Subject
SAMPOL 115, Democracy and Democratization
(Updated 12.05.2005)
Credits:
15 ECTS credits
Duration:
1 semester
Semester offered:
Every Autumn semester
Form of instruction: Lectures and seminars
Language of
instruction:
English
Recommended
background:
SAMPOL100 and SAMPOL 110
Prerequsites:
Fulfilment of general admission requirements
Specific course
requirements:
Submission of one essay. Students work with the essay in the seminars.
It is mandatory to participate in the seminars.
Examination:
7 days home exam and submission of one essay. The home exam will
count for 2/3 of the final grade; the essay will count for 1/3 of the final
grade.
Objectives:
Students shall acquire knowledge of some basic concepts and theories
of democracy, and learn to apply them comparatively by the use of
empirical examples drawn cross-nationally. The literature on political
development will be utilized to understand conditions that lead to the
emergence of democracy, as well as the nature of democratic
transitions and consolidation. Attention will also be given to the
relation between democracy, civil society, and economic conditions.
Lectures will be focused upon survey, analyzing, and critiquing a range
of influential models and theories in the literature on democratization,
and illustrating via the application of a variety of historical examples.
Content:
The course discusses questions regarding concepts (definitions and
theoretical traditions); democratic institutions (majoritarian and
consociated democracy, presidential and parliamentary democracy);
economic development, modernization, and democratization;
democracy and civil society; democratic transition and consolidation.
Course Readings
Required Books:
Collier, Ruth Berins. 1999. Paths Toward Democracy: The Working Class and Elites in
Western Europe and South America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (165 pp.)
Haynes, Jeff. 2001. Democracy in the Developing World: Asia, Africa, Latin America and the
Middle East. Cambridge: Polity Press. (192 pp.)
Linz, Juan J., and Arturo Valenzuela, eds. 1994. The Failure of Presidential Democracy:
Comparative Perspectives. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. (121 pp.)
O’Donnell, Guillermo, Philippe Schmitter, and Laurence Whitehead. 1986. Transitions from
Authoritarian Rule. Vol.4: Tentative Conclusions about Uncertain Democracies. Baltimore:
Johns Hopkins University Press. (76 pp.)
Randall, Vicky, and Robin Theobald. 1998. Political Change and Underdevelopment: A
Critical Introduction to Third World Politics. 2nd ed. New York: Palgrave. (221 pp.)
Recommended Books (purchase either of the following):
Beetham, David. 2000. Democracy and Human Rights. Cambridge: Polity Press. (100 pp.)
Midgaard, Knut, and Bjørn Erik Rasch, eds. 2004. 2nd ed. Demokrati – vilkår og virkninger.
Bergen: Fagbokforlaget. (140 pp..)
Compendium of Selected Readings:
Carothers, Thomas. 2002. “The End of the Transition Paradigm.” Journal of Democracy 13
(January): 5-21.
Dahl, Robert. 1971. Polyarchy: Participation and Opposition. New Haven: Yale University
Press.
— Chapter 1: “Democratization and Public Opposition,” 1-16.
Diamond, Larry. 1991. “Economic Development and Democracy Reconsidered.” In
Reexamining Democracy: Essays in Honor of Seymour Martin Lipset, ed. Gary Marks and
Larry Diamond. London: Sage, 93-139.
Doorenspleet, Renske. 2004. “The Structural Context of Recent Transitions to Democracy.”
European Journal of Political Research 43 (3): 309-35.
Huber, Evelyne, Dietrich Rueschemeyer, and John D. Stephens. 1993. “The Impact of
Economic Development on Democracy.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 7 (3): 71-85.
Levitsky, Steven, and Lucan A. Way. 2002. “The Rise of Competitive Authoritarianism.”
Journal of Democracy 13 (2): 51-65.
Manley, John F. 1983. “Neo-Pluralism: A Class Analysis of Pluralism I and Pluralism II.”
American Political Science Review 77 (June): 368-83.
O’Donnell, Guillermo. 1979. “Tensions in the Bureaucratic-Authoritarian State and the
Question of Democracy.” In The New Authoritarianism in Latin America, ed. David Collier.
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 285-318.
Przeworski, Adam. 1992. “Games of Transition.” In Issues in Democratic Consolidation: The
New South American Democracies in Comparative Perspective, ed. Scott Mainwaring,
Guillermo O’Donnell, and J. Samuel Valenzuela. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame
Press, 105-116, 137-42, 148-52
Przeworski, Adam, Michael Alvarez, José Antonio Cheibub, and Fernando Limongi. 2001.
“What Makes Democracies Endure?” In The Global Divergence of Democracies, ed. Larry
Diamond and Marc F. Plattner. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 167-184.
Shugart, Matthew Soberg, and John M. Carey. 1993. Presidents and Assemblies:
Constitutional Design and Electoral Dynamics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
— Chapter 3: “Criticisms of Presidentialism and Responses,” 28-54.
Total number of assigned pages (including Midgaard and Rasch): 1182
Total number of assigned pages (including Beetham): 1136
Syllabus
I.
Concepts and Theories (3 general lectures)
* Midgaard, Knut, and Bjørn Erik Rasch, eds. 2004. 2nd ed. Demokrati – vilkår og virkninger.
Bergen: Fagbokforlaget.
— Kapittel 2: Knut Midgaard, “Gode styreformer og demokrati”
— Kapittel 3: Siri Gloppen, "Rettsstat og demokrati"
— Kapittel 4: Jarle Weigård og Erik Oddvar Eriksen, “Deliberasjon og demokrati”
— Kapittel 5: Henrik Syse, “Fellesskap og demokrati”
* Beetham, David. 2000. Democracy and Human Rights. Cambridge: Polity Press.
— Chapter 1: “Defining and Justifying Democracy”
— Chapter 2: “Liberal Democracy and the Limits of Democratization”
Haynes, Jeff. 2001. Democracy in the Developing World: Asia, Africa, Latin America and the
Middle East. Cambridge: Polity Press.
— Chapter 1: “The Third Wave of Democracy”
Dahl, Robert. 1971. Polyarchy: Participation and Opposition. New Haven: Yale University
Press.
— Chapter 1: “Democratization and Public Opposition”
Manley, John F. 1983. “Neo-Pluralism: A Class Analysis of Pluralism I and Pluralism II.”
American Political Science Review 7 (June): 368-83.
II.
Economic Development, Modernization, and Democratization (4
general lectures + 1 region-specific lecture)
*Midgaard and Rasch, Demokrati – vilkår og virkninger
— Kapittel 2: Knut Midgaard, “Gode styreformer og demokrati”
— Kapittel 11: Dan Banik, “Utvikling og demokrati”
* Beetham, Democracy and Human Rights
— Chapter 3: “Market Economy and Democratic Polity”
Randall, Vicky, and Robin Theobald. 1998. Political Change and Underdevelopment: A
Critical Introduction to Third World Politics. 2nd ed. New York: Palgrave.
— Introduction
— Chapter 1: “Towards a Politics of Modernization and Development”
— Chapter 2: “Modernisation Revisionism”
Diamond, Larry. 1991. “Economic Development and Democracy Reconsidered.” In
Reexamining Democracy: Essays in Honor of Seymour Martin Lipset, ed. Gary Marks and
Larry Diamond. London: Sage, 93-139.
Huber, Evelyne, Dietrich Rueschemeyer, and John D. Stephens. 1993. “The Impact of
Economic Development on Democracy.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 7 (3): 71-85.
Randall and Theobald, Political Change and Underdevelopment
— Chapter 3: “The Emergence of a Politics of Order”
— Chapter 4: “Dependency Theory and the Study of Politics”
O’Donnell, Guillermo. 1979. “Tensions in the Bureaucratic-Authoritarian State and the
Question of Democracy.” In The New Authoritarianism in Latin America, ed. David Collier.
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 285-318.
Doorenspleet, Renske. 2004. “The Structural Context of Recent Transitions to Democracy.”
European Journal of Political Research 43 (3): 309-35.
Przeworski, Adam, Michael Alvarez, José Antonio Cheibub, and Fernando Limongi. 2001.
“What Makes Democracies Endure?” In The Global Divergence of Democracies, ed. Larry
Diamond and Marc F. Plattner. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 167-184.
III.
The Transition to and Consolidation of Democracy (5 general
lectures + 1 region-specific lecture)
* Beetham, Democracy and Human Rights
— Chapter 4: “Conditions for Democratic Consolidation”
Haynes, Democracy in the Developing World
— Chapter 2: “Democratic Transitions and Structured Contingency”
O’Donnell, Guillermo, Philippe Schmitter, and Laurence Whitehead. 1986. Transitions from
Authoritarian Rule. Vol.4: Tentative Conclusions about Uncertain Democracies. Baltimore:
Johns Hopkins University Press.
Przeworski, Adam. 1992. “Games of Transition.” In Issues in Democratic Consolidation: The
New South American Democracies in Comparative Perspective, ed. Scott Mainwaring,
Guillermo O’Donnell, and J. Samuel Valenzuela. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame
Press, 105-116, 137-42, 148-52.
Haynes, Democracy in the Developing World
— Chapter 3: “Explaining Democratic Consolidation”
— Chapters 4-8: (Latin America, East and South East Asia, South Asia, Africa, The
Middle East)
Carothers, Thomas. 2002. “The End of the Transition Paradigm.” Journal of Democracy 13
(January): 5-21.
Levitsky, Steven, and Lucan A. Way. 2002. “The Rise of Competitive Authoritarianism.”
Journal of Democracy 13 (2): 51-65.
IV.
Democratic Institutions and Models of Democracy – (3 general
lectures + 1 region-specific lecture)
* Midgaard and Rasch, Demokrati – vilkår og virkninger
— Chapter 8: Bjørn Erik Rasch, “Valg og demokrati”
* Beetham, Democracy and Human Rights
— Chapter 9: “Democratic Criteria for Electoral Systems”
Linz, Juan J., and Arturo Valenzuela, eds. 1994. The Failure of Presidential Democracy:
Comparative Perspectives. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
— Chapter 1: Juan Linz, “Presidential or Parliamentary Democracy: Does it Make a
Difference?”
— Chapter 3: Giovanni Sartori, “Neither Presidentialism nor Parliamentarism”
— Chapter 4: Alfred Stepan and Cindy Skach, “Presidentialism and Parliamentarism in
Comparative Perspective”
Shugart, Matthew Soberg, and John M. Carey. 1993. Presidents and Assemblies:
Constitutional Design and Electoral Dynamics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
— Chapter 3: “Criticisms of Presidentialism and Responses”
V.
Democracy and Civil Society (3 general lectures + 1 region-specific
lecture)
Randall and Theobald, Political Change and Underdevelopment
— Chapter 5: “The State and Civil Society”
Collier, Ruth Berins. 1999. Paths Toward Democracy: The Working Class and Elites in
Western Europe and South America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
— Chapter 1: “Introduction: Elite Conquest or Working-Class Triumph?”
— Chapter 2: “Elite-Led Reform in Early Democratization”
— Chapter 3: “Political Calculations and Socialist Parties”
— Chapter 4: “Labor Action in Recent Democratization”
* Students should here read either the Midgaard & Rasch chapters or the Beetham chapters
depending on which book the student has purchased.