INTRODUCTION: This course seeks to provoke an intellectual examination of issues connected to the concepts "power" and "authority" as exercised and experienced within selected nonwestern societies and cultures, in this instance, two East Asian nation states, China and Japan. 

Using a cross disciplinary and interdisciplinary approach, the course will explore notions, types and uses of power and authority through political, historical and cultural "case studies" drawn from culturally specific Chinese and Japanese experiences.  Our discussions also will provide implicit and explicit comparisons with the function and use of power and authority in American culture and society. 
 
The two distinct social and cultural contexts studied will enable students to examine, among other topics, the power and authority vested in traditional customs and beliefs; the impact of traditional habits and practices on the manipulation of power and authority within nonwestern political traditions; the influence and impact of geography, idoelogy and historical events of issues of political legitimacy and power; the manifestations of power and authority in aspects of contemporary popular culture; the nature of the "postmodern" construction of power; and the impact of "soft power" in the contemporary international arena.  
 
The course seeks to illuminate answers to the following set of specific questions:

• What is the nature of "power" and "authority"?  How do "power" and "authority" interact with one another both in theory and in practice?  How are the two concepts interrelated? 
   
• Where does power and authority reside?  How do standards of power and authority gain legitimacy? How are they made manifest in various social, political and cultural contexts?  How expressed in specific political and cultural practices?
   
• Who controls / possesses / shapes the exercise and imposition of power and authority within a given cultural or social context?
   

COURSE OBJECTIVES: By the end of fifteen weeks of instruction, students enrolled in POWER AND AUTHORITY IN NONWESTERN SOCIETIES should be able to --

1. effectively conceptualize a variety of meanings inherent in usage of the terms "power" and "authority";
    
2. analyze, using appropriate supporting examples and illustrations drawn from course content, various manifestations (economic, social, political, religious, cultural) of power and authority applicable in a variety of historical, social and cultural contexts;
    
3. illustrate the interplay between power and authority utilizing a variety of specific illustrative examples drawn from the study of nonwestern societies and cultures;
    
4. examine with insight and understanding the locus and controlling factors evident in the expression of power and authority in specific contexts (traditional / modern / contemporary / postmodern;  western / nonwestern)

Course content will be delivered through readings, in-class discussion, the Internet, computer-aided presentations and lecture.  Students will be expected to demonstrate mastery of this content through a series of three short (2 - 3 page) essays on assigned topics.  Readings for the course are available online through Electronic Course Reserve or at Barnes and Noble Bookstore.