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SOC 168a
Democracy and Inequality in Global Perspective
Fall 2013
Chandler Rosenberger
Mandel Center 106
crosen@brandeis.edu
Office hours: Mon, 2-4 pm;
Tuesday, 10 am - noon
(781) 736-2638
In the 19th century, the French thinker Alexis de Tocqueville believed he was witnessing
the dawn of a new age of equality. The aristocratic order that had governed Europe for
centuries was yielding to an era without distinctions of lineage and privilege, one
dominated instead by what Tocqueville came to call the “democratic social state.”
Tocqueville studied this emerging revolution in his most famous work, Democracy in
America. The United States, however, was not the main subject of the book. As he told
John Stuart Mill, “America was only the frame. My picture was Democracy.”
Tocqueville expanded on his study of his own country, The Old Regime and the
Revolution, a work that drew attention to the danger of promising equality to people who
are denied it every day.
But Tocqueville's scope expanded even beyond these two countries. He believed that
world affairs of the new democratic age would be driven by large states outside of
Europe. These states that would be “democratic” in their appeals to the equality of
citizens, but would choose one of two paths to this equality: one liberal, the other
authoritarian. Citizens “have two ways to be equal,” Tocqueville wrote. “They can all
have the same rights or all be equally deprived of rights.”
The major political and economic concerns of our time seem well-suited for study in the
light of Tocqueville’s ideas. Domestically, Americans are worried that their country is
riddled with inequalities of income, education, and opportunity. Overseas, the 20th
century saw a new egalitarianism sweep across non-Western societies, such as India and
China, which had been profoundly hierarchical. Having adopted socialist and nationalist
ideals (in either democratic or authoritarian form), India and China are now churning
with stunning economic growth that is creating new elites of wealth and power.
These elites are profoundly aware that they defy Tocqueville’s prophecies at their peril.
For about five years Tocqueville’s The Old Regime has been a bestseller in China, as both
members of the Politburo and democratic activists wonder whether their own regime’s
days are numbered.
Learning Goals
This class will study Tocqueville’s Democracy in America and The Old Regime and the
French Revolution, treating both as profound examples of historical and comparative
sociology. Students will learn to emulate ways by which to tease sociological theories
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from the historical and contemporary record of evolving institutions and mores. Among
the questions we will ask are:
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How, according to Tocqueville, had Americans preserved liberties once protected
by the aristocracy?
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In what way did Tocqueville imagine that individualism could lay the foundations
of despotism?
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What sociological theories did Tocqueville formulate in his study of the French
Revolution?
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How had the French revolution revealed the dangers of “rising expectations?”
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Why did differences between “equality of conditions” and “equality of condition”
prove so aggravating to the French?
The class will also explore whether Tocqueville’s major theories can help explain aspects
of the new powers rising in Asia. We will ask, for example:
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What role did the political ideal of nationalism play in upending the hierarchical
orders in China and India?
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What role did Hindu “mores” (to use Tocqueville’s term) play in the
establishment of democracy in India? What role was played by institutions of the
former Raj? How did the two combine to create a new national political order?
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Did China’s Cultural Revolution secure the egalitarian despotism of the
Communist Party?
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Is the rise of the “princelings”— the wealthy and well-connected children of
China’s Communist Party elite – provoking a popular backlash of the kind
Tocqueville would recognize?
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In what ways is the expanding middle class of India changing the country’s
democracy? Are the middle class’ current anti-corruption campaigns the fruit of
rising expectations among members of this class?
Course Requirements
This course will feature four types of review of your work: class participation and
quizzes, take home midterms, and a final paper.
Class participation and quizzes will be used to judge your comprehension of the course
material. The class will be a combined lecture-seminar format in which informed
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participation is essential. Together participation and quizzes will account for 10 percent
of your final grade.
The take home midterms will be a series of short essay questions. The first will cover
themes from Tocqueville; it will be distributed on Oct. 24 and due on Oct. 28. The
second will ask students to explore these themes with reference to our case studies: it will
be distributed on Nov. 21 and due on Nov. 25. Each midterm will be worth 20 percent
of your grade.
Final Research Paper. Students are required to write a final research paper. The paper
should be between 10-15 pages in length, using double space, 12-point font, and one-inch
margins on top, bottom, left and right of paper. Students are strongly encouraged to
expand on one of the questions listed above but may also write a comparative paper that
brings what they have learned to bear on another example of conflicts between
democracy and inequality. The final paper will be worth 30 percent of your grade and
will be due on Friday, Dec. 13.
Absences and Late Work
Class participation is a large part of the overall grade and students should be fully
prepared for each week’s class. Students are expected to attend all class sessions and to
submit work on a timely basis, unless documentation is given excusing an absence or late
submission for medical, religious or personal reasons, or for official university business.
Late assignments will be penalized by a half-letter grade deduction per day late.
Academic Honesty
Academic integrity is central to the mission of educational excellence at Brandeis
University. Each student is expected to turn in work completed independently, except
when assignments specifically authorize collaborative effort. It is not acceptable to use
the words or ideas of another person – be it a world-class philosopher or your lab partner
–without proper acknowledgement of that source. This means that you must use footnotes
and quotation marks to indicate the source of any phrases, sentences, paragraphs or ideas
found in published volumes, on the internet, or created by another student.
Violations of University policies on academic integrity, described in Section 3 of “Rights
and Responsibilities,” may result in failure in the course or on the assignment, and could
end in suspension from the University. If you are in doubt about the instructions for any
assignment in this course, you must ask for clarification.
University Policy on Academic Accommodations
If you are a student who has academic accommodations because of a documented
disability, please contact me and give me a copy of your letter of accommodation in the
first two weeks of the semester. If you have questions about documenting a disability,
please contact Beth Rodgers-Kay in the Undergraduate Academic Affairs Office
(x63470, brodgers@brandeis.edu). Accommodations cannot be granted retroactively.
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Course books:
The following books are on sale at the Brandeis Bookstore or available from other
booksellers. They are required.
Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America. ed. by Harvey Mansfield.
(University of Chicago Press, 2002.)
Alexis de Tocqueville, The Old Regime and the French Revolution. (trans. By
Stuart Gilbert) (Anchor, 1955).
Other course materials will be available on Latte.
I would also strongly recommend that buy two booka from which we will be doing
extensive readings. They are:
Orville Schell and John Delury, Wealth and Power: China's Long March to the
21st Century. Random House, 2013.
Maria Misra, Vishnu’s Crowded Temple: India Since the Great Rebellion. (Yale,
2007).
Course of Readings
August 29
Introduction
Sept. 4
The Rise of the Global Bourgeoisie?
“Politics in Emerging Markets: The New Middle Class Rises Up,” The
Economist, Sept. 3, 2011 (Latte)
Evan Osnos, “Will the Middle Class Shake China?” Daily Comment,
NewYorker.com, March 8, 2013. (Latte)
Articles about Bo Xilai in the Financial Times. (Latte)
Sept. 9-12: Tocqueville and Equality of Conditions
Tocqueville, Democracy in America: (hereafter DA); Introduction: (pp. 1-15)
Tocqueville, DA, Vol. I, Part 1, ch. 2-5 (pp. 27-93)
Contemporary America:
“How Inequality Poisons Society And Equity Benefits Everyone: An Interview
with Richard Wilkinson,” in This Changes Everything: Occupy Wall Street and
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the 99% movement, edited by Sarah van Gelder. (Berrett-Koehler Publishers,
2011) (Latte)
Sept. 16, 17, 18: Tyranny of the Majority, Individualism
Tocqueville, DA, Vol. I, Part 2, ch. 7, 9 (pp. 235-302, skim ch. 8)
Tocqueville, DA, Vol. I, Part 2, ch. 10 (pp. 384-396); DA, Vol. II, Part 1, ch. 1-8
(pp. 403-428); DA, Vol. II, Part 2, ch. 1-13 (pp. 479-514)
Contemporary America:
Robert D. Putman, “Bowling Alone: America's Declining Social Capital,” Journal
of Democracy 6:1, Jan 1995, 65-78. (Latte)
Jennifer M. Silva, “Young and Isolated,” in The Great Divide, Opinionator series
in The New York Times. (2012)
Sept. 23, 25: Honor and its Absence, Soft Despotism
DA, Vol. II, Part 2, ch. 14-20 (pp. 514-532); DA, Vol. II, Part 3, ch. 1-4 (pp. 535545), ch. 13-21 (pp. 557-617)
DA, Vol. II, Part 4, ch. 1-8; (pp. 639-676)
Contemporary America:
Paul Rahe. Soft Despotism, Democracy's Drift. (Yale 2010). "American
Exceptionalism."
Sept. 30, Oct. 2 & 3: The Seeds of Revolution in the Old Regime
The Old Regime and the French Revolution (hereafter OR), Part One, chapters 1-5
OR, Part Two, ch. 2-7.
Hunt, Lynn. "The Sacred in the French Revolution." In Jeffrey Alexander, ed.,
Durkheimian Sociology: Cultural Studies . Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1988, pp. 25-43.
Oct. 7, 9 & 10: The French Revolution: Reform and Disappointed Expectations
OR, Part Two, ch. 8-12.
OR, Part Three, ch. 3-8.
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Oct. 21, 23 & 24: Nationalism as the Form of the “Democratic Social State”
Max Weber, “The Nation,” (pp. 21-25 in Hutchinson and Smith, Nationalism,
Oxford UP, 1994.). (Latte)
Liah Greenfeld, Introduction and “France,” in Nationalism: Five Roads to
Modernity. (Harvard UP, 1992). (Latte)
Robert Kaplan, “The Return of Toxic Nationalism,” Wall Street Journal, Dec. 23,
2012, p. A13.
First midterm distributed
Oct. 28, 30 & 31: China: The Old Regime and the Nationalist Challenge
First midterm due on Oct. 28
Joseph Fewsmith, "De Tocqueville in Beijing," China Leadership Monitor, no.
39.
Orville Schell and John Delury, Wealth and Power: China's Long March to the
21st Century. Random House, 2013. Ch. 6, on Sun Yat-Sen (chapters 4 & 5 also
recommended).
Yu Keping, "Culture and Modernity in Chinese Intellectual Discourse: A
Historical Perspective." in Democracy is a Good Thing: Essays on Politics,
Society, and Culture in Contemporary China. (Brookings, 2009).
Recommended:
Rankin, Mary. Early Chinese Revolutionaries: Radical Intellectuals in Shanghai
and Chekiang, 1902-1911 . Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1971.
Selections.
Nov. 4, 6 & 7: China: The Cultural Revolution
Orville Schell and John Delury, Wealth and Power: China's Long March to the
21st Century. Random House, 2013. Chs. 9 & 10, on Mao.
Mao, Zedong (Tse Tung), Quotations from Mao Tse Tung (The Little Red Book),
available on line at: http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/works/redbook/index.htm.
Gao Yuan. Born Red: A Chronicle of the Cultural Revolution . Stanford: Stanford
University Press, 1987. Selections.
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Nov. 11, 13 & 14: China: Reform, Economic Growth and Raised Expectations
Orville Schell and John Delury, Wealth and Power: China's Long March to the
21st Century. Random House, 2013. Chs. 11, 12 and 13
Yu Keping, "The Transformation of Chinese Culture Since the Launching of
Reform," in Democracy is a Good Thing.
Lui Xiaobo, "The Spiritual Landscape of the Urban Young," in No Enemies, No
Hatred: Selected Essays and Poems. (Belknap, 2012).
Leslie Chang, Factory Girls (Spiegel & Grau, 2008). Ch. 1.
Recommended:
Minxin Pei, "China's Mounting Governance Deficits" in China's Trapped
Transition (Harvard UP, 2006).
Zhou Xiaohong and Qin Chen, "Globalization, Social Transformation, and the
Construction of China's Middle Class." in Cheng Li, China's Emerging Middle
Class: Beyond Economic Transformation. (Brookings, 2010).
Film: The Gate of Heavenly Peace. Richard Gordon and Carma Hinton (1995).
Nov. 18, 20 & 21: India: Nationalism and Hind Swaraj
Maria Misra, Vishnu’s Crowded Temple: India Since the Great Rebellion. (Yale,
2007). Ch. 4.
Ananya Vajpeyi, "Mohandas Gandhi: Ahimsa, The Self's Orientation" in
Righteous Republic: The Political Foundations of Modern India. (Harvard,
2012).
Gandhi, Hind Swaraj (selections).
Film: Lagaan
Recommended:
Gloria Goodwin Raheja, "India: Caste, Kingship, And Dominance Reconsidered,"
Ann. Rev Anthropol 1988. 17-497-522.
Second midterm distributed
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Nov. 25: Nationalism and Independence
Second midterm due
Maria Misra, Vishnu’s Crowded Temple. Ch. 6.
Ananya Vajpeyi, "Jawaharlal Nehru: Dharma, the Self's Aspiration, and Artha,
the Self's Purpose" in Righteous Republic.
Nehru, The Discovery of India. (Oxford, 2002). Selections.
Dec. 2, 4 & 5: Class and Caste in Contemporary India
Maria Misra, Vishnu’s Crowded Temple. Ch. 8.
Jean Dreze and Armatya Sen, An Uncertain Glory: India and Its Contradictions.
(Princeton, 2013). Chs. 8 & 9.
Jagdish Bhagwati and Arvind Panagariya, Why Growth Matters: How Economic
Growth in India Reduced Poverty and Lessons for Other Developing Countries
(Public Affairs, 2013). Part I, Chs. 3-6.
Recommended:
Harish Damodaran, India's New Capitalists: Caste, Business, and Industry in a
Modern Nation (Palgrave, 2008). Selections.
"With Reservations: Business and Caste in India," The Economist, Oct 4th 2007
Dec. 9: concluding discussion
Recommended:
Mohshin Hamid, How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia. (Riverhead Books, 2013