1. To understand the prevailing patterns of political system transformation in the world, with an emphasis on recent transformations.
2. To appreciate the complexity of relationships between political system, socioeconomic structure, and institutions.
3. To gain a critical awareness of the uses of scores and rankings in the evaluation of democracy and legitimacy.
4. To fully understand the distinction between transition to democracy and democratic consolidation.
5. To gain an awareness of and ability to assess critically the theoretical and methodological debates in comparative political science and international relations.
6. To develop an understanding of key Social Science concepts and theories and acquire research skills to enable critical evaluation of the reliability, validity and efficacy of information, opinions and arguments.
7. To provide an understanding of and practice in oral and written communication skills.

The course content will be drawn from but not restricted to:
1. Discussion of key concepts such as "regime change", "the state", democratization, consolidation, bureaucratic authoritarianism, legitimacy, civil society.
2. Conceptual understanding of regime change theories: modernization, transition theory, structural approaches .
3. Case studies of instances of regime change, especially in Southern Europe, Eastern Europe, Latin America, Asia, Africa.
4. Consolidation problems and military coups.
5. Impacts of economic change, insurgency movements, populism.

Not applicable.

None needed

0

10 units in Politics at 1000 level or equivalent

Internal Mode

Lecture
Tutorial

Tutorial: for 1 hour(s) per Week for Full Term
Lecture: for 2 hour(s) per Week for Full Term