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Regular version of the site
Bachelor 2020/2021

Introduction to Political Science

Category 'Best Course for Broadening Horizons and Diversity of Knowledge and Skills'
Area of studies: Public Policy and Social Sciences
When: 2 year, 1, 2, 4 module
Mode of studies: offline
Instructors: Ekim Arbatli, Kirill Chmel, Dina Rosenberg, Tatiana Rudneva
Language: English
ECTS credits: 6
Contact hours: 84

Course Syllabus

Abstract

The working language of the course is English. The course is designed to serve as an introduction to politics in a globalised world, with a particular focus on how political science tries to understand and explain cross-country differences and cross-time differences between countries.
Learning Objectives

Learning Objectives

  • Introduce students to the main differences between democratic and non-democratic regimes, and between different models of democratic government
  • Introduce students to how political preferences are formed, how voters behave, how parties compete, how interest groups form, and how electoral systems shape behaviour
  • Explain how political institutions work, such as presidential and parliamentary systems, single-party and coalition governments, federalism, and courts and central banks
  • Explain how political behaviour and institutions shape policy outcomes, such as economic performance, public spending, and immigration and environmental policies
  • Prepare students for further courses in political science
Expected Learning Outcomes

Expected Learning Outcomes

  • A student knows the history of the discipline and subfields
  • A student knows approaches to measuring democracy
  • A student analyzes and compares the left-right dimension? mapping political preferences, cleavages and voting behavior, strategic voting
  • A student analyzes and compares types of electoral systems and political consequences of electoral systems
  • A student knows what are political parties, understands ьeasuring the number of parties, knows explaining party behavior, analyzes party positions
  • A student analyzes social movements, knows political explanations for interest group influence
  • A student analyzes majoritarian and consensus democracies, parliamentary, presidential and mixed systems, and knows political implications of regime types
  • A student compares types and patterns of government and knows theories of coalition formation
  • A student analyzes vertical designs of government and understands what states are federal
  • A student analyzes non-elected institutions and democracies, knows the principal-agent framework
Course Contents

Course Contents

  • What is political science? Main approaches in the field Methods in political science
  • Political preferences and voting behavior
  • Political parties
  • Social movements and interest groups
  • Regime types, agenda setters and veto players
  • Coalition and single- party government
  • Federalism and decentralization
  • Delegation of power
  • Economic performance and equality
  • Satisfaction with democracy
  • Defining and measuring democracy Explaining democracy
Assessment Elements

Assessment Elements

  • non-blocking Seminar
  • non-blocking Exam
    The final examination is organised by the University of London as a three hour written exam via VLE platform. The student will be given a choice of twelve questions, out of which exactly three must be answered in any order. Each question must be answered in the form of a free response essay.
  • non-blocking Written exam
    The final examination is organised by the University of London as a three hour written exam. The student will be given a choice of twelve questions, out of which exactly three must be answered in any order. Each question must be answered in the form of a free response essay.
  • non-blocking Seminar
  • non-blocking Exam
    The final examination is organised by the University of London as a three hour written exam via VLE platform. The student will be given a choice of twelve questions, out of which exactly three must be answered in any order. Each question must be answered in the form of a free response essay.
  • non-blocking Written exam
    The final examination is organised by the University of London as a three hour written exam. The student will be given a choice of twelve questions, out of which exactly three must be answered in any order. Each question must be answered in the form of a free response essay.
Interim Assessment

Interim Assessment

  • Interim assessment (4 module)
    Gfinal = 0,20* GUoLwritten exam + 0,40*2MOCK exam + 0,40* Gseminar
Bibliography

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

  • Hosein, A. (2016). Political Science : The Study of Nations, Government, and Governing. New York: Britannica Educational Publishing. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1151416
  • Leonardo Morlino, Dirk Berg-Schlosser, & Bertrand Badie. (2017). Political Science : A Global Perspective. London: SAGE Publications Ltd. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=2273334
  • Roskin, M. G. (2014). Political Science: An Introduction, Global Edition (Vol. Thirteenth edition). New York: Pearson. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=nlebk&AN=1419818

Recommended Additional Bibliography

  • Potz, M. V. aut. (2020). Political Science of Religion Theorising the Political Role of Religion by Maciej Potz. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edswao&AN=edswao.1676310614