Master
2024/2025
Research Seminar
Type:
Compulsory course (Politics. Economics. Philosophy)
Area of studies:
Political Science
Delivered by:
School of Politics and Governance
Where:
Faculty of Social Sciences
When:
2 year, 1-3 module
Mode of studies:
offline
Open to:
students of one campus
Instructors:
Ivan Petrov
Master’s programme:
Политика. Экономика. Философия
Language:
English
ECTS credits:
6
Course Syllabus
Abstract
This course is based on prior knowledge obtained by students during the study of the following disciplines: Categories of Political Science Comparative Politics Policy Analysis Economics The broad goal of this course is to sharpen students’ theoretical and methodological skills, discuss with them how to choose an adequate research design, and develop critical thinking in general. The narrow goal of the course is to help students reach high quality of their MA theses and structure their research process. We will achieve these goals by introducing to students the latest mainstream works from the leading international journals in Political Science and Comparative Political Economy. We will discuss them in terms of theory and research design. Why some countries are stuck in technological backwardness, while others prosper? Why in some countries 2 people enjoy longer and healthier lives? What is the role of political institutions in answering these questions? Are bureaucrats motivated by ideology or career concerns? Also, we will introduce today’s hot topics in Political Science and tie them to the current events. What role does Internet play in contemporary social movements? Does social media help overcome collective action problem or just disseminate more information? Who are trolls and how they manipulate public opinion? Why far rights are gaining their momentum? Why did “the efficient secret” of the UK Parliament disappear when it came to Brexit? Along answering these theoretical questions, we will touch upon the empirical concerns (endogeneity problems, null-hypothesis testing in frequentist models) and their possible solutions: instrumental variables, research discontinuity design, Bayesian analysis).
Learning Objectives
- The main goal of this course is to familiarize students with the current trends in political science referring to key publications of recent years in academic journals which are most in demand among the professional community of political scientists. The course is aimed at developing students' critical thinking skills, it introduces them modern research methods (instrumental variables, research discontinuity design, Bayesian statistics), and also serves the purpose of forming students' standards of modern research work in the field of political science. The proposed forms of knowledge control are also aimed at improving the skills of writing critical referee reports based on the arguments presented in the articles under consideration.
Expected Learning Outcomes
- A student analyzes the impact of social media on the politics and activity of citizens
- A student analyzes the influence of the political regime on the possibilities of innovative development
- A student can collect, evaluate and select literature
- A student compares research design
- A student compares the populism trend: its causes and effects
- A student develops meta-cognitive skills, necessary for conducting research
- A student is able to choose a research problem and evaluate research trustworthiness
- A student is able to plan literature review structure
- A student knows the characteristics of modern protests
- A student knows the syllabus of the course
- Ability to complete scientific text
- Research, writing and presentation competencies
- A student compares research design
- A student analyzes modern approaches to political research
- A student distinguishes methodologies based on different relationships between knowledge and observation, as well as between the knower and the known
- A student researches the impact of democratization processes on population health indicators
Course Contents
- Introduction to the Course
- Developing Reflexivity and Meta-cognition
- Choosing Methodology
- Designing Social Inquiry
- Preparing a Literature Review
- Introduction. How to Approach Research
- Introduction. Rational Choice. Institutions. Regression Analysis: recap
- Media and Politics. Propaganda. Instrumental Variable
- Problems of Quantitative Methods. Discussion of Research Design
- Political Parties and Right-Wing Populism
- Revolutions, Protests and the Role of Technology. Machine Learning.
- Political Economy of Innovations. Reviews of Rosenberg/Tarasenko Presentation
- Politics and Health Outcomes. Reviews of Rosenberg
Assessment Elements
- Seminar activity
- Research Proposal
- Research Proposal Draft
- Research Proposal Presentation
- Essay
Interim Assessment
- 2024/2025 1st module0.6 * Essay + 0.4 * Seminar activity
- 2024/2025 3rd module0.4 * Research Proposal + 0.2 * Research Proposal Draft + 0.2 * Research Proposal Presentation + 0.2 * Seminar activity
