This course is designed to give basic overview of the regime change literature and provide understanding of contemporary political systems in democratic part of East Asia (ROC, ROK, Japan). Therefore, on its completion, students should be able to understand the postwar development of the trio and apply frameworks suitable for the analysis of core issues of democratization in Taiwan and South Korea, including institutional changes, the role of electoral and party systems, elites and major pressure groups. We will approach the topic from the empirical-analytic tradition to explore similarities and differences that exist among them. We will try to catch the dynamics of political transformation and conduct a systematic comparison utilizing a set of common integrated themes. This course serves as an adequate basis to prepare students for further study of East Asian political systems and comparative regime change.
- Teacher: Petr Bláha