Political Science

Comparative politics aims to explain differences between and similarities among countries and utilizes comparison as a tool for social science research to understand broader trends in world politics.  The course draws from both theoretical work and country and regional case studies that cover both advanced industrialized and developing world states. The core question comparative politics ask is "why politics is different across countries"?  Questions explored in this course include: What explains democratization? Are countries with prime ministers more stable than ones in which the president heads the executive branch? Why do some countries have extensive welfare states while others do not? Are multi-ethnic societies more or less prone to civil wars? Why are some countries poorer than others?

This course analyses domestic and global forces influencing Africa’s development, changing global power structure, and development strategies and trends in Africa.

This course asks the question how Japan's role in the world changed between 1945 and 2018. A particular focus of the course is on developments over the past two decades; foreign policy factors at home and abroad, and future prospects for relations with Europe, China, South Korea, ASEAN, and Australia. It introduces the current state of these bilateral and multilateral relations, as well as core foreign policies such as security, trade, development,  and human security.
 

The course invites speakers each week from a different disciplines in the field of the social sciences and humanities to talk about new challenges we are facing in our ever-changing world. Students learn about empirical solutions, practices, and policies in responding to these challenges. Discussions also include opportunities for interactive learning.

This course provides a study of the principal characteristics of present-day international society and the effects of its structure and inner tensions in the creation and application of public international law. It critically examines the foundations of the international legal system, as well as the interactions between the international and national regulatory spheres and the legal consequences of including public international law in the Spanish legal system.

This course provides a systematic examination of the policy process in the context of developed nations and the key theories and models in the study of public policy. The course encourages a critical appreciation of the main trends in contemporary public policy-making. Students look at the different stages of the "policy cycle" such as agenda-setting, implementation and evaluation. Students study the determinants of public policy such as public opinion, political parties, and technology as well as central themes in the study and practice of public policy, such as corruption and risk management.

This course gives a broad understanding of European politics. The course is organized thematically, covering issues such as federalism and devolution, the executive and legislature, political parties, elections and voting systems, the media, civil society, and race and ethnicity. Particular attention is paid to the comparative study of different European countries across these issue areas. The final four weeks of the course are devoted to group presentations on some of the major contemporary issues in European politics, with topics to be agreed between the instructor and students (possible topics may include immigration, the Greece crisis, Brexit, the rise of the far right, other topics may be suggested by the instructor or students).