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.

Part of the course will deal with institutions and government of the European Union.

Readings/Bibliography

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

About the European Union, I suggest reading Lelieveldt H. and Princen S. The Politics of the European Union, Cambridge UP 2011. 

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%). Each written test consists of 5  open  answer questions and 7  multiple choice questions (exam duration 1 hour). Open answer questions are graded up to 5; multiple choice questions are graded 1(correct) or 0 (wrong or missing). 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). The exam  will be similar to the exam for not attending students in terms of number of question and grades. The content of the questions will be different, as they will be more focused on the topics dealt with in the lectures.

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. The exam consists of 5  open answer questions and of 17 multiple choice questions (exam duration 2 hours). Open answer questions are graded up to 3; multiple choice questions are graded 1  (correct) or 0 (wrong or missing).

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