Entry requirements

Course taught for exchange students only.

Learning outcomes

The course deals with some of the most central problems described in comparative politics. Why do some people decide to use a gun instead of the ballot when trying to influence politics? What explains differences in degrees of democratisation? Which role do domestic and international factors play in a process of development? What is the role of history – path dependence – for the success of democracy? Can different institutions help solve ethnic conflicts or create justice? These questions are discussed in the course literature, from historical and theoretical perspectives and with reference to empirical research from many parts of the world.

The course aims at providing a good understanding of research in the field of comparative politics. It should provide good knowledge of important research contributions and research strategies that aim at, or are useful for, describing and explaining political and ethnic conflicts, socialisation, democratisation, development, in an extensive geographical comparative context, in developed as well as developing parts of the world. Also, the choice of literature and the cases selected to be studied have been made to give examples of different designs of research projects that should be useful for students preparing their C/D/master-level thesis project. In short, after the course, the students should:

• have a good idea of what comparative politics is
• understand when and why different groups enter into conflicts, and why they sometimes manage to establish peaceful coexistence, and even manage to build democratic regimes
• know the comparative politics discourse better
• be better prepared to write a thesis

Content

Comparative politics is a strange name. It is strange because what you find under the label comparative politics – and its synonyms in other languages – often is not (explicitly) comparative. Most of the time it simply is “politics in other countries”; other, that is, than the home country of the author. The conventional distinction between comparative and international politics is that the former deals with politics in other countries, and the latter between countries; this is more easy to remember if one thinks of another common name for the latter – international relations. But clearly there are interesting questions to ask where this demarcation will not hold, not least in the post-11-September world .

If comparative politics is politics in other countries, then it is indeed a lot. Therefore we must make choices what to study. One option would be to attempt to see the world’s political systems as a number of fairly distinct categories, and to learn about these categories and their cases. This has been attempted by numerous text book authors. Another choice is to study a number of constitutional systems in the world. This course is built on another logic. We have chosen to focus on some central research problems in comparative politics.

The overall problems concern democracy, conflicts, institutions (rules), justice and development. This is chosen because important parts of research in political science concern these issues, and secondly because these issues are important to many people in many countries; two overriding criteria for any research or teaching in social science. Within this theme the course focuses on these three issues:

- Ethnic Conflicts and Mobilisation

- Democratic Consolidation or Crisis

- Global Perspectives on Justice and Development

The choice of theme(s) and literature is a conscious attempt to bridge the unfortunate divide between studies of the West and “the rest”. The idea is that we can learn more about industrialised countries, former socialist countries and so-called Third World countries by not separating them but studying them together.

Apart from the books required to be read, the course will make use of some academic articles. One purpose of using these articles is to give you an idea about current debates in international research. All articles will be available for free via the Uppsala University Library.

Within the allocated teaching resources there are a number of seminars you have to attend. We hope that all of you will take an active part in the discussions we will have in all the seminars.

We have achieved our objective with this course if, in at the end of it, you think you have a better (or even much better) grasp of some substantial empirical, or political, problems in the contemporary world and some orientation in a few current debates in international research.

Instruction

The instruction of this course is comprised of a combination of lectures and seminars. The language of instruction is English. The written assignments (classics, and research proposal) should be written in English (so everyone can read and comment on the proposals/texts). Regarding the written exam, students may give answers in English or Swedish. You may use a language dictionary at the exam.

Attendance is compulsory for all seminars. If you fail to attend a seminar you will have to hand in an extra written assignment. Additional instructions for the seminars may be handed out by the lecturers.

Assessment

Written exam. Seminars. Book reports. Research design-proposal.

One grade for the whole course will be given according to the Swedish three-level system: Pass with distinction= Väl godkänd (Vg), Pass = Godkänd (G), and Fail = Underkänd (U).

Other regulations

Course taught for exchange students.