POLS 4435The State and Society

(Spring2018)

Instructor: Amr AdlyOffice: HUSS 2011

Email: lass: WALEED C140

Class times:Wednesdays and Sundays,11:30 - 12:45 pm

Office Hours:Sundays, 1:00-3:00

Course description

Ever since their inception, modern political science and sociology have taken the state and society respectively, as their subject matters. This course aims at capturing the dynamics of interaction between the two in an historical perspective. In doing so, the course combines an in-depth theoretical examination of the basic concepts of the state, civil society, revolution and social movements on the one hand, and an empirical outlook at regime dynamics, ethnic conflict and economic development on the other.

The syllabus sheds light on the diversity of ideological and theoretical traditions that informed the basic notions studying state and society including Liberalism, Marxism and school of Max Weber. It addresses thoroughly questions on nation-state formation and state-making and; how this became the universalized form for political authority since the end of WWII and with advent of decolonization. It also tackles the various modes of articulation between the state and the economy addressing questionson development of social transformation. Last but not least, the course examines the different forms of public authority and regime types with an eye on democracy, democratizations and authoritarianism.

In its study of society, the course explores the critical linkages between state and the broader social phenomena we group under society. This calls for examining social movements, political and social revolutions and the interaction between civil and political societies.

The course attempts at familiarizing some of the theories, approaches and concepts on about state and society by applying them to socio-political phenomena in Middle East and North Africa. In this manner, students will come across readings and discussions on the Arab state, the relationship between rentierism and development and democracy and the political economy of state finances in Egypt.

Course objectives

The course has three principal goals: the first is the comprehensive introduction of the theories and concepts of state and society to the students. Comprehensiveness here refers to covering a rich agenda of topics, readings and approaches. The second goal is the critical engagement with theoretical and historical readings through which the basic concepts of authority, political power, class, revolution and civil society had developed. Students should be able to acquire analytical tools adequate enough to analyze, critique and deconstruct what they receive through the course.Finally, the third goal is the development of the students’ ability to apply the analytical tools and approaches on the contemporary local and global socio-political phenomena. This course belongs to a discipline of social sciences after all. It thus should contribute to the awareness and understanding of its students of the world around them.

Requirements and assessment

  • You are expected to attend and participate in classes. Attendance will NOT be graded. However, as per university rules, if you miss more than three weeks of classes, for whatever reason, you will receive an F in the course. It is your responsibility to make sure that you are marked present for the day or withdraw from the course if you have too many absences.
  • All readings on the syllabus are required to complete the course.
  • There will be a total of SEVEN pop-up quizzes through the course. You need to take FIVE of them. The pop-up quizzes will tackle the readings and each will be graded out of 4 per cent of the total, making a total of 20 points. The aim is to make sure that readings are being done and in order to stimulate class participation.
  • You are required to submit a novel/book review by the middle of the course. The reviews will engage critically with some of the concepts and topics discussed in the course. They should take the form of an essay (around a 1000 words-maximum count). Reviews should be sent by email.
  • You will also be required to submit a final paper towards the end of the course. The paper will be based on a topic of your choosing as long as it relates to the course or class discussions. The word count of the final paper should be around 3000 words. More detailed information about the structure of the paper will be communicated in due date.
  • Reviews submitted later than the set deadline WILL NEIHER BE ACCEPTED NOR GRADED. No excuses including computer collapse or loss of files, so keep a backup.
  • There will be group presentations through the course on assigned topics. Groups will be made up of 5 to 6 students. Presentations should be based on teamwork, good research and the applying of the themes and tools learned in class. Assessment will be based on the quality of research and presentation skills, both group and individual. The exact schedule and topics of the presentations will be communicated by email in due course.
  • There will be one mid-term and a final exam.
  • Assessment will be as follows:

Participation: 5 per cent

Five quizzes (Out of seven):15 per cent (3 each)

Mid-term review:15 per cent

Presentation:10 per cent

Mid-term exam:20 per cent

Final exam:20per cent

Final paper: 15 per cent

The grade cut-offs will be as follows: A (94 and above), A- (90-93), B+(87-89), B (84-86), B- (80-83), C+ (77-79), C (74-76), C- (70-73), D+ (61-69), D (50-60).

  • Cheating and Plagiarism will result in a failing grade for the assessment item. Heavier penalties may apply.

Classes

Class 1 (WednesdayJanuary31st): Introduction: State and society: What’s that?

Class 2 and 3: The birth of the modern world

Class 2 (SundayFebruary4th)

Wallerstein, Immanuel. 1974. The Modern World System. Introduction and Chapter One, p.2-37

Class 3 (Wednesday Feb. 7th)

Bodin, Jean. 1992. On Sovereignty. Edited and translated by Julian H. Franklin. Book 2, chapter 8: On sovereignty, p.1-45

Class 4(Sunday Feb11th)

Tilly, Charles. 1982. "War making and state making as organized crime.", University of Michigan: working paper no.256

Classes 5-7: Absolutism, Liberalism and Democracy

Class 5(WednesdayFeb.14th)

Hobbes, Thomas. 2005. The Leviathan. Chapter XVIII: Of the rights of sovereignty by institution.

Class 6 (Sunday Feb.18th):

Ebenstein, William and Ebenstein, Alan. 2000. Great Political Thinkers: Plato to the present. Chapters on Locke and the two treatises on government, p.380-407

Class 7 (Wednesday Feb. 21rd)

Rousseau, Jean Jacques. 2001. The Social Contract or Principles of Political Right. Translated by G.D.H. Cole, p.12-39

Classes 8-11: Marx and Weber

Class 8 (Sunday Feb.25th): Marxism

Miliband, Ralph. 1973. Class Power and State Power, Marx and the state, p.3-25

Class 9 (WednesdayFeb.28th): Max Weber

Weber, Max. 1968. Economy and Society, Domination and legitimacy, p.941-973

Class 10 (SundayMarch4th):Neo-Marxian approaches

Jessop, Bob. 2000. The Future of the Capitalist State. Chapter one: capitalism and the capitalist type of state, p11-54

Class 11 (WednesdayMar.7th):NeoWeberianism

Skocpol, Theda, Peter Evans, and Dietrich Rueschemeyer. 1999. Bringing the state back in." Chapter one

Classes 12-14: From the state to the regime

Class 12(SundayMar. 11th)

Olson, Mancur. 1993. Dictatorship, democracy, and development.American political science review87.3 (1993):567-576.

Class 13 (Wednesday Mar.14th)

Lindberg, Staffan, Coopedge, Michael and Gerring, John. 2014. V-DEM: A New Way to Measure Democracy. Research report.

Class 14 (Sunday Mar. 18th)

Linz, José. 2000.Totalitarian and authoritarian regimes, p.49-63

Class 15 (Wednesday Mar. 21st):MIDTERM EXAM

Class 17 (Sunday Mar.25th):Revolution

Skocpol, Theda (1979), States and Social Revolutions: A Comparative Analysis of France, Russia and China. Introduction

Classes 18-19: State, welfare and markets

Class 18 (WednesdayMar. 28th): Welfare states, social democracy and corporatism

Flora, Peter, and Arnold Joseph Heidenheimer (eds).1981. The development of welfare states in Europe and America. Chapter 1.

Class 19 (Sunday April 1st):The Neoliberal state

North, Douglass (1990) Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance, pp. 3-35

Classes 20-23: State and society

Class 20 (Wednesday Apr. 4th): Class analysis

Robinson, Robert V., and Jonathan Kelley. 1979. "Class as conceived by Marx and Dahrendorf: Effects on income inequality and politics in the United States and Great Britain."American Sociological Review: 38-58.

Class 21 (Sunday Apr. 8th): Ethnic conflict

McGarry, John and O’Leary, Brenden (eds). 1993. The Politics of Ethnic Conflict Regulation. Chapter one: Macropolitical regulation of ethnic conflict

Class 22 (Wednesday Apr. 11th):Social movements

Amenta, Edwin and Caren, Neal. 2004. The legislative, organizational and beneficiary consequences of state-oriented challenges, In the Blackwell Companion to social movements, p. 461-488

Class 23 (Sunday Apr. 15th) Civil society

Abdelrahman, Maha. 2004.Civil society exposed: The politics of NGOs in Egypt. Chapter two: A conceptual framework of state and civil society, p.10-38

Classes 24-26: State and development

Class 24 (WednesdayApr. 18th)

Evans, Peter. 1995. Embedded Autonomy: States and IndustrialTransformation. pp. 1-73.

Class 25 (Sunday Apr.22nd)

Huntington, S., 1996. Social order in changing societies, chapter one: political order and political decay, p.1-39

Class 26 (WednesdayApr.25th)

Migdal, Joel S., 1988.Strong societies and weak states: state-society relations and state capabilities in the Third World, part one, p.1-41

Classes 27-30: The Arab state

Class 27 (Sunday Apr. 29th)

Ayubi, Nazih N.Over-stating the Arab state: Politics and society in the Middle East. IB Tauris, 1996.

Class 28 (Wednesday May 2nd): Secularism and religion

Nasr, Seyyed Vali Reza. 2003.Islamic leviathan: Islam and the making of state power. Chapter one.

Class 29 (Sunday May 6th): The reniter state

Schwarz, Rolf. "The political economy of state-formation in the Arab Middle East: Rentier states, economic reform, and democratization."Review of International Political Economy15.4 (2008): 599-621.

Class 30 (Wednesday May 9th): state finances and democracy

Soliman, Samer.The autumn of dictatorship: Fiscal crisis and political change in Egypt under Mubarak, chapter five: The end of the rentier/caretaker state and the rise of Egyptian capitalism: A fiscal infrastructure for democracy? p.138-162

Class 31 (Sunday May 13th):Wrap-up session