Although India now appears to have at long last embarked on economic growth, democracy was a reality in the midst of grinding poverty from 1947 to the present. Capitalism and democracy were now the inexorable wave of the future.
Winners appear to keep winning, losers keep losing.
Moreover, the successful democracies vary considerably in their political cultures, their systems of government, their linkages between civil society and the state. The first half of the course is devoted to broad comparative analysis based on subjects such as political culture, political participation, political parties, state structures, political executives. Throughout we will be concerned with democracy and democratization and the varieties of political life that exist in stable democracies as well as in those nations attempting to create viable democratic institutions and economic development. Thursday, August 31. The Comparative Approach to Politics, Nation-state, Government, and Governing.