This course aims to familiarise students with the basic concepts, methods and scope of comparative politics, different approaches with their strengths and weaknesses. The objective is to provide a deeper understanding of structures and functions of institutions in a comparative perspective. The course will examine politics in a historical framework while engaging with various themes of comparative analysis in developed and developing countries. The historical context of modern state, constitutional development and their political economy could be understood through an analysis of the modern state and its processes of communication and culture.
Course Content
Unit I: Introduction
a) Approaches
- Institutional and Neo-Institutional Approaches
- Behavioural Approach
- Systems Theory and Structural Functionalism
- Rational Choice Approach
- Interpretative Approach
b) Colonialism in Comparative Perspective, Decolonization
Unit II: States and Nations
a) Modern Nation State in the West
- State Theories: Constitutional, Ethical and Moral, Conflict and Pluralist
b) The Welfare State: Emergence, Development and Challenges
c) The State in the Developing World: Ethnicity and Nationalism, Nation Building in the Developing World
Unit III: Culture and Communication
a) Political Culture
- Overview
- The Civic Culture
- Political Trust and Social Capital
- Post-Materialism
- Huntington’s Clash of Civilization
b) Political Communication
- Mass Media and Democracy
- Media Influence
- Social Media
- Impact of New Technology
Unit IV: Democratization and Development
a) Democratization
- Regime Transformation
- Democracy and Democratization
- Waves of Democratization
- Democratic Consolidation
- Role of Civil Society in Democracy
b) Theories of Development and Under-development
- Political Development
- Modernization
- Under-development and Dependency
- Globalization and Development
Essential Readings
- Howard, R. M. (2009). Culture in Comparative Political Analysis. In M. Lichbach & A. Zuckerman (Eds.), Comparative Politics: Rationality, Culture, and Structure (pp. 134–161). Cambridge University Press.
- Kopstein, J., & Lichbach, M. (Eds.). (2005). Comparative Politics: Interests, Identities, and Institutions in a Changing Global Order. Cambridge University Press.
- Landman, T. (2008). Issues and Methods in Comparative Politics: An Introduction. Routledge.
- Mohanty, M. (1975). Comparative Political Theory and Third World Sensitivity. In Teaching Politics (pp. 22–38).
- Pennington, M. (2009). Theory, Institutional and Comparative Politics. In J. Bara & M. Pennington (Eds.), Comparative Politics: Explaining Democratic Systems (pp. 13–40). Sage Publications.
- Rosamond, B. (2005). Political Culture. In B. Alford et al. (Eds.), Politics (pp. 57–81). Routledge.
Source: Undergraduate (UG) Political Science Syllabus – Core XII (Semester V): Comparative Politics.