Reading- Citizens and Modern States

1. The Individual, Groups, and the State

1.1. Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War, "Pericles' Funeral Oration"

1.2. John Locke, Second Treatise, Selections

1.3. The Federalist Papers 10, 37 and 51

1.4. Shively, Power and Choice, Chapter 2.

• What is the relationship between the individual and the political community?
• Western thought gives particular attention to the idea of the individual as distinct from the community, but this is far from universal.
• Consider how this idea is imbedded in the notion of the contemporary nation state.

2. Citizen Participation and Daily Life

2.1. Jane Mansbridge. Beyond Adversary Democracy. Chapters 12-16, pp. 139-232.

• What is political participation and what are the different realms of people's lives it can touch?
• Consider the consequences of a theory of political participation as you read Mansbridge's discussion about participatory workplace.
• What are the problems in participatory organizations?
• How is inequality inherent in all organization?
• When and why is inequality not necessarily unfair?

3. Citizen Participation and the State: Parties, Interest Groups, and Elections

3.1. Jane Mansbridge, Beyond Adversary Democracy, Chapters 17-22, pp. 233-303.

3.2. Shively, Power and Choice, Chapters 11-13.

• Political participation, is to many, the hallmark of modern democracy. Yet beyond voting every few years most citizens are hard pressed to say what participation entails.
• Mansbridge's final chapters push us to think about different conceptions of democracy in general and to consider democracy’s relevance for our personal and work environments as well as the larger political world.
• Think about participation as a social, not just individual, political act, and the importance of institutions and practices such as political parties, voluntary associations, and interest groups in the process in terms of the examples Shively presents.

4.Democracy, Civil Society and Democratic Transitions

4.1. Edward Shils, "The Virtue of Civil Society." Government and Opposition, 26 (1991), 3-20 (on reserve)

4.2. Gerhard Lehmbruch, "Consociational Democracy, Class Conflict, and the New Corporatism," pp. 53-61, and excepts from Philippe C. Schmitter, "Modes of Interest Intermediation and Models of Societal Change in Western Europe," (on reserve)

4.3. Shively, Power and Choice, Chapters 8-9.

• The post-Communist transition in Central and Eastern Europe is more difficult and more complicated that many expected in 1989.
• Simply holding elections is not enough to insure PS 101- 7 effective, stable democracies.
• Much recent attention has focused on the idea of "civil society," the notion that effective democracy requires many intermediate institutions between the state and the individual and these are still absent in much of the region.
• Consider this argument and make sure you understand its key elements.
• Yet civil society (called pluralism in some cases) is only one democratic model.
• Consider how it compares with corporatism as Lehmbruch and Schmitter describe it.
• Why do you think that corporatism and corporatist thinking is so uncommon in the United States?