POLITICAL SYSTEMS
Syllabus
Updated A.Y. 2018-2019
Course Description
This course is an introduction to the comparative study of politics. It aims at familiarizing students with the main concepts of political science with a focus on the concepts of public sphere, democracy, authoritarianism, democracy, representation and participation. With special emphasis on the evolution and the diversity of political situations and attention to not only national but also local and global scales, we will compare and contrast the political regimes of various countries of the world, the roles of key political actors, political institutions, political processes and patterns of political competition. We will be particularly interested in Asian countries (including China, India, Japan, Taiwan) and the Middle East (Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Lebanon). The main objective for this course is to provide students with the broad context needed for analyzing the political phenomena of any country and understand the main criteria and tools used to compare and rank countries in the world, as well as what we mean by democracy, the role media and social media play in democracy, what makes a non-democracy become more democratic, what makes a stable democracy and so on.
Teaching Method
The course is based on lectures introducing students with major political concepts, institutions, processes, theories, and detailing case studies taken both from consolidated Western democracies, more recent democracies (India, Japan, Brazil) and non-democratic countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran and China. Active participation is demanded on the part of students. Lectures will be supplemented with practical study based on class discussions, text commentaries in class and at home, as well as collective projects comparing specific countries.
Schedule of Topics
Topic 1 What is politics? What is comparative politics?
Topic 2 What is the public sphere? What role do media and social media play in democracies?
Topic 3 How to classify political systems?
Topic 4 How to define a good society? (Teaching Assistant: Farah Kebbe Baghdadi)
Topic 5 Democracy and authoritarian systems
Topic 6 Representative, participatory, deliberative democracy
Topic 7 Comparing East Asian political systems
Topic 8 Comparing political systems in the Middle East (Teaching Assistant: Farah Kebbe Baghdadi)
PLEASE FIND MORE INFORMATION ON THE COURSE ON THE SYLLABUS IN THE TEACHING MATERIAL SECTION