Aufbauseminar Contemporary challenges to representative government

Is our democracy in danger? Do governments still have the freedom to meet the demands of their voters? Are political parties still representing citizens’ preferences? These are the types of questions that make the study of political science appealing. Therefore, I believe, it is important to offer BA students an understanding of what this discipline has to tell about these issues. This course aims to present some of the main insights from the scholarly literature about how changes in the global economy or in the post-industrial society may (or may not) affect the functioning of our democracies. The course is conceived as a ‘core course’ in the thematic module ‘Systems and Structures’ of the BA program. The main teaching objective is to develop students’ critical thinking regarding what drives or constrains governments’ action. The learning outcome must be that, in a given case, students can identify and describe the tension that a government may face between its electoral and institutional commitments. The more successful students, moreover, can also be expected to develop ideas for researching how governments deal with that tension. After a brief introduction about how political science contributes to the public debates about democracy, the course starts by characterizing western governments as ‘representative’ and identifying political parties as the actors responsible for a successful combination of representation and government, and thus as the actors that are determinant for the proper functioning of our democracies. The course then proceeds with the presentation of the current challenges faced by parties and how these challenges may in turn affect the functioning of democracy. The challenges are divided into those coming from the developments in the international political economy and those from the continuously changing society. For both types of challenges, moreover, examples of empirical research are presented finding both evidence of parties succeeding as well as evidence of parties failing to adapt to the challenges. The question about contemporary parties failing to link citizens’ preferences to policies is left open to discussion, just like it is in the literature. Classes will be given mainly in the classic lecture format, with sessions of two hours each, and divided in four thematic days of three lectures each. The teaching language would preferably be English. The more substantive classes will be given in the first part of the 6- hour day, whereas discussions about current events will take place in the last session of the day. Day 1- Introduction to the responsive-responsible dilemma of representative government Lecture 1: Presentation of the issues raised in public and academic debates about the crisis of democracy; Introduction to the responsive-responsible dilemma; preliminary overview of the contemporary challenges to representative government. - Der Spiegel (2011) ‚Das Ende der Politik‘. Spiegel Online: Politik, 13- 08-2011. - Mair, P. (2009). -Representative versus responsible government.- MPIfG Working Paper 09/8. Lecture 2: Historical origins of the responsive-responsible dilemma as illustrated by Sartori (1976); introduction of the legitimizing principles behind representative government. - Sartori, G. (1976). Parties and party systems: A framework for analysis, Cambridge London New York & Melbourne: Cambridge University Press. Chapter 1 - Scharpf, F.W. (1975). Demokratietheorie zwischen Utopie und Anpassung, Kronberg: Scriptor-Verlag. Pg 21-23, 29-31 (facultative). Lecture 3: The responsive-responsible dilemma in Germany today (Zohlnöfer & Engler 2014; The Economist). In-class exercise: read the interview in the Spiegel article and try to grasp in which passages the minister talks as a representative of its party and when as a ‘responsible’ exponent of the government. - Der Spiegel (2014) ‘Schrder macht mir keinen Stress’. Rubrik: Wirtschaft; S. 67, Ausg. 11, 10-03-2014. - The Economist (2014) ‘Germany’s government: Easy politics, bad policies’, Europe: 26-04-2014. - Zohlnhfer, R. & Engler, F. (2014) ‘Courting the Voters? Policy Implications of Party Competition for the Reform Output of the Second Merkel Government’, West European Politics, 23(4): 284-303. Day 2- The political-economic challenges to representative governments Lecture 4: Introduction to the debate about the compatibility between democracy and capitalism and presentation of one of the theories about how globalization should affect democracy. - Merkel, W. (2014) ‘Is capitalism compatible with democracy?’, Zeitschrift für Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft, 8(2): 109-128 - Rodrik, D. (2000). -How far will international economic integration go?- The Journal of Economic Perspectives 14(1): 177-186. Lecture 5: Introduction to what has been by empirical research about the relationship between globalization and democracy (and to what is left to be discovered) - Ezrow, L. & T. Hellwig (2014) ‘Responding to Voters or Responding to Markets? Political Parties and Public Opinion in an Era of Globalization’, International Studies Quartely, 58(4): 816-827. - Potrafke, N. (2009). -Did globalization restrict partisan politics? An empirical evaluation of social expenditures in a panel of OECD countries.- Public Choice 140(1): 105-124. Lecture 6: Illustration of how governments are indeed constrained by their international commitments, like for example in the case pf the Tsipras government in Greece. Similar situations however already occurred in the 1970’s, like in the UK in 1976. Discussion: are governments today really more constrained than in the past? - Harmon, M.D. (1997) ‘The 1976 UKIMF crisis: The markets, the Americans, and the IMF’, Contemporary British Politics, 11(3): 1-17. - The Economist (2015) ‘Greece and the euro: Hitting the ground running backwards’, 14-02-2015. Day 3- The societal challenges to political representation Lecture 7: The dis-identification of voters from parties. Illustration of how this process has been developing in Germany and Europe. Discussion of how this process can be troublesome for parties’ representative function - Dalton, R.J. (2014) ‘Interpreting Partisan Dealignment in Germany’, German Politics, 23(1-2): 134-144. - Van Biezen, I. & T. Poguntke (2014) ‘The decline of membership-based politics’, Party Politics, 20(2): 205-216. Lecture 8: Problematize what has been discussed in the previous lecture: are we witnessing a failing representation or a change in kind? The readings present both a theoretical argument as well as empirical findings - Saward, M. (2008). -Making representations: modes and strategies of political parties”. European Review, 16(3): 271-286. - Thomassen, J. & C. van Ham (2014) ‘Failing Political Representation or a Change in Kind? Models of Representation and Empirical Trends in Europe’, West European Politics, 37(2): 400-419. Lecture 9: Discussion of a more popular topic: populism. How do we place this phenomenon in the picture we sketched so far about the current state of representative democracy? - Kriesi, H. (2014) ‘The Populist Challenge’, West European Politics, 37(2): 361-378. - The Guardian (2015) ‘The problem with populism (by Cas Mudde)’, 17-02-2015. Day 4- How to study the functioning of representative democracy Lecture 10: The complexity of the process linking voters to parties and policies. Conceptualization of responsiveness as a complex chain. Discussion of the circumstances under which parties can influence public policy. - Powell, G. B. (2004). -The chain of responsiveness.- Journal of Democracy 15(4): 91-105. - Schmidt, M.G. (1996) ‘When parties matter: A review of the possibilities and limits of partisan influence on public policy’, European Journal of Political Research, 30(2): 155-183. Lecture 11: After having conceptualized responsiveness, we look at two studies that claim to have studied the chain or have tested some of the theories we discussed so far. To what extent are these attempts satisfying? - Dalton, R.J., D.M. Farrell and I. McAllister (2010). Political parties and the democratic linkage: how parties organize democracy, Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press: pg 3-14. - Kitschelt, H. and P. Rehm (2011). Party Alignments. Change and Continuity, Paper prepared for the Conference on -The Future of Democratic Capitalism”, University of Zurich, Zurich, June 16-18. Lecture 12: Discussion of a political event of the week/month. The topic will be agreed upon before-hand so that students come prepared to class. Bemerkung DIESES SEMINAR WIRD VON HERRN Johannes Karremanns vom Europäischen Hochschulinsitut, Florenz ANGEBOTEN. FÜR NACHFRAGEN ZUM SEMINARINHALT STEHT HERR Karremans DIREKT BEREIT Johannes.Karremans@eui.eu Seminarverantwortliche an der HHU, Eva Heidbreder Leistungsnachweis Examination would ideally consist of a 3000 words essay and a written exam. In the essay students will be asked to choose any type of policy and provide a proper illustration of the factors that drove and/or constrained the government in pursuing that policy. The choice of the policy should however be made in consultation with the teacher. The written exam should consist of three open questions about the broad themes of the course. Grading will be based on the extent to which the student is capable of developing coherent, accurate and elaborate answers. The highest grades should be given to those students that prove to be able to accurately present the theoretical arguments about the challenges to representative government, to link these arguments to political events and, possibly, to present valid ideas about how to study government behavior in light of those challenges. Mediocre grades will be given to students that grasped the theoretical arguments but are not capable to link it to political events. Unsatisfactory performance, instead, will depend on an insufficient understanding of the theoretical arguments. Sozialwiss. - Medien.Pol. (BA, PO 2013) Examination would ideally consist of a 3000 words essay and a written exam. In the essay students will be asked to choose any type of policy and provide a proper illustration of the factors that drove and/or constrained the government in pursuing that policy. The choice of the policy should however be made in consultation with the teacher. The written exam should consist of three open questions about the broad themes of the course. Grading will be based on the extent to which the student is capable of developing coherent, accurate and elaborate answers. The highest grades should be given to those students that prove to be able to accurately present the theoretical arguments about the challenges to representative government, to link these arguments to political events and, possibly, to present valid ideas about how to study government behavior in light of those challenges. Mediocre grades will be given to students that grasped the theoretical arguments but are not capable to link it to political events. Unsatisfactory performance, instead, will depend on an insufficient understanding of the theoretical arguments. Universität Düsseldorf SoSe 2016 Jun.-Prof. Dr. Heidbreder Eva Jun