States, Democracies, Nations

This course surveys current contributions on two central questions of politics: national identity and nationalism; and the foundations of democracy. We devote about three fourths of the course to explore: the canonical literature on nationalism; potential microfoundations of national identity; the formation of particular national identities (including fully-formed nation-states, national minorities, etc.); the institutional accommodation and policy consequences of national heterogeneity within countries. We spend the last quarter of the course on recent advances and debates on democratization and democratic performance.