What Can Students Learn from the Spanish Case in Comparative Politics Courses
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12378878 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Kerstin Hamann (0000-0002-2019-3511, University of Central Florida, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2007 |
| Volume | 40 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 707-710 |
| Publication date | 2007-10-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | PS Political Science & Politics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1049-0965 • E-ISSN: 1537-5935 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s1049096507071132 |
| OpenAlex | W1970833188 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 12 |
What can undergraduate students of comparative politics learn from studying Spain? Clearly, many professors do not see any good reasons to integrate Spain in introductory courses on comparative politics or European politics. Spain is often considered as a country on the periphery of western Europe—geographically, economically, and politically—and thus not worth spending time discussing in introductory courses on comparative politics or even western European politics. Given the time constraints of short semesters, instructors have to make choices about which topics and countries to cover when choosing European case studies for their syllabus, and often settle for a mix of the “classic” cases such as the United Kingdom, Germany, and France, and “newer” cases, such as new democracies in eastern and central Europe. Spain fits neither the established, advanced industrialized democracies category nor is it of much obvious interest for studying the latest developments in EU expansion. Spain re-democratized in the latter half of the 1970s and is currently celebrating 30 years of electoral democracy. The country joined the EU, then the European Communities, in 1986, together with Portugal and Greece. Thus, the newness of Spanish democracy and its EU membership has long since passed as a point of interest for college instruction, giving way to the new democracies in central and eastern Europe and the more recent waves of EU expansion. At the same time, Spanish democracy is too young to present a classic case of advanced industrialized democracies. In short, Spain does not appear to have much inherent appeal for undergraduate comparative politics courses. I gratefully acknowledge research assistance from Wendy Whitman in collecting information on textbooks and syllabi
Appeal · Comparative politics · Democracy · Economic policy · Economics · European union · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Syllabus · European Union Policy and Governance · Labor Movements and Unions · Law · Social Policy and Reform Studies
Democracy in Modern Spain
An Introduction to Varieties of Capitalism
The Breakdown of Democratic Regimes
Putting Portugal and Spain into the Political Science Syllabus
Subnational Governance in Europe
Federalist Institutions, Voting Behavior, and Party Systems in Spain
Voting Power in Federal Systems
Incorporating Spain into the Comparative Democratization Syllabus
| Citations per year | 0.08 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2013 - 2013 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |