Universität Wien

210052 LK BAK7: LK Comparative Political Analysis (2017W)

6.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 21 - Politikwissenschaft
Continuous assessment of course work

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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. 50 participants
Language: English

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

  • Tuesday 10.10. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 1 (H1), NIG 2.Stock
  • Tuesday 17.10. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 1 (H1), NIG 2.Stock
  • Tuesday 24.10. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 1 (H1), NIG 2.Stock
  • Tuesday 31.10. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 1 (H1), NIG 2.Stock
  • Tuesday 07.11. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 1 (H1), NIG 2.Stock
  • Tuesday 14.11. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 1 (H1), NIG 2.Stock
  • Tuesday 21.11. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 1 (H1), NIG 2.Stock
  • Tuesday 28.11. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 1 (H1), NIG 2.Stock
  • Tuesday 05.12. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 1 (H1), NIG 2.Stock
  • Tuesday 12.12. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 1 (H1), NIG 2.Stock
  • Tuesday 09.01. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 1 (H1), NIG 2.Stock
  • Tuesday 16.01. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 1 (H1), NIG 2.Stock
  • Tuesday 23.01. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 1 (H1), NIG 2.Stock
  • Tuesday 30.01. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 1 (H1), NIG 2.Stock

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

The course language is English! This means that class discussions, all weekly assignments and the term paper must be completed in English.

Goals: This course provides an introduction into comparative politics. A central goal is to introduce students to basic theoretical and empirical concepts of comparative politics, as well as to tackle concrete research examples from top scientific articles. Students are expected to learn how to read efficiently scientific literature, practice the usage of central concepts and arguments in discussions and exercise scientific writing.

Method: A central aspect of this course is a thorough reading of the selected literature, its discussion in class and scientific writing.

Contents: The course deals with various selected topics from comparative politics including:

- Empirical Research
- Elections & Electoral Systems
- Parties & Party Systems
- Voting Behavior
- Parliaments & Legislation
- Governments & Policy-Making
- Legislative Politics in Parliamentary Systems
- Constitutions & Constitutional Courts
- Supranational Institutions

Assessment and permitted materials

Requirements and Grading:
Students are required to attend all meetings. It is allowed to miss up to maximum 2 classes unexcused, whereby students need to attend the first session. Students are expected to complete the assigned readings (1 scientific article and 1 chapter from Caramani (2017)) each week and be ready for class discussions. This means that class participants should be prepared to summarize and discuss any required reading when called upon.

Grading of the course will be based on the following three components:
- 1) 15% - Class attendance and participation in class discussions. In addition to active participation in class discussions, students are expected to generate at least three questions suitable for class discussion. The questions should be based on their reading of the scientific articles and all required chapters from Powner (2015) and are due every Monday by 13:00 o’clock.
- 2) 40 % - Timely submission of the weekly assignments: 9 summaries of the required scientific articles (min 400 and max 600 words, due every Monday by 13:00 o’clock via Moodle) and written feedback on 2 draft papers by peers. The exact deadline for the feedback on draft papers will be communicated in the first session.
- 3) 45 (%) - Timely submission of a term paper (min. 3000, max. 4000 words). The term paper should pose a research question embedded in the scientific literature, develop theoretical expectations (testable hypotheses) and propose a research design to test the theoretical expectations. Class participants are NOT required to gather data and analyze it. In essence, the term paper should include title page, an introduction, literature review, theory, a research design, conclusions and references and is practically a half of a standard scientific article. Students are expected to work on the term paper throughout the whole semester and deliver their written progress in three stages ( 1. research topic, 2. research question, and 3. draft paper) on the set deadlines. The exact deadlines for the working progress and the final deadline for the term paper will be communicated in the first class session.

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

The minimum requirement is the completion of each of the three class components. This means that students can NOT master the first two components (class participation and weekly assignments), which make up 60% of the final grade and decide not write the term paper or vice versa. The rule is that, in order to be graded, students can miss up to 2 classes unexcused, have to submit 9 summaries and the term paper on the set deadlines. Submissions later than the final deadline will not be accepted (exceptions will be made only for reasonable grounds – e.g. sickness).

Each component (participation, weekly assignments and term paper) will be graded separately. The overall grade will be the weighted average of the grades from the three components ( 15% participation, 40 % weekly assignments, 45 % term paper), whereby it is not necessary that each of the components is successful. In order words, students are allowed to fail any of the three components, and can still pass the class as long as the overall grade is equal or above 4.0.

Plagiarism and Ghostwriting are strictly forbidden. To make sure that these rules are not violated in some occasions students will be required to provide an oral discussion of their written work.

Examination topics

Required Literature

Reading list

The assigned readings present an introduction into the session topic. There are two texts per session. Two sessions will cover chapters from the Powner (2015) book on empirical research and writing. The remaining class sessions will cover one text that gives an overview of the main concepts and one scientific article. For the overview text we will mostly use chapters from the Caramani (2017) lecture book. The second text will be an article from a top political science journal (e.g. American Journal of Political Science) with an interesting research question, research design and findings. The purpose of the second text is to give a concrete example from scientific research and deepen the general understanding of the topic. All scientific articles are accessible online via the university library. Please note that due to copyright reasons there is no Reader for this course.

Books:
Caramani, D. (2017) Comparative Politics, 4th Edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Powner, L. (2015) Empirical Research and Writing. A Political Science Student’s Practical Guide, Los Angeles: CQ Press.

Scientific Articles (order by session)

Week 1: 10.10 - Introduction & Plan
No readings

Week 2: 17.10 - Empirical Research I: Research Questions and Hypotheses
Powner (2015) Chapter 1 & 2 (see for more info the references for lecture books above)

Week 3: 24.10 - Empirical Research II: Literature Review and Research Design
Powner (2015) Chapter 3 & 4 (see for more info the references for lecture books above)

Week 4 - 31.10: Comparative Politics Overview
- Corresponding chapter from Caramani (2017)
- Tsebelis, T. (1999) Veto Players and Law Production in Parliamentary Democracies: An Empirical Analysis, The American Political Science Review, 93(3): 591-608.

Week 5 - 07.11: Electoral Systems
- Corresponding chapter from Caramani (2017)
- Chang, E., and M. Golden (2007) Electoral systems, district magnitude and corruption, British Journal of Political Science, 37(01): 115-137.

Week 6 - 14.11: Parties and Party Systems
- Corresponding chapter from Caramani (2017)
- Tavits, M. (2008) Party systems in the making: The emergence and success of new parties in new democracies, British Journal of Political Science, 38(01): 113-133.

Week 7: 21.11 - Voting Behavior
- Kedar, O. (2005) When Moderate Voters Prefer Extreme Parties: Policy Balancing in Parliamentary Elections, American Political Science Review, 99(2): 185-200.

Week 8: 28.11 Legislatures
- Corresponding chapter from Caramani (2017)
- McCubbins, M. and T. Schwartz (1984) Congressional Oversight Overlooked: Police Patrols versus Fire Alarms, American Journal of Political Science, 28(1): 165-179.

Week 9: 5.12 - Research Question Discussion I
Week 10: 12.12 - Research Question Discussion II

17.12.2017-02.01.2018 - Winter Holidays

Week 11: 09.01 - Government Types
- Corresponding chapter from Caramani (2017)
- Thies, M. (2001) Keeping Tabs on Partners: The Logic of Delegation in Coalition Governments, American Journal of Political Science, 45(3): 580-598.

Week 12: 16.01 - Legislative Politics in Parliamentary Systems
-Martin, L. W., and G. Vanberg (2014). Parties and policymaking in multiparty governments: The legislative median, ministerial autonomy, and the coalition compromise, American Journal of Political Science, 58(4): 979-996.

Week 13: 23.01 - Courts
- Corresponding chapter from Caramani (2017)
- Carrubba, C., M. Gabel, and C. Hankla (2008) Judicial behavior under political constraints: Evidence from the European Court of Justice, American Political Science Review, 102(04): 435-452.

Week 14: 30.01 - Supranational Institutions
- Corresponding chapter from Caramani (2017)
- Hix, S. (2002) Parliamentary behavior with two principals: Preferences, parties, and voting in the European Parliament, American Journal of Political Science, 46(3): 688-698.

*** Note that the required readings for some sessions might change.

Association in the course directory

Last modified: Mo 07.09.2020 15:38