The course, in Political and Social theory as well as comparative sociological analysis, focuses on the long-term historical problems of democratic development and erosion. First, it introduces three ideal typical (or metaphorical) models of the oscillation between democratic and authoritarian forms: the cycle, the line and the parabola. In each case important bodies of literature will be drawn on: for the cycle, the works of the ancients (Plato, Aristotle and Polybius); for the line: enlightenment thinkers from Condorcet to Tocqueville as well as Marx; and for the parabola the recent work of Colin Crouch and other contemporary analysts of “backsliding” and “erosion”. Second, we will describe in detail a case or two for each model, preferably one traditional and one contemporary. Finally we will investigate the causal factors relevant to each metaphor, and possibly the options of breaking the hold of these factors for some contemporary cases of cycles and parabolas. Each student will be responsible for two relatively short papers: one on a theorist of cycles, line or parabola; and the other on a case of your own choice other than the ones discussed in class.