This course will provide a general introduction to Comparative Politics and comparative methods. The first part of the course will be more theoretical in nature, providing an introduction to basic political concepts and problems. The second part of the course will be dedicated to understanding the practice of comparative politics through both case studies and cross-national comparisons.

    Course meetings will combine the format of lectures and discussion sessions of the readings assigned. Students are expected to attend all lectures, do all the assigned readings for the week, and participate in class discussion. The course has a midterm exam, a final exam and a short paper discussing Simone de Beauvoire All men are Mortal. Please familiarize yourself with the academic honesty policy of the University of Houston. Plagiarism in the paper will result in an F in the class and a note in your academic record (http://www.uh.edu/dos/hdbk/acad/achonpol.html). Collaborative papers require a joint 10 minute presentation on the last week of classes (only groups of two students will be allowed). Individual papers do not require a separate presentation. The exams will be based on assigned readings as well as lectures and class discussions. 

            An e-class has been created in www.turnitin.com in order for you to deposit the class papers or any other assignment. It will also provide me with an email to contact everyone in case of an emergency or to make class changes. In order to register go to www.turnitin.com and follow the registration instructions.

• Student will master basic concepts, theories and methods pertaining to the comparative study of political institutions.

• Students will write an original discussion paper describing how our understanding of comparative political institutions has changed over time.

• Students will be able to understand how the study of comparative politics fits within the field of Political Science in general.

Weber, Max. Politics as Vocation. (There are many editions of this conference by Weber. Also in C Wright Mills and Hans H. Gerth. 1999. From Max Weber. Oxford University Press. Part IV). [EV]

[A&P] Chapter 4

Przeworsky, Manin and Stokes. Democracy, Accountability, and Representation. Cambridge U.P. Introduction and Chapter 1.

Week 3: Corporatism

[A&P] Chapters 5 and 10, Germany

[A&P] Chapter 6 and 8, England

Timothy Hellwig and David Samuels. 2006. Electoral Accountability and the Variety of Democratic Regimes. BJPols.

O’Donnell and Schmitter. 1985. Transitions from Authoritarian Rule: Tentative Conclusions. John Hopkins.

Cox, Gary. 2004. The organization of democratic Legislatures.

George Tsebelis and Jeannette Money. Bicameralism. Cambridge U.P. Part I.

Octavio Amorin Neto and Gary W. Cox, 1997."Electoral Institutions, Cleavage Structures, and the Number of Parties

[A&P] Chapter 15, Brazil

Richard Snyder. 2001. The Sub-national Comparative Method. [EV]

[A&P] Chapter 17, India

[A&P] Chapter 18

[A&P] Chapter 13

Kitschelt, Mansfeldova, Markowski, Toka. 1999. Post-communist party systems. Cambridge U.P. Chapters 1 and 2.

Stepan, A. Toward a New Comparative Analysis of Democracy and Federalism:

Demos Constraining and Demos Enabling Federations. [EV]

Beauvoire, All Men are Mortal.