IPS654: Continuity and Change in the Politics of Contemporary Democracies

plan for 25F

Syllabus, 25S

23S | 21F | 20F | 19S | 18S

Week 1 : Course Introduction

Week 2-3: Semi-presidentialism

LeDuc, L., Niemi, R.G. and Norris, P. eds., 2014. Comparing democracies 4th. Sage.

Lin, J.W., 2016. Taiwan's Semi-Presidential System Was Easy to Establish but Is Difficult to Fix A Comparison between the Constitutional Reform Efforts of 1997 and 2015. Taiwan Journal of Democracy, 12(2).

Jastramskis, M., Pukelis, L. and Palujanskaitė, M., 2024. Presidential legislative initiatives under semi-presidentialism: What accounts for their success and failure?. Parliamentary Affairs, p.gsae041.

Jastramskis, M., 2023. Foreign policy preferences and vote choice under semi-presidentialism. Political Research Quarterly, 76(2), pp.899-914.

  • Presidentialism

Yeh, Y.Y. and Wu, C.K., 2021. Presidentialism, Violence, and the Prospect of Democracy. Rowman & Littlefield.

Bünte, M., & Thompson, M.R. (Eds.). (2022). Presidentialism and Democracy in East and Southeast Asia. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003211822

Ho, Chih-yung Ho and Li-hsien Sun. 2025. Cabinet Stability under Taiwan’s Semi-presidentialism: A Power-law Analysis. Taiwan Journal of Democracy, Volume 21, No. 1: 123-157

Fukuyama, F., Dressel, B. and Chang, B.-S. (2005) Challenge and Change in East Asia: Facing the Perils of Presidentialism, Journal of Democracy, 16(2), pp. 102–116.

  • On democracy

Sen, A. (1999) ‘Democracy as a Universal Value’, Journal of Democracy, 10(3), pp. 3–17. here

Przeworski, A. (2024) ‘Who Decides What Is Democratic?’, Journal of Democracy, 35(3), pp. 5–16. here

Week 4-5: Democracy for Realist

Achen, C. H., & Bartels, L. M. (2017). Democracy for realists: Why elections do not produce responsive government (Vol. 4). Princeton University Press.

Shenkman, R. (2016). Political animals: How our stone-age brain gets in the way of smart politics. Basic Books. 謝克曼 (Shenkman, Rick) 民108[2019] 曾亞晴, 陳毅瀓, 林士堯譯 為何我們總是選錯人? : 人類政治行為的迷思 新北市 : 左岸文化, 遠足文化 companion

Lupia, A., and McCubbins, M.D., 1998. The democratic dilemma: Can citizens learn what they need to know?. Cambridge University Press.

  • Election, recall, and referendum

  • Institutional Trust

Week 6-7: Democratic backsliding

Levitsky, S., & Ziblatt, D. (2018). How democracies die. Broadway Books. 史蒂文.李維茲基(Steven Levitsky), 丹尼爾.齊布拉特(Daniel Ziblatt)著. 李建興譯. 民108[2019]. 民主國家如何死亡 : 歷史所揭示的我們的未來 臺北市 : 時報文化, Table 1 | Table 2 | Perspectives of Politics 16(4), Review Symposium

Levitsky, S. and Ziblatt, D., 2024. Tyranny of the minority: Why American democracy reached the breaking point. Random House.

Levitsky, S. and Ziblatt, D. (2025) ‘When Should the Majority Rule?’, Journal of Democracy, 36(1), pp. 5–20.

Linz, J.J. and Stepan, A., 1978. The breakdown of democratic regimes.

  • Debates on democratic backsliding

Bermeo, N. (2016) ‘On Democratic Backsliding’, Journal of Democracy, 27(1), pp. 5–19.

Haggard, S. and Kaufman, R. (2021) ‘The Anatomy of Democratic Backsliding’, Journal of Democracy, 32(4), pp. 27–41.

Carothers, T. and Hartnett, B. (2024) ‘Misunderstanding Democratic Backsliding’, Journal of Democracy, 35(3), pp. 24–37.

Fukuyama, F., Dann, C. and Magaloni, B. (2025) ‘Delivering for Democracy: Why Results Matter’, Journal of Democracy, 36(2), pp. 5–19.

Carothers, T. and Hartnett, B. (2025) ‘Beyond Performance: Why Leaders Still Matter’, Journal of Democracy, 36(2), pp. 20–22.

Sosa-Villagarcia, P., Incio, J. and Arce, M. (2025) ‘The Rise of Legislative Authoritarianism’, Journal of Democracy, 36(2), pp. 106–117.

Week 9: Polarization

Zulueta-Fülscher, K. (2023) ‘How One Small Change to the Way We Vote Could Do a World of Good’, Journal of Democracy, 34(4), pp. 5–13.

Kleinfeld, R. (2021) ‘The Rise of Political Violence in the United States’, Journal of Democracy, 32(2), pp. 160–176.

Svolik, M.W. (2019) ‘Polarization versus Democracy’, Journal of Democracy, 30(3), pp. 20–32.

Pappas, T.S. (2019) ‘Populists in Power’, Journal of Democracy, 30(2), pp. 70–84

Somer, M. and McCoy, J. (2021) ‘Mainstream Parties in Crisis: Overcoming Polarization’, Journal of Democracy, 32(1), pp. 36–50.

  • Affective polarization

Iyengar, Shanto, Gaurav Sood, and Yphtach Lelkes. 2012. Affect, Not Ideology: A Social Identity Perspective on Polarization. Public Opinion Quarterly 76(3): 405–31.

Iyengar, S. and Westwood, S.J. (2015) ‘Fear and Loathing across Party Lines: New Evidence on Group Polarization’, American Journal of Political Science, 59(3), pp. 690–707.

Reiljan, A., Garzia, D., Ferreira da Silva, F., and Trechsel, A.H. (2024) ‘Patterns of Affective Polarization toward Parties and Leaders across the Democratic World’, American Political Science Review, 118(2), pp. 654–670.

Zheng, X. and Lu, Y. (2021) ‘News consumption and affective polarization in Taiwan: The mediating roles of like-minded discussion and relative hostile media perception’, The Social Science Journal, pp. 1–14. doi: 10.1080/03623319.2021.1933877.

Week 10: Political participation

Week 11: Gender and ethnic minority

Week 12: Contentious representative politics

Week 13: Country model for political development

Huntington, S.P., 1965. Political development and political decay. World politics, 17(3), pp.386-430.

Hagopian, F., 2000. Political development, revisited. Comparative political studies, 33(6-7), pp.880-911.

Lange, M.K., 2004. British colonial legacies and political development. World development, 32(6), pp.905-922.

Yang, K., & Ortmann, S. (2018). From Sweden to Singapore: The relevance of foreign models for China’s rise. China Quarterly, 236, 946–967.

Pan, Hsin-Hsin. 2020. "Is the US the Only Role Model in Town? - Empirical Evidence from the Asian Barometer Survey." Journal of Asian and African Studies 55(5): 733-749.

Ortmann, S. and Thompson, M.R. eds., 2020. China's' Singapore Model'and Authoritarian Learning. Routledge.

Fosu, A.K. ed., 2013. Achieving development success: Strategies and lessons from the developing world. Oxford University Press. e-copy available through the library

Willis, K., 2011. Theories and practices of development. routledge.

Springborg, R. ed., 2009. Development models in Muslim contexts: Chinese,'Islamic'and neo-liberal alternatives. Edinburgh University Press.

Week 14-15: Democracy rules

Müller, J.W., 2021. Democracy rules. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Diamond, L., 2020. Ill winds: Saving democracy from Russian rage, Chinese ambition, and American complacency. Penguin.

Dobson, W.J., Masoud, T. and Walker, C. eds., 2023. Defending democracy in an age of sharp power. JHU Press.

Misc

  • The Political Roots of Prosperity and Poverty

Acemoglu, D. and Robinson, J.A., 2012. Why nations fail: The origins of power, prosperity, and poverty. Currency. Crown Business 阿西莫格鲁 (Acemoglu, Daron) 国家为什么会失败 / 德隆·阿西莫格鲁(Daron Acemoglu),詹姆斯·A. 罗宾逊(James A. Robinson)著 ; 李增刚译 出版項 长沙 : 湖南科学技术出版社, 2015 Ch 2&3 webpage

Przeworski, A., Alvarez, R.M., Alvarez, M.E., Cheibub, J.A., Limongi, F. and Neto, F.P.L., 2000. Democracy and development: Political institutions and well-being in the world, 1950-1990 (No. 3). Cambridge University Press.

Acemoglu, D., Naidu, S., Restrepo, P. and Robinson, J.A., 2019. Democracy does cause growth. Journal of political economy, 127(1), pp.47-100.

Colagrossi, M., Rossignoli, D. and Maggioni, M.A., 2020. Does democracy cause growth? A meta-analysis (of 2000 regressions). European journal of political economy, 61, p.101824.

  • Inequality

Fukuyama, F., Diamond, L. and Plattner, M.F. eds., 2012. Poverty, inequality, and democracy. JHU Press.

  • States, Societies, and Democracy

Acemoglu, D. and Robinson, J.A., 2019. The Narrow Corridor: States, Societies, and the Fate of Liberty. Penguin UK.

Przeworski, A., 1991. Democracy and the market: Political and economic reforms in Eastern Europe and Latin America. Cambridge university press.

Sen, A. K. (1999). Development as Freedom. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Rodrik, D. (2007). One Economic, Many Recipes: Globalization, Institutions, and Economic Growth. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.

  • AI and Democracy

Diamond, L. and Plattner, M.F. eds., 2012. Liberation technology: Social media and the struggle for democracy. JHU Press.

Johnson, S. and Acemoglu, D., 2023. Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity. Hachette UK.

Allen, D. and Weyl, E.G. (2024) ‘The Real Dangers of Generative AI’, Journal of Democracy, 35(1), pp. 5–18.

Bengio, Y. (2023) ‘AI and Catastrophic Risk’, Journal of Democracy, 34(4), pp. 5–17.

Kreps, S. and Kriner, D. (2023) ‘How AI Threatens Democracy’, Journal of Democracy, 34(4), pp. 18–30.

Ovadya, A. (2023) ‘Reimagining Democracy for AI’, Journal of Democracy, 34(4), pp. 31–43.

  • How People View Democracy?

Diamond, L. and Plattner, M.F. eds., 2008. How people view democracy. JHU Press.

Chu, Y.H., Diamond, L., Nathan, A.J. and Shin, D.C. eds., 2008. How East Asians view democracy. Columbia University Press.

Kim, S., 2014. Confucian democracy in East Asia: Theory and practice. Cambridge University Press.

Shin, D.C. and Kim, H.J., 2018. How global citizenries think about democracy: An evaluation and synthesis of recent public opinion research. Japanese Journal of Political Science, 19(2), pp.222-249.

Fossati, D. and i Coma, F.M., 2023. The Meaning of Democracy in Southeast Asia: Liberalism, Egalitarianism and Participation. Cambridge University Press.

  • What is Populism?

Müller, J.W., 2017. What is populism?. Penguin UK.

Norris, P. and Inglehart, R., 2019. Cultural backlash: Trump, Brexit, and authoritarian populism. Cambridge University Press.

Galston, W.A. (2018) ‘The Populist Challenge to Liberal Democracy’, Journal of Democracy, 29(2), pp. 5–19

Berman, S. and Snegovaya, M. (2019) ‘Populism and the Decline of Social Democracy’, Journal of Democracy, 30(3), pp. 5–19.

General

Magazine

Journals

Democracy Data Sets

NSYSU-available eBooks