5/5/2023DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE

PO521, 2012Tues & Thurs, 3:30-5:00 pm

CAS B06B

John Gerring232 Bay State Road, rm 300jgerring@bu.edu; 353-2756

Office hoursThursday 1:30-3:30, 5-6:00 or by appointment

Why are some countries well-governed while others are poorly governed? This is, arguably, the central question of political science. Certainly, it is a central question for policymakers. And yet, it is one that our discipline does not have a clear answer to. Or perhaps it would be more correct to say that the discipline has many answers to this question, with no clear consensus on their relative importance.

We begin with the concept of governance, along with various approaches to measurement. The rest of the semester is devoted to factors or mechanisms that are commonly thought to affect the quality of governance. These fall into several categories: (a) incidental, (b) socioeconomic, (c) sociological, and (d) political. Our emphasis will be on the latter.

Our attention will also be focused primarily at the national level, though quite obviously the aggregate quality of governance in a country is a product of its governance at multiple levels, and some attention will be devoted to governance at regional and local levels.

We will not discuss international influences on the quality of governance, e.g., war, colonialism, trade, aid, international institutions. Nor will we pay much attention to foreign policy as an output. The course is about domestic sources of governance and domestic governance outcomes.

REQUIREMENTS. The course is open to advanced undergraduate and graduate students. Class size is limited so as to preserve a seminar format. There are no pre-requisites. However, it will be a challenging course for those without some background in comparative politics. You should also be aware that this class will require a good deal of time and effort on your part. If you are unable to make this commitment you may be happier in a different course.

PROTOCOL. Most class meetings will proceed roughly as follows. I will offer a brief overview/lecture of the subject at hand. I will then open up discussion, building on the lecture and the readings assigned for that day.

Please arrive on time. Do not read, sleep, or chat with your neighbors. Be respectful of others in your comments. Do not leave until class is dismissed. Use the locution “like” only when comparing things – not, like, when pausing in the middle of a sentence.

ACADEMIC CONDUCT. Plagiarism or cheating of any kind (e.g., consulting notes during a closed-book exam) is strictly forbidden. Please be aware of the following Boston University policy: “All students are responsible for having read the Boston University statement on plagiarism, which is available in the Academic Conduct Code. Students are advised that the penalty for cheating on examinations or for plagiarism may be ‘…expulsion from the program or the University or such other penalty as may be recommended by the Committee on Student Academic Conduct, subject to approval by the dean.’”

ABSENCES, EXTENSIONS. Students are expected to take exams and complete written work at their scheduled times. No excused absences or extensions will be given without documentation of medical, religious or personal reasons, or official Boston University business. If you will be missing additional classes for religious reasons you must inform me of these dates during the first week of class; otherwise, I cannot excuse your absence.

GRADES. Grades will be based on three components, weighted equally: (a) class participation; (b) in-class pop quizzes (to ensure that folks are doing the reading carefully); (c) a paper; and (d) a final exam.

PAPER. You will write one 10-page paper for the course. I am not so concerned with the number of pages in the paper, so do not strain to alter formatting or font. The topic will be chosen from one of the subjects listed below in the syllabus.

Nota bene: there must be an argument (a thesis) to your paper; do not simply enumerate who said what. You needn’t integrate all the material raised in the various readings, much less the wealth of material on the chosen subject. Rather, your goal should be to identify a particularly interesting issue applicable to that area of governance. One possible point of focus would be a salient debate in the field. How do you understand this debate? (What lies behind it? Can you find a way to reconcile the different perspectives?)

For general advice on essay writing, please consult the document that I have posted on my web page: www.bu.edu/polisci/people/faculty/gerring/ Further details will be discussed in class.

PARTICIPATION. I expect active participation from all students in every session. I do not wish to lecture extensively, though I will do a bit of lecturing every week (more or less depending upon the topic). Nor do I intend to act as quiz-master, in the fashion of Harvard Law courses – though I will play this role if necessary. You must participate regularly and intelligently in order to get a top grade in this class. Shyness, or unfamiliarity with the English language, is no excuse. This is a talking profession. Yadayadayada.

More important, do not think of participation simply as a matter of “saying something.” There are insightful comments and questions, and there is irrelevant drivel. You know what I’m getting at. Be especially judicious in the use of anecdotes drawn from your personal life. We all have stories, but these are not always relevant to the subject matter. (Granted, some students may have lived in the developing world or worked for an organization engaged in the developing world. Stories drawn from these contexts may be very relevant.)

Let me say a word about my own responses to your comments. You should realize that any professor who incorporates discussion into classroom activity is in

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a somewhat awkward position. I want to encourage open and frank discussion, but I must also be sure to correct any misperceptions that arise from such discussion. If a comment is factually or logically wrong it is my duty to call attention to this, of no one else does. The purpose is not to embarrass the speaker but simply to clarify the point – for that person and for everyone else, many of whom may share the confusion. Making mistakes is part of the learning experience. If you do not allow yourself to make mistakes you are preventing yourself from learning. I make mistakes all the time. There is nothing wrong with a wrong answer. Oftentimes, the most productive sort of answer or question is one that reveals what is not clear in people’s minds. It is problematic, however, if your answer reveals that you have not done the assigned reading or that you have not been paying attention to previous class discussions.

Please be attentive to standard rules of decorum: avoid dogmatism, respect others’ views, and try to move class discussion forward (pay attention to what others say and respond to the previous point). We will observe the 1-finger/2-finger rule. When you raise two fingers it means that your comment follows directly upon the preceding point.

BASIC QUESTIONS. The substantive question of this course is how to achieve good governance. This underlies all of the readings assigned (or recommended) for the semester.

For each class meeting, you should be prepared to discuss the questions raised in the syllabus (under the subject heading for that day). In addition, think about the particular readings that have been assigned. Are you convinced by the author’s perspective on the topic? Do you spot potential conflicts in the evidence? Do different theories conflict? Finally, you should think about the methodological angles. How might we test these theories (or your pet theory)? How can we know the truth about good governance?

FINAL EXAM. A final, end-of-semester exam will cover the entire material of the course – assigned readings as well as class lecture/discussion. The questions on the final are likely to be drawn from the questions listed under each class meeting. So, if you feel comfortable with these you should be in good shape for the exam.

In preparation for the final exam, I suggest that you take good notes during the course of the semester, get together with your classmates to quiz each other and otherwise review the material, and clarify any points that remain unclear. Integrating the material from the course is important; don’t imagine that you can think through answers on the fly. That said, do not feel that you need to remember the names of all the authors and the titles of all the articles and books that we are reading. Your focus should be on the arguments and evidence, not who said what.

READING. * = Assigned readings drawn from books to be purchased or articles available on the www. ** = Assigned readings posted on the Blackboard web site. All other readings are optional.

There is a lot of reading for this class. I have tried to identify articles, rather than books, because the former are usually accessible on the web and offer a more condensed form of presentation. Still, the articles are densely packed and therefore will take some time to digest.

Make sure you allot sufficient time to do the reading prior to class. This is essential in order to make the class work, for you and for me. If you haven’t done

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the reading ahead of time you will not be able to participate in class discussion and it will be difficult for you to follow my mini-lectures. Most important, you won’t be integrating the material in a sequential fashion.

In order to encourage everyone to do the reading (and reward those who do), there will be regular pop quizzes. Typically, I flip a coin at the beginning of class; if it turns up heads we have a quiz on the reading assigned for that day and/or on points touched upon in the previous class. Grading rules: a missed quiz constitutes an F for that quiz. The worst quiz grade over the course of the semester is automatically dropped, so you have one free pass.

Note that you need not read every sentence and footnote in a reading assignment. Read strategically. If you don’t know how to do this already, I hope that you will learn over the course of the semester. Here are some hints: Think about the role of the reading in the context of the course: what’s most important? What is the author’s main argument(s)? How strong is the evidence? Good reading is not just a matter of memorizing arguments but also a matter of analysis. I want you to read critically, to be active consumers of social science. How convinced are you of the argument? Have the counter-arguments been adequately addressed? How else might one approach this subject matter? It is more important to have thought about the material than to have read every sentence in an assignment.

ADDITIONAL READING. All unmarked readings (those without an asterisk) listed below are recommended, i.e., optional. Many of these readings may be available on the web. For further suggestions, speak with me.

For daily news of the world, try the New York Times (available on the web) or the BBC World News, available on TV, radio, or on-line. For the on-line version of the NYT, make sure you click on “International News” and then on “All Headlines” or on the region of the world that you are most interested in learning about. Likewise, when navigating the BBC on the web click through to some particular region of the world to get all available stories.

For weekly news of the world, I suggest subscribing to The Economist if you can afford it (there may be student specials). It has a distinct point of view but is perhaps the only weekly with extensive coverage of the world. The prose is engaging and the articles are short and to the point. You may also want to sign up for e-newsletters from the Bank: http://newsletters.worldbank.org.

TO PURCHASE.Acemoglu, Daron; James A. Robinson. 2012. Why Nations Fail: The Origins of

Power, Prosperity, and Poverty. Crown.Gerring, John, Strom Thacker. 2008. A Centripetal Theory of Democratic

Governance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

9/4 Governance: Definition and MeasurementQuestions: What is governance? Can one measure it?Keefer, Philip. 2009. “Governance.” In Todd Landman, Neil Robinson (eds), The

Sage Handbook of Comparative Politics (Sage).Rothstein, Bo; Jan Teorell. 2008. “What is Quality of Government?: A Theory of

Impartial Political Institutions.” Governance 21, 165-90.

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9/6 LeadershipQuestions: What is leadership? Does it matter? Can features of leadership be

measured and generalized, or is it inevitably contextual, ineffable? Can we theorize about the impact of leaders, or is this a “residual” explanation?

Ahlquist, John; Margaret Levi. 2011. “Leadership: What It Means, What It Does, and What We Want to Know About It.” Annual Review of Political Science 14.

*Hargrove, Erwin C. 2004. “History, Political Science, and the Study of Leadership.” Polity 36:4 (July) 579-93. [x]

Humphreys, Macartan; William A. Masters; Martin E. Sandbu. 2006. “The Role of Leaders in Democratic Deliberations: Results from a Field Experiment in Sao Tome and Principe.” World Politics 58 (July) 583-622.

*Jones, Benjamin F.; Benjamin A. Olken. 2005. “Do Leaders Matter? National Leadership and Growth since World War II.” Quarterly Journal of Economics (August) 835-64.

9/11 Geographic FactorsQuestions: To what extent does geography determine the quality of governance?

Which aspects of geography are most important?Fearon, James D.; David D. Laitin. 2003. “Ethnicity, Insurgency, and Civil War.”

American Political Science Review 97, 75-90.Olsson, Ola. 2003. “Geography and Institutions: A Review of Plausible and

Implausible Linkages.” Working Papers in Economics No. 106.*Petersen, Michael Bang; Svend-Erik Skaaning. 2010. “Ultimate Causes of State

Formation: The Significance of Biogeography, Diffusion, and Neolithic Revolutions.” Historical Social Research 35:3, 200-26.

Resource Curse:Questions: Is the discovery of mineral wealth a blessing or a curse? How does it

impact the quality of governance?*Bulte, Erwin H.; Richard Damania; Robert T. Deacon. 2005. “Resource Intensity,

Institutions, and Development.” World Development 33:7 (July) 1029-44.Luong, Pauline Jones; Erika Weinthal. 2006. “Rethinking the Resource Curse:

Ownership Structure, Institutional Capacity, and Domestic Constraints.” Annual Review of Political Science 9, 241-63.

Ross, Michael L. 2012. The Oil Curse: How Petroleum Wealth Shapes the Development of Nations. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

van der Ploeg, Frederick. 2011. “Natural Resources: Curse or Blessing?” Journal of Economic Literature (May) 49:2, 366-420.

9/13 Economic FactorsModernization (Economic development, Urbanization, Education):Questions: What is modernization theory? Is it a specific causal theory or a diffuse

description of patterns of development? How should modernization be measured?Black, Cyril Edwin. 1966. The Dynamics of Modernization. New York:

HarperCollins.**Lerner, Daniel. 1958. The Passing of Traditional Society: Modernizing the Middle

East. Glencoe, IL: Free Press. [pp. 19-107]Revenue:Questions: Is the quality of governance affected by the way a state raises its

revenue?

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*Bates, Robert H.; Da-Hsiang Donald Lien. 1985. “A Note on Taxation, Development, and Representative Government.” Politics and Society 14:1, 53-70.

9/18 (In)EqualityQuestions: What causes inequality and what does inequality cause? What does it

mean to regard inequality as the cause of good/bad governance (given that it cannot be directly manipulated)?

Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail: www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Xd_zkMEgkI**Glaeser, Edward L. 2006. “Inequality.” In Barry Weingast & Donald Wittman

(eds.), Oxford Handbook of Political Economy (Oxford: Oxford University Press) 624-41.

*Sokoloff, Kenneth L.; Stanley L. Engerman. 2000. “History Lessons: Institutions, Factor Endowments, and Paths of Development in the New World.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 14:3 (Summer) 217-32.

Urban Bias:Questions: How different are urban and rural dwellers (in terms of their interests

and values)? What is urban bias? Is it pervasive? Can it be overcome?Bezemer, Dirk; Derek Headey. 2008. “Agriculture, Development, and Urban Bias.”

World Development 36:8 (August) 1342-64.Lipton, Michael. 1977. Why Poor People Stay Poor: Urban Bias in World

Development. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

9/20 State formation, Statebuilding, Rule of LawQuestions: What does it mean for a state to form or to build? How does rule of law

become established? Are there generic processes at work? What are the causal factors? Is it meaningful to conceptualize the state as a unitary entity? Is statebuilding tied to the rule of law?

Bates, Robert H. 2008. “State Failure.” Annual Review of Political Science 11, 1-12.Bockstette, Valerie, Areendam Chanda, and Louis Putterman. 2002. “States and

Markets: The Advantage of an Early Start.” Journal of Economic Growth 7:4 (December) 347-369.

Evans, Peter B.; Dietrich Rueschemeyer; Theda Skocpol (eds). 1985. Bringing the State Back In. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Evans, Peter B.; James Rauch. 1999. “Bureaucracy and Growth: A Cross-National Analysis of the Effects of ‘Weberian’ State Structures on Economic Growth.” American Sociological Review 64:5 (October) 748-65. [*]

**Fukuyama, Francis. 2004. State-Building: Governance and World Order in the 21st Century. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. [ch 1] [x]

Haggard, Stephan; Andrew MacIntyre; Lydia Tiede. 2008. “The Rule of Law and Economic Development.” Annual Review of Political Science 11, 205-34.

Huntington, Samuel P. 1968. Political Order in Changing Societies. New Haven: Yale University Press.

**Lange, Matthew. 2005. “The Rule of Law and Development: A Weberian Framework of States and State-Society Relations.” In Matthew Lange & Dietrich Rueschemeyer (eds), States and Development: Historical Antecedents of Stagnation and Advance (London: Palgrave/Macmillan) 48-66. [x]

Lange, Matthew, Dietrich Rueschemeyer (eds). 2005. States and Development: Historical Antecedents of Stagnation and Advance. London: Palgrave/Macmillan.

Rotberg, Robert I. 2003. “Failed States, Collapsed States, Weak States: Causes and Consequences.” In State Failure and State Weakness in a Time of Terror

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(Washington: Brookings) ch 1.Spruyt, Hendrick. 2002. “The Origins, Development, and Possible Decline of the

Modern State.” Annual Review of Political Science 5, 127-49.

9/25 Democracy as an outcomeQuestions: What is democracy and how might it be measured? What are the causes

of democracy? Are there different causes for democratization and democratic breakdown?

Freedom in the World web site*Coppedge, Michael. 2012. Democratization and Research Methods. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press. [ch 9]Coppedge, Michael; John Gerring, Staffan Lindberg. 2012. “Varieties of Democracy

(V-Dem): Project Description.” [v-dem.net]

9/27 Democracy as a causeQuestions: Are democracies better governed than autocracies?Carbone, Giovanni. 2009. “The Consequences of Democratization.” Journal of

Democracy 20:2 (April) 123-37.*Gerring, John; Philip Bond; William Barndt; Carola Moreno. 2005. “Democracy and

Growth: A Historical Perspective.” World Politics 57:3 (April) 323-64.*Mulligan, Casey; Ricard Gil; Xavier Sala-i-Martin. 2004. “Do Democracies Have

Different Public Policies than Nondemocracies?” Journal of Economic Perspectives 18:1 (Winter) 51-74.

Pempel, T.J. 2002. “Labor Exclusion and Privatized Welfare: Two Keys to Asian Capitalist Development.” In Evelyne Huber (ed), Models of Capitalism: Two Keys to Asian Capitalist Development (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press) 277-300.

Plattner, Marc F. 2004. “A Skeptical Afterword.” Journal of Democracy 15:4 (October) 106-10.

Ross, Michael. 2006. “Is Democracy Good for the Poor?” American Journal of Political Science 50:4 (October) 860-74.

Wintrobe, Ronald. “Rent Seeking and Redistribution under Democracy versus Dictatorship.” In Democracy Sourcebook, pp. 427-35.

10/2 Executives: Parliamentary/PresidentialQuestions: What does it mean for an executive to be parliamentary, presidential,

or semi-presidential? Why are these systems chosen? What consequences for governance might they have?

Cheibub, Jose Antonio. 2006. Presidentialism, Parliamentarism, and Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

*Gerring, John; Strom C. Thacker; Carola Moreno. 2009. “Are Parliamentary Systems Better?” Comparative Political Studies 42:3 (March) 327-59.

Linz, Juan. 1990. “The Perils of Presidentialism.” Journal of Democracy 1, 51-69.**Shugart, Matthew Soberg, Stephan Haggard. 2001. “Institutions and Public

Policy in Presidential Systems.” In Stephan Haggard and Mathew D. McCubbins (eds), Presidents, Parliaments, and Policy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

Stepan, Alfred, Cindy Skach. 1993. “Constitutional Frameworks and Democratic Consolidation: Parliamentarianism versus Presidentialism.” World Politics 46, 1-22.

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10/4 Electoral SystemsQuestions: What is an electoral system? Why are different systems chosen? What

are their consequences for governance?*Reynolds, Andrew; Ben Reilly. 2005. New International Idea Handbook of

Electoral System Design. IDEA. [chs 2-3; skim the country case studies] www.anfrel.org/resources/others/IDEA/ESD_full_with%20final%20changes%20inserted.pdf

Scheiner, Ethan. 2008. “Does Electoral Reform Work? Electoral System Lessons from Reforms of the 1990s.” Annual Review of Political Science 11, 161-81.

10/9 No class (BU Monday)

10/11

Political Parties and Electoral Competition

Political parties…Questions: What is a political party? Is democracy possible without political

parties? What causes parties to be “strong” or “weak”? Does it matter?Schattschneider, E.E. 1942. Party Government. New York: Rinehart.Schattschneider, E.E. 1960. The Semi-Sovereign People. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.*Stokes, Susan. 1999. “Political Parties and Democracy.” Annual Review of Political Science 2, 243-67.Electoral competition…Questions: What is electoral competition and how might it be measured? Does it

capture essential elements of democracy? Does the size of the selectorate explain the quality of governance?

*Bueno de Mesquita, Bruce, James D. Morrow, Randolph Siverson, and Alastair Smith. 2001. “Political Competition and Economic Growth.” Journal of Democracy 12:1 (January).

Schumpeter, Joseph. Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy. http://sergioberumen.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/schumpeter-joseph-a-capitalism-socialism-and-democracy.pdf

10/16

Accountability

Questions: What is accountability and how might it be measured? What is the difference between vertical and horizontal accountability?

Deininger, Klaus; Paul Mpuga. 2005. “Does Greater Accountability Improve the Quality of Public Service Delivery? Evidence from Uganda.” World Development 33:1 (January) 171-91.

**Fearon, James D. 1999. “Electoral Accountability and the Control of Politicians: Selecting Good Types versus Sanctioning Poor Performance.” In Adam Przeworski, Susan Stokes, and Bernard Manin (eds), Democracy, Accountability, and Representation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

*O’Donnell, Guillermo. 1998. “Horizontal Accountability in New Democracies.” Journal of Democracy 9:3, 112-26.

Samuels, David; Timothy Hellwig. 2007. “Electoral Accountability and the Variety

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of Democratic Regimes.” British Journal of Political Science 37, 1-26.Schedler, Andreas. 1999. “Conceptualizing Accountability.” In Andreas Schedler,

Larry Diamond, and Marc F. Plattner (eds), The Self-Restraining State: Power and Accountability in New Democracies (Boulder: Lynne Rienner).

10/18

Responsiveness, Transparency

Responsiveness…Questions: What makes a government responsive to public opinion? How does

responsiveness differ from accountability? How does the politician’s role as “delegate” differ from the politician’s role as “trustee”? Does responsiveness improve, or damage, the quality of governance?

Besley, Timothy; R. Burgess. 2002. “The Political Economy of Government Responsiveness: Theory and Evidence from India.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 117:4, 1415-51.

*Blinder, Alan S. 1997. “Is Government Too Political?” Foreign Affairs 76:6 (November/December) 115-26.

Canes-Wrone, B.; Michael Herron; Ken Shotts. 2001. “Leadership and Pandering: A Theory of Executive Policymaking.” American Journal of Political Science 45:3, 532-50.

Huber, John D. and G. Bingham Powell. 1994. “Congruence between Citizens and Policymakers in Two Visions of Liberal Democracy.” World Politics 46 (April) 291-326.

Jacobs, Lawrence R.; Robert Y. Shapiro. 2000. Politicians Don’t Pander: Political Manipulation and the Loss of Democratic Responsiveness. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

*Powell, G. Bingham. 2004. “The Chain of Responsiveness.” Journal of Democracy 15:4 (October) 91-105.

Stokes, Susan. 2001. Mandates and Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Transparency…Questions: How does transparency affect responsiveness, accountability, and

deliberation?Chambers, Simone. 2004. “Behind Closed Doors: Publicity, Secrecy, and the

Quality of Deliberation.” Journal of Political Philosophy 12:4, 389-410.Florini, Ann. 1998. “The End of Secrecy.” Foreign Policy 111 (Summer) 50-63.Fox, J. 2007. “Government Transparency and Policymaking.” Public Choice 131, 23-

44.Fung, Archon; Mary Graham; David Weil. 2007. Full Disclosure: The Perils and

Promise of Transparency. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Grigorescu, Alexandru. 2003. “International Organizations and Government

Transparency: Linking the International and Domestic Realms.” International Studies Quarterly 47:4 (December) 643-67.

Humphreys, Macartan; Jeremy Weinstein. In process. “Parliamentary Accountability in Uganda.” [Field experiment in which score cards for MPs are made public and responses among MPs and the public are observed.]

Jenkins, Rob; Anne Marie Goetz. 1999. “Accounts and Accountability: Theoretical Implications of the Right-to-information Movement in India.” Third World Quarterly 20:3, 603-22.

*Kolstad, Ivar; Arne Wiig. 2009. “Is Transparency the Key to Reducing Corruption in Resource-Rich Countries?” World Development 37:3 (March) 521-32.

Light, Paul. 1985. Artful Work: The Politics of Social Security Reform. New York:

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Random House.Prat, A. 2005. “The Wrong Kind of Transparency.” American Economic Review

95:3, 862-77.Stasavage, David. 2007. “Polarization and Publicity: Rethinking the Benefits of

Deliberative Democracy,” Journal of Politics 69, 59-72.Stiglitz, Joseph E. 2002. “Information and the Change in the Paradigm in

Economics.” American Economic Review 92:3, 460-501.

10/23

Deliberation, Learning

Deliberation:Questions: What is deliberation/deliberative democracy? Can it be measured? Are

some institutions, and some polities, more deliberative than others?Bächtiger, André (ed). 2005. Acta Politica 40:1-2. Special issue: “Empirical

Approaches to Deliberative Democracy.”Bächtiger, André (ed). 2007. Swiss Journal of Political Science 13:4. Special issue:

“Deliberative Democracy.”Barabas, Jason. 2004. “How Deliberation Affects Policy Opinions.” American

Political Science Review 98:4, 1-16.*Dryzek, John S. 2009. “Democratization as Deliberative Capacity Building.”

Comparative Political Studies 42:11, 1379-1402.Humphreys, Macartan; William A. Masters; Martin E. Sandbu. 2006. “The Role of

Leaders in Democratic Deliberations: Results from a Field Experiment in Sao Tome and Principe.” World Politics 58 (July) 583-622.

Mutz, Diana C. 2008. “Is Deliberative Democracy a Falsifiable Theory?” Annual Review of Political Science 11, 521-38.

*Ryfe, David M. 2005. “Does Deliberative Democracy Work?” Annual Review of Political Science 8, 49-71.

Sanders, Lynn M. 1997. “Against Deliberation.” Political Theory 25:3, 347-76.Steiner, Jurg, Andre Bachtiger, Markus Sporndli, Marco R. Steenbergen. 2004.

Deliberative Politics in Action: Analysing Parliamentary Discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Thompson, Dennis F. 2008. “Deliberative Democratic Theory and Empirical Political Science.” Annual Review of Political Science 11, 497-520.

Wisdom of Crowds:Questions: Do groups make better decisions than individuals? Do large groups

make better decisions than small groups?Blinder, Alan S.; John Morgan. 2005. “Are Two Heads Better Than One? Monetary

Policy by Committee.” Journal of Money, Credit and Banking 37:5.Lombardelli, Clare; James Proudman; James Talbot. 2005. “Committees versus

Individuals: An Experimental Analysis of Monetary Policy Decision Making,” International Journal of Central Banking (May).

Surowiecki, James. 2004. The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies, and Nations. New York: Doubleday.

Learning:Questions: What is “learning”? How can it be measured? Do certain institutions

encourage it?Mantzavinos, C.; Douglass C. North; Syed Shariq. 2004. “Learning, Institutions,

and Economic Performance.” Perspectives on Politics 2:1, 75-84.Meseguer, Covadonga. 2005. “Policy Learning, Policy Diffusion, and the Making of

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a New Order.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 598 (March) 67-82.

Preuss, Ulrich K. 2006. “The Significance of Cognitive and Moral Learning for Democratic Institutions.” In Ian Shapiro; Shephen Skowronek; Galvin Daniel (eds), Rethinking Political Institutions: The Art of the State (New York: New York University Press) 303-21.

10/25

Diversity

Questions: Does diversity impair governance?Alesina, Alberto; Edward Glaeser. 2004. Fighting Poverty in the US and Europe: A

World of Difference. Oxford: Oxford University Press.*Alesina, Alberto; Reza Baqir; William Easterly. 1999. “Public Goods and Ethnic

Divisions.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 114:4, 1243-84.*Lieberman, Evan. 2007. “Ethnic Politics, Risk, and Policy-Making: A Cross-

National Statistical Analysis of Government Responses to HIV/AIDS.” Comparative Political Studies 40:12 (December).

Tsai, Lily Lee. 2007. “Solidary Groups, Informal Accountability, and Local Public Goods Provision in Rural China.” American Political Science Review 101:2 (May) 355-72.

10/30

Culture

Questions: What is culture (in the context of governance)? How might cultural explanations be enlisted to explain governance outcomes?

Guiso, Luigi; Paola Sapienza; Luigi Zingales. 2006. “Does Culture Affect Economic Outcomes?” Journal of Economic Perspectives 20:2 (Spring) 23-48.

Inglehart, Ronald. 2000. “Culture and Democracy.” In Harrison, Huntington (ch 7).*Lipset, Seymour Martin; Gabriel Salman Lenz. 2000. “Corruption, Culture, and

Markets.” In Harrison, Huntington (ch 9).Harrison, Lawrence E.; Samuel P. Huntington (eds). 2000. Culture Matters: How

Values Shape Human Progress. New York: Basic Books.*Tabellini, Guido. 2005. “Culture and Institutions: Economic Development in the

Regions of Europe.” Ms.

11/1 Size (population)Questions: Does the size of a polity or district affect the quality of governance?Alesina, Alberto and Enrico Spolaore. 1997. “On the Number and Size of Nations.”

Quarterly Journal of Economics 112, 1027-56.Alesina, Alberto and Enrico Spolaore. 2003. The Size of Nations. MIT Press.Dahl, Robert A.; Edward Tufte. 1973. Size and Democracy. Stanford: Stanford

University Press.*Easterly, William; Aart Kraay. 2000. “Small States, Small Problems? Income,

Growth, and Volatility in Small States” World Development 28:11 (November) 2013-27.

*Gerring, John; Dominic Zarecki. 2012. “Size and Democracy Revisited.” [downloadable from Gerring’s web site]

Streeten, Paul. 1993. “The Special Problems of Small Countries.” World Development 21:2, 197-202.

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11/6 RepresentationQuestions: What does representation mean? What are the different sorts of

constituent/representative relationships? What impact does descriptive representation have on governance?

Bird, Karen. 2003. “The Political Representation of Women and Ethnic Minorities in Established Democracies: A Framework for Comparative Research.” Unpublished paper.

*Chattapadhyay, Raghabendra; Esther Duflo. 2004. “Women as Policy Makers: Evidence from a Randomized Policy Experiment in India.” Econometrica 72:5, 1409-43.

*Powell, G. Bingham, Jr. 2004. “Political Representation in Comparative Politics.” Annual Review of Political Science 7, 273-96.

Powell, G. Bingham. 2000. Elections as Instruments of Democracy: Majoritarian and Proportional Visions. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Wangnerud, Lena. 2005. “Women in Parliaments: Descriptive and Substantive Representation.” Annual Review of Political Science 12, 51-69.

11/8 Social capital, Civil societyQuestions: What is social capital? How might it matter for governance?*Boix, Carles; Daniel N. Posner. 1998. “Social Capital: Its Origins and Effects on

Governmental Performance.” British Journal of Political Science 28:4 (October) 686-93.

Easterly, William; Jozef Ritzen; Michael Woolcock. 2006. “Social Cohesion, Institutions, and Growth.” Economics and Politics 18:2 (July) 103-20.

Putnam, Robert D. et al. 1983. “Explaining Institutional Success: The Case of Italian Regional Government.” American Political Science Review 77:1 (March) 55-74.

*Roy, Indrajit. 2008. “Civil Society and Good Governance: (Re-)Conceptualizing the Interface.” World Development 36:4 (April) 677-705.

11/11

First draft of paper due (by email attachment)

11/13

Trust, Legitimacy

Questions: How can we measure trust and legitimacy? Why do some polities enjoy greater trust than others? Do these attitudes matter for governance?

Beetham, David. 1991. The Legitimation of Power. Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan.Brady, A.-M. 2009. “Mass Persuasion as a Means of Legitimation: China’s Popular

Authoritarianism.” American Behavioral Scientist 53, 434-57.*Gilley, Bruce. 2006. “The Determinants of State Legitimacy: Results for 72

Countries.” International Political Science Review 27:1, 47-71.Gilley, Bruce. 2006. “Meaning and Measure of State Legitimacy: Results for 72

Countries.” European Journal of Political Research 45, 499-525.*Freitag, Markus; Marc Buhlmann. 2009. “Crafting Trust: The Role of Political

Institutions in a Comparative Perspective.” Comparative Political Studies 42:12 (December) 1537-66.

Levi, Margaret. 1998. Consent, Dissent, and Patriotism. Cambridge: Cambridge

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University Press.Levi, Margaret; Laura Stoker. 2000. “Political Trust and Trustworthiness.” Annual

Review of Political Science 3, 475-507.Nannestad, Peter. 2008. “What Have We Learned About Generalized Trust, If

Anything?” Annual Review of Political Science 11, 413-36.*Rothstein, Bo. 2009. “Creating Political Legitimacy.” American Behavioral Scientist 53:3, 311-30.

11/15

Local Governance, Participation

Questions: Does popular participation in policymaking and implementation improve the quality of governance?

Blair, Harry. 2000. “Participation and Accountability at the Periphery: Democratic Local Governance in Six Countries.” World Development 28:1 (January) 21-39.

Boulding, Carew; Brian Wampler. 2010. “Voice, Votes, and Resources: Evaluating the Effect of Participatory Democracy on Well-being.” World Development 38:1 (January) 125-35.

**Fung, Archon. 2008. “Democratizing the Policy Process.” In Michael Moran, Martin Rein, and Robert E. Goodin (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Public Policy (Oxford: Oxford University Press) 667-83.

Heinrich, Carolyn J.; Yeri Lopez. 2009. “Does Community Participation Produce Dividends in Social Investment Fund Projects?” World Development 37:9 (September) 1554-68.

Labonne, Julien; Robert S. Chase. 2009. “Who is at the Wheel When Communities Drive Development? Evidence from the Philippines.” World Development 37:1 (January) 219-31.

Lupia, Arthur; John G. Matsusaka. 2004. “Direct Democracy: New Approaches to Old Questions.” Annual Review of Political Science 7, 463-82.

*Olken, Benjamin A. 2007. “Monitoring Corruption: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Indonesia.” Journal of Political Economy 115:2, 200-49.

Theiss-Morse, Elizabeth; John R. Hibbing. 2005. “Citizenship and Civic Engagement.” Annual Review of Political Science 8, 227-49.

11/20

(De)Centralization

Questions: Does decentralizing power enhance the quality of governance? What is the optimal division of labor between national and subnational government units?

Bardhan, Pranab. 2002. “Decentralization of Governance and Development.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 16:4 (Fall) 185-205.

Bardhan, Pranab; Dilip Mookherjee. 2005. “Decentralization, Corruption and Government Accountability: An Overview.” In Susan Rose-Ackerman (ed), Handbook of Economic Corruption (Edward Elgar).

Bardhan, Pranab, Dilip Mookherjee (eds). 2006. Decentralization and Local Governance in Developing Countries: A Comparative Perspective. Cambridge: MIT Press.

Lessmann, Christian; Tunther Markwardt. 2010. “One Size Fits All? Decentralization, Corruption, and the Monitoring of Bureaucrats.” World Development [in press].

Oates, Wallace E. 1999. “An Essay on Fiscal Federalism.” Journal of Economic Literature 37:3, 1120-49.

*Prud’homme, Remy. 1995. “The Dangers of Decentralization.” World Bank Research Observer 10:2 (August) 201-20.

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Tiebout, Charles M. 1956. “A Pure Theory of Local Government Expenditure.” Journal of Political Economy 64, 416-24.

Treisman, Daniel S. 2007. The Architecture of Government: Rethinking Political Decentralization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

*Weingast, Barry R. 1995. “The Economic Role of Political Institutions: Market-Preserving Federalism and Economic Development.” Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization 11:1, 1-31.

Constitutional Federalism:Buchanan, James M. 1995. “Federalism as an Ideal Political Order and an Objective

for Constitutional Reform.” Publius: The Journal of Federalism 25:2, 19-27.Karmis, Kimitrios & Wayne Norman (eds). 2005. Theories of Federalism: A Reader.

Palgrave/Macmillan.Riker, William H. 1969. “Six Books in Search of a Subject, or Does Federalism Exist

and Does it Matter?” Comparative Politics 1 (October) 135-46.

11/22

Clientelism; Corruption

Questions: How should we define clientelism and corruption? What explains variation on these outcomes?

*Aidt, Toke. 2011. “The causes of corruption. CESifo DICE Report” Journal for Institutional Comparison 9:2, 15-19. www.econ.cam.ac.uk/faculty/aidt/papers/web/DICE_corruption.pdf

*Hicken, Allen. 2011. “Clientelism.” Annual Review of Political Science 14, 289-310.

Stokes, Susan C. 2007. “Political Clientelism.” In Carles Boix & Susan Stokes (eds.), Oxford Handbook of Comparative Politics (Oxford: Oxford University Press) 604-27.

*Mungiu-Pippidi, A. 2006. “Corruption: Diagnosis and Treatment.” Journal of Democracy 17:3, 86-99.

Treisman, Daniel. 2007. “What Have We Learned About the Causes of Corruption from Ten Years of Cross-National Empirical Research?” Annual Review of Political Science 10, 211-44.

11/27

The Public Sector/Bureaucracy

Questions: How does one create a well-functioning bureaucracy? What are the different organizational models? Does down-sizing and out-sourcing enhance the quality of governance? How is governing a public organization different from governing a private-sector organization?

Public Administration…Peters, B. Guy. 1996. The Future of Governing: Four Emerging Models. Lawrence,

KA: University Press of Kansas.Schiavo-Campo, Salvatore; Pachampet Sundaram. 2001. To Serve and to Preserve:

Improving Public Administration in a Competitive World. Manila, Philippines: Asian Development Bank.

Privatization, Size of Public Sector…Birdsall, Nancy; John Nellis. 2003. “Winners and Losers: Assessing the

Distributional Impact of Privatization.” World Development 31:10 (October) 1617-33.

Friedman, Milton. 1962. Capitalism and Freedom. Chicago: University of Chicago

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Press.*Okten, Cagla; K. Peren Arin. 2006. “The Effects of Privatization on Efficiency: How

Does Privatization Work?” World Development 34:9 (September) 1537-56.Omran, Mohammed. 2004. “The Performance of State-Owned Enterprises and

Newly Privatized Firms: Does Privatization Really Matter?” World Development 32:6 (June) 1019-41.

Wallis, Joe; Brian Dollery. 2001. “Government Failure, Social Capital, and the Appropriateness of the New Zealand Model for Public Sector Reform in Developing Countries.” World Development 29:2 (February) 245-63.

Weberian organization…*Evans, Peter B.; James Rauch. 1999. “Bureaucracy and Growth: A Cross-National

Analysis of the Effects of ‘Weberian’ State Structures on Economic Growth.” American Sociological Review 64:5 (October) 748-65.

12/4 Exploitation and the (Douglas North) Institutional SynthesisQuestions: What is the authors’ theory of good governance? Is it correct? Is it well-

tested? (How could it be tested?)*Acemoglu, Daron; James A. Robinson. 2012. Why Nations Fail: The Origins of

Power, Prosperity, and Poverty. Crown. [first several chapters]North, Douglass C. 1989. “Institutions and Economic Growth: An Historical

Introduction.” World Development 17:9, 1319-32.Olson, Mancur. 1965. The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory

of Goods. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

12/6 CentripetalismQuestions: What is the authors’ theory of good (democratic) governance? Is it

correct? Is it well-tested? (How could it be tested?)*Gerring, John; Strom Thacker. 2008. A Centripetal Theory of Democratic

Governance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [chs 1-7]Lijphart, Arend. 1999. Patterns of Democracy: Government Forms and Performance

in Thirty-Six Countries. New Haven: Yale University Press. [chs 1-3, 16-17]Persson, Torsten and Guido Tabellini. 2003. The Economic Effects of Constitutions:

What do the Data Say? Cambridge: MIT Press.Tsebelis, George. 2000. “Veto Players in Institutional Analysis.” Governance 13:4

(October).

12/11

Review

Please review your notes and bring questions to this class meeting.

TBA Papers due

TBA Final exam

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ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Web SitesACE project (sponsored by IFES; electoral systems, democracy)

http://www.aceproject.org/main/english/default.htmDesigning better electoral systems http://www.uiowa.edu/~electdis/EPIC project (electoral systems, democracy) http://www.epicproject.org/IDEA (electoral systems, participation, democracy) http://www.idea.int/index.htmElectoral systems (Wallack et al) www.stanford.edu/~jseddon/Electionworld.org (elections around the world) http://electionworld.org/Electionresources.org (elections) http://electionresources.org/Parties and elections in Europe http://www.parties-and-elections.de/indexe.htmlElections and electoral systems in post-Soviet countries http://www.essex.ac.uk/elections/Political database of the Americas http://www.georgetown.edu/pdba/Elecdata/elecdata.htmlElectoral Institute of Southern Africa http://www.eisa.org.za/Links to other election resources http://www.psr.keele.ac.uk/election.htmCIA World Factbook (misc info) http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.htmlHarvard CID/World Bank datamart http://paradocs.pols.columbia.edu:8080/datavine/MainFrameSet.jspConstitution finder http://confinder.richmond.edu/International constitutional law http://www.oefre.unibe.ch/law/icl/index.htmlCountry watch http://www.countrywatch.com/Fraser Institute (economic freedom measures) http://www.freetheworld.com/index.htmlEconomic performance datasets http://www.nuff.ox.ac.uk/Economics/Growth/datasets.htmEconomist Intelligence Unit, country briefings http://www.economist.com/countries/index.cfmEnvironmental sustainability indices http://www.ciesin.columbia.edu/indicators/ESI/Pardee Center, Project on Human Development http://humandevelopment.bu.edu/Freedom House (freedom indices) http://www.freedomhouse.org/Global Burden of Disease http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/burdenofdisease/Health, Nutrition, and Population (World Bank) http://devdata.worldbank.org/hnpstats/ICPSR (largest collection of political science data; BU has subscription) http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/International Labour Organization (ILO; info on social security, labor agreements, et al.)

http://www.ilo.org/Inter-parliamentary Union (IPU; info on electoral systems, parliaments, parties, election law)

http://www.ipu.org/Web sites of national parliaments http://wc.wustl.edu/parliaments.htmlMishpat.net (legal, constitutional, human rights info) http://mishpat.net/law/Countries/International Comparative Political Parties Project (Ken Janda) http://janda.org/icpp/Library of Congress country studies http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/csquery.htmlMinorities at Risk (minorities around the world) http://www.cidcm.umd.edu/inscr/mar/OECD statistics http://www.oecd.org/home/Paul Hensel’s international data site http://garnet.acns.fsu.edu/~phensel/intldata.html#intpolPoliSci.com (a subscription site, but I think there’s some free stuff) http://www.polisci.com/Polity IV dataset (democracy and other related stuff) http://www.cidcm.umd.edu/inscr/polity/index.htmRichard Jensen’s guide to historical and crossnational data http://tigger.uic.edu/~rjensen/index.htmlUCSD data search http://odwin.ucsd.edu/idata/State Dept background notes on countries http://www.state.gov/www/background_notes/index.html

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United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) http://www.undp.org/World Health Organization (WHO) http://www3.who.int/whosis/menu.cfmWorld Bank http://www.worldbank.org/Transparency International (corruption indices) http://www.transparency.org/Comparative Dataset on Political Institutions (Persson, Tabellini) www.sns.seCross-National Time-Series (CNTS) Data Archive (Banks) www.databanks.sitehosting.net/index.htmDatabase on Political Institutions (DPI, Keefer et al.)

http://netec.mcc.ac.uk/WoPEc/data/Papers/wopwobago2283.htmlFemale political representation (IDEA) www.idea.int/quota/index.cfm

Also IPU www.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif-arc.htmState failure task force (an IR dataset) www.cidcm.umd.edu/inscr/stfail/sfdata.htmPolitical terror scale (Mark Gibney) http://www.unca.edu/politicalscience/faculty-staff/gibney.htmlIncarceration rates www.kcl.ac.uk/depsta-rel/icps/Nationmaster www.Nationmaster.com

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