政治經濟學專題：
國家理論與實証研究(台灣個案)
POLITICAL ECONOMY SEMINAR:
THEORY AND RESEARCH ON THE STATE
Fall Semester, 2007
Department of Sociology, TunghaiUniversity
Wednesday 2:10pm.-5:00 pm.
Instructor: 黃崇憲
Phone: (04) 23590121 ext. 36313
E-mail:
Office: SS539
Office Hours: Friday 2:30pm.-4:30pm or by appointment
COURSE DISCRITION AND OBJECTIVES
The state appears to be everywhere, regulating the conditions of our lives from birth registration to death certification. Yet, the nature of the state is hard to grasp. This may seem peculiar to something so pervasive in public and private life, but it is precisely this pervasiveness which makes it difficult to understand. There is nothing more central to political and social theory than the nature of the state, and nothing more contested. This seminar has two primary objectives: First, to deepen students’ understanding of alternative approaches to studying the state and politics, and second, to examine a range of interesting empirical/historical studies that embody, in different ways, these approaches in order to gain a better understanding and more concrete grasp of the relationship between abstract theoretical ideas and concrete empirical investigation. However, due to the time constraint, the empirical study will focus specifically on the case of Taiwan.
We will focus on two broad theoretical approaches:
- Marxist or class-centered approaches which anchor the analysis of the state in terms of its structural relationship to capitalism as a system of class relations.
- Weberian or state-centered approaches which emphasizes the ways in which states constitute autonomous sources of power and operate on the basis of institutional logics and dynamics with variable forms of interaction with other sources of power in society.
While these two approaches have long pedigrees, we will not explore the classical formulations or the historical development of these traditions of analysis, but rather will focus on the most developed versions of each approach. Also, while these approaches are often posed as rivals, in fact much contemporary work combines them in various ways. One of the tasks of the seminar is to examine the ways in which these different traditions of theoretical work complement rather than contradict each other in generating compelling explanations of concrete historical problems of understanding states and politics. At the theoretical level, we will particularly engage the following issues:
- How should we conceptualize the variations in the form of the state in facilitating economic development and in providing social welfare? What are the salient dimensions of these variations? What defines the specificity of the “developmental state”, the “welfare state” and the “fiscal state”?
- How should we explain the variability in forms and functions of the capitalist state? Are these to be explained primarily by the changing functional requirements of capital accumulation (and legitimation)? By the instrumental interests of the capitalist class? By class struggle? By the interest of state elites? By dynamics located internal to the organizational structure of the state? Or what?
- At what level(s) of abstraction can we formulate a coherent concept of the state? At what levels of abstraction can we formulate systematic theories of the state?
While a quite proportion of the assigned readings are theory-oriented works, the main empirical referent along the course discussions will focus on the case of Taiwan.
Over the past few decades, Taiwan has emerged undeniably as a full-fledged capitalist society through a rapid and compressed state-led industrialization. Crossing this industrial divide, is the Taiwanese state becoming increasingly as, in Marx’s aphorism, the “executive committee of the bourgeoisie” and the post-Lee-Teng-Hui era of democratic consolidation insidiously slouching towards a bourgeoisie democracy? A moral and political concern motivates this course: to what extent is it possible to achieve a more just, egalitarian, and democratic society in Taiwan? It is a fundamental tenet of Marxist theories of the state that the state in capitalist society is embedded in the class relations of capitalism and accordingly is deeply shaped and constrained by those class relations, but this leaves quite open as to what room remains left for political maneuvering and to what extent progressive change can be achieved with those structural constraints. For a long time Marxists have tended to see the state as something towards which one should have a strategy: whether to smash it in a direct front assault, or to encircle it in a Gramscian war of position. For any meaningful political interventions in the future, the state in Taiwan is inevitably a site of struggle and a political arena to be contested by the crystallization of divergent social forces, therefore it deserves our proper confrontation and must be brought to the forefront of critical scrutiny.
And as is well known now, the state in Taiwan is ubiquitous, powerful, and all-embracing. It has played a leading role in shaping and reshaping the class structure through the state economic development strategies, initially by land reform and then followed by strategies of capitalist industrialization. In this process, economic strategies were also accompanied by alterations in the nature of state-society relations. Such change involves a complex dynamic between state and society. Each sphere act upon the other; the state and society are mutually transforming each other, though with asymmetrical intensity and uneven consequences. As a result, what we are witnessing since the late 1980s is a restructuring of state-society relations well under way. And the state is undergoing a metamorphosis brought on by structural change both domestically and globally.
More substantively, the issues to be focused and addressed are as follows.
- To what extent has the Taiwanese developmental state been eroded and in what measure is change being driven by an external-economic logic? Or are the tenacity and adaptivity of national institutional arrangements more impressive than their purported erosion?
- If not headed for erosion, can the Taiwanese developmental state nonetheless remain viable in an era of increased economic openness and capital mobility?
- Should the ongoing liberalization, deregulation, and privatization be seen as efforts to strengthen the state? Or simply the retreat of the state?
- How is the nature and character of the developmental state being changed? Is its state capacity exhausted and becoming an “atrophied” developmental state in system-maintenancereform which tinkered with the existent institutions without making fundamental changes in the political and economic governing regime? Or is it becoming an “overloaded” developmental state because it adds the welfare provision to its previous single-minded “developmentalism” in system-transformationreform which makes more radical structural adjustment built on new “development coalition” and “distribution coalition”?
- How can we study the state empirically? How can we measure state autonomy and state capacity? What indexes should we look at in terms of operationalization in empirical research of the state?
CLASS CITIZENSHIP
This course is designed as a discussion, research, and writing course. Lectures will form a small part of what we do in class. This is a participatory seminar. Please take time to read assignments carefully and thoughtfully. We will expect everyone to come to class prepared to summarize the main arguments in the readings and to discuss their strengths, weakness, the execution of the research, usefulness for theory building, and so on. I do not intend to lecture the class. In order to facilitate class discussion, we will begin each class right after the weekly presentation with a collective attempt to establish what the central arguments and the crucial issues of the readings are. Please always bring a copy of the reading so that you can consult it during our discussion. This way we can all, literally, be on the same page.
In a seminar course of this sort, it is my wish that I want the sessions and discussions to be as stimulating and exciting as possible, with a collegial and supportive atmosphere. Pedgogically, this seminar is dedicated to the proposition that knowledge is a collective product. This intellectual journey is intended to be collective; each participant (including me) is expected to contribute to our discussions and debates. Good seminars depend to a great extent on the seriousness of preparation by students. Let us all be good and responsible class citizens to make contributions as much as possible.
REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING
The requirements for this course are fivefold. You must fulfill all four of them; do not take this course if for whatever reason you cannot do so. All participants will be expected to: 1) take an active part in discussions; 2) make at least three presentations on the readings to the seminar during the semester; 3)prepare ten memos on the week’s required readings (1-2 pages each); 4) Term paper 15-20 pages);(5)participate in a one-day mini-conference at which the term papers will be presented.
1)Active Participation in Discussion. Remember and apply this aphorism of
Wittgenstein: “Even to have expressed a false thought boldly and clearly is already to have gained a great deal.” So speak up and speak out! What each of you will get out of the course depends in good measure on how much you collectively put in. So, play a constructive role in discussion: offer your own ideas in small chunks instead of long monologues; draw out and ask for clarification of the opinions of others; pose issues and questions you may not know the answer to; learn to permit someone to disagree with you without feeling attacked; learn to express disagreement in ways that promote constructive discussion instead of polarization.
2)Seminar Presentations: Each week two students will serve as discussion leaders. These presentations should be 20-25 minutes long and should try to establish a focused agenda for the discussion which follows. The point of the presentation is not to comprehensively summarize the readings, but to provide a critical evaluation, focusing on the strengths and weakness of the arguments/analyses, comparing different perspectives, and highlighting the most important issues and questions they raise as a way of launching the day’s discussion.
3)Weekly Issue Memo: I believe strongly that it is important for students to engage the week’s readings in written form prior to the seminar sessions. These weekly memos are intended to prepare the ground for good discussions by requiring participants to set out their initial responses to the readings which will improve the quality of the class discussion since students come to the sessions with an already thought out agenda. This is a requirement for all auditors as well as students taking the seminar for credit.
I refer to these short written comments as “issue memos”. They are not meant to be mini-papers on the readings; nor need they summarize the readings as such. Rather, they are meant to be a think piece, reflecting your own intellectual engagement with the material: specifying what is obscure or confusing in the reading; taking up issue with some core idea or argument; exploring some interesting ramification of an idea in the reading. These memos do not have to deal with the most profound, abstract or grandiose arguments in the readings; the point is that they should reflect what you find most engaging, exciting or puzzling, and above all: what you would most like to talk about in the seminar discussion. These interrogations will form a substantial basis for the seminar discussion: I will read them and distill the issues into an agenda for each session. It is therefore to take this task seriously.
We will arrange to share these memos through e-mail, and the week’s presenters, if s/he likes, can use other students’ comments to prepare an agenda for discussion. In order for everyone to have time to read over other’s comments, these will be due on e-mail by 7:00 pm on Tuesday evening (the day before the seminar meets). These memos area real requirement, and failing to hand in memos will affect your grade. I will read through the memos to see if they are “serious”, but not grade them for “quality”. Since the point of this exercise is to enhance discussions, late memos will not be accepted. If you have to miss a seminar session for some reason, you are still required to prepare an issue memo for that session. Since I may not total the number of memos each student writes until the end of the semester, please keep copies to be sure of fulfilling the requirements.
4)Term Paper/Proposal. The central assignment of this course is a crispy written, analytically rigorous term paper of no more than 15 pages (this limit is expressly designed to compel you to write with economy, precision and clarity). All participants taking the seminar for credit are expected to write a term paper on the state and politics. Our strong preference is for papers to revolve around some historical contemporary substantive problem—a particular state policy, a particular example of state transformations, a case of a particular struggle over the state, etc. You can also submit in your term paper in the form of a proposal or pilot study.
Students should meet with me to discuss their papers in week 6 (10/24). A three-page proposal for the paper, with a set of questions, a bibliography, and some preliminary findings or evidence are to be submitted for approval by the instructor on or before 11/7.Therefore, you may find it appropriate to begin thinking about term paper early in the course. Please feel free to discuss your ideas with me whenever you are ready to do so.Guidelines for format of the paper are the Journal of Taiwanese Sociology guidelines. These guidelines are used in the hope that you will submit your term paper to the annual conference of Taiwanese Sociological Association. Papers connected to thesis/dissertation research are strongly recommended.The final papers are due three days before the day of the mini-conference on the state, 1/15/2008. Late papers will not be accepted unless arrangements have been made in advance.
5)Mini-Conference on the State. On 1/18/2008, there will be a weekend
conference for students participating in the course. This mini-conference event will be organized as a proper academic conference with thematic panels, presentations, discussants and open discussion from the floor. This will give students in the seminar an opportunity to get some professional practice in presenting research papers in the distilled manner needed for an academic conference.
Here is the basic schedule of the event:
Saturday, January 18, 2008:
10:00-12:30 Session I of mini-conference on Theory and Research on the State
12:30: Lunch provided by the instructor.
1:30-3:00: Session II of mini-conference
3:30-5:00: Session III of mini-conference
6:30-7:30: Potluck in my house
8:00-? Party
Your final grade is based on:
Class Participation and Discussion: 20%
Presentation: 20%
Weekly issue memo: 20%
Term paper: 40%
About Incompletes: Taking an incomplete is like going into debt with a loan shark. The day the deadline is past, interest starts accruing and the quality of paper you think you need to write grows exponentially. Most of the students I have given incompletes to in the past have taken much longer time and difficulties getting them done, and I have decided I must change my formerly lax policy. You are far better off doing the paper you can do now than trying to do the paper you wish you could do later. I am willing to negotiate a deadline with you that accommodates your other obligations (e.g. grading responsibilities as a TA), but you must meet the deadline. If you realize you have defined your paper more broadly than you can execute, speak to me about narrowing the bounds of the paper, not about taking longer to do it.
Dates to be remembered
Wednesday, October 24Meet with me to discuss paper project.
Wednesday, November 7Turn in paper statement
Wednesday, January 15Turn in term paper
Saturday, January 18Mini-conference
REQUIRED TEXTBOOKS
Pierson, Christopher. 2004. (2nd edition). The ModernState. London and New York.
Wu, Nie-The(吳乃德). 1987. The Politics of a Regime Patronage System：
Mobilization and Control within an Authoritarian Regime. Unpublished Doctoral
Dissertation, Department of Political Science, University of Chicago IL.
Hsu, Kan-Lin（許甘霖）. 2002. The Rise and Fall of the Taiwanese Developmental
State, 1949-1999.Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, Department of Sociology,
University of Lancaster, UK.
Huang, Chung-Hsien（黄崇憲）. 2002. Route through Flexible Accumulation:
Retooling the Developmental State and the Remaking of Amoebic Capitalism in
Taiwan. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, Department of Sociology,
University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI.
I am always happy to recommend additional readings tailored to your interests. Please
seeme before or after class, or in office hours.
BACKGROUND READINGS FOR SEMINAR
This is an advanced and reading-intensive graduate seminar. It is important that participants have a fairly solid background in order to participate effectively in the discussions. If you are not familiar with the topic areas, you are highly suggested to pick up and try your best to keep abreast the following suggested readings to get a better picture of what issues/themes/debates are at stake. This means that in addition to going through the weekly assigned readings, you also need to prepare yourself a pretty good foundation in state theory.
State Theory in General
Barrow, Clyde. 1993. Critical Theories of the State: Marxist, Neo-Marxist,
Post-Marxist. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
Carnoy, Martin. 1984. The State and Political Theory. Princeton: PrincetonUniversity
Press.
Jesssop, Bob. 1982. The CapitalistState: Marxist Theories and Methods. New York:
NYU Press.
Jessop, Bob. 1990. State Theory: Putting CapitalistState in Their Place. University
Park: PennsylvaniaStateUniversity Press.
Alford, Robert & Roger Friedland. 1985. The Powers of Theory. Cambridge:
CambridgeUniversity Press.
Miliband, Ralph. 1977. Marxism and Politics. Oxford: OxfordUniversity Press.
Block, Fred. 1987. Revisiting State Theory. Philadelphia: TempleUniversity Press.
Therborn, Goran. 1978. What does the Ruling Class Do When It Rules? London:
Verso.
Badie, Bertrand & Pierre Birnbaum. 1983. The Sociology of the State. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press.