1
Comparative Political Institutions AS.191.302.21
COMPARATIVE POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS
Johns Hopkins University, Summer 2014
Course number: 191.302.21
Political Science
Instructor: Fabian Bauwens,
Office hours: Monday 11:30AM-12:00PM, Thursday11:30AM-12:00PM (and on appointment)
Class schedule: Monday 9:00AM-11:30AM, Thursday Monday 9:00AM-11:30AM
Course Description
This course will provide a detailed overview of the main executive, legislative, and judicial institutions of liberal democracies around the world. Aim is to provide students with an insight into the consequences and mechanisms of various institutions, and to analyze challenges to established and fledgling liberal democracies. An additional objective is to make students familiar with the institutional setup of liberal democracies in: Latin America, Asia, and Europe (including the EU).
Comparative Political Institutions is a lecture-based survey-course specifically designed for undergraduate students with an interest in democratization, electoral politics, and party systems. Students with an interest in Comparative Politics, International Relations, American Politics, and History or Sociology, are particularly encouraged to enroll in this course. The course is designed in such way that prior knowledge is not required. However, the readings and topics addressed in class will require a lot of attention and dedication on your part.
Many Comparative Political Institutions classes focus predominantly on the theoretical background, discussing institutional variations and processes. This course aims to provide both a theoretical framework, and survey a selected number of empirical cases from around the world. The aim is to familiarize yourself with the theory on how liberal democracies function and their variation, to then apply it to selected cases we will discuss in class. Given the wide global variety of democratic governance, the selection presented here is by no means exhaustive and only representative in the sense that attention is paid to a variety of cases from various continents.
Some of the questions we will be tackling in class could be: What kind of executive and legislative institutions work best in democratizing societies? What is the role of political parties and political cleavages with regard to the success or failure liberal democracies? What kind of electoral systems are most successful to ensure legitimate election outcomes? Knowledge about the political history and structure of democracies, help us to answer these and other questions. I encourage you to ask questions and to contribute any relevant information during class discussions.
Course Requirements
Participation in Class
Although the focus of the class will be on lectures, we will have discussions of the readings at the beginning of each class. In order to have meaningful discussions it is necessary that you do the readings that were assigned. Participation thus means that you read and contribute in a constructive manner to discussions. I also strongly encourage you to utilize discussions as an opportunity to have questions answered that may have come up while you were doing the reading. As we delve deeper into the case studies, you should expect more class discussions. Mere attendance is not sufficient. Given the short amount of time we have, it is crucial to avoid absences.
Grading
The final grade will be consist of the following parts:
10o% Reading and active class participation
Academic Integrity
The strength of the university depends on academic and personal integrity. In this course, you must be honest and truthful. Ethical violations include cheating on exams, plagiarism, reuse of assignments, improper use of the Internet and electronic devices, unauthorized collaboration, alteration of graded assignments, forgery and falsification, lying, facilitating academic dishonesty, and unfair competition.
If you decide to plagiarize your paper, or take part in an exam in a fraudulent manner, you not only hamper your own personal development, but you also damage the standing of Johns Hopkins University and your fellow students. It would also be wise to assume that your instructor is familiar enough with the literature to easily spot plagiarism in papers, and experienced enough to detect fraudulent exam practices.
Report any violations you witness to the instructor. You may consult the associate dean of student affairs and/or the chairman of the Ethics Board beforehand. See the guide on “Academic Ethics for Undergraduates” and the Ethics Board Web site ( for more information.
Note from the Disability Services Office
If you are a student with a disability or believe you might have a disability that requires accommodations, please contact the Homewood Undergraduate Disability Services Coordinator, in the Office of academic Advising, Garland Suite 3A, (410) 516-8216, to discuss reasonable and appropriate accommodations.
Literature and Course Schedule
Class 1 – 30 June 2014:Liberal Democracy and its origins
Required:
Richard S. Katz (1997)Democracy and Elections: Chapters: 2, 3 and 4
Charles T. Goodsell: “The Architecture of Parliaments: Legislative Houses and Political Culture,” in British Journal of Political Science (Vol. 18, No. 3 July, 1988): pp. 287-302
Lauri Karvonen and Stein Kuhnle (eds): Party Systems and Voter Alignments Revisited (London: Routledge, 2001): Ch.3
Recommended:
Richard S. Katz (1997) Democracy and Elections: Chapters: 5, 6
Seymour Martin Lipset and Stein Rokkan: Party Systems and Voter Alignments: Cross-National Perspectives (Free Press, 1967): pp 1-67
Class 2 – 3 July 2014: Electoral Systems
Required:
Richard S. Katz (2005) “Democratic Principles and Judging ‘Free and Fair’,” in Michael D. Boda: Revisiting Free and Fair Elections, IPU: pp. 17-39
Gary Cox (1997) Making Votes Count: Strategic Coordination in the World’s Electoral Systems, Cambridge University Press: Chapter 2
Andre Blais and Louis Masicotte (2002) “Electoral Systems,” in Lawrence LeDuc, Richard G. Niemi: Comparing Democracies 2: New Challenges in the Study of Elections and Voting: Chapter 2
Recommended:
Guy Lardeyret (1996) “The Problem with PR,” in Larry Diamond and Plattner (eds.): The Global Resurgence of Democracy, JHU Press: Ch. 14
Class 3 – 7 July 2014: Parties and Party Systems
Required:
Arend Lijphart: Patterns of Democracy: Government Forms and Performance in Thirty-Six Countries (Yale university Press, 1999): Chs. 2-3
Peter Mair: “Comparing Party Systems,” in Lawrence LeDuc, Richard G. Niemi: Comparing Democracies 2: New Challenges in the Study of Elections and Voting (2002): Ch. 4
Gunther, Richard and Larry Diamond. 2001. “Types and Functions of Parties.” In Larry Diamond and Richard Gunther (eds). 2001. Political Parties and Democracy. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 3 – 34.
Proksch, Sven-Oliver, Jonathan B. Slapin, and Michael Thies (2011) "Party System Dynamics in Post-War Japan: A Quantitative Content Analysis of Electoral Pledge", Electoral Studies 30(1), 114-124. (available at:
Class 4 – 10 July 2014 - Presidential vs. Parliamentary Systems
Required:
Arend Lijphart: Parliamentary vs. Presidential Government (Oxford University Press, 1992): pp 1-27
Alfred Stepan and Cindy Skach: “Constitutional Frameworks and Democratic Consolidation: Presidentialism vs. Parliamentarism,” in World Politics (Nr. 46, October 1993): pp. 1-22
Duverger M, “A New Political System Model: Semi-Presidential Government.” In European Journal of Political Research (8, n.2, 1980): pp.142-149
Shugart, Matthew Soberg and John M. Carey, Presidents and Assemblies. Constitutional Design and Electoral Dynamics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995): Ch. 1
Class 5 – 14 July 2014: Governments and Parliaments
Required:
Patrick Dunleavy and Simon Bastow: “Modelling coalitions that cannot coalesce: a Critique of the Laver-Shepsle approach,” in Western European Politics (Nr. 24/1, 2001): pp. 1-26
Michael Laver and Kenneth Shepsle: “Government Accountability in Parliamentary Democracy,” in Manin, Przeworski and Stokes (eds): Democracy, Accountability, and Representation (Cambridge University Press, 1999): pp. 279-96
Richard S. Katz (ed): Party Governments: European and American Experiences (Berlin, De Gruyter, 1987): Chs. 1, 8
Shaun Bowler, David M. Farrell, and Richard S. Katz (ed): Party Discipline and Parliamentary Government (Columbus: Ohio State University press, 1999): Ch. 1
Recommended:
Laver, Michael: “Divided Parties, Divided Governments,” in Legislative Studies Quarterly (24/1 1991): pp. 5-29
Wolfgang C. Müller and Kaare Strøm (eds): Coalition Governments in Western Europe (Oxford University Press, 2000): Chs. 1, 15
Huber, John. 1996. “The Vote of No Confidence in Parliamentary Democracies.” American Political Science Review 90(2), 269-282
Class 6 – 17 July 2014: Europe
Required:
Andrew Knapp and Vincent Wright: The Government and Politics of France 6th edition (Routledge, 2006): Chapters 5-6
David Conradt and Eric Langenbacher (2013) The German Polity: Chapters 6-7
Arend Lijphart: “Consociational Democracy,” in Robert Alan Dahl, Ian Shapiro, and José
Sten Berglund et. Al. (2013) The Handbook of Political Change in Europe: Chapters: 7, 20
Class 7 – 21 July 2014: The European Union
Required:
John Peterson and Michael Shackleton (2012) The Institutions of the European Union. Oxford UP: Chapters: 3-6 (pp. 43-146)
Peter Mair and Jacques Thomassen (2013) “Political Representation and Government in the European Union,” in Mair and Thomassen Political Representation and European Union Governance: pp. 20-35
Recommended:
John Peterson and Michael Shackleton (2012) The Institutions of the European Union. Oxford UP: Chapters: entire.
Class 8 – 24 July 2014: Japan, India, and China
Required:
Brian Hook (2003) “The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region: a mid-term assessment.” In Robert Ash, Peter Ferdinand and Brian Hook eds. Hong Kong in Transition: One Country Two Systems: pp. 65-80
Dafydd Fell (2011) Government and Politics in Taiwan, Routledge: Chapter 4
Atul Kohli and Prerna Singh (2012) Routledge Handbook of Indian Politics: Chapters 2, 6
Alisa Gaunder ed. The Routledge Handbook of Japanese Politics: Chapters: 1, 2 (pp. 3-23)
Recommended:
Dafydd Fell (2011) Government and Politics in Taiwan, Routledge: Chapter 3
Class 9 – 28 July 2014: The Anglo-Saxon democracies
Required:
Richard S. Katz: “Are Cleavages Frozen in the English-speaking Democracies?” in Lauri Karvonen and Stein Kuhnle (eds): Party Systems and Voter Alignments Revisited (London: Routledge, 2001): Ch. 5
Ian Budge: “Great Brittain and Ireland: Variations of Party Government,” in Colomer (2008): Ch. 2
Rodney Smith et. Al. (2012) Contemporary Politics in Australia, Cambridge UP: Chapters: 19, 20
James Bickerton and Alain G. Gagnon (2009) Canadian Politics: Chapters: 11, 12
Class 10 – 31 July 2014: Latin America
Required:
Jorge I Dominguez, Michael Shifter eds. (2013) Constructing Democratic Governance in Latin America: Chapters: 5, 7, 8, 10, and Conclusion
Additional Resources
The sources listed below provide a few publications that may be helpful. This list is by no means exhaustive and only represents a small selection of possible sources. There also exists a wide range of online sources: please try to confine yourself to official governmental data or scientific databases (most European countries have data on institutions, election results, etc available in English), or online versions of high quality newspapers.
Books
Michael D. Boda: Revisiting Free and Fair Elections (IPU, 2005)
Robert A. Dahl, Ian Shapiro, and Jose Antonio Cheibub (eds.): The Democracy Sourcebook (MIT Press, 2003)
George E. Delury and Deborah A. Kaple (eds.):World encyclopedia of political systems and parties (Facts on File, 1999)
Guy S. Goodwin-Gill: Free and Fair Elections, International Law, and Practice (IPU, 1994)
Lauri Karvonen and Stein Kuhnle (eds): Party Systems and Voter Alignments Revisited (London: Routledge, 2001)
Richard S. Katz: Democracy and Elections (Oxford University Press, 1997)
Richard S. Katz and William Crotty (eds.): Handbook of Party Politics (Sage, 2006)
Lawrence LeDuc, Richard G. Niemi: Comparing Democracies (Sage, 1996)
Lawrence LeDuc, Richard G. Niemi: Comparing Democracies 2: New Challenges in the Study of Elections and Voting (Sage, 2002)
Richard Rose (ed.): International Encyclopedia of Elections (Washington, QC Press, 2000)
Academic Journals
American Political Science Review
Comparative European Politics
Electoral Studies
European journal of political research
European Political science
European Political science Review
Journal of Democracy
Party Politics
Political Research Quarterly
Political Science Quarterly
Political Studies
PS: Political Science & Politics
The Journal of Comparative Politics
West European Politics
Newspapers
Corriera della Serra
Die Welt
Die Zeit
El Pais
Financial Times
Frankfurter Algemeine Zeitung (FAZ)
International Herald Tribune
Le Figaro
Le Monde
Le Monde Diplomatique
Liberation
Neue Zuericher Zeitung (NZZ)
The Daily Telegraph
The Guardian