Dr Paul Mitchell CON5.14

This course is available on the MSc in Comparative Politics, MSc in Conflict Studies, MSc in EU Politics, MSc in EU Politics (LSE and Sciences Po), MSc in Global Politics and MSc in Political Science and Political Economy. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

Priority will be given to students on the MSc in Conflict Studies. This course is capped at 2 groups.

The deadline for applications is 1pm, Friday, 29 September 2017. You will be informed of the outcome by 12 noon, Monday, 2 October 2017.

The internal resolution of serious ethnic and national conflicts almost inevitably involves some form of power sharing and/or power division (autonomy and federation).  While power sharing is often invoked in normative and comparative accounts of conflict resolution, it is less frequently systematically examined. Conflict and Institutional Design (CID) is a comparative analysis of the making, maintenance and too often breaking of power sharing agreements.  When and how are peace agreements negotiated?  Does UN peacekeeping make a positive difference? What role than transitional justice mechanisms perform? Do they help? What type of power-sharing and federal designs are available?  Under what conditions is power sharing likely to help contain conflict, and when does it fail?  The course will pay particular attention to what happens after a power-sharing agreement is reached. The institutional focus will include analysis of electoral system design for divided societies, the dynamics of electoral and party competition within ethnic segmentation and consociational governance (power-sharing constitutions, executives, legislatures and federations). Why do some power-sharing regimes succeed while others fail?

20 hours of lectures and 15 hours of seminars in the LT.

There will be reading week in Week 6 of the LT.

Two briefing papers on pre-selected key concepts/cases.

Lijphart, Arend (2008). Thinking about Democracy: Power Sharing and Majority Rule in Theory and Practice. London: Routledge; .Noel, Sid (2005, ed), From Power Sharing to Democracy. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press; Norris, Pippa (2008). Driving Democracy: Do Power-Sharing Institutions Work? Cambridge University Press; Reynolds, Andrew (ed) The Architecture of Democracy: Constitutional Design, Conflict Management and Democracy. Oxford UP; Powell, G. Bingham (2000). Elections as Instruments of Democracy: Majoritarian and Proportional Visions. New Haven: Yale UP; Hayner, Priscilla (2011, 2nd edition). Unspeakable Truths: Transitional Justice and the Challenge of Truth Commissions. Routledge; Shugart, Matthew Soberg and John Carey (1992). Presidents and Assemblies: Constitutional Design and Electoral Dynamics. Cambridge UP; Roeder, Philip and Donald Rothchild (2005). Sustainable Peace: Power and Democracy After Civil Wars. Cornell UP; Lijphart, Arend (1977). Democracy in Plural Societies: A Comparative Exploration. New Haven: Yale University Press; Nordlinger, Eric (1972). Conflict Regulation in Divided Societies. Occasional Papers in International Affairs. Cambridge, MA: Center for International Affairs, Harvard University; O'Leary, Brendan, Ian Lustick and Thomas Callaghy (2001, eds). Right-Sizing the State: The Politics of Moving Borders. Oxford UP; Diamond, Larry and Marc Platter (2006, eds). Electoral Systems and Democracy. Johns Hopkins UP; Gallagher, Michael and Paul Mitchell (2005, eds, The Politics of Electoral Systems. Oxford: Oxford University Press; Reilly, Benjamin (2001). Democracy in Divided Societies: Electoral Engineering for Conflict Management. Oxford UP; Birnir, Johanna Kristin (2007). Ethnicity and Electoral Politics. Cambridge University Press.

Essay (100%, 5000 words) in the ST.

The research essay will be on a topic of your choice. Having said that the topic will be discussed between each of you and myself and I must approve the topic. The research paper should ideally examine a research question using relevant concepts and theories, and must have an empirical dimension that is relevant to the themes of the course. 'Empirical' is understood in the broadest sense: your material could be a case study set in an appropriate theoretical framework, it could examine a theme with comparative case studies, it could be quantitative or qualitative. Whatever is deemed appropriate to the research question at hand. Bear in mind though that broad surveys are generally not a good idea. After all 5000 words is about half the standard size of a journal article. Much more advice about the essay will be given as the course progresses both collectively and in individual meetings with each of you. One of the aims in asking participants to write a paper is to help you to think about research questions and appropriate research design. Thus we are aiming at more than a traditional essay (which largely summarizes what significant others have said), and to begin to make the transition towards ‘postgraduate research’ in which you help develop new insights and/or new empirical knowledge. This should also help you when approaching the planning and writing of your MSc dissertation. Since you will be working on something that really interests you I hope that this will be an enjoyable experience.