POL3111 Democracy and Democratization

Department of Public Policy

City University of Hong Kong
Semester A, 2014-2015
Instructors
Dr. CHEUNG, Chor-yung
Office:
B7524/AC1
Email:
scccy@cityu.edu.hk
Telephone: 34429702
Office Hours:
by appointment or drop by office anytime other than
my teaching/administrative hours
AHMED, Mamtaj Uddin
Work Desk: Block 2, 5th Floor, To Yuen Building. Email: muahmed3c@my.cityu.edu.hk
Cell Phone: 59830619
Course Aims
This course aims to:
i) introduce the basic features of democracy: its definitions, causes of
emergence, strengths and problems;
ii) examine the global expansion/retreat of democracies in the late
twentieth and early twentieth-first centuries;
iii) apply relevant theories and concepts to assess whether democracy
can promote human rights, whether there is a basic conflict between
Confucian ethos and democracy, whether democracy brings about
welfare-state, whether democracy is favourable or unfavourable to
economic development, and whether social media has transformed
democracy;
iv) evaluate the democratic development of some of the following East
Asia societies: Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, and South Korea, etc.
Course Intended Learning Outcomes (CILOs)
N CILOs
Weighting (if
o.
applicable)
1. Identify the basic features of democracy 25%
2. Recognize the major challenges for
25%
developing democracy in the world
3. Apply relevant ideas to assess
25%
controversial questions concerning
democracy and democratization
4. Evaluate the democratic development of 25%
some East Asia societies
Modes of Learning

Lecture-cum-discussion
A 3-hour weekly lecture-cum-discussion session will be offered on
every Wednesday from Week 1 to Week 9. Please note that since Week
5s Wednesday (1 October 2014) is the National Day, there will be no
class on that day.
In general, about 2/3 of each session will be for lecture and 1/3 for
general class discussion.
Tutorial
From Week 10 to Week 13, tutorial sessions will be offered in class. In
the tutorial sessions, students are divided into working groups to
conduct discussion and presentation on assigned topics related to the
lectures.
All lectures and tutorial sessions will be held in Room 2301, AC2 from
0900-1150 on Wednesdays throughout the semester.
Lecture Notes & Class Discussion
Lecture notes will be sent to students via Blackboard prior to each
lecture. Students are advised to read the reference materials or other
related materials before coming to class.
Out-of-classroom conversation
Students are welcome to join Dr. Cheung, Chor-yung for breakfast
and/or dinner at the 5/F Student Canteen of AC1 on campus during the
following times from Weeks 2 13 of the semester:
0830 0930, Monday
1900 2000, Thursday
The idea is that we could engage in informal conversation while eating.
The conversation could cover all kinds of intellectual and learning
issues of mutual interest, including issues related to this course.
Tutorial Arrangements
Please refer to the Tutorial Arrangements Document
Lecture Topics
Week 1:
The Sources of Democracy and Its Critics
Reference:
Robert A. Dahl, Democracy and Its Critics, New
Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1989
chapters 1 - 5
John Dunn, Setting the People Free: The Story of
Democracy, London: Atlantic Books, 2005, chapter 1
Fareed Zakaria, The Future of Freedom: Illiberal
Democracy at Home and Abroad, New York &
London: W. W. Norton & Co., 2003, chapter 1
2

Margaret Canovan, The People, Cambridge: Polity

Press, 2005, chapters 4 6
Carl Schmitt, trans. Ellen Kennedy, The Crisis of
Parliamentary Democracy, Cambridge,
Massachusetts & London: the MIT Press, 1985,
chapters 1 - 3
Week 2:
Reference:

Week 3:
Reference:

Week 4:
Reference:

Dahls Theory of Democratic Processes and Majority

Rule
Democracy and Its Critics, chapters 6 9, 10 - 11
Giovanni Sartori, The Theory of Democracy
Revisited: Part One: The Contemporary Debate,
Chatham, New Jersey: Chatham House Publishers,
1987, chapter 6
F. A. Hayek, Majority Opinion and Contemporary
Democracy, in his Law, Legislation and Liberty,
Volume 3: The Political Order of a Free People,
Chicago: the University of Chicago Press, 1979,
chapter 12
The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at
Home and Aboard, Introduction
Democracy and the World: the Third Wave & Whats
Gone Wrong with Democracy
Samuel P. Huntington, After Twenty Years: The
Future of the Third Wave, in Journal of
Democracy, Vol. 8, No. 4 October 1997, pp. 3 12
Samuel P. Huntington, The Third Wave:
Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century,
Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1991
Larry Diamond, The Spirit of Democracy: The
Struggle to Build Free Societies Throughout
the World, New York: Times Books, 2008
Setting the People Free: The Story of
Democracy, chapter 4
The Economist, March 1st 7th 2014, Whats gone
wrong with democracy at
http://www.economist.com/news/essays/21596796democracy-was-most-successful-political-idea-20thcentury-why-has-it-run-trouble-and-what-can-be-do
Democracy and Culture
Amartya Sen, Democracy as a Universal Value, in
Diamond & Plattner (eds.), The Global Divergence
of Democracies, Baltimore & London: The John
Hopkins University Press, 2001, pp. 3 - 17
3

Francis Fukuyama, Confucianism and

Democracy, in Journal of Democracy, Vol. 6, No. 2,
April 1995, pp. 20 33
Daniel A. Bell, Democracy in Confucian
Societies: The Challenge of Justification, in
Bell, Brown, Jayasuriya & Jones (eds.), Towards
Illiberal Democracy in Pacific Asia, Oxford: St.
Martins Press, 1995, chapter 2
Inoue Tatsuo, Liberal Democracy and Asian
Orientalism, in Bauer & Bell (eds.), The East Asian
Challenge for Human Rights, Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, chapter 1
Fareed Zakaria, Culture Is Destiny: A
Conversation with Lee Kuen Yew, in Foreign
Affairs, Vol. 73, No. 2, March/April 1994, pp. 109
126
Samuel P. Huntington, The West Unique, Not
Universal, in Foreign Affairs, Vol. 75, No. 6,
November/December 1996, pp. 28 46
Henry Rosemont, Jr., Why Take Rights Seriously?
A Confucian Critique, in Leroy S. Rouner (ed.),
Human Rights and the World Religions, Notre Dame,
Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 1988,
chapter 10
Week 5:

National Day (No Class)

Week 6:
Reference:

Democracy, the Market and Globalization

David Beetham, Market Economy and
Democratic Polity, in Democratization, Vol. 4, No.
1, Spring 1997, pp. 76 93
Larry Diamond, Economic Development and
Democracy Reconsidered, in American
Behavioral Scientist, Vol. 35, March 1992, Issues 4
5, pp. 450 - 499
Confucianism and Democracy, in Journal of
Democracy, Vol. 6, No. 2, April 1995, pp. 20 33
Law, Legislation and Liberty, Volume 3: The
Political Order of a Free People, Chicago: the
University of Chicago Press, 1979, chapters 14 & 15
Giovanni Sartori, The Theory of Democracy
Revisited: Part Two: the Classical Issues,
Chatham, New Jersey: Chatham House Publishers,
1987, chapter 14
David Held, The transformation of political
community: rethinking democracy in the
4

context of globalization, in Shapiro & HackerCordon (eds.), Democracys Edges, Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press, 1999, chapter 6
Will Kymlicka, Citizenship in an era of
globalization: commentary on Held, in ibid.,
chapter 7
Alexander Wendt, A comment on Helds
cosmopolitanism, in ibid., chapter 8
Robert A. Dahl, Can international organizations
be democratic?, in ibid., chapter 2
James Tobin, A comment on Dahls skepticism,
in ibid., chapter 3
Week 7:
Reference:

Democracy and Technology

Larry Diamond and Marc F. Plattner, eds.,
Liberation Technology: Social Media and the
Struggle for Democracy, Baltimore: the John
Hopkins University Press, 2012

Weeks 8 - 9:

Some Brief Case Studies in this Region: Hong Kong,

Taiwan, China, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia,
Singapore, etc.
Joseph Y. S. Cheng, ed., New Trends of Political
Participation in Hong Kong, Hong Kong: City
University of Hong Kong Press, 2014
Larry Diamond, Marc F. Plattner & Yun-han Chu, eds.,
Democracy in East Asia: A New Century,
Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 2013
Lucian W. Pye, Asian Power and Politics: The
Cultural Dimensions of Authority, Cambridge,
Massachusetts & London, England: The Belknap Press
of Harvard University Press

Reference:

Assessment
2-hour End-of-course Examination
Tutorial Presentation & Class Discussion
Individual Term Paper

50%
15%
35%

(Please note that your performance in class discussion and

presentation will be individually assessed)
Individual Term Paper
Please refer to the Tutorial Arrangements Document
END
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