POLS
365 (1): GOVERNMENT & POLITICS OF EASTERN EUROPE
Northern
Illinois University
Department
of Political Science
Fall
2003 Prof.
L. Kamenitsa
MW
2-3:15 Office:
Zulauf 310; 753-7053
DuSable 246 Office
Hours: M 12:30-1:30 &
M 3:30-4:30
& by appt.
REQUIRED READINGS:
1)
White, Stephen. 2001. Communism & its
Collapse New York: Routledge.
2) White, Stephen, Judy
Batt, and Paul Lewis. 2003. Developments
in Central and East European Politics 3. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
3)
Required articles and book chapters are also assigned. Most are available on-line via Blackboard,
Electronic Reserve, or other means. A
few are only are available at the Founders Library Reserve Desk. Most of these required readings and the means
of accessing them are indicated in the syllabus. Additional readings will be announced in class or on Blackboard.
4)
Depending on political developments in the region this semester, students may
also be assigned news media articles to be read in preparation for class
discussion. It’s generally a good idea
for students in political science courses to monitor the news on a daily basis,
preferably a newspaper of record, like the New
York Times, in print or on its web site.
All
reading assignments should be completed before the class period for which they
are assigned. In the event that a student might miss a class, she or he is
still responsible for any assignments or schedule changes given during that
class period. The required texts are available at the University Bookstore in
HSC, the Village Commons Bookstore, and on amazon.com.
GRADING:
Exam I
(10/15) 30%
Exam II
(12/8) 30%
Briefing Paper I (11/5) 15%
Briefing Paper II (11/12) 15%
Participation 10%
EXAMS:
There will be two exams for the course. Each exam will draw primarily on material
from the preceding part of the course.
However, Exam II may require you to draw on materials from the course as
a whole in your assessments of politics in Eastern Europe. Exam format will include essays, objective
items, and short answer questions. THERE
WILL BE NO MAKE-UP EXAMS GIVEN, except in cases of emergencies and then
only at the discretion of the professor. If there are any problems or
conflicts, see the professor well in advance of the exam.
BRIEFING PAPERS &
SIMULATIONS:
A recurring theme of this course concerns the
roles played by nationalism and ethnic divisions in the politics of Central and
East Europe. To help us better understand these issues and the challenges they
can raise, the class will undertake two in-class simulations dealing with
events in Kosovo. The first will deal with the Kosovo crisis in 1998-1999 and
the second with the current situation in the region. Small teams of students will be assigned the “roles” of various interested
parties. Individual students will
conduct research on and write briefing papers about their party’s positions,
goals, and motivations for each simulation.
During the in-class simulation, each team will represent their party’s
position in negotiations with all other teams.
Details of the assignment will be provided in class or on Blackboard.
NOTE: All written assignments
must be typed. Assignments are due at
the beginning of class on the specified date.
This means that work turned in after 2:05 on the due date will be
considered late. Late assignments will
be penalized one third of a grade for each 24 hour period they are late (A-
becomes B+). Late work may be turned in
to the main Political Science office (Zulauf 315) during regular business
hours. Students doing so should request a dated and timed receipt from the
office staff. Work turned in more than one week late will be accepted only at
the discretion of the professor.
CLASS PARTICIPATION
& FORMAT:
The class will consist of lectures and
discussions. While the majority of the
participation grade will be based on the student’s work on the simulations, a
portion will reflect general participation in other class meetings. Students will have ample opportunity to
participate in making the course interesting and relevant. Students' comments and questions on
readings, lectures, and current events are welcome and encouraged.
BLACKBOARD:
Most of the assignments, reading questions, and communication for this course will be conducted through the university’s Blackboard Course Server. It is like a course website that can be accessed through the internet, but only by students enrolled in this course. The web address for Blackboard at NIU is http://webcourses.niu.edu. You will need your student Z-ID and password to log into Blackboard. If you have questions about Blackboard or logging in, go to http://www.helpdesk.niu.edu/ and click on “Blackboard.” The system uses your NIU student e-mail account (your Z-number account) as the default e-mail address. If you wish to receive course-related e-mails at another address, you need to log in to Blackboard immediately and edit your personal settings to indicate which e-mail address you want to use. Otherwise you will not receive communications sent to all students. Do that today! Blackboard sometimes goes down unexpectedly. Do not wait until the last minute to access materials you need on Blackboard. For example, a Blackboard outage the night before an assignment is due will NOT be an acceptable excuse an incomplete assignment. Contact ITS (753-8100) with login problems.
ACADEMIC HONESTY & PLAGIARISM:
Any
student found guilty of cheating or plagiarizing can receive an "F"
for the assignment or exam and the course.
Criteria for these offenses are described in the Student Judicial
Code and the Undergraduate Catalog.
COURSE SCHEDULE: (Any changes will be announced in class or on
Blackboard)
White = Stephen White, Communism and its Collapse
WBL = White, Batt, &
Lewis, Developments in Central and East
European Politics 3.
PART I: COMMUNIST SYSTEMS: ORIGINS TO COLLAPSE
WEEK 1
Introduction
8/25 & 8/27
Required Readings:
Batt, “Introduction” in WBL (pp. 3-22)
White, Chs.
1-2 (pp. 1-20)
WEEK 2 Communism
in East Central Europe: Origins, Operation, Decay...
9/3 (no class on 9/1 -
Labor Day)
Required Readings:
White, Ch. 3 (pp. 21-30)
WEEK 3 ...
Collapse
9/8 & 9/10
Required Readings:
White, Chs. 4-5 (pp. 30-52)
WEEK 4 The 1989
Revolutions
9/15 & 9/17
Required Readings:
White, Chs. 6-8 (pp. 52-82)
Stokes, Gale. 1993. “The Glorious Revolutions of
1989.” In The Walls Came Tumbling Down.
New York: Oxford University Press. Pp.131-167. (electronic reserve)
PART II: POST-COMMUNISM TRANSITIONS
WEEK 5 Political
and Economic Systems in Transition
9/22 & 9/24
Required Readings:
Blazyca,
“Managing Transition Economies” in WBL (pp. 213-233)
Jasiewicz, “Elections and Voting Behavior” in WBL
(pp. 173-189)
Millard, “Poland” in WBL (pp. 23-20)
Williams, “The Czech Republic and Slovakia” in WBL
(pp. 41-56)
WEEK 6 Political
and Economic Systems in Transition (continued...)
9/29 & 10/1
Required Readings:
Kopecky, “Structures of Representation” in WBL (pp.
133-152)
Lewis, “Political Parties” in WBL (pp.153-172)
Is democracy working? The Economist v. 359 (June 23 2001) p. 45-6 (Blackboard)
WEEK 7 Politics,
Inequality, and Social Change
10/6 & 10/8
Required Readings:
Cox, “Changing Societies: Class and Inequality in
Central and Eastern Europe” in WBL (pp. 234-252)
“Poverty in Eastern Europe.” The Economist v. 356 (September 23, 2000) pp.27-30 (Blackboard)
WEEK 8 Women and
Gender
10/13
10/15 ****Exam I ****
Required Readings:
LaFont, Suzanne. “One step forward, two steps back:
women in the post-communist states.” Communist
and Post-Communist Studies v. 34 no2 (June
2001) p. 203-20. (electronic reserve)
Simerska, Lenka. 2000. Sexual Harassment In Central
And Eastern Europe. Women's International Network News 26,2
(2000): 63 (Blackboard)
Sarnavka, Sanja, Kristina Mihalec, Nevenka Sudar. 2002. “Croatia: Feminists
campaign against sexist images of women appearing in the media and sexism in
politics” Off Our Backs 32,
3-4:13-18. (Blackboard)
WEEK 9 Social
Ills (continued) and Ethnic Politics
10/20 & 10/22
Required Readings:
Fodor, Eva, Christy Glas, Janette Kawachi, and
Livia Popescu. 2002. “Family Policies and Gender in Hungary, Poland, and
Romania.” Communist and Post-Communist
Studies 35,4 (December): 369-490. (electronic reserve)
Jeszensky, Geza. 1997. "More Bosnias? National
and Ethnic Tensions in the Post-Communist World" East European Quarterly 31,3 (September): 283-298. (Blackboard)
WEEK 10 The Former
Yugoslavia: A Post-Communist Tragedy
10/27 & 10/29
Required Readings:
“The Republics of the Former Yugoslavia.” 2003. Global
Studies: Russia, the Eurasian Republics, and Central/Eastern Europe.
Guilford, CT: Mc-Graw-Hill/Dushkin. Pp. 170-191. (electronic reserve)
Gallagher, Tom. “The Balkans since 1989: The
Winding Retreat from National Communism” in WBL (pp. 74-91)
WEEK 11 From Dayton
to Kosovo
11/3
11/5 Kosovo Simulation I
Required Readings:
Kosovo Crisis: A packet of readings for the Kosovo
Simulation I (Blackboard)
WEEK 12 Dayton and
Kosovo Today: Lingering Issues
11/10
11/12 Kosovo Simulation II
Required Readings:
Lyon, James. 2000. “Will Bosnia Survive Dayton?” Current History 99,635 (March): 110-117.
(electronic reserve)
Dusko
Doder. 2001. “Letter From Bosnia” The
Nation 272,6 (February 12): 14-18. (Blackboard)
Kosovo Today: A packet of readings for the Kosovo
Simulation II (Blackboard)
WEEK 13 Joining
Europe: The European Union & NATO
11/17 & 11/19
Required Reading:
Grabbe, “The Implications of EU Enlargement” in WBL
(pp. 253-268)
“Westward, look, the land is bright - Central
Europe.” The Economist October 26, 2002. (Blackboard)
“What's ours is ours.” The Economist May 26,
2001. (Blackboard)
WEEK 14 Joining
Europe (cont’d)
11/24 (no class on 11/26 - Thanksgiving Break)
Required Readings:
Serfaty, Simon. 2003. “Europe Enlarged, America
Detached?” Current History 102,662
(March): 99-105. (electronic reserve)
WEEK 15 The
Future of Eastern Europe
12/1 & 12/3
Required Reading:
Pridham, “Democratization in Central and Eastern
Europe: A Comparative Perspective” in WBL (pp. 269-289)
“Europe after communism: ten years since the wall
fell.” 1999.The Economist 353, 8144 (Nov. 6): 21-2 3. (electronic
reserve)
Lovell, David W. (2001) “Trust and the Politics
of Post-Communism.” Communist and
Post-Communist Studies 34,1 (March): 27-38. (electronic reserve)
Final Exam (Exam II): Monday, 12/8, 2:00 p.m. in DuSable 246
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