Department
of History and Politics
Chernovtsy State University
Fall 1993
THE FATE OF DEMOCRACY IN THE 20TH CENTURY
This course is an introduction to some of the principal theories developed by
social scientists in order to understand the origins and development of democratic
political institutions in the twentieth century. Among the questions we will
consider are these: What is a democracy? Why have some democracies remained
stable, while others have collapsed into dictatorship and authoritarianism?
What are the prerequisites for a stable democracy? What is the likely future
of contemporary efforts to construct new democracies? Students will leave the
course with an enhanced understanding of these issues.
SCHEDULE OF LECTURES AND READINGS
Week 1: What is Democracy?
Reading: Philippe C. Schmitter and Terry Lynn Karl, "What Democracy Is...and
Is Not" in Larry Diamond and Marc F. Plattner, eds. The Global Resurgence of
Democracy (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993), pp. 33-52.
Week 2: The Paradoxes and Internal Tensions of Democracy
Reading: Larry Diamond, "Three Paradoxes of Democracy," in Diamond and Plattner,
pp. 95-107; Gabriel Almond, "Capitalism and Democracy," PS: Political Science
and Politics (September, 1991), pp. 467-473.
Week 3: The Social Conditions for Democracy
Reading: Robert A. Dahl, "Why Polyarchy Developed in Some Countries and Not
Others," in Democracy and Its Critics (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989),
pp. 244-264.
Week 4: Waves of Democratization?
Reading: Samuel P. Huntington, "Democracy's Third Wave" in Diamond and Plattner,
pp. 3-25.
Week 5: Democracy and Dictatorship in Interwar Western Europe
Reading: Gregory M. Luebbert, "Social Foundations of Political Order in Interwar
Europe," World Politics (Spring, 1987), pp. 449-478.
Week 6: The Effects of the Great Depression in Sweden and Britain
Reading: Peter Gourevitch, "Breaking with Orthodoxy: The Formation of the Mixed
Economy, 1929-1949" in Peter A. Gourevitch, Politics in Hard Times: Comparative
Responses to International Economic Crises (Ithaca: Cornell University Press,
1986), pp. 124-140.
Week 7: The Effects of the Great Depression in Germany, the United States, and
France
Reading: Gourevitch, pp. 140-166.
Week 8: The Stabilization of Western Democracy After World War II
Reading: Gourevitch, pp. 166-180.
Week 9: Recent Outcomes in Central and Eastern Europe
Reading: Daniel Chirot, "What Happened in Eastern Europe in 1989?" in Daniel
Chirot, ed. The Crisis of Leninism and the Decline of the Left: The Revolutions
of 1989 (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1991), pp. 3-32; Giuseppe
Di Palma, "Why Democracy Can Work in Eastern Europe" in Diamond and Plattner,
pp. 257- 267; Leszek Kolakowski, "The Postrevolutionary Hangover," in Diamond
and Plattner, pp. 268-272.
Week 10: The Collapse of the Soviet Union and Its Consequences
Reading: Timothy J. Colton, "Politics" in Timothy J. Colton and Robert Legvold,
eds. After the Soviet Union: From Empire to Nations (New York: W.W. Norton &
Company, 1992), pp. 17-48.
Week 11: Comparative Perspectives: The "East" Becomes the "South"?
Reading: Russell Bova, "Political Dynamics of the Post-Communist Transition:
A Comparative Perspective," World Politics 44 (October, 1991), pp. 113-138;
Adam Przeworksi, "The 'East' Becomes the 'South'? The 'Autumn of the People'
and the Future of Eastern Europe" in PS: Political Science & Politics (March,
1991), pp. 20- 24; Adam Przeworksi, "Conclusions," in Democracy and the Market:
Political and Economic Reforms in Eastern Europe and Latin America (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1991), pp. 188-191; Julio Maria Sanguinetti, "Present
at the Transition," in Diamond and Plattner, pp. 53-60.
Week 12: Liberal Democracy Triumphant, or a New World Disorder?
Reading: Marc F. Plattner, "The Democratic Moment" in Diamond and Plattner,
pp. 26-38; Ken Jowitt, "The New World Disorder" in Diamond and Plattner, pp.
247- 256.