Political Science

The course introduces and defines the field of transitional justice. It looks into its historical evolution and address the rationales underlying it. The introduction furthermore includes an overview of the main mechanisms/components that can be part of the process of transitional justice and how they are interrelated. The course subsequently addresses several of these transitional justice mechanisms and this analysis predominantly focuses on the perspectives of the victims. Victims (and survivors) are not only a group, but also individual human beings and their wishes and interests in the aftermath of large scale conflict can be very diverse and even contradict the wishes of other victims or the group as such. In this context specific attention is given to the impact of violent conflict on women and children. Throughout the course critical attention is paid to the following justice mechanisms: apologies and forgiveness, memorialization and commemoration, truth telling and truth commissions, pardons and amnesties, compensation, restoration, restitution, international and regional criminal courts and tribunals, lustration, and vetting. The analysis concludes with a discussion of the various justice mechanisms and their potential to contribute to (or jeopardize) sustainable peace. In addition to issues such as justice and reconciliation, other matters are also significant in post-conflict societies as they greatly affect the consolidation of peace and stability. Justice and reconciliation only form one pillar of reconstruction, but also in other areas constructive action is required. Such other areas of concern include, for instance, security, wellbeing, and governance. The course therefore looks into the process of reconstruction and discusses which actions are required in order to move from the precarious early stages of post conflict transition to a more sustainable situation which allows for the consolidation of peace and stability. Case studies play an important role throughout the course and therefore a wide variety of cases are covered including The Holocaust and other cases of genocide (Armenia, Australia, Cambodia, Rwanda, Srebrenica, Darfur, etc.). Although cases of genocide play an important role in this course, the case load is certainly not limited to genocide and other violent conflicts in Chili, Argentina, Guatemala, Indonesia, East Timor, Iraq, Syria, Congo, Central African Republic, are addressed, along with the torture practices of the U.S.

This course studies how American institutions, and more generally Western institutions, adapt to the rise of alternative forms of government that challenge the doctrines of globalization as we have known them to be since the end of the World War II. The course covers the following topics: the election of Donald Trump in the United States as part of the institutional history of that country; the election of Donald Trump as a departure from the status quo; the reaction of opposition forces; the message that the Constitution and the spirit of the Founding fathers tells us about how America society can adapt to this political break. The course measures how the constitutional texts combine flexibility and rigidity to keep democracy alive.

In this course students are introduced to some of the great works in the canon of western political philosophy. On the basis of selections of the primary texts from Machiavelli to Marx, supported by a modest amount of secondary literature, students survey some of the lasting justifications of political institutions in the western tradition, as well as important contributions to the analysis of political concepts such as legitimacy, freedom, and justice. During the seminars emphasis is placed on conceptual analysis and the interpretation of texts.

This course offers an overview of the history and politics of political regimes. It is divided into three sections: political regimes in the history of humanity; current political regimes; dynamics of political regimes. The first part discusses historical regimes from clans and tribes of antiquity through perestroika in the U.S.S.R. in the 1980s and 90s. The second part delves into types of current political regimes including parliamentary systems, presidential systems, monarchy, and military dictatorships. The third part explores the issues and changes that occur in political regimes including legitimacy, natural resources, transitions to democracy, and revolutionary processes.

This course equips students with the tools to analyze the communication of political messages, thereby enhancing their understanding of how verbal and non-verbal forms of language shape and reproduce power relationships. Students apply the tool kit to a range of actors involved in the communication of political ideas (such as politicians, news outlets, and artists) as well as a range of communication methods (such as speeches, TV, photographs, and music).

This course surveys political theories from classical to contemporary times. Students discuss a wide array of works about the individual and community by philosophers from Plato to Foucault and relate them to contemporary situations. The emphasis of the course is on how the ideas and theories of these philosophers haven shaped history, especially French history.