Politics 329

Globalization versus Nationalism

Stephen Crowley

Mon. 7:00 - 9:00

King 325

Office: Rice 211

Office Hours: Wed. 2:30-3:30; Fri. 10:30-12:00; or by appointment

Phone: (office)775-8286; (home) 216/321-6564

e-mail: <fcrowley@oberlin.edu >

This seminar will examine two dominant trends of the post-Cold War world: the increasingly global nature of capitalism, and the rise of a wide variety of nationalist movements, often in reaction to the global market. These two concepts, ideologies or world-views offer conflicting ways of ordering the world, one where all nations should strive for the status of sovereign statehood, and one where global forces increasingly erase state independence. We will examine the historical development and theoretical explanations of both global capitalism and nationalism, and investigate particular cases of each, before considering their growing significance to world politics as well as possible alternatives to them.

Course Requirements

The seminar will involve reading and discussing a number of different perspectives and debates about both globalization and nationalism and the conflict between them. Through these we will jointly explore and debate ideas, hypotheses and theoretical models that should prove fruitful in the writing of your research paper. Since this is a seminar, you are expected to complete the weekly reading and come to class prepared to discuss the issues raised.

The first ten sessions will involve critical discussion of the readings. The day before each class (i.e., Sun.) you are to post at least two discussion questions about the week's reading on the seminar's computer bulletin board. These will form the basis for our collective discussions and are essential for the success of that enterprise.

The extended research paper (approximately 20-25 pages) will compromise a major part of this course, and is due by noon on the last day of classes. A one-two page paper proposal, along with a working bibliography, will be due in class on October 6. I strongly encourage you to meet with me to discuss your topic sometime before then. To further help you in completing the paper, you will also be asked to turn in an outline on November 17. In addition, you will make a presentation of your paper to the class; the last three sessions will be devoted to these presentations and discussion of your papers in progress.

Grades will be assessed in the following manner: Class participation, including the contribution of discussion questions to the computer forum and the in-class presentation, will be 40%. The remaining 60% will be based on the research paper.

Reading:

All the assigned readings will be on reserve. In addition the following books have been ordered for purchase at the Co-op:

William Greider, One World, Ready of Not: The Manic Logic of Global Capitalism (Simon and Schuster, 1997)

Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origins and Spread of Nationalism (Verso, 1991)

Basil Davidson, Black Man's Burden: Africa and the Curse of the Nation-State (Times Books, 1992)

Class Schedule

week 1: Introduction

no assigned reading

Part I: Globalization

week 2

Benjamin Barber, "Jihad versus Mcworld" The Atlantic, March 1992

Greider, One World Ready or Not, chapters 1-7

week 3

Robert Gilpin, "The Nature of Political Economy," in Robert Art and Robert Jervis, International Politics (Harper Collins, 1992)

Greider, chapters 8-11

week 4

James Fallows, "What Is an Economy For?," The Atlantic, January 1994

Paul Krugman, "Competitiveness: A Dangerous Obsession," and Responses, Foreign Affairs July/August 1994

Robert Reich, "Who is Us?" in Art and Jervis, International Politics

Greider, chapters 12-15

week 5

Charles Tilly, "Globalization Threatens Labor's Rights," and responses by Wallerstein, Zolberg, Hobsbawm, and Beneria, International Labor and Working Class History (spring 1995)

Greider, chapters 16-18

Jeremy Brecher, "Global Village or Global Pillage?," The Nation December 6, 1993; and articles from The Nation, July 15, 1996

Paper topics and preliminary bibliography due

II. Nationalism

week 6

John Hall, "Nationalisms: Classified and Explained" Daedulus Summer1993

Charles Tilly, "National Self-Determination as a Problem for All of Us," Daedulus, Summer1993

Anthony Smith, "Nationalism," in Mary Hawkesworth and Maurice Kogan, eds., Encyclopedia of Government and Politics (Routledge, 1992)

Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communites, chapters 1-5

week 7

B. Anderson, Imagined Communities, rest

Partha Chatterjee, "Whose Imagined Community?," Millenium: Journal of International Studies 20, no. 3 (Winter 1991)

Hugh Trevor-Roper, "Invention of Tradition: The Highland Tradition of Scotland," in Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger, eds., The Invention of Tradition (Cambridge University Press)

Tom Nairn, "Nationalism and the Uneven Geography of Development," in David Held, ed., States and Societies (New York University Press, 1983)

week 8

B. Davidson, Black Mans Burden: Africa and the Curse of the Nation-State, chapts. 2, 4, 6,7, and conclusion

Philip Gourevitch, "Continental Shift," The New Yorker Aug. 4, 1997

Part III: One world or Many?

week 9

Katherine Verdery, "From Parent-State to Family Patriarchs: Gender and Nation in Contemporary Eastern Europe," in Verdery, What Was Socialism and What Comes Next (Princetone University Press, 1996)

Cynthia Enloe, "Nationalism and Masculinity" in Bananas, Beaches and Bases (University of California Press, 1990)

Samuel Huntington, "The Clash of Civilizations?," Foreign Affairs, Summer 1993

Ronald Inglehart, "Does Latin America Exist (And is there a Confucian Culture?: A Global Analysis of Cross-Cultural Differences," PS: Political Science and Politics, March 1997

Immanuel Wallerstein, "Culture as the Ideological Battleground of the Modern World-System, in Mike Featherstone, ed., Global Culture: Nationalism, Globalism and Modernity (Sage, 1990)

Arjun Appadurai, "Disnjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy," in Mike Featherstone, ed., Global Culture: Nationalism, Globalism and Modernity (Sage, 1990)

week 10

Daniel Chirot, "After Socialism, What? The Global Implications of the Revolutions of 1989 in Eastern Europe," in Nikki Keddie, ed., Debating Revolutions (New York University Press, 1995)

Giovanni Arrighi, "World Income Inequalities and the Future of Socialism," New Left Review no. 189, 1991

Greider, chapter 19

Cynthia Enloe, in Bananas, Beaches and Bases, chapters7-8

Paper outlines due

weeks 11-13: paper presentations