This course will familiarize the students with the basic concepts and approaches to the study of comparative governments. It enables the students to critically examine politics in historical and contemporary perspectives while engaging with various themes of comparative analysis in developed and developing countries. This course is designed to address the various elements of constitutional systems in the world including political parties, interest groups, election process, in addition to an analysis of the dominant executive, legislature and judicial systems all over the world.
Course Content
Unit I: Introduction
a) Comparative Government: Meaning and Evolution
b) Institutionalism and Neo-Institutionalism
c) Comparing Democratic and Authoritarian Regimes
Unit II: Legislature, Executive and Bureaucracy
a) Legislatures: Concept, Functions, Structures; Legislature in Democratic and Authoritarian States
b) Executive: Concept; Presidential and Parliamentary Forms; Executive in Democratic and Authoritarian States
c) Bureaucracy: Concept, Organisation, New Public Management; Bureaucracy in Democratic and Authoritarian States
Unit III: Constitution, Judiciary and Multi-level Governments
a) Constitutionalism and New-Constitutionalism; Constitution in Democratic and Authoritarian States
b) Judiciary: Concepts, Judicial Review, Judicial Activism, Judicial Independence; Judiciary in Democratic and Authoritarian States
c) Multi-level Governments: Unitary and Federal; Local Government
Unit IV: Elections, Political Parties and Interest Groups
a) Elections: Role and Importance; Types: First-Past-the-Post System and Proportional Representation; Elections in Democratic and Authoritarian States
b) Political Parties: Concept, Origin and Role; Party System; Parties in Democratic and Authoritarian States
c) Interest Groups: Concept; Role of Interest Groups in Democratic and Authoritarian States
Essential Readings
- Alford, R. R., and Friedland, R. (1985). Powers of Theory: Capitalism, the State, and Democracy. Cambridge University Press.
- Albrow, Martin. (1996). The Global Age: State and Society: Beyond Modernity. Cambridge.
- Cantori, L. J., and Ziegler, A. H. (Eds.). (1988). Comparative Politics in the Post-Behaviouralist Era. Lynne Rienner.
- Chilcote, Ronald H. (1994). Theories of Comparative Politics: The Search for a Paradigm Reconsidered. Westview Press.
- Hardt, Michael, and Negri, Antonio. (2001). Empire. Harvard University Press.
- Manor, James (Ed.). (1991). Rethinking Third World Politics. Longman.
- Sartori, Giovanni. (2016). Parties and Party Systems: A Framework for Analysis. Cambridge University Press.
Source: Undergraduate (UG) Political Science Syllabus – Core IV (Semester II): Comparative Governments.