00895 - Political Science

Course contents

The fundamental goal of the Political Science course is to give the students all the essential instruments to understand and analyze politics and institutions. It is a task performed since immemorial time, which makes it often indispensable having some knowledge of classical scholars. It reappears now and then entailing novelties because politics is bound to change and it is, therefore, very appropriate to keep oneself informed, for example, by reading some quality newspapers. Political science enjoys a solid body of knowledge on parties, parliaments, governments, political participation, democracies, authoritarian and totalitarian regimes. All this knowledge can be best put to work by applying the comparative method and exploiting its potentialities. More precisely, the advantages and disadvantages of the different types of government: parliamentary, semi-presidential, presidential. It is not at all true that all political systems are alike. On the contrary, it is often true that a political system is the product of a complicated interaction among institutions, the electoral system, the party system. Therefore, there indeed exist political systems that are preferable and whose functioning can be improved. Therefore, the course will also offer reliable instruments to perform the noble and most useful activity that can be called "political and constitutional engineering".

Readings/Bibliography

Pasquino, Nuovo corso di scienza politica, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2004

Campus e Pasquino, USA: elezioni e sistema politico, Bologna, Bononia University Press, 2005

Pasquino, Sistemi politici comparati, Bologna, Bononia University Press, 2007 (nuova edizione).

Important advice: “Political science” is not a course on italian politics. However, since, many students nourish legitimate questions, raise problems, desire examples and clarifications about it, strongly reccomended is:

Pasquino, Il sistema politico italiano. Autorità, istituzioni,società, Bologna, Bononia University Press, 2002.

Teaching methods

Assuming that the professor has some usefulness, class attendance is highly recommended.

Assessment methods

The students will not find in the compulsory textbooks, always to be studied in their latest version, all that will be said, analyzed and explained in the classroom. The exam is organized around thirty questions: either/or; true/false; multiple choice; names and examples to be given. It is not a matter of memorizing dates and names, but of understanding and knowing the topics dealt with during the course and, occasionally, updated according to what occurs in the real world of politics. The recording of the vote, to be made within one year after the exam, takes place exclusively in the previously earmarked days: never during office hours.

Office hours

See the website of Gianfranco Pasquino