Building democratic institutions
Description
What kinds of institutions are essential for the building of a stable democracy? Do they need to grow over decades or can they be created in a relatively short period of time through the choices made by elites? What are the choices that democratizing elites are faced with? Can new democratic institutions be designed, and if so what factors might influence their success? What common challenges to
democracy worldwide are emerging today and what answers to these challenges can we find in contemporary debates on the nature of democracy, the relationship between globalization and democracy and democracy and the nation state? These are some of the questions which this course will address. These questions are becoming topical and urgent again after the opening of North African regimes in the so called Arab spring starting in 2011.
This course will discuss these questions with the help of various perspectives drawn from theoretical and empirical work on democratization mostly in the post communist countries in Eastern Europe but also in the European Union and other parts of the world. The course will focus in particular on the practical and theoretical challenges encountered in trying to build democratic institutions, challenges such as multiple transformations and weak states, post conflict democratization, the problem of creating legitimacy in new types of political systems such as the European Union.
Course objectives
When students have completed this course, they should:
understand the major debates in the democratization literature and how these debates affect policy practice and policy advice
have an awareness of the various schools and approaches to understanding democratization, short and long term perspectives and different social science approaches
be capable of analyzing recent process of transition to democracy with the help of the comparative and theoretical literature introduced in this course
have developed the capacity to reflect on the challenges and shortcomings of efforts to build democratic institutions in various regions of the world today
be able to identify various internet sources and databases that can serve as starting points for empirical research in democratization
be able to make a critical presentation of a set of different, sometimes contrasting arguments from articles in the democratization literature
Timetable
Thursday 1-11-2012 10:00 13:00 CDH-Schouw A0.01
Thursday 8-11-2012 10:00 13:00 CDH-Schouw A0.01
Thursday 15-11-201210:00 13:00 CDH-Schouw A0.01
Thursday 22-11-201210:00 13:00 CDH-Schouw A0.01
Thursday 29-11-201210:00 13:00 CDH-Schouw A0.01
Thursday 6-12-2012 10:00 13:00 CDH-Schouw A0.01
Thursday 13-12-201210:00 13:00 CDH-Schouw A0.01
Mode of instruction seminar discussions and presentations
Assessment method
Students’ presentations, oral examination.
Reading list/Literature
A set of articles for each session, to be announced via blackboard
Blackboard
Instructor uses Blackboard. This page is available from a week before the course starts
Registration
Via USIS
Contact information
Dr. Antoaneta Dimitrova
Dimitrova@fsw.leidenuniv.nl
Remarks / Preparation for first session
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