PLSC 510a Introduction to the Study of Politics Ian Shapiro Fall 2007 Monday 9:25-11:15 am Room 119, 8 Prospect Place Office hours: Tuesdays, 2:00 - 4:00 pm 110 Luce Hall, 34 Hillhouse Tel: 432-5253; Email: [email protected]
This course introduces students to some of the major controversies in political science. We focus on the five substantive themes that make up the Yale Initiative: Distributive Politics; Order, Conflict and Violence; Identities, Affiliations, and Allegiances; Crafting and Operating Institutions; Representation and Popular Rule; and Problems and Methods.
We divide our time between discussing readings on these subjects and conversations with different members of the faculty who specialize on them. There is also some attention to methodological controversies within the discipline.
Requirements: An annotated bibliography of one of the substantive themes and a take home final exam.
Key:
[R] = In required reader on sale at Tyco, Elm St (marked as Volume 1) [A] = Available in reader on sale at Tyco or Online (marked as Volume 2)
Monday September 10 Introduction and Housekeeping
Monday September 17 Distributive Politics I
Guest Speakers: 1. Peter Swenson 2. John Roemer 3. Bruce Ackerman
Readings: • “The Citizenship Agenda” by Bruce Ackerman Forthcoming, Democracy Fall 2007. [A] • “Good Distribution, Bad Delivery, and Ugly Politics: The Traumatic Beginnings of Germany’s Health Care System” and/or “B is for Byrnes and Business: An Untold Story about Medicare” [A] • “Racism and redistribution in the United States: A solution to the problem of American exceptionalism” [A]
Monday September 24 Distributive Politics II
Guest Speakers: 1. Thad Dunning 2. Kenneth Scheve 3. Jacob Hacker
Readings: • “Testing the Effects of Social Identity Appeals in Election Campaigns: An fMRI Study” [A] • “Privatizing Risk without Privatizing the Welfare State: The Hidden Politics of Social Policy Retrenchment in the United States” [A] • Acemoglu and Robinson's Economic Origins of Dictatorshipand Democracy Chapter 2 required, Chapters 1 and 3 recommended [R]
Monday October 1 Order, Conflict, and Violence I
Guest Speakers: 1. Stathis Kalyvas 2. Nicholas Sambanis 3. Vivek Sharma
Readings: • “Using Case Studies to Expand Economic Models of Civil War” [A] • “Promises and Pitfalls of an Emerging Research Program: The Microdynamics of Civil War” and “Civil Wars” (Ch 18) [A] • “Social Institutions and Warfare” [A]
Monday October 8 Order, Conflict, and Violence II
Guest Speakers: 1. Elisabeth Wood (Acting Convener) 2. Nikolay Marinov 3. Bruce Russett
Readings: • “Sexual Violence During War: Toward an Understanding of Variation” [A] • “Theories of War in an Era of Leading-Power Peace ‘Presidential Address, APSA 2001’” [A] • Additional reading to follow.
Monday October 15 Identities, Affiliations, and Allegiances I
Guest Speakers: 1. Seyla Benhabib 2. Keith Darden 3. Ian Shapiro
Readings: • Introduction and Chapter 1 Justice Interruptus Nancy Fraser [R] • Iris Marion Young “Five Faces of Oppression” [R] • Darden “Nationalism, Networks, and Armed Resistance to Occupation: Lessons from a Natural Experiment” [A] • Shapiro, Ian. Chapter 5 The State of Democratic Theory [R]
Monday October 22 Identities, Affiliations, and Allegiances II
Guest Speakers: 1. Paulina Ochoa 2. Doug Rae 3. Ian Shapiro
Readings: • Robert E. Goodin's, "Enfranchising all affected interests and its alternatives" Philosophy and Public Affairs, 35(2007), 1. [A] • City: Urbanism and its End. Ch 8, pp. 254-286. [R] • Shapiro, Ian. Chapter 4 The State of Democratic Theory [R]
Monday October 29 Identities, Affiliations, and Allegiances III
Guest Speakers: 1. James Scott 2. Andrew March
Readings: • Courtney Jung on Chiapas and Identity Introduction and Chapter 1 [R] • “Consensus, Stability, and Normativity in Rawl’s Political Liberalism” [A]
Monday November 5 Crafting and Operating Institutions I
Guest Speakers: 1. Steven Skowronek 2. Steven Smith 3. Jim Vreeland
Readings: • Chapter 3 of The Search for American Political Development (online book available) and Sheingate essay “The Domain of the Political Entreprenuer” in Formative Acts [R] • “IMF Program Compliance: Aggregate Index versus Policy Specific Research Strategies.” The Review of International Organizations 1 (4): 359-378 [A] • “Crafting Executive Power: Selected Readings” [R]
Monday November 12 Crafting and Operating Institutions II
Guest Speakers: 1. Greg Huber 2. David Mayhew 3. Alan Gerber
Readings: • "The Effect of Electoral Competitiveness on Incumbent Behavior", Quarterly Journal of Political Science: Vol. 2:No 2, pp 107-138. [A] • Keith E. Whittington & Daniel P. Carpenter, "Executive Power in American Institutional Development," Perspectives on Politics 1:3 (September 2003), 495-513 [A] • “Reforms as Experiments” American Psychologist [A]
Monday November 26 Representation and Popular Rule I
Guest Speakers: 1. David Cameron 2. Frances Rosenbluth 3. Justin Fox
Readings:
• Bernard Manin “Principles of Representative Government” [R] • “Delegates or Trustees? A Theory of Political Accountability” [A] • "Post-Communist Democracy: The Impact of the European Union." David Cameron [A] and Recommended: Charles Tilly Democracy 2007 [need to self- order]
Monday December 3 Representation and Popular Rule II
Guest Speakers: 1. Susan Hyde 2. Pierre Landry (might cancel) 3. Susan Stokes
Readings:
• “Do International Observers Reduce Election Fraud?: Evidence from a Natural Experiment” [A] • “Is Vote Buying Undemocratic?” in Frederic C. Schaffer ed. Elections for Sale: The Causes and Consequences of Vote Buying Lynne Rienner 2007 [A]