Proseminar in Comparative Analysis Eric Davis

790:503 Fall 2006

COURSE OUTLINE

Comparative politics is the political science sub-field which seeks to understand political
systems and processes through comparative analysis. While this definition may seem
straightforward, comparative politics confronts a tension between its historical constitution as a
field prior to the Second World War devoted to non-American political systems (i.e., as seen in
the appellation, “foreign governments”) and more recent efforts to constitute the field around the
notion of comparative method. For many, comparative politics still elicits the idea of area
specialists - Europeanists, Latin Americanists, Africanists, and so on - and indeed the field is still
largely structured by this logic in many American universities. However, current cutting edge
research in comparative politics, whether of a comparative historical or contemporary nature, is
generated less by case studies of individual countries or regions than by the development of new
methodologies designed to be applicable trans-regionally. We will focus on methodological
issues and case materials which have implications for current debates in the field.
The categories that structure the course syllabus reflect the dominant debates and
controversies in the comparative politics field today. These debates actually encompass broader
philosophical issues about what types of conceptual frameworks produce the best theoretical
explanations. We will be less interested in offering judgments on these debates than in laying
out the arguments of various conceptual schools and making explicit the methodological criteria
that each one employs to arrive at its explanations. In juxtaposing competing paradigms in
comparative analysis such as political culture versus political economy, structure versus agency,
inductive/atomistic (e.g., rational choice, quantitative) versus deductive/holistic (e.g., neo-
Weberian, neo-Marxian), or comparative historical versus “presentist” models, we will search
more for integrative possibilities (“family resemblances”) than for mutual exclusiveness.
Students will be expected to prepare not only the core readings but also to familiarize
themselves with the recommended readings. Teams of discussants will present short critical
analyses of the core readings at the beginning of each session. These presentations should offer
probing questions and critical comments intended to stimulate class discussions. Presentations
and class participation will constitute 20% of your evaluation. A research design which analyzes
a phenomenon from the perspective of at least two competing approaches and which strives for
theoretical synthesis will constitute 30% of your evaluation. The design should include an
extensive bibliography. A take-home final examination will comprise 50% of your evaluation.
Because a proseminar is meant to introduce the student to ongoing debates and issues in a
particular field and thereby better prepare her/him for future research, the focus is on becoming
well-versed with a broad range of readings rather than research per se. Students should survey
the major political science journals for the latest articles on comparative political analysis as part
of the compilation of a bibliography, such as the APSR, World Politics, Comparative Politics,
International Organization, Government and Opposition, Comparative Studies in Society and
History, Comparative Political Studies, Politics & Society, Public Culture, and area specific
journals, e.g., China Quarterly, East European Politics and Societies, International Journal of
Middle Eastern Studies, Journal of Latin American Studies, and African Studies Review.
Office hours will be held at 512 Hickman Hall: Tues. 10:45-12:00, and Th.11:45-12:30,
and by appointment. Tel: (732)932-9322; email: <[email protected]>
Department of Political Science web page: <http://fas-polisci.rutgers.edu/~davis>.

COURSE READINGS
(Available at the Douglass Cooperative Bookstore, Nichol Ave.; Book Manager: contact: Deb
Nilson; 932-9017)

Diamond, Larry, Developing Democracy: Toward Consolidation (Johns Hopkins)

Lickbach, Mark Irving and Alan S. Zuckerman, eds., Comparative Politics: Rationality,
Culture and Structure (Cambridge)
Mahoney, James, and Dietrich Rueschmeyer, eds., Comparative Historical Analysis in
the Social Sciences (Cambridge)
Moore, Barrington, Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy (Beacon)

COURSE OUTLINE

I. INTRODUCTION: EPISTEMOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL CONCERNS (Sept. 7, 14)

Mahoney and Rueschmeyer, 373-404
Alasdair MacIntyre, “Is A Science of Comparative Politics Possible?,” in Against
the Self-Images of the Age (Schocken,1971): 260-279
Lickbach and Zuckerman, “Research Traditions and Theory in Comparative Politics: An
Introduction,” 3-16
Recommended:
Howard Wiarda, “Comparative Politics Past and Present,” in H. Wiarda,
ed., New Directions in Comparative Politics (Westview, 1985): 3-25
Alfred Schutz, The Phenomenology of the Social World
(Northwestern,1967)
A.J. Ayer, “Can There Be a Private Language,” in Pitcher, Wittgenstein: 251-266
Gabriel Almond, A Divided Discipline: Schools and Sects in Political
Science (Sage, 1990)
Peter Winch, The Idea of a Social Science and its Relationship to
Philosophy (RKP, 1958), 1-65
Rush Rhees, “Can There Be a Private Language,” in George Pitcher, ed.,
Wittgenstein: The Philosophical Investigations: A Collection of Critical Essays
(Anchor Books,1966): 267-285

II. METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES IN COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS (Sept. 14, 21, 28)

David Collier, “The Comparative Method,” in Ada W. Finifer, ed., Political
Science: The State of the Discipline II (APSA, 1993): 105-119
Clifford Geertz, “Thick Description: Towards an Interpretive Theory of Culture,”
in The Interpretation of Cultures (Basic Books, 1973): 3-30
Charles Ragin, Fuzzy-Set Social Science (Chicago, 2000), 21-42
Gerardo Munck, “Game Theory and Comparative Politics,” World Politics 53
(January 2001): 173-204
Donald P. Green and Ian Shapiro, Pathologies of Rational Choice Theory: A
Critique of Applications in Political Science (Yale, 1994): 1-43

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 Mustafa Emirbayer and Ann Mische, “What is Agency?,” American Journal of
Sociology, 103/4 (January 1998): 962-1023
Sidney Tarrow, “Bridging the Quantitative-Qualitative Divide in Political
Science,” APSR, 89/2 (1995): 471-74.
Recommended:
Charles Ragin, Comparative Method (California, 1987), 1-84.
Ragin, Fuzzy Sets, 203-308
Gary King, Robert O. Keohane and Sidney Verba, Designing Social
Inquiry: Scientific Inference in Qualitative Research, 3-63
Margaret Levi, “A Model, A Method and a Map: Rational Choice in
Comparative and Historical Perspective,” in Lickbach and
Zuckerman, 19-41
Mancur Olson, The Logic of Collective Action (Schocken, 1971)
Adam Przeworski and Henry Teune, The Logic of Comparative Social
Inquiry (John Wiley, 1970)
Charles Ragin and Howard S. Becker (eds.), What is a Case? Exploring
the Foundations of Social Inquiry (Cambridge, 1992)
Green and Shapiro, Pathologies, 47-97

III. APPROACHES TO COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS: POLITICAL CULTURE (Oct. 5, 12)

A. Political Anthropology (Oct. 5)
David I. Kertzer, Ritual, Politics and Power (Yale, 1988): 1-14, 151-184
David D. Laitin and Aaron Wildavsky, “Political Culture and Political
Preferences,” APSR 82/2 (June 1988): 589-93
Jan Kubik, The Powers of Symbols Against the Symbols of Power (Penn State
1994): 239-269
Recommended:
Myron Aronoff, Israeli Visions and Divisions: Cultural Change and
Political Conflict (Transaction, 1989)
Clifford Geertz, “Ideology as a Cultural System,” in the Interpretation of
Cultures (Basic Books, 1973): 193-233

B. Political Psychology (Oct. 5)

Kristan Renwick Monroe and Lina Haddad Kreidie, “The Perspectives of Islamic
Fundamentalists and the Limits of Rational Choice Theory,” Political
Psychology 18/1 (Mar.1997):19-43
Recommended:
Ronald Inglehart, “The Renaissance of Political Culture,” APSR 82/4
(Dec. 1988): 1203-1230
Richard W. Wilson, Compliance Ideologies: Rethinking Political Culture
(Cambridge, 1992): 11-24, 97-121
Ronald Inglehart, Culture Shift in Advanced Industrial Society (Princeton,
1990).
Michael L. Gross, “Moral Reasoning and Ideological Affiliation,”
Political Psychology 17/2 (June 1996): 317-338

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 C. Political Identity (Oct. 12)
Mark Howard Ross, “Culture and Identity in Comparative Political Analysis,” in
Lickbach and Zuckerman, 42-80
Samuel Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order
(Simon & Schuster, 1996):125-154
Myron Aronoff, “The Politics of Collective Identity,” Reviews in Anthropology,
27/1 (Mar.1998):71-85
Recommended:
Eric Davis, “The Museum and the Politics of Social Control in
Modern Iraq,” in John Gillis (ed.), Commemorations: The
Politics of Memory and Identity (Princeton, 1994): 90-108.

D. Culturalist Perspectives on the State (Oct. 12)

Joel Migdal, “Studying the State,” in Lickbach and Zuckerman, 208-235
Eric Davis, Memories of State: Politics, History and Collective Identity in
Modern Iraq (California), 1-33, 271-283
Recommended:
Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger (eds.), The Invention of Tradition
(Cambridge, 1983)

IV. APPROACHES TO COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS: POLITICAL ECONOMY (Oct. 19,

26)
A. Modeling Comparative History (Oct. 19, 26)
Mahoney and Rueschmeyer, 3-40, 305-337
Moore, 3-39, 413-483
Ira Katznelson, “Structure and Configuration in Comparative Politics,” in
Lickbach and Zuckerman, 81-112
Ian S. Lustick, “History, Historiography, and Political Science: Multiple
Historical Records and Selection Bias,”APSR, 90/3(1996): 605-618
Karl Marx, “The German Ideology,” in Robert Tucker, The Marx-Engels Reader
(Norton, 1988, 2nd ed.): 146-200
Pierson, Politics in Time, 1-53
Recommended:
T.H. Aston and C.H.E. Philpin, The Brenner Debate: Agrarian Class
Structure and Economic Development in Pre-Modern Europe
(Cambridge, 1985)

B. Rational Choice in Historical Perspective (Oct. 26)

Douglass North, Structure and Change in Economic History. New York, W.W.
Norton, 1981: 3-32
Recommended:
Mancur Olson, The Rise and Decline of Nations (Yale, 1982)

C. New Institutionalism (Nov. 2)

Peter Hall, “The Role of Interests, Institutions and Ideas in the Comparative

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 Political Economy of the Industrialized Nations,” Lickbach and
Zuckerman, 174-207
Mahoney and Rueschmeyer, 208-240
Recommended:
Ellen M. Immergut, “The Theoretical Core of the New Institutionalism,” Politics
& Society 26/1 (Mar.,1998): 5-34

D. The State in the Global Economy (Nov. 2)

Peter Evans, “The Eclipse of the State? Reflections on Stateness in the Era of
Globalization,” World Politics 51 (Oct.,1998): 62-87
Saskia Sassen, “The State and the Global City: Notes Towards A
Conceptualization of Place-Centered Governance,”in Globalization and
Its Discontents (New Press, 1998):195-218
Recommended:
Helen V. Milner and Robert O. Keohane, Internationalization and
Domestic Politics: An Introduction,” in Keohane and Milner, eds.,
. Internationalization and Domestic Politics. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1996: 3-24
Michael Shafer, Sectors, States and Social Forces: Toward a New
Comparative Political Economy of Development (Cornell, 1994)
Jeffry A. Frieden and Ronald Rogowski, “The Impact of the International
Economy on National Policies: An Analytic Overview,” in
Keohane and Milner, eds. Internationalization and Domestic
Politics: 25-47.

V. COLLECTIVE ACTION THEORY (Nov. 9)

Sidney Tarrow, “Social Movements in Contentious Politics: A Review Article,”
APSR 90/4 (Dec. 1996): 874-883
Doug McAdam, Sidney Tarrow, and Charles Tilly, “Toward an Integrated
Perspective on Social Movements and Revolution,” in Lickbach and
Zuckerman, 142-173
Recommended:
Samuel Barnes, “Electoral Behavior and Comparative Politics, in
Lickbach and Zuckerman, 115-141.
Peter Houtzager, “Collective Action and Political Authority: Rural
Workers, Church and State in Brazil,” Theory and Society 30
(2001):1-45
Roberto Franzosi, The Puzzle of Strikes: Class and State Strategies in
Postwar Italy (Cambridge, 1995)4
Jeff Kopstein, “Chipping Away at the State: Workers’ Resistance and the
Demise of East Germany,” World Politics 48 (Apr. 1996): 391-423

VI. THEORIES OF THE STATE: COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVES (Nov. 9,16)

A. State-Society Relations (Nov. 4)
Samuel Huntington, Political Order in Changing Societies, 1-92

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 Theda Skocpol, States and Social Revolutions (Cambridge, 1981): 3-43
Timothy Mitchell, “The Limits of the State: Beyond Statist Approaches and Their
Critics,” APSR 85/1 (Mar.1991): 77-95
“Going Beyond the State: Comments on Mitchell,” APSR 86/4, (Dec.1992):
1007-1021
Recommended:
Theda Skocpol, “Bringing the State Back In: Strategies of Analysis in
Current Research,” P. Evans et al, eds. Bringing the State Back In
(Cambridge: 1985): 3-28
E. Davis, “Theorizing Statecraft in Arab Oil-Producing Countries,” in
Statecraft in the Middle East: Oil, History and Popular Culture
(Florida, 1991): 1-34.
David Held, Models of Democracy, 2nd Ed (Stanford, 1996): 199-232.

B. The State and the New Institutionalism (Nov. 30)

Barbara Geddes, Politician’s Dilemma: Building State Capacity in Latin America.
Berkeley and Los Angeles: (California, 1995): 1-23, 182-196
R. Daniel Keleman, Geoffrey Garrett and Heiner Schulz, “The European Court of
Justice, National Governments and Legal Integration in the European
Union, International Organization 52/1 (Winter, 1998): 138-154.
Recommended:
Max Weber, Economy and Society (California,1978): I, 53-56, 212-254,
333-337; II, 956-963, 986-994.
Douglass North, Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic
Performance. Cambridge: (Cambridge, 1991): 11-26, 46-53

C. State and Civil Society (Nov. 30)

Joshua Cohen and Andrew Arato, Civil Society and Political Theory
(MIT, 1992): 29-82
Recommended:
Cohen and Arato, Civil Society, 492-563
Ashutosh Varshney, “Ethnic Conflict and Civil Society: India and
Beyond,” World Politics 53 (April 2001): 362-98.
James C. Scott, Domination and the Arts of Resistance (Yale, 1991)
James C. Scott, Seeing Like a State (Yale, 1999)

VII. NATIONALISM, ETHNICITY, AND GENDER (Nov. 30)

James D. Fearon and David D. Laitin, Explaining Interethnic Cooperation,” APSR
90/4 (Dec. 1996): 715-735
Leela Fernandes, Producing Workers: The Politics of Gender, Class and Culture
in the Calcutta Jute Mills (Pennsylvania, 1997): 1-57, 159-167
Saskia Sassen, “Towards A Feminist Analytics of the Global Economy,” in
Globalization and Its Discontents, 82-100
Recommended:
Yael Tamir, “The Enigma of Nationalism,” World Politics 47 (Apr. 1995):

6
 418- 440
Barbara Callaway, The Heritage of Islam: Women, Politics and Change in
West Africa (Lynne Rienner, 1995): 1-37
Michael Hechter, “Nationalism and Rationality,”Studies in Comparative
International Development 35/1 (Spring 2000): 3-19
Dmitry Gorenburg, “Not With One Voice: An Explanation of Intragroup
Variation in Nationalist Sentiment,” World Politics 53 (October
2000): 115-142
Craig Calhoun, Nationalism (Minnesota, 1998): 1-126
Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities (New Left Books, 1983)
Ernest Gellner, Nations and Nationalism (Blackwell, 1983)
Liah Greenfield, Nationalism: Five Roads to Modernity (Harvard, 1992)
Anthony Smith, The Ethnic Origins of Nations (Blackwell, 1986)
James Jankowski and Israel Gershoni, Rethinking Nationalism in the Arab
Middle East (Columbia, 1997)

VIII. AUTHORITARIANISM, DEMOCRATIC TRANSITIONS AND POST-TRANSITIONS

(Dec. 7)
Stephan Haggard and Robert Kaufman, The Political Economy of Democratic
Transitions (Princeton, 1995): 3-21, 25-44, 365-379
Robert Putnam, with Robert Leonardi and Raffaella Y. Nanetti, Making
Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy (Princeton, 1993):
121-185
Filippo Sabetti, “Path Dependency and Civic Culture: Some Lessons from Italy
About Interpreting Social Experiments,” Politics & Society 24/1 (Mar,
1996): 19-44
Diamond, Larry, Developing Democracy: Towards Consolidation, 24-160, 261-
278
Recommended:
Ronald Inglehart, “Culture and Democracy,” in Lawrence E. Harrison and
Samuel Huntington, eds., Culture Matters: How Values Shape
Human Progress (Basic Books, 2000), 80-97
Seymour Martin Lipset and Gabriel Salman Lenz, “Culture, Corruption
and Markets,” in Culture Matters, 112-124
Robert Kaufman, “Approaches to the Study of State Reform in Latin
America and Postsocialist Countries,” Comparative Politics 31/3
(Apr. 1999): 357-375
D. Held, “Democracy, the Nations-State and the Global State,” Models of
Democracy, 335-360
Dimitri Landa and Ethan Kapstein, “Inequality, Growth and Democracy,”
World Politics 53 (January 2001): 264-96
Michael L. Ross, “Does Oil Hinder Democracy?” World Politics, 53
(April 2001): 325-61
Steven L. Solnick, “The Breakdown of Hierarchies in the Soviet Union
and China: A Neoinstitutionalist Perspective,” World Politics 48

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 (Jan. 1996): 209-238
Don Chull Shin, “On the Third Wave of Democratization: A Synthesis
and Evaluation of Recent Theory,” World Politics 47 (Oct.
1994):135-170
Juan Linz and Alfred Stepan, Problems of Democratic Transition and
Consolidation (Johns Hopkins, 1996)
E. Davis, “The New Iraq: The Uses of Memory,” Journal of Democracy,
16/3 (July 2005): 54-68

IX. THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL SUMMATIONS (Dec. 7)

Atul Kohli et al., “The Role of Theory in Comparative Politics,” World Politics
48 (Oct. 1995): 1-49
Mark I. Lickbach, “Social Theory and Comparative Politics,” in Lickbach and
Zuckerman, 239-276
Alan S. Zuckerman, “Reformulating Explanatory Standards and Advancing
Theory in Comparative Politics,” in Lickbach and Zuckerman, 277-310
Recommended:
Michael Coppedge, “Thickening Thin Concepts and Theories: Combining
Large N and Small in Comparative Politics,” Comparative Politics
31/4 (July 1999): 465-476.
David Collier and Steven Levitsky, “Democracy with Adjectives:
Conceptual Innovation in Comparative Research,” World Politics
49 (Apr. 1997): 430-451.

X. SUBMISSION OF RESEARCH DESIGNS, QUESTIONS FOR FINAL EXAMINATION

AND COURSE EVALUATION (Dec. 11)