V53.0500 Comparative Politics. (Undergraduate, Fall 2004)

Comparative politics is about comparing political behavior across a large or a small number of countries, or even in one country. Therefore, the method of comparative political research includes large N cross-country studies, comparative case studies and cause inference from individual country studies. The goal of this course is introduce students to these tools of political inquiry, and to cover the main aspects of political behavior such as voting, legislative and interest group politics, bureaucratic and judicial politics. Finally, we will discuss a number of topics covered in the contemporary comparative politics literature.

G53.1500.001. Comparative Politics. (Graduate, Fall 2003).

This course is an introduction to the methodology and to some of the main themes in Comparative Politics. We first study strategies for comparative case studies, cross country large-N studies, and causal inference. We then survey the literature on institutions, institution forms, and their policy consequences. Finally, we cover the literature on regime transitions, state-building and collapse, ethnic divisions, and redistributive politics.

G53.3500.00. Comparative Democratization: Africa and Latin America. (Graduate, Fall 2003).

This seminar focuses on the process of democratization in Africa and Latin America. We first review various schools of democracy (e.g. liberal and minimalist theories) and democratization (e.g. modernization theory, post civil war and post-authoritarian democratization). We then cover specific aspects democratization such as post-transition elections and institutional choices. We finally discuss prospects for democratic consolidation

V53.0595.002. Political Economy of Development. (Undergraduate, Fall 2003).

This course is an introduction to recent studies on the role of political institutions in the process of economic development. These studies are motivated by the development experience in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Topics include the relation between democracy, inequality and growth; bureaucracies; public goods and development. They also include corruption and clientelist politics; decentralization; resource curse; and political instability.