| Bemerkung: |
Since 1989, Western liberal democracy, historically based on a special relation between state and society became a template for the rest of the world, and its main facets have been universally promoted under the label ‘good governance’. Throughout the last decade, this liberal model has come under attack both by populist movements within core Western regimes, and through the emergence of ‘counter-hegemonic’ models of state, regime and governance in the Global South, leading to what some perceive as the emergence of a Post-Western order.
A first goal of the seminar is thus to understand the essentials of this liberal model and why Europe succeeded in establishing it as a standard to the rest of the world. We will thus start with different approaches towards analyzing the evolution and transformation of modern statehood and then deepen our understanding of the specific dimensions of the model (nation-state, accountability, democracy, equality and citizenship, rule of law, secularism). A second goal consists in understanding limits and contemporary challenges to the efforts of emulating these models across different non-Western contexts. This will include a discussion of the prospects for alternative modes of governance. Students will have opportunity to relate these debates to empirical (country) case studies.
The course focus is on domestic aspects and drivers of politics. International actors and structures obviously matter as well, whether in the West or the Global South, and we will reserve a final course bloc for understanding a variety of international-national linkages in shaping statehood, democratization and governance.
The seminar is open to students of MA Internationale Beziehungen und Entwicklungspolitik as well as MA Development and Governance. Students are required to attend regularly, to read assigned texts, to participate actively and regularly, and to prepare one oral presentation. Each section is based both on group discussions of the compulsory texts and short student presentations. |
