Political Science 252A
The State in Comparative Perspective

Content and Goals

This is a seminar course examining the nature and practice of "the state" from a wide variety of angles. The class sessions divide into three sections: the first section, covering weeks 1 through 3, will be largely theoretical. It will grapple with the development of the state in historical times, beginning with the earliest forms of the state; then will consider a range of theories concerning the nature and definition(s) of "the" state; and lastly will examine theoretical issues related to two major forms of states--the capitalist/democratic and the socialist/communist states. That section will also consider some of the issues in the transition from socialism.

Class Time and Place

Class meets Tuesday afternoons, 2:00 to 4:50 in Room SST 640.

Office Hours

My office is in 5285 Social Science Plaza, and my hours will be on Wednesday from 2:15 to 3:30. If you cannot come at this time, please contact me to set up an alternate time. I can be reached at 854-2872 or 824-7521 (message machines on both phones). You may also leave a note in my mailbox or speak with my secretary (Estela Mendez, 824-5439). My email address is dorjsoli@uci.edu.

Books to Buy (all paperbacks available in the Bookstore)

Deyo, Frederic C., ed., The Political Economy of the New Asian Industrialism (Cornell University Press, l987).

Evans, Peter R., Dietrich Rueschemeyer & Theda Skocpol, eds., Bringing the State Back In (Cambridge University Press, l985).

Migdal, Joel S., Atul Kohli, and Vivienne Shue, eds., State Power and Social Forces: Domination and Transformation in the Third World (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994).

Smith, David A., Dorothy J. Solinger, and Steven C. Topik, eds., Staes and Sovereignty in the Global Economy (London: Routledge Press, 1999).

In addition, there is a coursepack that can be purchased on the first day of class. (It contains over 50 readings, and will save you lots of trouble going to the library and trying to share library materials.)

Requirements and Evaluation

There will be three components to your grade:

1. Class Participation

Each student will be required to attend class and to come to class having done the reading assignments. By 11:00 a.m. on the day of each class, students must send by email 3 thought-provoking questions or comparative statements both to me and to the student(s) in charge of that day's session. Each question or statement must bring together similar or related points raised by at least two of the authors for that day. In addition, your questions as a whole should show that you have done most of the assigned readings for that day. The questions posed must be rich and interesting enough to serve as the basis for class discussion. A number of these will be selected prior to class for our consideration. Your questions, combined with your oral class participation, will account for one-quarter of your grade. If you must miss a class, you still are responsible for turning in the set of questions either on the day of class or (after informing the instructor of the reason for your tardiness) within the next day or two. Otherwise, your grade may be influenced.

2. Short Papers

Each student must submit 2 analytical problem papers, each one typed and about 10-12 pages in length. Each of these papers is worth another quarter of your total grade. There must be one on any 2 of the 3 sections of the course. You may write on any one of the 3 or 4 subjects within each section. The object is to choose one critical issue or problem or question you have identified in the reading for that week and analyze and compare the way the different authors in that group of readings have discussed that issue. Ideally, you should structure your material around an argument that you have constructed using the readings. Your paper should show that you have done the bulk of the reading for that week, and should be footnoted. There is no need to read anything outside the assigned readings. Papers are due at the start of class for that day. NO LATE PAPERS WILL BE ACCEPTED.

3. Presentation

Each student will present and guide the class for one session. The presentation will entail raising themes that appear in or tie together the readings for that session. In addition, you will need to incorporate (and call on other students to help deal with) the questions that the other students have posed in writing for that session. Your presentation will be evaluated on the basis of the level of preparation exhibited in your guidance of the class and on how skillfully you present the ideas in the readings.

There is no midterm, final exam, or research paper required.

CLASS SCHEDULE AND READING ASSIGNMENTS

September 28 Introduction

Joel S. Migdal, "Studying the State," in Mark Irving Lichbach and Alan S. Zuckerman, eds., COMPARATIVE POLITICS: RATIONALITY, CULTURE, AND STRUCTURE (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1997), 208-235.

SECTION ONE: THE STATE IN THEORY

1. October 5 History and Formation of the State

Joseph R. Strayer, ON THE MEDIEVAL ORIGINS OF THE MODERN STATE (Princeton Univ. Press, 1970), 3-35.

Gianfranco Poggi, THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MODERN STATE, (Stanford Univ. Press, l978), 16-35.

Charles Tilly, "Reflections on the History of European State-Making," in Charles Tilly, THE FORMATION OF NATIONAL STATES IN WESTERN EUROPE (Princeton Univ. Press, 1975), 3-84. (CAN OMIT PP. 51-69)

R. Bin Wong, CHINA TRANSFORMED: HISTORICAL CHANGE AND THE LIMITS OF THE EUROPEAN EXPERIENCE (Cornell Univ. Press, 1998), Part II(Intro.) and Chap. 4.

Hendrik Spruyt, THE SOVEREIGN STATE AND ITS COMPETITORS: AN ANALYSIS OF SYSTEMS CHANGE (Princeton Univ. Press,1994),Chs.5, 8.

Peter Evans, "The Eclipse of the State? Reflections on Stateness in an Era of Globalization," World Politics, 50, 1 (October 1997): 62-87.

2. October 12 What is the State?

Bertrand Badie and Pierre Birnbaum, THE SOCIOLOGY OF THE STATE, Chaps. 1 (3-24) (Univ. of Chicago Press., l983).

Max Weber, "Political Communities," in Guenther Roth and Claus Wittich, eds., MAX WEBER: ECONOMY AND SOCIETY, V. 2 (Univ. of Calif. Press, l978), 901-910.

Emile Durkheim: "Political Sociology," in Anthony Giddens, ed., EMILE DURKHEIM: SELECTED WRITINGS (Harvester, l972), 189-96.

Stuart Hall, "The State in Question," in Gregor McLennan, David Held and Stuart Hall, THE IDEA OF THE MODERN STATE (Open Univ. Press, l984), 1-28.

J.P. Nettl, "The State as a Conceptual Variable," World Politics, July 1968, 559-92.

Stephen D. Krasner, "Approaches to the State: Alternative Conceptions and Historical Dynamics," Comparative Politics, 16, 2 (Jan. 1984), 223-246.

Gabriel A. Almond, "The Return to the State," American Political Science Review 82,3 (1988), 853-74.

Theda Skocpol, "Bringing the State Back In: Strategies of Analysis in Current Research, in Evans et al., 3-37.

Georgina Waylen, Introduction, in Vicky Randall and Georgina Waylen,eds., GENDER, POLITICS AND THE STATE (Routledge, 1998).

3. October 19 Democratic/Capitalist vs. Socialist States

Charles Lindblom, POLITICS AND MARKETS, Chaps. 1, 12, 13 (Basic Books, l977). (pp. 3-13, 161-88).

Ralph Miliband, CLASS POWER AND STATE POWER, Chaps. 2 and 4. (Verso, l984) (pp. 26-48, 63-78).

Eric A. Nordlinger, ON THE AUTONOMY OF THE DEMOCRATIC STATE, Chs. 1, 2, 8 (Harvard University Press, l98l) (pp. 1-73, 203-19).

Claus Offe, "Advanced Capitalism and the Welfare State," Politics & Society, 2 (Summer 1972), 479-88.

Richard Kraus and Reeve D. Vanneman, "Bureaucrats versus the State in Capitalist and Socialist Regimes," Comparative Studies in Society and History 27, 1 (1985), 111-22.

Eva Voszka, "Escaping from the State--Escaping to the State: Managerial Motivation and Strategies in Changing the Ownership Structure in Hungary," in Laszlo Somogyi, ed., THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF THE TRANSITION PROCESS IN EASTERN EUROPE (Aldershot, l993), 227-239.

SECTION TWO: THE STATE IN ACTION

4. October 26 The State and Markets; the State in the Economy

Dietrich Rueschemeyer and Peter B. Evans, "The State and Economic Transformation: Toward an Analysis of the Conditions Underlying Effective Intervention," in Evans et. al., 44-77.

Theda Skocpol and Kenneth Finegold, "State Capacity and Economic Intervention in the Early New Deal," Political Science Quarterly, 97 (l982): 255-78.

Peter Hall, "Patterns of economic policy: an organizational approach," in David Held, ed., STATES AND SOCIETIES (M. Robertson, l983), 363-94.

H. Mahdavy, "The Patterns and Problems of Economic Development in Rentier States: the Case of Iran," in M.A. Cook, ed., STUDIES IN THE ECONOMIC HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE EAST (Oxford Univ. Press, 1970), 428-67.

Peter Evans, EMBEDDED AUTONOMY: STATES AND INDUSTRIAL TRANSFORMATION (Princeton Univ. Press, 1995), Chaps. 1,3.

W. Rand Smith, "Industrial Crisis and the Left: Adjustment Strategies in Socialist France and Spain," Comparative Politics 28, 1 (October 1995): 1-23.

Leo Panitch, "Rethinking the Role of the State," in James H. Mittelman, ed., Globalization: Critical Reflections (Lynne Rienner, 1996), 83-113. USE SASSEN IN SMITH, SOL, TOP INSTEAD?

Eric Helleiner in Smith, Solinger, and Topik (Chapter 7).

5. November 2 State and Society

Michael Mann, "The Autonomous Power of the State: Its Origins, Mechanisms and Results," in John Hall, ed., STATES IN HISTORY (B. Blackwell, 1986), 109-36.

Yanqi Tong, "State, Society, and Political Change in China and Hungary," Comparative Politics, 26,3 (l994), 333-53.

Marcia A. Weigle and Jim Butterfield, "Civil Society in Reforming Communist Regimes: The Logic of Emergence," Comparative Politics 25, 1 (October 1992): 1-23.

Bronislaw Geremek, "Civil Society Then and Now," Journal of Democracy 3, 2 (1992): 3-12.

Hans-Dieter Klingemann and Dieter Fuchs, CITIZENS AND THE STATE (Oxford Univ. Press, 1995), Chaps. 1, 14.

Nicos Mouzelis, "Modernity, Late Development and Civil Society," in John A. Hall, ed., CIVIL SOCIETY: THEORY, HISTORY, COMPARISON (Polity Press, 1995), 224-49.

Christopher G.A. Bryant, "Civic Nation, Civil Society, Civil Religion," in John A. Hall, CIVIL SOCIETY, 136-57.

Migdal, Kohli and Shue, eds., Chap. 11.

6. November 9 The State and the Local State

Cynthia Cockburn, "The Local State: management of cities and people," Race & Class, XVIII, 4 (l977), 363-76.

Ted R. Gurr and Desmond S. King, THE STATE AND THE CITY, (London: Macmillan Education, l987), 7-111.

Sassen, GLOBAL CITIES

M. Gottdiener, THE DECLINE OF URBAN POLITICS: POLITICAL THEORY AND THE CRISIS OF THE LOCAL STATE (SAGE, l987), 193-221.

Jean C. Oi, "The Role of the Local State in China's Transitional Economy," The China Quarterly 144 (1995), 1132-49.

7. November 16 The State in the International System

James N. Rosenau, "The State in an Era of Cascading Politics: Wavering ConCept, Widening Competence, Withering Colossus, or Weathering Change?" in James Caporaso, ed., THE ELUSIVE STATE (Sage, 1989), 17-48.

Robert J.S. Ross, "The Relative Decline of Relative Autonomy: Global Capitalism and the Political Economy of State Change," in

Edward S. Greenberg and Thomas F. Mayer, eds., CHANGES IN THE STATE: CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES, (SAGE, 1990), 206-23.

Peter J. Katzenstein, "Conclusion: Domestic Structures and Strategies of Foreign Economic Policy," in Peter J. Katzenstein, ed., BETWEEN POWER AND PLENTY: FOREIGN ECONOMIC POLICIES OF ADVANCED INDUSTRIAL STATES, (Univ. of Wisconsin Press, l978), 295-336.

Anthony Giddens, THE NATION-STATE AND VIOLENCE, (vol. 2 of A CONTEMPORARY CRITIQUE OF HISTORICAL MATERIALISM), Chap. 10. (Univ. of Calif. Press, l98l), 255-93.

Richard Rosecrance, "The Rise of the Virtual State," Foreign Affairs 75, 4 (1996), 45-61.

W. Rand Smith, "International Economy and State Strategies: Recent Work in Comparative Political Economy" Comparative Politics 25, 3 (April 1993), 351-72.

Robert H. Jackson and Alan James, "The Character of Independent Statehood," in Robert H. Jackson and Alan James, eds., STATES IN A CHANGING WORLD: A CONTEMPORARY ANALYSIS (Clarendon Press, 1993), 3-25.

Stephen D. Krasner, in Smith, Solinger, and Topik (Chapter 2).

SECTION THREE: CASE STUDIES

8. November 23 Western Europe

Perry Anderson, "The Absolutist States of Western Europe," in David Held, ed., STATES AND SOCIETIES (M. Robertson, l983), 137-50.

Edward Carr, "States and Nationalism: The Nation in European History," in ibid., 181-94.

Peter J. Katzenstein, SMALL STATES IN WESTERN EUROPE, Chap. 3. (Cornell Univ. Press, l985), 80-135.

Peter A. Hall, "Policy Paradigms, Social Learning, and the State," Comparative Politics 25, 3 (April 1993): 275-296.

Margaret Weir and Theda Skocpol, "State Structures and the Possibilities for "Keynesian" Responses to the Great Despression in Sweden, Britain, and the United States," in Evans et al., 107-63.

Vivien A. Schmidt in Smith, Solinger, and Topik (Chapter 9).

Jozsef Borocz in Smith, Solinger and Topik (Chapter 10).

9. November 30 East Asia: Japan, China, the E. Asian NICs

Robert Wade, GOVERNING THE MARKET: ECONOMIC THEORY AND THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT IN EAST ASIAN INDUSTRIALIZATION, Chap. 1.

Robert M. Uriu, TROUBLED INDUSTRIES: CONFRONTING ECONOMIC CHANGE IN JAPAN (Cornell Univ. Press, 1996), Chap. 9.

Dorothy J. Solinger, "Urban Entrepreneurs and the State: The Merger of State and Society," in Arthur Lewis Rosenbaum, ed., STATE AND SOCIETY IN CHINA: THE CONSEQUENCES OF REFORM, (Westview Press, l992), 121-41.

Haggard and Cheng in Deyo, ed.

Koo in Deyo, ed.

Deyo, "State and Labor"in Deyo, ed.

Richard Stubbs in Smith, Solinger, and Topik (Chapter 12).

10. December 9 The 3rd World

Lisa Anderson, "The State in the Middle East and North Africa," Comparative Politics, 20, l (Oct. l987), 1-18.

Joel S. Migdal, STRONG SOCIETIES AND WEAK STATES: STATE-SOCIETY RELATIONS IN THE THIRD WORLD, Chap. 1 (Princeton Univ. Press, l988), 10-41.

Alfred Stepan, "State Power and the Strength of Civil Society in the Southern Cone of Latin American," in Evans, et al., 317-43.

Migdal, Kohli, and Shue, Chap. 2 (Hagopian on Brazil).

----, Chap. 4 (Kohli on India).

----, Chap. 7 (Vitalis on Egypt).

----, Chap. 10 (Chazan on Sub-Saharan Africa).

Julius E. Nyang'oro in Smith, Solinger, and Topik (Chapter 14).