2022/2023
Современная политическая наука
Статус:
Маго-лего
Кто читает:
Департамент политики и управления
Когда читается:
2, 3 модуль
Охват аудитории:
для всех кампусов НИУ ВШЭ
Язык:
английский
Кредиты:
6
Контактные часы:
64
Course Syllabus
Abstract
This course introduces students to the current topics, debates, and research questions that are central to political science today. It goes beyond the basics, focuses on contemporary trends and key areas of research in the discipline, and aims at enhancing students’ understanding of complex political phenomena. Many of the questions political scientists address are truly timeless: How do strong states and effective bureaucracies form? Who votes, for whom, how, and why? How modern nations and identities are formed, and why is nationalism on the rise in the world? Why do wars happen, and which systems of international relations are considered more stable? Why, according to some scholars, the process of globalization has slowed down, and what strategies have countries adopted to develop their national economies in the last decades? Answers to these and many other questions are critical both for understanding the real-world outcomes – such as economic growth, inequality, instability within a state and in international relations between states – and for developing effective policies that can change these outcomes. Despite the obvious importance of these questions, few have clear answers. As in any scientific discipline, new research constantly challenges and revises traditional views and introduces new, important paradigms. In this course, students will be introduced to the main topics that have become relevant in the field of political science in recent years. Although the issues discussed have a long history, the main aim of the course is to introduce students to a wide range of contemporary debates and to the most recent developments in this dynamically developing field. This is not a methodological course. The modern methodological tools presented in the articles may be discussed in seminars, but students will not be assessed on their proficiency in any particular modern methodological tool. Yet, this course will create a platform for deep discussion and intellectual exchange that will not only broaden horizons but also generate new ideas and approaches to the study of political reality.
Learning Objectives
- The main objective of the course is to provide a broad overview of the current state of the literature in several key areas of contemporary political science. By the end of the course, students should not only understand the current developments across the main sub-disciplines within political science (such as comparative politics, international relations, area studies) and their subfields (state-building and institution formation, political economy, nationalism and national identities, international conflicts and alliances), but also understand how recent research fits into the overall picture of political science scholarship.
Expected Learning Outcomes
- To understand the state of the art in the discipline, and how this recent work fits into the grand arc of research in Political Science
- to understand the modern methodological tools and research design, as well as how to apply them to developing and critiquing a research agenda.
- to have the necessary tools to constructively critique the work of others, as well as an understanding of how to use these tools to design cutting edge research of their own.
- to systematically synthesize and summarize key theoretical frameworks within the discipline of political science
Course Contents
- Introduction to Modern Political Science
- Vote Choice and Responsibility
- Economic Voting and Clientalism
- Identity Politics
- Non-Economic Voting and Ideology
- Democratic Parties, their Influence, and Representation
- Electoral Rules and their Origins
- Autocracies
- Autocratic Institutions and Policymaking
- Political Protests
- Civil War and Violence
- The Politics of Reform
- Institutions, Investment, and Property Rights
- Corruption and Governance
- The Welfare State and Inequality
Assessment Elements
- Take-Home Midterm AssessmentsThe assessment will consist of traditional essay questions that will only cover material for the module that proceeds it and is not cumulative. The main goal is to ensure that students have understood the readings and the lectures and that they are able to critically evaluate the material both within the context of each week's topic and the discipline more widely. It will consist of a series of questions that students will answer in essays that should not exceed 5 pages. The assessment will not be proctored and will be open note. In other words, you may feel free to use any sources you want. Remember, however, that all work MUST be your own and outside materials should be properly cited. Consulting colleagues or copy-pasting from ANY source is strictly forbidden. Students will be mailed the exam. They should complete it and mail it back to the instructors by the deadline.
- Final ExamThe assessment will consist of traditional essay questions that will only cover material for the module that proceeds it and is not cumulative. The main goal is to ensure that students have understood the readings and the lectures and that they are able to critically evaluate the material both within the context of each week's topic and the discipline more widely. It will consist of a series of questions that students will answer in essays that should not exceed 5 pages. The assessment will not be proctored and will be open note. In other words, you may feel free to use any sources you want. Remember, however, that all work MUST be your own and outside materials should be properly cited. Consulting colleagues or copy-pasting from ANY source is strictly forbidden. Students will be mailed the exam. They should complete it and mail it back to the instructors by the deadline.
- Referee Report 1In order to hone their analytical skills, students will turn in a brief, 2 { 3 page critique essay on one of the readings assigned for the course. Each student will be asked to select the reading for this assignment during seminar. Critiques are due BEFORE the beginning of the seminar in which that particular reading will be discussed. The essay should focus on an evaluation of the argument and the student's opinion of the scienti c merit of the piece.
- Referee Report 2In order to hone their analytical skills, students will turn in a brief, 2 { 3 page critique essay on one of the readings assigned for the course. Each student will be asked to select the reading for this assignment during seminar. Critiques are due BEFORE the beginning of the seminar in which that particular reading will be discussed. The essay should focus on an evaluation of the argument and the student's opinion of the scienti c merit of the piece.
- Critique PresentationStudents will be asked to do a 5 - 10 minute oral presen- tation based on one of their written critique assignments. The presentation should provide a brief summary of the article being discussed, before spending the majority of its time on the critiques. Students are expected to produce slides for the presentation, which should be emailed to the seminar instructor after the seminar in which the presentation is made. Students will be allowed to sign up for presentation slots during seminar.
- Research ProposalStudents will write one research paper proposal consisting of two parts. The rst portion of the should brie y identify a theoretical or empirical puzzle worth exploring, lay out hypotheses to be tested, and then identify appropriate methods for testing the argument. The bulk of the paper, however should be focused on the critique portion. This portion should discuss the potential strengths and weaknesses of the research design proposed in the rst part from the standpoint of causal inference and measurement, as well as to propose some ways in which the weaknesses of the proposal could be addressed. The proposal should be approximately 7 - 10 pages long.
- ParticipationClasses will be conducted in a hybrid lecture/discussion format. Doing assigned readings before lecture is useful, but not required. the lectures will generally as- sume that students are unfamiliar with the topic. They will primarily focus on providing an overview of the topic, situating the assigned reading in pre-existing work, and highlight- ing recent advances and trends in the related literature. Readings MUST be done before seminar sections. Seminar sections will go into greater detail on the readings and will be designed to dissect the empirical components of the readings in order to critically evalu- ate the research design, its strengths, and its weaknesses. Students should come to class with questions on unclear terms, concepts, or events. Asking questions is therefore critical for a successful class.
Interim Assessment
- 2022/2023 3rd module0.15 * IntermediateAssessments+0.2 *FinalExam+0.15*RefereeReport1+0.15 * RefereeReport2 + 0.05 *RefereeReportPresentation + 0.2*Research P roposal +0.10* Participation
Bibliography
Recommended Core Bibliography
- A new politics of identity : political principles for an interdependent world, Parekh, B., 2008
- Bakshy, E., Messing, S., & Adamic, L. A. (2015). Exposure to ideologically diverse news and opinion on Facebook. Science, 348(6239), 1130–1132. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaa1160
- Druckman, J. N., & Levendusky, M. S. (2019). What Do We Measure When We Measure Affective Polarization? Public Opinion Quarterly, 83(1), 114–122. https://doi.org/10.1093/poq/nfz003
- Economic voting, , 2002
- Kreuzer, M. (2010). Historical Knowledge and Quantitative Analysis: The Case of the Origins of Proportional Representation. American Political Science Review, (02), 369. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsrep&AN=edsrep.a.cup.apsrev.v104y2010i02p369.392.00
- Leemann, L., & Mares, I. (2014). The Adoption of Proportional Representation. Journal of Politics, 76(2), 461–478. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022381613001394
- Protest : studies of collective behavior and social movements, Lofland, J., 2007
- Reuter, O. J., & Gandhi, J. (2011). Economic Performance and Elite Defection from Hegemonic Parties. British Journal of Political Science, (01), 83. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsrep&AN=edsrep.a.cup.bjposi.v41y2011i01p83.110.00
- Wimmer, A. (2018). Nation Building: Why Some Countries Come Together While Others Fall Apart. Survival (00396338), 60(4), 151–164. https://doi.org/10.1080/00396338.2018.1495442
Recommended Additional Bibliography
- Bonneau, C., & Cann, D. (2015). Party Identification and Vote Choice in Partisan and Nonpartisan Elections. Political Behavior, 37(1), 43–66. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-013-9260-2
- Shepherd, B. E., Jarrett, R., & Fu, L. (2016). Causal Inference for Statistics, Social, and Biomedical Sciences: An Introduction. Biometrics, 72(4), 1387–1388. https://doi.org/10.1111/biom.12615