- Docente: Sofia Ventura
- Credits: 8
- SSD: SPS/04
- Language: Italian
- Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
- Campus: Forli
- Corso: Second cycle degree programme (LM) in International Relations and Diplomatic Affairs (cod. 9247)
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
PART ONE
- State building
- The birth and development of democracy
- The interwar years: the fall of democracies, the authoritarian and totalitarian regimes
- Democratic transitions
PART TWO
- Media and politics
- The personalization of politics and the 'audience democracy'
- The populist phenomenon
Readings/Bibliography
PART ONE
S. Rokkan, Cittadini, elezioni e partiti, Bologna, Il Mulino, 1982, Introduzione and ch. 3
G. Sartori, Costituzione e Democrazia, in G. Sartori, Elementi di teoria politica, Bologna, il Mulino.
J. Linz e A. Stepan, Transizione e consolidamento democratico, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2000 (except the chapters concerning Latin America).
PART TWO
G. Rahat e O. Kenig, From Party Politics to Personalized Politics?Party Change and Political Personalization in Democracies, Oxford, 2018, chapters 6 and 10
B. Manin, Principi del governo rappresentativo, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2010, ch. 6.
C. Mudde, C. R. Kaltwasser , Populism: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
Teaching methods
Teaching lessons
Assessment methods
Written exam
Teaching tools
Power point
Office hours
See the website of Sofia Ventura