Fall 2011
Anne Meng
Comparative Politics Reading List
Vogel, Wittenberg, Lee (remember to cite where appropriate)
I.
State of the Field
**Causal Inference Crap
Brady, Henry & Collier, David, eds. (2000). Rethinking Social Inquiry: Diverse Tools, Shared Standards.
King, Gary, Keohane, Robert, & Verba, Sidney. (1994). Designing Social Inquiry: Scientific Inference in
Qualitative Research.
Geddes, Barbara. (1990). How the Cases you Choose Affect the Answers you Get: Selection Bias in
Comparative Politics, Political Analysis, 2, 131-50.
Mahoney, James. (2003). Strategies of Causal Assessment in Comparative Historical Analysis. In
Mahoney, James & Rueschemeyer, Dietrich eds., Comparative Historical Analysis in the Social Sciences,
(pp. 337-72).
Pierson, Paul. (2007). The Costs of Marginalization: Qualitative Methods in the Study of American
Politics. Comparative Political Studies, 40(2), 145-169.
Przeworski, Adam. (2007). Is the Science of Comparative Politics Possible? In Boix, Carles & Stokes,
Susan C. (eds.), Oxford Handbook of Comparative Politics. New York: Oxford University Press.
Green, Donald and Ian Shapiro. Pathologies of Rational Choice Theory: A Critique of Applications in
Political Science (1994)
Bates, Robert. “Area Studies and the Discipline: A Useful Controversy?” PS: Political Science and Politics,
pp. 166-169
Johnson, Charles. “Controversy and the Discipline: Area Studies and Comparative Politics.” PS: Political
Science and Politics 30(2): 170-174
Pye, Lucian (2001). “Area Studies and the Discipline” PS: Political Science and Politics 34(4) 805-807
Collier, David and Ruth. Shaping the Political Arena. (ch. 1 on critical junctures)
Lieberman, Evan, “Nested Analysis as a Mixed Method Strategy for Comparative Research” APSR 99:3
II. State, Regimes, and Regime Change
**Jason’s Syllabus
Conflict and Regime Change
Fall 2011
Anne Meng
Fearon, James & Laitin, David. (1996, December). Explaining Ethnic Cooperation, American Politica
Science Review, 90, 715-735.
Horowitz, Donald. (1985). Ethnic Groups in Conflict. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California
Press.
Huntington, Samuel P. (1968). Political Order in Changing Societies. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Wood, Elisabeth. (2003). Insurgent Collective Action and Civil War in El Salvador. New York: Cambridge
University Press.
Kalyvas, Stathis. (2006). The Logic of Violence in Civil Wars. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Kuran, Timur. (1991, October). Now Out of Never: The Element of Surprise in the East European
Revolution of 1989, World Politics, 44, 7-48.
Anderson, Benedict. (1983). Imagined Communities. London: Verso.
Skocpol, Theda, (1979). States and Social Revolutions: A Comparative Analysis of France, Russia, and
China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wilkinson, Steven. (2004). Votes and Violence: Electoral Competition and Ethnic Riots in India.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Mahoney and Snyder. “Rethinking Agency and Structure in the Study of Regime Change.” SCID 1999
Fish. Democracy Derailed in Russia
State Building
Tilly, Charles. (1992). Coercion, Capital and European States. Oxford: Blackwell Press.
Olson, Mancur. Dictatorship, Democracy, and Development (1993)
Levi, Margaret. (1988). Of Rule and Revenue. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Migdal Joel. (1998). Strong Societies and Weak States. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Scott, James. (1998). Seeing like a State. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Political Regimes
Acemoglu, Daron & Robinson, James. (2006). Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy. New
York: Cambridge University Press.
Dahl, Robert. Polyarchy: Participation and Opposition. 1971
De Mesquita, Smith, et al. The Logic of Political Survival
Boix, Carles. Democracy and Redistribution 2003
Fall 2011
Anne Meng
Diamond, Larry. Developing Democracy: Toward Consolidation. 1999
Boix, Carles. (2003). Democracy and Redistribution. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Dahl, Robert A. (1971). Polyarchy: Participation and Opposition. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Lijphart, Arend. (1977). Democracy in Plural Societies: A Comparative Exploration. New Haven: Yale
University Press.
Lijphart. Patterns of Democracy 1999 (ch. 1-4, 8, 10, 11, 16, 17)
Linz, Juan. (2000). Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes. Boulder: Lynne Rienner.
Luebbert, Gregory M. (1987). Social Foundations of Political Order in Interwar Europe, World Politics,
39(4), 449-478.
Moore, Barrington, Jr. (1966). Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the
Making of the Modern World. Cambridge: Beacon Press.
North, Douglass & Weingast, Barry. (1989). Constitutions and Commitment: Evolution of the Institutions
Governing Public Choice in 17th Century England. Journal of Economic History, 49, 803-832.
Gandhi, Jennifer & Przeworski, Adam. (2007). Authoritarian Institutions and the Survival of Autocrats.
Comparative Political Studies, 40(11), 1279-1301.
Gandhi, Jennifer & Lust-Okar, Ellen. (2009). Elections under Authoritarianism. Annual Review of
PoliticalScience, 12, 403-422.
Political Institutions
North, Douglas. (1990). Institutions, Institutional Change, and Economic Performance. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Hall and Taylor. Political Science and the Three New Institutionalisms. 1996
Pierson, Path Dependency
Moe, Terry, “The New Economics of Organization” AJPS 28 (1984)
Pierson and Skocpol “Historical Institutionalism in Contemporary Political Science.” In Political Science:
The State of the Discipline> 2002
Mahoney and Thelen “Explaining Institutional Change: Ambiguity, Agency, and Power” 2010
Zysman. “How Institutions Create Historically Rooted Trajectories of Growth”
Putnam, Robert with Leonardi, Robert & Nanetti, Raffaella. (1993). Making Democracy Work: Civic
Traditions in Modern Italy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Fall 2011
Anne Meng
III. Parties, Interest Groups, and Social Movements
**Kevin’s Protest Movements Syllabus
Parties
Cox, Gary. (1997). Making Votes Count: Strategic Coordination in the World's Electoral Systems. New
York: Cambridge University Press.
Downs, Anthony. An Economic Theory of Democracy. 1957
Chhibber, Pradeep, & Kollman, Ken. (2004). The Formation of National Party Systems: Federalism and
Party Competition in Canada, Great Britain, India, and the United States. Princeton: Princeton University
Press.
Strom, Kaare. (1990). Minority Government and Majority Rule. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Stokes, Susan. (2005). Perverse Accountability. American Political Science Review, 99(3), 315-325.
Tsebelis, George. (1995). Decision Making in Political Systems: Veto Players in Presidentialism,
Parliamentarism, Multicameralism and Multipartyism. British Journal of Political Science, 25, 289-325.
Wittenberg, Jason. (2006). Crucibles of Political Loyalty: Church Institutions and Electoral Continuity in
Hungary. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Levitsky “Organization and Labor Based Party Adaptation: The Transformation of Argentine Peronism in
Comparative Politics” World Politics 2001
Magaloni, Beatriz. (2006). Voting for Autocracy: Hegemonic Party Survival and its Demise in Mexico.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kitschelt, Herbert. (1992). The Formation of Party Systems in East Central Europe. Politics and Society,
20, 7-50.
Iversen, Torben. “The Logics of Electoral Politics” 1994
Lipset and Rokkan 1967. Cleavage Structures, Party Systems, and Voter Alignments
Interest Groups and Social Movements
O’Brien and Li. Rightful Resistance 2006
Tarrow. “Power in Movement” 1994
Tilly. The politics of Collective Violence 2003
Weber. “Status Groups and Classes” “Ethnic Groups” and “Political Communities” in Economy and
Society 1922
Fall 2011
Anne Meng
Aldrich, John. “Rational Choice and Turnout”.” AJPS 1993
Lohmann, Susanne. “The Dynamics of Information Cascades” World Politics 1994
Olson, Mancur. “The Logic of Collective Action” 1965
Almond and Verba. The Civic Culture. 1963
Scott, James. (1977) The Moral Economy of the Peasant: Rebellion and Subsistence in Southeast Asia.
New Haven: Yale University Press.
Scott, James. (1987) Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance. New Haven: Yale
University Press.
Popkin, Samuel. (1979) The Rational Peasant: The Political Economy of Rural Society in Vietnam.
Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
IV. CPE
Steve’s Syllabus
Peter’s China PE syllabus