Insegnamento a.a. 2020-2021

20612 - POLITICAL SCIENCE - MODULE 1 (TOPICS IN COMPARATIVE POLITICS)

Department of Social and Political Sciences

Course taught in English
Go to class group/s: 24
PPA (6 credits - I sem. - OB  |  SPS/04)
Course Director:
LANNY MARTIN

Classes: 24 (I sem.)
Instructors:
Class 24: LANNY MARTIN


Mission & Content Summary

MISSION

One of the core goals of political science research is to explain and predict the behavior of voters in democratic elections. Because elections in modern democracies are centered on political parties, most research in this area focuses on the interplay between voter preferences (or their long-term predispositions) and party politics. This course explores classic and modern comparative research on this topic, with an emphasis on the themes of voter identity and value-based voting, social cleavages, party identification, campaigns and political communication, economic and issue voting, party development, electoral rules, party competition, party system realignment and dealignment, and party government.

CONTENT SUMMARY

  • Social cleavages, voter values, and party strategy.
  • Party identification and voter behavior.
  • Campaigns, public opinion, and political communication.
  • Spatial models of voter behavior.
  • Electoral systems.
  • Strategic voting.
  • Economic voting.
  • Party ideologies.
  • Patterns of party competition.
  • Protest politics.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILO)

KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING

At the end of the course student will be able to...
  • Summarize, and critically evaluate, major theories and/or empirical findings from political science research in the subfield of comparative political behavior.

APPLYING KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING

At the end of the course student will be able to...
  • Analyze patterns of mass behavior and explain and predict the consequences of such behavior for electoral outcomes.

Teaching methods

  • Face-to-face lectures
  • Individual assignments
  • Group assignments

DETAILS

  • Individual assignments consist of presentations of two or more readings (outside the regular course readings), in which students are expected to discuss the most recent developments in the field on the topic under discussion. The number of assignments is contingent on the size of the class.
  • In their group assignments, students examine real-world mass behavior (using evidence from public opinion surveys or elections) to assess the empirical power of prominent arguments from political science research. The number of assignments is contingent on the size of the class.

Assessment methods

  Continuous assessment Partial exams General exam
  • Written individual exam (traditional/online)
    x
  • Individual assignment (report, exercise, presentation, project work etc.)
x    
  • Group assignment (report, exercise, presentation, project work etc.)
x    
  • Active class participation (virtual, attendance)
x    
  • Peer evaluation
x    

ATTENDING AND NOT ATTENDING STUDENTS

Attending: The due dates for reading assignments are listed on the schedule below. Students are expected to complete the reading assignments before class, and to attend (virtually or physically) all lectures and group presentations. Attendance will be registered for each class meeting. Students will be assigned to groups, and each group will craft one presentation on assigned themes and will also serve in a discussant role on another group's presentation. Group assignments will be handed out 3 weeks before the presentation date (2 weeks before the draft slides have to be delivered to discussants). There will be a single comprehensive exam at the end of the course. The grading breakdown for attending students is as follows:

Group presentation 30%

Group discussion 15%

Final Exam 55%.

(Note that the group scores, by default, will be the same for each group member, but they may be adjusted up or down depending on peer evaluations of the individual contributions.)

The group assignment allows the students to demonstrate applied knowledge of concepts and empirical research presented in the course to make electoral predictions.

The final exam tests students on their knowledge of theories and empirical research relating to voter behavior and party competition, as well as their knowledge of contemporary political events.

 

For non-attending students, the final exam will be worth 100% of the course grade. A student will automatically, and irrevocably, be considered an attending student upon completion of either the group presentation or group discussion component of the course.

The final exam tests students on their knowledge of theories and empirical research relating to voter behavior and party competition, as well as their knowledge of contemporary political events.


Teaching materials


ATTENDING AND NOT ATTENDING STUDENTS

Readings are listed on the course syllabus, which is made available to students by the end of July 2019.

Last change 07/10/2020 11:02