Prof Sumantra Bose CYBER

This course is available on the MSc in Comparative Politics, MSc in Empires, Colonialism and Globalisation, MSc in Global Politics and MSc in Human Rights. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

Priority will generally be given to MSc Comparative Politics students and then to those on other programmes, who are welcome to apply but can be admitted only subject to availability of space. 

This course examines the range of strategies available to states and political elites seeking to regulate national and ethnic conflict. It explores when particular strategies are employed, and under what conditions they are likely to 'succeed'. The literature drawn upon is primarily empirical political science but also includes political philosophy, policy analysis, international law and political sociology. The course materials are online on Moodle, the LSE's electronic teaching and learning system. A survey of 10 strategies of eliminating or democratically managing cultural, ethnic and ethno-national difference and conflict: genocide, expulsion, partition, secession, integration and assimilation, hegemonic control, devolution/autonomy and federalism, power-sharing and consociationalism, electoral system design, and language policy. The topic for each week is approached with reference to multiple case studies.

10 hours of seminars in the MT. 2 hours of seminars in the ST.

The first meeting is a set-up and introductory session, and the last a revision session.

D Horowitz, Ethnic Groups in Conflict; A Lijphart, Democracy in Plural Societies; J McGarry & B O'Leary, The Politics of Ethnic Conflict Regulation; S Bose, Contested Lands; C Taylor, Multiculturalism and the Politics of Recognition; M Burgess and A G Gagnon (Eds), Comparative Federalism and Federation; A Cassese, The Self-Determination of Peoples; M Moore (ed), National Self-Determination and Secession.

Exam (100%, duration: 2 hours) in the main exam period.