Government 491
Fall 1996
Professor Mainwaring
300 Hesburgh Center and 217 O'Shaughnessy
631-6580; 631-8530
Building and Consolidating Democracy
What explains why democracy endures in some countries and not others? That is the central question we will address in this course. We will explore different theoretical approaches to this question. Some analysts have claimed that democracy rests fundamentally on values of political elites and citizens. Others emphasize the importance of a high standard of living in supporting democracy; others stress the role of political institutions or international factors.
Objectives. I have three primary objectives in teaching this course. The first is thematic: I am fascinated with democracy and what makes it work, and I want to introduce the major theoretical approaches to this question. Second, I want to encourage students to develop the skills of careful reading and analysis based on that reading. Finally, I hope to help you write interesting research papers about one of the great political issues of our times.
Requirements and Grading. I intend to run this course as a seminar; I do not plan to lecture very much. Successful seminars require that the students carry much of the responsibility for making the course work. For this reason, a major part of the course will be doing the reading, coming to class well prepared, and contributing to class discussions. Class contributions will be an important part of your grade.
During the semester, you will write two two page papers (due September 25 and October 16), one take home midterm (8 double spaced pages, due November 6) and a research paper (about 20 pages, due December 13). The two page papers will count for 1/8 of your grade, the midterm for 25%, the research paper for 3/8, and class contributions for 25%.
The research papers must focus on the main theme of this course. You must receive my explicit permission for the subjects of your papers. You can apply the theoretical issues that we discuss to a certain case. Why has democracy survived or broken down in different countries? The most interesting cases to explore tend to be those that produce surprising results. Why, despite many formidible obstacles, has democracy in India or Costa Rica survived? Why did democracy break down in Chile or Uruguay in 1973, despite the reasonably high standard of living? Why did Argentina, with a high standard of living, have so much difficulty developing democracy until 1983? Why has authoritarianism survived in Singapore despite its very high standard of living? Or you can delve more deeply into one of the issues that we have explored. For example, most authors writing on international factors supporting democratization have been relatively skeptical that foreign intervention can be very effective, but it is possible that foreign pressures have become effective in recent years. Or you might address whether and why Islam has been unfavorable to democracy.
I expect you to work closely with me on the research papers. An early statement of your theme is due October 7.
I realize that this is a heavy writing load, and as a result, am not assigning much reading over the second half of the semester.
Office Hours
Monday, 2:00-3:30, 217 O'Shaugnessy
Thursday, 2:00-3:30 300 Hesburgh Center
If these times are not convenient, I would be happy to arrange for an alternative time. Please note that I keep office hours in two different offices. I will not be available for office hours on Thursday, August 29.
I am a regular e-mail user. Please feel free to contact me through e-mail, and I will respond as promptly as possible. My address is mainwaring.1@nd.edu
Purchasing course materials. The following books should be available at the ND Bookstore:
Robert A. Dahl, Polyarchy
Robert Putnam, Making Democracy Work
Arend Lijphart, Democracy in Plural Societies
All of these books are also on reserve at the library; you are by no means obliged to purchase the books.
I have also assembled a course packet for most of the articles in this course. This packet can be purchased at The Copy Shop in LaFortune Student Center. These articles are also on reserve at the library.
Assignments
August 28. Introductory meeting
What is Democracy?
September 2.
Robert A. Dahl, Polyarchy: Participation and Opposition (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1971), pp. 1-32; Philippe C. Schmitter and Terry Lynn Karl, "What Democracy Is … and Is Not," Journal of Democracy Vol. 2 No. 3 (Summer 1991), pp. 75-88.
Structural Conditions and Democracy.
September 4 and 9. Larry Diamond, "Economic Development and Democracy Reconsidered," in Garry Marks and Larry Diamond, eds., Reexamining Democracy: Essays in Honor of Seymour Martin Lipset (Newbury Park: SAGE, 1992), pp. 93-139; Dahl, Polyarchy: Participation and Opposition, pp. 62-80; Adam Przeworski, Michael Alvarez, José Antonio Cheibub, and Fernando Limongi, "What Makes Democracies Endure," The Journal of Democracy Vol. 7 No. 1 (January 1996): 39-55.
September 11. Dahl, Polyarchy, pp. 33-61, 81-123.
Political Culture and Democracy
September 16. Robert D. Putnam, Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993), preface and pp. 3-62.
September 18. Putnam, Making Democracy Work, pp. 63-120.
September 23. Putnam, Making Democracy Work, pp. 121-185; Sidney Tarrow, "Making Social Science Work across Space and Time: A Critical Reflection on Robert Putnam's Making Democracy Work," American Political Science Review 90 No. 2 (June 1996): 389-397.
September 25. Samuel P. Huntington, The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1991), pp. 1-30, 72-85, 294-315; Myron Weiner, "Empirical Democratic Theory," in Myron Weiner and Ergun Ozbudun, eds., Competitive Elections in Developing Countries (Durham: Duke University Press/American Enterprise Institute, 1987), pp. 1-34 (read only pp. 18-23).
Also: first two page paper due. Subject to be announced.
Political Elites and Democracy
September 30. Robert A. Dahl, Polyarchy, pp. 124-188.
October 2. Arend Lijphart, Democracy in Plural Societies: A Comparative Exploration (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1977), pp. 1-52.
October 7. Lijphart, Democracy in Plural Societies, pp. 53-119.
Also: Title and one page statement about your research project due. This statement should clearly indicate what your project is about and give some sense of what sources you plan to use.
October 9. Lijphart, Democracy in Plural Societies, pp. 142-147, 164-176, 223-238; Brian Barry, "The Consociational Model and Its Dangers," European Journal of Political Research 3 (1975): 393-412.
October 14. Alfred Stepan, "Political Leadership and Regime Breakdown: Brazil," in Juan J. Linz and Alfred Stepan, The Breakdown of Democratic Regimes: Latin America (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1978), pp. 110-137; Juan Linz and Alfred Stepan, "Political Crafting of Democratic Consolidation or Destruction: European and South American Comparisons," in Robert A. Pastor, ed., Democracy in the Americas: Stopping the Pendulum (New York: Holmes and Meier, 1989), pp. 41-61.
October 16. Political elites versus structural change. Daniel H. Levine, "Venezuela since 1958: The Consolidation of Democratic Politics," in Juan J. Linz and Alfred Stepan, The Breakdown of Democratic Regimes: Latin America (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1978), pp. 82-109; Terry Lynn Karl, "Petroleum and Political Pacts: The Transition to Democracy in Venezuela," in Guillermo O'Donnell, Philippe C. Schmitter, and Laurence Whitehead, eds., Transitions from Authoritarian Rule: Prospects for Democracy (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986), Part 2, pp. 196-219.
Also: Second two page paper due. Subject to be announced.
Political Institutions and Democracy
October 28. Juan J. Linz, "The Perils of Presidentialism," The Journal of Democracy Vol. 1 No. 1 (Winter 1990), pp. 51-69; Seymour Martin Lipset, "The Centrality of Political Culture," The Journal of Democracy Vol. 1 No. 4 (Fall 1990) pp. 80-83; Matthew Shugart and Scott Mainwaring, "Juan Linz, Presidentialism, and Democracy," Comparative Politics, forthcoming.
International Dimensions of Democratization
October 30. Laurence Whitehead, "International Aspects of Democratization,"in Guillermo O'Donnell, Philippe C. Schmitter, and Laurence Whitehead, eds., Transitions from Authoritarian Rule: Prospects for Democracy (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986), Part 3, pp. 3-46.
November 1. Huntington, The Third Wave, pp. 85-106; Thomas Carothers, "The Reagan Years: The 1980s," in Abraham F. Lowenthal, Exporting Democracy: The United States and Latin America--Themes and Issues (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991), pp. 90-122.
November 6. Take Home Exam due.
November 8-25. Work on research papers.
November 25. A draft of your paper is due.
December 13. Final draft of paper due.
Additional readings.
An excellent resource is the quarterly Journal of Democracy.
Overviews: Larry Diamond, Juan J. Linz, and Seymour Martin Lipset, eds., Democracy in Developing Countries, three volumes (Boulder: Lynne Rienner). Samuel Huntingon, "Will More Countries Become Democratic?" Political Science Quarterly 99 No. 2 (Summer 1984): 193-218; David Held, ed., Prospects for Democracy: North, South, East, West (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1993); Robert Dahl, Democracy and Its Critics (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989).
Economic development and democracy: The seminal exploration of the relationship between economic development and democracy is Seymour Martin Lipset, Political Man, ; For recent treatments of this issue, Seymour Martin Lipset et al., "A Comparative Analysis of the Social Requisites of Democracy," International Social Science Journal XLV No. 2 (May 1993): 155-175; Dietrich Rueschemeyer, Evelyne Huber Stephens, and John D. Stephens, Capitalist Development and Democracy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992), pp. 12-78; Tatu Vanhenen, The Process of Democratization: A Comparative Study of 147 States, 1980-88 (New York: Crane Russak, 1990). For a critical analysis of this relationship, applied to Latin America's more developed countries, see Guillermo O'Donnell, Modernization and Bureaucratic Authoritarianism (Berkeley: Institute of International Studies, 1973), and David Collier, ed., The New Authoritarianism in Latin America (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979). On the relationship between the level (quality) of democracy and the level of economic development, see Axel Hadenius, Democracy and Development (New York and Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992).
Class approaches to democracy: Dietrich Rueschemeyer, Evelyne Huber Stephens, and John D. Stephens, Capitalist Development and Democracy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992); and Barrington Moore, Jr., Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Moderen World (Boston: Beacon Press, 1966).
Political elites and democracy. Guillermo O'Donnell and Philippe Schmitter, Tentative Conclusions about Uncertain Democracies, Part 4 of Guillermo O'Donnell, Philippe C. Schmitter, and Laurence Whitehead, eds., Transitions from Authoritarian Rule: Prospects for Democracy (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986). John Higley and Richard Gunther, eds., Elites and Democratic Consolidation in Latin American and Southern Europe (New York and Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), also emphasize the role of political elites. An important recent book, but one published too late to order for the bookstore, is Juan J. Linz and Alfred Stepan, Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation: Southern Europe, South American, and Post-Communist Europe (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996).
International dimensions of democratization. See the essays by Tom Farer and Robert A. Pastor in Robert A. Pastor, ed., Democracy in the Americas: Stopping the Pendulum (New York: Holmes and Meier, 1989). On the U.S. role in hindering or supporting democracy in Latin America, see Abraham F. Lowenthal, Exporting Democracy: The United States and Latin America--Themes and Issues (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991); Thomas Carouthers, In the Name of Democracy: U. S. Policy toward Latin America in the Reagan Years (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991); Tom Farer, ed., Beyond Sovereignty: Collectively Defending Democracy in the Americas (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996). On the role of international factors in southern Europe, see Geoffrey Pridham, ed., Encouraging Democracy: The International Context of Regime Transition in Southern Europe (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1991). A volume just published, but still not available as of the time I produced this syllabus, is an edited collection by Laurence Whitehead, published by Oxford University Press.
Africa: C. Ake, "Rethinking African Democracy," Journal of Democracy Vol. 2 No. 1 (1991): 32-44; M. Chege, "Democracy's Future: Between Africa's Extremes," Journal of Democracy Vol. 6 No. 1 (1995): 44-51.