30348 - Theories and Models in Political Sciences

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student has an advanced knowledge of political science, developed through the analysis of specific topics such as institutional stability and change, political parties, party competition, government formation and duration.The student is able to understand and apply rigorous theoretical models to the analysis of political phenomena.

Course contents

This course is an introduction to the use of formal models in political science . The types of models that we will consider are all parts of “positive political theory" (also known as rational choice, or the economic approach to politics ) which can be further subdivided into social choice theory and game theory. This course aims at illustrating the logic of the rational choice approach to politics and its main applications to a wide range of political phenomena such as voting, political competition, electoral systems and coalition formation. The course is subdivided in three sections.

In the first one, wewill introduce the main analytical tools of the rational choice approach to politics.

In the second one, we will survey the main results of social choice theory and the spatial theory of voting.

Finally, in the third one we will examine coalitionformation in multi-party parliamentary democracies.

Readings/Bibliography

Required readings:

William Roberts Clark, Matt Golder & Sona Nadenichek Golder Pricniples of Comparative Politics, Mc Graw Hill 2009.

K. Shepsle and M. Boncek, Analyzing Politics, New York, Norton, 1997.

A reading list will be available at the beginning of the course.

Teaching methods

Each week consists of three class sessions. In the first and in the second sessions, course topics will be introduced by the instructor.In the third session a presentation by the students, followed by a class dicussion, will take place. Readings will be assigned on a weekly basis.

Assessment methods

All students are expected to do all the reading for each class session, and may be called upon at any time to provide summary statements of it. However, each student will be a discussion leader for one of the discussion sessions. S/he should prepare a bulleted set of discussion points to structure the discussion . Student performancewill bejudged on the basis of three activities: 1) 25% session attendance and participation, including a test at the end of each coursesection2) 25% quality of the short presentation 3) 50% final paper.

For those who are not able to attend the class sessions, a final examination will consist of a brief paper and a discussion of some of texts used in the course.

Teaching tools

Slides and articles will be made available on the Faculty website https//campus.cib.unibo.it

Office hours

See the website of Daniela Giannetti