Studies on State and Politics

The student will gain knowledge of the mechanisms of law and politics in the process of states shaping. He/she will know basic terminology in English in legal sciences and political science The student will know the basic concepts of the evolution of the state and the relationship of state-international organizations. He/she will know constitutional norms and sources of these norms.

Assessment methods: evaluation of active participation in the course, a research project and a written exam (open questions)

Assessment criteria: students will have to give evidences (by discussing the topics of each class, expressing opinions, presenting and critically evaluating chosen aspects of functioning of states and politics, finally by obtaining a high score in the test and the exam) of good knowledge of the course topics, students will also have to be able to express their critical opinion on the topics pointed out by the lecturer.

The course includes the following topics and issues:

1. Kick-off meeting

2. What is Politics (Polity-Policy-Politics)?

3. Political ideas and ideologies

4. What is the State?

5. Politics, Society and Identity

6. Political Culture

7. Representation and Elections

8. Parties and Party Systems

9. Political Systems

10. The Law and Constitution

11. The Judiciary and Judicial Activism

12. Political Science as a discipline

13. The most important problems of modern politics and political science

14. Summary

Basic handbook:

- Haywood A., Politics, The Palgrave Macmillan, 2013 (4th Edition)

Supplementary handbooks and literature:

• Heywood A., Political Theory An Introduction, Palgrave 2004

• Shorten A., Contemporary Political Theory, Palgrave 2016

• Ball A., Peters G., Modern politics and Government, Palgrave Macmillan 2005

• Goodin R. (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Political Science, Oxford 2011

• Fukuyama Francis (2004), State-Building: Governance and World Order in the 21st Century

• Riemer N., Simon D., Romance J., The Challenge of Politics An introduction to political science, Singapore 2015

• von Bogdandy Armin, Häuβler Stefan, Hanschmann Felix, Utz Raphael, State-Building, Nation-Building, and Constitutional Politics in Post-Conflict Situations: Conceptual Clarifications and an Appraisal of Different Approaches, Max Planck Yearbook of United Nations Law Online 9/1/2005, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/187574105X00138

• Alesina, Alberto, Reich Bryony (2015), Nation-building, Working paper, Department of Economics, Harvard University, available at: http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:28652213, accessed 12 September 2019

• Mylonas Harris (2017),“Nation-building, [in:] Patrick James (ed.), Oxford Bibliographies in International Relations, New York: Oxford University Press

• Bellamy Richard (1993), Theories and concepts of politics An introduction, Manchester and New York

• Almond G., Comparative Politics: A Theoretical Framework, Harpercollins College Div. 1993

• Inglehart Ronald, Welzel C. (2010), Changing Mass Priorities: The Link between Modernization and Democracy, Perspectives on Politics, 8(2) 2010, pp. 551-567

• Cunningham F., Theories of Democracy A critical introduction, Routledge, London and New York 2002

• Levitsky Steven, Ziblatt Daniel (2018), How Democracies die, New York

• Rothert Agnieszka (2016)., Power of Imagination, Peter Lang Verlag

• Hofstede Geert (2011), Dimensionalizing Cultures: The Hofstede Model in Context, Online Readings in Psychology and Culture, 2(1), available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.9707/2307-0919.1014, accessed 13 September 2019

• Heathershaw, J; Lambach, D (2008). "Introduction: Post-Conflict Spaces and Approaches to Statebuilding". Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding. 2 (3): 269–289. doi:10.1080/17502970802436296. hdl:10036/58174

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