Political Science

This course focuses on public policy and public finance, especially on their basic system and historical and theoretical backgrounds. Through cases of various nation states and international organizations, the course discusses the main issues of public policy and public finance, especially regarding their actors, leadership, resources and strategies.  The course pays special attention to the relationship between nation states and international organizations in terms of public policy coordination and fiscal adjustments. Recent topics such as performance measurement, policy evaluation and performance-based project budgeting are also discussed in the course.

The course introduces students to historical and contemporary debates concerning the nature and characteristics of 'political Islam'. By examining key Islamic thinkers, movements and currents, the course aims to provide intellectual and analytical tools to make better sense of this complex and multifaceted phenomenon, drawing on a variety of disciplines (history, anthropology, sociology, religious studies, international relations) while grounded in a political science approach. The course is divided into three parts. An introductory section devoted to Islamic thinkers, conceptual frameworks and Islamist states. A second section dealing with Islamist movements – charting the evolution of Islamic liberation groups (Hamas and Hizbullah), revolutionary trajectories (Iran) and resistance movements (Islamic movement inside Israel). A third and final section will focus on internal dynamics and global challenges – exploring Islam and democracy, transnational jihadism, sectarian division and the legacy of the Arab Spring. The course rejects simplistic readings of political Islam but instead seeks to provide a dynamic and complex examination of Islamic thinkers, concepts and movements through discursive frames of ideology; state power, democracy, geo-politics and local socio-political realities.    

Combining political history, political law, and political science, this course examines how political life is organized in France, how constitutional texts and institutional practices interact, and how the new and old political worlds relate to each other. Representative democracy is being questioned. Participatory democracy is regenerating it. Referendum-based or even “digital” democracy is being called for. Presidential dominance over the parliamentary majority remains subject to the agreement of both presidential and parliamentary majorities. Rationalized parliamentarianism is increasingly being questioned. In a context of political radicalization, the course considers how Parliament, the majority, and the opposition are organized; why revise the Constitution, why certain failures, why question our institutions again; how Parliament positions itself in relation to random selection, how it deals with climate transition, and what are its ethics. 

This course explores the governance initiatives that are emerging in response to the phenomenon of anthropogenic climate change which, as a truly global problem, implicates and affects all parts of the world and makes these initiatives necessarily more speculative, less established, and more rapidly evolving than most other governance initiatives. The topics and readings for the course foreground the theme of governance and explore the various institutions and techniques that have evolved, or might evolve, to address the phenomenon of climate change.

This course explores the theory and practice of international organizations and global governance. It examines the theory and operations of both established and emerging international organizations. This course also includes guest lectures from practitioners in relevant international organizations.