Introduction
to Comparative Politics
Political
Science 003
Fall
2003
Prof. Lee Ann Banaszak
Time: MW
Office: 210
Office Hours: M
W 3:45-5:00 p.m. or by appointment
Phone: 865-6573
E-Mail: LAB14@PSU.EDU
Web Page: http://polisci.la.psu.edu/faculty/banaszak/banaszak.htm
Teaching
Assistants:
Sections
1,2 and 3: Sections
4, 5, and 7: Sections 6, 8, and 9:
Adrienne Lauzon Jonah
Victor Claudiu Tufis
N58 Burrowes Bldg. N58 Burrowes Bldg.
N58 Burrowes Bldg.
865-6230 865-6230 865-6230
Office
W:
Hrs: & F:
E-mail:
arl141@psu.edu jav192@psu.edu cdt130@psu.edu
Course
Description.
This course is
designed as an introductory course about comparative politics -- the study
of domestic politics in different nations. The goals
of this course are twofold. First, by the end of this
course you should have acquired information about the politics of a number
of different countries in various parts of the world. This
factual knowledge provides the basis for understanding other political systems
and the changes which are occurring in these systems. Second,
and more importantly, through this course you should begin to develop a means
for interpreting and explaining what happens in the world.
Thus, substantial pieces of the course will be devoted to developing
a general understanding of politics in different systems through comparing
and contrasting different countries and the development of theories about
the way politics work.
Required
Sodaro, Michael J. 2001. Comparative Politics:
A Global Introduction. New York: McMillan Publishing Co.
The New York Times: All students are required
to read stories in the weekly The New York Times (excluding weekend newspapers)
about politics in other countries. While other newspapers may provide similar
coverage we will be referring to specific newspaper stories in lecture and
section. If you chose a different paper, it is your responsibility to make
sure that you are getting the same information that you need. We will be
discussing current comparative politics stories in section and occasionally
in lecture. Any material of this type discussed in lecture or section as
well as major news stories are fair game for the exams.
Course
Requirements and Grades.
Student Responsibilities: The class will meet Monday and Wednesday from
Grades: Grades will be determined by a strict percentage; I do
not curve exam grades. The grading scale is as follows:
A 94 – 100
A- 90 - 93
B+ 87 - 89
B 83 - 86
B- 80 - 82
C+ 76 - 79
C 70 - 75
D 60 - 69
F below 60
1) There will be two unit exams -- one on October
8th and one on November 17th. Each
exam will be worth 25% of your grade and will cover the information in that
unit.
2) The final exam will be cumulative, covering all course
material, although the emphasis will be on material covered since the second
unit exam. It will be held in the scheduled exam period
during finals week, and will account for 30% of the grade.
The preliminary exam schedule (which is subject to change) lists the
final exam for this course as Monday, Dec. 15,
3) The final 20% of your grade will be determined by your
attendance and participation in recitation sections, and quiz grades in recitation
section.
Makeup
Exam Policy
NO
MAKEUP EXAMS will be allowed unless written proof is provided of a serious
emergency (e.g. hospitalization, death of a parent). In
such cases, you must contact me
as soon as possible (when
possible prior to the exam); failure to do so will result in an F for the
exam. In these rare cases, the makeup exam will be in essay format and include
material covered in the intervening period.
Extra
Credit Policy
No
extra credit will be given on an individual basis. Two
forms of extra-credit are available in this class to all students: in-lecture
minute papers and web-based quizzes.
In-lecture
minute papers.
While we cannot take regular attendance in lecture, you
will occasionally be asked to hand in an in-class writing assignment or short
quiz. These will not be graded but will serve to allow
you to reflect on the day’s lecture topic or give feedback on the lecture. Since participation in the lecture is part of this assignment,
there are no excused absences for these in lecture writing assignments. If
you’re not in class when the assignment is given, you cannot make them up. These assignment will only be used in close calls (that
is, when your final grade is close to a higher grade) to bump people up to
the higher grade.
Extra-credit
quizzes. These can be worth at most 2% of your total final grade. Six quizzes will be available starting at different times
throughout the semester. Once a quiz becomes available
you may take it at any time in the next six weeks; however, your grade will
be discounted 25% after the quiz has been available for 3 weeks. Therefore to get full extra credit you will want to take
the quiz as they are made available (new quizzes will be announced in lecture).
To
take a quiz, go to the web site of university testing services (http://cbt.uts.psu.edu). From there you will be asked to enter your e-mail user
id and your Access Account Password. When you click
on the “Continue” button, you will see a list of all of you classes using
the web-based testing. Clicking on PL SC 3 will give
you a list of all of the quizzes for the semester. Clicking
on the quiz will give you the first question. Two important
points about taking the quiz:
§
Do not use the browser
“Forward” or “Back” buttons to move back and forth within a quiz. If you do this,
the program will automatically submit the exam, and you will receive a zero
on any questions you have not yet answered. Be sure
to use only the “Next” key to take the quiz. Once you
hit the “Next” button, you are submitting your final answer and
there is no going back. Once you see the next question,
you cannot go back and change an answer (or mark an answer) to a previous
question. So be careful.
§
If there is no activity
on the webpage for 10 minutes, the system will kick you out. You will then need to reenter the system and take the quiz
again.
§
You should take
a quiz only once! Repeat quizzes will not be included
in your extra credit points.
§
One advantage of
web-based quizzing is that you have more freedom to learn the material in
the way that best suits you. Feel free to discuss questions
with other members of the class and consult your book and/or notes. However, you may not ask other students to
take a quiz for you, either by giving them your access id and password, or
by having them sit nearby and simply give you the answers.
This is an act of academic dishonesty.
Academic
Honesty Policy
The Student Guide
to University Policies and Rules states: “Academic dishonesty includes...cheating,
plagiarizing, fabricating of information or citations, facilitating acts of
academic dishonesty by others, having unauthorized possession of examinations,
submitting work of another person or work previously used without informing
the instructor or tampering with the academic work of other students.” (p.
43) Students caught committing acts of
academic dishonesty will receive an F in the course and will be referred to
Judicial Affairs for further possible sanction.
Tentative Schedule and Readings
A
General Overview of Comparative Politics
SECTION Introduction to Section; Tips on Efficient
9/3 Introduction
to Policies and Procedures and Overview of the Course
SECTION Discussion on What is Comparative Politics
9/8 Why Comparative Politics: Comparisons
vs. Area Studies
Reading: Chapter
1
9/10 Comparative
Politics as a Science
Reading: Chapter 3
SECTION Hypothesis development with different
political systems
9/15 Different Types of Political Systems
Reading: Chapter 2
9/17 Political Divisions
within Nations
Reading: Review Chapter 2
SECTION TBA
9/22 Power, Domination, and Authority
Reading: Chapter 5
9/24 The Concept of the State
Reading: Chapter 6
SECTION TBA
9/29 The Development of Nations
Reading: Chapter 7
10/1 Ethnicity and
Citizenship
Reading: Review Chapter 7
SECTION Review for Exam
10/6 What is Democracy?
10/8 First Exam
No
Section – Fall Break
Democracies
10/13 What is Democracy continued? Consociational vs. Majoritarian
Systems
Reading: Chapter 8
10/15 Presidential vs. Parliamentary systems
Reading: Chapter 9 and pp. 372-378 and 457-462
SECTION TBA
10/20 Governmental Instability in Presidential and Parliamentary
systems
Reading: Review Chapter 9 and pp. 599-611 and
753-761
10/22 Different electoral systems
Reading: pp.398-407 and 511-514 and review Chapter
9
and pp. 606-607
(on the Knesset)
SECTION Simulations of different electoral and party systems
10/27 Introduction to political parties and Party systems
Reading Chapter 11
10/29 Different types
of political parties
Reading: Chapter 13
SECTION TBA
11/3 Interest group politics in different nations
Reading: Review pp.255-261
11/5 Clientelism
Reading: Review pp. 261-266 and 753-761; read
782-804.
SECTION TBA
11/10 Political Attitudes
and Democracy
Reading: Chapter 12
11/12 Introduction to Non-democratic Institutions
SECTION Review for Exam
11/17 Second Exam
Non-democratic
Political Systems
11/19 Government Linkages
in Non-democratic Systems
Reading: Chapter 22
SECTION TBA
11/24 Military governments
Reading: Chapter 24
11/26 No Class – Thanksgiving Break
No
Section – Thanksgiving Break
12/1 Democratic Transitions: How do Non-democratic systems become democratic?
Reading: Chapter 10
Politics
and Economics
12/3 The problems of moving from centrally planned systems
Reading: Review Chapters 21 & 22
SECTION More on democratic transitions
12/8 Economically
developing countries
Reading: Chapter 15
12/10 Economic policies and problems in developing countries
Reading: Pp. 764-769 and review Chapter 15
SECTION Review for Final Exam
Final
Exam Tentatively Scheduled for Monday, Dec. 15,