GENERAL INFORMATION. Check here for additional course-related readings, including readings designed to help you do better on required assignments. Be advised, however, that the information here is NOT meant to be comprehensive or exhaustive. Instead, it is simply meant to give you a starting point and some ideas, especially for the mini-essay assignments. You are ultimately responsible for doing your own research.

Click here for the list of required course books.
Chapter 1: Doing Comparative Politics • Click here to download chapter one from Doing Comparative Politics.
Required Readings for May 17 (tentative date) can be downloaded here.* Click on the link to download a PDF file of each reading:

The State of Democracy in the Middle East, Roundtable Discussion
Arab Democracy: Dismal Prospects by Lisa Anderson
Islam and the Prospects for Democracy in the Middle East by Saad Eddin Ibrahim

*Downloading is limited to CSLA students currently enrolled in POLS 373. All this material will be taken down shortly after February 21.
Life and Debt • We will view excerpts from this film midway through the quarter. For more information about the issues discussed in the film, a good place to start is the Links and Info page on the Life and Debt website. For background information on Jamaica specifically, you can find basic information from the CIA World Factbook, which provides economic, demographic, social and political information on all the countries of the world.
Stupid in America • The first mini-essay requirement for our class will require you to assess Stossel's "Stupid in America" segment (on ABC news) from a comparative methodological perspective. This is a very specific assignment, which requires you to incorporate material directly from our main textbook. However, to help you develop a better perspective on the issue, it would be helpful to read a range of responses to Stossel's segment. For some highly critical responses, see Bob Somerby, "As Stosssel Does: Stupid is as John Stossel Does" and Ezra Klein's "Looks Like Stossel is 'Stupid in America.'" For a supportive take, read David Nalle's "John Stossel's 'Stupid in America' Examined."

For your assignment, it is also important to find some comparative empirical information. One place to start is with data on international testing. For this, many scholars us PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment). Wikipedia has a nice summary of recent results from PISA, including additional links. The PISA site also allows you to look up and compare individual countries. Statistics, while useful and necessary, also need to backed up with qualitative data. For this, you will probably need to do some research on educational systems in individual countries, such as Belgium, Finland, South Korea, Japan, and the United States. NOTE: I've provided links to Wikipedia pages for each country, but this is just a starting point for your research. Also, do NOT assume that the countries I mention are the only ones you need to focus on. For your assignment, you should try to be creative.

Another suggestion: In my blog entry, I note that Belgium has free universal preschool starting at age 2.5. Comparatively speaking, Belgium is exceptional. More important, however, is the question: What effect, if any, does preschool have on future academic performance? While I do not purport to have the answer to this question, you might find the article, "Making the case for universal preschool" helpful.

• The entire segment of "Stupid in America" is available on YouTube