GLOBAL ISSUES: POLITICAL AND LEGAL APPROACH

This course focuses on key political issues on a global comparative level, with a special focus on the current state of democracy – and the challenges to it – around the world.

The course aims at providing skills and information for anyone looking for a robust knowledge of the major issues in contemporary comparative politics and some practical abilities in analyzing data and trends concerning the changes within the current political systems today. In times of deep social and political transformations, these skills are important not only for prospective scholars but, also, for an increasing number of public servants and professionals who want to pursue a career in media, national and supranational NGOs, international agencies, governmental and multilateral organizations, non-profit organizations and international corporations.

The course is centred on core concepts of political regimes, democratic practices and representative institutions. A general overview on the historical development of democracy will be provided. Then, the course will compare contemporary political regimes, while the main challenges to democracy and to democratic representation will be approached in the final part of the lessons. Many issues developed by the recent literature will be touched and the students will be stimulated to make use the comparative politics literature to produce critical analyses on the state of democracy in a specific context or comparatively.

In practice, each week we will normally be analysing selected issues – such as democracy, ideology, representation, competition, rule of law, or populism – and look at it on a comparative European and global perspective.

Catherine E. De Vries, Sara B. Hobolt, Sven-Oliver Proksch, and Jonathan B. Slapin (2021), Foundations of European Politics. A Comparative Approach, Oxford: Oxford University Press

Caramani, Daniele (ed.) Comparative Politics, Oxford: Oxford University Press (fifth edition)

Haggard, S. and R. Kaufman (2021) Backsliding. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Students are expected to keep up with the required readings and to attend all the classes. Absences will have to be justified. After the first week of introductory lectures, students will randomly introduce the topic of each seminar, reporting on one or more compulsory readings.

Students’ evaluation will be based for 30% on attendance and participation in class, for 30% on a final paper of about 6500/7000 words to be delivered before the exam, and for 40% on the final oral exam.

The final paper will have to be prepared on one of the key topics approached during the classes, following the guidelines provided in due time.

The abstracts of the proposed papers will be discussed during the last meetings in class.