Course 2017-2018 a.y.

Knowledge and understanding
At the end of the course student will be able to do:
Know the most important findings of contemporary comparative political science and be familiar with the main debates in normative political theory; be acquainted with the analytical scientific approach to the study of politics; understand the institutionalist perspective, which posits that the outcomes of the political process depend on the interaction between social structure and the rules of the game.

Applying knowledge and understanding
At the end of the course student will be able to do:
Understand how the tools and concepts developed by the discipline
turn potentially hard-to-untangle issues into tractable problems; use the toolbox of contemporary analytical and normative political science to throw light, in an independent and critical way, on current events and events from recent history; think of major political events in terms of categories like democratization, authoritarian reversal, and revolution; independently assess the possible (intended and unintended) consequences of institutional reforms (e.g., federalism, electoral reforms, etc.) in democratic settings.

• Face-to-face lectures
• Oral presentations of individual/group assignments

• Written exam(s) with open ended questions