Teaching

Authoritarian Regimes

The surprising persistence of authoritarian regimes since the end of the Cold War has inspired a major new literature in comparative politics on how non-democracy works. This graduate seminar considers some conceptual and theoretical issues and debates in this new wave of research, such as: How should authoritarian regimes, including so-called “hybrid regimes,” best be classified? What kind of institutions makes authoritarianism more or less stable and durable? How do these regimes try to generate compliance and support? Why do so many of them hold elections and convene parliaments? And what economic factors tend to bolster or undermine dictatorship?

Comparative Historical Analysis

This graduate seminar critically considers the theoretical impact and methodological rigor of Comparative Historical Analysis in political science and sociology. Studies in this tradition employ a variety of research methods and address a wide array of political and sociological questions. Yet its practitioners are “united by a commitment to offering historically grounded explanations of large-scale and substantively important outcomes.” In the seminar’s opening week, we situate CHA in wider methodological and disciplinary contexts, and consider whether and how historically specific arguments might advance the quest for causal generalization in the social sciences. In each subsequent week, we pair up readings on specific methodological themes and dilemmas with substantive CHA works on what we might broadly term “political development.” Students will be strongly encouraged throughout the quarter to draw lessons for their own dissertation research designs.

State, Society and Democratization in Southeast Asia

This course provides a broad overview of the evolution of Southeast Asia’s highly diverse political systems, with a focus on historical factors that have helped shape prospects for democratic transition in recent years. The first segment sketches how the region as a whole was influenced by global processes of colonization, state formation, the rise of nationalism, Cold War rivalry, and the intensification of capitalist modes of production and exchange. After making a brief foray into democratization theory, we consider the value of competing theoretical approaches in apprehending the collapse of authoritarianism in two specific cases (Indonesia and the Philippines), as well as the long-term survival of authoritarianism in two others (Burma and Malaysia).

Democratic and Nationalist Revolutions

Nationalism and democratization are defining features of the modern political age. This graduate seminar considers the interaction of these two global trends by comparing and contrasting some of the major mass movements for popular self-rule that have erupted around the world from the 17th century to the 21st. We will pay particular attention to the social foundations of these political revolutions, exploring the possibility that we might uncover some common causal processes across this extraordinarily diverse set of events.

Power, Identity, and Resistance III