course, students have to write a final essay (4000-5000 words). (See below a list
of topics suggested by the teacher).
(Student guidelines: “This is a standard term paper based on several specific texts (for example, 4
or 5 articles, which might be taken from your course reading or might be additional to it, going
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more into depth on a specific topic). An assessed essay should normally show some autonomous
ability to construct or reconstruct debates, arguments or lines of reasoning, and if possible should
show some critical distance”).
3) Oral examination - based on the following list of readings (from the course material):
i) Newton - Van Deth, Foundations of Comparative Politics, Cambridge [etc.], 2010,
“Postscript: how and what to compare”, pp. 400-415.
ii) Landman, Issue and Methods in Comparative Politics, Routledge, 2008, chs. 1-2.
iii) Bendix, Nation-building and Citizenship, University of California Press, 1977, «The
Transformation of Western European Societies Since the 18th Century», pp. 66-140.
iv) Lijphart, Patterns of democracy, New Haven: CT, 1999, pp. 1-42.
v) Dahl, Shapiro (eds.), The democracy sourcebook, The MIT Press, 2003, chs. 1 (Schumpeter;
Dahl) and 2 (Huntington; Przeworski-Alvarez-Cheibub-Limongi).
vi) Boix, The Emergence of Parties and Party Systems, in Boix - Stokes (eds.), The Oxford
Handbook of Comparative Politics, ch. 21.
vii) Putnam et al., Making Democracy Work, Princeton University Press, 1993, ch. 6.
Grade breakdown:
20%: Attendance & Participation
40%: final essay
40%: oral examination
List of topics suggested for the final essay:
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Bureaucracy
Case study: a comparative analysis of African political systems
Case study: a comparative analysis of India
Case study: a comparative analysis of Latin America political systems
Case study: a comparative analysis of Middle East political systems
Case study: a comparative analysis of Russia
Comparative foreign policy
Democracy: concepts and theories in comparative perspective
Democratization in world politics
International systems and societies in comparative perspective
Lobbies and interest groups
Modernization and state/society relationship
Non-democratic regimes
Political culture
Political parties and party systems
Revolutions in domestic and international politics
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Social Movements
The political influence of religion
Women and politics in comparative perspective
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