Introduction to Political Science

De Baripedia

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.

Courses[modifier | modifier le wikicode]

Foundations[modifier | modifier le wikicode]

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

The notion of "concept" in social sciences

History of the discipline of political science: theories and concepts

Approaches[modifier | modifier le wikicode]

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[modifier | modifier le wikicode]

Theories of war in political science

The War: Concepts and Evolutions

The reason of State

State, sovereignty, globalization and multi-level governance

Theories of violence in political science‎‎

Welfare State and Biopower

Analysis of democratic regimes and democratisation processes

Electoral Systems: Mechanisms, Issues and Consequences

The system of government in democracies

Morphology of contestations

Action in Political Theory

The main areas of political science[modifier | modifier le wikicode]

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

Bibliography[modifier | modifier le wikicode]

  • 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.

References[modifier | modifier le wikicode]