Entry requirements

This is a continuing course at undergraduate level that requires at least 30 Swedish higher education credits in political science or corresponding knowledge. 'Corresponding' includes studies in social sciences with extensive and distinct elements of political science. This course is taught only for exchange students.

Learning outcomes

The course aims at providing a good understanding of research in the field of comparative politics. It should provide good knowledge of important research contributions and research strategies that aim at, or are useful for, describing and explaining political and ethnic conflicts, tolerance, socialisation, democratisation and development, in an extensive geographical comparative context, in developed as well as developing parts of the world. Also, the choice of literature and the cases selected to be studied have been made to give examples of different designs of research projects that should be useful for students preparing their C/master-level thesis project. In short, after the course, the students should:

• have a good idea of what comparative politics is
• understand when and why different groups enter into conflicts, how groups are mobilized, and why they sometimes manage to establish peaceful coexistence, and even manage to build democratic systems
• know the comparative politics discourse better
• be better prepared to write a thesis

Content

Comparative politics is a strange name for a field of research. It is strange because what you find under the label comparative politics - and its synonyms in other languages - often is not (explicitly) comparative. Most of the time it simply is "politics in some country/countries". The conventional distinction between comparative and international politics is that the former deals with politics in other countries, and the latter between countries; this is easier to remember if one thinks of another common name for the latter - international relations.

If comparative politics is politics in other countries, then it is indeed a lot. Therefore we must make choices of what to study. One option would be to attempt to classify the world's political systems in a number of fairly distinct categories, and to learn about these categories and their cases. This has been attempted by numerous authors. Another choice is to study a number of constitutional systems in the world. This course is built on another kind of logic. We have chosen to focus on some central research problems in comparative politics.

The overall problems concern democracy, conflicts, institutions (rules), tolerance, justice and development. These are chosen because important parts of research in political science concern these issues, and secondly because these issues are important to many people in many countries; two overriding criteria for any research or teaching in social science. The course is divided into four themes:

• Ethnic conflicts, tolerance and democracy
• Populism and challenges in multicultural societies
• Political activism
• Classics of comparative politics

The choice of theme(s) and literature is a conscious attempt to bridge the unfortunate divide between studies of the West and "the rest". The idea is that we can learn more about industrialised countries, former socialist countries and so-called low- or middle income countries not by separating them, but by studying them together.

Apart from the books required to be read, the course will make use of some academic articles. One purpose of using these articles is to give the students an idea about current debates in international research. All articles will be available for free via the Uppsala University Library.

The students are encouraged to participate actively in the discussions. We have achieved our objective with this course if, in at the end of it, the students think they have a better (or even much better) grasp of some substantial empirical, or political, problems in the contemporary world and some orientation in a few current debates in international research in general and comparative politics in particular.

Instruction

The instruction of this course is comprised of a combination of lectures and seminars. The language of instruction is English. The written assignment (classic review) should be written in English (so everyone can read and comment on the proposal/text). Regarding the written exam, students may give answers in English or Swedish. They may use a language dictionary at the exam.

Attendance is compulsory for all seminars. If students fail to attend a seminar they will have to hand in an extra written assignment. Additional instructions for the seminars may be handed out by the lecturers.

Assessment

The requirements of the course are:

• Attendance at some lectures (such as guest lectures - this is specified in the course description)
• Attendance and active participation in the seminars.
• Writing a review of a "classic" in comparative politics
• Written exam

The grade

Participation in the seminars is only graded as "pass" or "fail." If the students come to the seminars and actively participate in the debates, and if they have done their best to absorb the literature before the seminar, then it is very likely that they will pass.

One grade for the whole course will be given according to the Swedish three-level system: Pass with distinction= Väl godkänd (Vg), Pass = Godkänd (G), and Fail = Underkänd (U).

* The book report for the "Classics" will be graded. The students need at least a 50% score to pass, and at least 75% to pass with distinction. The grade for the "Classics"-assignment constitutes 20% of the final grade.

* The exam will be graded. The students need at least 50% to pass, and at least 75% to pass with distinction. The grade for the exam constitutes 80% of the final grade.

If there are special reasons for doing so, an examiner may make an exception from the method of assessment indicated and allow a student to be assessed by another method. An example of special reasons might be a certificate regarding special pedagogical support from the University's disability coordinator.

Other regulations

Course taught for exchange students.