00895 - Political Science (F-N)

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course students will gain a basic knowledge of the main approaches and methods developed within political science; will be able to  analyze political actors, processes and institutions;  will be able to understand similarities and differences between political systems in a comparative perspective.

Course contents

Topics that will be analyzed in the course are the following: the scientific study of politics; scope and meaning of "comparative politics"; the modern state and the first democratization; transitions to democracy; varieties of democracy; authoritarian and "hybrid"  regimes; elections and electoral systems; parties and party systems; how governments form in parliamentary, presidential and mixed democracies; institutional veto players;  majoritarian and consensual models of democracy.

At the beginning of the course we will decide  a number of topics  to be dealt with in more details. Interested students will organize oral presentations  in the final part of the course.

Readings/Bibliography

Clark, William Roberts, Golder Matt; Golder Nadenichek Sona, Principles of Comparative Politics, Sage, third edition (originally published 2009).

Foreign students are invited to contact the teacher at the beginning of the course.

Teaching methods

Lectures. Attendance is strongly recommended

Assessment methods

For students who will attend classes the course grade is based on a mid-term written test about the first part of the program (50%) and on a final written test about the second part of the program (50%). The final score is the average of the scores obtained in the two tests.

Only those students who will get a score of 18 in the first test will have access to the second test.

For those who will not be able to pass each test the course grade is based on a written exam about the entire programme (see below).

Attending students are expected to be present at least for 21/30 (70%) of classes.

For students who will NOT attend classes, the course grade is based on a written exam about the entire program.

Teaching tools

Slides and other course materials will be available on line, at the web site https://iol.unibo.it.

Office hours

See the website of Daniela Giannetti