Institut d'Etudes Politiques (Sciences Po)

This course studies democratic transitions. Looking both at classical readings as well as cutting edge literature, it explores five aspects of democratization: its conditions (do societies need to be wealthy?), its endogenous dynamics (what types of regime and opposition favor a transition?), its exogenous dynamics (how does the international economy or geopolitics influence transitions?), different pathways (rupture or reform), and their legacy. These five aspects are explored throughout the course as it examines an array of case studies from different waves of democratization. It provides a comprehensive understanding of democratic transitions from an economic, social, and political lens. Drawing on a wide range of case studies, the course grapples with traditional theories of democratization both empirically and theoretically.

This course explores the relationship between urbanization and globalization and considers global urbanization based on the discipline of geography and its tools. After providing conceptual bases for thinking and representing the urban, the course explores the spaces and forms of urban societies, as well as the practices and social dynamics that define urbanity. It then studies the logic of interconnection between cities, particularly on the economic and migratory levels. Finally, the course focuses on the government of cities and their major development issues. It highlights differing urban realities on each continent, examining the diverse urbanity of the South in particular. 

This course focuses on Martin Heidegger’s thoughts on technology as they developed post-war and increasingly became part of the French and European landscape. It examines Heidegger’s thoughts as well as those of others that debated in the 1940s and 1950s, including Adorno, Horkheimer, Hans Jonas and Arnold Gehlen; and current thinkers like Giorgio Agamben or Harmut Rosa. The course provides a critical reflection on technology, modernism, and the notion of progress.

This course sheds light on the history of Liberalism through a comparison between Britain and France. It builds a step-by-step history of liberal movements, liberal ideas, and their contradictions, both through British political history and French history, to provide a better understanding of both historical debates and today's issues regarding the notion of Liberalism in context. The course questions the view of Britain as a country of successful liberalism and France as one of failed or incomplete liberalism. It addresses Liberalism and anti-liberalism at the crossroads of political history, intellectual history, and political philosophy.

This course provides an introduction to finance. The course starts with a brief discussion of the functions of financial systems, an overview of existing financial assets, financial intermediaries and markets, and an introduction to firm types and firms’ financial statements. The first part of the course deals with the time value of money and its applications: understanding interest rates and valuing bonds. The second part addresses investment decisions by firms and explains the basics of project and firm valuation. The course then introduces the notions of risky assets, risky returns, and risk aversion and highlights the benefits of diversification. It presents the foundations of portfolio theory and the central model of equilibrium asset pricing, the Capital Asset Pricing Model, before highlighting some of their important applications. The last part of the course discusses the efficient market hypothesis and the contending theories of behavioral finance. Basic knowledge of probability and statistics is a prerequisite for the course.