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Introduction to Political Science (E037)

Course Organization

Time & Location:
Wednesday, 14:15-16:00, S1

 

Professor:
David Sylvan
Office: Rigot 28
Office hours: Wednesday 16.30 to 17.30 and by appointment
Telephone: 022 908 59 42
Email: sylvan@hei.unige.ch

 

Assistant:
 Assia Alexieva
Office: Rigot 26
Office hours: Tuesday 14.00-15.00 and Thursday 11.00-12.30, and by appointment
Telephone: 022 908 59 41
Email: alexiev3@hei.unige.ch

 

Course Description

This course (E037) is in fact not an introduction to political science; rather, it is an overview of the current world of international relations as that world is understood and studied by professional political scientists. A number of the phenomena we will be looking at have also been dealt with by scholars from other academic disciplines, but as their fetish concepts are quite different, so too will be both their definitions of those phenomena and the stories they tell about them. The aim of this course is thus to learn not only about international relations but about a way in which international relations can be understood.

In surveying the world of international relations, we will be focusing on particular phenomena and on some of the characteristic claims made about those phenomena by political scientists. The choice of phenomena and claims is in turn organized around the transactions, units, and modes of governance typical of today's world of international relations and its immediate predecessor. That "TUG" approach is a prototheory of its own and we will develop it over the course of the semester with the aim, I hope, of getting a better sense of how international relations phenomena fit together, where our world came from, and where we might be going.

Since for the most part, we (luckily) do not have the ability to carry out experiments in international relations, we have to restrict ourselves on what has happened in the past and what (secrecy aside) we can learn about what is happening today. For this reason, it is essential not only to read at least one good newspaper but also to acquire some historical knowledge, particularly about the post-1945 (and, more generally, the post-1815) period. When you run across (as inevitably you will) references to past events of which you know little or nothing, look them up in the Encyclopedia Britannica or some other reputable source.

The course is designed around weekly class sessions, based on readings. Although I will from time to time succumb to the temptation to lecture you, I intend to struggle against this and to have most of the class sessions be spent in discussion. In either case, you will get very little out of the sessions if you do not prepare beforehand by doing all of the required readings in a critical (perhaps even vicious) manner. Please bring the readings to class, so that we can all go over particular passages.

In addition, I will also ask you to write 5 short (2-page) memoranda, on topics announced by me in advance, and in which you construct a skeletal argument about those topics. Those memoranda must be turned in to the course assistant, Assia Alexieva, no later than 10.00 the day of the course; they will be annotated and returned to you at the end of the class session the following week.

Finally, there will be a take-home test the last week of the semester. This, like the memos, is designed to get you to learn how to analyze disparate materials with precision and concision.

Mechanics. The course readings are obtainable in three forms. The required readings which are book chapters will be assembled into a photocopy packet, available for purchase. The required and optional readings which are journal articles or dissertation chapters will be available online, either through the library's journal portal or else posted to the course website. The optional readings which are books or book chapters will be placed on reserve in the library both as books and as a packet of photocopies.

My office hours are Wed. 16.30 to 17.30 and by appointment. My office is Rigot 28; my telephone number is 022 908 59 42; my e-mail is sylvan@hei.unige.ch. Assia is in Rigot 26; her phone number is 022 908 59 41; her e-mail is alexiev3@hei.unige.ch; and her office hours are Tues. 14.00-15.00 and Thurs. 11.00-12.30, and by appointment. The course web site is: http://hei.unige.ch/sections/sp/courses/0607/ sylvan/intro-political-science.html

Class Schedule and Course Syllabus


Week 1, October 25, 2006,
Introduction: Governance (how not to think about it)

Memorandum Topic for Nov. 1.

Required reading:

  • No required reading


Optional reading:

  • Kevin H. O'Rourke and Jeffrey G. Williamson, "After Columbus: Explaining the Global Trade Boom 1500-1800" (2001) NBER Working Paper 8186.
  • Paul W. Schroeder, The Transformation of European Politics: 1763-1848 (1994), chap. 1.
  • (Very Optional. To get a sense of what a world looks like once it has come into being from its separate predecessors): Kenneth Pomeranz and Steven Topik, The World That Trade Created: Society, Culture, and the World Economy 1400 to the Present (1999).


Week 2, November 1, 2006,
I. TUG 1815-1945. A. Transactions

Memorandum Topic for Nov. 8.

Required reading:

  • Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848), Engl. trans. 1888. Available at http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/ communist-manifesto/index.htm
  • Eric Hobsbawm, The Age of Capital 1848-1875 (1975), chaps. 2, 3, 11.
  • Eric Hobsbawm, The Age of Empire 1875-1914 (1987), chap. 2.
  • Robert M. Epstein, "Patterns of Change and Continuity in Nineteenth-Century Warfare," Journal of Military History 56,3 (1992): 375-88.


Optional reading:

  • Paul Bairoch, "European Trade Policy, 1815-1914," Cambridge Economic History of Europe, vol. 8 (1989).
  • David Eltis, "Free and Coerced Transatlantic Migrations: Some Comparisons," American Historical Review 88,2 (1983): 251-80.


Week 3, November 8, 2006,
I. TUG 1815-1945. B. Units

Memorandum Topic for Nov. 15.

Required reading:

  • Hobsbawm, Age of Capital, chaps. 5, 6.
  • Hobsbawm, Age of Empire, chaps. 4, 6.
  • Arno J. Mayer, The Persistence of the Old Regime: Europe to the Great War (1981), chaps. 2, 3.


Optional reading:

  • Michael Mann, The Sources of Social Power, vol. 2: The Rise of Classes and Nation-States, 1760-1914 (1993), chaps. 11-14.


Week 4, November 15, 2006,
I. TUG 1815-1945. C. Governance

Memorandum Topic for Nov. 22.

Required reading:

  • Paul W. Schroeder, "Alliances, 1815-1945: Weapons of Power and Tools of Management" (1976), in K. Knorr, ed., Historical Dimensions of National Security Problems. Note: the version in the photocopy packet is a reprint in a subsequent volume of some of Schroeder's essays.
  • Schroeder, "The 19th-Century International System: Changes in the Structure," World Politics 39,1 (1986): 1-26.
  • Hobsbawm, Age of Empire, chap. 3.
  • Niall Ferguson, Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World (2003), chaps. 4, 5.


Optional reading:

  • Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time (1944), chap. 1.


Week 5, November 22, 2006,
II. TUG 1945-present. A. Transactions. 1. Investment, trade, migration

Memorandum Topic for Nov. 29.

Required reading:

  • Richard E. Baldwin and Philippe Martin, "Two Waves of Globalisation: Superficial Similarities, Fundamental Differences" (1999) NBER Working Paper 6904.
  • Hania Zlotnik, "Trends of International Migration Since 1965: What Existing Data Reveal," International Migration 37,1 (1999): 21-61.
  • Charles S. Maier, Among Empires: American Ascendancy and Its Predecessors (2006), chaps. 5, 6.


Optional reading:

  • (If you want some background on the mechanics of trade and capital flows): Joseph M. Grieco and G. John Ikenberry, State Power and World Markets: the International Political Economy (2003), chaps. 2, 3.
  • (If you want a vivid sense of how trade and investment operate, globally, for a particular commodity): Pietra Rivoli, The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy: An Economist Examines the Markets, Power, and Politics of World Trade (2005).
  • Bruce Cumings, "The Origins and Development of the Northeast Asian Political Economy: Industrial Sectors, Product Cycles, and Political Consequences," International Organization 38,1 (1984): 1-40.


Week 6, November 29, 2006,
II. TUG 1945-present. A. Transactions. 2. Security communities and zones of war

Memorandum Topic for Dec. 6.

Required reading:

  • Emanuel Adler and Michael Barnett, eds., Security Communities (1998), pp. 3-9, 29-37, and also chaps. 3 (Ole Waever, "Insecurity, Security, and Asecurity in the West European Non-War Community"), 7 (Andrew Hurrell, "An Emerging Security Community in South America?"), and 11 (Bruce Russett, "A Neo-Kantian Perspective: Democracy, Interdependence, and International Organizations in Building Security Communities").
  • Nils Petter Gleditsch et al., "Armed Conflict 1946-2001: A New Dataset," Journal of Peace Research 39,5 (2002): 615-37. Also consult the latest version of the dataset, available as a pdf file on the CSCW website: http://www.prio.no/page/CSCW_research_detail/ Programme_detail_CSCW/9649/45925.html
  • Richard Ned Lebow and Janice Gross Stein, "Deterrence and the Cold War," Political Science Quarterly 110,2 (1995): 157-81.


Optional reading:

  • Paul Collier and Anke Hoeffler, "Greed and Grievance in Civil War," Oxford Economic Papers 56 (2004): 563-93.
  • Deborah D. Avant, The Market for Force: The Consequences of Privatizing Security (2005), chap. 1.
  • Edward D. Mansfield and Jack Snyder, Electing to Fight: Why Emerging Democracies Go To War (2005), chap. 1.


Week 7, December 6, 2006
II. TUG 1945-present. B. Units. 1. Permeability

Memorandum Topic for Dec. 13.

Required reading:

  • Robert D. Putnam, "Diplomacy and Domestic Politics: The Logic of Two-Level Games," International Organization 42,3 (1988): 427-60.
  • Thomas Risse-Kappen, "Public Opinion, Domestic Structure, and Foreign Policy in Liberal Democracies," World Politics 43,4 (1991): 479-512.
  • Binnur Ozkecedi-Taner, "The Impact of Institutionalized Ideas in Coalition Foreign Policy Making: Turkey as an Example, 1991-2002," Foreign Policy Analysis 1,3 (2005): 249-78.
  • Dennis M. Foster and Glenn Palmer, "Presidents, Public Opinion, and Diversionary Behavior: The Role of Partisan Support Reconsidered," Foreign Policy Analysis 2,3 (2006): 269-87.


Optional reading:

  • Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media (1988), chap. 1.
  • Philip J. Powlick, "The Sources of Public Opinion for American Foreign Policy Officials," International Studies Quarterly 39 (1995): 427-51.
  • Benjamin O. Fordham, "Economic Interests, Party, and Ideology in Early Cold War Era U.S. Foreign Policy," International Organization 52,2 (1998): 359-96.


Week 8, December 13, 2006,
II. TUG 1945-present. B. Units. 2. Bureaucracy and psychology

Memorandum Topic for Dec. 20.

Required reading:

  • Paul 't Hart, Eric K. Stern, and Bengt Sundelius, eds., Beyond Groupthink: Political Group Dynamics and Foreign Policy Making (1997), chaps. 1 ('t Hart, Stern, and Sundelius, "Foreign Policy-making at the Top: Political Group Dynamics") and 3 (Sally Riggs Fuller and Ramon J. Aldag, "Challenging the Mindguards: Moving Small Group Analysis Beyond Groupthink").
  • Charles S. Taber, "The Interpretation of Foreign Policy Events: A Cognitive Process Theory," in D. Sylvan and J. Voss, eds., Problem Representation in Foreign Policy Decision-Making (1998).
  • Daniel W. Drezner, "Ideas, Bureaucratic Politics, and the Crafting of Foreign Policy," American Journal of Political Science 44,4 (2000): 733-49.
  • B. Guy Peters, "Governance: A Garbage Can Perspective" (2002) Institute for Advanced Studies, Vienna, Political Science Series 84. Available online at: http://www.ihs.ac.at/publications/pol/wp_84.pdf
  • Stephen Benedict Dyson and Thomas Preston, "Individual Characteristics of Political Leaders and the Use of Analogy in Foreign Policy Decision Making," Political Psychology 27,2 (2006): 265-88.


Optional reading:

  • Barbara Levitt and James G. March, "Organizational Learning," Annual Review of Sociology 14 (1988): 319-40.
  • Milton Lodge and Charles S. Taber, "The Automaticity of Affect for Political Leaders, Groups, and Issues: An Experimental Test of the Hot Cognition Hypothesis," Political Psychology 26,3 (2005): 455-82.


Week 9, December 20, 2006,
II. TUG 1945-present. C. Governance. 1. Regimes. a. Rules

(Note: see the definition by Stephen D. Krasner, "Structural Causes and Regime Consequences: Regimes as Intervening Variables," International Organization 36,2 [1982]: 186 the middle paragraph on the page].)

Memorandum Topic for Jan. 10.

Required reading:

  • John Gerard Ruggie, "International Regimes, Transactions, and Change: Embedded Liberalism in the Postwar Economic Order," International Organization 36,2 (1982): 379-415.
  • Frank Schimmelfennig, "Arms Control Regimes and the Dissolution of the Soviet Union: Realism, Institutionalism and Regime Robustness," Cooperation and Conflict 29,2 (1994): 115-48.
  • Kenneth W. Abbott, "International Relations Theory, International Law, and the Regime Governing Atrocities in Internal Conflicts," American Journal of International Law 93,2 (1999): 361-79.
  • Philip McMichael, "Sleepless Since Seattle: What is the WTO About?" Review of International Political Economy 7,3 (2000): 466-74.
  • Martha Finnemore and Stephen J. Toope, "Alternatives to 'Legalization': Richer Views of Law and Politics," International Organization 55,3 (2001): 743-58.
  • Ronnie D. Lipschutz and Cathleen Fogel, "'Regulation for the Rest of Us?' Global Civil Society and the Privatization of Transnational Regulation," in R. Hall and T. Biersteker, The Emergence of Private Authority in Global Governance (2002).


Optional reading:

  • Jack Donnelly, "International Human Rights: A Regime Analysis," International Organization 40,3 (1986): 599-642.
  • Ethan A. Nadelmann, "Global Prohibition Regimes: The Evolution of Norms in International Society," International Organization 44,4 (1990): 479-526.
  • Margaret E. Keck and Kathryn Sikkink, Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics, chap. 1.
  • Michael P. Dooley, David Folkerts-Landau, and Peter Garber, "An Essay on the Revised Bretton Woods System" (2003) NBER Working Paper 9971.
  • Harold James, The Roman Predicament: How the Rules of International Order Create the Politics of Empire (2006), chaps. 3-4.


Week 10, January 10, 2007,
II. TUG 1945-present. C. Governance. 1. Regimes. b. Asymmetry

Memorandum Topic for Jan. 17.

Required reading:

  • Peter Bachrach and Morton S. Baratz, "Decisions and Non-decisions: An Analytical Framework," American Political Science Review 57 (1963): 632-42.
  • Fernando Henrique Cardoso, "Associated-Dependent Development: Theoretical and Practical Implications," in A. Stepan, ed., Authoritarian Brazil: Origins, Policies, and Future (1973).
  • Katarina Tomaševski, Responding to Human Rights Violations 1946-1999 (2000), chaps. 1, 2, 12.
  • Joseph Stiglitz, Globalization and Its Discontents (2002), chaps. 1-3.
  • Lloyd Gruber, "Power Politics and the Institutionalization of International Relations," in M. Barnett and R. Duvall, eds., Power in Global Governance (2005).


Optional reading:

  • Ellen L. Lutz and Kathryn Sikkink, "International Human Rights Law and Practice in Latin America," International Organization 54,3 (2000): 633-59.
  • Robert Pape, "The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism," American Political Science Review 97,3 (2003): 343-61. [Note: Pape has a more elaborated argument in his 2005 book, Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism, chaps. 3, 4, 6, 8.]
  • Liza Schuster, "A Sledgehammer to Crack a Nut: Deportation, Detention and Dispersal in Europe," Social Policy and Administration 39,6 (2005): 606-21.


Week 11, January 17, 2007,
II. TUG 1945-present. C. Governance. 2. Institutions and integration. a. International

Memorandum Topic for Jan. 24.

Required reading:

  • Robert W. Cox, "Labor and Hegemony," International Organization 31,3 (1977): 385-424.
  • John Gerard Ruggie, "Multilateralism: The Anatomy of an Institution," International Organization 46,3 (1992): 561-98.
  • Michael Barnett and Martha Finnemore, Rules for the World: International Organizations in Global Politics (2004), chaps. 1, 2, 5, 6.
  • Corinne Graff, "Words that Bind: Case Studies in the Sociology of Multilateral Institutions" (2006), introduction and chaps. 1, 7. Available online (with login password) at the course web site.


Optional reading:

  • Chadwick F. Alger, "United Nations Participation as a Learning Experience," Public Opinion Quarterly 27,3 (1963): 411-26. Optional: also idem, "The United Nations in Historical Perspective," in Alger, G. Lyons, and J. Trent, eds., The United Nations System: The Policies of Member States (1995).
  • Inis L. Claude, Jr., "Collective Legitimization as a Political Function of the United Nations," International Organization 20,3 (1966): 367-79.
  • Gabriel Kolko, The Politics of War: The World and United States Foreign Policy, 1943-1945 (1968), chap. 18.
  • Bruce Cronin, "The Paradox of Hegemony: America's Ambiguous Relationship with the United Nations," European Journal of International Relations 7,1 (2001): 103-30.
  • John Gerard Ruggie, "Reconstituting the Global Public Domain - Issues, Actors, and Practices, European Journal of International Relations 10,4 (2004): 499-531.


Week 12, January 24, 2007,
II. TUG 1945-present. C. Governance. 2. Institutions and integration. b. Regional and supranational

Required reading:

  • Perry Anderson and Stuart Hall, "The Politics of the Common Market," New Left Review 1st ser., 10 (1961). Available online (with login password) at the course web site.
  • Christopher Layne and Benjamin Schwarz, "American Hegemony - Without an Enemy," Foreign Policy 92 (1993): 5-23. Optional: Also Layne, The Peace of Illusions: American Grand Strategy from 1940 to the Present (2006), chap. 5.
  • Michael W. Mosser, "Engineering Influence: The [Subtle] Power of Small States in the CSCE/OSCE" (2000). Available online at: http://www.bmlv.gv.at/pdf_pool/publikationen/ 05_small_states_07.pdf
  • Frank Schimmelfennig, "The Community Trap: Liberal Norms, Rhetorical Action, and the Eastern Enlargement of the European Union," International Organization 55,1 (2001): 47-80.
  • Leo G. Michel, "NATO Decisionmaking: Au Revoir to the Consensus Rule?" Strategic Forum 202 (2003). Available online at: http://www.ndu.edu/inss/strforum/SF202/SF202.pdf


Optional reading:


Week 13, January 31, 2007,
Take-home test 

 

Syllabus-Introduction-Political-Science.pdf (60 Kb) Jan 27, 2008
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