POLS 120: Introduction to World Politics
(Tentative Syllabus)
Professor Ehito Kimura (ehito@hawaii.edu)
Office Hours: Online by Appointment
Office: Saunders Hall Room 610 Department of Political Science
Course Description
This course is designed to introduce undergraduate students to World Politics. World Politics is a
broad field of study that examines political phenomenon in states and societies across the globe.
This course has a strong historical foundation and will also examine theoretical approaches to the
study of world politics and how those theories manifest themselves in cases studies in Europe,
Asia, Latin America, and Africa. The main themes we will address are 1) political institutions, 2)
the global economy, 3) civil society, and 4) the politics of identity.
Student Learning Objectives
This course is designed as an overview to familiarize students with some of the main concepts
and issues in world politics. For that reason, it emphasizes breadth rather than depth. Key course
objectives for students include:
1)
2)
3)
4)
Mastery of key concepts in world politics.
Ability to apply concepts in real world examples.
Ability to analyze issues in world politics from multiple theoretical perspectives.
Ability to form your own arguments regarding issues in world politics.
The course explores different kinds of historical and theoretical approaches to understanding
world politics. How have scholars theorized issues such as political change, economic growth and
underdevelopment, or identity politics? What are some of the assumptions and how well do the
theories travel?
We will also highlight the comparative approach by looking at various case studies in different
countries. Comparing and contrasting the experiences globally allows us to think critically about
the theories that we put forth. We will have case examples from Europe, Africa, the Americas,
Asia and the Pacific.
The course highlights the world perspectives that emerge from macro-historical processes of
cross-cultural interactions. The course will study and analyze narratives and texts from a variety
of places and time periods and reflect on the rich diversity of human societies and the way in
which it has transformed over the last five centuries.
Writing Intensive Focus
This course is also a writing intensive course. For that reason, the course will emphasize the
follow objective as well:




The class will use writing to promote the leaning of course materials.
The class will provide interaction between student and instructor on the writing
assignments.
Writing will make up a significant part of the course grade
There will be at least 16 pages and/or 4000 words of writing in the course.
Course Structure
Lectures: Classes will consist of lectures posted online via PowerPoint and voiceover. Each
lecture will be posted on Monday and Wednesday of each week.
Readings: Reading assignments are very important and must be done before each lecture. All
readings will be posted on the course website on Laulima.
Weekly Reaction Paper: Each week students will be required to post one reaction paper 500750 words long that both summarizes and critically analyzes the readings assigned for that
week. The papers are due each Monday and will be posted to the Laulima bulletin board.
Feedback will be given via rubrics and written comments.
Initial Research Proposal: Students will submit one essay proposal that identifies a research
topic and potential structure of their paper. The proposal is due in Week 4 of the course.
Feedback will be given via written comments.
Bibliography: Students will submit one bibliography that identifies the sources that they are
going to use for their research paper. The bibliography is due in Week 6. Feedback will be
given via written comments.
Final Paper #1: Students will submit their final essay of 3,000 words or more in Week 9 of
the course. Feedback will be given via written comments.
Final Paper Rewrite: Students will be offered the opportunity to rewrite their papers based on
comments from the professor. The final grade of the paper will be the average of the first
essay and the rewrite.
Grading:
Reaction Paper Posts: 50%
Research Proposal: 10%
Bibliography: 10%
Final Essay: 30%
Course Policies
Attendance: Class attendance is mandatory. On some days I will take attendance. On other days,
there will be in-class writing assignments. If you are not in class that day, you will receive an F
for that particular assignment.
Deadlines: Assignments should be submitted at the beginning of class on the day of the deadline.
Assignments submitted late will be docked one full letter grade every 24 hours past deadline.
Grading Scale: The scale is as follows:
A 100% - 92.49%
A- 89.49%
B+ 82.49%
B 79.49%
B- 76.49%
C+ 72.49%
C 69.49%
C- 66.49%
D+ 63.49%
D 59.49%
D- 56.49%
F 56 % - 0 %
Summary Course Schedule (Tentative)
Week 1: States and State Formation
States and State Formation
Diamond (1998) Ch. 14.
States in Europe and Elsewhere
Tilly (1985)
Week 2: Traditional Rule
“Traditional” Rule
Europe
Asia
Weber (1919)
Divine Right of Kings (various)
“Mandate of Heaven”
Week 3: Democracy
Democratic Rule
UK and Europe
Africa and Asia
Oneil (2012) pp 127-159.
Locke (1689), Book 2, Ch 21.
Seidman (1999), Zakaria (1994)
Week 4: Authoritarianism
Non-Democratic Rule
Military Rule in Latin America
Resistance
Oneil (2012) pp 163-191.
Linz (2011), Ch 12.
Mothers of Plaza de Mayo (video)
Week 5: Political Economy
Political Economy
Colonialism and Empire
Anti-Colonial Resistance
Staniland (1985), pp. 1-10.
Ferguson (2012) Ch 2., Vogeler (2014).
Rizal (1887) Ch 1-5, Bolivar (1819)
Week 6: Marxism
The Rise of Capitalism
Dependency; World Systems
Marx (1848)
Cardoso (1979), Wallerstein (1976).
Week 7: Post Colonialism
Post Colonialism
Post-Colonial Development
Said (1978) Intro.
Ferguson (1994), pp. 138-166.
Week 8: Cultural Pluralism
Cultural Pluralism
Nigeria
Cornell and Hartmann (1976)
Wiwa vs. Royal Dutch Shell (2009)
Week 9: Nationalism and Globalization
Nationalism and Identity
Anderson (1991), Chatterjee (1993)
Hawaii
Silva (Ch 1 and 2), Petitions (1897)
Globalization
Bello and Mittal (2001), Ch 1.
Pacific Islands
Teiwa (2006)
Week 10: Terror
Clash of Civilizations?
The “War on Terror”
Huntington (1993), Said (2001), The Quran
Goldstone (2002).
Full Citations for Readings (Tentative)
Anderson, Benedict. 1991. Imagined Communities. New York: Verso.
Atta, Sefi. “Too Many of Nigeria’s Women Are Targets—Not Just the Kidnapped Girls.” TIME.com.
Accessed October 15, 2014. http://time.com/103531/nigeria-boko-haram-sharia-law/.
Batuman, Elif. “The Sanctuary.” The New Yorker, December 12, 2011.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/12/19/the-sanctuary.
Bello, Walden F, and Anuradha Mittal. The Future in the Balance Essays on Globalization and
Resistance. Oakland, Calif: Food First Books. Distributed by LPC Group, c2001 (excerpts).
Simón Bolívar, An Address of Bolivar at the Congress of Angostura (February 15, 1819), Reprint
Ed., (Washington, D.C.: Press of B. S. Adams, 1919).
Bouvard, Marguerite Guzman. Revolutionizing Motherhood: The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo.
Wilmington, Del: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2002.
Cardoso, Fernando Henrique, and Enzo Faletto. Dependency and Development in Latin America.
Berkeley: University of California Press, c1979.
Chatterjee, Partha. The Nation and Its Fragments Colonial and Postcolonial Histories. Princeton
Studies in Culture/power/history. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 1993 (excerpts).
Chirot, Daniel. 1996. Modern Tyrants: The Power and Prevalence of Evil in Our Age. Princeton NJ:
Princeton University Press (excerpts).
Cornell, Stephen, and Hartmann, Douglas. 1998. Ethnicity and Race: Making Identities in a
Changing World. Thousand Oaks CA: Pine Forge Press (excerpts).
Ferguson, James. 1994. The Anti-Politics Machine, “Development,” Depoliticization, and
Bureaucratic Power in Lesotho. University of Minnesota Press. (excerpts).
Ferguson, Niall. Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World. New Ed edition. Penguin, 2012.
Goldstone, Jack, 2002. “States, Terrorists, and the Clash of Civilizations,” in Understanding
September 11. Edited by Craig Calhoun, Paul Price, and Ashley Timmer, The New Press (excerpts).
Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan, n.d.
Hoffman, Stanley, “Clash of Globalizations,” Foreign Affairs, (July/August 2002).
Huntington, Samuel P. “Democracy’s Third Wave.” Journal of Democracy 2, no. 2 (1991): 12–34.
Ken Wiwa and Owens Wiwa and Blessing Kpuinen vs. Royal Dutch Shell, (2009).
http://dg5vd3ocj3r4t.cloudfront.net/sites/default/files/legal/Wiwa-Original-Complaint_0.pdf
Linz, Juan J., and Alfred Stepan. Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation: Southern
Europe, South America, and Post-Communist Europe. JHU Press, 2011.
"Mandate of Heaven" (6th century BCE) from James Legge, trans,The Sacred Books of China: The
Texts of Confucianism, in F. Max Mueller, ed.,The Sacred Books of the East, 50 vols., (Oxford:
Clarendon, 1879-1910),
Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels. 1967. The Communist Manifesto. Great Britain: Penguin Books.
Muñoz, Susana, Lourdes Portillo, and First-Run Features (Firm). Las Madres the Mothers of Plaza de
Mayo. New York: First Run Features, 1980.
O’Neil, Patrick H. Essentials of Comparative Politics. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2012.
Putnam, Robert. “Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital.” Journal of Democracy. Vol.
6, No. 1, (January 1995).
Rizal, Jose, Ma. Soledad Lacson-Locsin, and Raul L Locsin. Noli Me Tangere. SHAPS Library of
Translations. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1997.
Said, Edward W. Orientalism. 1st Vintage Books ed edition. New York: Vintage, 1979.
Said, Edward W. “The Clash of Ignorance.” The Nation, October 4, 2001.
http://www.thenation.com/article/clash-ignorance.
Seidman, Gay W. “Gendered Citizenship: South Africa’s Democratic Transition and the Construction
of a Gendered State.” Gender and Society 13, no. 3 (June 1, 1999): 287–307.
Silva, Noenoe K. Aloha Betrayed: Native Hawaiian Resistance to American Colonialism. Duke
University Press Books, 2004.
Staniland, Martin. 1985. What is political economy? : A study of social theory and underdevelopment.
New Haven: Yale University Press.
Taylor, Brian D., and Roxana Botea. “Tilly Tally: War-Making and State-Making in the
Contemporary Third World1.” International Studies Review 10, no. 1 (March 1, 2008): 27–56.
Tocqueville, Alexis de. Democracy in America. Edited by Isaac Kramnick. Translated by Gerald
Bevan. London: Penguin Classics, 2003.
Vogeler, Kuhio. “Outside Shangri La: Colonization and the U.S. Occupation of Hawaii.” In A Nation
Rising: Hawaiian Movements for Life, Land, and Sovereignty, edited by Noelani Goodyear-Kaopua,
Ikaika Hussey, and Erin Kahunawaika’ala Wright. Durham: Duke University Press Books, 2014.
Wallerstein, Emmanuel. 1974. The Modern World System. Academic Press.
Weber, Max, Politics As a Vocation. 1919.
Zakaria, Fareed. “A Conversation with Lee Kuan Yew.” Foreign Affairs, April 1994.
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/49691/fareed-zakaria/a-conversation-with-lee-kuanyew.