PROGRAM: Undergraduate course in Administration – 2nd trimester, 2021

SUBJECT: State, Government and Society

PROFESSOR(S): Dr. Gregory Michener (click for email)
MONITORA:
CLASSES: Typically from 9:00-11:45. The schedule is as follows: April: 30 (14h-17:30); May: 5 (14h-17:30),
7 (14h-17:30), 12, 19, 26; June: 2, 9, 16
REQUIREMENTS: Not Applicable
CONTACT/CONSULTATION: Room 536, 3799-5778. Afternoons or by appointment.

COURSE DESCRIPTION
This is a depressing time to be studying politics, yet also a time full of new possibilities. Democracies confront
historic challenges around the world, particularly with regards to polarization and populism. How are current
democratic institutions fostering polarization, populism, and other democratic ills? The point of this course is to
begin to understand the fundamentals of democratic government, both why and how current institutions are
failing and the possibilities for renewal, primarily via reform. Most of our representative institutions were
conceptualized over two hundred years ago – how can we do better?

Politics is at the root of all human organization and has profound effects on a country’s level of development, its
safety and prosperity, even the happiness of its citizens. Some countries do politics well, others less so. For this
reason, the scope of this course is comparative – we will examine the way government works throughout the
Americas and around the world.

I have chosen to assign a minimum of reading for this course – one or two chapters or articles per week and
one newspaper article – in order to ensure that students actually do the reading. PLEASE do the reading.

SCOPE DESCRIPTION
The specific focus of the course is gaining a basic understanding of comparative democratic institutions and
contemporary political problems that democracies face. By democratic institutions, we mean the
three branches of government – the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches – three levels of government –
the municipal, state, and federal levels – and three themes central to democracy – representation, accountability,
and responsiveness. We will also study the media, which is often referred to as the ‘fourth branch’ of
government.

LEARNING OUTCOMES
Why is it important to learn how government works? For one, better informed citizens play critical roles in
promoting better government, and better government means a stronger economy, more social harmony – a
better quality of life. But there is also a professional component that is often overlooked: understanding the ins-
and-outs of government, citizen rights, and the ‘tools’ of democracy enables administrators to be more effective
managers, and to spot prospective challenges and opportunities generated by governments.

COURSE METHODOLOGY

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The course is intended to be participative, and combines lectures, group exercises, class discussions, and student
presentations. All information and weekly writing assignments (see section 6 on assessment procedures) will be
posted on the e-class website.
DETAILED COURSE CONTENT

Dates Topic Readings

INTRODUCTION
Introduction
♦ FUKUYAMA, F. Social Capital, Civil
Social Capital Society and Development. Third World
Week
In what ways do you see social capital Quarterly, v. 22, n. 1, p. 7–20, 2001.
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affecting the strengths and weaknesses of ♦ ROSLING, H. and O. (2014). How not to be
Brazilian politics and society? [Post mini- ignorant about the world. TED Talk.
essay in e-class > discussions.]
♦ Pages 3-20: O’NEIL, P. H.; FIELDS, K.;
SHARE, D. Cases in Comparative Politics:
Fifth Edition. London: W. W. Norton &
Company, 2015.
♦ Pages 1-9: LIJPHART, A. Patterns of
Week Overview of Comparative Political Democracy: Government Forms and
2 Institutions Performance in Thirty-Six Countries. 2
edition ed. New Haven: Yale University
Press, 2012.
♦ LI, E. X. A tale of two political systems,
2013. TED Talk.

Week Case Study: Germany ♦ Chapter 5: Germany (214-273). Cases in

3 Comparative Politics
Week ♦ Chapter 3. United States (92-149). Cases in
Case Study: United States
4 Comparative Politics
♦ Pages 14-32 HAGGARD, S.; KAUFMAN,
R. Backsliding: Democratic Regress in the
Contemporary World. New York: Cambridge
Week
Case Study: Backsliding in Brazil University Press, 2021.
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♦ Pages 43-52: Brazil: Appendix to
Backsliding.

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 ♦ Chapter 4: Chile. SKIDMORE, T. E.;
SMITH, P. H. Modern Latin America 7th
edition. New York: Oxford University Press,
Week 2005.
Case Study: Chile
6 ♦ OYARZÚN-SERRANO, L. Chile Facing
the Pandemic and Social Unrest: Crisis as an
Opportunity? Latin American Policy, v. 11, n.
2, p. 320–326, 2020.
♦ ALVES, R. From Lapdog to Watchdog: The
Role of the Press in Latin America’s
Democratization. In: BURGH, H. (Ed.).
Making Journalists. London: Routledge,
2005.
Week ♦ LUPU, N.; BUSTAMANTE, M. V. R.;
Media and Social Media
7 ZECHMEISTER, E. J. Social Media
Disruption: Messaging Mistrust in Latin
America. Journal of Democracy, v. 31, n. 3,
p. 160–171, 2020.

♦ The Federal Judiciary and Electoral Courts.

In: POWER, T. J.; TAYLOR, M. M. (Eds.).
Week Corruption and Democracy in Brazil: The
The Judiciary
8 Struggle for Accountability. South Bend:
University of Notre Dame Press, 2011. p.
162–183.
Week Corruption & Democracy ♦ TAYLOR, M. M. Coalitions, Corruption,
9 and Crisis: The End of Brazil’s Third
Republic? Latin American Research Review,
v. 55, n. 3, p. 595–604, 8 set. 2020.
♦ MILLER, B. et al. Latin America’s Biggest
Corruption Cases: A Retrospective Americas
Quarterly, 2020.
♦ WALT, J. R. A., Nicholas Burns, Laurie
Garrett, Richard N. Haass, G. John Ikenberry,
Kishore Mahbubani, Shivshankar Menon,
Robin Niblett, Joseph S. Nye Jr ,. Shannon K.
O’Neil, Kori Schake, Stephen M. How the
World Will Look After the Coronavirus
Pandemic. Foreign Policy, 2021.
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ASSESSMENT PROCEDURES
General Participation (20%) – Participation means being present, paying attention, general attitude, asking
and answering questions.

E-Class Discussion ‘Blog Posts’ (40%) – Each student is required to post weekly to the Discussions Section of
e-class, by 3pm the night before class (or by 9AM if the class is in the afternoon). Here are the basics:
o Your answer is an informed opinion, which you defend my making specific references to the
readings that week. It is not a summary. We do not need summaries of the texts. We need your
opinion, defended using the readings, logic, examples, counterfactuals, etc.
o You will comment (in the comments section of students’ posts) on at least one other students’
post per week.
o You may post in Portuguese, but at least two blog posts must be in English.
o You will be graded on a) the quality of your posts; b) if you fulfill the criteria listed above
(specific references, comment on comments, English).

Presentation of Blog Posts (15%) – Students will be organized into groups. One group of students will present
everyday 3-7 blog posts that are especially controversial or intelligent (not your own) that will guide class
discussion. Beyond all else, your presentation should ask questions of the authors, and your objective is to have
the class speak more than you speak. These presentations should be in the form of a powerpoint, and take no
more than 30 minutes in total (including discussion). To repeat, the point is to generate class discussion, not to
bore students.

Final Exam (25%) – You will have a 1-hour final exam on the last day of class, essay format, to be handed out
on the day of the exam.

GENERAL GUIDELINES FOR THE UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM [1]

 E-Class is class headquarters – you can find assignments, grades, updates, and you will use it to submit
your blog posts.
 Plagiarism – Will not be tolerated. To avoid plagiarism remember two rules:
 Always cite the source when using other people’s ideas or exact words. Example: AUSTIN, A. New
Index Finds Corruption Worsening Across Latin America. InSight Crime, 30 jun. 2020.
 If you use someone else’s words (i.e. copying and pasting) always use “quotation marks” and cite the
source. You can cite a source by using a footnote and putting the source at the end of your work.
Plagiarism will result in a zero on the assignment. For more information, see this text.

REQUIRED READINGS
 HAGGARD, S.; KAUFMAN, R. Backsliding: Democratic Regress in the Contemporary World. New
York: Cambridge University Press, 2021.
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  LIJPHART, A. Patterns of Democracy: Government Forms and Performance in Thirty-Six Countries.
Second edition ed. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012.
 ONEIL, P. H.; FIELDS, K.; SHARE, D. Cases in Comparative Politics: Fifth Edition. London: W. W.
Norton & Company, 2015.
 PEREIRA, C.; MELO, M. A. Making Brazil Work: Checking the President in a Multiparty Regime.
New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.
 SKIDMORE, T. E.; SMITH, P. H. Modern Latin America 7th edition. New York: Oxford University
Press, 2005.

ADDITIONAL READINGS
♦ ACEMOGLU, D.; ROBINSON, J. Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty.
New York: Crown Publishing Group, 2012.
♦ LEVITSKY, S.; ZIBLATT, D. How Democracies Die. Reprint edition ed. New York: Broadway
Books, 2019.
♦ HELMKE, G.; LEVITSKY, S. Informal Institutions and Democracy: Lessons from Latin America.
Baltimore John Hopkins University Press, 2006.
♦ MAHONEY, J. Colonialism and Postcolonial Development: Spanish America in Comparative
Perspective. 1. ed. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010.

PROFESSOR MINI-RÉSUMÉ
Gregory Michener is Associate Professor of Government at the Brazilian School of Public and Business
Administration, Getulio Vargas Foundation, Rio de Janeiro (FGV-EBAPE). His research and writing focus on
the politics, policy, measurement and evaluation of transparency, freedom of information and open data, as well
as the operation of anti-corruption and accountability policies in Brazil. At the FGV, he leads the Public
Transparency Program (PTP-FGV) and a regional research project, the Transparency Evaluation Network. He is
currently working on a book on transparency and freedom of information in Latin America, which he plans on
completing in 2021-22 on sabbatical leave as a visiting scholar MIT’s Department of Political Science.

[1] Approved by the Undergraduate Program Collegiate in a meeting on October 4th, 2011, and in conformity
with The National Educational Bases and Guidelines Law, with FGV/EBAPE’s internal by-laws, and with the
Undergraduate Program’s regulations.
2 The student is guaranteed the right to a full defense as per the School’s internal regulations.