Comparative Area Studies

Bachelor 2022/2023

Type: Compulsory course (HSE University and Kyung Hee University Double Degree Programme in Economics and Politics in Asia)

Area of studies: Foreign Regional Studies

Delivered by: Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs

Where: Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs

When: 1 year, 3, 4 module

Mode of studies: offline

Open to: students of one campus

Instructors: Игнатов Александр Александрович

Language: English

ECTS credits: 4

Contact hours: 84

Full Syllabus Ask Question

Abstract

This is the two-term course Comparative Area Studies, a required course for the Politics and Economics of Asia, the HSE-KIC dual degree program students. This course aims to provide students with basic knowledge and analytical tools for a more concrete understanding of countries and regions in the world by introducing two major disciplines in the social sciences, i.e., comparative politics and area studies. Beginning with reviewing key analytical concepts such as institution and culture, students will explore a range of comparative cases in an attempt to explain various key political, economic and social outcomes in our time including state failure, ethnic conflict, economic development, and democratization.

Learning Objectives

Through the course, students are expected to acknowledge the benefit of the comparative perspective in approaching issues in specific areas of interest, as well as the risk of superficial and non-contextual comparative approaches. In the first term (Module 3), the foundation of a modern nation-state will be thoroughly reviewed with a particular focus on state-building, national integration, political economic system, and democracy. In the second term (Module 4), more concrete cases of democratization, dictatorship, economic development, welfare states, globalization, and so forth, will be discussed from comparative perspectives. Students will be able to exercise the comparative area studies approach by doing a team research project.
This offering will also contribute to bolstering the academic vigor of those students who are interested in political science or area studies in general, or who aspire to pursue it as their college major.

Expected Learning Outcomes

Students will be able to define what comparison is and why it is used in explaining political and social phenomena, how comparison is actually used in comparative analysis
Students also will be able to analyze the challenges the advanced democracies have been facing and what solutions are available with them.
Students should be able to define: 1. The goal of the course. a. What comparative area studies is b. What is the benefit of comparative area studies
Students will be able to analyze nonstate actors violence that can take several forms; and that it can be explained by referring to institutions, ideology, and individual personalities; and that responding to violence presents a dilemma for modern states.
Students will be able to analyze the characteristics of underdeveloped countries and how imperialism and colonialism have affected their state, societal, and economic institutions.
Students will be able to analyze the nation-building process and the ways in which national identity is formed and binds people together. Students also need to understand the cause of ethnic and national conflict.
Students will be able to apply comparative approaches and methods to provided cases. The use of concept and conceptualization should be understood properly as the basis of comparative study.
Students will be able to define democracy and explain its components while explaining why democracy has emerged in some cases and not in others. Students also are required to distinguish different democratic systems as well as to evaluate them comparatively.
Students will be able to define how states are involved in the management of markets and property. Students are also required to analyze different political-economic systems and to compare them in terms of how each of them provides public goods and collective benefits.
Students will be able to define the concept of the state as a central institution in comparative studies. Students can also analyze how states can vary in autonomy and capacity, and how this can shape their power.
Students will be able to describe and understand how political globalization challenges sovereignty; how economic globalization transforms markets and property within and between countries; and how societal globalization undermines old identities and creates new ones. Students are also expected to evaluate and critique globalization and its aftermath.
Students will be able to describe the major characteristics of developed democracies and to analyze how political, economic, and social institutions differ among them.
Students will be able to discuss the effects of state control over markets and property and how post-communist states have transformed their economic and political institutions.
Students will be able to distinguish different type of non-democratic rules and evaluate them comparatively.
Students will be able to distinguish the various aspects of political violence outside the control of the states.
Students will be able to explain how post-colonial countries have suffered from ethnic and national division, limited economic growth, and weak states.
Students will be able to explain the foundations of communist ideology and to describe how communist systems worked.
Students will be able to explain the institutional foundations and determinants of poverty and wealth, as well as democracy.
Students will be able to explain the ways in which non-democratic regimes maintain their power.

Course Contents

Course Overview
What is Comparison?
How to compare?
The State
Nations and Society
Political Economy
Democratic Regimes
Non-Democratic Regimes
Political Violence
Advanced Democracies
Communism and Post-Communism
Less-developed Countries
Newly-developed Countries
Globalization and Comparative Area Studies

Assessment Elements

Seminar performance
Final Exam
The exam is in a test form. The exam is conducted on the Socrative platform (https://socrative.com/). You must connect to the conference 10 minutes before the start. The student's computer must meet the following requirements: must be equipped with a working camera and microphone. To participate in the exam, the student must: turn on the camera and microphone. During the exam, students are prohibited turning off the camera, moving away from the computer, communicating with other people. A short-term communication disruption during the exam is considered a communication disruption of less than a minute. Long-term communication disruption during the exam is considered a violation of a minute or more. In case of a long-term communication disruption, the student cannot continue to participate in the exam. The retake procedure is similar to the the procedure described above.
Lecture attendence
Seminar attendence
Students are required to attend in-class meetings throughout the module and participate in discussions. Two absenses with no are permissiable and don't require justification; in all other cases a student should provide justifying documents
Midterm Exam
The exam is in a test form. The exam is conducted on the Socrative platform (https://socrative.com/). You must connect to the conference 10 minutes before the start. The student's computer must meet the following requirements: must be equipped with a working camera and microphone. To participate in the exam, the student must: turn on the camera and microphone. During the exam, students are prohibited turning off the camera, moving away from the computer, communicating with other people. A short-term communication disruption during the exam is considered a communication disruption of less than a minute. Long-term communication disruption during the exam is considered a violation of a minute or more. In case of a long-term communication disruption, the student cannot continue to participate in the exam. The retake procedure is similar to the the procedure described above.

Interim Assessment

2022/2023 3rd module
0.1 * Seminar attendence + 0.1 * Lecture attendence + 0.3 * Midterm Exam + 0.2 * Seminar performance + 0.3 * Final Exam
2022/2023 4th module
0.3 * Final Exam + 0.3 * Midterm Exam + 0.2 * Seminar performance + 0.1 * Lecture attendence + 0.1 * Seminar attendence

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

Ahram, A. I., Köllner, P., & Sil, R. (2018). Comparative Area Studies : Methodological Rationales and Cross-Regional Applications. New York, NY, United States of America: Oxford University Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1666244
Bank, A. (DE-576)187604169. (2015). Comparative Area Studies and Middle East Politics after the Arab Uprisings / André Bank. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edswao&AN=edswao.444964142

Recommended Additional Bibliography

Gussi, A. (2015). Political uses of memory and the state in post-communism. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsbas&AN=edsbas.8C338563
Hudson, C., & Barendregt, B. A. (2018). Globalization and Modernity in Asia : Performative Moments. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1879462
Jaussaud, J., & Rey, S. (2018). FDI to Japan and Trade Flows: A Comparison of BRICs, Asian Tigers and Developed Countries. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsbas&AN=edsbas.17D0B942
Karlson, N. (DE-588)1030186464, (DE-627)734900635, (DE-576)170615014. (2018). Statecraft and Liberal Reform in Advanced Democracies by Nils Karlson. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edswao&AN=edswao.494017406
Kemnitz, A., & Roessler, M. (2017). Economic development, democratic institutions, and repression in non-democratic regimes: Theory and evidence. CEPIE Working Papers. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsrep&AN=edsrep.p.zbw.tudcep.0417
Liu, H. V. (DE-588)1069169951, (DE-627)82146552X, (DE-576)42846615X, aut. (2019). The political economy of a rising China in southeast asia Malaysia’s response to the Belt and Road Initiative Hong Liu, Guanie Lim. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edswao&AN=edswao.1663559279
Maggetti, M., & Braun, D. (2015). Comparative Politics : Theoretical and Methodological Challenges. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1105387
Masoud Motllebi, & Jamal Khan Mohammadi. (2017). The Congruence of State and Nation and its Effects on Economic Development of Societies: The Comparative – longitudinal Study during the Years between 1990 and 2004. Dulat/Pizhūhī, (9), 195. https://doi.org/10.22054/TSSQ.2017.13452.121
MISHRA, S. K. (2018). Are democratic regimes antithetical to globalization? Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsbas&AN=edsbas.372F5314
Patrick Ziltener, Daniel Künzler, & André Walter. (2017). Research Note: Measuring the Impacts of Colonialism: A New Data Set for the Countries of Africa and Asia. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsbas&AN=edsbas.D647CD61
Political violence in South Asia edited by Ali Riaz, Zobaida Nasreen and Fahmida Zaman. (2019). Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edswao&AN=edswao.513664688
Rethinking Transnationalism in the Global World: Contested State, Society, Border, and the People in between. (2019). https://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12594
Sparks, C. (2018). Post-Communism, Democratisation and the Media: (Nearly) Thirty Years On. Javnost-The Public, 25(1/2), 144–151. https://doi.org/10.1080/13183222.2018.1423979
Weber, H. V. (DE-588)1079389768, (DE-576)452434815, aut. (2019). Age structure and political violence : a re-assessment of the “youth bulge” hypothesis / Hannes Weber, University of Mannheim. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edswao&AN=edswao.517806029

Authors

KIM SUNIL -
IGNATOV ALEKSANDR ALEKSANDROVICH
Базарова Евгения Сергеевна

Course Syllabus