Universität Wien

150086 SE Political Systems in East Asia (2016W)

7.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 15 - Ostasienwissenschaften
Continuous assessment of course work
Moodle

Registration/Deregistration

Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Details

max. 25 participants
Language: English

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

  • Tuesday 04.10. 17:15 - 18:45 Seminarraum Ostasienwissenschaften 1 UniCampus Hof 5 2I-O1-05
  • Tuesday 11.10. 17:15 - 18:45 Seminarraum Ostasienwissenschaften 1 UniCampus Hof 5 2I-O1-05
  • Tuesday 18.10. 17:15 - 18:45 Seminarraum Ostasienwissenschaften 1 UniCampus Hof 5 2I-O1-05
  • Tuesday 25.10. 17:15 - 18:45 Seminarraum Ostasienwissenschaften 1 UniCampus Hof 5 2I-O1-05
  • Tuesday 08.11. 17:15 - 18:45 Seminarraum Ostasienwissenschaften 1 UniCampus Hof 5 2I-O1-05
  • Tuesday 15.11. 17:15 - 18:45 Seminarraum Ostasienwissenschaften 1 UniCampus Hof 5 2I-O1-05
  • Tuesday 22.11. 17:15 - 18:45 Seminarraum Ostasienwissenschaften 1 UniCampus Hof 5 2I-O1-05
  • Tuesday 29.11. 17:15 - 18:45 Seminarraum Ostasienwissenschaften 1 UniCampus Hof 5 2I-O1-05
  • Tuesday 06.12. 17:15 - 18:45 Seminarraum Ostasienwissenschaften 1 UniCampus Hof 5 2I-O1-05
  • Tuesday 13.12. 17:15 - 18:45 Seminarraum Ostasienwissenschaften 1 UniCampus Hof 5 2I-O1-05
  • Tuesday 10.01. 17:15 - 18:45 Seminarraum Ostasienwissenschaften 1 UniCampus Hof 5 2I-O1-05
  • Tuesday 17.01. 17:15 - 18:45 Seminarraum Ostasienwissenschaften 1 UniCampus Hof 5 2I-O1-05
  • Tuesday 24.01. 17:15 - 18:45 Seminarraum Ostasienwissenschaften 1 UniCampus Hof 5 2I-O1-05
  • Tuesday 31.01. 17:15 - 18:45 Seminarraum Ostasienwissenschaften 1 UniCampus Hof 5 2I-O1-05

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

East Asia (North and Southeast Asia) encompasses a broad variety of political systems: While, e.g. Japan, South Korea and Indonesia, are democratic, some, e.g. China and Vietnam, are authoritarian, and others are mixed (semi-authoritarian or semi-democratic), e.g. Singapore and Cambodia. Applying theoretical approaches from the field of comparative politics and governance research, this seminar will analyze the East Asian political systems. It will emphasize differences and similarities of the political systems and ask whether there exists a specific Northeast, Southeast or even East Asian "model". A crucial step for this endeavor is to classify the political systems according to ideal-typical criteria (e.g. democracy, authoritarian system, parliamentary republic ...). Subsequently, various aspects of a political system, i.e. party, electoral, judicial or media system, will be defined.
Therefore, in the first four units, students will read and discuss texts in order to select common methods and criteria to analyze a political system. Subsequently, they will apply this criteria on a specific East Asian country of their choice, forming a group with 2-3 other students. From week 5 on, the groups will present their findings in class (60-70 minutes). In the last unit, we will compare the similarities and differences of the various political systems.
Learning aims: (1) Students will acquire a deeper knowledge of methods and criteria for analyzing a political system. (2) They learn how to apply these methods on a concrete case study. (3) Students can highlight specific and common features of various political Systems in East Asia.

Assessment and permitted materials

Reading and commenting four texts (600-900 words), incl. participation in class (20%); group presentation on the political system of one East Asian country (c. 60-70 minutes; 20%); and a seminar paper 9.000 words (excl. bibliography; due 15 April 2017, no extension possible; 60%).

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

The aim of this course is to draw a comprehensive picture of the political systems in Northeast and Southeast Asia in order to make sound comparisons. Therefore the analysis will focus on the three dimensions polity (institutions and norms, e.g. constitution, government, parliament, electoral system or political culture), policy (political content and governance, e.g. economic, agriculture or defense policy) and politics (formal and informal bargaining processes among actors, e.g. political parties, trade unions, lobbying groups). These categories will be further specified during the first four weeks of this seminar.

Examination topics

This is a text based course. Accordingly, students need to read and comment up to four texts. Based on the review of seminal articles, we will build a common research framework in class to assess the individual political systems. Students will then form groups to apply this research design on specific political systems. They can choose any East Asian country for their analysis. For their individual seminar paper, students need to focus on one or two specific aspects of one or two East Asian political systems.

Reading list

A complete literature list will be available on Moodle.

Association in the course directory

WM3a

Last modified: Tu 14.01.2025 00:16