Comparative Political Institutions (Core)

Week 1: Social Science and comparative politics

∑ Peters, Guy B., Comparative Politics: Theory and Methods (New York University Press, 1998), ISBN 0814766684

∑ King, Gary, Robert O. Keohane, and Sidney Verba, Designing Social Inquiry (Princeton University Press, 1994), ISBN 0691034710

∑ Döring, Herbert. 1995. “Institutions and Policies: Why We Need Cross-National Analysis.” In Parliaments and Majority Rule in Western Europe, ed. Herbert Döring. New York: St. Martin's Press

∑ Geddes, Barbara. "How the Cases You Choose Affect the Answers You Get: Selection Bias in Comparative Politics." Political Analysis 2 (1990):131-50

∑ Dion, Douglas. 1998. "Evidence and Inference in the Comparative Case Study," Comparative Politics 30(2):127-145

∑ McCubbins, Mathew D., and Michael F. Thies. 1996. "Gourisei to jisshou shugi seiji riron no kiso [Rationality and the Foundations of Positive Political Theory]." Rebaiasan [Leviathan] 19(Autumn):7-32

Week 2: Spatial analysis

∑ Hinich, Melvin J. and Michael C. Munger, Analytical Politics (Cambridge University Press, 1997), ISBN 0521565677

Week 3: Delegation and commitment

∑ Alchian, Arman, and Harold Demsetz. 1972. “Production, Information Costs, and Economic Organization.” American Economic Review 62:777-795

∑ Fama, Eugene. 1996. “Agency Problems and the Theory of the Firm.” In The Economic Nature of the Firm, ed. Louis Putterman and Randall S. Kroszner. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

∑ Strøm, Kaare. 2004. “Parliamentary Democracy and Delegation.” In Delegation and Accountability in Parliamentary Democracies, ed. Kaare Strøm, Wolfgang C. Müller, and Torbjörn Bergman. Oxford: Oxford University Press

∑ North Douglas and Barry Weingast, 1979. “Constitutions and Commitment: The Evolution of Institutions Governing Public Choice in Seventeenth-Century England.” The Journal of Economic History 49:803-833

∑ Shepsle, Kenneth A. 1991. “Discretion, Institutions, and the Problem of Government Commitment.” In Social Theory for a Changing Society, ed. Pierre Bourdieu and James S. Coleman

∑ Thies, Michael F. 2001. “Keeping Tabs on Partners: The Logic of Delegation in Coalition Governments. American Journal of Political Science 45(3, July):580-598

Week 4: Cooperation

∑ Cook,Karen S., Russell Hardin, and Margaret Levi, Cooperation without Trust? (Russell Sage Foundation, 2005), ISBN 0871541645

Week 5: Economic History

∑ Acemoglu, Daron, and James A. Robinson, Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy : Economic and Political Origins (Cambridge University Press, 2005), ISBN 0521855268

Week 6: Historical analysis

∑ North, Douglass C. 1990. Institutions, Institutional Change, and Economic Performance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

∑ Knight, Jack. 1992. Institutions and Social Conflict. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Week 7: Case studies

∑ Bates, Robert H., Avner Greif, Margaret Levi, Jean-Laurent Rosenthal, and Barry R Weingast, Analytic Narratives (Princeton University Press, 1998), ISBN 0691001294

Week 8: Comparative Political Economy

∑ Pierson, Paul, ed., The New Politics of the Welfare State (Oxford University Press, 2001), ISBN 0198297564

Week 9: Political development and organization

∑ Cox, Gary W. 1987. The Efficient Secret. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Week 10: Parties

∑ Aldrich, John, Why Parties? (University of Chicago Press, 1995), ISBN 0226012727

Week 11: Elections and electoral rules

∑ Cox, Gary W., Making Votes Count: Strategic Coordination in the World's Electoral Systems (Cambridge University Press, 1997), ISBN 0521585279

Week 12: Parties and party systems

∑ Adams, James, Party Competition and Responsible Party Government (University of Michigan Press, 2001), ISBN 0472087673

∑ Strøm, Kaare. 1990. "A Behavioral Theory of Competitive Political Parties." American Journal of Political Science 34:565-598

∑ Kaare Strøm. 1994. “The Presthus Debacle: Intraparty Politics and Bargaining Failure in Norway.” American Political Science Review 88 (1):112-27

Week 13: Coalitions

∑ Laver, Michael, and Kenneth A. Shepsle, Making and Breaking Governments (Cambridge University press, 1996), ISBN 0521438365

Recommended

∑ Mershon, Carol, The Costs of Coalition (Stanford University Press, 2003), ISBN 0804740836

Week 14: Legislatures

∑ Cox, Gary W., and Mathew D. McCubbins, Legislative Leviathan: Party Government in the House (University of California Press, 1993), ISBN 0520072200

∑ Heller, William B. 1997. “Bicameralism and Budget Deficits: The Effect of Parliamentary Structure on Government Spending.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 22 (4):485-516

∑ Huber, John D. 1992. "Restrictive legislative Procedures in France and the U.S." American Political Science Review 86 (3):675-687

∑ Huber, John D. 1996. "The Vote of Confidence in Parliamentary Democracies." American Political Science Review 90 (2):269-282

Week 15: Constitutional design

∑ Vanberg, Georg, The Politics of Constitutional Review in Germany (Cambridge University Press, 2004), ISBN 0521836476

∑ Cameron, Charles, Veto Bargaining (Cambridge University Press, 2000), ISBN 0521625505

∑ Kiewiet, D. Roderick, and Mathew D. McCubbins. 1988. "Presidential Influence on Congressional Appropriations Decisions." American Journal of Political Science 32:713-736