Challenges to policy-making in democratising countries - POL00085M

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Module summary

In this module we will discuss the key challenges to policy-making in democratising countries around the world, with a focus on political regimes other than established Western democracies.

Module will run

Occurrence	Teaching period
A	Semester 1 2025-26

Module aims

Topics we shall address include different aspects of the democratisation process and regional case studies around the world, and their links to different waves of democratisation:

Theoretical foundations:

1) Theories of democratisation.

2) Failed democratisation.

Key policy-making challenges:

3) Administrative capacity.

4) Corruption and patronage.

5) Social capital and civil society.

Regional case studies:

6) Latin America.

7) Post-communist Eastern Europe.

8) East Asia.

The module will engage with issues of domestic regime survival, while considering wider issues of international alliances and the constraints of the world economic system.

Module learning outcomes

• To understand some of the central themes in the study of democratization, especially those concerning challenges to the policy-making process in a non-Western context.
• To develop theoretical, analytical, and critical abilities, through seminar discussion and the investigation of regional case-studies.

Module content

1. Introduction: What is democratisation?

2. Democratic Backsliding

3. Administrative Capacity

4. Corruption and Patronage

5. Civil Society

6. Democratisation and Gender

7. The Climate Crisis and Democratisation

8. Latin America

9. Post-Communist Eastern Europe

10. Pacific Asia

Indicative assessment

Task	% of module mark
Essay/coursework	100

Special assessment rules

None

Indicative reassessment

Task	% of module mark
Essay/coursework	100

Module feedback

Students will receive written timely feedback on their formative assessment. They will also have the opportunity to discuss their feedback during the module tutor’s feedback and guidance hours.

Students will receive written feedback on their summative assessment no later than 25 working days; and the module tutor will hold a specific session to discuss feedback, which students can also opt to attend. They will also have the opportunity to discuss their feedback during the module tutor’s regular feedback and guidance hours.

Indicative reading

Students may want to familiarise themselves with some of the course reading. Here is a provisional list of the core books and articles that we will be reading either in part or in full:

Haerpfer, C. et al. (2009) Democratization, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Kitschelt, H. and Wilkinson, S. (2007) (eds.) Patrons, clients and policies. Patterns of democratic accountability and political competition, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Klingemann, H. et al. (2006) Democracy and political culture in Eastern Europe, Routledge, London.

Wiarda, H. (2005) Dilemmas of Democracy in Latin America: crises and opportunity, MD Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham.

Rich, R (2007) Pacific Asia in quest for democracy, Lynne Rienner, Boulder.

Armony, A. and Schamis, H. (2005) ‘Babel in democratisation studies’, Journal of Democracy, 16(4), 113-28.

Alagappa, M. (2001) Civil society and political change in Asia, Stanford University Press, Stanford.