Political Science

This course introduces Soviet and post-Soviet politics and external policies, with a special emphasis on domestic developments in Russia and Ukraine, and the impact on Moscow's foreign behavior. The key paradigm is the close interaction between internal and external factors. The course addresses the building and unbuilding of an empire: from the Tsarist empire to the USSR; the fall of the USSR to the consolidation of new independent republics in Europe; Gorbachev and Yeltsin's reforms to Putin's authoritarianism; and partnership to confrontation with Western countries. Topics also include Russia's wars: Chechnya, Georgia, Syria, and Ukraine; the major issues of democracy versus autocracy; Russian post-Soviet identity; European security; economic challenges; Russia-West relations; and the future of Ukraine and Russia. 

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale program. The course is intended for advanced level students only. Enrollment is by consent of the instructor. The course carries out a comparative study regarding the main current European legal systems. In particular the focus is on civil law and common law in order to reconstruct the origins of a common legal culture with particular reference to private law and specifically to the law of obligations and contracts. In this context, the course investigates the persistence of rules and principles of roman law in the present system, working backward in search of the common legal bases that are the basis of the unification of the private projects in contemporary law. The aim of the course is to provide knowledge of European legal traditions, their origin in Roman and Medieval law and their subsequent development in two distinct areas: common law and civil law. At the end of the course, students are able to: understand the basis of the European legal tradition and distinguish it from that of other regions; know the origins of contracts and their differences in various national contexts.

This course provides a political economy perspective on the rapidly changing economy and society in contemporary China. The course focuses on the discussion how political, economic, and social forces shape socialism with Chinese characteristics. Lecture topics include the lexicon of China's political economy, population and China's power, the significance of administrative jurisdiction economy, transformation of economic development models, mobility system and citizenship, political economy concerns of urbanization, government finance and the case of infrastructure financing, inequality under welfare regime transformation, and how we understand the real China. Basic readings: Janos Kornai, THE SOCIALIST SYSTEM: THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF COMMUNISM; Terry Cannon and Alan Jenkins, eds., THE GEOGRAPHY OF CONTEMPORARY CHINA: THE IMPACT OF DENG XIAOPING'S DECADE; Barry Naughton, GROWING OUT OF THE PLAN: CHINESE ECONOMIC REFORM 1978-1993; John R. Logan, THE NEW CHINESE CITY: GLOBALIZATION AND MARKET REFORM. 

This interdisciplinary course provides a comprehensive introduction to energy security, touching upon economic markets, political strategy, and even technological developments. It introduces global trends in energy supply and demand, exchanges, and prices. It provides an overview of the diversity of measures taken to promote energy security, with a specific emphasis on the European Union and member states. Finally, the course considers scenarios for the future in the context of calls for an energy transition.