Political Science

This course focuses on collective, systemic, structural violence, such as mass political violence on the one hand, and sexual and intra-family violence on the other. Using the lenses of the social sciences, it examines how they arise. It then looks at the responses to these issues: penalizing the perpetrators, listening to and providing therapeutic care for the victims, dialogue between the various parties, writing a shared history. In pairs, students carry out a fragment of a collective investigation: observation of a mechanism for protecting victims of collective violence (the National Court of Asylum, in Montreuil), or an interview with experts in sexual and intra-familial response. The social sciences (academic sources, and in particular books and articles based on empirical surveys) are privileged (to the detriment of press articles, blogs, reports from international or national organizations). The course provides an opportunity for familiarization with the way in which the social sciences (political science, history, sociology, anthropology, social psychology) view collective, political, and social violence. It reflects on the responses of experts and societies to such violence, and their limitations, and uses social science empirical survey methodologies (ethnographic observation, semi-directive interviews).

This course is designed to lead students to understand Science and Technology Policy from the public value perspective. This course targets public administration students to explore concepts, theories and practices of science and technology policy into public administration and policy areas. The course provides an integrated and stimulating combination of reading, case analysis, discussion, and projects to introduce the production and communication of science and technology policy.

This course studies the history of the 20th century global movement after World War II, which influenced global politics. Students are expected to examine a historical case of a local movement crossing over to global politics. 

This course offers an overview of Israel's political and social structure from an urban perspective. The course is divided into three main chapters. The first chapter, "Political and Social Foundations in Israel," will deal with the political system in Israel, particularly emphasizing the local government; and with the main social divisions that underlie this system. The second chapter, "The Israeli-Palestinian conflict," will present the history and geography of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict while referring to critical and institutional theories. The third and main chapter, "Cities in Israel," will present an analysis of politics and society in Israel through various cities in Israel, including Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, Be'er Sheva, Acre, Nazareth; and peripheral agricultural areas that include the tension between the kibbutzim and the development towns.

This course provides an overview of the major debates in comparative judicial politics and an introduction to the political science of law and courts, a branch of the discipline known as judicial politics. This is not a course on constitutional adjudication law, and the focus is not on doctrinal analysis or close reading of cases (though cases are discussed to illustrate and examine the topics of the course). Instead, constitutional courts are evaluated as political institutions and judges as political actors. After theorizing judicial review by introducing students to concepts such as the government of judges, juristocracy, and political constitutionalism, specific cases are studied. Topics include: judicial review models across time and space; constraints on judicial power; conflicts between constitutional courts and the other branches of government; decision making within the judicial hierarchy; judicial appointments. The focus of this course is comparative with an emphasis on constitutional courts in advanced democracies; however, courts and legal systems in new democracies and authoritarian regimes are discussed as well.

This course provides a socio-historical approach to studying and analyzing the construction of social policies from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 21st century. It demonstrates how the construction of social policies is the result of a combination of factors that follow one another over time, leading to more or less slow transformations marked mainly by the "administration" of society. With this in mind, the course stresses the importance of the various configurations and coalitions of social and institutional actors (public and private) that succeeded one another over the period; the variability of politico-administrative systems, political regimes, and governance; and the changes in the frame of reference for public action. The challenge is to study both the process of the emergence of these policies (public assistance, social protection, and social insurance) and, more generally, the welfare state, as well as the new forms of political regulation of society (through, for example, the question of the progressive regulation of the state). It also focuses on the different levels of action, from local and municipal to transnational and national. The course also imparts the methodological and conceptual tools needed to carry out original research on these issues.

This course examines the security challenges facing the Pacific Islands and, in particular, Australia’s role in the security of the region. This includes cooperation on transnational crime and counterterrorism; intervention and stabilization; criminal justice assistance; governance capacity-building; natural disaster response; and substantial development assistance. It also considers ways in which Pacific understandings of security differ from Australia’s, and the implications of this for Australia’s engagement with Pacific Island governments, security agencies and societies. It also assesses the outlook over the next decade for security in this strategically important and rapidly changing region.

This course concerns the “Indo-Pacific” space, which has both a geographic and a geostrategic dimension. The course questions these different representations of space, their political use, and the related cooperation policies, at the intersection of military and development issues.

This course gives insight into the making of European policies and their consequences for its citizens. The course uses both a bottom-up and a top-down perspective and focuses on the forces that speed up or slow down European integration, the formal and informal procedures by which European policy is made, and the effects of European decision-making for politics, society, and citizens. The course uses theoretical perspectives from public administration and political science. The knowledge gained from these insights is assessed using a written exam. Special attention is paid to: Brexit; the role of the EU in the financial crisis; the role of the EU in the refugee crisis; euroscepsis; enlargement of the EU and its consequences; what are the formal and informal venues for lobbying? What is the most effective strategy to influence decision-making on this issue? theoretical and practical insights will come together in a paper that you write on a case of lobbying in Europe; a case selected by yourself by either a civil society actor or governmental actor. Questions addressed in the paper include: how does EU decision-making work in this issue area and what is a realistic lobby strategy?

This course provides a comparative introduction to the topic of political authoritarianism. Authoritarianism, understood as non-democratic governance, is one of the main scourges of modern politics. Though there was a wave of democratization following the collapse of the Soviet Union, authoritarianism has persisted in numerous guises, including the semi-authoritarian regimes that have developed in many of the so-called "democratizing" states. In gaining an understanding of contemporary authoritarianism, students will develop a more nuanced appreciation of the variety of different ways in which power can be exercised.