Fall 2004 Advance Course Information

This information effective for Fall 2004. Check with instructor the first day of class for any changes.

Politics

[POLI-140B] [POLI-160A]

140B. Comparative Post-Communist Politics

Instructor: Michael Urban
E-mail: urban47@ucsc.edu
Phone: 459-3153

Note: This syllabus from Fall 2002

Scope and Objectives. Analytically, the content of this course concerns communism and its aftermath. Substantially, the focus falls primarily on East European states, although excurses on political developments in Russia are also necessary to our enterpirse. Russia's role in the region represents one important instance of a theme running through the entire course; namely, that East European politics has been and remains in many ways determined by forces outside the region itself. We explore this question as it relates to the hegemony exercised by West European states in both the pre- and post-communist periods, as well as the USSR's dominion over them in communist times. With respect to the latter, our objective is to build an understanding of the communist past, what is, here, taken to be a unique socio-political formation known as "state socialism." This objective can be broken down further into a number of sub-topics that comprise the first part of the course: Marxist revolutionary theory, Leninist revolutionary practice, Stalinist state construction and the maturation and decay of state socialist systems. The problem of the political role of intellectuals within the specific historical contexts peculiar to East Europe and Russia is singled out for special attention in this regard.

The second part of the course focuses on reforms within, and revolts against, the state socialist order that have occurred in East Europe and the former Soviet Union. On the basis of the analysis presented in the first part, it locates a number of crisis tendencies specific to state socialist systems that have led to movements for reform and revolution and examines how new directions taken in one place and time often have reverberated later in the politics of other states within the region. Moreover, the specific incidences of mass resistance to state socialism modified it in one place or another, lending different characters to state socialist regimes that would determine the particular paths of transition that they would follow.

Part three concerns the collapse of communism in East Europe and the former USSR. The significance of that moment has only begun to be measured in historical terms, yet its implications are already staggering enough: the unhinging of the capitalist/communist dichotomy that has dominated politics, nationally and globally, for the second half of the twentieth century, thus throwing into question established identities, arrangements and alliances. The collapse of one system and the formation of another allows us to glimpse the political magma, usually obscured, assumed or unremarked in the study (and practice) of "normal" politics. Therefore, we devote particular attention in this section to social, cultural and economic issues, exploring the ways in which they have shaped the politics of postcommunist transitions.

The final section examines a set of major political questions embedded in the post-communist transition. Is this transition all of a piece or are there quite distinct patterns evident among those societies that are undergoing it? If the latter is true, how can differences be explained? Should post-communist transitions be regarded as a variant of a broader phenomenon, the transition from authoritarian to democratic government, or are they fundamentally different, thus constituting an entirely separate set of cases? Do post-communist systems have a democratic future and, if so, on what does it depend? How have new combinations of political and economic power been spun out of their state socialist predecessors and how might they be characterized? Finally, has the hegemony of powers outside the region persisted in the present period and, if so, how does it determine East European politics today?

Course Requirements. In addition to meeting standard expectations—attending lectures, completing all reading assignments prior to the respective class and discussion sessions at which they are to be considered, sitting for two examinations (a mid-term and a final)—each student is required to write an extended term paper (10-12 pages in length) on a topic selected by the student and approved by the instructor. This paper will observe all of the usual rules governing such an enterprise: coherent organization, proper referencing, adequate bibliography (on average, 5 books and/or an equivalent number of journal articles not included in course readings). It is due the final day of class.

Required Text

• Joseph Rothschild, Return to Diversity. 3rd ed.: New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
• Grzegorz Ekiert, The State Against Society. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996.
• Katherine Verdery, What Was Socialism and What Comes Next? Princeton: Princeton University Press 1996.
• Ken Jowitt, The New World Disorder. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992.

Recommended Texts:

Andrew Janos, East Central Europe in the Modern World. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000.

Topics and Readings. (All readings are available at the reserve desk in McHenry. They are required, unless marked with an asterisk—in which case they are recommended.)

Part I. What Is a Communist System?

1.Communism as a Project.

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party.
Vladimir Lenin, What Is to Be Done? (selections).
Alvin Gouldner, Against Fragmentation, pp. 12-27.

2. Pre-Communist East Europe.

Rothschild, pp. 3-75.
Zygmunt Bauman, "Intellectuals in East-Central Europe," East European Politics and Societies, Vol. 1 (1987), pp. 162-186.
*John Feffer, Shock Waves (Boston: South End Press, 1992), pp. 1-31.
*Janos, pp. 1-217.

3. Communism as a System.

Rothschild, pp. 76-123.
Jowitt, pp. 1-49.
*Feffer, pp. 33-47.
*Janos, pp. 218-256.

Part II. Transformation and Stasis in Communist Systems.

1. Reform and Rebellion.

Rothschild, pp. 125-190.
Ekiert, pp. ix-xvi, 3-120.
Jowitt, pp. 88-158.
Vaclav Havel, "The Power of the Powerless," part 1, pp. 23-41.
*Feffer, pp. 49-59.
*Janos, pp. 257-328.

2. Opposition Within and Without.

Rothschild, pp. 191-225.
Ekiert, pp. 121-213.
Havel, part 2, pp. 41-78.
*Feffer, pp. 59-67.

3. Late Communism and the Question of "Civil Society."

Ekiert, pp. 215-304.
Havel, part 3, pp. 78-96.
Jadwiga Staniszkis, "Forms of Reasoning as Ideology," Telos, No. 66 (Winter, 1985-86), pp.67-80.
Verdery, pp. 3-82.

Part III. Post-Communist Transitions.

1. Overview.

Jowitt, pp. 220-248.
Ekiert, pp. 305-330.

2. Political Steps.

Rothschild, pp. 226-262.
Verdery, pp. 83-129.

3. Economic and Social Change.

Verdery, pp. 133-203.
David Stark, "Recombinant Property in East European Capitalism," G. Grabher and D. Stark (eds.), Restructuring Networks in Post-Socialism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), pp. 35-69.
Eric Hanley, "Cadre Capitalism in Hungary and Poland: Property Accumulation among Communist-Era Elites," East European Politics and Societies, Vol. 14 (winter, 2000), pp. 143-178.
Jozsef Borocz, "Informality Rules," East European Politics and Societies, Vol. 14 (spring, 2000), pp. 348-380

4. Identities, Ideologies and Interests.

L. Cook and M. Orenstein, "The Return of the Left and Its Impact on the Welfare State in Poland, Hungary and Russia," L. Cook et al. (eds.), Left Parties and Social Policy in Postcommunist Europe (Boulder: Westview Press, 1999), pp. 47-108.
Barbara Cellarius and Caedmon Staddon, "Environmental Nongovernmental Organizations, Civil Society, and Democratization in Bulgaria," East European Politics and Societies, Vol. 16, no. 1 (2002), pp. 182-222.
Martin Horak, "Environmental Policy Reform in the Post-Communist Czech Republic: the Case of Air Pollution," Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. 53 (March, 2001), pp. 313-327.

Part IV. What's Next?

Verdery, pp. 204-234.
Bela Greskovits, The Political Economy of Protest and Patience (Budapest: Central European University Press, 1998), pp. 71-91, 103-112, 122-131.

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160A. International Politics

MW, 5-6:45, Thiemann 3
Instructor: Ronnie Lipschutz

Course Description:

This is an upper-division introduction to international politics, broadly defined. It is organized around the notion that the subject of international politics is driven by contemporary issues and problems as seen through both theoretical understandings and practice. Politics is of interest because we are interested in today's events and tomorrow's, as well, and want to be able to understand why things happen. The same is the case at the international/global level. This course will provide the foundation for further coursework and research in international and global politics and the successful student will emerge able to apply the analytical tools acquired during the quarter to a broad range of issues.

Assigned texts are:

• Jan Jindy Pettman, Worlding Women, Routledge, 1996. ISBN 041515202X (paper). If this book remains out of print, I'd like to have it photocopied.
• Kenneth N. Waltz, Man, the State and War, Columbia University Press, 2001 (rev. ed.), ISBN 0231125372 (paper).
• William Golding, Lord of the Flies, Perigee, 1954. ISBN0399501487 (paper).
• Peter Gourevitch, We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families, Picador, 1998. ISBN 0312243359 (paper)
• Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash, Bantam, 2000, ISBN: 0553380958 (paper).
• Peter Drahos with John Braithwaite, Information Feudalism, Norton, 2003, ISBN: 1565848047 (hardcover).

The course website is at: http://ic.ucsc.edu/~rlipsch/pol160A/syllabus