Syllabus
1. Introductory lecture
Organizational matters, requirements, readings etc.
Ideas and ideology
Democracy and its meaning
Democracy: past and present 2. Non-democratic regimes
Authoritarian regimes
Totalitarian regimes
Readings: Brooker 2000: introduction and chapter 1.
Movie: "Kladivo na čarodějnice" 1969 (Witchhammer) 3. Capitalism : origins and developments
Capitalism as an economic and political system
Theory of Karl Marx and Max Weber
Martin Berger: theory of capitalism
Readings 1: Newman, de Zoysa. 2001: chapter 1. 4. Capitalism as a liberal ideology
Traditions of liberal thought
Free-market economy
Readings 1: Mises 2000: preface, introduction, chapter 1 and 2. 5. Socialism: history of socialist movement
Socialist/communist ideas in the history of political thought
Socialist movement and its strands
Readings: Berman 2000
Movie: "král šumavy" 1959 (smugglers of death) 6. From socialism to communism
Split of socialist movement
Communist ideology
Readings 1: Marx 1848 (especially pages 14-34 and 41-54)
Readings 2: Lenin 1920
Mid-term exam 7. Communism in practice
Communist system in the Soviet Union
Communist system in the Czechoslovakia
Readings: Agnew 2004: chapter 12 and 13
Movie: "Ucho" 1970 (The Ear) 8. Reformist communism and Eurocommunism
The 1953 revolt in the German Democratic Republic and the Prague Spring 1968 in Czechoslovakia
Can communism be reformed?
Eurocommunism in Western Europe
Criticism of communism
Readings 1: Agnew 2004: chapter 13 and 14
Readings 2: Azcárate: 1978 9. MOVIE: "PELÍŠKY" 1999 (COSY DENS) 10. Social democracy in theory and practice
Social democracy and socialism
Socialist parties in Europe
Readings: Newman, de Zoysa. 2001: chapter 2. 11. Third way: beyond left and right?
What does political left and right mean?
Theories of third way
Criticism of the third way
Readings: Newman, de Zoysa. 2001: chapter 5 and 6. 12. Socialism and communism in Europe after 1989
End of history
Why communist ideas survive?
Communist and socialist parties in Europe
Readings 1: Fukuyma 1989.
Readings 2: Kopeček 2005: p. 11-26; 109-117. 13. MOVIE: "GOOD BYE, LENIN" (2003) 14. Final exam + students’ projects presentation
Annotation
The course will examine the dichotomy between the two predominant forms of state organization and markets, i.e., capitalism and communism throughout the 20th century. Although the concepts have their economic facets, the primary perspective pursued in the course is that of political science. The course integrates two strands of political science: political theory (political philosophy), and comparative (empirical) politics. In the course we will discuss different meanings and interpretations of the concepts, which are used in different contexts across time and space. Capitalism and communism have contrasting understanding of democracy, which is another important issue analyzed in the course. The theoretical background is completed with many empirical examples.
The course will focus on the Soviet ideological division of the world into the communist east and capitalist west, and its distorted teaching of economic development applied to the former Warsaw Bloc countries (notably Czechoslovakia). The political movement known as social democracy (that originated in 19th socialist movement) sought compromise between the two contrasting ideologies through state regulation and social reforms aimed at adjusting inadequacies of the capitalist regime. Over the course of the semester the students will become familiar with the theories and their diverse historical applications in various countries.