Political Science

The class offers an introduction into the modern approaches to causal identification in quantitative political science research. Traditional view implying that quantitative work can establish only correlations, and no causal links, has been challenged recently by new research designs allowing scholars to identify causal effects using quantitative data. This class reviews these methods (such as appropriate strategies of selecting control variables in regressions, matching, instrumental variables, experiments and regression discontinuity design), as well as discuss their application to the practical problems of political science research. It uses specific examples to train students' ability to develop effective research designs.

This course emphasizes the pivotal role of data and innovation in transforming society, with a deep dive into the implications of data utilization and technological advances. It highlights the transformative power of AI in fostering innovation and societal change. Starting with an overview of innovation in service systems, with a particular focus on public services, the course offers a comprehensive curriculum that explores the foundational principles of AI technologies such as machine learning and natural language processing. Students will investigate how these innovations drive significant changes across various public sectors, including healthcare, urban development, education, arts and culture, and the operations of international organizations. Enhancing the learning experience, the course will feature guest speakers from diverse fields, providing firsthand insights into the challenges and successes of AI implementation. Additionally, case studies will be integrated throughout the course to offer real-world contexts for the concepts discussed, and on-site visits to organizations actively utilizing AI will give students practical exposure to the dynamics of AI in action. The course aims to equip students with the knowledge, analytical frameworks, and practical skills to: •Develop strategies that enhance service efficiency and value, particularly in the public context; •Create innovative solutions to societal issues using AI and Machine Learning.

The aim of this course is to understand why income and wealth inequality varies across space and time by focusing on one of the richest, but also one of the most unequal democracies of our time: The US. While in theory all citizens in a democracy have the same voting power - so one would expect democratic governments to act to keep inequality as low as possible - there are quite significant differences in economic inequality over time and space. Why is this? To answer these questions, the course examines different theories of inequality and different policy areas that affect inequality. It looks at long-term trends in inequality and the structural features of capitalism that tend to push inequality upwards. The course examines the wide range of policies in what is loosely termed the 'welfare state' that tend to mitigate the inequalities generated by market capitalism. Students discuss how demography, gender differences, migration and ethnicity relate to inequality. And they try to understand why elections sometimes produce governments that redistribute income and wealth from rich to poor, and sometimes produce governments that do the opposite. Finally, the course reviews how rising inequality - a clear trend in the rich world since the late 20th century - affects politics and democracy.

This course provides a detailed analysis of some of the key themes and issues in the UK's political system. It provides an overview of the relationship between the different aspects of the political system and shows how these have evolved in the last twenty years. It focuses on both the formal institutions of Parliament and the non-elected actors who influence the UK's political process.

This course provides an overview of the history of international relations from the Napoleonic Wars to the eve of World War I. The main objective of this course is to assist students in understanding the key elements of diplomatic history necessary to study contemporary world politics. The course also prepares students for upper-level courses in the Political Science and International Relations department. 

This course offers students the tools to come to an informed view about different models of development, whether there are better or worse ways of intervening in poorer countries, or whether it may be better to do nothing at all. The course considers a series of issues including economic takeoff in Pacific-Asia, ideas of dependency, neo-liberal theories of development, including the rise of the governance agenda, post-development, and the politics of international aid. Students learn to link theory and practice and to show the relevance of past debates to contemporary issues.

The course provides students with the fundamental coordinates of modern political conceptuality (individual, the State, conflict, freedom, people, representation, etc.). The lessons focus on a series of classic authors of the history of political thought, addressed in their specific characters and supported by the reading and commentary of texts in the classroom. The course follows a monographic red thread - the birth and (presumed) end of modern political conceptuality - and does not claim to cover the entire history of political thought. Fundamental authors live in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, just as essential foundations are laid by ancient and medieval thought. The purpose of this monographic choice is to investigate those passages that best allow the questioning and exposition of the implicit assumptions of our contemporary political life. In particular, two key moments are analyzed: the birth of modern political conceptuality (16th-17th centuries), and the point of greatest tension of this conceptual apparatus in the XXth century. In outlining its fundamental passages, we constantly wonder about the persistence or the crisis of this conceptual apparatus in our contemporaneity: how modern is the implicit assumptions of our political action? What contemporary transformations have instead radically changed the scenario? How have the relationships between society, the State and market changed historically? Are there constants of human action and is it possible to study them?

At the end of the course, students: know the fundamental features of the modern and contemporary History of Political Thought; know the main forms of political communication and understand the complex relationships between ideas and facts; know the most important political doctrines and are able to critically analyze them in connection with the relevant cultural, institutional, historical and social context; are able to understand the most important political and institutional changes in Western history.

In this course, students analyze the dynamics between civil-military relations and the process of formulating security and defense policies in democratic states of law, with a focus on Latin America. In this way, at the end of the course, students are expected to understand, analyze and evaluate how the different levels of civil control over the military and structuring of the Armed Forces in a democracy impact the rationality and efficiency of national defense policies and strategies.

In the course, students will be able to answer the broad dilemma of how to understand Latin America today?, from an interdisciplinary analysis that emphasizes the connection between history, geography and political science in order to unravel and read the various dynamics and challenges of the region. Through methodologies such as lectures, case studies and debates, they will be able to understand the changes, continuities and cultural, social, economic and political projections of the region.

Over the past decades, the radical right has been on the rise worldwide, creating challenges to democratic governance. This seminar investigates the drivers of radical right support, the consequences of their success, as well as responses by civic society to foster democratic resilience. The focus is on quantitative research on Europe and North America. The seminar is split into four parts. The first part gives a brief overview of core concepts and definitions that guide students throughout the course. This involves a discussion of ideological features that characterize the radical right as well as the issues they campaign on. The second part covers the causes of far right success by examining demand-side explanations involving classic theories of voting behavior, as well as supply-side explanations with a focus on theories of political competition. This includes the strategies radical right parties employ and how mainstream party reaction affects their electoral fortunes. The third part gives an extensive overview of consequences of radical right success on democratic governance and civic society. Students analyze how these successes affect democratic governance, other parties’ positions, as well as public opinion. The fourth part engages with a growing literature on interventions that are aimed at bolstering democratic resilience. The seminar is designed to familiarize students with seminal contributions in the theoretical and empirical literature on voting behavior, political competition, and democratic governance that help understand the rise of the radical right.