Comparative Political Systems (II)

The Course is designed to provide students with through understanding of contemporary political systems, relations between political institutions and political processes, as well as the ideas and issues that have shaped contemporary politics.

Throughout the course, comparisons with political systems in different countries will be made as a point of reference to provide the student with a framework for understanding constitutional model of political power in selected western and eastern countries (e.g., United Kingdom, USA, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Finland, Sweden and Norway, Belgium and Switzerland, as well as CEE countries, e.g.: Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Baltic states, Romania, Bulgaria, selected Balkan states: historical, problem-driven, and comparative approach).

- Chapters 1 and 2 in Acemoglu, Daron and Robinson, James A. 2005. Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy. New York: Cambridge University Press

- Carles Boix, Susan C. Stokes, (2009), The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Politics, Oxford University Press.

- Carbone, Giovanni, “The Consequences of Democratization,” Journal of Democracy 20, no. 2 (April 2009): 123-37.

- Garner, Robert; Peter Ferdinand, Stephanie Lawson, and David B. MacDonald. 2016. Introduction to Politics [Second Canadian Edition]. Oxford University Press

- Heywood, Andrew. 2013. Politics. Palgrave Macmillan

- Huber, Evelyne, Dietrich Rueschemeyer and John D. Stephens, “The Impact of Economic Development on Democracy,” Journal of Economic Perspectives 7, no. 3 (1993): 71-85.

- Huntington, Samuel, The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1991), Chapter 1-3.

- Lim, Timothy. (2010). Introduction: What is Comparative Politics?. In.Doing Comparative Politics: An Introduction to Approaches and Issues,Edition: 2nd, Publisher: Lynne Reinner

- Munck, Gerardo L. and Jay Verkuilen. 2002. “Conceptualizing and Measuring Democracy. Evaluating Alternative Indices.” Comparative Political Studies, vol. 35(1):5-34.

- Przeworski, Adam and Limongi, Fernando. 1997. Modernization: Theories and facts. World Politics, 49(3):155–83.

- Schmitter, Philippe C., and Terry Lynn Karl, “What Democracy Is… and Is Not,” Journal of Democracy 2, no. 3 (summer 1991): 75-88.

- Sen, Amartya, “Democracy as a Universal Value,” Journal of Democracy 10, no. 3 (July 1999): 3-17.

- Teorell, Jan. 2010. Determinants of Democratization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Chapter 1.

- Tilly, Charles, “What is Democracy?” pp. 1-24 of Democracy (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007).

The student knows the basics of the functioning of the political systems of selected European countries and the USA (K_W06)

The student knows the institutions and processes of a democratic state, the role of civil society and political culture in liberal democracy (K_W07)

The student understands the mechanisms of political action, governance and political decision-making, as well as communication processes in the political space in selected European countries and the USA (K_W09)

The student is able to recognize the causes and the course of phenomena related to the sphere of politics; is able to examine and explain the role of social, economic and cultural structures in the functioning of modern political systems (K_U01)

The student is able to indicate and explain the principles and values of a democratic state and civil society; assesses the role of political culture on the functioning of political systems (K_U02)

The student is able to use basic theoretical approaches related to explaining the functioning of liberal democracies and is able to use research methods and techniques to study democratization processes and the functioning of political systems (K_U03)

The student is able to identify the assumptions of various policy concepts and assess their effectiveness, as well as recognize the relationships between policy and historical, economic, social and cultural phenomena and processes (K_U04)

The student is ready to actively participate in public life, also in teams pursuing social, political and civic goals (K_K01)

The student is ready to observe and critically evaluate political phenomena of various nature and notice their mutual relations and dependencies (K_K03)

Students are asked to actively participate in the classes. Written Exam and class activity is taken into consideration to pass the course.

I. Class activity:

- for substantive participation in class discussions the student receives 1 point for each week.

- students can prepare a research presentation based on the instructor's guidelines regarding the knowledge acquired during classes. Presentations must present the results of scientific research, must indicate the purpose of the presentation, and may also indicate the thesis that students verify. Maximum number of points for a presentation is 20 points.

Paper:

Every student is asked to write a paper on one of the course’ topic. A student can receive a maximum of 20 points for writing a maximum 10-page (10 pages without cover page; Times New Roman 12; 1,5 spaces) scientific paper in accordance with the guidelines. The paper should be as analytical as possible. Please avoid merely describing the issue. Base your arguments on works by other authors but try to test your own hypothesis. The student obtains from 0 to 1 point for: the work's compliance with the topic, complying with the volume limit and from 0 to 3 points for: methodological issues, data used, argumentation, work language, originality of the work, quality. Topics can be discussed with the instructor, but they will ultimately be independent endeavors of the student and originality of the topic is one of the assessment points. The paper needs to be handed in till last classes. Paper must be submitted on time. Plagiarism will not be tolerated. Failure to cite the Internet and other non-traditional media sources in your written work constitutes plagiarism.

Final test:

Test is graded from 0-20 points (ca. 20 questions). Most of the questions will have a form of multiple-choice questions. But “true-false”, “matching” and “short-answer” questions may also appear.

Grading policy:

34≤ points – 5

25-33 points – 4

16-24 points – 3

0-15 points – course not passed

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