Wikipedia talk:Education program archive/Pomona College/Politics 5: Intro to Comparative Politics (FA2014)/Course description

Comparative politics is the study of how domestic politics is conducted in different countries. We will look at the wide variety of political processes, governing institutions, and political issues, making sure to use a broad selection of countries as case studies. Learning about the conduct of politics in different countries is not all we will learn about in this course however. As the term “comparative” implies, comparative politics is also defined by its methodology – the method of comparison and contrast. So we will also learn in this class about how to compare political systems – which states make for good comparisons and which do not. The comparative method helps us to discover patterns of similarity and difference in political phenomena and to make generalized hypotheses about such phenomena, as well as to test such generalized hypotheses and theories. Through this, we will address some of the most important questions in the study of politics, including: Why are some states stable democracies, while others remain dictatorships, and still others fail completely? Why have some states’ economies fully developed in the last few decades, while many others remain poor and relatively undeveloped? So rather than just learning facts about how politics work around the world, we will spend much of the semester thinking about politics and delving into deep questions on pressing issues. You will learn the key theories, concepts, and analytical methods commonly used today in comparative politics.

Article Topics & Groups Librarians

 * 1) Authoritarian socialism - Char Booth
 * 2) Anocracy - Sara Lowe
 * 3) Constitutional patriotism - Char Booth
 * 4) Legitimation crisis - Sara Lowe
 * 5) Defective democracy - Sara Lowe

Course Requirements

 * Attendance & Participation - 10%
 * Short Writing Assignment - 10%
 * Midterm - 25%
 * Final Exam - 25%
 * Wikipedia Assignment - 30%

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