Political Science

This course explored and analyzes major institutions, actors, and trends in contemporary French and European Media and attempts to situate them in the larger contexts of “unifying” Europe and “globalized” world-media-scene. Students examine the operational schemes, performances, and internal decisional and power structures of different branches of French media: print national & regional press, specialized magazines, the publishing industry, advertising, radio, television, and the Internet. The course attempts a specific analysis regarding the international and French implications of the growing potential of social networks and “New Media.” Students review aspects of the growing confusion –both in terms of competition and compatibility—between “new” and “old” media and their political, social, and cultural impacts. In the domain of social and political presence students study and question practices of newsgathering, deontological principles and constraints, media performance under pressure of time, context, profit-making-structures, politics, violence, ethics, and ideologies. The course examines forms and styles of “information,” editorial policies and the variety of notions of “Democratic pluralism” and “freedom of expression” across the French and European Media landscapes. We will try to define, decode, and interpret distinctions between “news,” “commentary,” and “analysis” as they are being treated on the French and European media scenes. The course analyzes what all these may mean, encourage, cultivate, or block in terms of politics, society, culture, and media during “high times” of political turmoil, violent crisis, or social unrest. In the domain of entertainment and “services” offered by the Media, students examine different variations of publishing, broadcasting, and “accompanying” practices over the last 20-30 years. We may attempt a parallel analysis of possible interaction between these two domains (News/Entertainment), following political and ideological lines and some study of the dynamics of change along the ambitions, the strategies and the priorities of the media industries alongside “public demand.”

This course provides a historical overview of the development of political parties in the Western world, and in particular, those of the European Union and Spain. Topics covered include: concepts and origins of political parties; roles of political parties (typologies); organization and structure; party and electorate systems. Note: UCM offers the same course under codes 801266 and 802451.

This course offers an introduction to the theories and debates in policy studies, public policy analysis, comparative politics, international relations, political economy, sociology, and development economics. As such, the course does not aim to provide concrete policy answers in many cases to longstanding policy debates and questions, but instead intellectually guides students to think through these big questions. The overarching goal in this course is to understand why there is no “one size fits all” policy solutions. That means there's no generic solution. But there are some key principles to help find the right policy in the right situation, and history to learn from. The class consists of three modules. Module one focuses on the fundamentals of the politics of the policy process. Here, the course explores the intersection between politics and public policy, the usefulness and criticisms of the policy cycle, the role of official and unofficial actors in the policy-making process, as well as the major theories of the policy process. Module two reviews major factors and causes that account for variation in policy outcomes across countries. Importantly, the course discusses and analyzes the factors that explain variation in public policies across countries and the domestic context of policymaking in both developed and developing countries. Lastly, in module three, the course concludes by empirically reviewing the highly contested topics that animate today’s public debates, such as immigration and citizenship, education, health care, and welfare policies.

The course focuses on the domestic politics of the states of the modern Middle East. It applies the major concepts of political science and adopts a thematic approach to offer a large survey of the region, from North Africa to the Persian Gulf, from World War One to the present day. Topics include colonialism, identity politics, political economy, state institutions, political ideology, democratization and civil society, gender and youth, leadership, and regime change.

This course examines peace bulding and conflict resolution in the 21st century, especially in the Asia-Pacific region. This course considers violence, truce, justice, trauma, peacekeeping, reconciliation, anomie, truth, healing and resolution, with special attention to those situations where peace processes have consistently failed to achieve their goals.