This comparative politics course provides students with the conceptual, theoretical, and analytical tools required for comparative politics research. In so doing, the course examines and assesses major issues in comparative politics, including processes of state formation, regime types, democracy and democratization, authoritarianism, and globalization. The main emphasis is on how different state structures and political regimes work, how political actors operate within these institutional configurations, how states and regimes change over time and the effects and impact of different state and regime types. The course covers these questions and many others by utilizing the methods and techniques of comparative politics. It is broadly divided into three different parts: 1) States and regimes; 2) Institutions and actors; 3) Policies.

Throughout the course, we will explore recent theoretical debates and discuss historical and contemporary examples to add substance. The course adopts a broad geographic scope by drawing on case studies from countries around the globe.

Assessment

The final grade will be a weighted average of four different elements:

• Presentation of weekly readings (lectures): 10%
• Seminars: 35%
• Paper proposal: 20%
• Final paper: 35%