COMPARATIVE POLITICS

The course aims at providing a structured knowledge of the conflicts, actors, institutions, and processes that affect contemporary politics. As a result, the course aims at another important goal: forming students provided with an autonomous capacity of understanding the contemporary political dynamics. The course aims at combining theoretical analysis with the use of empirical data in order to understand and compare European political systems. The course is based on a direct connection with the activity of the CISE (Italian Centre for Electoral Studies).

There are no formal prerequisites; however, a good knowledge of concepts and methods of political science, as well as a basic knowledge of history, sociology, and statistics will ease the learning process during the course and the interaction between students and the instructor.

Knowledge and understanding: students will develop a structured knowledge of the main tools of comparative method as well as the conflicts, actors, institutions, and processes that affect contemporary politics. Applying knowledge and understanding: students will be provided the tools to be critical, competent and informed users of theories and techniques of comparison, with specific regard to political systems. Making judgements: students will be able to autonomously understand the contemporary political dynamics. Communication skills: through in-class presentations of empirical scientific articles, students will learn how to convey data and other empirical evidence emerging from the comparative analysis to an audience, both possessing technical skills or not. Learning skills: the student will be able to write articles and research reports that use data, and conduct comparative research on conflicts, actors, institutions, and processes of contemporary politics.

The course analyses the conflicts, actors, institutions, and processes that affect contemporary politics. The topic is confronted through a recognition of the international (and Italian) literature in a comparative perspective, with specific regard to post-War War II Western Europe. All the theoretical perspectives are presented together with actual data and examples taken from empirical analyses, and discussed interactively with students, by referring to Italy or other European countries. The course consists of two parts. The the first part is dedicated to studying some key topics in the current debate among comparative politics scholars: 1) the decline of social cleavages; 2) the role of territory and the vote nationalization process; 3) political parties and their organizational transformations; 4) the role of the institutional context and specifically electoral systems as constraints of political actors’ strategies and choices; 5) the process of personalization of politics; 6) the process of globalization and the emergence of new conflicts; 7) the crisis of ‘party government’ and the challenges to contemporary democracies (populism and technocracy) The second part of the course is a monographic study on party system change in Western Europe and specifically on the process of party system deinstitutionalization, its causes and consequences on the quality of democracy.

The first part of the course is not based on a textbook but, in each week, students are required to study scientific articles and book chapters (in Italian or English) provided by the instructor. The second part of the course is based on the following book: Chiaramonte, A. and Emanuele, V. (2022), The deinstitutionalization of Western European party systems, London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Lectures; Presentations by the students of scientific articles; Discussion and debate on the topics of the course.

Active class participation (10%) In-class individual presentation of a scientific article (20%); Written in itinere exam (20%) Production of a short paper (2000 words minimum, 3000 words maximum) based on a review of the literature on a topic of the course (20%). Final oral exam (30%); If a student does not perform the in-class individual presentation, the final oral exam will constitute 50% of the final mark. If a student does not sit the in itinere written exam, the final oral exam will constitute 50% of the final mark. If a student does not perform the in-class individual presentation and does not sit the in itinere written exam, the final oral exam will constitute 70% of the final mark. The mark of the presentation in class and the intermediate written examination are always valid, even beyond the summer exam period. Class attendance is mandatory and constitutes part of the final mark. Class attendance will be recorded in class via the Luiss app.

30/30 grade. Positive assessment of the thesis project.

Yes