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Department of Political Science & Public Policy
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MA in Political Science 2008-2010
Course Description
Year I – Semester I
Two course units.
MAPS 01: Approaches to Political Analysis: (45 Credit Hours)
This module is designed to introduce students to the main currents of contemporary political and social theories that are necessary for political science analysis from a broad social science perspective. The key areas of discussion would be Weberian approach to social and political analysis, political modernization and political culture perspectives, Marxist and post-Marxist approaches, post-structuralist, post-modern and post-colonial perspectives, feminist political and social theory.
Key Readings
Foucault, Michel, 1980, Power/Knowledge, Selected Interviews and other Writings 1972-1977, New York: Pantheon.
Gerth, H.H and C Wright Mills, 1958, From Max Weber, Essays in Sociology, New York, Oxford University Press.
Lipset, Samuel Martin, The Political Man, The Social Bases of Politics, New York: Anchor Books.
Poulantzas, Nicos, 1973, Political Power and Social Classes, London: Verso.
Susser, Bernard, 1992, Approaches to the Study of Politics, New York: Macmillan.
Yuval-Davis, Nira, 1997, Gender and Nation, SAGE.
MAPS 02: Key Ideas of Democracy: (45 Credit Hours)
In this course, students will learn conceptual foundations as well as some key themes that are central to the construction of the idea and practices of democracy. Themes will include: democracy and consent (Hobbes and Locke); contractarian foundations of democracy (Hobbes and Locke to John Rawls), democracy and popular will (Rousseau); dilemmas of democracy in terms of majorities and minorities (Mill and Tocqueville); critique of liberal democracy (Lenin and Schmidt), communitarian critique of liberal democracy (Michael Walzer and communitarians), Feminist approaches to democracy and citizenship, liberal democracy and the end of history (Huntington and Fukuyama).
Key Readings
Bhargava, Rajiv, Amiya Kumar Bagchi and S. Sudarshan (eds.), 1999, Multicutuaralism, Liberalism and Democracy, New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Habermas, Jurgen, 1989, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Kymlicka, Will, 1995, Multicultural Citizenship: A Liberal Theory of Minority Rights, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Mahajan, Gurpeet, (ed.), 1998, Democracy, Difference and Social Justice, New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Rawls, John, 1971, A Theory of Justice, Harvard University Press.
Sandel, M, (ed), 1984, Liberalism and its Critics, Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Walzer, Michael, 1985, Spheres of Justice: A Defence of Pluralism and Equality, Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Young, Iris Marion, 1990, Justice and the Politics of Difference, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Schmitt, Carl, 1985, The Crisis of Parliamentary Democracy, Cambridge, MA.MIT Press.
MAPS 3: Guided Reading Programme ( six weeks)
This will be an any of the following thematic areas: (i) Political and social change in Sri Lanka, (ii) Asian debates on democracy and political change, (iii) Current issues in political philosophy, (iv)Feminist political theory and analysis, (v)Conflict and peace processes.
Method of Evaluation : Literature review/ book reviews.
Year I – Semester II
MAPS 04 :Political Change in Comparative Perspectives (From ‘Modernization’ to ‘Third Wave’):
In this module, students will survey the processes of political change in non-Western societies. The focus is on the following themes: Patterns of political change in the non-Western world; Varieties of state-building in multi-ethnic societies; democratization in post-colonial contexts; Political transition in post-socialist and post-authoritarian societies; issues of state building and democratic consolidation.
Key Readings
Alavi, Hamza, 1972, “The State in Post-Colonial Societies : Pakistan and Bangladesh”, New Left Review, 72.
Almond, Gabriel and James Coleman (eds.), 1960, The Politics of the Developing Areas , New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Cammack, Paul, 1997, Capitalism and Democracy in the Third World: The Doctrine for Political Development, London and Washington: Leicester University Press.
Chatterjee, Partha, (ed.), State and Politics in India, New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Diamond, Larry, J.J. Linz and S.M.Lipset (eds.), 1989, Democracy in Developing Countries, Vol, 3, Asia, Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers.
Held, David, 1993, Prospects for Democracy, North South East West, Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Huntington, Samuel P, 1991, The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century, London: University of Oklahoma Press.
Putnam, Robert, (ed.), 2002, Democracies in Flux, The Evolution of Social Capital in Contemporary Society, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
Prezeworski, Adam, et al, 1995, Sustainable Democarcy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
MAPS 05:Democracy, Conflict and Political Economy of Development:
This course will explore the complex relationship between political change, democracy and development. It will focus on the following themes: Politics of development; Political economy and social bases of democracy and authoritarianism, democracy and issues of economic and social justice; local governance and local democracy; democracy, corruption and clientalist politics; ‘Democratization’ of development.
Key Readings
Evans, Peter, 1995, Embedded Autonomy: States and Industrial Transformation, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Moore, Barrington, Jr.1965, Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy, New York: Harper and Row.
Peris, Jones and Kristian Stokke, 2005, Democratising Development, The Politics of Socio-Economic Rights in South Africa, Leiden and Boston: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers.
Putnam, Robert, 1993, Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy, Princeton University Press.
Rueschemeyer, DD, E Hubert-Stephens and JD Stephens, 1992, Capitalist Development and Democracy, Cambridge: Polity Press.
Sen, Amartya, 1999, Development as Freedom, New York: Random House.
Stiglitz, Joseph, 2002, Globalisation and its Discontents, New York: W.W.Norton & Co.
Year II- Semester I
MAPS 6: Conflict, Civil War and Peace Processes:
This course unit will examine a number of internal conflicts that have emerged in the process of state and nation-formation, making complex demands on the existing institutions and practices of governance. It will focus on the experience of Asian examples -- Sri Lanka, Nepal, Indonesia and Bangladesh -- that have been experiencing civil war as well as conflict resolution processes. The module seems to enable students to understand how different countries societies have in recent past coped with, with or without success, the challenges of internal conflict and peace restoration in different ways.
Key Readings
Aspinal, Edward, 2006, The Helsinki Agreement: A More Promising Basis for Peace in Aceh?, Washington DC: The East-West Centre.
Darby, John and Roger Mac Ginty, (eds.), The Management of Peace Process, New York: Palgrave.
Goodhand, Jonathan and Bart Klem, 2005, Aid, Conflict and Peacebuilding in Sri Lanka 2000-2005, Colombo: The Asia Foundation.
Hampson, Fen Oliver, 1996, Nurturing Peace: Why Peace Settlements Succeed or Fail? Washington DC: USIP.
Hartzell, Caroline, A, 1999, “ Explaining the Stability of Negotiated Settlements to Intrastate Wars”, Journal of Conflict Resolution, Vol.43, No.1, pp.3-20.
Heraclides, Alexis, 1997, “ The Ending of Unending Conflicts: Separatist Wars”, Millenium: Journal of International Studies, vol.26, No.3, pp.679-703.
Lederach, John Paul, 1995, Preparing for Peace: Conflict Transformation Across Cultures, New York: Syracuse University Press.
Miall, Hugh, Oliver Ramsbotham and Tom Woodhouse, (eds), 2004, Contemporary Conflict Resolution, London: Polity Press.
Walter, Barbara, 1999, “ Designing Transition from Civil War: Demobilization, Democratization, and Commitment to Peace”, International Security, 24:1, pp.127-155.
Uyangoda, Jayadeva, 2007, Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka: Changing Dynamics, Washington DC: The East West Centre.
Zartman, William I, 1995, Elusive Peace: Negotiating an End to Civil War, Washington DC: The Brookings Institution.
MAPS 07-Contemporary Political Change in South and South-East Asia:
In this course, students will examine closely the experience and challenges that South and South-East Asian countries encountered in the democratic transition and consolidation. The themes will include democracy and state-building in plural societies (India, Sri Lanka and Malaysia), challenges in the transition to democracy (Nepal, Indonesia, and Thailand), dilemmas in democratic consolidation (Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Indonesia, Thailand), democracy in the context of civil war (Sri Lanka and Nepal).
Key Readings:
Ahmad, Aijaz, 2000, Lineages of the Present: Ideology and Politics in Contemporary South Asia, London: Verso.
Brass, Paul and Achin Vanaik (ed.), 2002, Competing Nationalism in South Asia, New Delhi: Orient Longman.
Chandra, Kanchan, 2004, Why Ethnic Parties Suceed, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Chatterjee, Partha, 2004, The Politics of the Governed: Reflections on Popular Politics in Most of the World, New Delhi: Permanent Black.
Gahi, Yash, (ed.), 2000, Autonomy and Ethnicity: Negotiating Competing Claims in Multi-Ethnic Societies, Cambridge University Press.
Kaviraj, Sudiptha (ed.), 2000, Politics in India, New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Kohli, Atul, 1990, Democracy and Discontent: India’s Growing Crisis of Governability, Cambridge University Press.
Krishna, Sankaran, 1999, Postcolonial Insecurities, India, Sri Lanka and the Question of Nationhood, Minneapolis: Univesity of Minnesota Press.
Scott, David, 1999, Refashioning Futures, Criticism after Post-coloniality, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Varshney, Ashutosh, 2002, Ethnic Conflict and Civic Life, New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
MAPS 8: Methodologies and Approaches to Social Science Research (45 Hours)
this course has two components. in the first, students will be introduced to some key philosophical/epistemological issues in, and approaches to, research and knowledge production. In this component of the course, students will also learn how varieties of social science research methods, both qualitative and quantitative, that can be applied in political science research.
In the second part, students will learn how to write their research proposals, focusing particularly on research problem, theoretical framework, approaches and methods. At the end of the course, students will be required to present their research proposals.
Key Readings.
berger, Peter L and Thomas Luckmann, 1967, The Social Construction of Reality, New York: Anchor Press.
Crotty, Michael, 1998, Foundations of Social Research, London: SAGE.
Feyerabend, Paul, 1993, Against Method, Verso: London.
Kuhn, Thomas, 1962, The Structures of Scientific Revolutions, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Mahajan Gurpeeth, 2004, Explanation and Understanding in Human Sciences, New Delhi: SAGE.
Philips, D.C.1987, Philosophy, Science and Social Inquiry, Oxford:Pergamon Press.
Popper, Karl, 2002, The Logic of Scientific Discovery, London:Routledge.
Year II – Research and Thesis Writing
Duration 9 months
Each student will be guided by an academic advisor in research and thesis writing. Students are encouraged to select research topics that require field research. The length of the thesis should be between 30,000 to 50,000 words.