POGA 6569: (Fordham -- Rose Hill)
Political Economy of Reform
Fall 2007
Instructor: José A. Alemán
Office hours: TF, 9:30-11:30 a.m.
and by appointment
Office: Faber Hall 662
E-mail: aleman@fordham.edu
DESCRIPTION:
This course is more appropriately titled “The Politics of Market Economic Reforms in
New Democracies”. Over the last two decades, many countries in the developing world
have undergone democratization and sweeping neo-liberal market reforms. The latter
include privatization of firms and social services, trade liberalization, and labor market
deregulation. The course will be oriented around the following questions: what factors
affect popular support for market economic reforms in new democracies? Secondly, do
economic and political reforms compliment each other or work at cross purposes?
Finally, does increasing reliance on the market endanger attempts to consolidate fragile
democratic institutions?
GOALS:
Our goal is to study the political and institutional logic of market based neo-liberal
economic reforms in the new democracies of Latin America, Eastern Europe and East
Asia. Particular emphasis is placed on questions of logic and sequencing: are
democratic institutions ill-suited for launching economic reforms? Do governments face
more opposition to particular reforms? Are reforms in certain issue areas more
politically feasible? Drawing on a rapidly expanding literature on the subject, we will
investigate the causes and consequences of privatization, trade and capital liberalization
and (labor) market deregulation in new democracies. Our goal will be to weigh in on
important debates in the field of comparative politics pertaining to the feasibility and
resilience of neo-liberal economic reforms.
TEXTs:
Adam Przeworski, Democracy and the Market: Political and Economic Reforms in
Eastern Europe and Latin America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1991.
Kurt Weyland, The Politics of Market Reform in Fragile Democracies: Argentina,
Brazil, Peru, and Venezuela. Princeton: Princeton University Press 2002.
1
RESOURCES:
(A) books: the above list of texts are available for purchase at the Fordham University
bookstore and on reserve at Walsh library.
(B) Articles: All articles are available online through ERes
(http://reserves.library.fordham.edu/eres/). The course “password” is “bronx”.
Additional course materials will be made available through Blackboard. This is a webbased platform used to administer course announcements, grades, and additional
information. Each student must obtain a blackboard account.
(C) special assistance: students with disabilities or in need of additional assistance
should contact the instructor at the beginning of the semester to allow for coordination
of assistance with the Office of Disability Services (ODS).
EVALUATION
1) Attendance and participation:
The course will rely heavily on student participation. Students are expected to
attend class having done the readings in advance and ready to participate with questions
and comments. In addition, each student will be assigned one or more of the readings
and required to summarize/critique them.
OPTION A
2a) Research Paper: (60%)
Students have the option of writing a 15-20 page paper on a topic of their
choice. A summary of your topic is due October 30th. A thesis statement, literature
review and preliminary bibliography are due on November 13th. The paper itself will be
due December 11th. The paper should not a mere literature review, but an attempt to
engage an outstanding theoretical question. Some possibilities include a case study
analytical paper, a two-way comparison, or a cross-national analysis. Anybody
considering a research paper should consult Lisa A. Baglione’s Writing a Research
Paper in Political Science: A Practical Guide To Inquiry, Structure, and Methods
(Wadsworth Publishing 2006).
OR
OPTION B
2b) Class Papers: (60%)
Students who choose this option will be responsible for writing 2 short papers
(around 8 to 10 pages each) on questions pertaining to the course. As with Option A, it
is important that the paper be self-consciously theoretical – that is, it should make an
argument rather than merely summarize the readings or give descriptive background. (I
am available to discuss potential paper topics.)
The first paper will be due on October 16th. The second paper will be due on
2
December 4th.
3) Final Exam: (40%)
The final exam will be a short take home essay. I will hand out the question on
December 11th and the answer will be due during the reading period.
COURSE SCHEDULE:
September 11 (WEEK 1): INTRODUCTION (no readings)
September 18 (WEEK 2): CONTEMPORARY DEMOCRACY: AN
INTRODUCTION

Przeworski, Prologue, Chapter 1

Barbara Geddes, “What Do We Know About Democratization After Twenty
Years?” Annual Reviews of Political Science 2(1) (1999), pp. 115-144.

Valerie J. Bunce, “Comparative Democratization: Big and Bounded
Generalizations,” Comparative Political Studies 33:6-7 (August-September
2000), pp. 703-734.
September 25 (WEEK 3): THE THIRD WAVE OF DEMOCRATIZATION

Przeworski, Chapter 2.

Doh Chull Shin, “On the Third Wave of Democratization,” World Politics 47
(October 1994), pp. 135-70.

Stephan Haggard and Robert R. Kaufman, “The Political Economy of
Democratic Transitions,” Comparative Politics 29:3 (April 1997), pp. 263-283.

Juan J. Linz and Alfred Stepan, “Toward Consolidated Democracies,” Journal
of Democracy 7:2 (1996), pp. 14-33.
October 2 (WEEK 4): DEMOCRACY AND THE MARKET

Dani Rodrik, “Institutions for High-Quality Growth: What They Are and How to
Acquire Them,” Studies in Comparative International Development 35:3 (Fall
2000), pp. 3-31.

Dani Rodrik, “Democracies Pay Higher Wages,” The Quarterly Journal of
Economics CXIV: 3 (August 1999), pp. 707-737.
3

Hung-En Sung, “Democracy and Political Corruption: A Cross National
Comparison,” Crime, Law and Social Change 41: 2 (March 2004), pp. 179-193.
October 9 (WEEK 5): MARKET ECONOMIC REFORMS IN NEW
DEMOCRACIES

Przeworski, Prologue, Chapter 3.

Hector E. Schamis, “Distributional Coalitions and the Politics of Economic
Reform in Latin America,” World Politics 51:2 (1999), pp. 236-268.

Valerie Bunce, “Democratization and Economic Reform,” Annual Reviews of
Political Science 4:1 (2001), pp. 43-65.

Joel S. Hellman, “Winners Take All: The Politics of Partial Reform in Post
communist Transitions,” World Politics 50.2 (1998), pp. 203-234.
October 16 (WEEK 6): TRADE AND CAPITAL LIBERALIZATION

Geoffrey Garrett, “The Causes of Globalization,” Comparative Political Studies
33:6/7 (August/September 2000), pp. 941-991.

Rafael Reuveny and Quan Li, “Economic Openness, Democracy, and Income
Inequality,” Comparative Political Studies 36:5 (June 2003), pp. 575-601.

Quan Li, “Democracy, Autocracy, and Tax Incentives to Foreign Direct
Investment,” The Journal of Politics 68:1 (February 2006), pp. 62-74.
October 23 (WEEK 7): STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT AND PRIVATIZATION

Eduardo Lora, “Structural Reforms in Latin America: What Has Been Reformed
and How to Measure it,” Working Paper # 466: (December 2001), InterAmerican Development Bank

M. Victoria Murillo, “Political Bias in Policy Converge: Privatization Choices in
Latin America,” World Politics 54, (July 2002) pp. 462-493.

Nancy Brune, Geoffrey Garrett, and Bruce Kogut, “The International Monetary
4
Fund and the Global Spread of Privatization,” IMF Staff Papers 51:2 (2004), pp.
195-219.
October 30 (WEEK 8): LABOR MARKET REFORMS

Martin Rama, "Globalization and the Labor Market." The World Bank Research
Observer 18:2 (Fall 2003), pp. 159-86.

David Ost, “Illusory Corporatism in Eastern Europe: Neoliberal Tripartism and
Postcommunist Class Identities,” Politics and Society 28:4 (December 2000),
pp. 503-520.

Nita Rudra, “Are Workers in the Developing World ‘Winners' or ‘Losers' in the
Current Era of Globalization?” Studies in Comparative International
Development 40:3 (July 2005), pp. 29-64.

Maria Victoria Murillo, “Partisanship amidst Convergence: The Politics of
Labor Reform in Latin America,” Comparative Politics 37:4 (July 2005), pp.
441–458.
November 6 (WEEK 9): A POLITICAL ECONOMY OF MARKET REFORMS?

Weyland, Chapters 1, 2 & 3.
November 13 (WEEK 10): SOCIAL SECURITY AND WELFARE REFORMS

Nita Rudra, “Globalization and the Decline of the Welfare State in LessDeveloped Countries,” International Organization 56: 2 (2002): pp, 411-445.

Nita Rudra, “Openness, Welfare Spending, and Inequality in the Developing
World,” International Studies Quarterly 48 (2004): 683-709.

Nita Rudra and Stephan Haggard, “Globalization, Democracy, and Effective
Welfare Spending in the Developing World,” Comparative Political Studies
38:9 (November 2005): 1015-1049.
November 20 (WEEK 11): REDISTRIBUTIVE POLITICS IN THE GLOBAL
ECONOMY

Dani Rodrik, “Why Do More Open Economies Have Bigger Governments?”
5
Journal of Political Economy 106:5 (1998), pp. 997-1032.

Geoffrey Garrett, “Globalization and Government Spending around the World,”
Studies in Comparative and International Development 35:4 (Winter 2001), pp
3-29.

Pierre-Richard Agénor, “Does Globalization Hurt the Poor,” International
Economics and Economic Policy 1:1 (March 2004), pp. 21-51.
November 27 (WEEK 12): DEMOCRACY, INEQUALITY, AND
GLOBALIZATION

Kathleen C. Schwartzman, “Globalization and Democracy,” Annual Reviews of
Sociology 24:1 (1998), pp. 159-181.

Cheol-Sung Lee, “Income Inequality, Democracy, and Public Sector Size,”
American Sociological Review 70:1 (February 2005), pp. 158-181.

Nita Rudra, “Globalization and the Strengthening of Democracy in the
Developing World,” American Journal of Political Science 49:4 (October 2005),
pp. 704-730.
December 4 (WEEK 13): THE FUTURE OF THE THIRD WAVE

Carsten Q. Schneider and Philippe C. Schmitter, “Liberalization, Transition, and
Consolidation: Measuring the Components of Democratization,”
Democratization 11:5 (December 2004), pp. 59-90.
December 11 (WEEK 4): STUDENT PRESENTATIONS
6