Course goals
This course aims at providing the analytical framework for studying the workings of specific political institutions in democracies and dictatorships. The students will be provided with a modern theoretical framework for doing research in comparative politics. They will learn to apply their skills in practice and have rigorous understanding of main concepts of political processes taking place within states.
Course results
- Understand and define scientific method and scientific study of politics.
- Define and use the main analytic concepts of comparative politics and political analysis, solve game-theoretic problems, apply theoretical models to actual cases.
- Define the concepts of state and politics, understand basic elements of political processes.
- Understand the structure of different political regimes and their workings and institutions, their main distinctions and similarities.
- Define and analyze the impact of economic and cultural factors on political processes and policies.
- Understand and analyze issues of collective decision making, social choice theory, principle-agent problem and their implications for democratic politics.
- Explain and evaluate the influence of political institutions on economic policy, economic performance and business environment.
