Fall/Winter Timetable

POL2326H1S L0101

Undergraduate Course Code: POL426H1S L0101

Democracy and Dictatorship

Themes

This course will provide an in-depth exploration of modern theories of the origins of democracy and dictatorship. In the first part of the course, we will examine and compare theories rooted in economic development, voluntarism, institutional design, and historical institutionalism. The latter half of the course will focus on competing theories for the origins of Nazi rule in Germany in the 1930s, military dictatorship in Chile in the 1970s, and hybrid democratic-authoritarian rule in post-Soviet Russia.

Preparation

It will be helpful for students to have taken at least one course in political science.