Books to Purchase
Background Reading

READING SCHEDULE

Legend:

REQ      Required books available from Stanford Bookstore
RESV  Green Library Reserves
JSTOR Available for viewing online or downloadable in pdf or postscript format
PDF     Available from this site in pdf format

 ·        Books to Purchase

Robert Ellickson Order Without Law Harvard University Press [REQ/RESV]

Timur Kuran Private Truth, Public Lies Harvard University Press [REQ/RESV]

David Laitin Identity in Formation Cornell University Press [REQ/RESV]

Pierre Bourdieu Outline of a Theory of Practice Cambridge University Press [REQ/RESV]

Roy D’Andrade The Development of Cognitive Anthropology Cambridge University Press [REQ/RESV]

 ·        Background Reading 

Students who are interested in the classic texts in political science and anthropology where notions of political culture are central might want to peruse the following texts:

Max Weber The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism [RESV]

Gabriel Almond and Sidney Verba The Civic Culture [RESV]

Clifford Geertz The Interpretation of Cultures [RESV]

Clifford Geertz Negara [RESV]

Ruth Benedict The Chrysanthemum and the Sword [RESV]

David Laitin Politics, Language and Thought: The Somali Experience [RESV]

An excellent “bridge” article from the classic tradition to the economistic approach we take in this course is John Ferejohn “Rationality and Interpretation” in Kristen Monroe, ed. The Economic Approach to Politics (1991), [RESV]. 

·        Week 1 (April 9):  Introduction to the Course

 Read:

Laitin/Weingast Notes, “Prolegomenon for a New Theory of Culture” [PDF]. These are “rough” notes, written in code between Laitin and Weingast. Students should see this as a source for ideas rather than a finished statement on culture.

Assignment:

From the Laitin/Weingast “Prolegomenon” [PDF], propose a “problem to be solved” that has the potential to be addressed in the context of a seminar paper for this course. This assignment should be written up in about 1000 words. Students should send their assignments by email to the instructors by Monday morning April 9, at 10AM.

·        Week 2 (April 16):  Culture, Heuristics, Mental Models

 Read:

Roy D’Andrade The Development of Cognitive Anthropology [REQ/RESV]

Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman “Judgment Under uncertainty: heuristics and biases”, pp. 3-20 in Kahneman, Slovic and Tversky Judgment Under Uncertainty, Cambridge University Press, 1982 [RESV].

David Laitin “Identity Choice under conditions of Uncertainty” in James Alt, Margaret Levi and Elinor Ostrom Competition and Cooperation, Russell Sage Foundation, 1999 [RESV].

·        Week 3 (April 23):  Culture as an Equilibrium        

Michael Chwe Rational Ritual [RESV]

Avner Greif (1994) “Cultural Beliefs and the Organization of Society” Journal of Political Economy [JSTOR]

Paul Milgrom, Douglass North and Barry Weingast “The Role of Institutions in the Revival of Trade: The Law Merchant, Private Judges, and the Champagne Fairs” Economics and Politics v2, n1 (March 1990): 1-23 [RESV]

David Laitin “Tower and Babel as a Coordination Game” APSR (September 1994), pp. 622-34. [JSTOR]

Pierre Bourdieu Outline of a Theory of Practice [REQ/RESV]

Barry Weingast “Political Foundations of Democracy and the Rule of Law” APSR 1997 [JSTOR].

Sugden, Robert  (1997) “Spontaneous Order” in Mark Casson (ed.), Culture, Social Norms And Economics. Volume 2. Economic performance: 90-102 [RESV]

·        Week 4 (April 30):  Mechanisms of Cultural Production

 Readings:

Thomas Schelling The Strategy of Conflict, Harvard University Press, 1980, chapter 3 [RESV].

Ann Swidler “Culture in Action” American Sociological Review (April 1986), pp. 273-86 [JSTOR].

Robert Boyd and Peter Richerson Culture and the Evolutionary Process, University of Chicago Press, 1995, chapters 1, 3 [RESV].

Andrew Apter “The Subvention of Tradition” in George Steinmetz, State/Culture, Cornell Univ. Press 1994 [RESV].

John Meyer “The Changing Cultural Content of the Nation-State” in George Steinmetz, State/Culture Cornell Univ. Press 1994 [RESV].

Robert Bates, Rui de Figueiredo and Barry Weingast “The Politics of Interpretation: Rationality, Culture and Transition Politics & Society (December 1998), pp 603-642 [RESV].

Robert Axelrod “Disseminating Culture” in Journal of Conflict Resolution 1997, pp. 203-26 [RESV].

·        Week 5 (Week of May 7, time to be arranged):   Mechanisms of Cultural Enforcement

Ellickson Order without Law [REQ/RESV]

Fearon/Laitin “Explaining Ethnic Cooperation” APSR 1996 [JSTOR]

Mathew McCubbins and Thomas Schwartz (1984) “Congressional Oversight Overlooked: Police Patrols versus Fire Alarms” [JSTOR]

David Laitin Hegemony and Culture, University of Chicago Press, 1986, pp. 97-169 [RESV]

David Laitin “Marginality: A Micro Perspective” Rationality and Society (January 1995), pp. 31-57 [RESV].

·        Week 6 (May 14):  Discussions of Student Projects

 Assignment:

On Friday, May 11 by 3PM, students should distribute to all members of the seminar progress reports  on their research projects.  These reports should be about 2000 words and should reflect both work that has been accomplished and work that remains to be done.

·        Week 7 (May 21):  Cultural Persistence and Change

 Readings:

Laitin Identity in Formation [REQ/RESV]

Timur Kuran Private Truths, Public Lies [REQ/RESV]

Avner Greif manuscript chapters from Historical (and Comparative) Institutional Analysis: Self-enforcing and Self-reinforcing Economic Institutions [PDF]

Gerry Mackie (1996) “Ending Footbinding and Infibulation: A Convention Account” American Sociological Review 61, 6 [RESV].

 ·        Week 8 (May 28):  Domain of Culture

 Read:

Rise of the West and Changing Domain of Culture:     

Randall Collins and Michael Makowsky The discovery of society on Durkheim, Random House, 1978, pp. 103-09 [RESV]

Marshall Sahlins Culture and Practical Reason, University of Chicago Press 1976, chapter 4 [RESV]

Avner Greif, “Trading Institutions and the Commercial Revolution in Medieval Europe” in Economics in a Changing World Vol. 1 (Proceedings of the Tenth World Congress of the International Economic Association).  Edited by Abel Aganbegyan, Oleg Bogomolov, and Michael Kaser.  London:  Macmillan, 1994 [RESV]. 

On the Nation:

Ernest Gellner Thought and Change, London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1964, chapter 7 [RESV]. 

On Congress: 

Richard Fenno The power of the purse; appropriations politics in Congress, Little, Brown, 1966, chapter 2 [RESV].

On Political Parties:  

Myron Aronoff Power and ritual in the Israel Labor Party, Assen, Amsterdam:  Van Gorcum, 1977 [RESV].

On Corporations: 

David Kreps, “Corporate Culture and Economic Theory” in James Alt and Kenneth Shepsle Perspectives on Positive Political Economy, Cambridge University Press, 1990, pp. 90-143 [RESV].

 ·        Week 9 (June 4):  Culture and Conflict

 Read:

Samuel Huntington “Clash of Civilizations” Foreign Affairs 1993, pp. 22-49 [RESV].

Donald Horowitz The Deadly Ethnic Riot, University of California Press, 2001, chapter 6 [RESV]

Paul Brass Theft of an Idol, Princeton University Press, 1997, chapter with same title as book [RESV].

James Fearon and David Laitin “Violence and the Social Construction of Ethnic Identity” International Organization Autumn 2000, pp. 845-77 [RESV].

David Laitin “Language Conflict and Violence” Archives Européennes de Sociologie no. 1 (2000), pp. 97-137 [RESV].

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