POLITICS, PSYCHOLOGY and SOCIOLOGY TRIPOS PART II 2012-13 Pol 4: Comparative Politics

Course Organiser Glen Rangwala (gr10009@cam.ac.uk) Department of Politics & International Studies 7 West Road Lecturers Devon Curtis (dc403@cam.ac.uk) Kun-Chin Lin (kcl35@cam.ac.uk) Glen Rangwala (gr10009@cam.ac.uk) Helen Thompson (het20@cam.ac.uk) Pieter van Houten (pjv24@cam.ac.uk) Harald Wydra (hbw23@cam.ac.uk)

Contents
1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 2 2. The lecture list ........................................................................................................................................ 3 3. The essay ................................................................................................................................................. 4 A. B. C. D. The questions .............................................................................................................................. 4 Reading ........................................................................................................................................ 6 Writing ....................................................................................................................................... 10 Presentation and referencing .................................................................................................. 11

4. The courses............................................................................................................................................ 14 A. B. C. D. E. F. G. Comparative Politics................................................................................................................ 14 Eastern Europe: Russia and Poland compared .................................................................... 21 Western Europe: France and Germany compared .............................................................. 25 US Presidential Elections ........................................................................................................ 36 The Middle East: Egypt and Saudi Arabia compared ........................................................ 43 State Formation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo ................................................ 51 The Environment and Growth in China ............................................................................... 59

5. The exam ............................................................................................................................................... 64

Please note that this course guide will be updated from time to time over the year. This version was last updated on 10th January 2013.

1. Introduction
This is a broadly-focused paper that sets out to provide approaches to understanding and explaining politics around the world today. The first section of the paper is conceptual, exploring and evaluating major analytical themes in modern politics. It revolves around questions of convergence and diversity: have the state, politics and forms of legitimacy become the same everywhere, comprehensible through general theories that can be applied worldwide, or do national and regional particularities still predominate? This section will be assessed through a single, 5000-word essay written to a title chosen from a list provided, and supervised through Michaelmas term. The second section of the paper is made up of studies of particular regions and cases. The regional studies will each provide a general introduction to an area, but will focus on a specific comparison between two countries. Western Europe will be analysed through comparing the politics of France and Germany, Eastern Europe through a comparison between Russia and Poland, and the Middle East through looking at Saudi Arabia and Egypt. The case studies will be of the state-building process in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the relationship between economic growth and the environment in China, and the US Presidential elections. This section will be assessed through a 2-hour exam at the end of the year, with candidates answering two questions on different regions or cases; at least one of the answers has to be about a region. The long essay and the exam each contribute 50% of the mark for this paper.

2. The lecture list

The lectures for this paper are organised as follows. Glen Rangwala: Comparative Politics (10 lectures, Michaelmas) Harald Wydra: Eastern Europe: Russia and Poland compared (6 lectures, Michaelmas) Devon Curtis: State Formation in Congo (4 lectures, Michaelmas) Pieter van Houten: Western Europe: France and Germany compared (6 lectures, Lent) Glen Rangwala: The Middle East: Egypt and Saudi Arabia compared (6 lectures, Lent) Helen Thompson: US Presidential Elections (4 lectures, Lent) Kun-Chin Lin: The Environment and Growth in China (4 lectures, Lent) Glen Rangwala: Comparative Politics again (1 seminar, Easter) Here is the timetable in more detail, with shortened lecture titles. All lectures will be in SG1 (the ground floor lecture room) at 7 West Road, unless otherwise stated. SLB means Sidgwick Lecture Bloc. Full details are in section 4. Michaelmas term
Comparative Politics 4th Oct, 10 Comparative politics? 8th Oct, 12 The state of the state 11th Oct, 10 Government 15th Oct, 12 Democracy 22nd Oct, 12 Parties and leaders 29th Oct, 12 Public opinion 5th Nov, 12 Markets and states 12th Nov, 12 Identity 19th Nov, 12 The state & violence 26th Nov, 12 The liberal state Congo (SLB 3) Eastern Europe (SLB 4)

1st Nov, 10 - Colonialism 8th Nov, 10 - Geopolitics 15th Nov, 10 Economy & aid 22nd Nov, 10 - A failed state?

19th Oct, 10 State traditions 26th Oct, 10 Nationalism 2nd Nov, 10 Leadership 9th Nov, 10 Communism 16th Nov, 10 Post-communism 23rd Nov, 10 Legacies

Lent term
Western Europe SG2 17th Jan, 11 History 21st Jan, 10 Party systems 24th Jan, 11 - Parliaments 28th Jan, 10 Immigration policy 31st Jan, 11 Economic policy 4th Feb, 10 EU integration The Middle East SLB 3 7th Feb, 11 The Arab world 14th Feb, 11 Development 21st Feb, 11 Revolution US Presidential elections (SG1) 22nd Jan, 10 New Deal 23rd Jan, 12 - Republican majority? 29 Jan, 10 The culture war 30th Jan, 12 - 2008 & 2012 elections
th

China 29th Jan, 10 Development (SG2) 30th Jan, 11 Assessment (SG1) 5th Feb, 10 Consequences (SG2) 6th Feb, 11 Failure? (SG1)

The Middle East SG1 11th Feb, 10 Authoritarianism 18th Feb, 10 Religion & state 25th Feb, 10 Change and stability

Easter term a single session at a date to be confirmed, at 7 West Road.

3. The essay
This paper is assessed by one long essay, to be submitted by noon on Monday, 21st January 2013, as well as the two-hour exam (on this, see section 5). The essay-based part of the paper gives you an opportunity to pursue your more particular interests in politics. It is taken by writing one long essay over the space of Michaelmas term. You are asked to choose a question from the list below, and to write an essay of not more than 5,000 words on it. You should consider conceptual issues, although not to the exclusion of relevant facts. Many of the questions are very generally phrased. This allows you, in discussion with your supervisor, to decide to answer them in a general way or to concentrate on a particular aspect or example of the issue at hand. The lectures on comparative politics are intended to assist you in thinking about themes that will assist you in answering the question. You will also have a supervisor assigned to you. You can expect to have three supervisions for this essay: the first to consider the nature and scope of the question and your approach to it; the second, to discuss progress normally on the basis of a written outline; the third to review a first draft. Supervisors will not read more than one draft of the essay, and will not offer more than three supervisions. You are expected to work for the essay during term time and supervisors will expect to give you each of the three supervisions during term time. Other than in exceptional circumstances where your Director of Studies has provided evidence that you have been unable to work for some period of the term, supervisors can, and will, refuse to read drafts during the vacation.

A. The questions
You will be asked to choose your question at the start of Michaelmas term. Please register your first and second choice of question via the electronic survey system; the course organiser will send an email to you with details of this after the first lecture on 4th October (see below). If you do not receive an email on this day, please contact him directly on <gr10009@cam.ac.uk>. As the preference for questions sometimes outweighs the potential for those questions to be supervised, it is not always possible for everyone to be supervised on their first choice. You will receive details of your supervisor on 5th October; again, contact the course organiser if you havent received details by the end of the day. On the next page is the list of questions. After that, there is a list of suggested initial reading material for each of these questions.

1. What explains the rise and decline of nations? 2. Is politics predictable? 3. To what extent are domestic politics and international affairs still separate domains? 4. Does democracy authorize political power more effectively than any rival form of government? 5. Whose interests do states represent? 6. Why do states decentralize power? 7. If all states perform the same basic functions, why do their forms differ? 8. Can democracies ever be effective in protecting the environment? 9. When should politicians lie? 10. Is contemporary liberal politics overly concerned with equality? 11. What determines whether regimes succumb to revolutionary challenge? 12. Are revolutions inevitably disappointing? 13. Is it still plausible to see politics as a vehicle for the advancement of progressive values? 14. Are political parties becoming less relevant? 15. How does political culture help to explain the rise and fall of social movements? 16. What accounts for the success or failure of popular political protest movements? 17. Should the aim of feminism be the maximisation of choice for women? 18. What is a nation? 19. What is the impact of state debt on domestic politics in democracies? 20. Why are poor countries poor? 21. Does economic globalisation weaken the state? 22. Do religious values constrain or enable capitalism? 23. Can democratic elections promoted by outsiders ever be successful? 24. What makes a constitution viable? 25. Are judiciaries becoming more powerful in democratic politics? 26. Do global environmental problems need local solutions? 27. Can a supranational political system be democratically legitimate and if so how? 28. Has globalisation made the world more or less secure? 29. Why do states make war on drugs? 30. Can there be politics without violence?

B. Reading
For this paper, you are expected to learn how to use bibliographical searches, if you have not done so already, and not to rely upon your supervisor to provide a full reading list. Many of the most useful databases are listed in the faculty library guide to research in Politics: http://www.hsps.cam.ac.uk/sps-library/lib_research_polguide.html Three of the most useful databases are ProQuest (access via the link to IBSS on the library guide); http://www.jstor.org/ ; and, for a broader range, http://scholar.google.co.uk/ . Below are the beginnings of some initial ideas on where to start with reading for each of these questions.
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. What explains the rise and decline of nations? Paul Kennedy, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict From 1500 to 2000. Vintage Books, first published 1987. Mancur Olson, The Rise and Decline of Nations: Economic Growth, Stagflation and Social Rigidities . Yale University Press, 1984. Niall Fergusson, Colossus: The Rise and Fall of the American Empire. Penguin, 2004 Niall Fergusson, Empire: The Rise and Fall of the British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power. Basic Books, 2003. Is politics predictable? John Lewis Gaddis, International relations theory and the end of the Cold War, International Security, Vol. 17, No. 3 (Winter 1992/93), pp. 5-58. Peter Breiner, Max Weber and Democratic Politics (Cornell University Press, 1996), chapters 1-2, 4. Paul Pierson, Increasing returns, path dependence, and the study of politics, American Political Science Review, Vol. 94, No. 2 (June 2000), pp. 251-267. To what extent are domestic politics and international affairs still separate domains? Peter Gourevitch, The Second Image Reversed: The International Sources of Domestic Politics, International Organization (1978), pp. 881-911. Christopher Hill, Bringing war home: foreign policy-making in multicultural societies, International Relations 21: 3 (2007), pp. 25983. David Campbell, The Biopolitics of Security: Oil, Empire, and the Sports Utility Vehicle, American Quarterly, 57: 3 (2005), pp. 943-72. Does democracy authorize political power more effectively than any rival form of government? John Stuart Mill, Considerations on Representative Government (Everyman 1910) Adam Przeworski, Democracy and the Limits of Self-Government (CUP 2010) John Dunn, Setting the People Free: The Story of Democracy (London: Atlantic 2005). Whose interests do states represent? R. Dahl, Who Governs? Democracy and Power in the American City (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1961/2005), Ch1 R. Miliband, The State in Capitalist Society (Dublin: Merlin, 1969/2009) C. Wright Mills, The Power Elite (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1956/1999) Why do states decentralize power? Christopher Ansell and Jane Gingrich, Trends in decentralization, in Bruce E. Cain et al. (eds), Democracy Transformed? Expanding Political Opportunities in Advanced Industrial Democracies (Oxford: OUP, 2003).

7. 8. 9. 10. -

11. 12. 13. 14. -

Erik Wibbels, Madison in Baghdad?: decentralization and federalism in comparative politics , Annual Review of Political Science 9 (2006), pp. 165-188. Michael Keating, Thirty years of territorial politics, West European Politics 31, 1-2 (2008), pp. 6081. James Manor, The Political Economy of Democratic Decentralization (Washington, DC: The World Bank, 1999). If all states perform the same basic functions, why do their forms differ? R. Inglehart, The renaissance of political culture, The American Political Science Review, Vol. 82, No. 4 (1988), pp. 1203-1230 G. Almond and S. Verba, The Civic Culture (London: Sage, 1989), Chs 1 and 4 J. Migdal, State in Society (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001) P. Evans, D. Rueschemeyer & T. Skocpol (eds.), Bringing the State Back in (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985) Can democracies ever be effective in protecting the environment? Andrew Dobson, The Politics of Nature: Explorations in Green Political Theory (Routledge, 1993) Robyn Eckersley, The Green State: Rethinking Democracy and Sovereignty (MIT Press, 2004) Hugh Ward, Liberal democracy and sustainability, in Environmental Politics, Vol.17, no.3 (2008), pp. 386-409. When should politicians lie? Sisela Bok, Lying (Vintage 1999) David Runciman, Political Hypocrisy (PUP, 2008) Martin Jay, The Virtues of Mendacity: On Lying in Politics (Virginia, 2011) Is contemporary liberal politics overly concerned with equality? Samuel Scheffler, Responsibility, reactive attitudes, and liberalism in philosophy and politics, Philosophy & Public Affairs, Vol. 21, No. 4 (Autumn, 1992), pp. 299-323. Margot E. Salomon, Why should it matter that others have more? Poverty, inequality, and the potential of international human rights law, Review of International Studies, 37 (2011), pp 21372155. The Equality Act 2010: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/equalities/equality-act/ What determines whether regimes succumb to revolutionary challenge? Theda Skocpol, States and Social Revolutions (Cambridge University Press, 1979) Barrington Moore, Injustice: the Social Bases of Obedience and Revolt (London: Macmillan, 1978) John Dunn, The success and failure of modern revolutions, in Dunn, Political Obligation in its Historical Context (Cambridge University Press, 1980) Arno J. Mayer, The Furies: Violence and Terror in the French and Russian Revolutions (Princeton University Press, 2001) Are revolutions inevitably disappointing? Theda Skocpol, States and Social Revolutions (Cambridge University Press, 1979), chapter 4 Crane Brinton, The Anatomy of Revolution (New York: Vintage, 1965), chapter 9 Is it still plausible to see politics as a vehicle for the advancement of progressive values? Massimo L. Salvadori, Progress: Can We Do Without It? (London: Zed, 2008). Christopher Lasch, The True and Only Heaven: Progress and its Critics (New York: WW Norton, 1991). Louise Amoore and Paul Langley, Ambiguities of global civil society, Review of International Studies, Vol. 30 (2004), pp. 89-110. Are political parties becoming less relevant? Peter Mair, The challenge to party government, West European Politics 31, 1-2 (2008), pp. 211-234.

15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. -

Jeremy Richardson, The market for political activism: interest groups as a challenge to political parties, West European Politics 18, 1 (1995), pp. 116-139. Russell J. Dalton and Martin P. Wittenberg (eds), Parties without partisans (Oxford: OUP, 2000). How does political culture help to explain the rise and fall of social movements? James Scott, The Moral Economy of the Peasants (Yale, 1977) Douglas McAdam, John McCarthy, and Mayer Zald, Comparative Perspectives on Social Movements (Cambridge University Press, 1996) Douglas McAdam, Freedom Summer (Oxford University Press, 1988) Samuel Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (Simon & Schuster 1998) What accounts for the success or failure of popular political protest movements? Jeff Goodwin and Jasper Jones (eds) The Social Movements Reader: Cases and Concepts (Blackwell Publishers, 2009). Sidney Tarrow, Cycles of Collective Action: Between Moments of Madness and the Repertoire of Contention, Social Science History Vol. 17 (2), 1993: pp. 281-307. Should the aim of feminism be the maximisation of choice for women? Rosemarie Tong and Nancy Williams, Feminist ethics, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, via: http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2011/entries/feminism-ethics/ Martha Nussbaum, Sex and Social Justice (Oxford, 1999), especially ch.1-3 Martha Nussbaum, Women and Human Development: the Capabilities Approach (Cambridge, 2000), ch.2 Kara Granzow, De-constructing choice: the social imperative and women's use of the birth control pill, Culture, Health & Sexuality , Vol. 9, No. 1 (Jan. - Feb., 2007), pp. 43-54 Lizzie Ward, Globalization and the Third Way: a feminist response, Feminist Review, No. 70 (2002), pp. 138-143. What is a nation? Rogers Brubaker, Nationalism Reframed (CUP, 1996) John Hutchinson and Anthony Smith, Nationalism: A Reader (OUP, 1995). Eric Hobsbawm, Nations and Nationalism since 1780: Programme, Myth, Reality , 2nd ed (CUP, 2012). What is the impact of state debt on domestic politics in democracies? Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff, This time is different: eight centuries of financial folly (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012). James Macdonald, A free nation deep in debt: the financial roots of democracy , chapters 3-9 New York: Farrar Strauss Giroux 2002. John Maudlin and Jonathan Tepper, Endgame: the end of the debt super-cycle and how it changes everything, John Wiley and Son, Hoboken 2011. Why are poor countries poor? Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson, Why nations fail: The origins of power, prosperity, and poverty (Profile Books, 2012). Matthew Lange, Lineages of despotism and development: British colonialism and state power (University of Chicago Press, 2009). Adam Smith, The wealth of nations (Simon & Brown, 2012 [1776]). Does economic globalisation weaken the state? Linda Weiss, 'Globalization and the Myth of the Powerless State', New Left Review 225 (1997) Susan Strange, The Retreat of the State: The Diffusion of Power in the World Economy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), chapter 1 Do religious values constrain or enable capitalism? Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (London: George Allen, 1976 [1905])

23. 24. 25. 26. 27. -

28. 29. 30.

Tu Wei-ming, ed., Confucian Traditions in East Asian Modernity: Moral Education and Economic Culture in Japan and the Four Mini-Dragons (Harvard University Press, 1996) Charles Tripp, Islam and the Moral Economy: The Challenge of Capitalism (Cambridge University Press, 2006) Kenneth Wald, Religion and Politics in the United States, 3rd Edition (CQ Press, 1997). Can democratic elections promoted by outsiders ever be successful? Philippe Schmitter and Terry Karl, What Democracy isand what it is not, Journal of Democracy, 2(3), 1991, pp. 75-88. Jon Pevehouse, Democracy from the Outside-In? International Organizations and Democratization, International Organization, 53, 3, 2002, pp. 515-549. Larry Diamond, Elections without Democracy, Journal of Democracy, 13, 2, 2002. Tom Carothers, The backlash against democracy promotion Foreign Affairs, March-April 2006, pp. 55-68. What makes a constitution viable? Anthony King, The British Constitution (OUP, 2009) Vernon Bogdanor, The Coalition and the Constitution (Hart, 2011) Are judiciaries becoming more powerful in democratic politics? J.A.G. Griffith, The politics of the judiciary, fifth edition, London: Fontana Press, 2010. Carlo Guarnieri and Patrizia Pederzoli, The power of judges: a comparative study of courts and democracy Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. James MacGregor, Packing the court: the rise of judicial power and the coming crisis of the Supreme Court Harmondsworth: Penguin 2009. Do global environmental problems need local solutions? Peter M. Haas, International Environmental Governance (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008) Ken Conca, The rise of the region in global environmental politics, in Global Environmental Politics, Vol.12, no.3 (2012), pp. 127-133. D.L. Levy and P.J. Newell (eds), The Business of Global Environmental Governance (MIT Press, 2004) Can a supranational political system be democratically legitimate and if so how? Andrew Moravcsik, In defence of the democratic deficit: reassessing legitimacy in the European Union, Journal of Common Market Studies vol. 40, no. 4 (2002), or Moravcsik. Is there a democratic deficit in world politics? A framework for analysis, Government and Opposition vol. 39, no. 2 (2004). Fritz Scharpf, Governing in Europe: Effective and Democratic? (Oxford University Press 1991) Robert Dahl, Can international organizations be democratic? A skeptics view, in Ian Shapiro and Casiano Hacker-Cordn, eds., Democracy's Edges (Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp.19-36. Robert Keohane, Stephen Macedo and Andrew Moravcsik, Democracy -enhancing multilateralism, International Organization vol. 63, no. 1 (2009), pp.1-31. Has globalisation made the world more or less secure? Ulrich Beck, The Terrorist Threat: World Risk Society Revisited, Theory, Culture and Society, 19:4 (2002), pp. 3955. Chris Coker, Risk Management Goes Global, Spiked, 29 April 2002, via: http://www.spiked-online.com/site/article/9320/ Tarak Barkawi, Globalisation and War (Rowman and Littlefield, 2005). Why do states make war on drugs? Sue Pryce, Fixing drugs: The politics of drug prohibition (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012). Rene Scherlen, The never-ending drug war: Obstacles to drug war policy termination, PS: Political Science & Politics, vol. 45, no. 1 (2012), pp. 67-73. Toby Seddon, A history of drugs: Drugs and freedom in the liberal age (Routledge, 2010). Can there be politics without violence?

Bruce Lawrence and aisha Karim (eds), On Violence: A Reader (Duke University Press, 2007) Peter Ackermann and Jack DuVall, A Force More Powerful: A Century of Nonviolent Conflict (Palgrave, 2000) Hannah Arendt, On Violence (Harcourt Publishers, 1970) Harald Wydra, The recurrence of violence, Sociology Compass, Vol. 1 (2), 2008: 183-194.

C. Writing
The examiners expect an argument in answer to the question, evidence of having read the important literature, and independent thinking. They have no fixed expectations for the nature, direction or conclusion of answers to any of the questions set, and with the general questions you are free to approach them in a way that particularly interest you. Many essays will use detailed examples from past or contemporary politics through which to make their argument. If you do use a particular example, or set of examples, to answer a general question, you need, at the beginning of the essay, to explain why these examples are pertinent to the question. Essays must answer the question and they must make an argument in doing do. More is needed than a straightforward review of the literature. Equally, assertion and rhetorical flourishes cannot substitute for arguments. Polemical writing will be penalised by the examiners. When you make arguments, you need to explain your judgements, and you need to engage with counter-arguments to the arguments you are making. Argue against the strongest claims of counter-arguments, not their weakest points. You also should avoid grand generalisations. These almost always fail to stand up to empirical scrutiny and do not advance arguments. All students should make sure they are familiar with the Departments policy on what constitutes plagiarism, within the Polis Guide to Long Essays, via: http://www.polis.cam.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate/ug-part-iia.html Developing your ability to write in an accurate, focused and compelling way is an important part of this paper. You are expected to write clearly, to punctuate carefully, and to proof read your essays before submitting them. Casualness in presentation of essays and syntactical and grammatical confusion will be penalised by the examiners. Essays in which there are a significant number of typographical errors and syntactical and grammatical mistakes cannot receive a mark higher than a lower second. The examiners report from 2011-12 contains specific comments about the respects in which essays submitted in that year did, or did not, approach the questions in suitable ways. This report is contained at the end of this paper guide, and may contain useful advice for this years cohort.

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D. Presentation and referencing

All essays must be double-spaced and have page numbers. All quotations must be referenced with page numbers, and the essay must include a full bibliography. The word limit is 5,000 words including references, titles, tables, and all other material submitted in the essay, except for the bibliography. Essays that do not conform to these guidelines or which exceed the word limit will be penalised. There is no leeway of 5% or 1%; the limit is 5,000 words. Essays should adopt a consistent and suitable referencing style. There are two common conventions for references: (1) full references in notes at the foot of the page or the end of the document, with a bibliography at the end of the work; and (2) author-date citations in the text, with a bibliography at the end of the work. Follow one of these, and for whichever you use, since there is no agreed way of citing and ordering the bibliographical details in each, do make sure that your referencing is complete and consistent. 1. The full referencing convention. If using this approach, references are included in the notes, which should be numbered serially from 1 from the start of the essay. For references in notes, give full details at the first mention in the chapter, at subsequent mentions in the essay, a brief citation will do. Notwithstanding their widespread use, avoid op. cit., loc. cit., and ibid.; these can confuse. The bibliography should include the full references in alphabetical order. Examples: For books 1. Robert D. Putnam, Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993, p. 36. Thereafter: 2. Putnam, Making Democracy Work, pp. 12-13. For journals 1. Sidney Tarrow, Making social science work across space and time: a critical reflection on Putnams Making Democracy Work, American Political Science Review 90 (1996), pp. 389-98. Thereafter: 2. Tarrow, Making social science work, pp. 389-98. For chapters in edited volumes 1. Maud Eduards, Sweden, in Joni Lovenduski and Jill Hills (eds), The Politics of the Second Electorate: Women and Public Participation, Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1981, pp. 208-27. Thereafter: 2. Eduards, Sweden, pp. 208-27.

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For corporate authors 1. Economist, Between the Caudillo and the Democrat, 17 April 1999, pp. 39-40. Thereafter: 2. Economist, Between the Caudillo and the Democrat, pp. 39-40. For weblinks 1. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (DNB), Keynes, John Maynard, Sept 2004, www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/34310, accessed 20 July 2010. Thereafter: 2. Oxford DNB, Keynes, John Maynard. 2. The author-date system. Footnotes and endnotes, including the references in such notes, count towards the total number of words in Pol 4 essays; the bibliography does not. For this reason, you may prefer to adopt the second convention - the author-date or Harvard style. In this, references are included in the main text, and not in a footnote. There should then be a complete list of references at the end of the dissertation, in which the items should be arranged alphabetically by the authors surname (or where there is no author listed, by corporate author). Examples: For books In text: ... elite political culture in Italy changed dramatically over the course of the 1970s (Putnam 1993: 33) ... or: Putnam (1993:33) argues that elite political culture in Italy changed dramatically over the course of the 1970s... In bibliography: Putnam, R. D. 1993. Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy. Princeton: Princeton University Press. For journals In text: .. although others have questioned his measurements of institutional performance (e.g., Tarrow 1996: 389-98) ... or: Tarrow (1996: 389-98) is critical of the measurements of institutional performance that are used... In bibliography: Tarrow, S. 1996. Making social science work across space and time: A critical reflection on Putnams Making democracy work. American Political Science Review 90: 389-98.

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For chapters in edited volumes In bibliography: Eduards, M. 1981. Sweden. In Joni Lovenduski and Jill Hills (eds) The Politics of the Second Electorate: Women and Public Participation. Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul. For corporate authors In text: (Economist 1999: 39-40) In bibliography: Economist. 1999. Between the Caudillo and the Democrat. 17 April, 39-40. For weblinks In text: (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography 2004) In bibliography: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 2004. Keynes, John Maynard. www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/34310. In both conventions, use a single consolidated bibliography; longer works such as books sometimes have separate bibliographies for primary and secondary sources, but this is not advisable within a 5,000-word essay.

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4. The courses
A. Comparative Politics
The ten lectures given in Michaelmas for this part of the paper are intended to give students a general grounding in debates about the core themes of comparative politics. Some of them will have a direct application to the questions for which assessed essays will be written; others will explore themes that have specific application in the regional and case studies that will be supervised in Lent term. Although material from the lectures will not be examined specifically, the lectures and the reading lists are designed to convey an approach to understanding comparative politics that may inform your work throughout this paper.

Lecture 1: Comparative politics? An Introduction

The opening lecture is to give an overview of a field of study, the various meanings and purposes that are attributed to in different traditions, and the debates about whether it is possible to compare in politics. It will also give an overview of the course as a whole. Because you will be asked to make your choice of options for both Michaelmas and (provisionally) for Lent, attendance at this lecture is necessary if you wish to have a supervisor. The opening section of the lecture is borrowed from three texts: Alasdair MacIntyre, Is a science of comparative politics possible?, in Against the Selfimages of the Age (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1971), pp. 260-279; also in Philosophy, Politics and Society, 4th series, ed. Peter Laslett, W.G. Runciman and Quentin Skinner (Oxford: Blackwell, 1972), pp. 8-26. Ned Lebow, The Tragic Vision of Politics: Ethics, Interests and Orders (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003). Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morality (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007).

The subsequent argument draws upon: Arend Lijphart, Comparative politics and the comparative method, American Political Science Review 65 (1971): 682-693. David Laitin, Comparative politics: the state of the subdiscipline, in Ira Katznelson and Helen Milner, eds. Political Science: The State of the Discipline (New York: Norton, 2002), available via: <http://www.stanford.edu/~dlaitin/papers/Cpapsa.doc>

Lecture 2: The state of the state: authority, sovereignty, legitimacy, power.

The opening section of this lecture is drawn through two texts: James C. Scott, Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998)

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Thomas Hobbes, Behemoth: The History of the Civil Wars of England (London: s.n., 1679; various subsequent editions)

It then moves on to contrast four distinct arguments: Joel Migdal, State in Society: Studying how States and Societies Transform and Constitute one Another (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001) Peter Evans, Embedded Autonomy: States and Industrial Transformation (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995). Michael Mann, The autonomous power of the state, in John Hall, ed., States in History (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1986), pp.109-36. Charles Tilly, War making and state making as organized crime, Peter B. Evans, Dietrich Rueschemeyer and Theda Skocpol, eds., Bringing the State Back In (Cambridge University Press, 1985), pp.169-191.

It then comes back to themes drawn from: J.P. Nettl, The state as a conceptual variable, World Politics 20(4), 1968, pp.559-592. Quentin Skinner, The state, in Terence Ball, James Farr and Russell L. Hanson, eds., Political Innovation and Conceptual Change (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989). David Runciman, The concept of the state: the sovereignty of a fiction, in Quentin Skinner and Bo Strth, eds., States and Citizens: History, Theory, Prospects (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), pp.28-38.

Finally, it ends up leaning against an argument drawn from: Mark Bevir and R.A.W. Rhodes, The State as Cultural Practice (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010).

Lecture 3: Government and governance: is governance still primarily a national business?

This lecture maps out the range of arguments about the limits of national autonomy in the modern world. It uses the example of classical texts that presuppose autonomy: Immanuel Kant, Perpetual peace: a philosophical sketch, in H. Reiss, ed., Kant: political writings (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), pp. 93-130.

It then asks how plausible this remains as a building block for political analysis across the world. Texts drawn upon include: Ha-Joon Chang, Globalisation and the Economic Role of the State (London: Zed Books, 2003). Ben Rosamond, Theories of European Integration (London: Palgrave-Macmillan 2000).

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David Williams, Aid and sovereignty: quasi-states and the international financial institutions, Review of International Studies 26:4 (Oct 2000), pp. 557-573 David Rapkin Empire and its discontents, New Political Economy 10:3 (2005), pp.389-412. William I. Robinson, Promoting Polyarchy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996).

We end up somewhere with: Jon Pierre and B. Guy Peters, Governance, Politics and the State (London: PalgraveMacmillan, 2000). Linda Weiss, The Myth of the Powerless State (Cambridge: Polity, 1998). Sebastian Mallaby, The Worlds Banker: a Story of Failed States, Financial Crises and the Wealth and Poverty of Nations (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005). Robert Keohane, Governance in a partially globalised world, American Political Science Review 95:1 (2001), pp.1-13

Lecture 4: Democracy and democrats: does democracy need its supporters?

The lecture starts with a contrast: Stuart Corbridge, and John Harriss, Reinventing India: Liberalization, Hindu Nationalism and Popular Democracy (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2000) Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (London: Fontana Press, 1994).

The question of this lecture is brought out through: Gabriel Almond and Sidney Verba, The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in Five Nations (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1963)

The attempt to apply the approach more broadly is problematised through: Daniel A. Bell, East meets West: Human rights and Democracy in East Asia (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001). J.A.A. Stockwin, Governing Japan: Divided politics in a Resurgent Economy, 4th edition (Oxford: Blackwell, 2008). Ghassan Salam, ed., Democracy without Democrats? The renewal of politics in the Muslim world (London: I.B. Tauris, 1994), esp chapters 1, 3 and 5. Theodore Rabb and Ezra Suleiman, eds, The Making and Unmaking of Democracy (London: Routledge, 2003), esp chapters 10-12.

Three snappily different answers are found in: Fareed Zakaria, The rise of illiberal democracy, Foreign Affairs 76:6 (November 1997), pp.22-43.

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Thomas Carothers, The end of the transition paradigm, Journal of Democracy 13:1 (2002), pp.5-21. Larry Diamond, Can the whole world become democratic? Democracy, development, and international policies (2003), Center for the Study of Democracy, at: http://repositories.cdlib.org/csd/03-05

Lecture 5: Parties and leaders: are parties redundant in an age of personality politics?
The lecture revisits Madison in Federalist No. 10 and 63; it asks what has been gained and lost by the emergence and dominance of party systems around the world; and asks whether the historical forces that brought them into being are still pervasive. The texts that will be used to ask about alternatives to party systems in politics are: Henry E. Hale, Why not Parties in Russia? Democracy, Federalism, and the State (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006) Herbert Kitschelt and Steven I. Wilkinson, Patrons, Clients, and Policies: Patterns of Democratic Accountability and Political Competition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), chapters 1,2,12 and 13 Richard Gunther, Jos R. Montero, Juan Jos Linz, eds., Political Parties: Old Concepts and New Challenges (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), chapters 1, 2, 5, 10 and 11 Russell J. Dalton, Martin P. Wattenberg, eds., Parties without Partisans: Political Change in Advanced Industrial Democracies (Oxford University Press, 2000), chapters 2,5 and 6

Lecture 6: The idea of public opinion: when and how do the publics views affect political decisions?
The lecture asks if one can escape the scepticism of Schumpeter or Lippman towards a model of politics that is guided by informed public opinion: Also: John Dunn, Setting the People Free: The Story of Democracy (London: Atlantic 2005). Walter Lippman, Public opinion (New York: Macmillan, 1922). Joseph Schumpeter, Capitalism, socialism and democracy (London: Routledge, 1994), part iv

Attempts to reinstall a central role for public opinion include: Stuart N. Soroka and Christopher Wlezien, Degrees of Democracy: Politics, Public Opinion, and Policy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010). Clem Brooks and Jeff Manza, Why Do Welfare States Persist?, The Journal of Politics 68:4 (2006), pp.816-827.

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The lecture explores in particular the global reach of opinion surveys, to see what can be appreciated from understanding the effects of public opinion outside the West, by drawing upon examples of the effects of opinion surveys in 2011 in the Arab states.

Lecture 7: Markets and states: how do markets constrain and enable state action?
This lecture goes through a series of steps, first by evaluating arguments about the reduced role of states in national and international politics: Vincent Cable, The diminished nation-state: a study in the loss of economic power, Daedalus 124:2 (1995), pp.23-53 Layna Mosley, Global Capital and National Governments (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003).

It then looks at arguments that challenge the view that markets compel states to act: Steven K. Vogel, Freer Markets, More Rules: Regulatory Reform in Advanced Industrial Countries (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1996). Geoffrey Garrett, Global markets and national politics: collision course or virtuous circle?, International Organization 52:4 (Autumn 1998), pp.787-824.

It ends with a critique of attempts to portray the state as countering the forces of the market: Charles Lindblom, Politics and Markets: the Worlds Political and Economic Systems (New York: Basic Books 1977).

Lecture 8: The politics of identity: have religion, ethnicity and tribe become central to politics? Starting points are found in: Isaiah Berlin, The bent twig: on the rise of nationalism in The Crooked Timber of Humanity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990). Amartya Sen, Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny (London: Allen Lane, 2006) Partha Chatterjee, The Nation and its Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993).

That takes us on to arguments about the extent to which identity politics becomes an arena for confrontation: David Turton, ed., War and Ethnicity: Global Connections and Local Violence (New York, 1997). Mary Kaldor, New and Old Wars: Organized Violence in a Global Era (Cambridge: Polity, 1999). Amy Chua, World on Fire (New York: Doubleday, 2002).

We end up somewhere around:

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Ashutosh Varshney, Ethnic Conflict and Civic Life: Hindus and Muslims in India (Yale University Press, 2002). James Fearon and David Laitin, Violence and the social construction of ethnic identity, International Organization 54:4 (Autumn 2000), pp.845-77. Ilan Peleg, Democratizing the Hegemonic State: Political Transformation in the Age of Identity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007).

Lecture 9: The state and violence: agents of security and insecurity.

We begin with an attempt to historicise the relationship of the state with domestic order: Philip Bobbitt, The Shield of Achilles: War, Peace and the Course of History (London: Penguin, 2003), chapters 6-8 of book I and chapters 17-20 in book II Charles Tilly, Reflections on the history of European state-making, in Charles Tilly, ed., The Formation of National States in Western Europe (Princeton University Press, 1975), pp.383. (eBook: http://search.lib.cam.ac.uk/?itemid=|eresources|5029522)

This in then placed within a global context: Mohammed Ayoob, The Third World Security Predicament: State-making, Regional Conflict, and the International System (Lynne Rienner, 1995) Diane E. Davis and Anthony W. Pereira, eds., Irregular Armed Forces and their Role in Politics and State Formation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), chapters 1 & 15 Mark Duffield, Development, Security and Unending War: Governing the World of Peoples (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2007)

The takes us on to discussions of the privatisation of violence and the state: Batrice Hibou, Privatising the State (London: Hurst, 1999/2004), chapters 1 and 4 Rita Abrahamsen and Michael C. Williams, Security Beyond the State: Private Security in International Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011) Edward Blakely and Mary Snyder, Fortress America: Gated Communities in the United States (Washington: Brookings Institute, 1999)

Lecture 10: The liberal state revisited. A Conclusion.

This lecture tries to draw together themes from its predecessors. The core theme it tackles is the resilience of political diversity: is there a single, universalisable political model within which politics globally exists, and which sets standards of legitimacy? Where does political difference exist, and is it sustainable? How does this affect the aspiration to develop an approach to understanding politics comparatively? The case is set by:

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Bertrand Badie, The Imported State: the Westernization of Political Order (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000) Francis Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man (London: Penguin, 1992). Olivier Roy, The Failure of Political Islam (London: IB Tauris, 1994) John Keane, Global Civil Society? (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003).

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B. Eastern Europe: Russia and Poland compared

This course introduces students into central selected themes of Russian and Polish politics. It uses historical, political, sociological, and anthropological methods in order to address an important range of problems in these political societies. This course will point to numerous family resemblances related to similar patterns of social development and state tradition but also highlight fundamental differences mainly related to formations of state, religious orientations, commitments to democracy, or modes of extrication from communism. The lectures start by a conceptual introduction that is attuned to historical-cultural particularities before addressing selected case studies and, eventually, discussing comparative elements. Essential reading: Brown, Archie (2001) Contemporary Russian Politics. A Reader. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Davies, Norman. God's Playground: A History of Poland (New York: Columbia University Press, 1982). Sakwa, Richard (2008) Russian Politics and Society. 4th edition. London: Routledge. Schoepflin, George (1993) Politics in Eastern Europe 1945-1992. Oxford: Blackwell. Urban, Michael (2010) Cultures of Power. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Wydra, Harald (2007) Communism and the Emergence of Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Lecture 1: State traditions and state formation Kharkhordin, Oleg (2005) Main Concepts in Russian Politics, chapter 1 Koyama, Satoshi. 2008. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth as a Political Space: Its Unity and Complexity. Acta Slavica Iaponica 15:137-152. (on camtools) Schoepflin, George (1993) Politics in Eastern Europe. Oxford: Blackwell. Szuecs, Jeno, Three Historical Regions of Europe, in John Keane (ed.) Civil Society and the State. London: Verso, 291-332. Lecture 2: Nationalism and Nation-Building Beissinger, Mark (2002) Nationalism and Nationalist Mobilisation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, chapter 8.

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Brock, Peter (1994) Polish Nationalism, in Peter Sugar and Ivo Lederer (eds) Nationalism in Eastern Europe. Third printing. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 310-72. Brown, Archie (2002) Contemporary Russian Politics. A Reader , Section 8 Russian Statehood and the National Question, 343-66. Brubaker, Rogers (1996) Nationalism Reframed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, chapters 2 and 4. Richard Sakwa (2007) Russian Politics and Society, part III. Tolz, Vera Forging the Nation: National Identity and Nation Building in Post-Communist Russia, Europe-Asia Studies, Vol.50, No.6, 993-1022 (camtools) Zubrzycki, Genevieve (2006) The Crosses of Auschwitz: Nationalism and Religion in Post Communist Poland. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press. Lecture 3: Leadership and Ideological Traditions Casanova, Jos (1994) Poland: From Church of the Nation to Civil Society in Public Religions in the Modern World (Chicago: University of Chicago Press), 92-113. Curry, Jane, Poland: The Politics of Gods Playground, in Wolchik, Sharon L. and Curry, Jane (2008) (eds) Central and East European Politics: From Communism to Democracy. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield), 165-89. Jasiewiczy, Krzysztof (1997) Walesas Legacy to the Presidency, in Taras, Ray (ed.) Postcommunist Presidents. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 130-167. Sakwa, Richard (2007) Putin. Russias Choice. London and New York: Routledge. Wydra, Harald (2001) Continuities in Polands Permanent Transition, chapters 2-4. Brown, Archie (1996) The Gorbachev Factor. Oxford: Oxford University Press. White, Stephen (1997) Russia: Presidential Leadership Under Yeltsin, Taras, Ray (ed.) Postcommunist Presidents. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 38-66. Lecture 4: Communism: Revolution and Resistance Ash, Timothy G. (1991) The Polish Revolution: Solidarity. London: Granta Books.

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Bunce, Valerie (1999) Subversive Institutions: The Design and the Destruction of Socialism and the State. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Kotkin, Stephen (2001) Armageddon Averted. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Kubik, Jan (1994) The Power of Symbols Against the Symbols of Power. Rise of Solidarity and the Fall of State Socialism in Poland. Penn State University Press. Rothschild, Joseph (1993) Return to Diversity. A Political History of East Central Europe Since World War II. 2nd edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Wydra, Harald (2008) Revolution and Democracy: The European Experience, in Foran, John/ Lane, David/Zivkovic, Andreja, Revolution in the Making of the Modern World. London and New York: Routledge, 27-44. Wydra, Harald, Communism and the Emergence of Democracy, chapters 3 and 5. Lecture 5: Post-Communism: The Rebirth of Politics and its Challenges Holmes, Leslie (1997) Postcommunism. Durham: Duke University Press. Zarycki, Tomasz, Politics in the Periphery: Political Cleavages in Poland Interpreted in Their Historical and International Context, Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. 52, No. 5 (Jul., 2000), pp. 851-873 (camtools). Sanford, George (2002) Democratic Government in Poland: Constitutional Politics Since 1989. London: Palgrave Macmillan, chaps 1, 3,4. Michta, Andrew (1997) Democratic Consolidation in Poland after 1989, in Dawisha, Karen and Parrot, Bruce (eds) The Consolidation of Democracy in East-Central Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 66-108. Urban, Michael et al. (1997) The Rebirth of Politics in Russia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, chapter 1. Jerzy Szacki (1995) Liberalism after Communism. Budapest: Central European University Press. Weigle, Marcia (2000) Russias Liberal Project. State-Society Relations in the Transition from Communism. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 382-459. Wydra, Harald (2007) Communism and the Emergence of Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, chapter 8-9.

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Lecture 6: Authoritarian Legacies and Paths to Democracy Dryzek, John and Holmes, Leslie (2002) Post-Communist Democratisation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Chapters 1, 6, 14, 16. Fish, Steven (2003) Conclusion: Democracy and Russian Politics, Barany and Moser (eds) Russian Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 215-51. Kubik, Jan (2003) Cultural Legacies of State Socialism: History Making and Cultural-Political Entrepreneurship in Postcommunist Poland and Russia, in Ekiert, G. and Hanson, S. (2003) Capitalism and democracy in Central and eastern Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Michael Bernhard, Civil Society and Democratic Transition in East Central Europe, Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 108, No. 2. (Summer, 1993), pp. 307-326. Richard Sakwa (2007) Russian Politics and Society, part VI. Sakwa, Richard (2004) Putin. Russias Choice. London and New York: Routledge. Wydra, Harald (2008), Democratisation as Meaning-Formation Insights fom the Communist Experience, International Political Anthropology Vol. 1, No. 1, 113-32. (on camtools) Supervision essays: Is there an Eastern European model of nationalism? How did communist legacies influence democratisation processes in Eastern Europe? Do transition processes weaken or strengthen state power?

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C. Western Europe: France and Germany compared

France and Germany are at the heart of European politics. They are two of the largest states and economies in Europe, and have been centrally involved in the political developments in Western Europe for at least the last century and a half. They continue to be important states in the European Union and in global politics. The governments of both states are crucial actors in the attempts to deal with the recent economic and Eurozone crises, and to different extents play an important role in the EUs external policies. Some knowledge and understanding of the French and German political institutions and policies is, therefore, essential for students of European and comparative politics. More specifically, for several reasons France and Germany are good case studies in a course on comparative politics. First, as will become clear in the Michaelmas module in this paper, some of the general arguments and concepts in the study of comparative politics were based on or inspired by observations of Western European states. Therefore, France and Germany provide good illustrations of these general arguments and concepts. Second, France and Germany provide interesting contrasts in, among other things, their party systems, political regimes (semi-presidential vs parliamentary), territorial organization of their states (unitary vs federal), and their approaches to economic policy and immigration policy. The lectures will indicate the variation between France and Germany in some institutional features and policy areas, and how these differences might be explained. Trying to understand and explain these differences is interesting in itself, as well as a good illustration of the study of comparative politics in action. Third, both are interesting cases as such, and feature important political debates and challenges that regularly feature in the news. These include the rise of extremist parties (especially in France), the need to reform social and welfare policies, challenges provided by immigration pressures and how to govern increasingly diverse societies, and the future of the European Union. This module will not cover all these topics, but will provide some basis for understanding them better. Students in this module will obtain basic knowledge of the French and German political systems in general and some detailed knowledge of a few specific aspects and policy areas in these countries. Moreover, they will learn how to apply and critically evaluate some general comparative politics theories and concepts in specific cases. However, students are not expected to learn and fully comprehend the political history and contemporary politics of these two countries. This module serves as an illustration of several basic themes and arguments in comparative politics, not as a full course in French and German politics. The rest of this guide gives some suggestions for background and further reading, lists the topics of the lectures, and indicates the questions and reading lists for supervision essays. Students will do two supervisions for this module. The lecturer will contact the students at the start of Lent term about the specific supervision arrangements.

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Background, general and further reading Specific readings for the supervision essays are indicated in the last section of this guide. It is, however, a good idea to do some background reading on the recent political history of France and Germany (and perhaps on post-war political developments in Western Europe more broadly). This section provides some suggestions for this (the ones indicated with a are specifically recommended as background reading), and also lists some general texts on French and German politics (some chapters of which may be useful for the supervisions). France Robert Gildea, France since 1945 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997). Helen Drake, Contemporary France (London: Palgrave, 2011). Anne Stevens, The government and politics of France, 3rd ed. (London: Palgrave, 2003). Andrew Knapp and Vincent Wright, The government and politics of France, 4th ed. (London: Routledge, 2001) [or 5th ed., 2007]. Nick Hewlett, Modern French politics: analysing conflict and consensus since 1945 (Cambridge: Polity, 1998). Pepper D. Culpepper, Peter A. Hall and Bruno Palier, eds., Changing France: the politics that markets make (London: Palgrave, 2006). Germany Lothar Kettenacker, Germany since 1945 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997). Simon Green et al, The politics of the new Germany, 2nd ed. (London: Routledge, 2011). Simon Green and William E. Paterson, eds., Governance in contemporary Germany: the semisovereign state revisited (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005). David Broughton, Contemporary German Politics (London: Routledge, 2003). Herbert Kitschelt and Wolfgang Streeck, eds., Germany: beyond the stable state (London: Frank Cass, 2004). Also published as: Germany: from stability to stagnation, special issue of West European Politics, 26, 4 (2003). Political biographies An interesting and enjoyable way of learning about recent French and German political history is to read biographies of some of main political actors. Some interesting biographies are: Jonathan Fenby, The General: Charles de Gaulle and the France he saved (London: Simon & Schuster, 2010). Roland Tiersky, Franois Mitterand: the last French president (London: St Martins Press, 2000). Charles Williams, Adenauer: the father of the new Germany (London: Abacus, 2003). Paul Hockenos, Joschka Fischer and the making of the Berlin republic: an alternative history of postwar Germany (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008). More general overviews of post-war European political history Tony Judt, Postwar: a history of Europe since 1945 (London: Pimlico, 2005). [Brilliant history of post-war Europe, but long and dense in places.]

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William I. Hitchcock, The struggle for Europe: the turbulent history of a divided continent 1945-2002 (London: Profile, 2003). [Good and readable overview of the main events, developments and political actors.] Derek W. Urwin, A political history of Western Europe since 1945, 5th ed. (London: Longman, 1997). [Solid and useful overview of political development in Western Europe until the 1990s.] Further reading There is a large amount of literature on the contemporary politics of France and Germany. It will not be difficult to find more material in books or journals, if students want to read beyond the lists provided below (when you are preparing for the exam, for example). Students should be able to do this themselves by looking through catalogues and such, but can ask the lecturer if they want further guidance. Journal articles are particularly good sources for further information (especially for recent developments). The journals German Politics, French Politics, German Politics and Society and French Politics, Culture and Society focus exclusively on the countries covered in this module. The following journals also regularly or occasionally feature articles on French or German politics: West European Politics, Journal of European Public Policy, Comparative European Politics, Perspectives on European Politics and Society, Comparative Political Studies, European Journal of Political Research, Government and Opposition, Party Politics. Students may also find it interesting although this is not essential for the module to follow current debates in French and German politics. In addition to daily British newspapers, good sources are The Economist (www.economist.com), Financial Times (www.ft.com) and International Herald Tribune (www.iht.com). Lectures This module has six lectures, which are given in the first three weeks of Lent term. This section indicates the titles of the lectures, and gives some indication of their contents. 1. Historical background to French and German politics This lecture introduces some of the main features of and developments in French and German politics since World War II, which serve as background to the themes of the following lectures. Students will receive a hand-out with basic factual information on the post-war political history of these two countries. 2. Political parties and party systems: unstable and polarized (France) vs. stable and centrist (Germany)? For decades Germany had one of the most stable and least polarized party systems in Western Europe, while Frances party system was much more polarized and volatile. How did this happen, and is it still the case? Mainstream parties in both countries are increasingly

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challenged. Where do these challenges come from, and what are the implications for the party systems in these two countries? 3. Executives and parliaments (political regimes): semi-presidential vs. parliamentary France and Germany have different political regimes, which is most obvious when considering the formal status and role of their executives (the French president and the German chancellor), but also manifests itself in differences in the role and influence of their parliaments. What are the implications of these different regimes? 4. Immigration and integration policy: republican vs. ethnic? Immigration and the integration of immigrants into society are increasingly salient political issues in Western Europe. What are the main differences to the approaches traditionally taken in France (often described as a republican approach) and Germany (an ethnic approach) in these areas? And are these differences still significant in light of challenges and developments in recent years? 5. Economic policy: statist vs. coordinated liberal? This lecture focuses on the approaches to economic policy in France and Germany, with specific emphasis on the role of the state in their respective economies. It has often been argued that there are significant differences in the role of the state in these cases (a direct role in France and a more indirect role in Germany). What exactly is this difference, and does it still exist? 6. Policies towards European integration: intergovernmental vs. supranational? France and Germany have been key states in the development of the European Union. Their aims and preferences for the EU (or, more broadly, their visions of Europe) have often been said to differ, with France seeing the EU as a platform to maintain Frances European and global role and Germany more open to the development of a supranational and post-sovereign political system. Has there indeed been such a difference? If so, what can explain this difference and does it still exist? Supervisions Students will do two supervisions for this module. Some students will do these supervisions in the first half of Lent term, while others will do them in the second half of Lent term. The course organiser and the module lecturer will contact the students near the start of Lent term to notify them of the specific arrangements (timing, supervisor, etc.) of the supervisions. Essay questions and reading lists are given below. For each supervision essay, students are expected to do the Basic readings listed for their chosen question and sample some of the other

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listed readings. (These other readings also provide further readings for exam preparation.) Note that some of the books on France and Germany listed above as General reading may also have chapters on the themes of the supervisions. So it is worth checking these books for relevant material too. Supervision 1: Institutional features The first supervision focuses on some of the structural or institutional features of French and German politics, as discussed in lectures 2 and 3. In consultation with their supervisor, students should choose one of the following two questions. 1a. Is the party system in France still more fragmented than in Germany? Basic readings Herbert Kitschelt, European party systems: continuity and change, in Developments in West European politics, edited by Martin Rhodes, Paul Heywood and Vincent Wright (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1997). Andrew Knapp, France: never a golden age, and Susan E. Scarrow, Party decline in the parties state?: the changing environment of German politics, in Political parties in advanced industrial democracies, edited by Paul Webb, David Farrell and Ian Holliday (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002). France Andrew Knapp and Frederic Sawicki, Political parties and the party system, in Development in French politics 4, edited by Alistair Cole, Patrick Le Gals and Jonah D. Levy (London: Palgrave, 2008). Simon Bornschier and Romain Lachat, The evolution of the French political space and party system, West European Politics 32, 2 (2009): 360-383. G. Grunberg, The French party system and the crisis of representation, in Changing France: the politics that markets make, edited by Pepper D. Culpepper et al (London: Palgrave, 2006). Andre Blais and Peter J. Loewen, The French electoral system and its effects West European Politics 32 (2009): 345-359. Jocelyn E. Evans, ed., The French party system (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2003). Germany Gordon Smith, Parties and the party system, in Developments in German politics 3, edited by Stephen Padgett, William E. Paterson and Gordon Smith (London: Palgrave, 2003). Uwe Jun, Volksparteien under pressure: challenges and adaptation, German Politics, 20, 1 (2011): 200-222. Klaus Detterbeck, Party cartel and cartel parties in Germany, German Politics 17, 1 (2008): 2740. Michelle Hale Williams, Kirchheimer revisited: party polarisation, party convergence, or party decline in the German party system, German Politics 17, 2 (2008): 105-123.

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Geoffrey Roberts, German electoral politics (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2006). General Paul Webb, Political parties, representation and politics in contemporary Europe, in Developments in European politics 2, edited by Erik Jones, Paul Heywood, Martin Rhodes and Ulrich Sedelmeier (London: Palgrave, 2011). Ingrid van Biezen and Peter Mair, Political parties, in Developments in European Politics, edited by Paul Heywood, Erik Jones, Martin Rhodes and U. Sedelmeier (London: Palgrave, 2006). Paul Webb, David Farrell, and Ian Holliday, eds., Political parties in advanced industrial democracies (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), Introduction. Alan Ware, Political parties and party systems (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996). Peter Mair, ed., The West European party system (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990). 1b. Which is more powerful: the French President or the German Chancellor? Basic readings Klaus Goetz, Power at the centre: the organization of democratic systems, in Developments in European Politics, edited by Paul M. Heywood et al (London: Palgrave, 2006). Robert Elgie, Political leadership in liberal democracies (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1995), chapters 3 and 4. France Jonah D. Levy and Cindy Skach, The return to a strong presidency and Bastien Francois, Parliament and political representation, in Development in French politics 4, edited by Alistair Cole et al (London: Palgrave, 2008). Robert Elgie, Political institutions in contemporary France (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), Chs 4, 6. John Gaffney, Political leadership in France: From Charles de Gaulle to Nicolas Sarkozy (London: Palgrave, 2012). Robert Elgie, The political executive and Andrew Knapp, The Fifth Republic and checks on executive power, in Development in French politics 3, edited by Alistair Cole et al (London: Palgrave, 2005). Frances political institutions at 50, special issue of West European Politics 32, 2 (2009), esp. articles by Elgie, Grossman, Lazardeux, Sauger, Grossman & Sauger. Germany Klaus H. Goetz, Government at the centre, in Developments in German politics 3, edited by Stephen Padgett, William E. Paterson and Gordon Smith (London: Palgrave, 2003). Manfred G. Schmidt, Political institutions in the Federal Republic of Germany (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), Chs 2, 3. Ludger Helms, The changing Chancellorship: resources and constraints revisited, German Politics 10, 2 (2001): 155-168.

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Clay Clemens, Explaining Merkels autonomy in the Grand Coalition: persionalisation or party organisation?, German Politics 20, 4 (2011): 469-485. Ludger Helms, Germany: Chancellors and the Bundestag, The Journal of Legislative Studies 10, 2-3 (2004): 98-108. Stephen Padget et al, eds., Adenauer to Kohl: the development of the German Chancellorship (London: Hurst, 1994). General Paul Heywood, Executive capacity and legislative limits in Developments in West European Politics 2, edited by Paul Heywood, Erik Jones and Martin Rhodes (London: Palgrave, 2002). Thomas Poguntke and Paul Webb, eds., The presidentialization of politics: a comparative study of modern democracies (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), relevant chapters. Yves Mny and Andrew Knapp, Government and politics in Western Europe: Britain, France, Italy, Germany, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), Chs 5, 6. Philip Norton, ed., Parliaments and governments in Western Europe (London: Cass, 1998). P. Schleiter and E. Morgan-Jones, Citizens, presidents and assemblies: the study of semipresidentialism beyond Duverger and Linz, British Journal of Political Science 39, 4 (2009): 871-892. Supervision 2: Policy areas The second supervision focuses on a specific policy issue or area in France and Germany, as discussed in lectures 4 to 6. In consultation with their supervisor, students should choose one of the following three questions. 2a. Are policies towards immigration and immigrants more restrictive in Germany than in France? Basic readings Rogers Brubaker, Citizenship and nationhood in France and Germany (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1992), Introduction (pp. 1-18). Christian Joppke, European immigration policies: between stemming and soliciting still, in Developments in European politics 2, edited by Erik Jones et al (London: Palgrave, 2011). France V. Guiradon, Different nation, same nationhood: the challenges of immigration policy, in Changing France: the politics that markets make, edited by Pepper D. Culpepper et al (London: Palgrave, 2006). Patrick Weil, The politics of immigration, in Developments in French politics 2, edited by Alain Guyomarch et al (London: Palgrave, 2001). Sally Marthaler, Nicolas Sarkozy and the politics of French immigration policy, Journal of European Public Policy 15, 3 (2008): 382-397.

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Rogers Brubaker, Citizenship and nationhood in France and Germany (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1992), chapters on France. V. Guiradon, Immigration politics and policies, in Development in French politics 3, edited by Alistair Cole et al (London: Palgrave, 2005). Martin A. Schain, The politics of immigration in France, Britain and the United States: a comparative study (London: Palgrave, 2009), chapters on France. Miriam Feldblum, Reconstructing citizenship: the politics of nationality reform and immigration in contemporary France (New York: SUNY Press, 1999). Stefan Vertovec and Susanne Wessendorf, eds., The multicultural backlash: European discourses, policies and practices (London: Routledge, 2010), chapter on France. Germany Simon Green, Towards an open society?: citizenship and immigration, in Developments in German politics 3, edited by Stephen Padgett, William E. Paterson and Gordon Smith (London: Palgrave, 2003). Marc Morj Howard, The causes and consequences of Germanys new citizenship law, German Politics 17, 1 (2008): 41-62. Joyce M. Mushaben, Citizenship and migration policies under Merkels Grand Coalition, German Politics 20, 3 (2011): 376-391 [see especially pages 380-387]. Michael Minkenberg, The politics of citizenship in the new republic, West European Politics, 26, 4 (2003): 219-240. Rogers Brubaker, Citizenship and nationhood in France and Germany (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1992), chapters on Germany. Elisabeth Musch, Consultation structures in German immigrant integration politics: the National Integration Summit and the German Islam Conference, German Politics 21, 1 (2012): 73-90. Barbara Marshall, New Germany and migration in Europe (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000). Stefan Vertovec and Susanne Wessendorf, eds., The multicultural backlash: European discourses, policies and practices (London: Routledge, 2010), chapter on Germany. General Christian Joppke, Beyond national models: civic integration policies for immigrants in Western Europe, West European Politics 30 (2007): 1-22. V. Guiradon and E. Jileva, Immigration and asylum, in Developments in European Politics, edited by Paul M. Heywood et al (London: Palgrave, 2006). Terri E. Givens, Immigrant integration in Europe: empirical research, Annual Review of Political Science 10 (2007): 67-83. Christian Joppke, European immigration policies at the crossroads, in Developments in West European Politics 2, edited by Paul Heywood et al (London: Palgrave, 2002). The politics of immigration in Western Europe, special issue of West European Politics, 17, 2 (1994), selected articles.

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Rafaela M. Dancygier, Immigration and conflict in Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), chapters 7 and 8. 2b. Where does the state play a larger role in economic policy: in France or in Germany? Basic readings Vivien A. Schmidt, French capitalism transformed, yet still a third variety of capitalism, Economy and Society 32 (2003): 526-554. Ben Clift, Economic policy, in Development in French politics 4, edited by Alistair Cole et al (London: Palgrave, 2008). Stephen Padgett, Political economy: the German model under stress, in Developments in German politics 3, edited by Stephen Padgett, William E. Paterson and Gordon Smith (London: Palgrave, 2003). France Jonah Levy, Economic policy and policy-making, in Development in French politics 3, edited by Alistair Cole et al (London: Palgrave, 2005). Peter A. Hall, The evolution in economic policy, in Developments in French politics 2, edited by Alain Guyomarch et al (London: Palgrave, 2001). Pepper D. Culpepper, Peter A. Hall and Bruno Palier, eds., Changing France: the politics that markets make (London: Palgrave, 2006), Part One. Peter A. Hall, Governing the economy: the politics of state intervention in Britain and France (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986), Parts I, III, IV. Jonah D. Levy, Tocquevilles revenge: state, society, and economy in contemporary France (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999). Germany Andreas Busch, Globalisation and national varieties of capitalism: the contested viability of the German model, German Politics 14 (2005): 125-139. Reimut Zohnlhfer, Between a rock and a hard place: the Grand Coalitions response to the economic crisis, German Politics, 20 (2011): 227-242. Kenneth Dyson, The West German model revisited, in Continuity and change in German politics, edited by Stephen Padgett and Thomas Poguntke (London: Frank Cass, 2001). Richard Deeg, The comeback of Modell Deutschland?: the new German political economy in the EU, German Politics 14 (2005): 332-353. Horst Siebert, The German economy: beyond the social market (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005). Christel Lane, Globalization and the German model of capitalism: erosion or survival? (London: Routledge, 2000). General

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 Erik Jones, Globalization and interdependence, and Bob Hanck, Varieties of European capitalism and their transformation, in Developments in European politics 2, edited by Erik Jones et al (London: Palgrave, 2011). Vivien A. Schmidt, European political economy: labour out, state back in, firm to the fore, West European Politics, 31 (2008): 302-320. Vivien A. Schmidt, The futures of European capitalism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), esp. chapters 3 and 4. Peter A. Hall and David Soskice, eds., Varieties of capitalism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), Introduction. Andrew Gamble, The spectre at the feast (London: Palgrave, 2009), esp. chapter 4. 2c. What are some of the main differences in French and German European integration policies, and how can we explain these differences? Basic readings Stanley Hoffman, French dilemmas and strategies in the new Europe, in After the cold war, edited by Robert Keohane, Joseph Nye and Stanley Hoffman (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1993). Charlie Jeffery and William Paterson, Germany and European integration: a shifting of tectonic plates, West European Politics, 26, 4 (2003): 59-75. France Nicholas Sauger, Attitudes towards Europe in France, and Hussein Kassim, France and the European Union under the Chirac presidency, in Development in French politics 4, edited by Alistair Cole et al (London: Palgrave, 2008). Richard Balme and Cornelia Woll, France: between integration and national sovereignty, in The member states of the European Union, edited by Simon Bulmer and Christian Lequesne (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005). Ulla Holm, Sarkozyism: new European and foreign policy into old French bottles, DIIS Working Papers 30 (2009) [available at http://www.diis.dk/sw87604.asp]. Helen Drake, ed., French relations with the European Union (London: Routledge, 2005), chs. 1, 2, 9. Craig Parsons, Domestic interests, ideas and integration: the French case, Journal of Common Market Studies, 38 (2000): 45-70. Alain Guyomarch, Howard Machin and Ella Ritchie, France in the European Union (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1998), chapter 1. Germany William E. Paterson, The reluctant hegemon?: Germany moves centre stage in the European Union, Journal of Common Market Studies Annual Review 49 (2011): 57-75. Jeffrey Anderson, Germany and Europe: centrality in Europe, in The member states of the European Union, edited by Simon Bulmer and Christian Lequesne (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005).

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William E. Paterson, Does Germany still have a European vocation?, German Politics, 19, 1 (2010): 41-52. Simon Bulmer, Charlie Jeffery and William E. Paterson, Germanys European diplomacy: shaping the regional milieu (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000). Adrian Hyde-Price and Charlie Jeffery, Germany in the European Union: constructing normality, Journal of Common Market Studies 39 (2001): 689-717. Peter J. Katzenstein, ed., Tamed power: Germany in Europe (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1997), selected chapters. General Helen Wallace, Exercising power and influence in the European Union: the roles of member states, in The member states of the European Union, edited by Simon Bulmer and Christian Lequesne (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005). Tanja A. Brzel, Pace-setting, foot-dragging, and fence-sitting: member state responses to Europeanization, Journal of Common Market Studies, 40 (2002): 193-214. Andrew Moravcsik, The choice for Europe: social purpose and state power from Messina to Maastricht (London: UCL Press, 1998).

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D. US Presidential Elections
This case study looks at presidential elections in the US from 1968 to 2012 with an analytical focus on putting the 2008 presidential election into political context. It asks whether or not 2008 was an election that realigned American politics and whether it heralded an era of Democratic dominance in presidential elections. There are four lectures: Lectures 1. The rise and fall of the New Deal coalition 2. Was there a Republican majority 1968-2004? 3. The politics of the culture war 4. The 2008 and 2012 presidential elections The supervisions will concentrate on the material in lectures two, three and four and the exam questions will arise in relation to this material. Students though will be expected to do some reading covering the whole time period to contextualise the material. Essential reading for the whole case study John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge, The right nation: why America is different Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2005. Sean Trende, The lost majority: why the future of government is up for grabs Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2012. John Judis and Ruy Teixeira, The emerging Democratic majority New York: Scribner, 2002.

Supervision 1: The Republican majority 1968-2004? This topic examines the apparent era of Republican dominance in presidential elections between 1968 and 2004. The supervision essay considers whether elections in this period can be explained by a culture war. Essay: How far does a culture war in the United States explain the outcomes of presidential elections between 1968 and 2004? Sean Trende, The lost majority: why the future of government is up for grabs, Part I, chapters 2 and 3 Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2012.

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 John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge, The right nation: why America is different Penguin, 2005. Thomas Frank, Whats the matter with the United States? London Martin Secker and Warburg 2004. Larry M. Bartels, Whats the matter with whats the matter with Kansas? http://www.princeton.edu/%7ebartels/kansas.pdf John B. Judis and Ruy Teixeira, The emerging democratic majority (New York: Scriber 2002), chapter 1. Philip E Converse at al "Continuity and change in American politics: parties and issues in the 1968 election" American Political Science Review 1969 63(4): 1083-1105. A. I. Abramowitz and K. L. Saunders Is polarization a myth? The Journal of Politics 2008 70 (2): 542-555. James Guth et al, Religious influences in the 2004 presidential election Presidential Studies Quarterly vol 36 no 2. 2006, 223-42. D. E. Campbell A house divided?: what social science has to say about the culture war, William and Mary Bill of Rights Journal, 2006 vol 15, 59-74.

Additional relevant reading Morris Fiorina et al, Culture war?: the myth of a polarised America London: Longman 2004. David Leege, The politics of cultural differences: social change and voter mobilization strategies in the post New Deal period Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2002. Alan Wolfe and Iris Katznelson (eds), Religion and democracy in the United States Princeton Princeton University Press, 2010. chapter 2. Larry Sabato, Divided states of America; the slash and burn politics of the 2004 presidential election Longman 2005. Geoffrey Layman, The great divide: religious and cultural conflict in American party politics, Princeton University Press, 2001. Kevin Phillips, The emerging Republican majority, Arlington House 1969.

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Arthur Miller and Martin Wattenberg, Politics from the pulpit: religiosity and the 1980 elections, Public Opinion Quarterly. 48: 300-12 J. Himmelstein and J. McRae Social conservatism, new Republicans and the 1980 election Public Opinion Quarterly, 48 (3) 595-605. Seymour Lipset, Earl Raab Evangelicals and the elections Commentary 1981 71, 25-31. David Gopoian Images and issues in the 1988 presidential election, Journal of Politics, 1993 55 (1): 151-66. Alan Abramowitz Its abortion stupid: policy voting in the 1992 presidential election Journal of Politics, 1995, 57 (1) 176-186. Ted Jelen and Marthe Chandler Culture wars in the trenches: social issues as short-term forces in presidential elections 1968-1996, The American Review of Politics 21: 69-87. Alan I. Abramowitz and Walter Stone The Bush effect: polarization, turnout and activism in the 2004 presidential election, Presidential Studies Quarterly 2006 36 (2): 141-154. David J. Smyth and Susan Washburn Taylor, Why do the Republicans win the White House more often than the Democrats? Presidential Studies Quarterly, 22 (1992): 481-91. Everett Carll Ladd, The 1992 vote for President Clinton: another brittle mandate? Political Science Quarterly 108 (1993). Irene Taviss Thomson, Culture wars and enduring American dilemmas, University of Michigan Press, 2010. Nolan McCarty, Keith T. Poole, and Howard Rosenthal, Polarized America: the dance of ideology and unequal riches, Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2007.

Supervision 2: Why did the Democrats win in 2008? This essay covers the 2008 presidential election. The question should be answered both looking backwards to previous elections how does 2008 fit into the pattern of elections from 1968 and forwards to the 2012 election what does the 2012 election suggest about what was happening in 2008. Sean Trende, The lost majority: why the future of government is up for grabs, Introduction and Part II, Basingstoke: Palgrave 2012.

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 John Judis and Ruy Teixeira, The emerging Democratic majority New York: Scribner, 2002, chapters 2 and 4. Paul R. Abramson, John H. Aldrich, and David W. Rohde. Change and continuity in the 2008 elections, chapters 2-8. Erik Jones and Salvatore Vassallo, The 2008 presidential elections: a story in four acts London: Macmillan, 2009, chapters 4-7. Gillian Peele et al, Developments in American politics 6, Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2010. chapter 3. Available on camtools under Bruce Cain Corwin Smidt et al, The disappearing God gap?: religion in the 2008 presidential election, chapters 5-7. Larry Sabato, The year of Obama: how Barack Obama won the White House London: Longman 2010. For analysis of 2012 there is a collection of short pieces and the relevant data at: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/elections/ Additional reading Kate Kenski, Bruce W. Hardy, and Kathleen Hall Jamieson. The Obama victory: how media, money, and message shaped the 2008 election, Oxford University Press, 2010, parts I and II. Hannah Goble and Peter M.Holm Breaking Bonds? The Iraq war and the loss of Republican dominance in national security, Political Research Quarterly 62 (2009) Gary Jacobson, The 2008 presidential and congressional elections: anti-Bush referendum and prospects for the Democratic majority, Political Science Quarterly 2009 124 (1); 1-30.

Reading on the 2008 Democratic nomination race Paul R. Abramson, John H. Aldrich, and David W. Rohde. Change and continuity in the 2008 elections, chapter 1. J. Citrin and D. Karol, Nominating the President: evolution and revolution in 2008, Latham, Md, Rowman and Littlefield.

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Erik Jones and Salvatore Vassallo, The 2008 presidential elections: a story in four acts London: Macmillan, 2009, chapter 1. Larry Sabato (ed), The year of Obama: how Barack Obama won the White House London: Longman 2010, chapter 10 Corwin Smidt et al, The disappearing God gap?: religion in the 2008 presidential election, chapter 3.

General reading relevant to the case study American political parties Gillian Peele et al, Developments in American politics 6, chapter 4, Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2010. John H. Aldrich, Why parties?: a second look, University of Chicago Press, 2011. Joseph A. Schlesinger, 1985 The new American political party American Political Science Review, 79 (4, Dec.): 1152-1169. Leon D. Epstein, Political parties in the American mold, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1986. Martin Wattenberg, The decline of American political parties, 1952-88, fifth edition. Harvard University Press, 1998. James A. Stimson, Tides of consent: how public opinion shapes American politics, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004 Alan Ware, Political parties and the new partisanship in Gillian Peele (ed) Developments in American politics 6 Basingstoke: Palgrave 2010.

Parties and presidential nominations Marty Cohen, David Karol, Hans Noel, and John Zaller, The party decides: presidential nominations before and after reform, Chicago: University of Chicago Press 2008. J. Bibby & Maisel, L. Sandy, Two parties or more? the American party system, Westview Press: Boulder, CO, 1998.

Realignment elections and changing presidential coalitions

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V. O Key, Secular realignment and the party system Journal of Politics 21:198-210) 1959. Everett Carll Ladd and Charles D. Hadley, Transformations of the American party system: political coalitions from the New Deal to the 1970s, 2nd edition New York: W. W. Norton and company 1978. V. O. Key jr A theory of critical elections, Journal of Politics 1 (1955); 4. Nelson Polsby and A Wildavsky, Presidential elections: strategies and structures of American politics, 12th edition Lanham Md: Rowman and Littlefield. Alan I. Abramowitz and Kyle L. Saunders Ideological realignment in the US electorate Journal of Politics, 1998 60 (3): 634-652. Bernard Sternsher The New Deal party system: a reappraisal, Journal of Interdisciplinary History 1984, vol 15 (1) pp. 53-81. David Mayhew, Electoral realignments: a critique of an American genre, 2004.

Religion and American politics R. Putnam and D. Campbell, American grace: how religion divides and unites us New York: Simon and Schuster 2010. Garry Wills, Head and heart: a history of Christianity in America Harmondsworth: Penguin 2008. Kenneth D. Wald and Allison Calhoun-Brown, Religion and politics in the United States, fifth edition Lanham : Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2006. Frank Lambert, Religion in American politics: a short history Princeton: Princeton University Press 2010. James Guth, George W. Bush and religious politics in Steven E. Schier, High risk and big ambition: the presidency of George W. Bush Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh University Press, 2004.

Race and American politics Robert Huckfeldt and Carol Weitzel Kohfeld, Race and the decline of class in American politics Chicago: University of Illinois Press 1989. Donald Kinder and Lynn Sanders, Divided by color: racial politics and democratic ideals Chicago:

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University of Chicago Press, 1996. Michael Dawson, Behind the mule: race and class in African American politics, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994. Paul Frymer, Uneasy alliances: race and party competition in America Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999. Edward G. Carmines, and James A. Stimson, Issue evolution: race and the transformation of American politics, Princeton University Press, 1989.

Sample exam questions What does religion explain in American presidential elections since 1968? Would any Democratic nominee have won the 2008 presidential election?

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E. The Middle East: Egypt and Saudi Arabia compared

The course Over the past sixty years, Egypt and Saudi Arabia have each been, in different ways and at different times, the core state in the Middle East. Egypt has taken on, sometimes by consent and sometimes to the chagrin of others, the role of political and cultural leadership in the Arab world. Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, has been the dominant economic force in the region, with its ability to utilise its oil wealth to ensure that all states in the region have to coordinate closely with it. Both states in their own ways exemplify the politics of the Middle East today. They also have been remarkably different as polities and societies. Egypt has long presented itself as the face of modernisation, with political systems harking at different times to socialism, nationalism, liberalisation, and (now) democratisation. Saudi Arabia meanwhile has been a highly conservative society, with many areas of public and political life dominated by a sprawling ruling family that has been deeply resistant to what they portray as the ideological fads that have swept the rest of the world. The lecture series will look to compare two countries that between them have shared a region, and which are near-neighbours, but which remain palpably distinct in their political institutions and political culture. Students can expect to come away from this course with a good grasp of the modern history of these two countries, and to understand their political systems, which in Egypts case is undergoing a significant transformation with the Arab Spring. They should also be able to draw comparisons. What explains the long experience of authoritarianism that has dominated both countries modern histories, and it is the same type of authoritarianism? Does religion play a similar role in garnering political legitimacy? To what extent do they face the same economic and social challenges? What explains the different paths that the two countries followed in 2011, with the type of popular movement that developed rapidly in Egypt to overthrow Hosni Mubaraks government seemingly absent in Saudi Arabia? Essay questions Why has authoritarianism persisted for so long in Egypt and Saudi Arabia? What explains the significance that religion has had in the politics of Egypt and Saudi Arabia? Lectures and reading lists Lecture 1: The idea of the Arab world It is very much worthwhile to start this course by developing a general sense of the historical evolution and politics of the Middle East. Owen is probably the best way in for a newcomer to the region, developing both a historical account and themes for analysis. In addition to this text,

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a general historical sense of the two core countries that are being examined in this option Egypt and Saudi Arabia is crucial. On Saudi Arabia, Al-Rasheeds account is ideal for this purpose. Niblock is an alternative, but is less detailed. Kostiner traces Saudi history in terms of relations between tribes and a centralising state apparatus. Oddly enough, there is no comparable high-quality history of modern Egypt; many general histories of the Middle East as a whole give a considerable degree of centrality to the place of Egypt in that history, and it is perhaps best to approach Egypt through relevant sections of Gelvin (chapters 5, 9-10, 12 and 15) and (maybe preferably) Cleveland & Bunton (the relevant sections of chapters 4-6, 11, 15-16 and 18), before moving on to literature from the second lecture about Egypt. * Roger Owen, State, Power and Politics in the Making of the Modern Middle East (London: Routledge, 3rd edition, 2004) William Cleveland and Martin Bunton, A History of the Modern Middle East (Westview Press, 4th edition, 2009) earlier editions, with Cleveland as the sole author, are also fine Albert Hourani, A History of the Arab Peoples (London: Faber & Faber, 1991) James Gelvin, The Modern Middle East: A History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005) * Madawi Al-Rasheed, A History of Saudi Arabia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2nd edition, 2010) Tim Niblock, Saudi Arabia: Power, Legitimacy and Survival (Abingdon: Routledge, 2006) Joseph Kostiner, Transforming dualities: tribe and state formation in Saudi Arabia, in Philip Khoury and Joseph Kostiner, eds, Tribes and State Formation in the Middle East (Berkeley CA: University of California Press, 1990) [C]

Lecture 2: The authoritarian mode Middle East scholarship has developed a range of ways of explaining the persistence of authoritarianism in the region; many of these modes of analysis will need revision in light of the events of 2011. It is important though to understand the general argument about the region and the specific arguments about Egypt and Saudi Arabia; Schlumberger provides the best starting point, with chapter 2 (Heydemann) setting out general arguments, chapters 4 (Albrecht), 8 (Pioppi) and 11 (Richter) on Egypt, and chapter 15 (Aarts) a provocative short coda on Saudi Arabia. The Posusney/Angrist is similar: chapters 1 (Posusney) and 2 (Bellin) are useful ways in to the topic, chapter 9 (Langohr) is particularly good on Egypt, and chapter 8 (Herb) briefly on Saudi Arabia.

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On Saudi Arabia, the most useful texts here are two contrasting articles: the first by Glosmeyer, the second by Al-Rasheed & Al-Rasheed (and/or see the first chapter of the authors more recent Contesting the Saudi State, listed with lecture 6, for a more recent account of the ideology of defensive conservatism); also see the texts with lecture 3. On Egypt, Kassem is fairly introductory but newcomers to the topic should find it useful to read this short book as a whole. Cook especially chapter 4 is more directly focused. Springborg is good, but dated. * Oliver Schlumberger, ed., Debating Arab Authoritarianism: Dynamics and Durability in Nondemocratic Regimes (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2007) [chapter 4 on C]. Marsha Pripstein Posusney and Michele Penner Angrist, eds., Authoritarianism in the Middle East: Regimes and Resistance (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2005) [chapter 9 on C]. Maye Kassem, Egyptian Politics: The Dynamics of Authoritarian Rule (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2004) [chapter 3 on C] * Madawi Al-Rasheed and Loulouwa Al-Rasheed, The politics of encapsulation: Saudi policy towards tribal and religious opposition, Middle Eastern Studies, 32 (1), 1996, 96120. [OL] Iris Glosemeyer, Checks, balances and transformation in the Saudi political system, in Paul Aarts and Gerd Nonneman, eds., Saudi Arabia in the Balance (London: Hurst & Co., 2005), pp.214-233 [C] Steven Cook, Ruling But Not Governing: The Military and Political Development in Egypt, Algeria, and Turkey (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2007) [Chapter 4 on C] Robert Springborg, Mubaraks Egypt: Fragmentation of the Political Order (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1989).

Lecture 3: Development and disjuncture Discussions of the politics of Saudi Arabia revolve around its rentier character: Okrulik and Chaudhry are both comparative accounts that include Saudi Arabia, and are generally within the rentier paradigm. Hertog provides a well-researched critique: chapter 1 has been copied to CamTools, but the book as a whole is worth reading, and especially chapter 8. See also Foley, for lecture 6. Analysis of Egypt tends to take a quite different focus of analysis: it is centrally concerned with the programmes of economic reform or liberalisation continually announced by Egyptian governments, their economic and political effects, and the reasons for their repeated stalling. Although making an advanced argument, Kienle is perhaps the best one to read first: the final chapter, copied to CamTools, brings together the overall evaluation, but the earlier material in

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the book provides the necessary substance. Sullivan and Zaki may prompt a useful comparison. Posusney is a bit dated, but its focus on how economic liberalisation changed relations between the state and labour unions is still relevant. Roy and Shehata are partly technical in nature, but both contain provocative political arguments. * Gwenn Okruhlik, Rentier wealth, unruly law, and the rise of opposition: the political economy of oil states, Comparative Politics, 31(3), 1999, 295315. [OL] Kiren Aziz Chaudhry, Economic liberalization and the lineages of the rentier state, Comparative Politics, 27(1), 1994, pp.125. [OL] * Steffen Hertog, Princes, Brokers, and Bureaucrats: Oil and State in Saudi Arabia (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2010) [chapter 1 on C] * Eberhard Kienle, A Grand Delusion: Democracy and Economic Reform in Egypt (I.B. Tauris Publishers, 2001) [chapter 8 on C] Marsha Posusney, Labor and the State in Egypt: Workers, Unions and Economic Restructuring (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997) [chapter 5 on C] Denis J. Sullivan, The political economy of reform in Egypt, International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, vol. 22 (1990), pp.317-334. [OL] Mokhlis Y. Zaki, IMF-supported stabilization programs and their critics: evidence from the recent experience of Egypt, World Development 29/ 11 (2001), pp.1867-1883 [OL] Delwin A. Roy, 'Egyptian emigrant labour: domestic consequences', Middle Eastern Studies, vol. 27/4 (1991), pp.551-82 [OL] Samer Shehata, In the Bashas house: the organizational culture of Egyptian public-sector enterprise, International Journal of Middle East Studies, 37/1 (2003), pp.10332. [OL]

Lecture 4: Religion and the state In both countries, religion has had a significant role in shaping political discourse. The main focus of much of the literature on Saudi Arabia is on the form of Islam adopted in that country, which is usually referred to by outsiders and critics as Wahhabism. Piscatori, a short schematic article, is old but still probably the best place to start. Steinberg gives a historical account of the religious elite, but Al-Rasheeds History (lecture 1) is more thorough. The chapter from Yamani (lecture 6) is on the younger generations views on the role of Islam in public life. Delong-Bas provides a critical reassessment of the extent to which what is now often referred to Wahhabism is really a product of the eighteenth-century thought of Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, arguing instead

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that it is a modern invention. Literature on Egypt tends to look to the parties that were in opposition prior to 2011 that made particular appeal to their Islamic credentials, particularly the Muslim Brotherhood (here, El-Ghobashy is probably the best starting point, with Wickham and Bayat subsequently), and to some extent also the centrist New Islamist Trend (Baker). Wickhams text is best to read in full; the chapter copied to CamTools is on the development of Islamist networks, but other chapters are also directly useful, including the postscript, which takes the account up to the 2000s. Clark, on the development of Islamic social welfare organisations, helps understand the increased appeal of an Islamic identity, although it is only indirectly about the politics of that identity. It is also important to look to the way in which governments of Egypt since the 1970s have all made strong claims to religious authenticity, and also how much of the opposition within Saudi Arabia has tried to outflank the monarchy through claims to being true upholders of the countrys religious inheritance. On Egypt, see especially al-Awadi and Bayat. On Saudi Arabia, see Lacroix on the Sahwa movement; Jones is a short, and less historically informed, alternative. * James P. Piscatori, The roles of Islam in Saudi Arabias political development, in John L. Esposito (ed.), Islam and Development: Religion and Sociopolitical Change (Syracuse University Press, 1980), pp. 12338. [C] Guido Steinberg, The Wahhabi ulama and the Saudi state: 1745 to the present, in Paul Aarts and Gerd Nonneman, eds., Saudi Arabia in the Balance (London: Hurst & Co., 2005), pp.11-34. Natana Delong-Bas, Wahhabi Islam: from Revival and Reform to Global Jihad (London: I.B. Tauris, 2007). Stphane Lacroix, Awakening Islam: The Politics of Religious Dissent in Contemporary Saudi Arabia (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 2011) [chapter 1 on C]. Toby Jones, Religious revivalism and its challenge to the Saudi regime, in Mohammed Ayoob and Hasan Kosebalaban, eds, Religion and Politics in Saudi Arabia (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2009), pp.109-120. [C] * Carrie Wickham, Mobilizing Islam: Religion, Activism, and Political Change in Egypt (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003) [chapter 7 on C] * Asef Bayat, Making Islam Democratic: Social Movements and the Post-Islamist Turn (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2007), chapter 5 [C]. Hesham Al-Awadi, In Pursuit of Legitimacy: The Muslim Brothers and Mubarak, 1982-2000 (London: IB Tauris, 2004) [chapter 7 on C]

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Janine Clark, Islam, Charity, and Activism: Middle-Class Networks and Social Welfare in Egypt, Jordan, and Yemen (Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, 2004), chapter 2 [C] Raymond Baker, Islam without Fear: Egypt and the New Islamists (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2003). Sheri Berman, Islamism, revolution, and civil society, Perspectives on Politics, vol. 1/2 (June 2003), pp. 257-272 [OL] Mona El-Ghobashy, The metamorphosis of the Egyptian Muslim Brothers, International Journal of Middle East Studies 37(2005), pp.373-395 [OL].

Lecture 5: Revolution and consolidation This lecture will look to the historical distinctiveness of the movements that, in Egypt, led to the removal of the Mubarak regime in 2011. It also looks to the comparability of these movements with the rebellions that Saudi Arabia has experienced in its recent past. Due to the rapid evolution of the events in the Arab Spring or Arab Awakening, and the highly fluid nature of Egyptian politics in the aftermath of the 2012 presidential election, a short reading list on recent events will be distributed in the lecture. For past uprisings, Jones is good on Saudi Arabia. On Egypt, see Abdelrahman on the Kifaya movement, and Bayat and Sadiki on the earlier bread riots. On the Arab Spring, see Bellin and Barani for starting points. The final chapter in Cook and the article by Martini and Taylor are useful contrasting perspectives on how significant the overthrow of Mubarak is for Egypts political system. Stein is useful on the problems of consolidation. The final five pieces on the list look to potential effects (or the absence of them) of the Arab Spring within Saudi Arabia. Toby Jones, Rebellion on the Saudi periphery: modernity, marginalization and the Shia uprising of 1979, International Journal of Middle East Studies, 38/2 (2006), pp.21333 [OL]. Maha Abdelrahman, With the Islamists? - sometimes. With the State? - never! cooperation between the Left and Islamists in Egypt, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 36/1 (2009), pp.37-54 [OL]. Asef Bayat, Activism and social development in the Middle East, International Journal of Middle East Studies, vol. 34 (2002), pp.1-28 [OL]. Larbi Sadiki, Popular uprisings and Arab democratization, International Journal of Middle East Studies, vol. 32 (2000), pp.71-95 [OL].

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* Eva Bellin, Reconsidering the robustness of authoritarianism in the Middle East: lessons from the Arab spring, Comparative Politics, vol. 44/2 (January 2012), pp. 127-149 Zoltan Barani, Comparing the Arab revolts: the role of the military, Journal of Democracy, vol. 22/4 (October 2011), pp.28-39, via: http://tinyurl.com/pol4vi Steven Cook, The Struggle for Egypt: From Nasser to Tahrir Square (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011) [chapter 7 on C] Jeff Martini and Julie Taylor, Commanding democracy in Egypt, Foreign Affairs, vol. 90/5 (Sept/Oct 2011), via: http://tinyurl.com/pol4ii Ewan Stein, Revolution or coup? Egypt's fraught transition, Survival: Global Politics and Strategy, vol. 54/4 (August 2012), pp. 45-66 [OL]. Mehran Kamrava, The Arab spring and the Saudi-led counterrevolution, Orbis, vol. 56/1 (2012), pp.96-104, via: http://tinyurl.com/pol4vii Christopher Clary and Mara E. Karlin, Saudi Arabia's reform gamble, Survival, vol. 53/5 (Sept 2011), pp.15-20, via: http://tinyurl.com/pol4iii * Madawi Al-Rasheed, Sectarianism as counter-revolution: Saudi responses to the Arab Spring, Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism, vol. 11/3 (December 2011), pp. 513-526, via: http://tinyurl.com/pol4iv Toby Matthiesen, A Saudi Spring? The Shia protest movement in the Eastern Province 201112, Middle East Journal, vol. 66/4 (August 2012), pp. 629-659 [OL]. Stphane Lacroix, Is Saudi Arabia immune?, Journal of Democracy, vol. 22/4 (October 2011), pp.48-59, via: http://tinyurl.com/pol4v

Lecture 6: Change and stability The lecture course finishes with a series of reflections on the extent to which we can understand the future of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Middle East as a whole from an understanding of their past. It brings out a series of arguments about the new factors that affect the politics of these countries, and evaluates critically the extent to which the politics of the region can be seen to be entering a new era. Joel Beinin, Political Islam and the new global economy: the political economy of an Egyptian social movement, CR: The New Centennial Review, 5/1 (2005), pp.11139. [OL]

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Madawi Al-Rasheed, Contesting the Saudi State: Islamic Voices from a New Generation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006) [chapter 1 on C] Sean Foley, The Arab Gulf States: Beyond Oil and Islam (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2010) [chapter 3 on C] Mai Yamani, Changed Identities: The Challenge of the New Generation in Saudi Arabia (London: RIIA, 2000) [chapter 6 on C]. Marc Lynch, Voices of the New Arab Public: Iraq, al-Jazeera, and Middle East Politics Today (New York: Columbia University Press, 2006) [chapter 2 on C] Maha Abdelrahman, The transnational and the local: Egyptian activists and transnational protest networks, British Journal of Middle East Studies, 38/3 (2011), pp.407-24. [OL]

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F.

State Formation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Lecturer and supervisors: Devon Curtis Hubertus Jrgenliemk Lindsay Scorgie States in sub-Saharan Africa are often deemed to be flawed or imperfect models of states elsewhere. Different terms have been used to describe Africa states, such as failed states, quasistates, privatised states, shadow states, rentier states, fragile states, weak states. Amid these seemingly imperfect states, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is sometimes singled out as a dark hole in the centre of the continent, the epitome of the shortcomings of the African state. In this option, we will discuss the ways in which many representations of the Congo - and of other states in Africa - may obscure more than they reveal. If these representations are inadequate, what are some of the other ways of understanding and describing politics in Congo, that better capture the complexity of political structures and practices in the country? How can we understand the exercise of authority in Congo? Can we use theories of state formation derived from the experiences of other parts of the world to help us understand political authority in Congo? What can we learn from the Congo about the purpose of the state, and about the relationship between the state and the international system? This optional module will seek to understand the political trajectory of the Congo, and students will also be encouraged to think about what the Congolese experience can contribute to theories of the state, legitimacy, identity, and democracy. Throughout this option, students should also reflect upon the extent to which the domestic can be seen as separate from the international in the Congo. Lectures: 1. Colonialism, identity and state formation (1 November) 2. The state and the world: Independence and the cold war (8 November) 3. Post cold war politics: democracy and economy (15 November) 4. Conflict, violence and what kind of state in the Congo? (22 November) Lectures will be held in 7 West Road, room SG1 from 10-11am. Movie night: we will be showing the movie Lumumba at 5pm, at Emmanuel College Old Library on Tuesday 13 November. Supervision: Students will receive two supervisions for this option. The supervisions will take place in Lent term. Reading: You should begin by reading at least one general text. A good place to start is Adam

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Hochschilds King Leopolds Ghost, which gives an excellent account of the pre-colonial and colonial period in the Congo. Hochschild is a journalist and his book raises important questions about the foundations of the Congolese state, and of the international humanitarian movement that claimed to be acting in the best interest of the Congolese. Another good introductory book is Theodore Trefons Congo Masquerade. Young and Turners book, The Rise and Decline of the Zairian State, is a classic text on the Mobutu years. Kevin Dunns Imagining the Congo raises key questions about the way in which Congo has been represented by outside observers over time, and to what effect. Jason Stearns book, which focusses on the contemporary period, has an unfortunate title (Dancing in the Glory of Monsters), but it is a compelling read and a good introduction to the country. Stearns also writes a blog that students should read for an analysis of current events: http://congosiasa.blogspot.com/ In the list below, the starred readings are particularly useful. In each section, I have also placed one or two general readings that do not focus on Congo, but that will be helpful in thinking about Congo from comparative perspective. Lecture 1: Colonialism, identity and state formation We will discuss the colonial encounter, and the structures of pre-colonial political authority that existed in the space we now call Congo. What were the legacies of colonialism? What kind of political economy emerged? What were the consequences of colonialism on ethnicity, religion and other identities in the Congo? *Adam Hochschild, King Leopolds Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, Heroism in Colonial Africa. Houghton, 1998. *Kevin Dunn, Imagining the Congo: The International Relations of Identity, (Palgrave 2003). [C: chapter 1] *Crawford Young, The Colonial State in Comparative Perspective, Yale University Press, pp. 1-76. *Stephen Jackson, Sons of Which Soil? The Language and Politics of Autochtony in Eastern DR Congo African Studies Review 49 (2), 2006. *Koen Vlassenroot, Citizenship, Identity Formation and Conflict in South Kivu: The Case of the Banyamulenge Review of African Political Economy, 93/94, 2002. Marie-Benedicte Dembour, Recalling the Belgian Congo, Berghahn Books, 2008. Joseph Conrad, The Heart of Darkness See also: Chinua Achebe, An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrads Heart of Darkness in Conrad, Heart of Darkness, Critical Edition (New York: Norton, 1988). Tintin in the Congo

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See also Maev Kennedy, Tintins adventures in Congo goes on trial in Belgium Guardian, 28 April 2010. -*Peter Ekeh, Colonialism and the Two Publics in Africa: A Theoretical Statement, Comparative Studies in Society and History, 17: 1, 1975: 91-112. *Pierre Englebert, Pre-Colonial Institutions, Post-Colonial States, and Economic Development in Tropical Africa, Political Research Quarterly, Vol. 53, No. 1 (March 2000)

Lecture 2: The state and the world: Independence and the cold war The image of President Mobutu looms large in the Western imagination. How was Mobutu shaped and produced, and to what extent is Congolese post-colonial political development driven by this leader? What options existed for Congo at the Independence? Was Congo merely a pawn in the Cold War? What effect did the superpower struggle have on Congos political trajectory? *Patrice Lumumba, Congo: My Country, New York: Praeger, 1962. *Crawford Young and Thomas Turner, The Rise and Decline of the Zairian State, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1985. (be sure to look at chapter on the patrimonial state and personal rule) *Janet McGaffey The Real Economy of Zaire: The Contribution of Smuggling & Other Unofficial Activities to National Wealth (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991). [C: conclusion] *B Muhuni, Mobutu and the Class Struggle in Zaire, Review of African Political Economy, 5, JanApr 1976: 94-98 [OL] *Michela Wrong, In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz: Living on the Brink of Disaster in Mobutus Congo, New York: Harper Perennial 2002. *Martin Meredith, The Fate of Africa: From the Hopes of Freedom to the Heart of Despair , New York: Public Affairs, 2005, pp. 93-115. *Thomas Callaghy, External Actors and the Relative Autonomy of the Political Aristocracy in Zaire Journal of Commonwealth and Comparative Politics 21(3), 1983. *John Clark, Zaire: The Bankruptcy of the Extractive State, in Villalon and Huxtable (eds), The African State at a Critical Juncture, Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1997.

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*William Reno, Sovereignty and Personal Rule in Zaire, African Studies Quarterly, 1(3), 1997. Matthew Stanard, Selling the Congo, University of Nebraska Press, 2012. Piero Gleijeses, Flee! The White Giants are Coming!: The United States, the Mercenaries and the Congo, 1964-65, Diplomatic History, 18(2), 1994. M. Schatzberg, The Dialectics of Oppression in Zaire, Indiana University Press, 1988. *Larry Devlin, Chief of Station, Congo: Fighting the Cold War in a Hot Zone, Public Affairs, 2008. [C: chapter 3] Ernesto Che Guevera, edited by Richard Gott and translated by Patrick Camiller, The African Dream: The Diaries of the Revolutionary War in the Congo, Grove Press 2001. * Ludo de Witte, The Assassination of Lumumba, New York: Verso, 2002. [C: chapter 1] Sergey Mazov, A Distant Front in the Cold War: The USSR in West Africa and the Congo 1956-1964, Stanford University Press, 2010. M Naniuzeyi, The State of the State in Congo-Zaire: A Survey of the Mobutu Regime Journal of Black Studies, 1999. Thomas Callaghy, The State as a Lame Leviathan: The Patrimonial Administrative State in Africa, in Zaki Ergas (ed), The African State in Transition, New York: St Martins Press, 1987. -*Jean- Francois Bayart, Africa in the World: A History of Extraversion, African Affairs 99 (395), 2000: 217-67. *Nicolas Van de Walle, African Economies and the Politics of Permanent Crisis, 1979-1999 (Cambridge University Press, 2001) [C, ch. 3] Robert Jackson and Carl Rosberg, The Political Economy of African Personal Rule, in Apter and Rosberg, Political Development and the New Realism in Sub-Saharan Africa, University of Virginia Press, 1994. Movies: Mobutu, King of Zaire (directed by Thierry Michel), 1999 Lumumba (directed by Raoul Peck), 2000 (Note: we will be showing this movie at Emmanuel College, old library at 5pm on Tuesday 13 November)

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Lecture 3: Post Cold War Politics: Democracy and Economy Many people thought that the end of the Cold War offered a new opportunity for political and economic development in Africa. What happened in Congo at this moment of transition? What are the consequences of Congos enormous mineral wealth on the nature of the state? Is democratic reform viable in Congo? What is the role of regional and international actors in providing opportunities and constraints on governance in Congo? *Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja, A Peoples History of the Congo, (London: Zed Books, 2002). *Theodore Trefon, Congo Masquerade: The Political Culture of Aid Inefficiency and Reform Failure, London: Zed Books, 2011. [C: chapter 1] *Filip Reyntjens, Democratic Republic of the Congo: Political Transition and Beyond African Affairs, 106 (423), 2007. *Gerard Prunier, Africas World War. Congo, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Making of a Continental Catastrophe, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. [C: chapter 10] *Michael Nest, Francois Grignon and Emizet Kisangani, The Democratic Republic of Congo: Economic Dimensions of War and Peace, (Lynne Rinner, 2005). [C: chapter 3] *William Reno, Congo: from State Collapse to Absolutism to State Failure, Third World Quarterly, 27 (1) February 2006). Jason Stearns, Dancing in the Glory of Monsters: The Collapse of the Congo and the Great War of Africa, New York: Public Affairs, 2011. [C: chapter 20] Jeffrey W Mantz, Improvisational economies: Coltan production in the eastern Congo, Social Anthropology, Vol. 16, Issue 1, February 2008. David Renton, David Seddon and Leo Zeilig, The Congo: Plunder and Resistance, (London: Zed Books, 2007). [C: chapter 3] Samset, Conflict of Interests or Interests in Conflict? Diamonds and the War in the DRC, Review of African Political Economy, 29, no. 93/4, 2002. [OL] John F. Clark, The African Stakes of the Congo War (Palgrave, 2004)- see in particular Kevin Dunn, A Survival Guide to Kinshasa: Lessons of the father, passed down to the son Rene Lemarchand, The Dynamics of Violence in Central Africa, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008.

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Filip Reyntjens, The Great African War: Congo and Regional Politics, 1996-2006, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. Thomas Turner, The Congo Wars: Conflict, Myth and Reality, (London: Zed Books, 2007). [C: chapter 2] OG Afoaku, The Possibilities of Ethnonationalism in Post-Mobutu Zaire, Western Journal of Black Studies, 21(2), 1997: 124-133. -*Kevin Dunn and Timothy Shaw (eds), Africas Challenge to International Relations Theory, Palgrave 2001. See esp chapter by Siba Grovogui, Sovereignty in Africa: Quasi -Statehood and other myths in international theory

Lecture 4: Conflict, Violence and What kind of State in the Congo? In this concluding lecture we will ask how we can best characterise the Congolese state. Why has violent conflict played such a prominent role in Congolese politics? What forms of legitimacy exist in Congo? Why does the Congolese state continue to exist? Do non-traditional donors such as China offer new political opportunity in the Congo? *Denis Tull, A reconfiguration of political order?: The state of the state in North Kivu African Affairs, Vol. 103, No. 408, 2003. [OL] *Jeffrey Herbst and Greg Mills, There is No Congo Foreign Policy, 18 March 2009; See reply by Timothy Raeymaekers, Who Calls the Congo [OL] *Stefaan Marysse and Sara Geenan, Win-win or unequal exchange? The case of the SinoCongolese cooperation agreements, Journal of Modern African Studies 47 (3), 2009: 371-396. *Mvemba Phezo Dizolele and Pascal K Kambale, The DRCs Crumbling Legitimacy, Journal of Democracy Volume 23, Number 3 July 2012 *Severine Autesserre, Dangerous Tales: Dominant Narratives on the Congo and their Unintended Consequences African Affairs, 111(442), Spring 2012. *Pierre Englebert, A Research Note on Congos Nationalist Paradox Review of African Political Economy, September-December 2002. *Theodore Trefon, Public Service Provision in a Failed State: Looking Beyond Predation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Review of African Political Economy, 36: 119, March 2009.

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Paul Kirby, How is Rape a Weapon of War? Feminist International Relations, Modes of Critical Explanations and the Study of Wartime Sexual Violence, EJIR, 2012 Severine Autesserre, Hobbes and the Congo: Frames, Local Violence, and International Intervention, International Organization, Vol. 63, 2009: pp. 249-280 [OL] Theodore Trefon (ed), Reinventing Order in the Congo: How People Respond to State Failure in Kinshasa, (London: Zed Books, 2005). Stefaan Marysse, Regress and War: The Case of the DR Congo, European Journal of Development Research 15, no. 1 (June 2003) Michael Niemann, War Making and State Making in Central Africa, Africa Today 53, no. 3 (Spring 2007) Timothy Raeymaekers, Protection for Sale? War and the Transformation of Regulation on the Congo-Ugandan Border, Development and Change, August 2010. Timothy Raeymaekers, Why History Repeats itself in Eastern DR Congo, e -International Relations, 20 December 2012, http://www.e-ir.info/2012/12/20/why-history-repeats-itself-in-eastern-dr-congo/ Maria Baaz and Maria Stern, Making Sense of Violence: Voices of Soldiers in the Congo (DRC), Journal of Modern African Studies, 46, No. 1, 2008. [OL] Maria Eriksson Baaz and Maria Stern, NAI researcher critical of rape report (May 2011), http://www.nai.uu.se/news/articles/nai-researcher-critical-o/ Nicholas Garrett, Sylvia Sergiou, Koen Vlassenroot, Negotiated peace for extortion: the case of Walikale territory in eastern DR Congo Journal of Eastern African Studies 3(1) 2009. Alexander Veit, Figuration of Uncertainty: Armed Groups and Humanitari an Military Intervention in Ituri (DR Congo) Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, Vol. 2 No. 3, 2008. Severine Autesserre, The Trouble with the Congo: Local Violence and the Failure of International Peacebuilding, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Koen Vlassenroot and Karen Busher, The City as Frontier: Urban Development and Identity Processes in Goma, Working Paper 61, Crisis States Research Centre, London School of Economics, November 2009. [OL] Kristof Titeca, Real governance beyond the failed state: negotiating the education sector in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), African Affairs, 110: 439 (2011): 213-231.

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Mathijs van Leeuwen, Imagining the Great Lakes Region: discourses and practices of civil society regional approaches for peacebuilding in Rwanda, Burundi, and DR Congo, Journal of Modern African Affairs, 46, 3, 2008.

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G. The Environment and Growth in China

Summary Contemporary China faces an environmental crisis reaching into every aspect of life, which would likely prove to be the Achilles heel of its aim to achieve sustainable growth. Yet it is not singular among developing countries to face an apparent tradeoff between environmental protection and rapid industrialization. This option addresses the following four issues: 1) Compare the developmental stage- and culturally-specific perspectives on Chinese elites relationship to Nature through several historical periods; 2) Consider the application of green GDP accounting to present-day China; 3) Examine interest aggregation and social mobilization in local communities for and against sidelining environmental protection, under the limitations of the authoritarian institutions; 4) Assess the regulatory framework and implementation of the pollute first, clean-up later approach to controlling for negative externalities of growth. Students will gain an analytical understanding of the major dilemmas in policymaking and contentions in state-society relations in addressing environmental problems. Lecturer and Supervisors Dr Kun-Chin Lin Mao Feng Supervision Students will receive two supervisions for this option. See questions provided at the end of the weekly reading list.

Week 1: Developmental Stage and Cultural Understanding of the Environment Mark Elvin, 1998. "The Environmental Legacy of Imperial China." China Quarterly 156: 733-756. Mark Elvin, 2004. The Retreat of the Elephants: An Environmental History of China. Yale University Press.

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Mark Elvin, and Liu Ts'ui jung, ed, 1998. Sediments of Time: environment and society in Chinese history. Cambridge University Press. Peter Ho, 2003. Maos war against nature? The Environmental impact of the grain-first campaign in China. The China Journal 50: 37-59. Nicholas K. Menzies, 1994. Forest and Land Management in Imperial China. St. Martins Press. Rhoads Murphey, 1967. Man and Nature in China. Modern Asian Studies 1(4): 313-333. Gregory Rohlf, 2003. "Dreams of Oil and Fertile Fields: The Rush to Qinghai in the 1950s" Modern China 29: 455-489. R. Keith Schoppa, 1989. Xiang Lake: nine centuries of Chinese life. Yale University Press. Robert P. Weller and Peter K. Bol, 1998. "From Heaven-and-Earth to Nature: Chinese Concepts of the Environment and their influence on policy implementation," in Michael B. McElroy, Chris P. Nielsen, and Peter Lydon, ed.s, Energizing China. Harvard University Committee on Environment. Lynn White, Jr., 1967. Historical roots of our ecologic crisis. Science v.155 (March 10, 1967). Question: Do you see any continuity between dynastic approaches toward the exploitation of natural resources and Maoist and post-1978 reform era economic developmental principles?

Week 2: Environmental Assessment - Water and Grassland Robert Louis Edmonds, ed., 2000. Managing the Chinese Environment. Oxford UP. Elizabeth Economy, 2004. The River Runs Black: The Environmental Challenge to Chinas Future. NY: Cornell University Press. Ma Jun, 1999. Chinas Water Crisis. Pacific Century Press. The Wilson Center, China Environment Forum: http://www.wilsoncenter.org/program/chinaenvironment-forum Peter Ho, 2000. "China's Rangelands under Stress: A Comparative Study of Pasture Commons in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region." Development and Change 31: 385-412. Tony Banks, 2001. Property rights and the environment in pastoral China: Evidence from the field. Development and Change 32(4): 717-740.

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Emily Yeh, 2005. Green governmentality and pastoralism in Western China: Converting pastures to grasslands.Nomadic Peoples 9(1): 9-29. Ministry of Environmental Protection. Report on the State of the Environment in China" (SOE). People's Republic of China, Beijing. Up to 2009: Available online at: http://english.mep.gov.cn/standards_reports/ The World Bank Supporting Environmental Management in China: http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/EASTASIAPACIFICEXT/EXTEA PREGTOPENVIRONMENT/0,,contentMDK:20515211~menuPK:502915~pagePK:34004173~piPK :34003707~theSitePK:502886,00.html UNDP China Energy and Environment: http://www.undp.org.cn/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&catid=10&sid=8 Question: At what point in Chinas industrialisation and urbanisation will the value of water, grassland, and other natural resources become sufficiently high to reset the calculus of development? Or has China passed that tipping-point?

Week 3: Social and Political Consequences of Environmental Damages Peter Ho, 2001. Greening without conflict? Environmentalism, NGOs and civil society in China. Development and Change 32(5): 893921. Jun Jing, 2000. Environmental Protests in Rural China, in Elizabeth J. Perry and Mark Selden, eds., Chinese Society, Change, Conflict, and Resistance. Harvard UP: 143-60. Susan Martens, 2006. Public participation with Chinese characteristics: citizen consumers in Chinas environmental management. Environmental Politics 15(2): 211-230. Andrew Mertha, 2008. Chinas Water Warriors: Citizen Action and Policy Change. Cornell University Press. Phillip Stalley and Dongning Yang, 2006. "An Emerging Environmental Movement in China?" The China Quarterly 186:1: 333-56. Benjamin Van Rooij, 2010. "The People vs. Pollution: Understanding Citizen Action against Pollution in China." Journal of Contemporary China 19(63): 55-77. Fengshi Wu, Fengshi. 2003. Environmental GONGO Autonomy. Journal of the Good Society 12(1): 35-45.

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Guobin Yang, 2005. Environmental NGOs and Institutional Dynamics in China. The China Quarterly 181: 4666. Questions: Which social groups and with what strategies are most likely to advance their interests on the exploitation of the environment? Would you consider their actions as constituting a form of political liberalization?

Week 4: Government Failure or Market Failure? Alford William P. and Yuanyuan Shen. "Limits of the Law in Addressing China's Environmental Dilemma," in Energizing China, pp. 431-473. HJ Albers, Scott Rozelle, G. Li, 1998. "China's forest under economic reform: timber supplies, environmental protection and rural resource access." Contemporary Economic Policy 16(1): 22-33. Kristen Day, ed., 2005. Chinas Environment and the Challenge of Sustainable Development. ME Sharpe. Robert Louis Edmonds, ed., 2000. Managing the Chinese Environment. Oxford University Press. Abigail Jahiel, 1998. Organization of Environmental Protection in China, China Quarterly 156: 757-787. Kenneth Lieberthal, 1997. Chinas Governing System and its Impact on Environmental Policy Implementation. China Environment Series, Woodrow Wilson International Center. Carlos W. Lo, Carlos W. H. and Gerald E. Fryxell, 2003. "Enforcement Styles among Environmental Protection Officials in China." Journal of Public Policy 23(01): 81-115. C. Lo, G. Fryxell, and W. Wong, 2006. "Effective Regulations with Little Effect? The Antecedents of the Perceptions of Environmental Officials on Enforcement Effectiveness in China." Environmental Management 38(3): 388-410. C. Lo and S. Y. Tang, 2006. "Institutional Reform, Economic Changes, and Local Environmental Management in China: The Case of Guangdong Province." Environmental Politics 15: 190-210. Ma Xiaoying and Leonard Ortolano, 2000. Environmental regulation in China : institutions, enforcement, and compliance. Rowman & Littlefield. Michael Palmer, 1998. "Environmental Regulation in the People's Republic of China: The Face of Domestic Law." China Quarterly 156: 788-808.

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Barbara J. Sinkule and Leonard Ortolano, 1995. Implementing Environmental Policy in China. Westport, CT: Praeger. Bemjamin Van Rooij and C. W. Lo, 2010. "Fragile Convergence: Understanding Variation in the Enforcement of Chinas Industrial Pollution Law." Law & Policy 32(1): 14-37. OECD, 2006. Environmental Compliance and Enforcement in China: An Assessment of Current Practices and Ways Forward. Available online at: http://www.oecd.org/environment/environmentinemergingandtransitioneconomies/37867511.p df OECD, 2007. Environmental Performance Reviews: China. Available online at: http://www.efchina.org/csepupfiles/report/200812095029729.8523773582758.pdf/Environmental %20Performance%20Review%20-%20China%2007-23-07.pdf Vermont Journal of Environmental Law, 2007. Special issue on "China in Transition: Environmental Challenges in the Far East." VJEL 8(2). Available: http://www.vjel.org/journal/VJEL10051.html Gerald Chan, 2004. China's compliance in global environmental affairs. Asia Pacific Viewpoint 45(1): 69-86. A.I. Johnston, China and International Environmental Institutions: A decision rule analysis, in Energizing China. Question: What are the limitations of the reach of the central state in providing legal and regulatory incentives for compliance of local governmental, businesses, and communities?

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5. The exam
The end-of-year examination will ask questions about specific regions or cases. These questions will often draw upon general themes of politics, using the material lectured upon in the first section of the course. A mock exam paper is below, followed by last years exam paper (which did not include questions on China, but is otherwise a good guide). The Examiners report for 2011-12 concludes this section.

Pol 4 mock exam paper, 2012-13

Candidates should answer two questions, taking each from a different section. At least one of these questions must be from Sections A to C. Questions from sections A to C should be answered with reference to at least two countries, unless otherwise stated. Section A 1. Do electoral systems determine party systems in Western Europe? 2. Has European integration increased the role and power of the executive in Western European states? 3. Why have policies related to the integration of immigrants changed in recent years in Western Europe? Section B 4. Why have paths of democracy differed in Eastern Europe? 5. How have national traditions shaped the development of political parties? 6. Why had nationalism led to different political consequences across Eastern Europe? Section C 7. What are the principal impediments to the formation of liberal market democracies in the Arab world? 8. Why have rulers of Arab states tried to legitimise their rule so prominently through an appeal to religious sentiment? 9. Middle Eastern states have often been referred to as fragile or failing. What does this mean, and how accurate is this characterisation? Section D 10. Would any Democratic nominee have won the 2008 presidential election? 11. What does EITHER race OR religion explain in American presidential politics since 2000? Section E 12. What explains Congolese nationalism? 13. Is the state in Congo anything more than a vehicle to promote the private interests of its rulers? Section F 14. How accurate would it be to characterise Chinas long-standing policy approach as one of economic growth first and environmental cleanup later? 15. Is local government a suitable vehicle for implementing Chinas environmental regulation?

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Past exam paper: 2011-12 Section A 1. Have policies in France and Germany converged over the past two decades? Discuss with reference to at least one specific policy area. 2. Why are some party systems in Western Europe more stable than others? 3. Can parliaments in Western Europe control the executive? Section B 4. How has nationalism shaped state traditions in Eastern Europe? 5. Why did forms of authoritarian rule in Eastern Europe differ across states? 6. Can legacies of the authoritarian past explain the evolution of post-communist democracies? Section C 7. How similar is the authoritarian apparatus of Saudi Arabia to that of Egypt under Mubarak? 8. Why is political opposition in the Arab world so often expressed through movements that make a claim to religious authenticity? 9. To what extent do Arab countries experience the domination of the state over society? Section D 10. How far did Republican success in presidential elections between 1968 and 2004 depend on mobilising religious voters? 11. Was the 2008 presidential election unwinnable for the Republicans? Section E 12. What accounts for the continued survival of the Congolese state? 13. In what ways has Congos historical legacy shaped its political economy?

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Examiners Report for 2011-12 This was the first year of the new paper in Comparative Politics, and the first time that a paper in Politics & International Relations had been examined through a mixed assessment process, compromising a long essay and an exam. It was taken by 84 students in Part IIA and 4 students in Part IIB. The same assessment process and marking standards were applied to both groups of students. The 5,000 word essays, submitted in Lent term, adopted a variety of approaches, and a broad spectrum of abilities was apparent to the examiners. Most students had prepared their essays thoroughly, drawing upon a wide range of sources, including (where appropriate) primary materials such as official and archival documents, news reports and interview texts. It was encouraging to see the enthusiasm and energy with which some essays were evidently researched and written. A relatively small number of students however still treated this component of the course in a similar way to normal supervision essays, looking at only a small number of major academic works on the topic, and content simply to regurgitate their main points. Such essays would normally gain no more than a mid-2.2. An associated problem was that a few students relied exclusively upon one text or one author for an account of a case study; all political events of any complexity are amenable to different interpretations, and one cannot engage critically and effectively with a case unless one has explored these differences. In terms of substance, many of the best essays were able to both address major conceptual or theoretical issues, and to argue in detail about specific cases. Almost all of the best essays recognised and explained a broad theoretical framework within which to situate their answers, and were able to develop arguments and counter-arguments within this framework. The essay was then developed through an in-depth exploration of a relatively small number of cases. A few essays tried to use too many cases (in some essays, there were attempts to use five or more cases), which resulted in a degree of superficiality, and some care is needed in ensuring that the number of cases chosen is appropriate for the question. It is difficult to provide general guidance about the essays, as the type of the question and students own preferences will sometimes lead towards different essay structures there is no set formula for writing long essays for this paper. Nevertheless, all the best essays for this paper managed to find a balance between conceptual and descriptive material, and reviewed and evaluated counter-arguments. There were a number of common problems of format, style and presentation. The most apparent problem was that a large number of students still do not have an appropriate system for referencing and bibliographies. A short account of how to reference is included in the paper guide, and a more detailed version is included in the Politics & International Relations Handbook. Many students seem to have ignored this, and instead adopted their own anachronistic system, or indeed no system at all, for referencing and bibliographies. It really is important that by the time students are in their second years that they learn how to organise their references in a recognised, systematic way.

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Whilst some essays were immaculately written, a significant number of essays contained persistent grammatical problems. It was difficult to tell whether this was down to carelessness or ignorance. It was clear that quite a few students do not know how to use semi-colons, deploying them where they should be using commas. If students think this is a problem, they should talk to their directors of studies and/or tutors urgently, as most Colleges are able to provide remedial help. Essays which contain repeated typos and grammatical mistakes cannot achieve a mark higher than a 2.2, so it really is worthwhile to sort this out. The third common stylistic problem was that of quotation. Some students leaned too heavily on extensive quotation from academic sources, with a few essays containing multiple paragraphlength quotations. Two students copied text verbatim or near-verbatim from sources, properly referenced but without quotation marks. This is considered plagiarism, and both students were significantly penalised. In relation to both issues, it is important that students learn to put arguments in their own words; there is no point in just reprinting what someone else has written. The whole point of the essay, after all, is to encourage you to make your own arguments in your own terms. Essays that exceeded the word limit were penalised. In one case, a student was brought below a class boundary for this essay, which resulted in an overall class lower than they would have otherwise received. Notwithstanding these problems, 14 students (all in Part IIA) obtained an average mark in the first class range for their essays. 27 students obtained a high 2.1 (a mark of 65-69), and a 27 a low 2.1 (60-64). 18 students received 2.2s, and 2 students received 3rds. The Easter term exams produced slightly fewer 1sts than the essays but more high 2.1s. 12 students received a first class average, and 33 received marks in the 65-69 range. 27 received low 2.1s, 14 received 2.2s, one student received a 3rd, and one student withdrew. The majority of students demonstrated a good amount of detailed and relevant knowledge about the regions and cases, although often this knowledge was not applied sharply enough to what exactly the question was asking hence the high number of 2.1s. All questions on the exam paper drew at least five responses, except for q.5, on differences in the forms of authoritarianism that were present in Eastern Europe, which did not tempt a single student. The most popular question was q.8, on the religious discourse of opposition movements in the Arab world, which had all of 42 students taking it. q.11, on whether the 2008 presidential elections were unwinnable for the Republicans, and q.12, on explanations for the survival of the Congolese state, were the next most popular, each drawing 28 responses. Perhaps the two most common problems found in the exam scripts were those of not thinking quite carefully enough about what the terms of the question meant, and of not considering or weighing up alternative explanations for the phenomenon that was being asked about. In the first category, an example is q.4, which asked about the effect of nationalism on state traditions

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in Eastern Europe. Only one of the eight students taking this question made a serious attempt to unpack the notion of state traditions, and evaluate the extent to which nationalism can be considered as something external to those traditions (it was no surprise that this student received a high 1st class mark). Other students used the term as if it had a clear and unambiguous meaning, but without stopping to review the different types of activities (resilient institutions, enduring expectations, formalised rituals?) that could be incorporated within this notion. As a result, it was never clear what exactly they were arguing about, even by the end of the essay. A similar problem attached to the notion of what made an election unwinnable in q.11: some students gave an extensive account of the reasons why the Republicans lost, and concluded that made the election unwinnable for them. But this is to render the question meaningless. Implicit in the question is some distinction between elections that are unwinnable and winnable elections that are still lost and that needs to be worked through if the question is to be answered successfully. The second type of problem comes from those students who picked one explanatory mode and simply pursued that unreflectively throughout the essay. This was most obviously so with q.8, on religion and opposition in the Arab world. A large number of these essays staked the claim at the start that governments in the Arab world have used religion heavily as a form of legitimisation, and therefore opposition groups have to respond using a similar frame. Much of the rest of these essays was then devoted to an account of how the Saudi and Egyptian governments had instrumentalised religion. But this link doesnt necessarily follow, at least in any sort of straightforward way. A governments adoption of a set of symbolic reference points could just as straightforwardly lead to the discrediting of those symbols. Opposition movements may deliberately adopt strategies of legitimisation that distinguish their approach from those of a government. It would need to be explained why this has not happened, at least to the extent it might have done, for the argument to work. Most students who answered q.12, on the reasons for the survival of the Congolese state, were able to distinguish different reasons, and were able to categorise those reasons (typically bringing into their accounts the role of external interests, international assistance, the interests of the Congolese elite and institutions, popular nationalism and everyday coping strategies). Somewhat too often this just became a list, with a paragraph or two on each reason. The best answers by contrast were able to weigh these accounts up against each other, for example by working through a series of successive explanations but showing the limitations of each of them alongside the explanation, and their intersections. Few students need more encouragement to understand the regions and cases in depth; there were only a small number of essays which demonstrated inadequate knowledge or made serious factual mistakes. Focusing an essay on the question though remains a problem. It was striking how many answers to the question on whether parliaments can control the executive in Western Europe (q.3) gave general accounts of the constraints on executives, with sometimes

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large sections of the essay unrelated to the role of parliaments. The question on the convergence of policies between France and Germany (q.1) also led some students into giving accounts of the long-standing differences of the policies of these two countries, with barely a word said about convergence or divergence over time. q.13 on how Congos historical legacy has shaped its political economy was answered by some students by giving a simple narrative history of Congos economic structure. A little bit of careful thought and planning would surely have been enough in each of these cases to make students realise that they were in danger of wasting a lot of time on writing about matters that were not relevant for answering the essay question. The other great waste of time came from laborious introductions that provided overviews of essays. The number of students who expended a large of proportion of their essays explaining all the things that their essays would argue was disappointing, even distressing. One student wrote the first half of each of the two essays explaining what would be argued, before going on to repeat exactly the same material in the same order in the second half of each essay. Exam essays are inevitably short; there is no point at all in telling the reader what they will be reading within a page or two. The most pleasing aspect of reviewing the exam scripts was in appreciating the extent to which students had clearly developed quite extensive knowledge, and a sense of the key debates, about regions and countries which at the start of the year few of them had much familiarity. Many essays brought in recent events, occurring after the latest academic literature or the last supervisions, indicating that interests have been developed through the course that persist beyond the lecture room. Even if it didnt always come out in the essay, it was apparent that most students taking this paper have read and thought a lot about the complexities and uncertainties of the politics of these diverse regions of the world.

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