Pol 300: Comparative Politics
Fall 2026 - Franklin Switzerland
Course Information
- Instructor: Giacomo Lemoli — giacomolemoli.github.io
- Instructor’s Email: glemoli@fus.edu
- Office location: LAC 8 (3rd floor)
- Office Hours: Monday-Thursday 12:30-14:30
- Class location: Kaletsch Campus Bldg., Room 5
- Class meeting times: Monday-Thursday 14:30-15:45
Textbook
William R. Clark, Matt Golder, Sona N. Golder, Foundations of Comparative Politics (2nd Edition). 2024, CQ Press
Recommended Books
The following books are recommended for students who want to cover some of the course modules in more detail.
Democratization
- Przeworski, A. (2018). Why bother with elections? John Wiley & Sons.
- Ash, T. G. (2010). The magic lantern: The revolution of’89 witnessed in Warsaw, Budapest, Berlin, and Prague. Vintage.
- Lieberman, E. (2022). Until we have won our liberty: South Africa after apartheid. Princeton University Press
- Tocqueville, A. (1833 [2003]). Democracy in America: And two essays on America. Penguin UK.
Democracy and Autocracy
- Levitsky, S., & Ziblatt, D. (2019). How democracies die. Crown.
- Przeworski, A. (2019). Crises of democracy. Cambridge University Press.
- Treisman, D., & Guriev, S. (2023). Spin dictators: The changing face of tyranny in the 21st century. Princeton University Press
The State
- Scott, J. C. (1998). Seeing like a state: How certain schemes to improve the human condition have failed. Yale university Press.