Students will be required to prepare a paper of approximately 10-15 pages on the challenges of building democracy in one of the following countries: Brazil, India,or Hungary. Each of these reflects general themes discussed in the course:
Brazil has a democratic regime currently attempting to recover from a backsliding episode during the term of Jair Bolsonaro. Your paper should focus on the causes of backsliding in Brazil, the reasons it was relatively limited, and the capacity of the Lula government to restore democratic stability.
Hungary is an example of a once-robust democracy that has devolved into a competitive authoritarian regime. Your paper should focus generally on how and why this backsliding occurred, and on future prospects: remaining competitive authoritarian, returning to democracy, or reverting to full dictatorship.
India is also an example of backsliding, although that it hasn’t yet gone as far as in Hungary. Your paper should focus on how and why this backsliding occurred and whether the regime has reverted to competitive authoritarianism or remained a fragile democracy.
In your papers, you should build on assigned readings, both general and specific to your country, but you will be expected to supplement these readings with additional research drawn from books, periodicals, and news sources.
These should be appropriately cited. As long as they are done consistently, you can use either of the following citation styles:
Footnotes or endnotes. These would be numbered and appear either at the bottom of each page or at the end of the paper. They should include the author, the title of the publication, the publisher, date of publication, and page number.
Eg., 1. John Smith, Hungary and Orbán, Princeton University Press, 2012, p. 12.
Alternatively you can insert the author, date, and page number in parentheses in the text (Smith 2012: 12) and follow this with a full bibliography at the end of the paper in the following form:
Smith, John 2012. Hungary and Orbán, Princeton University Press.
For the remaining part of the semester, we will spend approximately two weeks for each of the countries in the assignment. During each two-week period, I will reserve some class time to meet separately with groups working on each country.
I am choosing India
3, For those who choose India:
What were the flaws in the Indian system prior to the rise of Modi? Was it appropriate to consider pre-Modi India a democracy?
Why, and to what extent, were religious conflicts contained during the decades preceding the rise of Modi and the BJP?
What was the role of the Congress party?
What was the effect of the evolution of multi-party politics in the 1990s?
Why did religious conflicts become more violent in the 2010s?
Discuss the role of the BJP.
What other factors contributed to the escalation of communal violence?
Do you think India has become a competitive authoritarian regime since the rise of Modi? What criteria do you use to make this judgment?
Suggested readings.
Kosla and Vishnaev, “Three Faces of the Indian State,” Journal of Democracy 12, 1: January 2021, pp. 111-125.
Singh, “The Authoritarian Roots of Indian Democracy,” Journal of Democracy, 34,3 July 2022, pp. 133-143
Ganguly, ‘Modi’s Undeclared Emergency,” Journal of Democracy,34,3: July 2023, pp. 144-162.
Yadav, “Why India’s Elites are to Blame,” Journal of Democracy, 34, 3: July 2023, pp. 162-172.
