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School of Politics and International Relations · ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences
This course examines the central issues in comparative political institutions across a range of jurisdictions and from a variety of perspectives. The course introduces core political institutions and discusses various approaches to their study. It deals with key concepts (majoritarian democracy vs consociationalism etc.) and institutional arrangements in a historical and comparative perspective. The point is not to compare for the sake of comparing, but to equip you (as a researcher) with the conceptual tools to undertake insightful, critical, and original comparative work of your own in your final assessment. The overall aim of the course is to develop students' understanding and use of many general theoretical explanations surrounding debates in political institutions and to develop students' critical/analytical approach to many of the questions facing practitioners and scholars in the next decade.
Seminar Preparation: All students must prepare notes on required readings and submit by email prior to class in preparation for discussion. These may consist of comments, critiques, questions, etc. arising from the readings. They may be in bullet format or full sentences. They will be marked on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory scale.
Learning outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4
Research Literature review and methods report: Students will produce a literature review and identify existing data or how they would collect new data using appropriate method. (1500 words).
Learning outcomes 1, 4
Research Essay: Students will write a research paper on a topic of their choice that relates to the material covered in the course. Limit of (3000-4000 words).
Learning outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4
Seminar presentation : Each student do a 15-minute presentation and lead discussion of the required readings.
Learning outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4
130 hours of total student learning time made up from: a) 6 hours of teaching and tutorials over 6 weeks; b) 18 hours of seminars over 6 weeks; b) 106 hours of independent student research, reading and writing.
Not applicable Preliminary Reading Brady, Henry & Collier, David, eds. (2000). Rethinking Social Inquiry: Diverse Tools, Shared Standards. Berkeley, CA: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Boix, Carles, and Stokes, Susan (eds.) (2007) Oxford Handbook of Comparative Politics. Oxford, OUP. Caramani, Daniele (ed.) Comparative Politics, Oxford, OUP, 2014 (3rd edition). Cheibub, Jose Antonio (2007), Presidentialism, Parliamentarism, and Democracy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Dahl, Robert A. (1971). Polyarchy: Participation and Opposition. New Haven: Yale University Press. Dowding, K. and P. Dumont (eds.) (2009) The selection of Ministers in Europe. Hiring and Firing, London, Routledge. Dowding, K. and P. Dumont (eds.) (2015) The selection of Ministers around the world, London, Routledge. King, Gary, Keohane, Robert, & Verba, Sidney. (1994). Designing Social Inquiry: Scientific Inference in Qualitative Research. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Lijphart, A. (1994) .Electoral Systems and Party Systems. A Study of Twenty-Seven Democracies, 1945-1990, Oxford, Oxford University Press. Lijphart , A. (2012). Patterns of Democracy, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. North, Douglas. (1990). Institutions, Institutional Change, and Economic Performance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Powell, G. Bingham, Jr. (2001). Elections as Instruments of Democracy: Majoritarian and Proportional Visions. New Haven: Yale University Press. Renwick, A. (2010). The Politics of Electoral Reform. Changing the Rules of Democracy, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Sartori, G. (1994). Comparative Constitutional Engineering. An Inquiry into Structures, Incentives and Outcomes, London, MacMillan. Strom, K, Muller W.C and T. Bergman, (eds) (2008). Cabinets and Coalition Bargaining: The Democratic Life Cycle in Western Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Tavits, M. (2009). Presidents with Prime Ministers, Oxford University Press.