Modern Political Science

This course introduces students to the current topics, debates, and research questions that are central to political science today. It goes beyond the basics, focuses on contemporary trends and key areas of research in the discipline, and aims at enhancing students’ understanding of complex political phenomena. Many of the questions political scientists address are truly timeless: How do strong states and effective bureaucracies form? Who votes, for whom, how, and why? How modern nations and identities are formed, and why is nationalism on the rise in the world? Why do wars happen, and which systems of international relations are considered more stable? Why, according to some scholars, the process of globalization has slowed down, and what strategies have countries adopted to develop their national economies in the last decades? Answers to these and many other questions are critical both for understanding the real-world outcomes – such as economic growth, inequality, instability within a state and in international relations between states – and for developing effective policies that can change these outcomes. Despite the obvious importance of these questions, few have clear answers. As in any scientific discipline, new research constantly challenges and revises traditional views and introduces new, important paradigms. In this course, students will be introduced to the main topics that have become relevant in the field of political science in recent years. Although the issues discussed have a long history, the main aim of the course is to introduce students to a wide range of contemporary debates and to the most recent developments in this dynamically developing field. This is not a methodological course. The modern methodological tools presented in the articles may be discussed in seminars, but students will not be assessed on their proficiency in any particular modern methodological tool. Yet, this course will create a platform for deep discussion and intellectual exchange that will not only broaden horizons but also generate new ideas and approaches to the study of political reality.