POL2 308S (Spring 2007)

FEB. 7: STUDYING CHINESE POLITICS -- how to be a China Watcher!

Required:

June Teufel Dreyer, "Introduction," in China's Political System: Modernization and Tradition,” 5th ed. (2005) pp. 1-22. (ER)

Lowell Dittmer and William Hurst, “"Analysis in Limbo: Contemporary Chinese Politics and the Maturation of Reform,"” Issues and Studies (December 2002 - March 2003), pp. 11-48. (ER)

Scott Kennedy, "Divining China’s Future'" World Policy Journal, Volume XXI, No 4, Winter 2004/05. LINK

Harry Harding, Jr., "The Changing Roles of the Academic China Watcher," paper presented to the conference on “"Trends in China Watching: Observing the PRC at 50,"”convened by: The Sigur Center for Asian Studies, George Washington University, October 8-9, 1999. PDF or HTML LINK.

Take a Mao-like dip (Fear no hardship!) into China Politics Links (http://www.wellesley.edu/Polisci/wj/ChinaLinks-New/index.html) to become familiar with it as a source of information for both this course and your research papers.

Each studentwill also be assigned to take a look at one of the major journalsrelevant to the study of Chinese politics and will report back brieflyto the class about its focus, accessibility, etc. Pick the title of oneor two articles that sound intriguing or dismaying to bring to theattention of the class. See for http://www.wellesley.edu/Polisci/wj/308S/chinajournals.html a list of journal websites, etc. The link can also be accessed via link posted in the course conference.

Recommended:

• Elizabeth J. Perry, "Trends in the Study of Chinese Politics: State-Society Relations," China Quarterly 139 (September 1994): 704-13. JSTOR
• Nina P.  Halpern, "Studies of Chinese Politics," in Shambaugh pp. 120-37. (ER)
• Lucian Pye, “"Social Science Theories in Search of Chinese Realities,” in China Quarterly, 132 (Dec. 1992), pp. 1161-1170. JSTOR
• Michel Oksenberg, “"Politics Takes Command: An Essay on the Study of Post-1949  China,” in The Cambridge History of China, vol. 14, pp. 543-591.
• Harry Harding, "The Evolution of American Scholarship on Contemporary China," in David Shambaugh, ed., American Studies of Contemporary China (M.E. Sharpe, 1993), pp. 14-40. . (ER)
• Simon Leys, “"The China Experts,” in The Burning Forest: Essays on Chinese Culture and Politics,” pp. 194-207.
• Paul Cohen, “"Toward a China-Centered History of China,” in Discovering History in China, pp.  160-198.