Course 2018-2019 a.y.
30329 - HISTORY (MODULE II- HISTORY OF POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS)
Course taught in English
Go to class group/s: 23
The goal of this course is to provide an understanding of the origins, functions, and effects of political institutions in historical perspective, paying particular attention to their dynamics (that is, how different institutions appeared and how they changed over time). It relies on the critical reading and discussion of research papers that apply theoretical insights and empirical tools to engage in major debates about the nature and consequences of political institutions. In this way, this course builds on students' earlier work in their degree, and hence integrate material from a variety of disciplines, such as political sciences, international relations, political philosophy, economics, and history.
The course is expected to examine what types of political institutions form, why they form, what they do, and how they evolve. In particular, it presents students with a series of debates related to the rise and consolidation of states in historical perspective, reviewing current (and some classic) works on the subject. These debates include, for example, why nation-states came to dominate over other state forms (such as empires or city-states), which role elites played in state formation, in which ways the functions of the state began to take shape, or how state capacity was built and sustained in different places and times.
- Understand the process of creation of modern political institutions.
- Successfully connect aspects of economic growth and political regimes.
- Face-to-face lectures
- Case studies /Incidents (traditional, online)
- Individual assignments
- Interactive class activities (role playing, business game, simulation, online forum, instant polls)
Face to face lectures are accompanied by pop up quizzies and individual assignments.
| Continuous assessment | Partial exams | General exam | |
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| x | |||
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The course's assessment is a combination of pop-up quizzies and a final exam, plus some individual assignments.
Because one of the aims of the course is to present students with diverse views on the topics discussed, and make them think critically about them, it cannot be used a single textbook.
- The main readings are a series of academic articles and book chapters that are detailed at the beginning of the course.
- Additional materials (hand-outs, lecture notes, occasional articles, etc.) are distributed during of the course.