Course Format

In the first three weeks of the semester a framework for the analysis of  politics in Turkey, Italy, China, Nepal, Venezuela, and Zimbabwe will be set out.  The nature of a "most different systems" comparative approach will be covered as will a model for examining (a) the development of modern state and nationalism and (b) political economy and contemporary politics.

In the remainder of the course we will examine each country in turn over a period of 3-4 classes.  Normally two classes on each country will consist of a powerpoint presentation by the instructor and class discussion based on the readings.  The other classes will involve either guest speakers with recent experience about the country concerned or a hands-on exercise, video conference or simulation.  These latter classes are intended to provide a deeper understanding of the cultural context for politics in these societies and the ways in which politics touches the lives of individual families.

Material covered in the first part of the course will be examined in a March 8 midterm.  By that point we will have covered Turkey and Italy and the exam will focus on (i) parties, elections and coalition building, (ii) women, families and public policy and (iii) globalization and the expansion of the EU.

Material covered in the second part of the course will be examined in the May 3 final.  This exam will cover China, Nepal, Venezuela, and Zimbabwe.  The exam will focus on (i) political and social revolution, (ii) agriculture, minerals and economic development, and (iii) health and human development.

There is no textbook for this course.  All required reading is in a course packet that is available for purchase at Kings Copies, 358 W. Foothill.

Regular reading of on-line newspapers is required.  The New York Times on the web is strongly recommended as is the Financial Times.  Students will also be instructed to read on-line sources from the six countries to be examined.

Late in the semester you will be provided with a CD containing multimedia materials.  This is required material for the final.

Week 1 January 16 Course Introduction
Class on January 18th is canceled.  Instead, students must later that day attend the Athenaeum talk by former Czech Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus “Creating Capitalism in Eastern Europe: the Czech case” (Reception 5:30, dinner 6:00, talk 6:45) call 18244 with meal card number for dinner.

Week 2 January 23 and 25 Course Themes I
J. Nagle “Learning From Comparison”
M. Kesselman “Comparative Politics at the Crossroads”
E. Gellner “Nations and Nationalism: definitions”
B. Anderson “The Nation and the Origins of National Consciousness”

Week 3 Jauary 30 and February 1 Course Themes II
B. Barber “Jihad versus McWorld”
A. Sen “Freedom Favors Development”
G. Soros “The Capitalist Threat”

Week 4 February 6 and 8 Turkey: Islam and Ataturk’s “Revolution from Above”
I. Ortayli “The Ottoman Millet System and it’s Social Dimensions”
E. Zurcher “Turkey, a military society?”
J. Landau “Modernization, Westernization and Reform”
B. Behar “The Role of Language in Turkish Historiography”
N. Entessar (1992) “The Mountain Turks’: the Kurds in Turkey”
E. Ozdalga “Official Secularism and Popular Islam”
Y. Arat “On Gender and Citizenship in Turkey”

Week 5 February 13 and 15 Turkey: Simulation and Small-Group Discussion
February 13th's class will consist of a simulation about government formation using results from recent Turkish elections.  February 15th's class will be led by a group of Turkish students.

Week 6 February 20 and 22 Italy: Europe ends at Rome? Naples? Senegal?
J. Dickie “Imagined Italies”
S. Hellman “The Emergence of the Modern Italian State” and “The Rise and Fall of the Postwar Settlement”
J. Lapalombara “Democracy Italian Style” Ch 2 and 3
J. Fisher “Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy”

Week 7 February 27 and March 1st Italy after April 2001: politics and demography
February 27th's class will be a guest lecture by Anita Gradin, former Swedish EU Commissioner "Women, Social Policy and the EU" Balch Auditorium, Scripps College.

Week 8 March 6 and 8 Left, Right and winning elections in Europe
March 6th's class will be a guest lecture by Iain McLean  "Thatcher, Blair and the Great Moving Right Show: rhetoric and heresthetic in UK political economy since 1979", McConnell Living Room

March 8 Midterm Exam

March 10-19 Spring Break

Week 9 March 20 and 22 China: Revolution and Models of Development
J. Fairbank “Approaches to Understanding China’s History”
S. Harrell “Negotiating Ethnicities in China and Taiwan”
J. Fairbank and R. Reischauer “The People’s Republic”
J. Fairbank “Deng Xiaoping’s Reforms 1978-88”
J. Wasserstrom “Student Protests in 20th Century China”
A. Anagnost "A Surfeit of Bodies: population and the rationality of the state in post-Mao China"

Week 10 March 27 and 29 China and Nepal: Reproduction and Development
March 27th's class will be connected to a video conference with China focused on the one-child policy.
March 29th's class will be a guest lecture by Susan Seymour on "Women and Development in Hindu societies (Orissa and Nepal).

Week 11 April 3 and 5 Nepal: Poverty and Patrimony
R. Shah “Monarchy in Nepal”
K Bhattachan and K. Pyakuryal “The issues of National Integration in Nepal: An Ethnoregional Approach”
W. Fisher “Nationalism and the Janajati”
M. Hutt “Nationalism and the National Language”
S. Parrish “Hierarchy and Its Discontents”, introduction and conclusion
M. Cameron “On the edge of the auspicious: gender and caste in Nepal Ch 1, 2, 8”

Week 12 April 10 and 12 Venezuela: Nature and the Petro-State
B. Keen “Lands of Bolivar”
F. Coronil “The Nature of the Nation: the Nation’s Two Bodies” and “Beyond Occidentalism: a Subaltern Modernity”
W. Wright “Café con leche: Race, Class, and National Image in Venezuela”
D. Canache and M. Kulisheck “Democratic Legitimacy and Political Change in Venezuela”

Week 13 April 17 and 19 Healthcare in the 3rd World: Venezuela and Zimbabwe
April 17th's class will include guest presentations by seniors Heather Miller and Sarah Bentley on health and environment in Venezuela (both are veterans of Pitzer's Venezuela program and are Fulbright nominees).  April 19th's class will include a guest presentation by senior John Kilgore on Aids in Zimbabwe (he is a veteran of Pitzer's Zimbabwe program) and senior Micaela White on Aids in Kenya.

Week 14 April 24 and 26 Zimbabwe: a Post-Colonial Reckoning
A. Hochschild “King Leopold’s Ghost: a reckoning”
D. Mungazi “Cultures in Collision: Colonial Policy and Conflict, 1955-69”
K. Kangai and N. Kumar “Agriculture and Land Policies in Zimbabwe”
T. Skalnes “The Politics of Economic Reform in Zimbabwe Ch 1 and 6-8”
L. Bijlmakers et al “Health & Structural Adjustment in Rural & Urban Zimbabwe”

Week 15 May 1  Conclusion: Learning by Comparing

Final Exam May 3 Noon-1:30pm
Final based on materials covered in the second half of the semester.  The CD is required viewing/listening/reading.

Supplementary Reading (available at Honnold).

Italy
A. Stille Benevolence and Betrayal : Five Italian Jewish Families Under Fascism
A. Stille  Excellent Cadavers
R. Leonardi & D. Wertman Italian Christian democracy: the politics of dominance
V. Bufacchi and S. Burgess Italy since 1989: events and interpretations
Sidney Tarrow Democracy and disorder : protest and politics in Italy, 1965-1975
G. Sartori  Comparative constitutional engineering : an inquiry into structures, incentives, and outcomes

Turkey
J. Landau Atatürk and the modernization of Turkey
R. Olson The Kurdish nationalist movement in the 1990s: its impact on Turkey and the Middle East
R. Tapper  Islam in modern Turkey: religion, politics, and literature in a secular state
E. Özdalga The veiling issue, official secularism and popular Islam in modern Turkey
Atila Eralp, M. Tünay, and B. Yesilada  The Political and socioeconomic transformation of Turkey

China
Bruce Gilley Tiger on the brink: Jiang Zemin and China's new elite
J. Y.S. Cheng China in the post-Deng era
E. Croll Changing identities of Chinese women : rhetoric, experience, and self- perception in twentieth-century China
M. Yin China's minority nationalities

Venezuela
F. Coronil: The magical state: nature, money, and modernity in Venezuela
D. Canache and M. Kulisheck Re-inventing legitimacy: democracy and political change in Venezuela
R. Hillman Democracy for the privileged: crisis and transition in Venezuela
W. Wright Café con leche: the myth of Racial Democracy in Venezuela

Zimbabwe
W. Munro The Moral Economy of the State: Conservation, Community Development, and State Making in Zimbabwe.
T.Skalnes The Politics of Economic Reform in Zimbabwe: Continuity and Change in Development
K. Kangai and N. Jumar Agriculture and Land Policies in Zimbabwe
A. Hochschild  King Leopold’s Ghost

Nepal
World Bank/UN  Nepal: poverty and incomes
S. Parish Hierarchy and Its Discontents: Culture and the Politics of Consciousness in Caste Society
M. Cameron On the Edge of the Auspicious: Gender and Caste in Nepal
T. Brown The Challenge to Democracy in Nepal: A Political History
M. Hutt Nepal in the Nineties: Versions of the Past, Visions of the Future
D. Gellner Nationalism and Ethnicity in a Hindu Kingdom: The Politics of Culture in Contemporary Nepal

Italy
Hawks and Sparrows
In the Garden of the Finzi-Continis
Lamerica

China
Red Sorghum
Iron and Silk

Turkey
America, America
Journey of Hope

Venezuela
Shoot to Kill
Cactus Flowers in the Snow

Zimbabwe
White Mischief
Flame

Nepal/India
Bandit Queen