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Course Syllabus

Bachelor 2018/2019

Contemporary Electoral Studies

Category 'Best Course for Broadening Horizons and Diversity of Knowledge and Skills'
Type: Elective course (Political Science and World Politics)
Area of studies: Political Science
Delivered by: Department of Political Science and International Affairs
Where: Saint-Petersburg School of Social Sciences
When: 3 year, 2 module
Mode of studies: offline
Instructors: Aleksey Gilev, Mikhail Turchenko
Language: English
ECTS credits: 4
Contact hours: 24

Course Syllabus

Full Syllabus

Abstract

Electoral studies have been actively developing since the mid-1980s. Started from descriptive topics, electoral researches have become much more sophisticated both in terms of methods and obtained results. Modern electoral studies deal with the political effects of electoral systems, the factors of party system fragmentation, the representation of minorities and different socio-economic groups and so on. This course is aimed at both introducing the students to the main topics within the field of electoral studies and providing them with general tools to study electoral politics. The special attention is put forward to the analyzing of how electoral systems operate and affect voters, politicians and parties.
Learning Objectives

Learning Objectives

  • The course is aimed at introducing the students to the main topics within the field of electoral studies
  • The course is aimed at providing students with general tools to study electoral politics
Expected Learning Outcomes

Expected Learning Outcomes

  • Student is familiar with history of electoral research
  • Student is familiar with majoritarian electoral systems
  • Student is familiar with proportional electoral systems
  • Student is familiar with mixed electoral systems
  • Student is familiar with the politics of electoral reforms
  • Student is familiar with notion of electoral engineering
Course Contents

Course Contents

  • History of Electoral Research. Modern Agenda in Studying Electoral Systems. Party System Fragmentation. Electoral System Classification
  • Majoritarian Electoral Systems
  • Proportional Electoral Systems
  • Mixed Electoral Systems
  • The Politics of Electoral Reform
  • Two Faces of Electoral Engineering. Electoral Engineering in Modern Russia and the Evolution of the Russian Electoral System
Assessment Elements

Assessment Elements

  • non-blocking Election analysis paper
    The election analysis paper must be prepared in MS Word (Times New Roman 12 pt., 1.5 lines, justified text, 2 cm on all sides). Each election analysis paper must have a title page that includes the title, authors’ name, and his/her study year. The word limit of the election analysis paper is 15,000– 20,000 characters with spaces (a title page, references, footnotes and appendixes are not included into this limit). The election analysis paper may be prepared either in English or in Russian. If the election analysis paper will not be fit the word limit, one point will be extracted from the grade for this paper per each 1000 additional or missing characters with spaces. The election analysis paper must be an original text. It should resemble notes on recent elections published in Electoral Studies journal (this journal is available through the HSE Library e-resources (Science Direct periodical database)). As a different example of such analyses see country reports prepared by Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of OSCE: https://www.osce.org/odihr/elections.
  • non-blocking Class activity
  • non-blocking Final test
  • non-blocking Exam
Interim Assessment

Interim Assessment

  • Interim assessment (2 module)
    0.18 * Class activity + 0.24 * Election analysis paper + 0.4 * Exam + 0.18 * Final test
Bibliography

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

  • Mitchell, P., & Gallagher, M. (2005). The Politics of Electoral Systems. Oxford: OUP Oxford. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=159126
  • Norris, P. (2004). Electoral Engineering : Voting Rules and Political Behavior. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=157946
  • Toby S. James. (2013). Electoral Malpractice by Sarah Birch . Oxford : Oxford University Press , 2011 . 224pp., £50.00, ISBN 9780199606160. Political Studies Review, (1), 105. https://doi.org/10.1111/10.1111/psr.2013.11.issue-1

Recommended Additional Bibliography

  • The Oxford handbook of electoral systems / edited by Erik S. Herron, Robert J. Pekkanen, and Matthew S. Shugart. (2018). Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edswao&AN=edswao.495558516