Readings | Riots, Rebellions, Revolutions | Political Science

[Elster] = Elster, Jon. Explaining Social Behavior: More Nuts and Bolts for the Social Sciences. Cambridge University Press, 2007. ISBN: 9780521777445. [Preview with Google Books]

[Judah] = Judah, Tim. Kosovo: What Everyone Needs to Know. Oxford University Press, 2008. ISBN: 9780195373455. [Preview with Google Books]

[McAdam] = McAdam, Doug, Sidney Tarrow, and Charles Tilly. Dynamics of Contention. Cambridge University Press, 2001. ISBN: 9780521011877. [Preview with Google Books]

[Skocpol] = Skocpol, Theda. States & Social Revolutions: A Comparative Analysis of French, Russia, & China. Cambridge University Press, 1979. ISBN: 9780521294997. [Preview with Google Books]

Course readings.
LEC #	TOPICS	READINGS
1	Introductory class	No readings
Part I: Theory and Method
2	Explaining social action	[Elster] Chapter 1: "Explanation." [Elster] Chapter 2: "Mechanisms." [Elster] Chapter 4: "Motivations." [Elster] Chapter 5: "Self–Interest and Altruism." [Elster] Chapter 6: "Myopia and Foresight." [Elster] Chapter 7: "Beliefs."
3	Rationality	[Elster] Chapter 9: "Desires and Opportunities." [Elster] Chapter 10: "Persons and Situations." [Elster] Chapter 11: "Rational Choice." [Elster] Chapter 12: "Rationality and Behavior." Muller, Edward N., and Karl–Dieter Opp. "Rational Choice and Rebellious Collective Action." American Political Science Review 80, no. 2 (1986): 471–89.
4	Psychological approaches, relative deprivation	Gurr, Ted Robert. "Explanations of Political Violence." Chapter 1 in Why Men Rebel. 40th Anniversary Ed. Paradigm Publishers, 2011. ISBN: 9781594519147. ———. "Relative Deprivation and the Impetus to Violence." Chapter 2 in Why Men Rebel. 40th Anniversary Ed. Paradigm Publishers, 2011. ISBN: 9781594519147. de Tocqueville, Alexis. "How the Spirit of Revolt was Promoted by Well Intentioned Efforts to Improve the People's Lot." In The Old Regime and the French Revolution. Translated by Stuart Gilbert. Anchor, 1955. ISBN: 9780385092609. ———. "How, though the Reign of Louis XVI was the Most Prosperous Period of the Monarchy, this very Prosperity Hastened the Outbreak of the Revolution." In The Old Regime and the French Revolution. Translated by Stuart Gilbert. Anchor, 1955. ISBN: 9780385092609. ———. "How, given the Facts set Forth in the Preceding Chapters, the Revolution was a Foregone Conclusion." In The Old Regime and the French Revolution. Translated by Stuart Gilbert. Anchor, 1955. ISBN: 9780385092609. Davies, James C. "Toward a Theory of Revolution." American Sociological Review 27, no. 1 (1962): 5–18. [Elster] Chapter 6: "Myopia and Foresight." [Elster] Chapter 7: "Beliefs." [Elster] Chapter 13: "Responding To Irrationality."
5	Norms	[Elster] Chapter 19: "Strategic Interaction." [Elster] Chapter 20: "Games and Behavior." [Elster] Chapter 21: "Trust." [Elster] Chapter 22: "Social Norms." Scott, James C. "Introduction." In The Moral Economy of the Peasant: Rebellion and Subsistence in Southeast Asia. Yale University Press, 1977. ISBN: 9780300021905. ———. "The Economics and Sociology of the Subsistence Ethic." Chapter 1 in The Moral Economy of the Peasant: Rebellion and Subsistence in Southeast Asia. Yale University Press, 1977. ISBN: 9780300021905. ———. "Subsistence Security in Peasant Choice and Values." Chapter 2 in The Moral Economy of the Peasant: Rebellion and Subsistence in Southeast Asia. Yale University Press, 1977. ISBN: 9780300021905. Popkin, Samuel L. "Political Entrepreneurs and Peasant Movements in Vietnam." In Rationality and Revolution. Edited by Michael Taylor. Cambridge University Press, 1988. ISBN: 9780521344197.
6	Emotions	[Elster] Chapter 8: "Emotions." Horowitz, Donald L. "Say It with Murder." Chapter 1 in The Deadly Ethnic Riot. University of California Press, 2003. ISBN: 9780520236424. ———. "Ethnic Boundaries, Riot Boundaries." Chapter 2 in The Deadly Ethnic Riot. University of California Press, 2003. ISBN: 9780520236424. Petersen, Roger D. "An Emotion–Based Approach to Ethnic Conflict." Chapter 2 in Understanding Ethnic Violence: Fear, Hatred, and Resentment in Twentieth–Century Eastern Europe. Cambridge University Press, 2002. ISBN: 9780521007740. [Preview with Google Books] ———. "Resentment." Chapter 3 in Understanding Ethnic Violence: Fear, Hatred, and Resentment in Twentieth–Century Eastern Europe. Cambridge University Press, 2002. ISBN: 9780521007740. [Preview with Google Books] ———. "Fear, Hatred, and Rage." Chapter 4 in Understanding Ethnic Violence: Fear, Hatred, and Resentment in Twentieth–Century Eastern Europe. Cambridge University Press, 2002. ISBN: 9780521007740.
7	Structural explanations	Fearon, James D., and David D. Laitin. "Ethnicity, Insurgency, and Civil War." American Political Science Review 97, no. 1 (2003): 75–90. Przeworski Adam, and Fernando Limongi. "Modernization: Theories and Facts." World Politics 49, no. 2 (1997): 155–83.
8	In–class quiz	No readings
Part II: Contentious Politics
9–11	Dynamics of Contention	[McAdam]
Part III: Riots
12	U.S. Riots I	Rudwick, Elliot. "An Introduction." Chapter 1 in Race Riot at East St. Louis, July 2, 1917. University of Illinois Press, 1982. ISBN: 9780252009518. [Preview with Google Books] ———. "The Colonization Conspiracy." Chapter 2 in Race Riot at East St. Louis, July 2, 1917. University of Illinois Press, 1982. ISBN: 9780252009518. [Preview with Google Books] ———. "The Importation Crisis." Chapter 3 in Race Riot at East St. Louis, July 2, 1917. University of Illinois Press, 1982. ISBN: 9780252009518. [Preview with Google Books] ———. "The First Race Riot and Aftermath: A Testing Action." Chapter 4 in Race Riot at East St. Louis, July 2, 1917. University of Illinois Press, 1982. ISBN: 9780252009518. [Preview with Google Books] ———. "The July Riot." Chapter 5 in Race Riot at East St. Louis, July 2, 1917. University of Illinois Press, 1982. ISBN: 9780252009518. [Preview with Google Books]
13	U.S. Riots II: Relative deprivation and the 1960's urban riots	Spilerman, Seymour. "The Causes of Racial Disturbances: A Comparison of Alternative Explanations." American Sociological Review 35, no. 4 (1970): 627–49. Miller, Abraham, Louis H. Bolce, and Mark Halligan. "The J–Curve Theory and the Black Urban Riots: An Empirical Test of Progressive Relative Deprivation Theory." American Political Science Review 71, no. 3 (1977): 964–82. Read one of the following: Olzak, Susan, and Suzanne Shanahan. "Deprivation and Race Riots: An Extension of Spilerman's Analysis." Social Forces 74, no. 3 (1996): 931–61. Spilerman, Seymour. "Structural Characteristics of Cities and the Severity of Racial Disorders." American Sociological Review 41, no. 5 (1976): 771–93.
14	U.S. Riots III: The Rodney King riots in LA	Butler, Judith. "Endangered/Endangering: Schematic Racism and White Paranoia." Chapter 1 in Reading Rodney King, Reading Urban Uprising. Edited by Robert Goodings–Williams. Routledge, 1993. ISBN: 9780415907354. Oliver, Melvin L., James H. Johnson, Jr., and Walter C. Farrell, Jr. "Anatomy of a Rebellion: A Political–Economic Analysis." Chapter 9 in Reading Rodney King, Reading Urban Uprising. Edited by Robert Goodings–Williams. Routledge, 1993. ISBN: 9780415907354. Cho, Sumi K. "Korean Americans vs. African Americans: Conflict and Construction." Chapter 13 in Reading Rodney King, Reading Urban Uprising. Edited by Robert Goodings–Williams. Routledge, 1993. ISBN: 9780415907354.
15	Threshold–based models	Schelling, Thomas C. "Sorting And Mixing: Race and Sex." Chapter 4 in Micromotives and Macrobehavior. W. W. Norton & Company, 2006. ISBN: 9780393329469. White, James W. "Rational Rioters: Leaders, Followers, and Popular Protest in Early Modern Japan." Politics & Society 16, no. 1 (1988): 35–69.
16	Student presentations of agent–based modeling exercises	No readings
Part IV: Rebellion
17	Background to Eastern European cases	Beissinger, Mark R. "Nationalist Violence and the State: Political Authority and Contentious Repertoires in the Former USSR." Comparative Politics 30, no. 4 (1998): 401–22. Petersen, Roger D. "Background to Western Intervention in the Balkans." Chapter 7 in Western Intervention in the Balkans: The Strategic Use of Emotion in Conflict. Cambridge University Press, 2011. ISBN: 9780521281263.
18	Cascade models applied to Eastern Europe	Somer, Murat. "Cascades of Ethnic Polarization: Lessons from Yugoslavia." ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 573, no. 1 (2001): 127–51. Kuran, Timur. "Now Out of Never: The Element of Surprise in the East European Revolution of 1989." World Politics 44, no. 1 (1991): 7–48. Karklins, Rasma, and Roger Petersen. "Decision Calculus of Protesters and Regimes: Eastern Europe, 1989." Journal of Politics 55, no. 3 (1993): 588–614.
19	Violent rebellion in Kosovo	[Judah] Chapter 1: "Albanians." [Judah] Chapter 2: "Serbs." [Judah] Chapter 3: "Creating History." [Judah] Chapter 4: "From Dardania to Yugoslavia." [Judah] Chapter 5: "Kosovo in Yugoslavia." [Judah] Chapter 6: "From the Golden Age to the Memorandum." [Judah] Chapter 7: "The Milošević–Rugova Years." [Judah] Chapter 8: "The War." [Judah] Chapter 9: "Kosovo after 1999."
Part V: Revolutions
20	Revolutions I	[Skocpol] "Introduction." [Skocpol] Chapter 1: "Explaining Social Revolutions: Alternatives to Existing Theories." [Skocpol] Chapter 2: "Old–Regime States in Crisis." [Skocpol] Chapter 3: "Agarian Structures and Peasant Insurrections."
21	Revolutions II	[Skocpol] Chapter 4: "What Changed and How: A Focus on State Building." [Skocpol] Chapter 5: "The Birth of a ‘Modern State Edifice' in France."
22	Revolutions III	[Skocpol] Chapter 6: "The Emergence of a Dictatorial Party–State in Russia." [Skocpol] Chapter 7: "The Rise of a Mass–Mobilizing Party–State in China."
Part VI: Arab Spring
23	Readings from the October 2011 edition of the Journal of Democracy	Plattner, Marc F. "The Global Context." Journal of Democracy 22, no. 4 (2011): 5–12. Way, Lucan. "The Lessons of 1989." Journal of Democracy 22, no. 4 (2011): 13–23. Barany, Zoltan. "The Role of the Military." Journal of Democracy 22, no. 4 (2011): 24–35. Carey, John M., and Andrew Reynolds. "The Impact of Election Systems." Journal of Democracy 22, no. 4 (2011): 36–47. Lacroix, Stéphane. "Is Saudi Arabia Immune?" Journal of Democracy 22, no. 4 (2011): 48–59.
24–25	Student presentations of comparative analyses of some aspect of the Arab Spring	No readings
26	Final exam	No readings