Teaching Fellow for Professor Steven Levitsky.

This course offers an introcution to major concepts and theories in comparative politics, as well as the basic tools of comparative analysis.  It examines competing theoretical approaches (Modernization, Marxist, cultural, institutionalist, and agency-centered) to four important phenomena in world politics: (1) economic development; (2) democratization; (3) revolution; and (4) ethnic conflict.  It also explores recent debates about the role of political institutions, civil society, and the state in shaping political outcomes.  The course draws on cases from Africa (Congo, Liberia, Rwanda, South Africa), the Americas (Chile, United States), East Asia (South Korea, Taiwan), South Asia (India), Western Europe (Italy, Germany, Great Britain, Sweden), Eastern Europe (Russia, Yugoslavia), and the Middle East (Iran, Iraq, Lebanon).