Great Debates 2017-2018
Goal 1: The course will introduce students to several recent major debates in political science both in terms of their substance and in terms of the different standards of empirical evidence used in the debates.
Goal 2: The course will make students aware of the different theoretical and methodological approaches to the academic study of major issues in political science.
Description
This course is centered around three influential “great debates” in political science: cultural identity and international relations, social capital and political participation, and consociational democracy and group conflict. Each debate is introduced by reading a key book on it and is followed up by a discussion of its various aspects through several examples of research on the original debate. Students will learn to understand particular issues from several perspectives, including different theoretical and methodological approaches and themselves apply political science concepts to analyses the issues at hand.
Study Material:
Books and articles: c. 800 pp, titles TBA
Assessment method
A final exam.