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POLITICAL SCIENCE 212A

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS OF THE DEVELOPED WORLD
Fall Semester, 2014
Professor Hudson Meadwell
Leacock 509
hudson.meadwell@mcgill.ca
Office hours: To be announced in class.

Course Description
This course provides an introduction to European politics. We will examine the political
dynamics of (1) capitalist democracies (France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom), (2)
political systems in East-Central Europe and (3) the European Union, As you will see below,
lectures and readings are mainly organized around themes or issues that cut across countries or
regions in Europe.

Readings
One textbook has been ordered for the class:
Mark Kesselman and Joel Krieger [K&K] Sixth Edition European Politics in Transition New
York: Houghton Mifflin.
Note: There should also be copies of this text on the used book market. Note as well: the 6
th

edition.

Other readings will be provided in a Course Pack or on My Courses. The Course Pack will be
available at the McGill Bookstore.

Course Evaluation
Mid Term 20%
Term Paper 25%
Final Exam 40%
Conference attendance and participation 15%
The date of the mid-term will be announced in one of our first class meetings.
The date of the final exam is set by the University. The dates of final exams are usually
announced toward the middle part of the semester.
More detailed information regarding weekly conferences and conferences grades will be
provided in the first week of classes. But please note that I will usually assign a short topical
reading for weekly conference meetings. Conferences will start in the third week of September.
Until they start, we have lectures on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. After conferences begin,
we move to two lectures a week: Monday and Wednesday.

Term Paper
The term paper should be 10-12 pages (typed, double-spaced). The paper is due on the last day
of classes. I will give you the exact date in class. More details about the format of the term paper
will be provided in one of our first class meetings. [You will have a wide range of choice of
topics and you also can suggest a topic, subject to approval by your teaching assistant or myself].

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Note: The course will be on My Courses. A. Notes on readings will be provided on a regular
basis on My Courses. B. Lecture outlines, and occasionally lecture content, will be provided as
well. C. Some of the required readings will be put on line on My Courses when copyright law
permits.

Here are the Topics and Readings: Kesselman and Krieger [K&K], CP= Course Pack, MY
COURSES= available online at My Courses.

The reading load is heavy. Some of the reading notes I provide on My Courses will help you but
you are advised to keep up. You will learn to read analytically in this course how to distinguish
the detail that counts from the detail that does not. I will always inform you where you should be
in the readings via announcements in class or on My Courses.

Course Topics and Readings
Topic I The Historical Stage
Mark Mazower, Dark Continent. Europes Twentieth Century (1998), Chapter 1. CP
Michael Howard, Land of war, land of peace, Wilson Quarterly 21 (1997), pp. 30-36.
MY COURSES
Daniel Philpott, Revolutions in Sovereignty (2001), pp. 75-90. CP
Valerie Bunce, The historical origins of the East-West divide: civil society, political
society, and democracy in Europe, in Nancy Bermeo and Philip Nord (eds.) Civil
Society before Democracy: Lessons from nineteenth century Europe (2000), pp. 237-260.
CP

Topic II. State and Nation Formation in Western Europe: Britain, France, Germany, Italy.
K&K, Chapters 1, 6, 11, 16.

Topic III. Political Regimes.
K&K, pages 5-9; 13-27.
Alan Siaroff, Comparing Political Regimes (2009), 2
nd
ed. Chapter 3. CP
Arend Lijphart, Democratic political systems, Journal of Theoretical Politics 1 (1989),
pp. 33-48. MY COURSES
Gsta Esping-Andersen, The three political economies of the welfare state. (1990). MY
COURSES

Topic IV The Mechanics of Governing: Coalition Governments in Europe.
Jean Blondel and Ferdinand Muller-Rommel, Governing Together (1993), pp. 1-10. CP
Lenny W. Martin and Georg Vanberg, Policing the bargain: coalition government and
parliamentary scrutiny, American Journal of Political Science 48 (2004), pp. 13-37. MY
COURSES

Topic V. Postwar Settlements: Britain, France, Germany, Italy
Britain K&K, Chapters 2, 4, 5.
France K&K Chapters 7, 9, 10.
Germany K&K Chapters 12, 14, 15.
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Italy K&K Chapters 17, 19, 20.

Topic VI. Postwar Settlements and Beyond.
Robert O. Keohane, The world political economy and the crisis of embedded liberalism
in John Goldthorpe (ed.) Order and Conflict in Contemporary Capitalism (1984),
Chapter One. CP
Paul Taylor-Goodby, The new welfare state settlement in Europe, European Societies
10 (2008), pp. 3-24. MY COURSES
Pippa Norris, Radical Right (2005), Chapter Nine. CP
Tom Bale et. al., If you cant beat them, join them? Explaining social democratic
responses to the challenge from the populist radical right in Western Europe, Political
Studies 58 (2010), pp. 410-426. MY COURSES

Topic VII. The Collapse of Communism and Post-Communist Outcomes.
K&K, Chapters 21, 22, 23, 25 and 26, 27, 30.
Russell Bova, Political dynamics of the post-communist transition: a comparative
perspective, World Politics 44 (1991), pp. 113-138. MY COURSES
Thomas Carothers, The end of the transition paradigm, Journal of Democracy 13
(2002), pp. 5-21. MY COURSES
James Fearon, Ethnic war as a commitment problem. (1995) MY COURSES

Topic VIII. Economic and Political Integration and the European Union.
Background:
Paul-Henri Spaak, The integration of Europe: dreams and realities, Foreign Affairs 29
(1950), pp. 94-100. MY COURSES
EU Institutions:
Kesselman and Krieger, Chapters 31-34.
Issues:
Philippe Schmitter, Why constitutionalize the European Union? in Rogowski and
Turner (eds.), The Shape of the New Europe, pp. 46-58. CP
Thomas Wright, What if Europe fails? Washington Quarterly 35 (20120, pp. 23-41.
MY COURSES