Western liberal democracy, historically based on a special relation between state and society has become an implicit or explicit model for many societies world-wide. While the model has become under criticism within Western societies, its main facets are still universally promoted under the label ‘good governance’. But what are the essentials of this model and how is democracy linked to the evolution of the modern state and its specific features (nation-state, accountability, democracy, citizenship, rule of law, secularism). And which aspects can work in different non-Western contexts which are often characterized by strong social and ethnic heterogeneity or patterns of ‘governance without a state’, i.e. situations with a lack of monopoly of state violence. Which patterns explain the emergence of viable forms of democratic rule and does the regime type really matter for socio-economic development?
The seminar will not present a comprehensive overview but rather select specific theoretical aspects and highlight specific empirical contexts in discussing these issues. Teaching roles will be shared by the course convenor and selected research fellows of the Duisburg-based Centre for Global Cooperation (www.gcr21.org). The seminar will thus present a combination of different perspectives and provide an intellectually stimulating environment to reflect about the manifold challenges of democratic governance.
The seminar will have a total of 30 hours of meeting time and we will thus not meet each week for 4 hours. The precise seminar schedule is as follows:
17.10. 10-12h; 24.10. 10-14h; 31.10. 10-14h; 7.11. 12-14h; 14.11.-10-14h; 21.11. 10-12h; 28.11. 10-14h; 12.12. 10-14h; 19.12. 10-14h |
