SemesterSpring Semester, 2018
DepartmentInternational Master's Program in International Studies, First Year International Master's Program in International Studies, Second Year
Course NameComparative Politics in Southeast Asia
InstructorSUN TSAI-WEI
Credit3.0
Course TypeElective
Prerequisite
Course Objective
Course Description
Course Schedule

Week 1 Feb 26 Introduction



 



Week 2 Mar 05 Comparative politics, comparative methods, & studies of SEAsia





  1. T1, Ch.1 (…evolution of comparative politics….) (23 pages)




  2. Arend Lijphart. 1971. “Comparative politics and the comparative method.” American Political Science Review 65(3): 682-693. (12 pages)




  3. Jasjeet S. Sekhon. 2004. “Quality meets quantity: case studies, conditional probability, and counterfactuals.” Perspectives on Politics 2(2): 281-293. (8 pages)




  4. Evan S. Lieberman. 2005. “Nested analysis as a mixed-method strategy for comparative research.” American Political Science Review 99(3): 435-452. (12 pages)




  5. Duncan McCargo. 2004. “Rethinking Southeast Asian politics: an inaugural lecture.” POLIS Working Paper #4, School of Politics & International Studies, Univ. of Leeds. (22 pages)




  6. Thomas B. Pepinsky. 2012. “Context and method in Southeast Asian politics.” Paper presented at the conference Methodology in Southeast Asian Studies: Grounding Research-Mixing Methods. University of Freiburg. (23 pages)



     



     



    Week 3 Mar 12 State-making, nation, political culture: Western v.s. non-Western worlds







  1. T1, Ch.4 (…political culture…) (24 pages)




  2. Karen Barkey & Sunita Parikh. 1991. “Comparative perspectives on the state.” Annual Review of Sociology 17: 523-549. (23 pages)




  3. Miguel Angel Centeno. 1997. “Blood and debt: War and taxation in nineteenth century Latin America.” American Journal of Sociology 102(6): 1565?1605. (27 pages)




  4. T4, Chs.1~3 (SEAsia) (46pages)



     



     



    Week 4 Mar 19 Modernization, development, institutions, and institutional analysis







  1. T1, Ch.3 (…economics & pol development…) (20 pages)



    2. Ronald Inglehart & Wayne Baker. 2000. “Modernization, cultural change, and the persistence of traditional values.” American Sociological Review 65: 19-51. (22 pages)







  1. Peter A. Hall & Rosemary C. R. Taylor. 1996. “Political science and the three new institutionalisms.” Political Studies 44(5): 936-957. (21 pages)




  2. Paul Pierson. 2000. “Increasing returns, path dependence, and the studies of politics.” American Political Science Review 94(2): 251-267. (15 pages)




  3. Steven Levitsky & Maria Victoria Murillo. 2009. “Variation in institutional strength.” Annual Review of Political Science 12: 115-133. (14 pages)




  4. Regina Abrami & Richard F. Doner. 2008. “Southeast Asia and the political economy of development.” In Erik Martinez Kuhonta, Dan Slater, Tuong Vu (eds.), Southeast Asia in Political Science. Stanford University Press. (25pages)



     



     



    Week 5 Mar 26 Political regimes and comparative democratization







  1. T1, Ch.6 (…democratization & global environment…) (20 pages)




  2. Valerie Bunce. 2000. “Comparative democratization: big and bounded generalizations.” Comparative Political Studies 33(6/7): 703-734. (24 pages)




  3. Larry Diamond, et al. 2014. “Reconsidering the transition paradigm.” Journal of Democracy 25(1). (15pages)




  4. T3, Chs.1, 2, 5, 6 (SEA) (54 pages)



    Week 6 Apr 02 The trend to authoritarianism in SEAsia (1): military and politics







  1. Jennifer Gandhi & Adam Przeworski. 2007. “Authoritarian institutions and the survival of autocrats” Comparative Political Studies 40(11): 1279-1301. (14 pages)




  2. Dan Slater & Sofia Fenner. 2011. “State power and staying power: infrastructural mechanisms and authoritarian durability.” Journal of International Affairs 65(1): 15-29. (11 pages)




  3. T3, Ch. 20 (…SEA militaries…) (14 pages)




  4. Rizal Sukma. 2013. “The military and democratic reform in Indonesia,” in Dennis C. Blair (ed.), Military Engagement: Influencing Armed Forces Worldwide to Support Democratic Transitions. Brookings Institution Press. (20 pages)




  5. T7, Intro +Chs. 1 & 4 (…Military in Myanmar…) (52 pages)




  6. Tim Lindsey. 2014. “Unlike any land you know about? Myanmar, reform and the Indonesia model.” In Melissa Crouch and Tim Lindsey (eds.), Law, Society and Transition in Myanmar. Hart Publishing. (13 pages)



     



    Week 7 Apr 09 The trend to authoritarianism in SEAsia (2): parties and elections







  1. Beatriz Magaloni. 2008. “Credible power-sharing and the longevity of authoritarian rule.” Comparative Political Studies 41(4?5): 715?741. (24 pages)




  2. Larry Diamond. 2002. “Thinking about hybrid regimes.” Journal of Democracy 13(2): 21-35. (11 pages)




  3. Yonatan L. Morse. 2012. “The era of electoral authoritarianism.” World Politics 64(1):161-98. (30 pages)




  4. T2, Chs. 1 (pp.1-16*) & 6 (…logic & manipulation of electoral authoritarianism) (34 pages)




  5. T3, Chs. 14, 15 (SEA) (20 pages)



     



    Week 8 Apr 16 The trend to authoritarianism in SEAsia (3): Malaysia and Singapore







  1. Garry Rodan. 2009. “Accountability and authoritarianism: human rights in Malaysia and Singapore.” Journal of Contemporary Asia 39(2): 180-213. (20p)




  2. Dan Slater. 2012. “Strong-state democratization in Malaysia and Singapore.” Journal of Democracy 23(2):19-33. (14p)




  3. Bridget Welsh. 2015. “Elections in Malaysia: voting behavior and electoral integrity,” in Meredith L. Weiss (ed.), Routledge Handbook of contemporary Malaysia. Routledge. (8p)




  4. Meredith L. Weiss. 2016. “Payoffs, parties, or policies: “money politics” and electoral authoritarian resilience.” Critical Asian Studies 48(1): 77-99. (20p)




  5. Edmund Terence Gomez. 2016. “Resisting the fall: The single dominant party, policies and elections in Malaysia.” Journal of Contemporary Asia 46(4): 570-590. (17p)




  6. William Case. 2017. “Stress testing leadership in Malaysia: the 1MDB scandal and Najib Tun Razak.” The Pacific Review. (17p)




  7. Lee Morgenbesser. 2017. “The autocratic mandate: elections, legitimacy and regime stability in Singapore.” The Pacific Review 30(2): 205-231. (15p)



     



    Week 9 Apr 23 Identity politics (1): nation and ethnicity in SEAsia







  1. Ashutosh Varshney. 2003. “Nationalism, ethnic conflict, and rationality.” Perspectives on Politics 1(1):85-99. (11p)




  2. James Fearon & David Laitin. 2003. “Ethnicity, insurgency, and civil war.” American Political Science Review 97(1): 75-90. (31p)




  3. T3, Ch. 10 (ethnicity & democracy in SEA) (19p)




  4. T4, Chs.7 & 8 (S’pore, M’sia) (31p)




  5. Tsai-Wei Sun. 2015. “Governing Singapore: the group representation constituency (GRC) system and its effect on inclusiveness and electoral participation.” Asian Education and Development Studies 4(3): 282-298. (12p)



    Week 10 Apr 30 Identity politics (2): ethnic conflict in Myanmar







  1. Ian Holliday. 2014. “Addressing Myanmar’s citizenship crisis.” Journal of Contemporary Asia 44(3): 404-421. (16p)




  2. T7, Ch.5 (ethnic/religious cleavages) (14p)




  3. T6, Chs.4,5,7. (nation identity, Shan, & Kachin) (73p)




  4. Ashley South. 2017. “‘Hybrid governance’ and the politics of legitimacy in the Myanmar peace process.” Journal of Contemporary Asia. (14p)



     



     



    Week 11 May 07 Politics and religion (1): political Islam in SEAsia & Malaysia







  1. T5, Chs. 8 & 14 (…Global jihad, & SEAsian Islam in transition…) (55p)




  2. Daniel Finnbogason & Isak Svensson. 2018. “The missing jihad. Why have there been no jihadist civil wars in Southeast Asia?” The Pacific Review 31(1):96-115. (15p)




  3. T5, Chs.7 & 13 (Malaysia) (47p)



     



     



    Week 12 May 14 Politics and Religion (2): political Islam in Indonesia







  1. Thomas B. Pepinsky. 2014. “Political Islam and the limits of the Indonesian model.” Taiwan Journal of Democracy 10(1): 105-121. (17p)




  2. T5, Chs. 4, 6, 12. (69p)




  3. Jacqueline Hicks. 2012. “The missing link: explaining the political mobilization of Islam in Indonesia.” Journal of Contemporary Asia 42(1): 39-66. (21p)




  4. Abdil Mughis Mudhoffir. 2017. “Islamic militias and capitalist development in post- authoritarian Indonesia.” Journal of Contemporary Asia 47(8): 495-514. (16p)



     



     



    Week 13 May 21 Politics and Religion (3): The Rohingyas in Myanmar







  1. T8 (whole book)




  2. T6, Chs. 6 & 12 (52p)




  3. Gerry van Klinken & Su Mon Thazin Aung. 2017. “The contentious politics of anti-Muslim scapegoating in Myanmar.” Journal of Contemporary Asia. (20p)



     



     



    Week 14 May 28 State & society: civil society, middle class, and democracy







  1. Xu Wang. 1999. “Mutual empowerment of state and society: its nature, conditions, mechanisms, and limits.” Comparative Politics 31(2):231-249. (16p)




  2. T1, Ch. 5 (14p)




  3. Larry Jay Diamond. 1994. “Toward democratic consolidation.” Journal of Democracy 5(3): 4-17. (13p)




  4. Francis Fukuyama. 2001. “Social capital, civil society and development.” Third World Quarterly 22(1): 7-20. (12p)




  5. David Martin Jones. 1998. “Democratization, civil society, and illiberal middle class culture in Pacific Asia.” Comparative Politics 30(2): 147-169. (18p)




  6. T3, Chs.7 (pp.102-104) & 8~9 (skip Philippines part). (21p)




  7. Kevin Hewison & Garry Rodan. 2012. “The left and the rise of bourgeois opposition.” In Richard Robison (eds.), Routledge Handbook of Southeast Asian Politics. Routledge. (12p)




  8. Stephan Ortmann. 2015. “Political change and civil society coalitions in Singapore.” Government and Opposition 50(1): 119-139. (18p)



     



     



    Week 15 Jun 04 Women in Southeast Asian politics







  1. Mala Htun. 2004. “Is gender like ethnicity? The political representation of identity groups.” Perspectives on Politics 2(3): 439-458. (14p)




  2. USAID 2014. The success and the barriers to women’s representation in Southeast Asia: between state policies, political parties and women’s movement. (82p)




  3. Netina Tan. 2014. “Ethnic quotas and unintended effects on women’s political representation in Singapore.” International Political Science Review 35(1): 27-40. (10p)




  4. Ben Hillman. 2017. “Increasing women’s parliamentary representation in Asia and the Pacific: The Indonesian experience.” Asia & the Pacific Policy Studies 4(1): 38-49. (10p)



     



    Week 16 Jun 11 Final essay proposal presentation



     



    Week 17 Jun 18 Holiday (no class)



     



    Week 18 Jun 25 Final essay submission deadline




Teaching Methods
Teaching Assistant

n.a.


Requirement/Grading

Class participation and presentation 30%



Every week’s short “response paper” 30%



Final essay 40%


Textbook & Reference


  1. John T. Ishiyama. 2012. Comparative Politics: Principles of Democracy and Democratization. Blackwell Publishing Ltd. T1




  2. Andreas Schedler (ed.). 2006. Electoral Authoritarianism: the Dynamics of Unfree Competition. Lynne Rienner Publishers. T2




  3. William Case (ed.). 2015. Routledge Handbook of Southeast Asian Democratization. Routledge. T3




  4. Leo Suryadinata. 2015. The Making of Southeast Asian Nations: State, Ethnicity, Indigenism and Citizenship. World Scientific. T4




  5. Gordon P. Means. 2009. Political Islam in Southeast Asia. Lynne Rienner Publishers. T5




  6. Renaud Egreteau & Francois Robinne. 2016. Metamorphosis: Studies in Social and Political Change in Myanmar. National University of Singapore Press. T6




  7. Renaud Egreteau. 2016. Caretaking Democratization: the Military and Political Change in Myanmar. Oxford University Press. T7




  8. Azeem Ibrahim. 2016. The Rohingyas: Inside Myanmar’s Hidden Genocide. Hurst. T8




  9. Journal articles




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