Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Examines separatist movements across countries and throughout history, focusing on how people come to self-identify as a nation and seek self-government. We will examine case studies of countries that have split apart and study the political activities of separatist movements in electoral campaigns and policy debates. Students with credit for POL 339 Selected Topics in Comparative Government and Politics under the title Separatist Movements may not take this course for further credit.

COURSE DETAILS:

Course Description:

The desire to leave an existing state, either to join another country or to establish a new nation-state, is at the root of many recent conflicts: in Iraqi Kurdistan, Nagorno-Karabakh and Jammu and Kashmir to name but three. Nor is this a recent phenomenon. Attempts to secede from multinational empires can be seen in the protest movements of the 19^th and 20^th centuries. However, separatism does not always lead to violence and constitutional crisis. In many countries, including Canada, there are separatist parties which participate peacefully in the existing political system. There are also actual separations that have occurred through negotiation, without physical conflict.

This course examines separatist movements across countries. In the first part of the course we will draw on political science, history and psychology to understand how people come to self-identify as a nation and to seek self-government. We will then examine case studies of separatist movements that actually achieved a new state: Ireland in 1921-2, the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993 and South Sudan in 2011. We will ask why the Irish and Sudanese secessions only occurred after war while the leaders of Czechoslovakia were able to handle the country's break-up peacefully. In Part 3 of the course we will consider the political activities of separatist movements, such as electoral campaigns and policy formation. To do so, we will compare the Bloc Québécois of Canada, the Scottish National Party of the UK and the Catalan and Basque nationalist parties in Spain. Throughout the semester we will be preparing for a simulation where you negotiate a region’s secession from the rest of a country. You will be divided into groups, representing the secessionists and the government. Your task is to negotiate arrangements for a peaceful transition and future relations, covering border security, trade and environmental management.

Course organization:

Most weeks will be a 3-hour in-person class each week, split between lecture, small group work to prepare for the simulation and discussion of the week’s readings. In Weeks 9-10 the whole class will be used for the simulation.  You are expected to participate in oral discussion during group work and the simulation, but you will not have to speak in front of the whole class, unless you choose to. 

Grading

Materials

REQUIRED READING:

REQUIRED READING NOTES: