Politics in Advanced Industrialized States

Pol 340-Spring 2001

Prof. Kurzer 621 1726                             

Office hrs.T: 1-2; Th: 1-2                                                                                                                Social Sciences 323

Email:                                                                                                                                                kurzer@arizona.edu

Introduction

How do the three largest advanced industrialized countries organize their economies and markets? What are the differences in governance structures, and why do differences matter, if at all? Does one country have a decisive 'competitive edge'? This course tries to answer these questions by examining the differences in political and economic institutions of the three largest advanced industrialized countries: Japan, Germany, and the United States. The final weeks look at the automobile industry to gain a deeper insight how core manufacturers are organized in each of the three countries.

Books to be purchased:

Peter Capelli, et.al. Change at Work. Oxford University Press, 1997.

T.J. Pempel, Regime Shift. Cornell University Press, 1998.

Course Requirements

There will be three exams of equal weight (each 30 percent) and the remaining 10 percent of the grade reflects class participation. The dates of the first and second mid-term are February 20 and April 3. The final is scheduled for May 8 at 11 am and includes everything from February 20. To promote class discussions, I will post questions on the readings every week. Check out the web page for this course on www.u.arizona.edu/~kurzer to find the questions. You are also expected to show up for class regularly and be prepared to join our discussions (10 percent of the final grade). I will drop students from the course after ‘excessive absences’. Every student should also read the New York Times daily. Student subscriptions are handed out during the first day of class.

The library is now offering electronic reserve and this course relies on a fair amount of reserve readings. Because of copyright issues, the reserve readings cannot be made available to the general public and can only be accessed with a special PASSWORD. The password is Kurzer (easy to remember).

DATE                             TOPIC AND READING ASSIGNMENT

Jan.11                                                 Introduction.

Jan. 16-18:                                          The Japanese Miracle

Pempel, Regime Shift, 1-80.

Jan.26-28:                                           Consolidation of Conservatism

                                                            Pempel, Regime Shift, 81-136.

Feb. 2-4:                                             Japan in Transition

                                                            Pempel, Regime Shift, 136-208

Feb. 9-11:                                           Corporate Governance in Japan and the US                                   

                                                            Ronald Dore, The Asian Form of Capitalism, 35-58. (ER)

Capelli et.al. Change at Work, pp. 3-15

Feb. 13-15:                                         Rise and Fall of Welfare Capitalism

                                                            Sanford Jacoby, Modern Manors pp.3-10, 35-56, 236-266. (ER)

Feb. 20-22                                           Mid-Term Tuesday, February 20.

                                                Competitiveness, Growth, and Labor Market

                                                            Capelli et.al. Change at Work, pp. 15-88       

Feb. 27-Mar 1                                    Skills Gap and Decline of Trade Union       

                                                            Capelli et.al. Change at Work, pp. 122-227

March 6-8                                           New Economy at Work

                                                            AnnaLee Saxenian, Genesis: Universities, Military Spending, and Entrepreneurs in Regional Advantage, 11-37 (ER)

 (had to split it into 3 files; look for name of author)

AnnaLee Saxenian, Cooperation and Competition, in Regional Advantage 37-57. (ER)

AnnaLee Saxenian, Route 128, in Regional Advantage 59-82 (ER)

March 20-22:                                     Social Concertation and the German Miracle

                                                            Kirsten Wever, Negotiating Competitiveness, 1-28. (ER)

L. Turner, Negotiating the New Germany, 1-32. (ER)

March 27-29:                                     Stress and Strain in the German Model: Unification

Turner, Negotiating the New Germany, 113-139, 157-176, 207-26, 255-62. (ER)

April 3-5:                                            Mid-Term Tuesday, April 3

                                                Stress and Strain in the German Model: Integration

                                                            AnnaLee Saxenian, Introduction: Local Industrial Systems, 1-9.

                                                            Mark Lehrer, Has Germany Finally Fixed its High-Tech Problem? California Management Review, 2000 (ER)

April 10-12:                                        Car Assemblers: VW in Germany

                                                            Ulrich Jurgens, The Development of VW’s Industrial Model (ER)

Apr. 17-19:                                         Car Assemblers: GM in the US

                                                            Michael Flynn, The GM Trajectory (ER)

                                                            Ruth Milkman, Farewell to the Factory, 1-21 & 137-80 (ER)

Apr. 24-26:                                         Car Assemblers:  Toyota and Nissan

                                                            Koichi Shimizu, A New Toyotaism? (ER)

                                                            Masanori Hanada, Nissan: Restructuring to Regain Competitiveness (ER)                                                   

May  2:                                               Review           

Final exam may  8 @ 11 AM