Simon Fraser University
Engaging the World

Course Outlines

Spring 2023 - POL 430W D100

Democracy in a Global World (4)

Class Number: 7982

Delivery Method: In Person

Overview

  • Course Times + Location:

    Jan 4 – Apr 11, 2023: Wed, 2:30–5:20 p.m.
    Burnaby

  • Exam Times + Location:

    Apr 13, 2023
    Thu, 11:59–11:59 p.m.
    Burnaby

  • Prerequisites:

    Eight upper division units in political science or permission of the department.

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

What is democracy and how can we measure it? Does democracy perform better than other regime types? How can we explain processes of democratization and de-democratization? The course explores these questions in a theoretically guided fashion making use of both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. Students with credit for POL 438 Selected Topics in Comparative Government and Politics I under the title Democracy in a Global World may not take this course for further credit. Writing.

COURSE DETAILS:

Democracy in a Global World          

Peacemaking in Divided Societies: Explorations in Transitional Justice

 

This course analyses how democracies deal with the crimes of the past in an attempt to reconstruct the present and prevent future abuses. We will comparatively analyze various types of ethnic/nationalist conflict in divided societies around the world particularly South Africa, Rwanda, Bosnia and the Middle East. We will explore different responses to massive oppression and gross human rights violations, particularly the role of Truth and Reconciliation Commissions (TRC).  Can the famous South African TRC be an international model, or is amnesty for perpetrators a travesty of justice and an insult to victims?

We will explore responses to massive oppression and gross human rights violations.  How have some nations searched for a formal response to atrocity and struggled over how much to acknowledge and how to punish?  How are versions of the past remembered?  What is the role of justice and remembering in nation building?

Various options exist for addressing the historical roots of past conflict:

  1. Amnesia: Burying the past, denial and distortions
  2. Public Trials to ensure justice and meet out retribution.
  3. Lustration: Disqualifying collaborators from public office.
  4. Compensation of victims and restitution.
  5. Truth and Reconciliation Commissions with amnesty after disclosure.
  6. Political Re-education.

The six strategies are often used simultaneously in the same society with varying degrees of emphasis over time.  Particularly interesting are attempts at forging new democratic consciousness through explicit political education based on an awareness of past crimes.  We shall explore these strategies with the examples of post-war Germany and post-apartheid South Africa.  What lessons can be drawn for other divided societies, from Bosnia to Israel and Rwanda?

Students with credit for POL 373 'Human Security' with the same instructor may not take this course for further credit.

 

Course Details:

Nowadays most wars are civil wars within multi-national countries rather than violent conflicts between sovereign states. Groups fight in the name of ethnic or religious identity for supremacy. Unlike regular armies pitched against each other in previous world wars, irregular forces cause havoc through terrorism. Established rules of warfare and predictability of such strife fall by the wayside, despite stronger outside powers trying to impose solutions.

The course will examine the application of theories and methods across a broad spectrum of international conflicts.  Diverse notions of peace and conflict resolution will be examined including cultural, religious and feminist perspectives.  The course will cover Johan Galtung’s theories of peace and violence, the pioneering work of John Burton in the field of conflict resolution and John Paul Lederach’s conflict transformation approach to peacebuilding.  We’ll explore Arendt Lijphard’s proposal of power-sharing in divided societies, partition and constitutionally guaranteed secession (Buchanan) and Mahmood Mamdani’s recommended co-existence with a vanquished adversary rather than retribution. The experience with dozens of Truth and Reconciliation Commissions around the world will be assessed.

This course will combine lectures, case studies, films, discussions and interactive presentations to highlight linkages between theory and practice.

Grading

  • Oral Presentation 15%
  • Participation 10%
  • Essay 35%
  • Final Take-Home Exam 40%

Materials

REQUIRED READING:

Heribert Adam (ed), Hushed Voices: Unacknowledged Atrocities of the 20th Century, Berkshire Academic Press, 2011 ISBN-13: 978-1907784-03-3


Martha Minnow, Between Vengeance and Forgiveness: Facing History After Genocide and Mass Violence, Beacon Press,1998 ISBN: 0-8070-4506-3


Antjie Krog, Country of My Skull: Guilt, Sorrow, and the Limits of Forgiveness in the New South Africa, Three Rivers Press, New York, 1999 ISBN: 0-8129-3129-7


Philip Gourevitch, We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda, 1999.


Selected Readings

* Selections for Oral Presentations

Listed below are some book titles and topics on which you may choose to work.  Students should present to the class (in a 15 minute online oral presentation) key concepts/ideas of the writer and provide a critical analysis of the reading.  One book/topic per student please.

Review Books:

  • Boraine, Alex. A Country Unmasked: Inside South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. 2000.

  • Goldhagen, Daniel. Worse than War.

 

  • Cohen, Stanley. States of Denial: Knowing about Atrocities and Suffering. Polity Press. 2001.

 

  • Hayner, Priscilla B. Unspeakable Truths: Confronting State Terror and Atrocity. 2001.

 

  • Marchak, Patricia. No Easy Fix: Global Responses to Internal Wars and Crimes Against Humanity, 2008.

 

  • Neier, Aryeh. War Crimes: Brutality, Genocide, Terror and the Struggle for Justice. Random House. 1998.

 

  • Weschler, Lawrence. A Miracle, A Universe: Settling Accounts with Torturers. Pantheon Books, 1990.

 

  • Villa-Vicencio, Charles and Verwoerd, Wilhelm. Looking Back Reaching Forward: Reflections on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa. University of Cape Town Press. 2000.

 

  • Gobodo-Madikizela, Pumla. A Human Being Died that Night: A South African Woman Confronts the Legacy of Apartheid. First Mariner Books. 2003.

 

  • White, Ben. Israeli Apartheid. Pluto Press, 2009.

 

  • Nino, Carlos Santiago. Radical Evil on Trial. Yale University Press. 1996.

 

  • Skaar, Elin and Gloppen, Siri (eds.). Roads to Reconciliation, Lexington Books, 2005.

 

  • Weinstein, Harvey and Stover, Eric. My Neighbour, My Enemy, Justice and Community in he Aftermath of Mass Atrocity, 2004.

 

  • One volume of the 5 volume South African Truth Commission Report 1999

 

  • Karstedt, Susanne. Legal Institutions and Collective Memories. Onati International Series in Law and Society, Hart Publishing, Oxford and Portland, Oregon. 2009.

 

  • Sen, Amartya. Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny. W. Norton and Company, New York, 2006.

 

  • Minnow, Martha. Between Vengeance and Forgiveness. Beacon Press. 1998.

 

  • Adam, Heribert and Moodley, Kogila. Seeking Mandela: Peacemaking Between Israelis and Palestinians. Temple University Press. 2005.

 

  • Buruma, Ian. Occidentalism: The West in the Eyes of Its Enemies.

 

  • Buruma, Ian. The Wages of Guilt: Memories of War in Germany and Japan.

 

  • Buruma, Ian. Murder in Amsterdam: The Death of Theo van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance.

 

  • Asherton, Neal. The Polish August: The Self Limiting Revolution,

 

  • Asherton, Neal. The Book of Lech Walesa, 1982.

 

  • Ash, Timothy Garton. History of the Present: Essays, Sketches and Despatches from Europe in the 1990s, 1999.

 

  • Zizek, Slavo. In Defense of Lost Causes, 2008.

 

  • Zizk, Slavo. Violence, 2008.

 

  • Gray, John. Isaiah Berlin, Princeton, 1996.

 

  • Arendt Hannah, Eichman in Jerusalem, 1963.

 

  • Arendt, Hannah. On Violence, 2008.

 

  • Gandhi, Mahatma. The Essential Gandhi: An Anthology of His Writings on His Life, Work and Ideas, 2002.

 

  • Burton, J. (1990) “Human Needs Theory” in Conflict: Resolution and Prevention. London: Macmillan, pp. 36-48.

For a wider literature and world view students are also encouraged to familiarize themselves with one of the following periodicals : The New York Review of Books, London Review of Books, The Economist, The Atlantic or The New Yorker. 


REQUIRED READING NOTES:

Your personalized Course Material list, including digital and physical textbooks, are available through the SFU Bookstore website by simply entering your Computing ID at: shop.sfu.ca/course-materials/my-personalized-course-materials.

Department Undergraduate Notes:

The Department of Political Science strictly enforces a policy on plagiarism.

Registrar Notes:

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: YOUR WORK, YOUR SUCCESS

SFU’s Academic Integrity website http://www.sfu.ca/students/academicintegrity.html is filled with information on what is meant by academic dishonesty, where you can find resources to help with your studies and the consequences of cheating. Check out the site for more information and videos that help explain the issues in plain English.

Each student is responsible for his or her conduct as it affects the university community. Academic dishonesty, in whatever form, is ultimately destructive of the values of the university. Furthermore, it is unfair and discouraging to the majority of students who pursue their studies honestly. Scholarly integrity is required of all members of the university. http://www.sfu.ca/policies/gazette/student/s10-01.html