Teaching Guide Information

1. Course details

1.1. Content area

POLITICS AND LAW

1.2. Course nature

Compulsory

1.3. Course level

Grado (EQF/MECU 6)

1.4. Year of study

2

1.5. Semester

First semester

1.6. ECTS Credit allotment

6.0

1.7. Language of instruction

English

1.8. Prerequisites

-

1.9. Recommendations

This course can be taught in Spanish or in English. The coordinator will inform in advance of the language of instruction used in each academic year, which will be indicated above in 1.7. The bibliography used will be in English, although an alternative text in Spanish may be suggested when there is a correspondence in the contents. 

1.10. Minimum attendance requirement

Attendance is mandatory and controls will be carried out. Not justified absences will have an impact in the final grade.

1.11. Subject coordinator

Taru Kastehelmi Sofia Haapala

1.12. Competences and learning outcomes

1.12.1. Competences / Results of the training and learning outcomes

BASIC

CB1 - That students have proven to possess and understand knowledge in an area of study that is part of the basis of general secondary education, and is often found at a level that, while supported by advanced textbooks, also includes some aspects that imply knowledge from the forefront of their field of study.

CB2 - That students know how to apply their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional way and possess the competencies that are usually demonstrated through the elaboration and defense of arguments and problem solving within their area of study

CB3 - Students have the ability to collect and interpret relevant data (usually within their area of study) to issue judgments that include reflection on relevant social, scientific or ethical issues

CB4 - Students can transmit information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialized and non-specialized audiences

CB5 - Students have developed those learning skills necessary to undertake later studies with a high degree of autonomy

TRANSVERSAL

CT1 - Formulate critical and well argued arguments, using precise terminology, specialized resources and documentation that aligns these arguments.

CT2 - Communicate effectively in different languages, both in an official language of each discipline

CT3 - Debating on global and particular phenomena, linking concepts and knowledge between different disciplines after analyzing the various ideological, theoretical and normative positions

CT4 - Show knowledge about the implications of the new ideological, political, economic and technological forms that act in the contemporary world from a globalized and cosmopolitan perspective.

CT5 - Recognize diversity and multiculturalism through work in an interdisciplinary team

SPECIFIC

CE1 - Apply the knowledge of the main theories and approaches worked in the Degree by arguing from different perspectives and supporting the arguments in the use of methodologies of analysis, paradigms and concepts of the Social Sciences.

CE2 - Interrelated the different theories involved in the disciplines of the degree and the proposals (legal, political, economic, sociological) that explain the organization of contemporary societies.

CE3 - Analyze contemporary diversity taking into account the different disciplines of the degree through the identification of problems, the collection and analysis of data and the interpretation of the results.

CE4 - Design programs in the different disciplines aimed at social improvement taking into account national and international political actors, the relationships they establish with the political institutions, and the socio-economic environment of the moment.

CE5 - Evaluate political and socio-economic programs aimed at improving the living conditions of society, taking into account the design, feasibility and sustainability of the program.

CE7 - Issue judgments that include ethical reflection on fundamental social, scientific and economic issues in a representative context of both international and local society.

CE8 - Evaluate the improvement programs in the management and quality of public or private services and in institutions, analyzing the benefit and performance they have produced in local and international environments.

CE9 - Conduct case studies and apply the comparative method to analyze institutions, processes and policies of different countries by assessing scenarios of international policy.

1.12.2. Learning outcomes

- Critically analyse democratic traditions and genealogies

- Identify and evaluate contemporary models of democracy

- Apply methodologies of comparative analysis to political regimes

- Understand the interaction between institutional models and democratic quality

- Reflect on contemporary challenges to democracies

- Argue from different theoretical perspectives.

1.12.3. Course objectives

-

1.12.4. The Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) Technologies in this course

• The use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) technologies must not replace students' active participation in completing assessable tasks that show the attainment of the intended learning outcomes. Assignments must reflect a substantial contribution of the student in terms of analysis, argumentation, and personal reflection. Each instructor will establish the specific conditions governing the use of these GenAI technologies, and students must explicitly declare their use when required.

1.13. Course contents

- Part I: Democracy: Concepts, Genealogies, Traditions.

a) The genealogies of democracy. Ancient and Modern Democracy: Authors and Traditions (Classical Athenian, Republicanism, Liberalism). The Evolution of Representative Governments: Liberal Democracy and Its Critics. Occidentalism and the decolonial gaze. Gender perspective in the study of democracies.

b) Contemporary models: democracies with labels. Normative models: minimalist, corporatist, participatory, and deliberative.

- Part II: Comparative Analysis: Democratic and Non-Democratic Political Regimes

a) Methodologies of comparative analysis

b) Minimum procedural conditions of democracy. Typologies of political regimes: totalitarian, authoritarian, democratic. Defective democracies: features of illiberal regimes. Hybrid regimes.

c) Democratic political regimes (I): the construction of democratic quality standards. International indices and indicators of democratic quality. Economic conditions and development. Violence, conflict and war.  The erosion of democratic regimes.

d) Democratic political regimes (II): Presidentialism vs. Parliamentarism. Territorial organization: Federal and unitary states.

-Part III: Contemporary Challenges of Democracies

a) Attention to the complexity of democracies. The institutional representation of identities: gender, ethnicities, territories. Social representations. Innovations in citizen participation.

b) Knowledge, articulation of public opinion and political decision-making. The reconfiguration of the democratic public sphere. Media and disinformation.

c) The deterritorialization of democracies: The supranational dimension of democracies. Multilevel democracies: the case of the EU. The governance of world society.

1.14. Course bibliography

PART I.

Held, D. (2006). Models of Democracy. Polity Press. (There is a copy with Spanish translation.)

Selection of original texts of classical authors (Machiavelli, Locke, Rousseau, Mill, Marx, Schumpeter)

PART II.

Acemoglu, D. & J. A. Robinson (2012). Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty. New York: Crown Publishers.

Almond, G., G. B. Powell, Strom K. & Dalton, R. (2004). Comparative Politics Today. A World View. New York: Harper Collins.

Caramani, D. (2017). Comparative politics. Oxford University Press.

Dahl, R. A. (2005). What Political Institutions Does Large-Scale Democracy Require? Political Science Quarterly, 120(2), 187–197.

Lijphart, A. (1977). Democracy in Plural Societies. Yale University Press.

Merkel, W. (2004) Embedded and defective democracy, Democratization, Vol.11, No.5, December, pp.33–58

Pearson-Longman Boix, C. y S. Stokes (2009). The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Politics. Oxford University Press.

PART III. References will be uploaded in Moodle each academic year, connected to ongoing political debates.

2. Teaching-and-learning methodologies and student workload

2.1. Contact hours

2.2. List of training activities

3. Evaluation procedures and weight of components in the final grade

3.1. Regular assessment

Final exam: Value 50%. Multiple choice test that includes all course contents (evaluation out of 10, provides up to 5 points of the final grade). It is necessary to obtain a minimum of 4 (out of 10) to add the grade of the continuous assessment for the final course grade.

Continuous evaluation: Value 50%. Minimum grade of 3 (out of 10) must be obtained to add it to the final grade. Those who do not get it will not be able to pass the final exam in the regular assessment. Consists of three elements:

-Seminars: Value 10%. Attendance control + completion of two evaluation assignments (Controls 1 and 2).

-Presentation of group work: Value 10%. Evaluation of presentation in group on indicators of the quality of democracy.

-Individual work: Value 30%. Grade of the first control (theories of democracy) and the second (comparative analysis).

3.1.1. List of evaluation activities

3.2. Resit

Final written exam with short questions on all the contents of the subject.

3.2.1. List of evaluation activities

The final grade will be that of the exam or, if higher, that of the average with the grade of the continuous evaluation.

4. Proposed workplan

The schedule will be uploaded at the beginning of the course in Moodle, adapted to the weeks of the course. Teaching of theoretical content will be combined with work in seminars (and it will be expressly indicated when the continuous assessment tests are carried out in them) in order to be able to carry out the activities provided for in the guide.