Comparative politics

Описание мероприятия

Описание программы

This course encompasses how we form or develop concepts of democratic political institutions and some of the different ways in which democracies can be organised.

The main aim of this course is to enable students to address questions such as the following:

• What are political institutions and how should we study them?
• Why does democracy require institutions?
• How do institutions relate to legitimate politicalauthority?
• How does political culture relate to institutions?
• What is the relationship between democraticgovernment and legitimate authority?
• How are democracies with presidential systemsdifferent from democracies with parliamentaryones?
• How do different electoral systems influencedifferences in party systems?
• How do different types of legal system influencethe working of political institutions?
• How does political culture influence bureaucraticbehaviour?
• How do democracies decentralise power toregional or local government?

Assessment

This course is assessed by a three hour unseen written examination.

Учебный план:

This course is concerned mainly with the question of how different kinds of political systems work. It focuses both on the political process and on the role of government. The syllabus considers mainly democratic government and considers the main variations between different kinds of democracy.

The following topics will be examined:

• presidential and parliamentary systems
• legitimacy and political culture
• the nature and role of the state; bureaucracy; the judicial power, the role of the military
• forms of political organisation; parties and interest groups
• electoral systems and party competition
• federal and unitary states.

Результат обучения:

At the end of this course and having completed the essential reading and activities students should have a good understanding of the way in which different democratic institutional systems work. Specifically, students should be able to explain:

• Why institutional analysis is a key aspect of comparative politics
• How institutional stability and political legitimation interact
• What is meant by political culture and how it influences institutional behaviour
• How presidential systems differ in key respects from parliamentary ones
• The relationship between elective and non-elective dimensions of the democratic state
• The concept of federalism and how it differs from local government.

Требования к поступающим:

If taken as part of a BSc degree, courses which must be passed before this course may be attempted:

• PS1172 Introduction to political science or
• PS1114 Democratic politics and the state or
• PS1130 Introduction to modern political thought.