Аспирантура
2019/2020
Новейшие тенденции и направления политической науки_
Статус:
Курс обязательный
Направление:
41.06.01. Политические науки и регионоведение
Кто читает:
Департамент политики и управления
Когда читается:
1-й курс, 1 семестр
Формат изучения:
без онлайн-курса
Язык:
английский
Кредиты:
6
Контактные часы:
48
Course Syllabus
Abstract
The program of the course builds up the minimum requirements to the knowledge and skills of an PhD student and determines the content and types of classes and assessment. The program is designed for teachers of this discipline, learning assistants and students of political science PhD programs. The program is developed according to: (1) Educational Program «Political science», (2) University Academic Plan of NRU HSE for PhD level education. The course is delivered to the first year PhD students, as a part of their professional development. The course is mandatory. The course is closely tied to the following disciplines: (1) Research Seminar, (2) Writing PhD dissertation.
Learning Objectives
- The course explores current tendencies, topical issues and prospective advances in political science.
- The course concentrates on recent achievements and results of political research that are particularly significant for the academic agenda and ongoing research of political science community of the National Research University “Higher School of Economics”.
- The course also exposes critical junctures of contemporary political research and challenges that haunt present-day political science.
- The course encourages PhD students to read and interpret current achievements in political studies, particularly those that are topical for their own research and provide PhD students with pioneering guidance.
Expected Learning Outcomes
- Know the main breakthroughs and advancements in the current political science research
- Know specific achievements and publications that are recognized in the world-wide political science community
- Know the core of ideas and scientific results that shape the present profile of political science and some of its trends and subdisciplines
- Be able to interpret texts of political investigations, their context and prospects of further development
- Be able to use novel ideas and research results in one’s own studies; to use appropriate research principles, designs and framework in one’s own dissertation research
- Be able to develop coherent and persuasive argumentation in their own academic work
- Gain experience in analysis of the texts of political investigations, writing their summaries and critical apprisals
- Gain experience in professional use of achievements of alternative scholarly trends and traditions
Course Contents
- Part 1. Advancement of Political Studies.
- Unit 1. Making Political Science genuinely scientific.Scientism in political studies. Ongoing attempts to make political studies fitting scientific standards, particularly those of hard sciences. Expressed ambitions “to make PS more scientific”. The case of Rein Taagepera. His assertion that attempts to quantify political studies tend to miscarry. Taagepera’s claim that “sciences walk on two legs, but political science hops on one”.
- Unit 2. Fallacies in Political Science.Tradition of overcoming limitations and deficiencies of scientific research from Baconian idola to current criticism of research fallacies. Typical research biases and cognitive fallacies in political science – naturalist, reductionist, sequential, environmental, nirvana, vehicle, attribution etc. Current attempts to overcome specific fallacies.
- Part 2. Political Order and Institutions
- Unit 3. The Study of Political RegimesDefining democracy and autocracy, classifying/measuring regimes, varieties of autocracy, regime survival and breakdown, regime maintenance, authoritarian parties, authoritarian elections, authoritarian responsiveness, repression, varieties of democracy
- Unit 4. Institutional design and good governance.Executive-legislative relations. Quality of government and corruption. Civil-military relations, coups, and military rule. Governance and good enough governance. Paradoxes of quality of governance.
- Part 3. Political Process
- Unit 5. The Political Economy of Development.Economic Growth. Property rights. Institutions. State capacity and state-building. Rule of Law. Private-sector investment. Political connections. Corruption. Public goods provision. Causal inference and indigeneity. Experimental tools in Political Science and Economics.
- Units 6. Migration and global refugee crisis.Globalization and long-term demographic trends. Current trends of population dynamics and social inequality. Current global and regional trends of migration. Refugee crisis and attempts to control it. Role of states, international and regional organizations.
- Part 4. Political Communication and Media.
- Unit 7. Public Opinion and Political Science.Political preferences, Political attitudes, Political Participation and vote choice, Measuring Public Opinion, Aggregating public opinion, Analysis of public opinion, Political knowledge and cognition, Information cues and shortcuts, Rational choice, Economic motives, Socialization, Group Identities, Ideology, Survey Design, Survey experiments
- Unit 8. Media and Public Opinion in New Media Environment.Media ecology. The brief history of mass media. The structural transformation of the public sphere. Media system: news, entertainment and advertising. Media effects: agenda-setting, framing, priming. The hybrid nature of new media environment. Political information cycle. Discursive participation as a form of political engagement. Media and democracy: beehives and echo chambers. Media and authoritarian regimes: the menu of manipulation.
- Part 4. Russian Studies.
- Unit 9. Russian Studies. Political parties and elections in Russia.Russia’s party system establishment and development. The weak role of parties in the political system: problems of institutional design and practices. Regional and corporate political machines as substitutes for political parties in Russia. Party engineering and “the party of power” phenomenon. Projects of the reserve party of power formation and their failures. Russian electoral system evolution and its impact onto political institutions and practices. Electoral authoritarianism and its transformation. 2011-2012 electoral legitimacy crises and the way out. Needs and prospects of party system modernization. Electoral system at regional and local levels, their diversity. 2014-2018 regional elections.
- Unit 10. Russian Studies. State-territorial composition, its evolution.USSR disintegration and Russia’s shift to Asia. Russian federalism: by the Constitution and in reality. Subjects of federation: composition, number, statuses. Waves of regions’ enlarging in Soviet past. Parade of sovereignties in early 1990-ies and regions enlarging in 2005-2008. Regions’ borders: stability and changes, border disputes. The 2000 federal reform and federal districts. Logics of their establishment: political and managerial, their design and functions, changes in composition. Integration of Crimea into Russian space. Municipal reforms of 2003 and 2014. Managerial networks: military, railroad, water basins etc. Associations of regional economic cooperation.
Interim Assessment
- Interim assessment (1 semester)0.5 * Exam + 0.3 * Presentation + 0.2 * Work in class
Bibliography
Recommended Core Bibliography
- Taagepera, R. (2008). Making Social Sciences More Scientific : The Need for Predictive Models. Oxford: OUP Oxford. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=259567
- Tsygankov, A. P. (2012). Russia and the West From Alexander to Putin : Honor in International Relations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=465722
Recommended Additional Bibliography
- Мир политической науки. Кн.1: Категории, Мельвиль, А. Ю., 2004