Professor Craig Borowiak
FALL 2008
W 1:30 – 4:00
Office Hours: TTh 11:00–12:30
Office: Hall 214
Pol 361: Democracy and Global Governance
In this course we will explore some of the major debates over so-called democratic deficits at the global
level. Questions we will discuss will include: Do existing global governance structures need to be
democratized? What would that mean? Is global democracy possible? How can accountability be
enhanced in international institutions? What role does civil society have to play?
Course Dynamics:
Participation:
This is a discussion-based seminar. The success of the class depends above all else upon your
participation, including your willingness to share your questions, interests, ideas and energy, as well as
your willingness to listen to the questions, interests, and ideas of others. Coming prepared to discuss what
you’ve read will be indispensable. Since discussions tend to be more successful when participants take
and defend positions, I encourage you to actively explore new arguments in the classroom— try them on,
see how they fit, even if it means stepping out of character.
Assignments
1. Response papers
In addition to coming to class prepared to participate, you will be required to write a response essay
(roughly 2-3 pages) for three class periods. They are meant to encourage you to critically engage the
material under discussion. In these, you should identify what you think are the strongest and weakest
points in the readings’ arguments (if there is more than one reading assigned, you may choose to select
those that most interest you). What most interested you? What was the most difficult to make sense of? In
these essays you should also develop a set of at least THREE discussion questions you would like to see
us address during class-time. Consider these an extension of class discussion, both carrying forward ideas
from previous classes and helping to give shape to ideas in upcoming ones. You should come prepared to
give accounts of your positions and to receive and challenge the accounts of your classmates and me.
These are due by 8 pm the day before our class meets. They should be posted on the Blackboard
Discussion Board so everyone can read them. And everyone should read everyone else’s before class
commences.
2. Mid-Term Essay
Just before mid-semester break you will be asked to write an essay (5-7 pages) based upon the readings
we will have covered. I will provide you with a choice of essay topics to choose from.
3. 20-page Research Paper OR Literature Review
Research Paper
If you choose this option, you will be asked to write a 20-page research paper on a topic of your own
choosing related to the course. This is meant to be a semester long project and you will be encouraged to
begin working on your research as early as possible. The paper should make an argument, and should
include both historical/empirical detail and theoretical analysis of some aspect of global governance and
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democracy. You are welcome to use course materials, but are expected to also use outside sources. In late
October you will draft a research proposal, which you will present to the class. In November, we will
devote one week to independent research. Instead of coming to class that week, you will be expected to
schedule an individual appointment with me to discuss your research progress.
Literature Review
If you choose this option, you will be asked to write a review of the academic literature discussing a
theme of your own choosing. This is meant to be a semester long project and I cannot emphasize enough
the importance of not putting it off until late in the semester. For this, you will be expected to display a
command of the different sorts of positions being taken on the topic you have chosen. This doesn’t mean
you have to read everything in its entirety. But it does mean that you should strive to identify where the
different voices in discussions of the topic fit vis-à-vis one another. Hopefully, you will also be able to
frame your review in a manner that opens up directions insufficiently explored in the literature, and
thereby directions that you might want to explore in a future project, if you are doing one. You are
welcome to include course materials, but are expected to go well beyond them in a review of outside
sources. In late October you will draft a literature review proposal, which you will present to the class. In
November, we will devote one week to independent research. Instead of coming to class that week, you
will be expected to schedule an individual appointment with me to discuss your research progress.
4. Paper Presentations/Discussions
The final two weeks of the course will be devoted to presenting and discussing your research projects.
Each of you will sign up for a class period during which your research topic will be discussed. Each
student will be given approximately 45 minutes of class-time to discuss his/her project, what difficulties
are being faced, and what conclusions are being drawn. One week before your allotted class time, you
should assign any readings to the class that you think would help us understand your project. And at least
three days before your class period, you should send as much of your own written material to the entire
class as you feel comfortable sending. At the very least, this should include an abstract and an outline of
your project. Assuming everyone will have read your material, your actual presentation should be a
concise re-statement of your project. This is also a time for you to raise questions or difficulties you
would like help with. As these presentations are meant to help you get and give additional feedback on
works in progress, the majority of the allotted time should be devoted to class discussion of your project,
rather than to your presentation of it. The flipside of this is that when someone else is presenting, you are
expected to actively contribute to a productive discussion of his/her project.
Additionally, each of you will be assigned to respond specifically to one other student’s project and
presentation. You will be expected to meet outside of class to discuss his/her project.
Evaluation
Participation & Response papers
MidTerm Essay
Research Project
Presentations
15%
25%
50%
10%
Books:
The following books are or will be available at the bookstore:



Immanuel Kant, Perpetual Peace and Other Essays
David Held, Democracy and the Global Order: From the Modern State to Cosmopolitan Governance
Heikki Patomäki and Teivo Teivainen, A Possible World: Democratic Transformation of Global Institutions
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SCHEDULE
(subject to change)
W3
Sept
Introductions
W 10
Sept
Kantian Cosmopolitanism
Kant, “To Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch”
Kant, “Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Intent”
Kant, “An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment”
W 17
Sept
Contemporary Cosmopolitanism: David Held
David Held, Democracy and the Global Order (viii – 140)
W 24
Sept
Losing Control: The Erosion of domestic democracy
Philip Cerny, Globalization and the erosion of democracy
Saskia Sassen, “Losing Control” (Introduction, Ch 2) (Book Available on-line:
http://www.ciaonet.org/book/sassen/sassen11.html ) (or use library webpage)
Geoffrey Garrett, “Partisan Politics in a Global Economy”
Layna Mosley, Global Capital and National Governments (1-25)
W1
Oct
Contemporary Cosmopolitanism: David Held II
Held, Democracy and the Global Order (143-286)
W8
Oct
Alternative Visions of Global Democracy
Iris Young, “Self-Determination and Global Democracy” (237-275)
John Dryzek, “Welcome to a Divided World” and “Three Kinds of Democracy” from Deliberative
Global Politics
Sol Picciotto, “Democratizing Globalism” in Daniel Drache (ed) the Market or the Public
Domain?: Global Governance and the Asymmetry of Power (335-59)
Kuper, Democracy Beyond Borders
11-19 October: Fall Break
W 22
Oct
Is Global Democracy Possible?
Kymlicka, Will, “Citizenship in an era of globalization: commentary on Held” (112-126)
Wendt, Alexander, “A comment on Held’s cosmopolitanism.” (127-133)
Dahl, Robert A., “Can International organizations be democratic? A skeptic’s view” (19-36)
David Miller “Bounded Citizenship” (81-96)
W 29
Oct
Proposals, Research Design, Presentations
Readings on research design TBA
In-class presentation of research project proposals
W5
Nov
Accountability Without Democracy?
Grant and Keohane, “Accountability and Abuses of Power in World Politics”
Anne-Marie Slaughter, “Disaggregated Sovereignty: Toward the Public Accountability of Global
Government Networks”
Miles Kahler, “Defining Accountability Up: The Global Economic Multilaterals”
Jan Aart Scholte, “Civil Society and Democratically Accountable Global Governance”
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W 12
Nov
Alternative Institutions: Civil Society, Peoples Assemblies, the E-Parliament
Patomäki and Teivainen, A Possible World, Entire book
Robert Johansen, “The E-Parliament: Global Governance to Serve the Human Interest”
W 19
Nov
Case Study: The EU
Readings TBA
W 26
Nov
No Class (individual meetings)
W3
Dec
Does Global Democracy Have a Chance? Constitutionalizing International Law
Habermas, The Divided West
W6
W 10
Dec
Dec
Presentations
Presentations
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