Compare and contrast consociational democracy with majoritarian democracy.

Comparative Politics

Essay Topics

Final Research Paper

 

 

 

1. Compare and contrast consociational democracy with majoritarian democracy.

 

2. Why have countries such as Hungary and Poland, that were the frontrunners of democratization and market economy in Eastern Europe in 1990s, experienced democratic backsliding?

 

3. Charles Tilly argued that war makes the state and states make wars. Could the civil wars in Yugoslavia be considered as a mechanism of state-building in the Balkans?

 

4. Why do some kind of dictatorships survive crisis?

 

5. E. E. Schattschneider held that modern democracy is unthinkable without political parties. What is the role of political parties in democracy, what explains variations in party system institutionalization and polarization?

 

6. Compare and contrast majoritarian electoral systems with proportional electoral systems. Which of these electoral system families is more suitable to representative democracy? What effects do electoral systems have on the party system?

 

7. Scholars of democratic transitions and democratization (O’Donnell, Schmitter & Whitehead 1986; D.A. Rustow 1970) tend to highlight the role of political elites and elite pacts as mechanisms of regime change. Other scholars of democratization emphasize the role of social classes end economic modernization (Barrington Moore Jr.; Seymour Lipset). The Arab Spring triggered regime transitions in Egypt and Tunisia. Why the process of democratization was more successful in Tunisia than in Egypt? Which of the above theories explain better the difference in outcome (democratization)?

 

8. What is political culture and how is that reproduced or sustained through time? Is political culture a prerequisite/pre-condition for democratization or democratic institutions create a political culture that is supportive of democracy?