996005 Political Structures and the Modern State (BS) (SoSe 2014)

This is a course that attempts to examine the ontogenesis of political structures and organized sets of such structures (systems, polities). This structural approach is one that has developed somewhat below the threshold of more orthodox accounts, whether functional, systemic, or economic.

This course will use a block system; there will 8 units in short order. The first block, and part of the last, will be lectures, setting up and concluding the thematic development respectively. The others will focus on empirical works treating specific stages in the analytic reconstruction of the development of a political field.

CLASS SCHEDULE

Monday, June 16th
Block 1: (10:15 – 12:00)
I. CONCEPTION OF THE POLITICAL: FORCE, FRAUD, CHOICE AND EXCHANGE
A. Different visions
1) Plato and the Good
2) Rousseau and the collective good
3) Buchanan and Tullock and a theory of choice
4) Carl Schmitt and friends and enemies
5) Hobbes and war and peace.

B. Distinctions
1) The difference between international relations and intranational ones. We will use the term politics to refer only to the latter, and argue that when the difference between the two is blurry then we either have a nation sliding into civil war or a set of nations losing their sovereignty, as might happen to Europe.

2) Politics as opposed to governance

C. Structure without function
1) History of structuralism
2) From Lévi-Strauss to Harrison White
3) Form and Content

D. Conclusion:

Block 2 (13:00 – 14:30)
II. PRE-EXISTING STRUCTURES
A. Non-autonomous polities
In some cases, there is no political structure, not because there is no politics, but because there is no separate structure. We might say that politics is not differentiated, vaguely following Herbert Spencer, Principles of Sociology.

B. Politics versus warfare; The difference between the two isn’t always clear
Ross Hassig. 1988. Aztec Warfare. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press.

C. Kin groups, land and leadership
Lucy Mair, Primitive Government.
John F. Padgett, Christopher K. Ansell. 1993. “Robust action and the rise of the Medici, 1400-1434.” The American Journal of Sociology.
Frederik Barth, Political Leadership among Swat Pathans (Berg pressing), 22-30, 64-70, 70-81

Block 3 (14:45 – 16:15)
III. STALACTIC AGGLOMERATION
A. Patronage Relations—the beginning of the autonomization
Roger V. Gould. 1996. “Patron-Client Ties, State Centralization, and the Whiskey Rebellion.” American Journal of Sociology 102:400-429.
John Levi Martin, Social Structures, Chapter 6

Block 4 (16:30 – 18:00)
B. Factions
Andrew J. Nathan, “A Factionalism Model For CCP Politics.” Andrew. J. Nathan. China Quarterly 53 (March 1973): 34-66.
Lilly Ross Taylor. 1968. [1949] Party Politics in the Age of Caesar. Berkeley: University of California.
John Levi Martin, Social Structures, Chapter 8

C. Development of verticality
Ronald Aminzade. 1977. “Breaking the Chains of Dependency: From Patronage to Class Politics, Toulouse, France, 1830-1872.” Journal of Urban History 3:485-506.
Jeremy H. Kemp. 1984. “The Manipulation of Personal Relations: From Kinship to Patron-Clientage.” Pp.55-69 in Strategies and Structures in Thai Society, edited by Han ten Brummelhuis and Jeremy H. Kemp. Amsterdam: Antropologisch-Sociologisch Centrum, Universiteit van Amsterdam.

D. The nature of contestation; Liberal theory—what?
James Madison, Federalist #10
Robert A. Dahl. 1972. Polyarchy: Participation and Opposition. Yale University Press.

Block 5 (10:15 – 12:00)
IV. HORIZONTAL ALLIANCES
A. Alliance
Thucydides, The History of the Peloponnesian War, espec book VII
Frederik Barth, Political Leadership among Swat Pathans, 104-114 if you bought it
John Levi Martin, Social Structures, Chapter 2

B. The development of ideology
Peter S. Bearman. 1993. Relations into Rhetorics: Local Elite Social Structure in Norfolk, England 1540-1640. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, Chapter 5 (131-172)
Paul McLean, The Art of the Network
John Levi Martin, Social Structures, Chapter 8

Block 6 (13:00 – 14:30)
V. FORMATION OF NATIONS
A. Revolutionary Settlements
Ertman, Thomas. 1997. Birth of the Leviathan: Building States and Regimes in Medieval and Early Modern Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

B. Making Constitutions
Adam Slez and John Levi Martin. “Political Action and Party. Formation in the United States Constitutional Convention.” American Sociological Review 72(2007): 42-67. [If I can find another source that discusses constitution making as setting the rules of the game, I will substitute that.]

Block 7 (14:45 – 16:15)
VI. DEVELOPMENT OF NATIONAL POLITICS
A. Party Systems
1) Legislative Parties and Mobilization parties
Maurice Duverger, Political Parties, Chapter 1. Note: this book is originally written in French, I’m sure exists in German translation, so feel free to read it in any language you choose. The first chapter is long, but as much as you can read, you should read. This is the single best structural approach to party structures ever. Every page is filled with brilliance.

2) Parties and Bureaucracies
Martin Shefter. 1994. Political Parties and the State. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

3) Realignments
James L. Sundquist, Dynamics of the Party System: Alignment and Realignment of Political Parties in the United States, 1983

Block 8 (16:30 – 18:00)
B. Aggregation
Pradeep Chhibber & Ken Kollman, 2004. The Formation of National Party Systems: Federalism and Party Competition in Canada, Great Britain, India, and the United States, selections 71-80, 83-100 (strongly recommended), 160-174.

C. Nationalization
Richard S. Katz. 1973. “The Attribution of Variance in Electoral Returns: An Alternate Measurement Technique.” American Political Science Review 67:817-828.
Daniele Caramani, The Nationalization of Politics, 2004.

D. Development of a political field
Pierre Bourdieu, The State Nobility
Raka Ray, Fields of Protest

E. Systems Processes
Talcott Parsons, “On the Concept of Power”
Niklas Luhmann, Die Politik der Gesellschaft.

VII. CONCLUSIONS
A. The place of Functionalism in a theory of politics
B. Interstate relations and the structural theory
C. Empirical Projects