Content

Methods 5 credit points

Research methods, especially quantitative methods, are the main focus of this course. Basic concepts are being examined. Some of the main themes are research design, data collection, interpretation, explanation and presentation. The course work consists of several practical ex-ercises.

The European Union 5 credit points

Advanced International Politics 5 credit points

This course offers a short survey of some, yet not all, sub-fields of International Relations, namely Foreign Policy Analysis, Security Studies, the study of international norms, as well as European Integration. By the end, students should have a general sense of the field of International Relations, its traditional research focus and some of its main theories and debates.

Being a B/C course, its aim is necessarily twofold. On the one hand, it wants simply to give this overview to students who, although not wanting to pursue their studies in International Relations, seek a better understanding of the study of international affairs. But its main purpose is to address the needs of those students who, after their first courses in IR, are preparing a C-thesis and/or plan to pursue for the D-level in International Relations. It is for this second target group that the literature choice was made, which includes a substantial theoretical component.

Course organisation

Every teaching unit is composed of two parts stretching over two days. Students meet for a three hour seminar and for a two hour lecture, i.e. 5 hours in total. In the seminar, we discuss the readings; for the lecture, students can ask the teacher to clarify particular issues related to the readings. Additionally, but participation is here voluntarily, there will be some documentaries which are related to the topics (e.g. Cuban Missile Crisis).

Course requirements

1. Seminar presentation and participation (20%).

Should the seminar number allow, every student will introduce one seminar. Presenters should make a written outline (for everyone) which summarises the key points of their introduction and the main questions on which to lead the discussion.

2. Critical summaries of readings (30%)

Every week, students should submit a short position paper (1-2 pages) on which they (1) summarise the main aim and/or contribution of the assigned book to the study of IR or European Integration, as well as (2) ask 4-5 questions they would like to see raised and answered during the seminar.

2. Final paper (50%)

The final paper is an in-depth discussion of one of the central debates encountered in the readings and/or a substantial critique of one of the books. Topics should be discussed with the course convenor in advance.

Comparative European Politics 5 credit points

The course gives a broad overview of some current and classic topics of comparative European politics. Themes include constitutions, political institutions, and electoral systems, changes in the nature of parties and party systems, political attitudes and be-havior, corporatism, pluralism and emergent trends of multi-level governance, welfare state challenges and corruption. It is focused primarily on the traditions and contem-porary developments of the old democracies in Western Europe. It deals also with the new eastern European members of the European Union.

Comparative Politics: Political Participation, Institutions and Democratisation 5 credit points

Course description:

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.

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.

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).

International Political Economy 5 credit points

This course seeks to familiarise students with International Political Economy (IPE), a new and emerging area in International Relations. This area has acquired a new salience in the context of globalisation, a phenomenon largely driven by economic forces and motives but with serious political implications, both for individuals and states. The primary focus of IPE is the complex and often contentious relationship that exists between state, society and market. This relation-ship is sought to be studied from three important ideological perspectives namely liberal, na-tionalist and Marxist. These perspectives are employed to examine and explain some of the critical issues in IPE like the nature and role of MNCs, the relationship between dependency and development and the impact of globalisation on IPE.

I. Market

Definition

Nature of its economic and political consequences

II. Three Perspectives on IPE

Liberal, Marxist, Nationalist

III. Multi-National Corporations

Nature and Role

IV. Dependency and Economic Development

Liberal and Marxist Perspectives on Development

LDCs Strategies to overcome Underdevelopment

V. Globalisation and IPE

State, Market and Civil society

Geopolitics of Globalisation

Theory of developmental state

International Politics: Studying World Politics in the 21 Century 5 credit points

This course provides students with a deeper introduction to the conceptual and theoretical tools used in the study of world politics. The course also examines a number of enduring and contemporary topics in international relations, such as international cooperation, security issues, globalisation, international political economy, European integration, and humanitarian intervention. The course concludes with a roll playing game where students have the opportunity to apply the concepts they have learned by engaging in simulated international negotiations. Students are recommended to take this course prior to the IP BII (B/C) course.

Comparative Public Administration 5 credit points

The organisation of the public sector shows a great degree of variation whether we compare industrialised countries or developmental states. Embedded state-traditions influence both what is seen as a problem that the state should handle and the choice of policy instruments that will be used to handle the problem. In the first part of the course a number of examples of the above are studied. The importance of these divergent state-traditions is analysed. The focus of the second part of the course is on the problems and possibilities of developmental states. Which attributes of such states explain that some have managed to promote substantial eco-nomic growth while the policies of others have created disaster? Which possibilities exist for central political actors to reform the existing state-traditions?

Comparative Politics of the Middle East 5 credit points

Gender, Politics and Citizenship 5 credit points

This course focus on theoretical and empirical studies that problematise gender, politics and the possibilities for a gender-equal political and social citizenship. Women's and men's political and social citizenship has developed in different ways. Women gained political rights later than men and still today social legislation in many countries is differentiated between women and men. According to the norm of the male breadwinner, married women are mainly treated as mothers and wives not as autonomous individuals. How do the distribution of power between women and men look today? Is there a connection between the degree of political gender equality and the content of political decisions, for example concerning social policy? Is gender more important than ethnicity? How do feminist theories contribute to our understanding of these problems? In the course we use a comparative perspective and also discuss the significance of EU-integration for gender equality.

The course consists of lectures and seminars. The seminars are compulsory and for each semi-nar there is an assignment that has to be fulfilled in advance. Finally the students write a course paper.

Examination is done through seminar activities, assignments and course paper.

Organisation, Implementation and Evaluation 5 credit points

Political Theory 5 credit points

The course consists of three parts. The first focus on different interpretations of classical po-litical philosophers, from Machiavell to Marx. The second focus on influential modern political philosophies, such as utilitarianism, libertarianism, Rawlsian liberalism, communitarianism and feminism. The second part deals with a relatively new field in poticial theory, international justice. Different types of theories of international justice will be presented, in particular Peter Singer's cosmopolitan utilitarianism.

The teaching consists of lectures and seminars.

Examination consists of participation in seminars and a home exam.

Swedish Politics 5 credit points

Theories of Development and Globalisation 5 credit points

The aim of the course is to focus some of the important themes and debates about development and globalisation. The course is divided into three sections. The first focuses on aspects of development in the history of ideas, and discussions about development aid. The second part deals with political institutions and economic growth. It also brings into focus the debate on governance on the global level. The third part aims to deepen our understanding of 'development as freedom' - the approach introduced via Amartya Sen's book in the A-course - through Martha Nussbaum's Women and Human Development. In the book Nussbaum presents her 'capability approach' and gives her philosophical arguments for it. The third part also includes Nobel laureate Douglass North's recent Understanding the Process of Economic Change where he discusses some of the fundamental problems in changing institutions to bring about development.

The assignments will be handed out at the lecture for each seminar. The deadline is at 12.00 the day before the seminar. The assignments will be graded just according to whether it has "passed" or "not passed". The written test is on 1 November, the re-test on 26 November. You need to do all three parts during this semester to pass (otherwise there is a new chance during the fall semester 2006).

The Course paper should deal with one of the themes in the course and may be selected together with one of the course teachers. The paper, which you will distribute to all the course participants, will be discussed in a seminar at the end of the course where your active participation is part of the course requirements. The paper should be about 6-10 pages (and not exceed 20,000 characters). If you would like to write your paper so that it forms a part of your C-essay (C-uppsats) that is no problem; on the contrary, we will encourage you to do that. But in that case your paper must "stand on its own legs", i.e. not only be part of your coming C-essay.

Grades - passed with distinction (väl godkänt), passed (godkänt) or not passed (underkänt) - will be determined through

i) written assignments within each theme of the course,

ii) a written exam, and

iii) a final essay.

The exact calculus is this: Written assignments = max 20 points (min 10 p to pass)

Written exam = max 40 ponts (min 20 p to pass)

Final paper = max 40 points (min 20 p to pass)

To pass the whole course you need at least to pass each of the three parts. To pass with distinction you need 80 p or more.

Essay 10 credit points