| Course Title: Democratization and Civil Society in East Asia |
| Start Date: 01/27/2026 End Date: 05/12/2026 |
| Term: Spring Semester 2026 |
| Description: This course examines the dramatic emergence of democratic institutions and civil society in East Asia. The primary aim of the class is to help students understand and analyze the process of democratic unfolding in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. We will also evaluate China's recent, albeit limited experiments with democratic practices. We will begin by contrasting Western perspectives of democracy with both traditional and more contemporary Asian understandings of democracy. We will then focus on the actual processes of democratic consolidation in each of the cases, especially the developments that precipitated political crisis and ultimately, political change. |
| Distribution(s): III - Social Sciences , MP - Multicultural Perspectives |
| Academic Level Of Course: Undergraduate | Credits:4.00 |
| Faculty | Phone | Email address |
| Calvin Chen | 413-538-2668 | cchen@mtholyoke.edu |
| Meeting Dates | Method | Meeting days | Meeting times | Building name | Room | Frequency |
| 01/27/2026 - 05/12/2026 | Seminar | Tuesday | 01:30PM - 04:20PM | TBA | TBA | Weekly |
| Requisite Courses | ||
| None |
| Comments |
| Additional Comments |
| Course Tags | ||
| EASIA0001 | EASIA: East Asian Studies major | This course has been approved to count towards the East Asian Studies major. |
| ASIAN0001 | ASIAN: Asian Studies minor | This course has been approved to count towards the Asian Studies minor. |
| IR0001 | INTREL: International Relations major | This course has been approved to count towards the International Relations major. |
| POLIT-COMPAR | POLIT-COMPAR: Politics - Comparative subfield | This course has been approved to count towards the Comparative Politics subfield of the Politics major (100-200-level courses only) and minor (all courses). |
| Cross-listed Sections |
| None |
| Course Availability | ||||
| Section status: Open | Capacity: 18 | Enrollment: 6 | Available: 12 | Waitlist: 0 |
BOOK INFORMATION
| Book List | Required | Publisher Full Price |
| To be determined. |
| Additional Book Comments |
| This is NOT the complete book list for this class. |