Master Syllabus - Reading List for Preliminary Examinations in Comparative Politics
Introduction and Requirements| Examination Guide | Master Syllabus | Faculty
If you entered the graduate program before Fall 2005 click here to access the appropriate reading guide
The purpose of this list is twofold. It provides students in Comparative Politics who take it as major or minor field with an understanding of the literature that they need to be familiar with before taking their preliminary field exam. It also serves as a guide for the exam itself. Section A refers to the literature that is relevant for the first exam question. Section B is relevant for the second exam question. Not included here is the literature that bears on the third question that only major field students take. Until further notice, this updated list will be applicable to students beginning the graduate program Fall 2005 or later.
Section A.
History
- Almond, G. 1990. A Discipline Divided
- "Controversy in the Discipline: Area Studies and Comparative Politics", PS: Political Science and Politics 30(2):166-79
- Dryzek, John S. and Stephen T. Leonard 1988. "History and Discipline in Political Science", American Political Science Review 82(4):1245-60
- Farr, James et al. 1990. "Can Political Science History be Neutral?" American Political Science Review 84(2) 587-607
- Ricci, David 1984. The Tragedy of Political Science
- Riker, William H. 1982. "The Two-Party System and Duverger's Law: An Essay on the History of Political Science", American Political Science Review 76(4):753-66
- Steinmo, Sven and C. Thelen 1992. Structuring Politics: Historical Institutionalism in Comparative Analysis
- Weiner, Myron and Samuel P. Huntington. 1987. Understanding Political Development
Epistemology
- Hill, Kim Quaile 2004. "Myths about Physical Sciences and their Implications for Teaching Political Science", PS: Political Science and Politics 37(3):467-71
- Hollis, M. and S. Lukes. 1982. Rationality and Relativism
- Kuhn, Thomas 1962. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.
- Lakatos, Imre and A. Musgrave. (eds). 1970. Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge
- Monroe Kirsten (ed.) 2004. Perestroika in Political Science
- Schmitter, Phillipe C. and T.L. Karl 1994. "The Conceptual Travels of Transitologists and Consolidologists: How Far to the East Should They Attempt to Go?" Slavic Review 53(1):173-85
- Simon, Herbert 1985. "Human Nature in Politics: The Dialogue of Psychology with Political Science", American Political Science Review 79(2):293-305
Method
- Almond, G. "Clouds, Clocks, and the Study of Politics," World Politics 29(4): 489-522
- Almond, G. 1965. "Systems Analysis," World Politics 17 (2):183-214
- Collier, David 1991. "The Comparative Method." in Dankwart Rustow and K. Erickson (eds.) Comparative Political Dynamics
- Collier, David and S. Levitsky 1997. "Democracy with Adjectives: Conceptual Innovation in Comparative Politics", World Politics 49(3):430-51
- Homer, R.M. 1977. "Galton's Problem in Cross-National Research," World Politics 29(1):1-28
- Lijphart, A "The Comparable Case Study in Comparative Research," Comparative Political Studies 8(2):158-177
- Mahoney, James and D. Rueschemeyer (eds.) 2003. Comparative Historical Analysis in the Social Sciences
- Meckstro, Theodore W. 1975. "Most Different Systems" and "Most Similar Systems": A Study in the Logic of Comparative Inquiry", Comparative Political Studies 8 (2): 132-57.
- Ragin, C. 1987. The Comparative Method
- Pierson, Paul. "Increasing Returns, Path Dependence, and the Study of Politics." American Political Science Review 92:4, 251-267.
- Przeworski, Adam and H. Teune. 1970. Logic of Comparative Social Inquiry
- Skocpol, Theda and M. Somers, (1980) "The Uses of Comparative History in Macro-Social Inquiry." Comparative Studies in Society and History Vol. 22
- Tarrow, Sidney 1996. "Making Social Science Work across space and Time: A Critical Reflection of Robert Putnam's Making Democracy Work", American Political Science Review 90(2):389-98
Section B.
Modernization Theories
- Almond and Coleman. 1960. The Politics of Developing Areas
- Arat, Zehra. 1988. "Democracy and economic development: Modernization theory revisited." Comparative Politics 20
- Binder et.al. 1971. Crisis and Sequences in Political Development
- Huntington, Samuel P 1968. Political Order in Changing Societies
- Huntington, Samuel P. 1993. "The Clash of Civilizations?" Foreign Affairs
- Huntington, Samuel P. 2004. Who Are We : The Challenges to America's National Identity
- Tilly, Charles 1973. "Does Modernization Breed Revolution, A Reply to Huntington," Comparative Politics, 5(3):425-48
- Przeworski, Adam and F. Limongi 1007. "Modernization: Theories and Facts", World Politics 49(2):155-83
- Rostow, W. 1960. The Stages of Economic Growth
Dependency
- Dos Santos, Teodoro. 1970. "The Structure of Dependence." American Economic Review 60(5):
- Evans, Peter 1979. Dependent Development
- Smith, Tony 1986. "Requiem or New Agenda for Third World Studies?" World Politics
- Caporaso, James 1980. "Dependency Theory: Continuities and Discontinuities in Developmental Studies." International Organization 34(3):
Development
- Bardhan, P. 1989. "The new institutional economics and development theory." World Development 17(9):
- Bates, Robert 1981. Markets and States in Tropical Africa
- Eisenstadt, S. and Lemarchand, R. (eds.) 1981. Political Clientelism, Patronage and Development
- Evans, Peter 2000. Embedded Autonomy
- Hirschman, Albert 1963. Journeys Toward Progress
- Hyden, Goran 1983. No Shortcuts to Progress
- Kohli, Atul 2002. The State and Economic Development
- Waldner, David (year?). State-Building and Late Development
Ethnicity and Nationalism
- Anderson, Benedict 1991. Imagined Communities
- Bendix, Reinhart 1964. Nation-building and Citizenship Chatterjee, P. 1993. The Nation and its Fragments
- Gellner, Ernest 1983. Nations and Nationalism
- Greenfeld, Leah 1992. Nationalism: Five Roads to Modernity
- Haas, Ernest. 1986. "What is Nationalism and Why Should We Study It?" International Organization 40(3):
- Horowitz, Donald 1985. Ethnic Groups in Conflict
- Kanchan, Chandra. Why Ethnic Parties Succeed.
- Kasfir, Nelson 1979. "Explaining Ethnic Political Participation. World Politics 31(3):
- Lemarchand, R. 1972. "Political Clientelism and Ethnicity in Tropical Africa." American Political Science Review 66(1):91-112
- Smith, Anthony 1986. The Ethnic Origins of Nations.
- Smith, Anthony 2000. The Nation in History: Historiographical Debates About Ethnicity and Nationalism
- Young, Crawford 1983. "The Temple of Ethnicity", World Politics 36
Political Culture
- Almond, Gabriel A. and Sidney Verba. 1989 [1963]. The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in Five Nations
- Almond, Gabriel A. and Sidney Verba. (eds.) 1989. The Civic Culture Revisited
- Bourdieu, Pierre. Language and Symbolic Power
- Douglas, Mary. Purity and Danger.
- Emile Durkheim. The Division of Labor in Society
- Eckstein, Harry. 1988. "A Culturalist Theory of Political Change." American Political Science Review 82(3):789-804.
- Foucault., Michel. Madness and Civilization.
- Gramsci, Antonio. Prison Notebooks.
- Inglehart, Ronald. 1988. "The Renaissance of Political Culture." American Political Science Review 82(4):1203-30.
- Inglehart, Ronald. 1990. Culture Shift in Advanced Society.
- Inglehart, Ronald. 1997. Modernization and Postmodernization: Cultural, Economic, and Political Change in 43 Societies. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
- Laitin, David D. 1986. Hegemony and Culture: Politics and Religious Change among the Yoruba
- Laitin, David D & Aaron Wildavsky 1988. "Political Culture and Political Preferences." American Political Science Review (June) 82 (2):589-96.
- Laitin, David D. 1995. "Political Culture at 30." American Political Science Review 89 (1):168-73.
- Lane, Ruth. 1992. "Political Culture: Residual Category or General Theory?" Comparative Political Studies 25 (3):362(26).
- Norris, Pippa and R. Inglehart 2002. "Islamic Culture and Democracy: Testing the ‘Clash of Civilizations' Thesis", Comparative Sociology 1(3-4):235-63
- Ross, Marc Howard. 1997. "Culture and Identity in Comparative Political Analysis", in Mark I. Lichbach and Alan S. Zuckerman (eds.), Comparative Politics: Rationality, Culture, and Structure, pp. 42-8Shils, Edward 1975. Center and Periphery
- Weber, Max 1947. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
Political Economy
- Alt, James and K. Chrystal. 1983. Political Economics
- Caporaso, James A. and D.P. Levine. 1992. Theories of Political Economy
- Katzenstein, Peter 1978. Small States and World Markets
- Marx, Karl 1871. The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon
- Ostrom, Elinor 1990. Governing the Commons
- Staniland, Martin.1985. What is Political Economy?
Democracy and Democratization
- Dahl, Robert 1971. Polyarchy
- Downs, Anthony 1957. An Economic Theory of Democracy
- Duverger, Maurice 1964. Political Parties
- Geddes, Barbara 1999. "What Do We Know about Democratization after Twenty Years?" Annual Review of Political Science 2:113-44
- Huntington, Samuel P. 1991. The Third Wave
- Lijphart, Arend 1984. Democracies
- Linz, Juan and A. Stepan. 1978. The Breakdown of Democratic Regime
- Linz, Juan and A. Stepan. 1996. Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation
- Lipset, Seymour M. 1959. "Some Social Requisities of Democracy: Economic Development and Political Legitimacy", American Political Science Review 53(1):69-105
- Lipset, Seymour M. and S. Rokkan 1967. "Cleavage Structures, Party Structures and Voter Alignments", in S. M. Lipset and S. Rokkan (eds.) Party Systems and Voter Alignments
- Mainwaring, Scott 1993. "Presidentialism, Multipartyism and Democracy: The Difficult Combination", Comparative Political Studies 26(2):198-228
- O'Donnell, Guillermo. 1996. "Delegative Democracy." Journal of Democracy
- O'Donnell, Guillermo, P.C. Schmitter and L.Whitehead (eds) 1986. Transitions from Authoritarian Rule: Comparative Perspectives, volumes 3 and 4
- Przeworski, Adam 1991. Democracy and the Market
- Putnam, Robert 1993. Making Democracy Work
- Schumpeter, Joseph 1943, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy
- Ruschemeyer, Dietrich, E. H. Stephens and J. D. Stephens 1992. Capitalist Development and Democracy.
- Rustow, Dankwart 1970. "Transitions to Democracy: Toward a Dynamic Model." Comparative Politics, 2(3):
- Schefter, Martin 1994. Political Parties and the State: The American Historical Experience
State
- Almond, Gabriel A. 1988. "The Return to the State" and Eric Nordlinger et al, "The Return to the State: Critiques", American Political Science Review 82(3):853-901
- Bayart, Jean-Francois 1993. The State in Africa
- Evans, Peter 1999. Embedded Autonomy
- Evans, Peter D. Ruschemeyer, and T. Skocpol 1985. Bringing the State Back In.
- Krasner, Stephen 1984. "Approaches to the State: Alternative Conceptions and Historical Dynamics." Comparative Politics 16(2):
- Mitchell, Timothy 1991. "The Limits of the State: Beyond Statist Approaches and Their Critics" American Political Science Review 85(1):79-96
- Migdal, Joel 1988. Strong Societies and Weak States
- Nordlinger, Eric 1981. On the Autonomy of the Democratic State
- O'Donnell, Guillermo 1973. Modernization and Bureaucratic Authoritarianism
- Scott, James C. 1998. Seeing Like a State
- Young, Crawford 1994. The African Colonial State in Comparative Perspective
Peasants and Politics
- Anderson, Leslie 1994. The Political Ecology of the Modern Peasant: Calculation and Community
- Bates, Robert H. 1983. Essays on the Political Economy of Rural Africa
- Colburn, Foster 1989. Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance
- Hyden, Goran 1980. Beyond Ujamaa in Tanzania: Underdevelopment and an Uncaptured Peasantry
- Popkin, Samuel 1979. The Rational Peasant
- Scott, James C. 1975. Moral Economy of the Peasant
- Scott, James C. 1985. Weapons of the Weak.
Social Movements and Revolutions
- Alvarez, Sonia E., E. Dagnino, and A. Escobar (eds.) 1998. Cultures of Politics/Politics of Cultures: Revisioning Latin American Social Movements.
- Gurr, Ted 1980. Why Men Rebel
- Hardin, R. 1980. Collective Action
- Inglehart, Ronald 1977. The Silent Revolution
- McAdam, D, S. Tarrow, and C. Tilly 2001. Dynamics of Contention
- Offe, Claus. and H. Wiesenthal 1980. "Two Logics of Collective Action", Political Power and Social Theory 1 (1):67-115
- Paige, Jeff 1975. Agrarian Revolutions
- Moore, Barrington Jr. 1966. Social Origins of Dictatorships and Democracies
- Olson, Mancur 1971. The Logic of Collective Action
- Skocpol, Theda. 1979. States and Revolutions
- Tarrow, Sidney. 1998. Power in Movement
- Tilly, Charles 1978. From Mobilization to Revolution
Civil Society
- Bratton, Michael 1989. "Beyond the State: Civil Society and Associational Life in Africa" World Politics 41(3):407-30.
- Calhoun, Craig (ed.) 1992. Habermas and the Public Sphere
- Cerny, Philip 1990. The Changing Architecture of Politics
- Cohen, Jeff and A. Arato. 1992. Civil Society and Political Theory.
- Hyden, Goran and M. Bratton (eds.) 1992. Governance and Politics in Africa
- Putnam, Robert 2001. Bowling Alone: The Decline of Social Capital in America
- Weber, Max The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
Institutions
- Anderson, Chris and C. Guillory 1997. "Political Institutions and Satisfaction with Democracy: A Cross-National Analysis of consensus and Majoritarian Systems", American Political Science Review 91(1):66-88
- Barry, Brian. and R. Hardin. 1982. Rational Man, Irrational Society?
- Boix, Charles 1999. "Setting the Rules of the Game: The Choice of Electoral Systems in Advanced Democracies", American Political Science Review 93(3):609-24.
- Collier, David and R. B. Collier 1990. Shaping the Political Arena
- Cox, Gary W. 1997. Making Votes Count: Strategic Coordination in the World's Electoral Systems
- Green, D.P and I. Shapiro 1994. Pathologies of Rational Choice Theory: A Critique of Applications in Political Science
- March, James C. and J.P. Olsen 1989. Rediscovering Institutions: The Organizational Basis of Politics
- Kitschelt, Herbert 1995. "Formation of Party Cleavages in Post-Communist Democracies: Theoretical Propositions", Party Politics 1(4):447-72
- LaPalombara, Joseph and M. Weiner (eds.) 1966. Political Parties and Political Development
- Mainwaring, Scott and T.R. Scully (eds.) 1995. Building Democratic Institutions: Party Systems in Latin America
- Powell, W.W. and DiMaggio, P.J. 1991. The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis.
- North Douglas 1990. Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance
- Powell, G. Bingham 2000. Elections as Instruments of Democracy: Majoritarian and Proportional Visions
- Rule, Wilma and J.F. Zimmerman (eds.) 1994. Electoral Systems in Comparative Perspective: Their Impact on Women and Minorities
- Taagepera, Rein and M.S. Shugart 1989. Seats and Votes: The Effects and Determinants of Electoral Systems
- Tsebelis, George 1990. Nested Games
- Weaver, R.K. and B.A. Rockman (eds.) 1993. Do Institutions Matter? Government Capabilities in the United States and Abroad
- Wiarda, Howard 1981. Corporatism and National Development in Latin America
Comparative Law and Politics
- Durkheim, Emile. Division of Labor in Society
- Ginsburg A. 2003. Judicial Review in New Democracies: Constitutional Courts in Asian Cases
- Helmke, Gretchen. 2002. "The Logic of Strategic Defection: Court-Executive Relations in Argentina Under Dictatorship and Democracy." American Political Science Review 96(2):291-303
- Hirschl, Ran 2004. Towards Juristocracy : The Origins and Consequences of the New Constitutionalism
- Hyden, Goran and Denis Venter (eds.) 2001. Constitution-Making and Democratization in Africa
- Jacob, Herbert et al. 1996. Courts, Law, and Politics in Comparative Perspective
- O'Donnell, Guillermo 2001. "Democracy, Law, and Comparative Politics" in Studies in Comparative International Development 36(1):7-36
- Boaventura de Sousa Santos 2002. Toward a New Legal Common Sense: Law, Globalization, and Emancipation
- Thompson, E.P. The Origins of the Black Act
- Sarat, Austin and Stuart Scheingold (eds.). The Worlds Cause Lawyers Make
- Shapiro, Martin 1981. Courts: A Comparative and Political Analysis
