POS 3 - Comparative Politics

Transfer Status

CSU/UC

Unit(s)

3.00

• Lecture: 51.00 Contact hours/102.00 Out of class hours/153.00 Total hours/3.00 Unit(s)
• Total: 51.00 Contact hours/102.00 Out of class hours/153.00 Total hours/3.00 Unit(s)

Course Description: Comparative analysis of different kinds of political systems, including their history, political institutions, processes and policies, the environments in which they occur, and their consequences. (C-ID POLS 130).

Upon successful completion of this course, the student should be able to:

1. Identify the role of the state.
2. Distinguish among regime types and their central features.
3. Compare political systems, both in theory and with actual country examples.
4. Explain the impact of the regional, economic, historical and cultural factors on political institutions and behavior.
5. Analyze political systems by using the comparative method.

Topic Titles / Suggested Time Topic

Lecture

1. Discussion
2. Group Discussions
3. Homework: Students are required to complete two hours of outside-of-class homework for each hour of lecture
4. Lecture
5. Multimedia Presentations
6. Reading Assignments
7. Research Paper

1. Exams/Tests
2. Research Projects
3. Papers
4. Oral Presentation
5. Homework
6. Class participation
7. The course includes a 2500 word writing requirement. The writing requirement may be fulfilled by any combination of essay or paragraph-length exam questions, formal essays or research papers, and/or in-class or out-of-class writing activities.

Reading Assignments

1. Read the chapter on Revolution and Contention. Focus on the number of distinctions between different types of contention (e.g., revolutions, social movements, terrorism, and so forth). Scholars vary in terms of how like and unlike each other they take these different forms to be. Be thinking about how these forms of contention might be variations on a theme or different in essence, and be prepared to discuss in class.
2. Read the textbook chapter that focuses on how political scientists think about authoritarian regimes, including differences between many key types of authoritarian regimes, and be prepared to discuss in class.

Writing Assignments

1. Test the theories of the establishment of welfare states against your knowledge of U.S. history and any necessary background in the United States, France, the United Kingdom, and Germany country materials in the textbook. In a two page essay, explain which theory best explains the development of the welfare state in these cases, and why.
2. Think about the sorts of paths that could lead to the formation of an authoritarian regime. There are cases of “authoritarian persistence” (including some in which one type of authoritarian regime replaces another), but also of “democratic breakdown.” Now think about competitive-authoritarian and hybrid regimes. Are the paths that lead to them likely to be similar or distinct from the paths that lead to fully authoritarian regimes? Why or why not? Be sure to draw on the theories from the chapter in constructing a two page essay answer.

Out-of-Class Assignments

1. Look at the list of federal countries in the world on the Forum of Federations website ( www.forumfed.org). Do research to determine why and under what conditions this country became federal in the first place. What does this imply in terms of general theories about why federalism emerges? Develop a hypothesis for testing in other federations.
2. Search out which countries in the world have had relatively high indicators of women in power. Indicators of this could include the proportion of women in the national legislature, or a recent female head of government. Select two of these countries from different continents. Be prepared to discuss this in class with at least two reasons given for these relatively high levels of women’s involvement.

O'Neil, P.H. (2020). Essentials of Comparative Politics. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 7th. 978-0-393-53277-7.

Byran Martin, Charlotte Lee, Dino Bozonelos, Jessica Scarffe, Josh Franco, Julia Wendt, Masahiro Omae, Stefan Veldhuis. (2022). Introduction to Comparative Government and Politics. LibreTexts and Creative Commons. OER.

Political Science (Masters Required)