PSCI351: States, Nations, Nationalism

Professor Van Holde

This course provides an introduction to comparative political development. It focuses on two key issues in the development of the contemporary world: the rise of the modern state and the emergence of modern nationalism. By analyzing the processes of state and nation-building in selected countries, we will come to understand the means by which state power is constructed, maintained, and legitimated in political systems as varied as absolutist monarchies and modern nation-states. And by examining nationalism in a variety of historical and geographical settings, we will begin to comprehend the intriguing power and persistence of national identities in an increasingly multinational world. Although the course will be explicitly analytic and comparative in character, analysis will be supplemented as appropriate with case studies drawn from countries around the world. Prerequisite: sophomore standing. Enrollment limited.