Postgraduate course
2024/2025
Current Trends in Political Science
Type:
Compulsory course
Area of studies:
Postgraduate Studies
Delivered by:
School of Politics and Governance
When:
2 year, 1 semester
Mode of studies:
offline
Open to:
students of all HSE University campuses
Language:
English
ECTS credits:
2
Course Syllabus
Abstract
The program of the course builds up the minimum requirements to the knowledge and skills of an PhD student and determines the content and types of classes and assessment. The program is designed for teachers of this discipline, learning assistants and students of political science PhD programs. The program is developed according to: (1) Educational Program «Political science», (2) University Academic Plan of NRU HSE for PhD level education. The course is delivered to the first year PhD students, as a part of their professional development. The course is mandatory. The course is closely tied to the following disciplines: (1) Research Seminar, (2) Writing PhD dissertation.
Learning Objectives
- The course explores current tendencies, topical issues and prospective advances in political science.
- The course concentrates on recent achievements and results of political research that are particularly significant for the academic agenda and ongoing research of political science community of the National Research University “Higher School of Economics”.
- The course also exposes critical junctures of contemporary political research and challenges that haunt present-day political science.
- The course encourages PhD students to read and interpret current achievements in political studies, particularly those that are topical for their own research and provide PhD students with pioneering guidance.
Expected Learning Outcomes
- Be able to develop coherent and persuasive argumentation in their own academic work
- Be able to interpret texts of political investigations, their context and prospects of further development
- Be able to use novel ideas and research results in one’s own studies; to use appropriate research principles, designs and framework in one’s own dissertation research
- Gain experience in analysis of the texts of political investigations, writing their summaries and critical apprisals
- Gain experience in professional use of achievements of alternative scholarly trends and traditions
- Know specific achievements and publications that are recognized in the world-wide political science community
- Know the core of ideas and scientific results that shape the present profile of political science and some of its trends and subdisciplines
- Know the main breakthroughs and advancements in the current political science research
Course Contents
- 1. Key issues of advancement of political science. Political studies as art and science. Restraints of political studies as controls and resource.
- 2. The state as a matter of political studies: theoretical and empirical discussions
- 3. Regime change/dynamics in the contemporary world
- 4. Comparative Federalism
- 5. Studies of ideational aspects of political processes: concepts and approaches
- 6. Discussions on Modernity / Postmodernity
- 7. Political parties and elections: the Russian Case in a Comparative Perspective
- 8. The Political Economy of Nondemocratic Regimes
- 9. The political process at subnational level
- 10. Sociocultural Factors of Political Behavior
- 11.Political studies of state governance
- 12. Political Science and Foreign Policy
Bibliography
Recommended Core Bibliography
- Andreas Gofas, & Colin Hay. (2010). The Role of Ideas in Political Analysis : A Portrait of Contemporary Debates. Routledge.
- Bonvecchi, A., & Lodola, G. (2011). The Dual Logic of Intergovernmental Transfers: Presidents, Governors, and the Politics of Coalition-Building in Argentina. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsbas&AN=edsbas.ABC70BEE
- Burgess, M. (2006). Comparative Federalism : Theory and Practice. London: Routledge. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=171008
- Carothers, T. (2002). The End of the Transition Paradigm. Journal of Democracy, 13(1), 5. https://doi.org/10.1353/jod.2002.0003
- Gandhi, J. (2008). Political Institutions Under Dictatorship. Cambridge University Press.
- Guriev, S., & Treisman, D. (2019). Informational Autocrats†. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 33(4), 100–127. https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.33.4.100
- Hofstede, G., & Minkov, M. (2010). Long- versus short-term orientation: new perspectives. Asia Pacific Business Review, 16(4), 493–504. https://doi.org/10.1080/13602381003637609
- Jennifer Gandhi, & Adam Przeworski. (2007). Authoritarian Institutions and the Survival of Autocrats. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsbas&AN=edsbas.FE0C6FB1
- King, G., Pan, J., & Roberts, M. E. (2013). How Censorship in China Allows Government Criticism but Silences Collective Expression. American Political Science Review, 2, 326.
- Levitsky, S., & Way, L. (2010). Competitive Authoritarianism : Hybrid Regimes After the Cold War. Cambridge University Press.
- Levitsky, S., & Way, L. A. (2002). The Rise of Competitive Authoritarianism. Journal of Democracy, 13(2), 51. https://doi.org/10.1353/jod.2002.0026
- Linz, J. J., & Stepan, A. (1996). Toward Consolidated Democracies. Journal of Democracy, 7(2), 14–33. https://doi.org/10.1353/jod.1996.0031
- Michael Freeden. (2003). Ideology: A Very Short Introduction. OUP Oxford.
- O’Donnell, G. (1996). Illusions about Consolidation. Journal of Democracy, 7(2), 34–51. https://doi.org/10.1353/jod.1996.0034
- Rozenas, A., & Stukal, D. (2019). How Autocrats Manipulate Economic News: Evidence from Russia’s State-Controlled Television. Journal of Politics, 81(3), 982–996. https://doi.org/10.1086/703208
- Sidney Tarrow. (2015). War, States, and Contention : A Comparative Historical Study. Cornell University Press.
- Skocpol, T., Rueschemeyer, D., Evans, P. B., Joint Committee on Western Europe, Joint Committee on Latin American Studies, & Social Science Research Council (U.S.). (1985). Bringing the State Back In. Cambridge University Press.
- Smyth, R., & Turovsky, R. (2018). Legitimising Victories: Electoral Authoritarian Control in Russia’s Gubernatorial Elections. Europe-Asia Studies, 70(2), 182–201. https://doi.org/10.1080/09668136.2018.1436697
- Strange, S. (1996). The Retreat of the State : The Diffusion of Power in the World Economy. Cambridge University Press.
- Svolik, M. W. (2012). The Politics of Authoritarian Rule. Cambridge University Press.
- Taagepera, R. (2008). Making Social Sciences More Scientific : The Need for Predictive Models. Oxford: OUP Oxford. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=259567
- Taagepera, R. (2018). Science walks on two legs, but social sciences try to hop on one.
- Tanisha M. Fazal. (2011). State Death : The Politics and Geography of Conquest, Occupation, and Annexation. Princeton University Press.
- Wintrobe, R. (1990). The Tinpot and the Totalitarian: An Economic Theory of Dictatorship. American Political Science Review, 3, 849.
Recommended Additional Bibliography
- Acemoglu, D., & Robinson, J. A. (2006). Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy. Cambridge University Press.
- Andreas Schedler. (2013). The Politics of Uncertainty : Sustaining and Subverting Electoral Authoritarianism: Vol. 1st ed. OUP Oxford.
- Blaydes, L. (2011). Elections and Distributive Politics in Mubarak’s Egypt. Cambridge University Press.
- Brownlee, J. (2007). Authoritarianism in an Age of Democratization. Cambridge University Press.
- Bruce Bueno De Mesquita, Alastair Smith, Randolph M. Siverson, & James D. Morrow. (2003). The Logic of Political Survival. The MIT Press.
- Coleman, S. (2005). Testing Theories with Qualitative and Quantitative Predictions. MPRA Paper.
- Colomer, J. M. (2004). Political Science is Going Ahead (By Convoluted Ways). https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049096504045160
- Colomer, J. M. (2011). The Science of Politics. An Introduction. Oxford University Press.
- Daron Acemoglu, & James A. Robinson. (2019). The Narrow Corridor : States, Societies, and the Fate of Liberty. Penguin Books.
- Egorov, G., Guriev, S., & Sonin, K. (2009). Why Resource-poor Dictators Allow Freer Media: A Theory and Evidence from Panel Data. American Political Science Review, 4, 645.
- Freeden, M. (2018). The coming realignment of ideology studies. Journal of Political Ideologies ; Volume 24, Issue 1, Page 1-10 ; ISSN 1356-9317 1469-9613. https://doi.org/10.1080/13569317.2019.1555899
- Frye, T., Reuter, O. J., & Szakonyi, D. (2012). Political Machines at Work: Voter Mobilization and Electoral Subversion in the Workplace. Conference Papers —— American Political Science Association, 1–56.
- G. Tullock. (2012). Autocracy. Springer.
- Gill, G. (2018). Political Symbols and Regime Change: The Russian Experience. Politics, Religion & Ideology, 19(4), 494–509. https://doi.org/10.1080/21567689.2018.1537615
- Grofman, B. (2007). toward a science of politics? European Political Science, 6(2), 143–155. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.eps.2210123
- Ivan S. Grigoriev, & Kirill Zhirkov. (2020). Do political connections make businesspeople richer? Evidence from Russia, 2003–2010. Research & Politics, 7. https://doi.org/10.1177/2053168020979434
- Josep M. Colomer. (2007). What other sciences look like. Economics Working Papers.
- Lamberova, N., & Sonin, K. (2018). Economic transition and the rise of alternative institutions. Economics of Transition, 26(4), 615–648. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecot.12167
- Lucan Way. (2015). Pluralism by Default : Weak Autocrats and the Rise of Competitive Politics. Johns Hopkins University Press.
- Margaret E. Roberts. (2018). Censored : Distraction and Diversion Inside China’s Great Firewall. Princeton University Press.
- Michael Freeden, Lyman Tower Sargent, & Marc Stears. (2013). The Oxford Handbook of Political Ideologies. OUP Oxford.
- Pepinsky, T. (2014). The Institutional Turn in Comparative Authoritarianism. British Journal of Political Science, (03), 631. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsrep&AN=edsrep.a.cup.bjposi.v44y2014i03p631.653.00
- Peter Lorentzen. (2014). China’s Strategic Censorship. American Journal of Political Science, (2), 402. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12065
- Robert A. Dahl. (2020). On Democracy. Yale University Press.
- Rundlett, A., & Svolik, M. W. (2016). Deliver the Vote! Micromotives and Macrobehavior in Electoral Fraud. American Political Science Review, 1, 180.
- Schmitter, P. C. (2016). Comparative Politics: its Past, Present and Future. Chinese Political Science Review ; Volume 1, Issue 3, Page 397-411 ; ISSN 2365-4244 2365-4252. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41111-016-0038-7
- Scott Gehlbach, & Alberto Simpser. (2015). Electoral Manipulation as Bureaucratic Control. American Journal of Political Science, (1), 212. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12122
- Simpser, A. (2013). Why Governments and Parties Manipulate Elections : Theory, Practice, and Implications. Cambridge University Press.
- Taagepera, R. (2007). predictive versus postdictive models. European Political Science, 6(2), 114–123. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.eps.2210120
- Teun A Van Dijk. (1998). Ideology : A Multidisciplinary Approach. SAGE Publications Ltd.
- Weeks, J. L. (2012). Strongmen and Straw Men: Authoritarian Regimes and the Initiation of International Conflict. American Political Science Review, 2, 326.
- Wintrobe, R. (DE-588)12972324X, (DE-627)478101783, (DE-576)29780426X, aut. (1998). The political economy of dictatorship Ronald Wintrobe.
- Zakharov, A. V. (2016). The Loyalty-Competence Trade-Off in Dictatorships and Outside Options for Subordinates. Journal of Politics, 78(2), 457–466. https://doi.org/10.1086/684365
- Джонсон Джулиет, & Малинова Ольга Юрьевна. (n.d.). Символическая Политика Как Предмет Political Science И Russian Studies: Исследования Политического Использования Прошлого В Постсоветской России.