| SES # | TOPICS | LECTURE NOTES |
|---|---|---|
| Week I: Introduction | ||
| 1 | Introduction and Review of Syllabus, Discuss Final Exam, Pick Recitation Time | |
| Week II: The State and Regime Type | ||
| 2 | What is Social Science? Social Science Research? Name Game | Notes (PDF) Slides (PDF) |
| 3 | What is a State and Why have One? What is a Democracy and Why have One? | Notes (PDF) Slides (PDF) |
| Week III: Social Structure | ||
| 4 | Lens 1: The Construction of Political Cleavages (Class) | Notes (PDF) Slides (PDF) |
| 5 | Lens 1 (cont.): The Construction of Political Cleavages (Race, Religion, and Ethnicity) | Notes (PDF) |
| Week IV: Culture and Institutions | ||
| 6 | Lens 2: Culture and Beliefs Discussion of Measurements of Culture in Articles | Notes (PDF) |
| 7 | Lens 3: Institutions Wrap up on Lenses | Notes (PDF) Slides (PDF) |
| Week V: Democratization | ||
| 8 | Why do Countries Become Democratic? | Notes (PDF) Slides (PDF) |
| 9 | Does Economic Development Lead to Democracy? Review of Lenses | Notes (PDF) Slides (PDF) |
| Week VI: Case Study on the Breakdown of Democracy: Inter-war Germany | ||
| 10 | Why did Democracy Break Down in Inter-war Germany? | Notes (PDF) Slides (PDF) |
| 11 | Class Debate: Why did the Weimar Republic Collapse? | Notes (PDF) |
| 12 | Wrap up on Weimar and Discussion of Federal Republic | |
| Week VII: Research Papers | ||
| 13-14 | Interim Presentations on Research Papers | |
| Week VIII: Political Institutions and Economic Growth | ||
| 15-16 | How do Political Institutions Affect Economic Growth? | Notes (PDF) Slides (PDF - 1.7 MB) |
| Week IX: Why is Mexico so Corrupt? | ||
| 17-18 | Corruption in Mexico General Causes of Corruption and Proposed Solutions | Notes (PDF) Slides (PDF) |
| Week X: Culture and Effective Governance | ||
| 19 | Lecture: Culture and Democracy | Notes (PDF) Slides (PDF) |
| 20 | Why is Northern Italy so Much, Well, Better? (Except for the Food) Breakout Group Presentations on Putnam's Argument | Slides (PDF) |
| Week XI: Class Presentations on Research Papers | ||
| 21 | Class Presentations on Research Papers | |
| Week XII: The U.S. in Comparative Perspective | ||
| 22-23 | What's Right and What's Wrong with the U.S. System? Breakout Groups on Redesigning the U.S. Constitution | |
| Week XIII: State-building, Ethnic Conflict, and "Democracy" in Iraq | ||
| 24 | Attempts to Impose Democracy by Foreign Powers | |
| 25 | Show and Tell on Iraq | Slides (PDF - 1.3 MB) 2005 World Map of Political Stability and No Violence by Country |
| Week XIV: State-building, Ethnic Conflict, and "Democracy" in Iraq (cont.) | ||
| 26 | Discussion of the Final Exam, Wrap-up of Semester, and Class Evaluations | |