Political Science: Comparative World Politics

An examination of questions such as why some countries are democratic and others authoritarian, and why some countries are poor and others wealthier, through the study and comparison of political institutions and patterns of interaction across countries. Credit not awarded for both POLS 1700 and POLS 1017.

Open to Degree and PACE students;

The goal of this course is to learn about politics by comparing the political systems of different countries. Comparative politics employs the scientific method of comparison to understand how politics works. Scholars of comparative politics believe that we can only understand politics in one country by comparing it with other countries. The main questions that motivate most comparative politics are: Why are some countries rich and other countries poor? Why are some countries democratic and other countries authoritarian? Why do some democracies promote greater equality than others? We will also look at how different types of political institutions (parliamentarism vs. presidentialism, electoral systems, judicial systems) lead to different types of political outcomes. The course includes case studies of the United Kingdom, Germany, China, Russia, Mexico, and India.

Students are expected to attend all class sessions and finish assigned readings before each class. Students should expect to devote at least 2 hours outside of class for each 1 hour of class meeting.

There will be a midterm and a final, regular quizzes and short writing and data assignments.