Entry requirements

Political Science A or corresponding knowledge.

Learning outcomes

The course presents modern political science and development-related discussions of basic democratic problems. The aim is for students to form their own opinion on both theoretical and empirical issues concerning democratic governance. The course intends to provide an in-depth study of themes that have been dealt with in previous courses in political science and development studies, such as the concept of democracy and democratization theories. With this course, we want to educate students who are trained to analyze and discuss ideas and empirical research results on democracy at a relatively advanced level.

With the help of the elements described above, the overall purpose of the course is to enable students to take the step from loose thinking about core issues of democracy to a position where they can take a stand on and argue for (or against) ideas and theses in a systematically and well substantiated way. More precisely, the idea is that students after completing the course should:

• be able to discuss and compare different views of democracy.
• be able to describe and evaluate the historically most influential arguments for and against democracy.
• know, and be able to apply and critically examine some of the most common explanations for democratization.
• know and be able to compare different types of regimes.
• know how democracy in general and, its constitutional form in particular, affects different types of political and economic outcomes.
• in speech and writing be able to argue for or against ideas and theses in a systematic and well-substantiated way.

Content

The first political-philosophical part addresses normative theories of democracy. This section deals with conceptual questions about the meaning of democracy, and normative questions about different ways of justifying democracy and issues and proposals within different democratic theoretical traditions. Examples of issues that are discussed are: How is democracy defined? What is good about democracy? What criticism is usually directed at democracy? What significance does it have that different interests and groups are represented in our political assemblies? Should the ideals of democracy be reformulated in the light of growing globalization and migration?

The second part of the course mainly deals with empirical questions about the causes and consequences of democracy: What can explain that some countries are democratized while others not? What are the characteristics of different types of authoritarian regimes? Does democracy play a role in welfare and equality in society?

The third part of the course combines the normative and empirical approach of the course by discussing the constitutional design of democracy. What does constitutional democracy mean, and what political and economic outcomes follow from different principles? Is it possible to unite popular sovereignty and liberal constitutionalism? How should a democracy defend itself against groups or individuals who make use of democratic procedures and freedoms to undermine it? We also focus on the constitutional design of democracy, and the building of a democratic system of government.

Instruction

This course consists of lectures and seminars. 

Assessment

Examination of the course takes place through oral participation and the writing of course assignments for the three seminars, and through a final exam. 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.