Introduction to Political Science

Introduction to Political Science

Données clés

Faculté	Faculté des sciences de la société
Département	Département de science politique et relations internationales
Professeur(s)	Rémi Baudoui (2011 - ) Damian Raess (2011 - 2014) Stephan Davidshofer (2015) Pascal Sciarini (2015) Frédéric Varone (2015) Sandra Lavenex (2015) Omar Serrano (2015) Annabelle Lever (2015)
Enregistrement(s)	2015
Cours	Introduction to Political Science

Lectures

• Intellectual legacy of Émile Durkheim and Pierre Bourdieu in social theory
• The origins of the fall of the Weimar Republic
• Max Weber and Vilfredo Pareto
• The notion of "concept" in social sciences
• Marxism and Structuralism
• Functionalism and Systemism
• Interactionism and Constructivism
• Interests
• The institutions
• Ideas
• The theories of political anthropology
• Studying war: the political science lens
• The War: Concepts and Evolutions
• The reason of State
• State, sovereignty, globalization and multi-level governance
• Theoretical approaches to violence in political science
• Welfare State and Biopower
• Political regimes and democratisation
• Electoral systems
• Governments and Parliaments
• Morphology of contestations
• Régimes politiques, démocratisation
• Action in Political Theory
• Introduction to Swiss politics
• Introduction to political behaviour
• Public Policy Analysis: Definition and cycle of public policy
• Public Policy Analysis: agenda setting and formulation
• Public Policy Analysis: Implementation and Evaluation
• Introduction to the sub-discipline of international relations
• Introduction to Political Theory

This introductory political science course approaches basic concepts and the most common central objects and approaches. It enables students to acquire concepts and tools that provide them with the conditions for understanding a political situation, whether it is local, regional or global in scale.

The course presents both the discipline of political science and its evolution over time from a few major figures of the discipline from yesterday to today. It also deals with the different historical and contemporary approaches that mark the reflection of the discipline. Finally, he is interested in objects studied as such: the state, war, nationalism, development, political regimes, institutions in modern democracies...

This course aims to familiarize the public with the basic concepts and main approaches to political science. One of the overriding pedagogical objectives is the acquisition of language and methodology that can stimulate critical thinking with regard to contemporary political issues and address key reference authors of political thought. It is complemented by a presentation of the most important approaches to contemporary political science. More in-depth reflections on this subject will allow us to illustrate the links between society, facts and political choices on the basis of specific themes. This course also aims to provide an overview of the main sub-disciplines of political science, particularly electoral studies, Swiss politics, comparative politics, public policy analysis, international relations and normative political theory.

Languages

Español Français

Courses

Foundations

Intellectual legacy of Émile Durkheim and Pierre Bourdieu in social theory

The origins of the fall of the Weimar Republic

Intellectual legacy of Max Weber and Vilfredo Pareto in social theory (Rémi Baudoui)

The notion of "concept" in social sciences (Damian Raess)

History of the discipline of political science: theories and concepts

Approaches

Marxism and Structuralism

Functionalism and Systemism

Interactionism and Constructivism

The theories of political anthropology

The three I's debate: interests, institutions and ideas

Rational choice theory and the analysis of interests in political science

An analytical approach to institutions in political science

The study of ideas and ideologies in political science

Objects

Theories of war in political science (Rémi Baudoui)

The War: Concepts and Evolutions (Stephan Davidshofer)

The reason of State (Rémi Baudoui)

State, sovereignty, globalization and multi-level governance (Damian Raess)

Theories of violence in political science‎‎ (Rémi Baudoui)

Welfare State and Biopower (Rémi Baudoui)

Political regimes and democratisation (Damian Raess)

Electoral systems (Damian Raess)

Governments and Parliaments (Damian Raess)

Morphology of contestations (Rémi Baudoui)

Régimes politiques, démocratisation (Damian Raess)

Action in Political Theory (Rémi Baudoui)

The main areas of political science

Introduction to Swiss politics (Pascal Sciarini)

Introduction to political behaviour (Pascal Sciarini)

Public Policy Analysis: Definition and cycle of public policy (Frédéric Varone)

Public Policy Analysis: agenda setting and formulation (Frédéric Varone)

Public Policy Analysis: Implementation and Evaluation (Frédéric Varone)

Introduction to the sub-discipline of international relations (Sandra Lavenex et Omar Serrano)

Introduction to Political Theory (Annabelle Lever)

Bibliography

• Caramani Daniele (2011) Comparative Politics, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
• Hermet, Guy ; Badie, Bertrand; Birbaum Pierre; Braud, Philippe, (2010)Dictionnaire de la science politique et des institutions politiques
• Katzelson Ira; Milner V. Helen (2002), Political Science : The State of the Discipline, New York, Norton
• Schemeil Yves, (2010), Introduction à la science politique : Objets, méthodes, résultats, Paris, Presses de Science po et Dalloz
• Knoepfel, Peter, Larue Corinne, Savard François et Varone Frédéric,(2015). Analyse et pilotage des politiques publiques : France, Suisse, Canada, Québec, Presses de l'Université du Québec, 452 p.
• Schemeil, Yves, Introduction à la science politique, objets, méthodes, résultats, objectifs, 2015, Paris, Dalloz, 773 p.