Mar 28, 2024  
2019-2020 College of Liberal Arts (Admitted Fall 2019/Spring 2020) 
    
2019-2020 College of Liberal Arts (Admitted Fall 2019/Spring 2020) [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

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PSCI 304 - Democracy and Authoritarianism

4 credits
The near doubling of democracies in two decades beginning in the 1970s raises significant theoretical questions.  How is a democracy made, why do some last, and importantly why do they sometimes fail?  Becoming a democracy (democratization) is one of the most dynamic and complex processes studied in political science and is core to the concept of political development.  Likewise, democratization’s predecessor authoritarianism is now often seen as its successor.  The attempt to create a democracy is at once an ancient and contemporary effort and in the 21st century we are seeing significant institutional engineering that is creating what some have called hybrid democracy, or semi-authoritarianism.  Why is this happening?  This seminar investigates democratization and authoritarianism by considering the theoretical literature, and critically analyzing variety of cases of successful democratization, unsuccessful democratization leading to authoritarianism, and “yet to be determines” cases that span the globe. CLA-Breadth/Social Science, CLA-Writing Intensive



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