Entry requirements

Course taught for students within Uppsala university Master Programme in Political Sciences and exchange students. Political Science basic course or equivalent education.

Content

The course deals with some of the central theoretical problems in comparative politics: democratisation, political participation, and institutions. It asks questions such as; What explains differences in degrees of political participation? In a study of participation in several countries across the world, Norris, contrary to conventional wisdom, argues that democratic engagement has been reinvented. Bratton, Mattes and Gyamah-Boadi, study one of the most important aspects of democratic consolidation, that is, democratic values among the citizenry. Built on the results from the Afrobarometer, the three authors seek to understand varying political values - and in particular the support for democracy - in twelve African countries. Valerie Sperling fo-cuses in the role of civil society in the democratisation process, and in particular the women's movement. She thereby touches upon the role of gender in participation and democratisation? Varsheny, finally seeks to contribute to the discussion of what specific challenges ethnic diversity poses to democratisation in a society. In relation to this institutional means of solving ethnic conflicts are also discussed as is the role of history - path dependence - for the success of democracy? These theoretical problems are discussed in the course literature with reference to empirical research on Western and Eastern Europe, USA, Africa, and Asia.

Instruction

There are five seminars in this course. For none of them the assignment and active participation is compulsory. However, if you do the assignment satisfactorily and take an active part in the discussions in the seminar you will earn credits in advance of the written exam; for the first four seminars you will get a maximum of 2 points each (your result will of course depend on your effort), and for the last seminar (the research design) you will receive a maximum of 4 points. These credits can be used in the written exam so that you need not answer the questions dealing with these topics in the exam. You will, so to speak, already have earned points on these questions before the exam. If you are not satisfied with the result from the seminar you may however instead answer the equivalent question at the written exam. The best result from that topic will be counted - but you can only get credit once for the same topic, i.e. either from the seminar or the equivalent exam question. Since the course literature may be changed, these credit points are only valid during this academic year. (The maximum points for the whole exam is 36 points).

The assignment for each of the first four seminars will be handed out at the lecture preceding the seminar.

The task for the fourth and last seminar is to write, together with another student, a research design.

Assessment

The only part of this course which is compulsory is the written exam at the end. If you fail that exam there is another chance a few weeks later (plus in mid-August and mid-January).

Remember that you must register for this exam not later than 11 days in advance.

Other regulations

Course taught for students within Uppsala univeristy Master Programme in Political Sciences and exchange students.