Political Science

States spend a great deal of time and effort justifying their actions with law, yet international relations scholars have often doubted international law's ability to shape state behavior. This course examines this paradox by introducing the major debates about the politics of international law. These perspectives are applied to the history of international organizations and (legal) order since 1919, including the development of collective security and humanitarianism at the League of Nations and United Nations., particularly since the creation of the United Nations in 1945.

This course provides an overview of the British political system in theory and in practice. Students learn about the key British institutional structures such as the Prime Minister and Cabinet, the Civil Service, and Parliament. They learn about key areas of change: the development of devolution, nationalist movements, and parliamentary reform. The course provides an insight into the party and electoral systems. It also considers how the British political system relates with the outside world, including the aftermath of the vote to leave the European Union of June 2016. Students combine empirical study with the application of a variety of theoretical approaches.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale program. Enrollment is by consent of the instructor. The course is intended for students who have a strong background in political science. The course focuses on political communication with emphasis on the relationship between political systems and media systems, political language, political marketing, new media and politics, and media and populism. Special attention is placed on the strategies of effective political communication used in political campaigns both in Europe and the U.S. and the role of mass media in the public sphere and its effects on public opinion. The course also an analysis of the principal forms of online political communication. Required readings include: COMUNICAZIONE POLITICA: LE NUOVE FRONTIERE by D. Campus, MEDIATIZATION OF POLITICS: A CHALLENGE FOR DEMOCRACY? By G. Mazzoleni and W. Schultz. The course includes lectures and a series of guest speakers. Assessment is based on a written exam that includes multiple choice and essay questions.

This course provides an introduction to the statistical and econometric theory underlying surveys and counterfactual policy evaluations. Doing so, it sharpens critical appraisal of the very many surveys and policy evaluations found in public discourse, as data-driven evaluations of public policies are becoming commonly used to help societies choose how to organize unemployment insurance, the provisions of health care and education, etc. This course uses mathematical notation and proofs and engages with mathematically formalized material.

In this course, students consider the democratic process and address the central question of why electors behave the way they do. The course provides students with an analysis of the nature of British and American psephological trends to help them understand national and comparative theories about voting behavior. This involves the exploration of models of voting behavior, and the analysis of the impact of contextual factors such as the existing democratic culture and election campaigning. Students work to achieve an understanding of modern psephology. They analyze the impact of social cleavages - such as class, geography, ethnicity, gender, and age - upon electoral behavior. They also learn to assess the utility of social psychological and issue-based approaches to voting behavior. Students scrutinize the structural impact of the electoral environment, including the media, the established rules of the game, campaigning, polling, and party organizations, and consider how all these factors shape our political landscape.