readings

Question 1

• Mark I. Lichbach and Alan S. Zuckerman: Research traditions and theory in comparative politics

Answer 1

Comparative politics is divided into three great traditions — rationalist, culturalist, and structuralist — each offering different answers to how we know and explain political behavior. Lichbach and Zuckerman’s goal is to clarify these paradigms and encourage more theoretical pluralism and cross-tradition engagement.

Question 2

• Gary King, Robert O. Keohane, and Sidney Verba: The science in Social Science from Designing social inquiry Ronald Rogowski: The rise of experimentation in Political Science, from emerging trends in the social and behavioural sciences

Answer 2

Political science as a discipline has increasingly embraced scientific principles of causal inference, transparency, and systematic research design.
KKV provided the theoretical foundation — the call to make all social science “scientific.”
Rogowski describes how that call evolved into practice — through the experimental revolution in political science.

Question 3

• Max Weber: Politics as a vocation from Max Weber: Essays in Sociology

Answer 3

Weber’s main point is that politics is the pursuit of power within the state, which holds the monopoly on legitimate force. To practice politics as a true vocation requires a balance of passion, responsibility, and judgment, and an ethical awareness of the consequences of one’s actions.

Question 4

• Stephen D. Krasner: Sovereignty from foreign Policy

Answer 4

Krasner’s main argument is that state sovereignty — the principle that states have supreme authority within their borders and are equal internationally — has always been more of an “organized hypocrisy” than a reality.
In other words, while sovereignty is a core norm of the international system, in practice, it is constantly compromised by interventions, agreements, and global pressures.

Question 5

• Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels: Manifesto of the communist Party, from the Marx-engels reader

Answer 5

Marx and Engels argue that capitalism, while revolutionary in its creation of global markets and technological progress, also produces inequality, exploitation, and alienation. They predict that the internal contradictions of capitalism will eventually lead to a proletarian revolution, the overthrow of the bourgeoisie, and the establishment of a classless, communist society where the means of production are owned collectively.

Question 6

• Francis Fukuyama : The Origins of Political Order

Answer 6

Fukuyama’s main point is that stable political order depends on the long-term development of strong states, the rule of law, and political accountability — institutions that emerge through historical and cultural evolution rather than sudden change.

Question 7

• Charles Tilly, “War Making and State Making as Organized Crime,” in Bringing the State Back In (1985)

Answer 7

is that states were not created through peaceful social contracts or rational planning, but rather through violence, coercion, and power struggles—much like organized crime syndicates.

Question 8

• Philippe C. Schmitter and Terry Lynn Karl: What democracy is…. And is not, from Journal of Democracy

Answer 8

Schmitter and Karl argue that democracy is a system of governance in which rulers are held accountable for their actions by citizens, acting through elected representatives.
It’s not just about elections — it’s about accountability, participation, and competition within a framework of laws and institutions that protect freedoms.

Question 9

• Arend Lijphart: Constitutional Choices for new Democracies, from the global resurgence of democracy

Answer 9

Lijphart argues that new democracies should adopt consensus-oriented systems rather than majoritarian ones.
He believes that democracies work best when power is shared, inclusive, and cooperative, not concentrated in the hands of a single majority party.

Question 10

• Robert Dahl, “Democratization and Public Opposition,” in Polyarchy

Answer 10

Dahl argues that democracy should not be seen as an all-or-nothing concept, but rather as a continuum — with different regimes located between full authoritarianism and full democracy. He uses the term “polyarchy” to describe systems that achieve a high level of public participation and contestation (opposition).

Question 10

Eric Hobsbawm: Nationalism, from the age of revolution

Answer 10

Hobsbawm’s main point is that nationalism is a modern, historically specific development rooted in the economic, political, and social changes of the late 18th and 19th centuries — not a timeless or natural human instinct.

Question 11

• Alexis De Tocqueville: Authors introduction, from democracy in America

Answer 11

Tocqueville’s main point is that democracy and equality are the inevitable future of the modern world, and by studying the United States, we can learn how to preserve liberty and civic virtue within this new democratic age.

Question 12

• Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, James A. Robinson, and Pierre Yared: Income and Democracy, American Economic Review

Answer 12

The authors challenge the long-standing idea (known as modernization theory) that as countries become wealthier, they naturally become more democratic.
Instead, they find that the relationship between income and democracy is not causal — both are influenced by deeper historical and institutional factors.

Question 13

• Maurice Duverger: The Number of Parties, from Political Parties

Answer 13

Duverger’s main point is that electoral systems shape party systems — plurality voting encourages two major parties, while proportional representation allows for multiple parties to thrive.

Question 14

• Robert Blackburn, “Britain’s unwritten constitution” (2015)

Answer 14

Blackburn’s main point is that Britain’s constitution, though uncodified, is built on an evolving mix of laws, conventions, and traditions — a system that provides both flexibility and potential vulnerability due to its reliance on political norms rather than a single written document.

Question 15

• George Monbiot, “Britain’s Claims to Being a Functioning Democracy…” (2020)

Answer 15

Monbiot’s main point is that Britain’s democracy is largely an illusion — its institutions favor the powerful and restrict genuine public influence, making the country democratic in name but oligarchic in practice.

Question 16

juan J. Linz and Alfred Stepan: Modern Nondemocratic regimes, from problems of democratic transition and consolidation

Answer 16

Linz and Stepan’s main point is that modern nondemocratic regimes take different forms, and analyzing these variations helps explain why some are more resistant — and others more open — to democratic transition and consolidation.

Question 17

• Steven Levitsky and Lucan A. Way: the rise of competitive Authoritarianism, from Journal of Democracy

Answer 17

Levitsky and Way’s main point is that “competitive authoritarianism” describes regimes that use democratic institutions to maintain authoritarian control — blending elements of democracy and dictatorship to legitimize nondemocratic rule in the modern era.

Question 18

• Larry Diamond: The rule of law versus the Big Man, From Journal of Democracy

Answer 18

Diamond’s main point is that true democracy requires the rule of law—strong institutions that restrain leaders and replace personal, “Big Man” rule with legal, accountable governance.

Question 19

• Garry King, Jennifer Pan, and Margaret E. Roberts: How censorship in China allows government criticism but silences collective expression, from American political science review

Answer 19

King, Pan, and Roberts argue that Chinese censorship targets collective action rather than criticism, allowing public debate while preventing organization — a strategy that preserves authoritarian control in the digital age.

Question 20

• Larry Diamond, “The Crisis of Democracy is Here” (2025

Answer 20

The general point of Larry Diamond’s “The Crisis of Democracy Is Here” is that the United States (and broadly liberal democracies) are facing a critical juncture, where longstanding institutional norms, checks and balances, and civic culture are under severe strain — and without immediate and deliberate action, democracy itself may erode

Question 21

• Yuen Yuen Ang, “Adaptive Political Economy: Toward a New Paradigm.” World Politics 77, no. 1 (2025): 51–67;

Answer 21

Ang’s main point is that we need a new paradigm—adaptive political economy—that better captures how institutions and economies change together in messy, context-specific, but intelligible ways, rather than relying on mechanical, one-size-fits-all models.

Question 22

• Harley Balzer: Russia and China in the Global Economy, from demokratizatisiya

Answer 22

Balzer argues that although both Russia and China emerged from communist systems and had the potential to become major global economic powers, the two followed very different paths in integrating into the global economy. China’s elite embraced globalization and built strong manufacturing and export-oriented sectors, thereby enabling rapid growth and upward mobility. Russia, by contrast, remained more cautious about globalization, stayed heavily dependent on natural-resource exports, and thus lagged behind in manufacturing, innovation, and deeper forms of global economic integration.