02492 - Comparative Politics

Learning outcomes

The course aims at providing the students with the basic knowledges about the comparative method and about concepts, models and theories for the analysis of contemporary democracies (political institutions, leadership, parties and party sysems, electoral systems, public opinion and political communication). Further, the course focuses on the functioning of some important western democracies. At the end of the course students are supposed to be able to manage political science concepts and models in order to describe and analyse the most important contemporary democracies and their transformations.

Course contents

* The logic of the research process

* The comparative method

* State and nation building

*Democracies; parliaments and systems of government

*Party systems models; electoral systems and party systems

*Party organization from the nineteenth century until the twenty-first century

*Leaders, parties and public opinion in contemporary democracies; the presidentialization of politics; the audience democracy. 

Readings/Bibliography

1) P. Isernia, Introduzione alla ricerca politica e sociale, Bologna, Il Mulino, chapters III e V.

2) T. Skocpol, Stati e rivoluzioni sociali: un'analisi comparata di Francia, Russia e Cina, Bologna, Il Mulino, 1981. Chapter. 1

3) S. Fabbrini, Politica comparata, Laterza, 2014, chapters 2,3,4,5,6. 

4) S. Rokkan, Cittadini, elezioni e partiti, Bologna, Il Mulino, 1982, Introduzione and chapters 3-4.

5) S. Ventura, La tipologia dei sistemi di partito e i casi italiani, in «Quaderni di Scienza Politica», n. 3, 2016, pp. 387- 416.

6) G. Sartori, Sistemi elettorali, in G. Sartori, Elementi di teoria politica, Bologna, Il Mulino.

7) S. Katz, P. Mair, Cambiamenti nei modelli organizzativi e democrazia di partito. La nascita del Cartel Party, in L. Bardi (a cura di), Partiti e sistemi di partito, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2006, pp. 33-58.

8) R. Kenneth Carty, Parties As Franchise Systems. The Stratarchical Organizational Imperative, in «Party Politics», Vol 10. No.1 2004, pp. 5–24.

9) T. Pokuntke e P. Webb (a cura di), The Presidentialization of Politics: a comparative study of modern democracies, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2005, chapter 1.

10) B. Manin, Principi del governo rappresentativo, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2010, Cap. VI, par. 2 e 3 (La democrazia dei partiti, La democrazia del pubblico).

Teaching methods

Teaching lessons

Assessment methods

Written exam

Teaching tools

Power point

Office hours

See the website of Sofia Ventura