20638 - FUNDAMENTALS OF POLITICS - PREPARATORY COURSE
Course taught in English
Lezioni della classe erogate in presenza
This course is an introduction to political science. The course aims at preparing the students for the MSc Politics and Policy Analysis. The lectures cover both seminal contributions and recent developments in the research field.
The course is organized in three parts.
- Part 1 introduces political science as an academic discipline and also introduces Bocconi faculty who are political scientists or work on related subjects. Then we cover a number of covers fundamental subjects (rationality assumption, the spatial model of preferences, the state and its origins)
- Part 2 covers topics related to "Comparative Politics", which focuses on political relations within a state. Lectures will be on the differences between democracy and dictatorship, different types of democracies (two visions of democracy), different electoral systems, different party systems, and veto players.
- Part 3 covers topics related to "International Relations", which focuses on political relations between states and non-state actors. The specific topics we will look at include the main schools of IR thought (e.g. Realism), rationalist explanations for conflict, diplomacy as a two-level game, and international organizations.
- Define fundamental concepts in political science such as "veto players" or a "parliamentary system".
- Recognize different approaches to political phenomena such as conflict between states.
- Summarize explanations for important phenomena such as interstate war.
- Demonstrate familiarity with fundamental concepts in political science.
- Compare the usefulness of different theoretical explanations for important phenomena.
- Prepare for coursework in courses on political science, public policy, and economics.
- Face-to-face lectures
- Online lectures
Online lectures are recordings of the face-to-face lectures.
Continuous assessment | Partial exams | General exam | |
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x |
This course is not mandatory and does not assess students' learning.
The professor will provide all teaching materials (lecture slides and reading material) via Blackboard.