Political Science 177



|Political Science 288 |Nathan J. Brown |

|Democracy, Constitutionalism, and Hybrid Regimes | |

|Monday 4:10-6:00 |1957 E Street, Suite 512 |

|2020 K Street, Room 22 |Telephone: (202) 994-2123 |

| |Email: nbrown@gwu.edu |

Introduction

Beginning in the 1960s, most specialists in comparative politics turned their attention away from democracy for two reasons. First, most began to reject the idea that political structures throughout the world were converging on liberal democracy. Second, formal electoral structures seemed increasingly irrelevant to politics throughout the world.

At the same time, scholars began to develop some older (and devise some newer) analytical concepts for the understanding of non-democratic systems, ranging from sultanism to bureaucratic authoritarianism.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, seemingly entrenched authoritarian regimes in southern Europe and South America collapsed or withdrew, making way for the reemergence of democracy. Scholarly interest in democracy began to rise. When the communist regimes of the Soviet bloc began to collapse in the late 1980s, a torrent of scholarly writings on democracy quickly followed.

Yet the new interest in democracy raised as many problems as it answered. Were we really witnessing a global wave of democratization or merely the simultaneous collapse of a diverse set of authoritarian regimes?

And the turn toward democracy led to an abandonment of systematic study of non-democratic systems; “authoritarianism” quickly became a residual category for any non-democracy.

The past decade has not witnessed any diminution of scholarly interest in democracy, but it has allowed for more reflective and nuanced scholarship to emerge on both democracy and authoritarianism as well as “hybrid” regimes that seem to combine some of their features.

In this course, however, we will begin not with the most recent scholarship but with some older writings that have colored much of our subsequent thinking about regime type. These writings often contain not only the seeds of current assumptions but also long-forgotten insights and cautions that can help us approach more recent writings with a more critical eye. After considering some of these older writers, we will proceed to some of the newer scholarship, drawing not only on empirical research but also (and perhaps especially) on more theoretical and abstract works related to democracy and democratization.

Requirements

The primary requirements is to read the assigned articles and books carefully and critically and come to class to discuss them.

The other requirements are designed to support this primary requirement:

• Each week, all students should submit a short list (perhaps two or three) of discussion questions. I am particularly interested in questions that compare and contrast the readings or the approaches taken by various authors to the issues raised in the course. These questions should be posted on Blackboard at least 24 hours before the class begins.

• I also ask that each student write a short research proposal (approximately 10 pages) in which s/he crafts a research question provoked by the course and designs an empirical study to answer the question. I will work with each student on developing the proposal; the last two sessions will be devoted to student presentations of their work.

Course outline

Please note that the schedule below may be subject to minor changes. In particular, I might have to reschedule one class and use the designated make-up day of December 7.

The readings are generally either available at the Bookstore or on-line through Aladin. I have provided links below that should work if you are using a computer on the GW campus or are off campus and logged on to Aladin.

|Aug 30 |Introduction to the Course|No Readings |

|DEMOCRACY AND DEMOCRATIZATION |

|Sep 13 |What is Democracy? |Aristotle, Politics, Aristotle, Politics, Book IV, chapters iii-xvi; book VI, chapters i-v |

| | |() |

| | |Adam Przworski, “Self Government in Our Time,” |

| | |(

| | |120543) |

| | |Josiah Ober, “What the Ancient Greeks Can Tell Us about Democracy,” |

| | |(

| | |6.143750) |

|Sep 20 |Democratization I |O’Donnell and Schmitter, Transitions from Authoritarian Rule: Tentative Conclusions about |

| | |Uncertain Democracies |

| | |Nancy Bermeo, “The Myths of Moderation: The Role of Radical Forces in the Transition to |

| | |Democracy” ( ) |

|Sep 27 |Democratization II |Nathan Brown, editor, The Dynamics of Democratization (to be posted on Blackboard) |

|DELIBERATION AND PUBLICITY |

|Oct 4 |Public Sphere |Jurgen Habermas, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere |

|Oct 11 |Deliberation |Elster, Deliberative Democracy |

| | |Lisa Wedeen, Peripheral Visions, Chapter 3 |

|Oct 18 |Practicing Deliberation |Kahane, Deliberative Democracy in Practice |

| | |Thompson, “Deliberative Democratic Theory and Empirical Political Science,” |

| | |(

| | |6.070555) |

|CONSTITUTIONALISM |

|Oct 25 |Constitutionalism I |Elster, Constitutionalism and Democracy |

|Nov 1 |Constitutionalism II |Elkins, Endurance of National Constitutions |

| | |Andrew Arato, “Sistani vs. Bush,” |

| | |(( |

| | |Brown, “Reason Interest Rationality and Passion in Constitution Drafting,” |

| | |(

| | |=&volumeId=&issueId=&aid=2657780) |

|Nov 8 |Rule of Law |Ginsburg, Rule of Law |

|HYBRIDITY |

|Nov 15 |Semi authoritarianism |Ottaway, “The Challenge of Semiauthoritarianism,” |

| | |() |

| | |Henry Hale, “Regime Cycles” |

| | |() |

| | |Browlee, “Ruling Parties and Regime Persistence,” |

| | |() |

| | |Magaloni, “Political Order and One Party Rule,” |

| | |(

| | |529) |

|Nov 22 |Elections and |Lindberg, Democratization by Elections |

| |authoritarianism |Schedler, Electoral Authoritarianism, chapters by Schedler and Snyder |

| | |Gandhi, “Elections under Authoritarianism” |

| | |(

| | |095434 ) |

|STUDENT PRESENTATIONS |

|Nov 29 |Student presentations | |

|Dec 6 |Student presentations | |

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