POS.2011 Comparative Politics
This course provides an introduction to Comparative Politics (CP). CP is a subfield of political science, as well as a method or approach. On the one level it is the study of similarities and differences among countries and their political institutions and behavior. On the other, it studies the experiences of different countries and regions to explore relationships between the state, regimes, transitions and collective action. In order to establish these relationships it is important to ask overarching questions, for example the relationship between democracy and economic development, and the impact of different methods of transition on political regime. This course will be designed around a number of theoretical issues, followed by cases from different regions which will help us apply, and deeply explore the issues in question. It is designed to acquaint students with politics as "decision-making" as it unfolds in both state and society. Students acquire a comparative perspective as they institutions, participation, violence, social movements, questions of democracy and authoritarianism, global development, global trade and finance, and the environment, centering both state and nonstate actors. Students will learn about both dominant and alternate approaches, the latter centering feminist, antiracist, and decolonized perspectives. Students will learn from a range of cases that incorporate both the global North and the global South.
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