Political Science

This course examines the nature and value of democracy, and the various roles played by citizens and constitutions in sustaining it. The first part of the course examines different justifications for democracy and different understandings of the nature of the democratic process. The second part of the course focuses on issues of democratic citizenship, such as who should be viewed as a citizen, and whether democratic citizens have duties to obey the law and to vote. The final part of the course studies some of the ways law and politics interact with a particular focus on the relationships between constitutions, judicial review, and democracy.

Liberal democracy seems to be the obvious winner of the ideological struggle of the twentieth century. It is therefore hard to understand why the two main alternatives to liberal democracy – Nazism and Communism –exercised such a power over the lives and minds of people of Central Europe throughout the larger part of the twentieth century. This interdisciplinary course examines this conundrum through systematic study of totalitarian practices. Following a basic theoretical outline and criticism of the term “totalitarianism”, the course analyses the ideologies of the “Totalitarian Twins”, Communism and Nazism, which both grew from a perceived crisis of liberal democracy. The main focus of the course is on the methods the two regimes used to rule over their citizens, going beyond the obvious themes of fear and terror and looking at the role of economic policy, propaganda, leader’s cult, and media and art in securing the conformity of the citizens. By studying these methods, the course touches upon the challenges liberal democracy faces in the current political situation. The course also includes the often overlooked issue of environmental destruction especially under communism, and the consequent rise of the environmental consciousness and movements, which contributed significantly to the eventual fall of communism. The course presents a "Prague perspective," examining the experience of the Czechs in the twentieth century as an example of a nation dealing with the two dictatorships. Although the Nazi and Communist dictatorships are over, their residues remain in the collective memory, which influences everyday life. As mentality can only be explained against the historical backdrop, students undertake a journey into the minds of people who lived in these two destructive dictatorships and try to understand them.

This course explores the transformations of East-Central Europe after the fall of state socialism in 1989. Rather than providing a simple transition story of marketization and democratization, the course looks at multiple and ambiguous paths taken, understanding the history of neoliberalism and postsocialist transformation as global, intertwined phenomena. From the dominance of the markets and persisting inequalities to the rise of illiberal politics, racism, and nationalist tensions, these transformations have shaped the whole of Europe and the world. The course examines several issues of contemporary East-Central Europe and the world, including the region's position towards the West, the legacy of Communism, memory and decolonization, the formation of capitalism and its impacts, human rights, the links between nation and race, and the fate of liberal democracies.

The end of communist rule in former Eastern Europe was widely seen as the culmination of the third wave of democratization. However, the ‘revolutions’ of 1989 were not uniform processes: the starting points were different, the trajectories were different, and so were the outcomes. Some countries never progressed beyond hybrid regimes, while others became liberal democracies and joined the European Union – and some of these are now backsliding on democracy. This course combines insights into specific cases (Ukraine, Georgia, Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, and Slovakia) with a comparative take on some key issues in contemporary Central and Eastern Europe. Some of the questions raised in this course are: How do support for democracy, satisfaction with democracy, and political trust vary across the region? Why did some countries successfully complete the transition from communism to democracy, while others got stuck in a half-way house? What is democratic backsliding in theory and practice, and how can it be reversed? How do oligarchs and grand corruption affect politics and democracy in the post-communist region? What roles do Russia and the European Union play? How does populism in general and radical right populism in particular play out in the region?

The first half of the course takes an historical as well as analytical approach to international political economy. The second half of the class deals with current issues of international political economy in the post-cold war era--issues such as globalization, economic development, trade and protectionism, MNCs and global production, and international monetary relations. The course encompasses both political and economic aspects of international political economy. Major themes to be discussed in the class include theories of international political economy, state and market, economic development, economic crisis, globalization and regionalism, international finance and monetary order, and international trade.

This course offers an introduction to the legal framework of the European Union, often referred to as sui generis, meaning that it is unique in its characteristics as compared with other regional organizations. EU law is increasingly important for national legal systems. At the same time, the EU represents a fascinating case study of regional integration especially in the light of challenges that the EU has been facing such as the government debt crisis, the refugee crisis, Brexit, and the covid-19 pandemic. This course guides students through the establishment of the EU and development of EU law and policy since then. Relevant questions include: how is the EU organized and how does it function? Which institutions exist within the EU and what is their role? How do they react to recent challenges of European integration? What does EU law regulate and why? How does the European legal order interact with the domestic orders of its Member States? What is the position of individuals within EU law and how are their rights under EU law protected? The course focuses on these institutional questions, helping students to critically assess the EU in its legal context. They zoom in on particular topics, such as decision making in law and in practice, or judicial protection in the EU, teaching students how to apply the general rules to specific case studies. The course gives students a platform for discussing the recent developments within the European Union.