POLS 530
Democratization and Regime Change
Fall 2013
Dr. Nadine Sika
Email: nadinesika@aucegypt.edu
Office: HUSS 2022
Office Hours: Wednesday 12:00-2 or by appointment
Course Description
The advent of the third wave of democratization in the 1970s was an important
phenomenon for political science in general and for comparative politics in particular.
This democratization process introduced new theories in comparative politics, and
expanded debates on many aspects on political change in different countries. Old and
new questions have been addressed concerning the nature of authoritarian regimes,
when do these regimes fall, and how can a country move from authoritarianism to
democracy? Other major questions have also arisen, concerning the nature of regime
transitions, and how different countries have built their institutions after the fall of an
authoritarian regime.
This class is going to address these major questions and debates along with
other important concepts and challenges of democratization in the world. Major
theoretical issues are going to be analyzed, with empirical evidence from different
regions of the world.
The Text books are on reserve at the AUC library.
Text Book
Jean Grugel, Democratization: A Critical Introduction (Houndmills: Palgrave
Macmillan, 2002).
Christian W. Haerpfer, Patrick Bernhagen, Ronald Inglehart and Christian Welzl,
Democratization (Oxford: Oxford UP, 2006)
Course Requirements
Attendance and Participation
15 %
3 Concept Papers
15% each
1 Final Paper
30%
1 In-Class presentation
10%
Students have the responsibility to actively participate in class, which means that ALL
READINGS HAVE TO BE DONE BEFORE class. Each student will have the
responsibility to actively present the materials of a week in class. In doing so the
student has to provide his/her class mates with critical analysis and oversight of the
topic under discussion.
Students are required to write three critical essays, (1500 words). These essays
should analyze the readings of any week thoroughly and critically.
The case studies of this course are based on student presentations. Each student
chooses a region or a country of interest and presents the democratization process of
this region in class.
Students present their paper topic in class to their colleagues. The presentation should
include, an abstract, a theoretical framework, methodology and an outline of the topic.
Based on the class’ input, students should start their research. The final paper is due
on the last day of classes. This should be between 20-25 pages long, covering any
topic of interest. The papers should be submitted through turn it in.
Plagiarism will result in an F in the course.
GRADES ARE NON-NEGOTIABLE
Letter
Grade
A
AB+
B
Percentage
93+
90-92
87-89
83-86
Letter
Grade
BC+
C
C-
Percentage
80-82
77-79
73-76
70-72
Letter
Grade
D+
D
F
Percentage
67-69
60-66
Below 60
Course Outline
September 5: Introduction to the course and discussion of major theoretical
foundations of democratization
Part I
Political Systems
September 12: Authoritarian and Democratic Regimes
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Haerpfer, Christian et.al Democratization chapter 2
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Juan Linz, “Further Reflections on Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes,”
Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2000), pp.
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1-47.
Philippe C. Schmitter and Terry Lynn Karl, 1991. “What Democracy Is . . .
and Is Not,” Journal of Democracy, 2 (Summer): 75–88
Alexander Gerard, “Institutional Uncertainty, the Rule of Law and Sources of
Democratic Stability,” Comparative Political Studies, 35 (10), 1145-1170
Optional Readings
Paul Brooker, “Theoretical Approaches,” Non-Democratic Regimes (London:
Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), pp. 1-44
Robert Dahl, Polyarchy, Participation and Opposition, (New Haven: Yale
UP), P. 1-17.
September 19: Hybrid Regimes
 Haerpfer, Christian et.al Democratization chapter 3
 Diamond, Larry 2002: “Thinking About Hybrid Regimes,” Journal of
Democracy, 13 (2), 21-35.
 Merkel, Wolfgang 2004: “Embedded and Defective Democracies,”
Democratization, 11 (5), 33-58.
 Wigell, Mikael 2008: “Mapping ‘Hybrid Regimes’: Regime Types and
Concepts in Comparative Hybrid Regimes,” International Political Science
Review, 30 (1), 7-31.
 Bogaards, Matthijs 2009: “How to Classify Hybrid Regimes? Defective
Democracy and Electoral Authoritarianism,” Democratization, 16 (2), 399423
Optional Readings
 Ekman, Joakim 2009: “Political Participation and Regime Stability: A
Framework for Analysing Politics,“ Democratization, 15 (2), 230-250
 Levitsky, Steven and Lucan Way 2010 Competitive authoritarianism: hybrid
regimes after the Cold War (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
Part II Approaches to the Study of Democratization
September 26: Transitiology-Structural Approaches to the Study of
Democratization
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Lipset, Seymour M. 1959: “Some Social Requisites of Democracy: Economic
Development and Political Legitimacy,” American Political Science Review,
53 (1), 69-105.
Seymour M. Lipset, “The Social Requisites of Democracy Revisited,”
American Sociological Review 59, 1 (1993), pp. 1-22
Ross, Michael L. 2001: “Does Oil Hinder Democracy?” World Politics, 53
(3), 325-361.
Snyder, Richard 1992: “Explaining Transitions from Neopatrimonial
Dictatorships,” Comparative Politics, 24 (4), 379-399.
Geddes, Barbara 1999: “What Do We Know About Democratization after
Twenty Years?” Annual Review of Political Science 2, 115-144.
Optional Readings
 Downs, Anthony 1957: An Economic Theory of Democracy, (New York:
Harper & Row).
 Haggard, Stephan and Robert Kaufmann 1995: The Political Economy of
Democratic Transitions, (Princeton: Princeton UP).
 Huber, Evelyne, Dietrich Rueschemeyer and John D. Stephens 1997: “The
Paradoxes of Contemporary Democracy: Formal, Participatory, and Social
Democracy,” Comparative Politics, 29 (3), 323-342.
 Moore, Barrington 1966: The Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy:
Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World, (Boston: Beacon Press)
October 3: Agency and Approaches to “Transitology”
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Bermeo, Nancy 1997, “Myths of Moderation: Confrontation and Conflict
during Democratic Transitions,” Comparative Politics, 29 (3), 305-322.
Przeworski, Adam 1992: Democracy and the Market: Political and Economic
Reform in Eastern Europe and Latin America, (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press), 51-99.
Przeworski, Adam, 1986. “Some Problems in the Study of the Transition to
Democracy,” in G. O'Donnell, P.C. Schmitter and L. Whitehead, eds.,
Transitions from Authoritarian Rule: Comparative Perspectives (Baltimore:
The Johns Hopkins University Press,), 47 -63.
Stepan, Alfred 1997: “Democratic Opposition and Democratization Theory,”
Government and Opposition, 32 (4), 657-673.
Optional Readings
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O’Donnell, Guillermo and Philippe Schmitter 1986: Transitions from
Authoritarian Rule: Tentative Conclusions About Uncertain Democracies,
(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press).
Rustow, Dankwart 1970: “Transition to Democracy. Towards a Dynamic
Model,” Comparative Politics, 3 (3), 337-363.
Colomer, Josep 2000: Strategic Transitions. Game Theory and
Democratization, (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press).
White, Gordon 1994: “Civil Society, Democratization and Development (I):
Clearing the Analytical Ground,” Democratization, 1 (3), 375-390.
October 10: Class cancelled to be made-up Saturday October 26
October 17: Al-Adha Vacation
October 24: Democratic Consolidation
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Linz, Juan and Alfred Stepan 2010: “Toward Consolidated Democracies,”
Larry Diamond, Marc Plattner and Philip Costopoulos, Debates on
Democratization (Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins University Press), 3-22.
Schedler, Andreas 1998: “What is Democratic Consolidation?,” Journal of
Democracy, 9 (2), 91-107.
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Schedler, Andreas 2001 “Measuring Democratic Consolidation,” Studies in
Comparative International Development, Spring, 66-92.
Merkel, Wolfgang, “The Consolidation of Post-Autocratic Democracies: A
Multi-level Model, 2010” Democratization 5, (3), 33-67.
Guillermo O’Donnel, “Illussions about Consolidation,” in eds Larry Diamond,
Marc Plattner and Philip Costopoulos, Debates on Democratization
(Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins University Press), 23-40.
Optional Readings
 Zielonka, Jan and Alex Pravda 2001 Democratic Consolidation in Eastern
Europe (Oxford: Oxford UP)
 Svolik, Milan, “Authoritarian reverslas and Democratic Consolidation,”
American Political Science Review 102 (2), 153-168
se
October 26: The Resilience of Authoritarianism
 Haerpfer, Christian et.al Democratization chapter 17
 McFaul, Michael 2002: “The Fourth Wave of Democracy and Dictatorship:
Non-cooperative Transitions in the Post-communist World,” World Politics,
54 (2), 212-244.
 The Dynamics of Unfree Competition, (Boulder: Lynne Rienner), 219-231.
 Gandhi, Jennifer and Adam Przeworski 2007: “Authoritarian Institutions and
the Survival of Autocrats,“ Comparative Political Studies, 40 (11), 1279-1301.
Optional Readings
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Albrecht, Holger 2005: “How Can Opposition Support Authoritarianism?
Lessons from Egypt,“ Democratization, 12 (3), 378-397.
Bellin, Eva 2004: “The Robustness of Authoritarianism in the Middle East:
Exceptionalism in Comparative Perspective,“ Comparative Politics, 36 (2),
139-157.
Albrecht, Holger and Oliver Schlumberger 2004: “’Waiting for Godot’:
Regime Change Without Democratization in the Middle East,” International
Political Science Review, 25 (4), pp. 371-392.
October 31: The End of the Transition Paradigm?
 Carothers, Thomas 2010 “the End of the Transition Paradigm,” in Larry
Diamond, Marc Plattner and Philip Costopoulos, Debates on Democratization
(Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins University Press), 77-93.
 Carothers, Thomas 2010 “ The ‘Sequencing’ Fallacy” in Larry Diamond,
Marc Plattner and Philip Costopoulos, Debates on Democratization
(Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins University Press), 129-144.
 Berman, Sheri 2010 “the Vein hope for ‘correct’ timing” Larry Diamond,
Marc Plattner and Philip Costopoulos, Debates on Democratization
(Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins University Press), 168-171.
 Pharr, Susan, Robert Putnam and Russel Dalton, “ A Quarter Century of
Declining Confidence” in Larry Diamond and Marc Plattner The Global
Divergence of Democracies (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press,
2001), 291-311
November 7: Actors and Institutions
 Haerpfer Christian et.al. Chapters 12, 14, 15, 16
 Grugel, Jean Chapters 4, 5
Part III: Case Studies in Democratization and the Resilience of
Authoritarianism, based on Student Presentations
November 14: Democratization in Latin America
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Suggested Readings
Barrett, Patrick 2000: “Chile’s Transformed Party System and the Future of
Democratic Stability,” Latin American Politics and Society, 42 (3), 1-32.
Rouquie, Alain 1986 “Demilitarization and the Institutionalization of MilitaryDominated Polities in Latin America” in Guillermo O’Donnell, Philippe
Schmitter and Laurnce Whitehead (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University
Press), 108-136.
Kaufman, Robert 1986 “Liberalization and Democratization in South
America: Perspectives from the 1970s,” in O’Donnell et.al., 85-109.
Ensalaco, Marc 1994: “In with the New, Out with the Old? The Democratising
Impact of Constitutional Reform in Chile,” Journal of Latin American Studies,
26 (2), 409-429.
Fuentes, Claudio 2000: “After Pinochet: Civilian Policies Toward the Military
in the 1990s Chilean Democracy,” Journal of Interamerican Studies and
World Affairs, 42 (3), 111-142.
.Munck, Gerardo 1994: “Democratic Stability and Its Limits: An Analysis of
Chile’s 1993 Elections,” Journal of Inter-American Studies and World Affairs,
36 (2), 1-38.
Blake, Charles 1998 “Economic reform and democratization in Argentina and
Uruguay: the tortoise and the hare revisited?” Journal of Inter-American
studies and World Affairs, 40 (3), 1-26
Macrory, Robbie 2012 “Dilemmas of Democratization: Media Regulation and
Reform in Argentina” Bulletin of Latin American Research, 32 (2), 178-193
Buxton, Julia 1999 “Venezuela: Degenerative Democracy” Democratization
6 (1), 246-270.
November 21: Democratization in Eastern Europe
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Suggested Readings
Haerpfer et al. Democratization chapter
Ishiyama, John 1995 “Communist Parties in Transition: Structures, Leaders,
and Processes of Democratization in Eastern Europe” Comparative Politics 27
(2), 147-166.
Kummel, Gerhard 1998 “democratization in Eastern Europe: The Interaction
of internal and external factors: An attempt at systematization,” East
European Quarterly 32 (2), 243-267
Bernhard, Michael 1995, the origins of democratization in Poland: Workers,
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Intellectuals and Oppositional Politics, 1976-1980 (New York: Columbia
University Press, 1993).
Bernhard Michael 2001, “Democratization in Germany: A Reappraisal,”
Comparative Politics 33 (4), 379-400.
Bartlet, David, 1997 The Political Economy of Dual Transformation
(Michigan, University of Michigan Press).
Hancock, Donald and John Loque 2000 Transitions to Capitalism and
Democracy in Russia and Central Europe: Achievements, Problems,
Prospects (Westport, Praeger Publishers)
November 28: Thanks Giving Holiday
December 5: Colored Revolutions
Suggested Readings
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Cheterian, Vicken 2009 “From Reform and Transition to ‘coloured
Revolutions’ Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics 25 (2-3),
136-160
Lane, David 2009 “Coloured Revolution’ as a Political Phenomenon,”
Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics 25 (2-3), 113-135.
Finkel Evgeny and Yitzhak Brudny 2012 “No more colour! Authritarian
regimes and colour revolutions in Eurasia,” Democratization 19 (1), 1-14
Radnitz, Scott, “Oil in the family: managing presidential succession in
Azerbaijan,” Democratization 19 (1) 60-77
Lawrence Markowitz 2012 “Tajikistan: authoritarian reaction in a postwar
state” Democratization 19 (1), 98-119
Murtazashvilli, Jennifer 2012 “Coloured by revolution: the political economy
of autocratic stability in Uzbekistan,” Democratization 19 (1), 78-97.
December 12: Democratization or the Resilience of Authoritarianism in the
Middle East?
Suggested Readings
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Albrecht and Schlumberger “Waiting for Godot: regime Change without
Democratization in the Middle East,” International Political Science Review
24 (1), 371-392.
Marsha Pripstein Posuney, “Enduring Authoritarianism: Middle East Lessons
for Comparative Theory,” Comparative Politics 36, no. 2 (2004), pp. 127-138
Michele Penner Angrist, “Party Systems and Regime Formation in the Modern
Middle East: Explaining Turkish Exceptionalism” Comparative Politics 36,
no. 2 (2004), pp. 229-249.
Ellen Lust, “Opposition Cooperation and Uprisings in the Arab world,” British
Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 38, no. 3 (2011), pp. 425-434.
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Imad Salamay and Frederic Pearson, “The Collapse of Middle Eastern
Authoritarianism: Breaking barriers of fear and power,” Third World
Quarterly 33, no.5 (2012), pp. 931-948.
Lust-Okar, Ellen 2005: Structuring Conflict in the Arab World. Incumbents,
Opponents, and Institutions, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).