Instructor: Prof. John Higley, Government & Sociology
Teaching Assistant: Julie Beicken, Sociology
Unique #’s: 46480 / 39180
Time & Place: 11.00-12.30 TTH, Parlin 201
Office hours: Higley: Batts 4.154, Wednesdays 2.30-5.00 p.m.
Beicken: Burdine 554, Tuesdays 1.00-3.00 p.m.
E-mail: jhigley@austin.utexas.edu
juliebeicken@gmail.com
Description: With a primary but also skeptical focus on democratization, this course canvases modern historical and contemporary politics and societies worldwide. It relates democratization to three broad determinants: (1) the relatively fixed political orientations of mass publics; (2) the relatively autonomous and contingent configurations of political elites; (3) the secular ideologies and apocalyptic beliefs that affect how elites and mass publics view political possibilities. Part I outlines a framework incorporating the three determinants; Part II takes stock of mass aspects of democratization and the main advances and setbacks it has recently undergone; Part III focuses on elite transformations that facilitate or inhibit democratization; Part IV considers the thesis of elite degeneration and era-ending crises in the U.S. and U.K. after 1980 and its portents for this century.
Requirements: There will be in-class hour examinations, each worth 25% of the final grade, on October 13 and November 10, and a three-hour final examination on Monday, December 14, 2.00-5.00 p.m., worth 50% of the final grade. The examinations will be essay, short-answer, and multiple-choice in format. Students who know they cannot sit for the December 14th final examination should not enroll because no alternative date will be allowed. Class attendance, though not obligatory, will be crucial to examination performance and students who anticipate missing more than two or three class meetings are strongly advised not to enroll. Final grades will be reported with the plus/minus grade system. The instructor reserves the right to curve examination and final grades in order to secure a reasonable grade profile for the course. Students using laptops in class meetings are asked to sit in rear classroom rows to avoid distracting others.
Texts (On 24-hour reserve at PCL with copies available for purchase at the Co-op) .
Larry Diamond, The Spirit of Democracy: The Struggle to Build Free Societies Throughout the World. Times Books, 2008 (paperback).
John Gray, Black Mass: Apocalyptic Religion and the Death of Utopia. Farrar Straus Giroux, 2007 (paperback).
John Higley and Michael Burton, Elite Foundations of Liberal Democracy. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers 2006 (paperback).
Required University Notices and Policies
All faculty are required to provide students with a course syllabus by the first meeting day of all classes.
? University of Texas Honor Code
The core values of The University of Texas at Austin are learning, discovery, freedom, leadership, individual opportunity, and responsibility. Each member of the university is expected to uphold these values through integrity, honesty, trust, fairness, and respect toward peers and community.
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? Documented Disability Statement
If you require special accommodations, you must obtain a letter that documents your disability from the Services for Students with Disabilities area of the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement (471-6259 voice or 471-4641 TTY for users who are deaf or hard of hearing). Present the letter to me at the beginning of the semester so we can discuss the accommodations you need. No later than five business days before an exam, you should remind me of any testing accommodations you will need. For more information, visit http://www.utexas.edu/
diversity/ddce/ssd/.
? Religious Holidays
By UT Austin policy, you must notify me of your pending absence at least fourteen days prior to the date of observance of a religious holy day. If you must miss a class, an examination, a work assignment, or a project in order to observe a religious holy day, I will give you an opportunity to complete the missed work within a reasonable time after the absence.
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? Emergency Evacuation Policy
Occupants of buildings on the UT Austin campus are required to evacuate and assemble outside when a fire alarm is activated or an announcement is made. Please be aware of the following policies regarding evacuation:
- Familiarize yourself with all exit doors of the classroom and the building. Remember that the nearest exit door may not be the one you used when you entered the building.
- If you require assistance to evacuate, inform me in writing during the first week of class.
- In the event of an evacuation, follow my instructions or those of class instructors.
- Do not re-enter a building unless you’re given instructions by the Austin Fire Department, the UT Austin Police Department, or the Fire Prevention Services office.
Schedule of Lectures and Examinations
08/27 Introduction
Political Sociology’s broad determinants: mass publics; political elites; ideologies and beliefs. Some themes in this course.
Part I: A Framework for Political Sociology
09/01 Political Orientations and Behaviors of Mass Publics
How best to conceive of mass publics’ broad political orientations and behaviors? Is there some universal value such as “democracy”?
Reading: Diamond, Spirit, 1-38
09/03 Political Elites and Regimes
Political elites defined. Types of elites and the political regimes each type creates; origins and transformations of elite types and associated regimes.
Reading: Higley & Burton, EFLD, 1-32
09/08 Apocalyptic Beliefs and Secular Ideologies
The pursuit of millenarian and secular utopias before, during, and perhaps after “The Age of Ideology,” roughly 1500-2000
Reading: Gray, Black Mass, 1-35
09/10: The Framework Summarized
How masses, elites, and beliefs limit what is possible in politics.
Reading: Review assigned Diamond, Higley & Burton, and Gray chapters.
Part II: Democratization Yesterday and Today
09/15 The Modal Pattern of Politics
The ubiquity of disunited elites and unstable, usually authoritarian regimes in modern world history
Reading: Higley & Burton, EFLD, 33-54
09/17: Waves and Reverse Waves of Democratization and their Ostensible Sources
The three waves and two reverse waves of democratization. Is a third reverse wave underway? The Pakistan example. Ostensible mass sources of democratization: political culture, civil society, socioeconomic development, rule of law, etc.
Reading: Diamond, Spirit, 38-168
09/22: Democratization in Latin America: Generally Progressing?
Three patterns: the Southern Cone, Andean, and Central American countries;
Mexico’s travails; the Venezuelan regime.
Reading: Diamond, Spirit, 171-189
09/24: Democratization in Eastern Europe: Taking Hold?
“Roundtable democracy” in Poland, Hungary, ant the Czech Republic; more halting democratizations elsewhere; Ukraine embattled; Russian autocracy?
Reading: Diamond, Spirit, 190-206
09/29: Democratization in Asia: A Mish-Mash?
Recognizably liberal democracy in Japan, the “Tigers,” Malaysia, India, and perhaps Indonesia; illiberal democracy in Bangladesh, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Thailand; public versus coordination goods in China, Singapore, and Vietnam; no goods at all in North Korea.
Reading: Diamond, Spirit, 208-237
10/01: Democratization in Africa: Not Much Hope?
Illiberal democracy in Kenya and Nigeria; “big men” and kleptocracy nearly everywhere else, other than Senegal and Ghana, and perhaps Mozambique; the complex situation in South Africa.
Reading: Diamond, Spirit, 238-262
10/06: Democratization in the Middle East: A Short Story?
A toxic mix: petroleum, monarchy (crowned or uncrowned), and apocalyptic religious belief; weakened theocracy in Iran; embattled democratic regimes in Lebanon, Morocco, and Turkey; a word about the singular Israeli case.
Reading: Diamond, Spirit, 263-290
10/08: Review of Parts I & II
10/13: FIRST HOUR EXAMINATION
Part II: Elite Transformations and Democratization
10/15: Leveling Revolutions as Elite Transformations
The classic cases: England 1648-49, France 1789-94, Russia 1917-21; the Mexican, Chinese, Cuban and Vietnamese variants. Are leveling revolutions any longer likely?
Reading: Gray, Black Mass, 36-55
10/20: Anti-Leveling Revolutions as Elite Transformations
The Italian and German fascist/Nazi cases and their echoes in Austria, Hungary, and elsewhere; Fascism: a peculiarity of the interwar period? How to classify Iran’s theocratic revolution?
Reading: Gray, Black Mass, 55-73
10/22: Origins of Liberal Democracy: Elite Settlements
The dynamics of elite settlements and formations of consensually united elites
operating stable representative regimes, with special attention to the watershed
elite settlements in England, 1688-89 and Spain 1976-78.
Reading: Higley & Burton, EFLD, 55-106
10/27: Origins of Liberal Democracy: Colonial Experience
The experience of relatively benign home rule and unifying struggles for independence, with special attention to the Anglo-American and Indian cases;
origins that are no longer possible?
Reading: Higley & Burton, EFLD, 107-138
10/29: Origins of Liberal Democracy: Elite Convergences
Dynamics of elites in prospering countries with competitive elections; the
paradigmatic French and Italian cases, 1960-1980; the West German and
Japanese variants; were convergences limited to the Cold War and robust
European Union years?
Reading: Higley & Burton, EFLD, 139-180
11/03: Elite Transformations and Democratization in the 21st Century
The persistence of disunited elites and unstable regimes; the finite persistence of ideologically united elites and stable unrepresentative regimes and likely result of their breakdown; can the few consensually united elites and stable representative regimes in developing countries persist?
Reading: Higley & Burton, EFLD, 181-194
11/05: Review of Part III
11/10: SECOND HOUR EXAMINATION
Part IV: The Thesis of Elite Degeneration in the U.K. and U.S.
11/12: Do Ruling Elites Inevitably Degenerate?
Pareto’s theory of leonine and vulpine ruling elites and their degenerations; leonine elite rule and neo-liberalism’s ascendancy under Thatcher and Blair and the crisis of 2008-09 in the U.K.
Reading: Gray, Black Mass, 74-106
11/17: Neo-Conservatism and Elite Degeneration in the U.S.
Leonine elite rule and neo-conservatism’s ascendancy under Reagan, the two Bushes, and Clinton and the crisis of 2008-09 in the U.S.
Reading: Gray, Black Mass, 107-145
11/19: Whither the “War on Terror”?
Al Queda et al.: mortal threat or nuisance? Iraq’s desert and Afghanistan’s
mountains.
Reading: Gray, Black Mass, 146-183
11/24: An Intractable 21st-Century World?
Machiavelli’s teachings and those of elite theory; has a new cycle of ruling elites begun in the U.S. and U.K.?
Reading: Gray, Black Mass, 184-210
11/26: Thanksgiving holiday
12/01: Review of Part IV
12/03: Review of Entire Course
12/14: FINAL EXAMINATION: 2:00-5:00 P.M. (Room t.b.a.)
Supplementary Readings and Reference Sources
T. Janoski, R. Alford, A. Hicks, & M. Schwartz, eds., The Handbook of Political Sociology. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005 (paperback).
S.M. Lipset, ed., The Encyclopedia of Democracy. Washington: Congressional Quarterly Press, 1995 (4 vols.).
J. A. Goldstone, ed., The Encyclopedia of Political Revolutions. Washington: Congressional Quarterly Press, 1998.
E. Hobsbawm, The Age of Extremes: A History of the World, 1914-1991. New York: Pantheon, 1994 (paperback).
S.P. Huntington, The Third Wave. Norman OK: Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 1991 (paperback).
T. Judt, Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945. New York: Penguin, 2004 (paperback)
D.S. Landes, The Wealth and Poverty of Nations. New York: Norton, 1998.
J. Linz, Robert Michels, Political Sociology, and the Future of Democracy. New Brunswick NJ: Transaction Books, 2006.
J. Linz, Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2000 (paperback).
J. Linz & A. Stepan. Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995 (paperback).
N. Machiavelli, The Prince and Other Writings. New York: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2003 (paperback).
R. Michels, Politcal Parties: A Sociological Study of the Oligarchical Tendencies of
Modern Democracy. New York: Collier Books, 1915/1962.
G. Mosca, The Ruling Class. New York: McGraw Hill, 1923/1939.
J. Mueller, The Remnants of War. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2004 (paperback).
V. Pareto. The Mind and Society: Treatise on General Sociology. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co. 1916/1935 (4 vols.).
R.O. Paxton, The Anatomy of Fascism. New York: Knopf, 2004 (paperback).
G. Sartori, The Theory of Democracy Revisited. Chatham NJ: Chatham House, 1987 (paperback).
F. Zakaria, The Future of Freedom. New York: Pantheon Books 2003 (paperback).
