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American
Political Development
Charles A.
Kromkowski
University of Virginia
cak5u@virginia.edu
This seminar is designed as an introduction to the general approaches, the
temporal eras and the variables associated with the description, explanation
and theoretization of American political development.
I.
Studying Political Development
Week 1: Description, Explanation and Theoretization about
Political Change over Time and Space
· The
Comparative Approach
· Path
Dependency
· The
Macro-Micro Debate
Supplemental:
Douglass C. North, Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic
Performance, (1990).
Week 2: The Creation and Maintenance of Collective
Authority
· Levels of
Analysis
·
Consensual or Coercive Orders
James M. Buchanan, The Limits of Liberty, (1975).
David Heckathorn and Steven Maser, "Bargaining and Constitutional
Contracts," AJPS, (1987), 31(1): 142-68.
Elinor Ostrom, Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for
Collective Action, (1990).
Fritz Sharpf, "Coordination in Hierarchies and Networks," in Games
and Hierarchies, (1993), pp. 125-65.
Supplemental:
Jack Knight, Institutions and Social Conflict, (1992).
Week 3: Approaches to State
Development
Samuel P. Huntington, "Political Modernization and Political
Decay," World Politics, (1965), 17: 386-480.
Samuel P. Huntington, "Political Modernization: America vs.
Europe," World Politics, (1966), 18: 378-414.
Leonard Binder et al., eds, Crises and Sequences in Political Development,
(1971).
Gabriel A. Almond, Scott C. Flanagan and Robert J. Mundt, eds., Crisis,
Choice, and Change: Historical Studies of Political Development, (1973).
Raymond Grew, "The Crises and Their Sequences"; and J. Rogers
Hollingsworth, "The United States," in Crises of Political
Development in Europe and the United States, (1973), pp. 3-39; 163-95.
II.
Political Development Over Time
Week 4: 1689-1789
Betty Kemp, King and Parliament, (1957), pp. 7-103.
Jack Greene, Peripheries and Center, (1988).
Edmund S. Morgan, Inventing the People: The Rise of Popular Sovereignty in
England and American, (1988).
Supplemental:
Douglass C. North and Barry Weingast, "Constitutions and Commitment: The
Evolution of Institutions Governing Public Choice in Seventeenth-Century
England, JEH, (1989), XLIX: 803-32.
Jack P. Greene, "Legislative Turnover in British America, 1696 to 1775:
A Quantitative Analysis," WMQ, (1981), 38: 442-63.
Calvin Jillson and Rick K. Wilson, Congressional Dynamics: Structure,
Coordination, and Choice in the First American Congress, 1774-1789,
(1995).
Week 5: 1790-1860
James S. Young, The Washington Community, 1800-1828, (1966).
Lee Benson, The Concept of Jacksonian Democracy, (1961).
L. Ray Gunn, The Decline of Authority: Public Economic Policy and
Political Development, 1800-1860, (1988).
Supplemental:
Herbert Ershkowitz and William Shade, "Consensus or Conflict: Political
Behavior in the State Legislatures during the Jacksonian Era," Journal
of American History, (1971), 58: 591-621.
Week 6: 1859-1877
Richard Bensel, Yankee Leviathan: The Origins of Central State Authority
in America, 1859-1877, (1990).
Supplemental:
Charles C. Bright, "The State in the United States During the Nineteenth
Century," in Charles Bright and Susan Harding, eds., Statemaking and
Social Movements, (1984).
Week 7: 1865-1917
Gerald Berk, Alternative Tracks: The Constitution of American Industrial
Order, 1865-1917, (1995).
Week 8: 1877-1920
Stephen Skowronek, Building a New American State: The Expansion of
National Administrative Capacities, 1877-1920, (1982).
Week 9: 1900-1940
Kenneth Finegold and Theda Skocpol, State and Party in America's New Deal,
(1995).
David Plotke, Building a Democratic Order: Reshaping American Liberalism
in the 1930s and 1940s, (1996).
Supplemental:
Robert Higg, Crisis and Leviathan: Critical Episodes in the Growth of
American Government, (1987).
James C. Scott, "Corruption, Machine Politics, and Political
Change," American Political Science Review, (1969), 63: 1142-58.
III. The
Search for the Grand Dynamic
Week 10: Ideology
Louis Hartz, The Liberal Tradition in America, (1955)
Karen Orren, Belated Feudalism, (1991)
Supplemental:
Arthur M. Schlesinger, The Cycles of American History, (1986), pp.
3-48.
Week 11: Voters and Electoral Realignment
Walter Dean Burnham, Critical Elections and the Mainsprings of American
Politics, (1970)
Supplemental:
James A. Morone, The Democratic Wish: Popular Participation and the Limits
of American Government, (1990).
Week 12: Entrepreneurs and Executive Leadership
Stephen Skowronek, The Politics Presidents Make, (1994).
Week 13: Cultural Divisions and Change
Richard Bensel, Sectionalism and American Political Development, 1880-1980,
(1984).
Supplemental:
Robert H. Wiebe, Self-Rule: A Cultural History of American Democracy,
(1995).
Week 14: Revenue-Driven Development
Margaret Levi, Of Rule and Revenue, (1988).
Supplemental:
Dall Forsythe, Taxation and Political Change in the Young Nation,
1781-1833, (1977).
James D. Savage, Balanced Budgets and American Politics, (1988).
Week 15: Conclusions and Future Research
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