UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE

DEPARTMENT OF POLITICS AND SOCIETY

Political Science 252C:

Conditions of Democracy

Winter, 1996

Professor Harry Eckstein

Political Science 252C deals with the conditions that are associated with viable (stable and effective) democracy, including aspects of constitutional design, patterns of history and development, economic conditions, social structure, and culture. The objective of the course is to construct a model of a setting ideal for democratic governance and useful for gauging the probabilities of successful democratization.

Seminar Procedures

Throughout the course we will read together lengthy excerpts from major works on the subject of the seminar. "Reading together" means that (1) all students should "read through" the assigned excerpts from week to week; (2) particular students will be assigned to summarize the readings or parts of them; (3) the instructor will lead discussions to clarify the readings and to raise problems and issues posed by them. Students should try to read the entire works from which excerpts are assigned, at any rate superficially, so that the excerpts are read in context. However, the seminar's emphasis will be on the careful reading, correct grasp, and critical analysis of the more important parts of the works assigned.

During the first four weeks, the instructor will lecture on the topics of the sessions, so that students can begin preparing for their class reports and basic research for their final papers. (For the nature of the papers, see below.) Readings are listed for these initial sessions, to serve as background. Reports and discussions begin in the fifth week

Supplementary readings are provided in the syllabus to enable students to follow up on the topics covered.

Seminar Papers

Throughout the seminar students should work independently on the following exercise:

Select a country that is currently democratizing. Do some fundamental research on its nature, history, and its present process of democratization. In light of the materials covered in the course assess the probability that its process of democratization will have a successful or unsuccessful outcome.

You may choose any country you wish, but it is advisable to choose one about which you already know a fair amount and about which you want to make yourself more familiar. It is expected that you will construct and use your own bibliography for the paper. The instructor is of course available to discuss with you how you are going about your research.

The purposes of this exercise are three: (1) To go beyond routine examinations by seeing how well you can apply what is learned in the course in independent research. (2) To start familiarizing you with the research process. You will have to go through this in writing a senior thesis, and practice in this case, as always, is better than just precept. (3) To supplement the theoretical materials dealt with in meetings of the course with case-study materials.

In a mere quarter of study and research, your ability to deal adequately with your subject will be very limited. The instructor realizes this and will grade accordingly. Some students, however, may want to continue research and writing on the case they chose, possibly in a senior thesis.

Submit the Paper by the end of Finals Week.

Topics for Reading and Discussions

1. Introduction to the Seminar; De Tocqueville on Liberal Democracy

Dahl, Robert A, Polyarchy, pp.1-7

De Tocqueville, Democracy in America. Ch. III-V,

XI, XIV-XVII.

2. Constitutions and Democracy: Electoral Systems

Lijphart, Arend and Bernard Grofman, eds., Choosing An Electoral System, ch. 1-4

3. Constitutions and Democracy: Executive-Legislative Relations

Shugart, Matthew Soberg and John M. Carey, Presidents and Assemblies, ch. 1-4.

4. The Democratic Society

Lipset, S.M., Political Man, Ch. II-IV.

5. Democratic Culture I

Almond, Gabriel A. and Sidney Verba, The Civic Culture, ch. 1, 3-9, 14, 15

6. Democratic Culture II

Putnam, Robert D., Making Democracy Work, ch. 3-4, 5 (pp. 121-136), 6.

7. Democratic Culture III

Harry Eckstein, Regarding Politics, ch.5.

8. Cleavages and Cohesion in Democracies I

Arend Lijphart, Democracy in Plural Societies,

ch.1-3.

9. Cleavages and Cohesion in Democracies II

Harry Eckstein, Division and Cohesion in Democracy, ch. II-III, V, VIII-IX.

10. Can Democracy be "Crafted?" (If time permits.)

Giuseppe Di Palma, To Craft Democracy.

Supplementary Readings

1. General Readings on Democracy

Classics

Aristotle, The Politics, esp.Books II.C, IV.B, and VI.

Walter Bagehot, The English Constitution.

James Bryce, Modern Democracies.

C.J. Friedrich, Constitutional Government and Democracy.

J.S.Mill, Considerations on Representative Government.(See also Dennis Thompson, John Stuart Mill and Representative Government.)

Alexis deTocqueville, Democracy in America, esp. vol. I.

Contemporary Theoretical Studies

Brian Barry, Sociologists, Economists, and Democracy

D.J. McCrone and C.F.Cnudde, "Toward a Communications Theory of Democracy," American Political Science Review, 61(1967), 72-80 .

Arend Lijphart, Democracies: Patterns of Majoritarian and Consensus Government in Twenty-One Countries.

Juan Linz and Alfred Stepan, eds., The Breakdown of Democratic Regimes .

Carole Pateman, Participation and Democratic Theory.

R. Rogowski, Rational Legitimacy.

J. Roland Pennock, Democratic Political Theory.

G.Bingham Powell, Contemporary Democracies: Participation, Stability, Violence.

Giovanni Sartori, Democratic Theory: The Theory of Democracy Revisited and, "Democracy," in International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences vol. 4, 112-1.

Quentin Skinner, " The Empirical Theorists Of Democracy and their Critics: A Plague on Both their Houses," Political Theory, 1(1973) 287-306 Herbert J. Spiro, Government by Constitution.

Dennis Thompson,The Democratic Citizen.

Studies of Contemporary Democratization

Nancy Bermeo, ed. Liberalization and Democratization.

Larry Diamond and S.M. Lipset, Democracy in Developing Countries.

Larry Diamond, ed.,The Democratic Revolution.

Samuel Huntington, The Third Wave.

Michael Kennedy, Envisioning Eastern Europe.

Juan Linz and Alfred Stepan, eds.,The Breakdown of Democractic Regimes.

Juan Linz and A. Valenzuela, eds.,The Failure of Presidential Democracy.

Andrew Nathan, China's Crisis: Dilemmas of Reform and Prospects for Democracy.

Guillermo O'Donnell, J. Mainwaring, and J.S. Valenzuela,eds.,Issues in Democratic Consolidation: The New South American Democracies.

Sabrina Ronnet, Adaptation and Transformation in Communist and Post-Communist Systems

Dankwart Rustow, "Transitions to Democracy," Comparative Politics, 2 (April 1970).

Julian Santamaria, ed.,Transici—n a la democracia en el sur de Europa y AmŽrica Latina.

Giovanni Sartori, Contemporary Constitutional Engineering

Philippe Schmitter, G. O'Donnell, and L.Whitehead, eds.,Transitionbs from Authoritarian Rule: Prospects for Democracy.

Philippe Schmitter, "Democratic Dangers and Dilemmmas," Journal of Democracy, April 1994.

Philiipe Schmitter and Terry Karl, "Modes of Transition in Latin America, Southern, and Eastern Europe,"International Social Science Journal, May, 1991.

Donald Share, The Making of Spanish Democracy.

Alfred Stepan and H.E.Chehabi,eds., Politics, Society, and Democracy.

Myron Weiner, "Empirical Democratic Theory and the Transition from Authoritarianism to Democracy," PS 20 (Fall 1987).

2. Electoral Systems

Bernard Grofman and Arend Lijphart,eds., Electoral Laws and Their Political Consequences and Choosing an Electoral System.

J. Cadart, ed.,Les modes de scrutin.

M. Carstairs, A Short History of Electoral Systems in Western Europe.

Maurice Duverger, Political Parties.

Harry Eckstein, "The Impact of Electoral Systems on Representative Government," Comparative Politics: A Reader, ed. by Eckstein and David Apter, 247-254.

Ferdinand A. Hermens, Democracy or Anarchy?

Enid Lakeman and James D. Lambert, Voting in Democracies: A Study of Majority and Proportional Electoral Systems

Douglas W. Rae, The Political Consequences of Electoral Laws.

Rein Taagepera and Matthew S. Shugart, Seats and Votes (contains a comprehensive bibliography).

3. Executive-Legislative Relations

Walter Bagehot,The English Constitution.

Juan J. Linz and Arturo Valenzuela, eds.,Presidential or Parliamentary Democracy: Does it Make a Difference?

Juan J. Linz, "The Perils of Presidentialism," Journal of Democracy, 1 (1990),51-69.

Richard Rose, "Presidents and Prime Ministers," Society, 25 (1988), 61-67.

Clinton Rossiter, Constitutional Dictatorship.

Matthew S. Shugart and John M. Carey, Presidents and Assemblies: Constitutional Design and Electoral Dynamics.

Matthew S. Shugart and Scott Mainwaring, eds., Presidentialism and Democracy.

Frederick M. Watkins, The Failure of Constitutional Emergency Powers in the German Republic.

Max Weber, "Parliament and Government in a Reconstructed Germany," vol.III of Economy and Society, ed. by Guenther Roth and Claus Wittich.

4.The Structure of Democratic Society

Democracy and Economic Development

Irma Adelman and Cynthia T. Morris, Politics and Economic Development: A Quantitative Approach.

Phillips Cutwright, " National Political Development, Its Meassurement anbd Social Correlates," in Nelson W. Polsby et alia, Politics and Social Life.

Robert A. Dahl, Polyarchy: Participation and Opposition, Chaperes 4-6.

John D. May, Of the Conditions and Measures of Democracy.

Deane E. Neubauer, "Some Conditions of Democracy," American Political Science Review, 61 (1967): 1002-1009.

Organizational Membership and Cross-Cutting Cleavages

G.A. Almond and Sidney Verba, The Civic Culture, passim.

Richard E. Goodwin, "Cross-Cutting Cleavages and Social Conflict," British Journal of Political Science, 5(1975), 516-519.

Sidney Verba,"Organizational Membership and Democratic Consensus, Journal of Politics, 27 (1965), 467-497.

5-7. Political Culture

Gabriel A. Almond and Sidney Verba, eds., The Civic Culrure Revisited.

Brian Barry, Sociologists, Economists and Democracy.

Archie Brown and Jack Gray, Political Culture and Political Change in Communist States.

John S. Dryzek and Jeffrey Brerejikian, "Reconstructive Democratic Theory," American Political Science Review, 87 (1993), 48- 60.

Harry Eckstein, Regarding Politics, chapters 7 and 8.

Ronald Inglehart, "The Renaissance of Political Culture, American Political Science Review, 82 (1988), 1204-1230.

Curtis Martin, Politics East and West:A Comparison of Japanese and British Political Cultures.

Robert Putnam,The Beliefs of Politicians: Ideology, Conflict, and Democracy in Britain and Italy.

M.Thompson, R.Ellis, and A.Wildavsky, Cultural Theory: Foundations of Socio-Cultural Variability.

Lucian Pye and Sidney Verba,eds., Political Culture and Political Development.

8-9. Cleavages and Cohesion in Democracies

Brian Barry, "The Consociational Model and Its Dangers," in Political Opposition in Western Democracies, ed.by Robert A.Dahl and "Political Accomodation and Consociational Democracy," British Journal of Political Science, 5, no.4 (1975).

Hans Daalder, "The Consociational Democracy Theme," World Politics,26, no.4 (1974), 721- 747.

Leo Kuper and M.G.Smith, eds., Pluralism in Africa (esp. articles by van den Berghe and Mazrui).

Arend Lijphart, The Polits of Accomnodation: Pluralism and Democracy in the Netherlands.

Gerhard Lembruch, Proporzdemokratie: Politisches System und politische Kultur in der Schweiz und …sterreich.

Val. R. Lorwin, "Segmented Pluralism: Ideological Cleavages and Political Cohesion in the Smaller European Democracies," Comparative Politics 3, no.2 (1971), 141-144.

Kenneth D. McRae, ed., Consociational Democracy.

Eric A. Nordlinger, "Conflict Regulation in Divided Societies," Occassional Papers in International Affairs, 29, Center for International Affairs, Harvard University (1972).

Alvin Rabushka and Kenneth A. Shepsle, Politics in Plural Societies: A Theory of Democratic I nstability.

Douglas W. Rae And Michael Taylor, The Analysis of Political Cleavages.

JŸrg Steiner, Amicable Agreement versus Majority Rule: Conflict Resolution in Switzerland.

Other Important Topics (not covered in the seminar)

Democracy and "Mass Society"

T.W. Adorno et alia, The Authoritarian Personality.

Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism andThe Human Condition.

Jacob Burchhardt, Force and Freedom.

Erich Fromm, Escape from Freedom.

William Kornhauser, The Politics of Mass Society.

Emil Lederer, State of the Masses.

Jose Ortega y Gassett, The Revolt of the Masses.

Karl Mannheim, Man and Society in an Age of Reconstruction.

The Democratic Society ˆ la Rational-Choice Theory

Ronald Rogowski, Rational Legitimacy.

The Effects of Historical Sequences on Democracy:

Leonard Binder et alia, Crises and Sequences in Political Development

Samuel P. Huntington, Political Order in Changing Societies.

Stein Rokkan and Seymour Martin L:ipset, eds. Party Systems and Voter Alignments.

Barrington Moore, The Social Origins of Democracy and Dictatorship.

Mancur Olson Jr.,"Rapid Growth as a Destabilizing Force," Journal of Economic History 23 (1963),

529--552.