00895 - Political Science (A-E)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, the student - possesses a basic knowledge of the main approaches developed within the discipline for the analysis of political phenomena; - will know the conceptual and theoretical tools for the study and understanding of political processes and institutions; - will be able to analyze the main aspects of the functioning of political systems from a comparative perspective.

Course contents

The first section defines the basic concepts on which the course focuses (politics, political regimes, forms of political participation), the long-term processes at the origin of democratic political regimes and their peculiar characteristics are recalled, in comparison with the undemocratic regimes; democratic actors and institutions are presented in a comparative key. After that, some classes will be devoted to the application of the above mentioned analytical categories to the cases of the major European countries and the United States.

In the second section, a reflection on the perspectives and challenges that democratic regimes face in the first part of the 21st century will be proposed. In particular, the topic of autocratization, its causes and the possible forms of democratic resistance will be covered.

A detailed schedule of classes will be distributed at the beginning of the course.

Readings/Bibliography

First part:

Salvatore Vassallo (ed.), Sistemi politici comparati, Il Mulino, 2016 (second edition). Chapters 1-2-3-4-6-7-8-9-10-12.

Second part: several readings from academic journals. The list might be modified. Please, check Virtuale for updates.

Lührmann, Anna, and Staffan I. Lindberg. 2019. “A Third Wave of Autocratization Is Here: What Is New about It?” Democratization 26 (7): 1095–1113.

Haggard, Stephan, and Robert Kaufman. 2021. “The Anatomy of Democratic Backsliding.” Journal of Democracy 32 (4): 27–41.

Mudde, Cas, and Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser. 2013. “Populism.” In The Oxford Handbook of Political Ideologies, edited by Michael Freeden and Marc Stears, 493–510. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Enyedi, Zsolt, and Stephen Whitefield. 2020. “Populists in Power.” In The Oxford Handbook of Political Representation in Liberal Democracies.

Lieberman, Robert C., Suzanne Mettler, Thomas B. Pepinsky, Kenneth M. Roberts, and Richard Valelly. 2019. “The Trump Presidency and American Democracy: A Historical and Comparative Analysis.” Perspectives on Politics 17 (2): 470–479.

Deibert, Ronald J. 2019. “The Road to Digital Unfreedom: Three Painful Truths About Social Media.” Journal of Democracy 30 (1): 25–39.

Diamond, Larry. 2010. “Liberation Technology.” Journal of Democracy 21 (3): 69–83.

Tomini, Luca, Suzan Gibril, and Venelin Bochev. 2023. “Standing up against Autocratization across Political Regimes: A Comparative Analysis of Resistance Actors and Strategies.” Democratization 30 (1): 119–138.

Teaching methods

Teacher's classes (first part) and seminar discussion (second part).

Assessment methods

For attending students: One partial test at the end of the first module (multiple-choice test, 60% of the grade); one partial test at the end of the second module (short "open book" essay, 40% of the grade. Participation in seminar discussion, online (through the Perusall platform) and in class, will result in a bonus of up to three points. Only students who take the partial exam on the first part with a grade of at least 16/30 are eligible for the seminar module.

For non-attending students (who did not take the partials, took them with an insufficient result, declined the grade), the exam will take place in the end-of-course dates and will consist of a multiple-choice test (as in the first partial), and a short essay on the topic of democratic backsliding (as in the second partial).

For more details you are invited to consult the introductory section of the course on Virtuale.

Office hours

See the website of Filippo Tronconi

See the website of Angelo Vito Panaro

See the website of