डॉ. बी. आर. अम्बेडकर विश्‍वविद्यालय दिल्ली
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar University Delhi
Established by The Government of NCT of Delhi

Course Details:

1. Summary

The course is a Discipline Specific Core (DSC) for BA in Social Sciences (4^th semester) students. It introduces students to the field of comparative politics by familiarizing them with comparative methods and the interplay between formal and informal governance mechanisms. The course sheds light on the variability that characterizes the modern state in different settings, particularly the postcolonial setting and new citizenship claims. The diverse nature of political regimes and transitions will be focused upon. Contemporary forms of political mobilization such as populism will be discussed to enable students to make sense of the contemporary.

2. Objectives:

The overall objective of this course is to:

1. 1. Introduce students to the basic concepts, principles, and methods of comparative politics

Essential Readings:

• Lijphart, Arend (1971). "Comparative Politics and the Comparative Method". American Political Science Review 65 (3): 682–693.
• Hague, Rod & Martin Harrop. (2013). Comparative Government and Politics - An Introduction. (9th ed.). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan [Chapter- “The Comparative Approach”].

• Chilcote, H Ronald. (1989). 'Alternative Approaches to Comparative Politics' in Howard J.Wiarda (ed.), New Directions in Comparative Politics, Westview Press, Boulder and London.
• Chandhoke, Neera (1996), “The Limits of Comparative Political Analysis”, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 31, No. 4, January 27, pp. PE2-PE8.
• Apter, David E. “Comparative Politics, Old and New” in Robert E. Goodin and Hans Klingeman.eds. (1996). A New Handbook of Political Science. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
• Chilcote, Ronald H. (1994). Theories of Comparative Politics: The search for a Paradigm Reconsidered, Oxford: Westview Press.
• Chilcote,  Ronald  H.  (2000).  “Institutional  Frameworks:  State  and  System”,

Comparative Inquiry in Politics and Political Economy, Westview Press.

• Barkey, Karen and Sunita Parikh (1991). “Comparative Perspectives on the State”,

Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 17.

• Hague et al. (2004). Comparative Government and Politics, Palgrave Macmillan. [Chapter- “The State in a global context”].
• Levy, Jonah d. (2015). “State Transformations in Comparative Perspective” in Leibfried, Stephan, and others (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Transformations of the State, Oxford Academic.
• Chowdhury, Sujit (2013). ‘How to Do Comparative Constitutional Law in India’ in Khilnani, Sunil, Vikram Raghavan, and Arun K. Thiruvengadam (eds), Comparative Constitutionalism in South Asia, Oxford Academic.
• Edward Weisband, Courtney I P Thomas (2015). “Colonialist and Postcolonial Political Culture” in Political Culture and the Making of Modern Nation-States, Routledge.
• Jeff Haynes (2003). “Tracing connections between comparative politics and globalization”, Third World Quarterly, 24:6, 1029-1047.
• Lange, Matthew (2015). “States in the Global South: Transformations, Trends, Diversity” in The Oxford Handbook of Transformations of the State.
• Vink, Maarten (2017). ‘Comparing Citizenship Regimes’ in Shachar, Ayelet, and others (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Citizenship, Oxford Academic.
• Chung, Erin Aeran (2017). ‘Citizenship in Non-Western contexts’ in Shachar, Ayelet, and others (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Citizenship, Oxford Academic.
• Pateman, Carole (1971). “Political Culture, Political Structure, and Political Change”,

British Journal of Political Science, Vol.1, No.3.

• Easton, D., Tawney, R.H., Weiner, M., Lipsitz, L. (1970). ‘Political Culture and Political Systems’. in Understanding Society. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-15392-3_27
• Douglas V. Verney, The Analysis of Political Systems, the Free Press of Glencoe, Inc. New York, 1959.
• Hague,  R.,  Harrop,  (2004).  -  “Constitutions  and  the  Legal  framework”,  in

Comparative Government and Politics. Palgrave, London.

• Hague, R., Harrop, (2004). “Political Executive”, in Comparative Government and Politics. Palgrave, London.
• Hague, R., Harrop, (2004). “Federal, Unitary and Local Government” in Comparative Government and Politics. Palgrave, London.
• Linz, Juan (1994). “Presidential or parliamentary democracy: Does it make a difference?” In The failure of presidential democracy: Comparative perspectives. Vol. 1, edited by Juan J. Linz and Arturo Valenzuela: Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
• Duchacek, I.D. Comparative Federalism: The Territorial Dimension of Politics, Holt, Rinechart and Winston., New York, 1970
• Heywood, Andrew (2019). Politics, Red Globe Press. [Chapter 5- “Regimes of the Modern World”]
• Alan Siaroff (2013). Comparing Political Regimes: A Thematic Introduction to Comparative Politics, University of Toronto Press. [Select Chapters]
• Lim, Timothy (2016). – “What makes a Democracy: Explaining the Breakdown of Authoritarian Rule” in Doing Comparative Politics: An Introduction to Approaches and Issues, Lynn Rienner.
• Gandhi, J. (2008). “The World of Dictatorial Institutions” in Political institutions under dictatorship. New York: Cambridge University Press.
• Inglehart, Ronald and Christian Welzel (2003). “Political Culture and Democracy”,

Comparative Politics, Vol.36, No.1.

• Collier D, Levitsky S. (1997). “Democracy with Adjectives: Conceptual Innovation in Comparative Research”, World Politics. 49(3):430-451.
• Boix, Carles, and Susan C. Stokes (eds) (2009). The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Politics, Oxford Academic. [Chapter-15 ‘Democracy and Civic Culture’ and Chapter-16 ‘’Dictatorship: Analytical Approaches’].
• Heywood, Andrew (2019). “Parties and Party Systems” in Politics, Red Globe Press.
• Heywood, Andrew (2019). “Representation, Elections, and Voting” in Politics, Red Globe Press.
• Morse, Jordan et.al (2013). “Varieties of Clientelism: Machine Politics during Elections”, American Journal of Political Science, Vol. 58, Issue 2.