Politics

Core Modules

Year 1

• Introduction to Politics and Government

  This module will introduce you to the academic study of politics and to the ‘real world’ of contemporary politics. As a foundational course, it will give you all the essential tools to understand the nature of politics and analyse the way different political systems work. You will be introduced to key concepts such as politics, power, rights, ideologies, democracy and representation, and will learn about the different actors, institutions and processes that make up politics today.

• Introduction to International Relations

  This module offers a broad introduction to theory and history in international relations since 1870. You will look at a variety of different theoretical lenses, ranging from orthodox to critical perspectives, in order to understand events from the collapse of the Bismarckian European order and the origins of World War 1 to the contemporary War on Terror. Along the way you will also explore the origins and the end of the Cold War, decolonisation and the End of Empire, the rise of international institutions, humanitarian intervention and new security issues.

• Classic and Contemporary Readings in Politics and International Relations

  This module will introduce you to foundational thinkers and texts in the history of political thought and international relations theory. The first half will explore ideas of community, politics, order and justice in ancient early Christian thought from Socrates to Augustine. The second half will explore how themes of war, peace and the state, as well as liberalism, imperialism and resistance, are developed from the early modern to contemporary period in thinkers such as Hobbes, Kant, Hegel, Smith, Mill, Marx and Fanon.

• Researching Politics and International Relations: Methods, Techniques and Analysis

  This module will provide you with the analytic skills and resources to evaluate, understand, and criticise research findings in politics research. It will also provide you with the practical skills to carry out your own independent research so that you can produce a high-quality dissertation in your final year and graduate with transferable skills that will prepare you for the job market. The module aims to encourage a critical and rigorous approach to research, both in terms of how you evaluate the research of others and how you do your own. These twin goals are important for getting the most out of your time studying politics.

Year 2

• Researching Politics and International Relations: Analysis, Design and Practice

  This module introduces a range of approaches and methods commonly used in the study of Politics and International Relations and equips you with the skills and a tool kit to successfully study and analyse a wide range of political phenomena. The module considers how we acquire knowledge about political ideas, institutions and practices, and how we can carry out and understand empirical research, using both qualitative and quantitative approaches. This module will prepare you for your undergraduate dissertation and will provide transferable skills highly valued in the job market.

• Contemporary Political Theory

  This module concerns the theories underlying discussion of political problems and issues today. Examining a range of key ideas and the thinkers who have developed them, the module will consider what lies at the roots of contemporary debates about laws, policies, protest, and resistance, and it will it enable you to make sense of these debates. Topics covered will likely include liberty, equality, human rights, punishment, democracy, gender, race, multiculturalism and cultural hegemony, civil disobedience, resistance and political violence – as well as other issues in domestic and international justice. Throughout, the module aims to show how abstract theories have practical relevance, and conversely how questions about what states, citizens and other actors ought to do are illuminated by thinking about them theoretically. In general, it offers a broad survey of political theorising today.

Year 3

• Politics and/or International Relations Dissertation

  The dissertation offers you the opportunity to pursue independent research in a topic of your own choosing with the support of an academic supervisor working one-to-one with you. You will develop your own research question and research strategy, explore the scholarly debates surrounding your topic, and advance your own thesis that interprets or challenges the way your topic has been understood. You are encouraged to use a variety of quantitative or qualitative methods and theoretical approaches as appropriate to the field you are exploring.

Optional Modules

Below is a taster of some of the exciting optional modules that students on the course could choose from during this academic year. Please be aware these do change over time, and optional modules may be withdrawn or new ones added.

Year 1

• All modules are core

Year 2

• Democracy in Britain

  Democracy in Britain explores the theory and practice of modern British politics. It’s designed primarily to familiarise students with the ways in which British democracy has evolved, how it operates today and some of the challenges that confront it. You’ll gain knowledge of the ‘nuts and bolts’ of the political system and you’ll learn about how and why the system operates in the way it does, the quality of contemporary democratic governance and key features of political behaviour in Britain. The first half of the module will focus on the character, development and institutions of Britain’s ‘traditional’ democratic system. The second half will focus on dynamic elements of British democracy, including political parties and party competition, political and especially voting behaviour, and attitudes towards democracy.

• Contemporary Political Theory

  This module concerns the theories underlying discussion of political problems and issues today. Examining a range of key ideas and the thinkers who have developed them, the module will consider what lies at the roots of contemporary debates about laws, policies, protest, and resistance, and it will it enable you to make sense of these debates. Topics covered will likely include liberty, equality, human rights, punishment, democracy, gender, race, multiculturalism and cultural hegemony, civil disobedience, resistance and political violence – as well as other issues in domestic and international justice. Throughout, the module aims to show how abstract theories have practical relevance, and conversely how questions about what states, citizens and other actors ought to do are illuminated by thinking about them theoretically. In general, it offers a broad survey of political theorising today.

• Modern Political Thought

  This module introduces students to major political thinkers from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, including the works of Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Wollstonecraft, Mill, Marx, Nietzsche, and Douglass. The module will introduce you to the themes, argumentative strategies, and critical interpretations of these thinkers, and critically assess these interpretations against the texts themselves. It also aims to show how study of these thinkers illuminates contemporary discussion of freedom, pluralism, sovereignty, and legitimacy, even where no reference is made to them.

• Introduction to Political Communication

  The purpose of this module is to provide a broad overview of how citizens, politicians and the media interact across Western democracies during both electoral and governing periods. The first part of the module will focus on the production and consumption of political news, while the second part will address campaigns and their effects as well as focusing on contemporary debates in political communication, including ethical issues. While the module will cover key aspects of political communication in the United Kingdom, the focus will be mostly comparative across countries. Seminars are centred on practical activities that allow students to apply the knowledge presented in the module to contemporary real-world examples of political communication in action. Examples include analysis of political speeches, advertisements, candidate debates, campaign strategies, and news coverage of political issues.

• International Political Economy

  This module examines the relationship between states and markets, power and wealth, in International Political Economy (IPE). You’ll be introduced to the key concepts and theoretical debates in IPE. It tackles issues such as the globalisation of trade, finance, and production, the continued problems of development and democratic governance in the world economy, and emerging questions surrounding global flows, networks and spaces. You’ll explore the history of regimes, crises, and competing theories of political economy from the nineteenth century to the present day. Throughout the module the emphasis is on how political institutions operate in international politics to regulate the creation of wealth, and who benefits from these arrangements.

• War and Security in World Politics

  This module provides a comprehensive overview of Security Studies as a field of International Relations. You’ll start by examining the issue of security and key security issues and then move on to look at more general theories of security and how these have changed, especially in an age of terrorism. The second half of the module will focus on the sub-field of military innovation studies as states around the world renew their focus on conventional/hybrid warfare and defence spending rises. It will explore the defence reforms of major powers including Britain, China, Germany, Russia, Ukraine, and the USA. We will examine the content and sources of change in defence policy, including changes to the objectives of defence policy, military procurement, force structures, and military doctrine. The module will analyse the extent to which these reforms have helped states concerned to deliver defence and security policy and the factors which facilitate effective innovation, emulation and adaptation within military organisations. It also explores the challenges that states face in mobilising societies to face contemporary security threats.

• Government and Politics of the United States

  This module introduces institutions and politics of the United States. It offers a thorough grounding in the empirical and theoretical literature on American politics. The module covers the Constitution, Congress, the Presidency and federal bureaucracy, separation of powers, federalism and state governments, the Supreme Court, elections, political parties, the media, and interest groups. By the end of the module, you’ll be prepared to engage knowledgeably with American political news and to tackle advanced modules in American Political Development and/or US Foreign Policy. This is a good all-round introduction to one of the world’s most influential democracies.

• Politics Outside the West

  This module is a key bridge between the first year modules in comparative politics and international relations and the third year modules in the politics of Africa, China, Latin America, the Middle East, and South Asia. It is designed to equip you with a critical understanding of the most important features of the history of international development which build the foundations of our modern world: the transition from empires to states, colonialism, de-colonisation, and the subsequent post-colonial political issues facing the Global South. This means you don’t necessarily learn about politics “outside the West”, as if it’s a phenomenon separate from the West, but, instead, develop ideas of politics and international relations from the vantage point of the Global South, including its prominent political thinkers.

Year 3

• European Union Public Policy

  In this module you will develop an understanding of regulation in the European Union, including delivery of policy and administration. You will look at how the world's largest market operates, with a focus on EU public policy, including de-regulation, re-regulation, budgets and spending. You will examine the concept of the single market, the Euro and its crisis, justice, home affairs and counter-terrorism, the EU budget, agriculture, regional development, and social and environmental policies.

• Politics in Action: The Politics and International Relations Experience Placement

  Whilst a University degree opens many doors to careers, the experience and skills enhanced during a placement provide an extra dimension to the qualification. The Politics in Action placement scheme is a third year undergraduate, assessed, full unit course module. It has a novel structure which combines participation in a workplace environment for one day a week during term time (and three days a week for each term’s reading week) with scholarly reflection on the nature of the organizational, professional, and policy contexts of the placement. Placements are organised in settings such as Parliament, local government, the offices of MEPs, NGOs, campaigning and activist organizations, political parties, media organizations, and the policy or communications divisions of local companies working in relevant fields.

• Radical Political Theory I: Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche

  This module aims to introduce students to key questions and arguments concerning the relationship between identity, power, meaning and knowledge, through close examination of texts from GWF Hegel, Karl Marx, and Friedrich Nietzsche. It should lead students to appreciate critiques of modern Western societies and their values, which not only underpin recent “postmodernist” or “post-structuralist” thought but also form crucial theoretical elements in debates about gender, multiculturalism, nationalism, post-colonialism, new social movements, etc., across the social sciences. It aims to develop in students the ability to critically reflect about the nature and scope of politics and ethics through engagement with texts that have sought to provide insights and new ways of thinking about these realms.

• The Politics of Russia and Eastern Europe

  This course introduces students to key developments and topics in the politics of post-communist Russia and Eastern Europe. Part I of the course focuses on how communist legacies and modes of post-communist transition shaped the region’s different political systems. Students will engage with current academic debates on Europeanisation processes in Central and Eastern Europe and the specific post-communist trajectory of Russian domestic politics. Part II explores key topics in contemporary post-communist politics, such as for example: transitions to capitalism, inequality and corruption; elections and the peculiarities of post-communist party systems; nationalism, the politics of memory, and minorities; communist and post-communist gender politics; political participation and grassroots politics; and the latest scholarly debates on the perceived democratic backsliding of the region. The course foresees a strong component of student participation, with student-led case-study presentations, comparison-oriented class discussions on the weekly theme, and two substantial pieces of assessed coursework. By the end of this course students will have a nuanced understanding of post-communist politics in the region and will be able to compare both within the region and with countries outside the region.

• US Foreign Policy - History

  This course provides third-year undergraduate students with a highly advanced knowledge of the key concepts, history, themes and contemporary issues in US foreign policy. This course will familiarize students with theoretical explanations of US foreign policy, historical and contemporary American thinking on international affairs, the structure of foreign policy making in Washington DC, as well as some of the major challenges facing contemporary American policy-makers. The reading list for this course is extensive, and you will be expected to work diligently to accomplish the course aims.

• The Politics of Africa
• Political Theories of Freedom

  This module critically examines different theoretical understandings of freedom, together with their strengths and limitations. It falls into two parts. Part 1 examines liberal understandings of freedom, and part 2 looks at contrasting non-liberal and republican accounts. It does so by considering the contributions of important recent and contemporary political theorists. From the liberal tradition these include Berlin, Hayek, Hirschmann and Gray. From the non-liberal tradition, writers will include Taylor, Honneth, Pettit and Skinner. Animating the discussion of these figures is the apparently simple but ultimately complex question of whether political freedom is a matter of the ability to act unimpeded by others, or whether it requires forms of social activity.

• Politics of the Law and Rights

  This course describes and analyses the many ways in which politics affects the law, and in particular the decisions made by judges on top courts.
  It looks at some of the big divides between legal systems in their attitudes to judges and judicial discretion, and the different rights which judges are asked to guarantee.
  It looks at different ways in which judiciaries vary, from more to less active, more to less independent, and more or less collegial or confrontational.
  It also hints at advanced debates in political science about the study of judicial behaviour, in particular the kinds of explanations offered for why US Supreme Court Justices decide the way they do -- and whether these explanations travel outside the United States.
  The course is targeted at final year undergraduates doing either Politics (in combination with other subjects).
  Over the term, Politics students will get a grounding in the analysis of judicial decisions. Conversely, law students will get a grounding in techniques of political analysis applied to the courts.
  Because the course is an advanced (i.e., third year) course, there will be no set text. There will however be a selection of essential readings for each week, which will include (in every other week) two chosen cases which demonstrate the week's topic in two different jurisdictions.

• Comparative Political Leadership

  Party leaders, and their public image, are increasingly considered important for a party’s electoral success, for the smooth running of government and for regime legitimacy. Perhaps the most important variable for successful politicians is their ability to effectively communicate and connect with their audiences. This module will show you the techniques most frequently used by politicians, communicators and speechwriters to effectively deliver their messages in different contexts and settings. You will analyse how these techniques have been used by the greatest leaders in the world to justify their regimes. By the end of the module you will be able to evaluate leadership styles during and after elections and design communication strategies that will deliver political messages effectively.

   

• Military Change in the 21st Century

  Defence budgets comprise a significant proportion of national wealth, while decision-making in defence has profound implications for the lives of citizens in the country concerned, as well as people at the receiving end of military operations. Military power also forms a central dimension of states’ power and influence in the international system. However, the post-Cold War era has witnessed significant variation in the extent to which states’ defence reforms have delivered a strategic advantage, with a number of cases of inappropriate or faulty military innovation and/or emulation.
  This module analyses the content and sources of change in defence policy during the post-Cold War era. It will focus on changes to the objectives of defence policy, military procurement, force structures and doctrines of the world’s major military powers, including the US, China, Russia, France, Germany, the UK, India and Pakistan. In doing so, it will analyse the extent to which these reforms have helped the state concerned to meet its central security challenges.
  The course will be informed by the insights of political science and IR approaches to the sources of military change. These approaches include neorealism, neoclassical realism, bureaucratic politics, organisation theory, strategic culture, organisational culture and public policy approaches. In its examination of the sources of military change, the course also looks at the factors which facilitate effective ‘bottom-up’ learning and adaptation within military organisations.

• Young People's Politics

  The module opens with an introduction and asks What is Young People’s Politics? It then branches out to consider youth, citizenship and democracy, exploring the theoretical and empirical issues that define citizenship in contemporary democracies, focusing on issue that particularly effect young people (especially those raised in the Youth Citizenship Commission). The focus is extended to youth participation in politics, primarily Electoral Politics (e.g. voting, party membership). We will question how and why youth participation in electoral politics has altered. Why did it decline so rapidly after 1997? We will then explore youth participation in politics further by looking at new forms of participation, asking: how has youth participation in non-electoral forms of politics changed in recent decades? What is distinctive about youth participation in politics (e.g. Pattie et al. 2004). Do these changes strengthen or weaken democracy? This leads us to a focus on new values and lifestyles (e.g. increasing prominence of post-materialist concerns versus consumerism). We will question how have changing values and lifestyles impacted upon political participation amongst young people? To what extent are these changes distinctive?

  We will then move on to examine a new state and consider how the relationship between the state and the citizen (and young people, in particular) has changed in recent years (e.g. developments in the welfare state and public services – in particular, youth-focuses services - and in notions of rights and responsibilities e.g. welfare-to-work)? We will ask how has this impacted upon young people’s engagement in politics and society? We then move on to a new democracy, considering how political responsibility has changed/been undermined in recent years (in particular, the transfer of political power to the EU, the international level and NGOs and the changing nature of news media). We will explore what opportunities young people have (or have lost) for engaging in this democracy. The course develops a focus on reform, the Supply-Side (focusing on issues raised by Power Inquiry and Youth Citizenship Commission) and evaluates measures that have been proposed and/or implemented to make electoral politics more attractive to young people. We then propose further measures to improve the situation. The focus on reform continues with the Demand-Side (focusing on education/citizenship education, and the recent International Civic and Citizenship Education Study study). We will evaluate measures that have been proposed and/or implemented to reengage young people in civil society and/or electoral politics. We will again propose further measures to improve the situation. Our final focus will be on young people's politics beyond the UK, looking at how the disengagement of young people in politics has developed (e.g. the US Civic and Political Health of the Nation Report). We will consider how this has been addressed in other countries, proposing lessons that may be drawn by the UK.

• Leadership, Power and the British Prime Ministership
  The course’s primary purpose is to provide students with an in-depth knowledge and understanding of the British prime ministership. It will help students to evaluate the problems of leadership in an advanced industrial democracy and to critically evaluate the performance of those holding executive office. The course will cover both the institutional characteristics and development of the office of prime minister, the organisation and structure of the political executive and the prime ministership’s relationship with other key actors, such as ministers, parliament and the media. The course will also engage with claims about the ‘personalisation’ and ‘presidentialisation’ of British politics. At the same time, the course is designed to introduce students to a more focused range of literature and to develop students’ own awareness of the political-science research process. To this end, it will encourage students to confront issues of conceptualisation and measurement through class activities, as well as highlighting the problems and pitfalls of taking models and frameworks of analysis from other systems and applying them to the British prime ministership.
• American Political Development
• Global Health Policy

  Since the turn of the millennium, global health has received dramatically increased attention, both as an emergent academic discipline and in terms of heightened policy salience. This course serves as an introduction to the global health policy environment, synthesising findings from a range of disciplines, such as political economy, epidemiology, and public health. It examines the constellation of health actors involved in policy formulation, including international organisations, governments, public-private partnerships, non-governmental organisations, philanthropic foundations, and commercial actors. It tackles key contemporary policy debates surrounding the health effects of, for instance, rising economic inequalities, global trade, and austerity politics. Students are also taken through approaches to effective policymaking encompassed in the planning, delivery, and evaluation of policy responses to global health issues. Throughout the course, emphasis is placed on how health policies, systems, and outcomes are influenced by the so-called ‘social determinants of health’—the political, economic, social, and cultural factors that operate at both national and transnational levels.

• Politics of South Asia

  The politics of South Asia – India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh - are central to understanding some of the themes at the core of modern politics: poverty and development, security and warfare, migration and transnationalism, decolonisation and postcolonialism, the international economy and globalisation. This module deals with the social and political development of these countries since independence from British rule in 1947. We will analyse issues including caste politics, the role of religious violence and the place of women in politics and society. Sources will come from a range of disciplines – politics and IR, history, sociology, anthropology, novels and films. We will study regional cooperation and conflict including the troubled relationship between India and Pakistan over Kashmir and their nuclear status. By the end of the module you will have a specialised understanding of the major social, economic and political developments in the region.

   

• Social Diversity and Political Representation

  This module examines the contemporary literature on social diversity and political representation. It introduces students to theories of representation, debates over women’s and other group’s interests. It applies these frameworks to consider why social diversity in our parliaments might matter and what difference – symbolic, substantive and affective – sex, gender, ethnicity, disability and other demographic characteristics make to elected political institutions, the policy process, political outcomes, and healthy democracies. Discrete topics include theories of representation and the link between the general public, political actors and the media; descriptive representation in national legislatures and executives with a focus on gender, ethnicity and disability; strategies for increasing descriptive representation; the media’s representation of political (gender, ethnic and disabled) minorities. The module will introduce key theoretical research on political representation; introduce current empirical research regarding participation and representation in electoral politics; and examine extant empirical and theoretical literature on representation across its various dimensions: descriptive, substantive and symbolic, and to introduce newer research on other forms of representation.

• Parliamentary Studies

  This final-year half module offers students the opportunity to obtain an in-depth knowledge and understanding of the British parliament and its place in British democracy. It will help students to evaluate the work and role of Parliament and parliamentarians, appreciate ongoing debates about contemporary legislative practice, and engage critically with previous academic scholarship in this area. It will also help students to develop their own awareness and experience of conducting research.
  The course covers Parliament’s development and place in the British political system, its internal organisation and operation, and the work and behaviour of individual Members of Parliament. It is co-taught with officials from Parliament, who will provide students with practical and vocational teaching about the work, processes and business of Parliament based on their own experiences.
  The course will be delivered through 9 weekly three-hour sessions, each of which will be organised around a lecture and a variety of complementary seminar activities, including discussions, debates and practical exercises. Most of the third hour each week will be set aside to supporting students with the assessment. The tenth week will involve a visit to Parliament: this is partly to see parliamentarians in action, and partly to enable students to collect additional material for their research report.

• Freedom of Expression: Concepts and Controversies

  Issues of free speech are amongst the most contentious in current political debate. The module aims to give you an in depth understanding of the nature, value and limits of freedom of speech, from the perspective of normative political theory. It is not a course in the law of free speech, nor about the free speech situation in any particular country. Though the module touches on both the latter, the aim is to enable you to understand the values, norms and principles at issue in contexts where free speech is promoted, regulated, limited or denied- especially contexts where that choice is contentious. You will be encouraged to look beyond the headlines to explore the rich and varied academic scholarship on free speech, and to offer critical analyses of that scholarship. By the end of the module, you should be able to interrogate your own and others’ intuitive reactions in controversial cases of e.g. hate speech, and to develop a reasoned, nuanced approach to these issues.

   

• Latin American Politics

  This module is designed to introduce advanced undergraduates to the major themes of contemporary Latin American politics and, consequently, democracy and political development. Although the module does not assume that you already have knowledge of the region, you are expected to be familiar with basic concepts of comparative political analysis. While the module stresses the political aspects of the developmental process, its objective is to show the linkages between economic, social, cultural, and political variables - both at national and international levels.

   

   

• Defence and Security Governance
• The Political Economy of Racial Injustice

  Who wins and loses in the economy? How do racial and gender inequalities persist because of the way we buy homes, pay tuition, or govern banks? This course studies the ways that inequality and unfreedom are sustained in institutional arrangements and everyday practices. We study how the organization and governance of the economy has played a role in limiting access for women, people of color, and other marginalized groups. We study the history of the global economy but with an attention to the kinds of domination and exploitation that made “progress” possible for some.

• Narrative in World Politics

  “Whose story wins?” has become a popular phrase in politics. This module introduces students to the role of narrative communication in world politics. All political institutions and organisations in all countries have no choice but to communicate. They use this communication to offer direction, on any policy sector or about the identity of the nation or community. Narrative is essential when facing difficult pasts and generating accountability. Narrative is a form that institutions and organisations now invest in. Narrative provides a sequence of events that can generate a feeling that politics should move in a certain direction. Projecting a narrative is difficult in politics because not all parties or supporters will agree with that narrative. Yet this opens up forms of disagreement and conflict that allows us to identify and explain how core political dynamics unfold, including authority, legitimacy, and memory. It also helps students explain fundamental questions in International Relations: they will be able to explain the role of narrative in generating how cooperation or conflict, producing alliances or enemies, and creating expectations about how problems can be solved.

  Students will be asked to consider narrative in different historical moments, from different countries, and in different policy sectors. They will explore how digital media now allow citizens to produce and share their own narratives – digital storytelling has become central to many activist and citizen-led movements.

  The module also covers a range of theories of narrative in politics, specifically around a spectrum from ‘thin’ rationalist approaches that largely focus on narratives as ‘roadmaps’ used by political elites to ‘thick’ studies that use feminism, race and ethnicity, and formal linguistics as lenses. With each theory introduced, the students will also learn what methods different approaches entail. This helps students with their final year dissertation.

• Radical Political Theory II: Critical Theory and Poststructuralism

  This module aims to introduce students to key questions and arguments concerning the relationship between identity, power, meaning and knowledge, through close examination of texts from Theodor Adorno, Jean-François Lyotard, Michel Foucault, and Gilles Deleuze & Félix Guattari. It should lead students to appreciate critiques of modern Western societies and their values, that not only form part of the philosophical movements of critical theory and poststructuralism but that in turn have informed crucial debates about gender, multiculturalism, nationalism, post-colonialism, new social movements, etc., across the social sciences. It aims to develop in students the ability to critically reflect about the nature and scope of politics and ethics through engagement with texts that have sought to provide insights and new ways of thinking about these realms.

• Why and How People Vote

  The way in which people participate in politics is fundamental for the way political systems function. In classical and contemporary theories of democracy, political participation is seen as a way to protect private interests of citizens while simultaneously making sure that good government is practised by political leaders. It is, therefore, not di cult to guess why scholars of politics and international relations have and have had an interest in the question of how and why people come to participate in politics.
  As the primary mechanism with which to implement the principle of popular sovereignty, electoral participation in particular has received attention of academics, policy makers and the media. Once the polling station doors close, the first two questions asked are usually how many people turned out and what did people vote? In this course we will deal with these questions extensively. More generally, this course focusses on the various ways in which individuals directly or indirectly influence political choices at various levels of the political system. It examines the relationship between voters and political parties, and considers the theory and practice of how electors decide whether to vote (or not) and for whom to vote.
  The module contains both a theoretical and an empirical component. Students will be encouraged to assess the evidence for competing explanations of political behaviour through readings drawn from research on countries across Western Europe and North America. Besides an understanding of the main theories and main questions in the field of political behaviour, the course will provide students with a thorough understanding of how to conduct systematic empirical research and critically appraise it.

• Identity, Emotions and Trauma in International Politics

  The transnational spread of populist movements has demonstrated, perhaps more clearly than ever, that international politics is not always a fully rational field. Populist or nationalist leaders like Donald Trump in the US, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey, and Vladimir Putin in Russia have all revived historical grievances and identity claims to justify foreign policies that deviate substantially with what existing rationalist theories of International Relations (IR) like neorealism and neoliberalism might predict. How can we explain their rise and the changes they bring to international politics?
  Over the last two decades approaches within the constructivist and postmodernist traditions of IR scholarship have increasingly turned to concepts and ideas traditionally excluded by the discipline: identity, emotions and trauma. But while these concepts offer potential explanations for many otherwise confounding international phenomena, their inclusion requires new theoretical insight. Can IR theory simply analogize from individual identity, trauma and emotions to macro-level national or state identities, traumas and emotions? Can nations and states truly be thought of as possessing the same experiences as individuals and, if so, do these group phenomena behave similarly to how they do in human beings? How do these factors interact with other interests in foreign policymaking?

• Ethnic Politics and Ethnic Conflict

  Ethnic identities can play an important role in politics. In some states, voting decisions, political representation and the distribution of state resources are viewed through an ethnic lens. Ethnic relations can also become contentious and in some civil conflicts, armed groups mobilize support and recruit fighters along ethnic lines. This course examines the role that ethnic distinctions can play in political life, contestation and conflict. The first part of the course will focus on the origins of ethnic identities and their political salience. The second part will focus on ethnic politics and consider issues such as ethnic representation in government, ethnic voting and the ethnically biased distribution of resources. The third part will focus on ethnic conflict and the role that ethnic grievances and identities can play in collective violence.

• Global Environmental Politics

  This module examines both the domestic and international politics of the environment. The first part of the module consists of defining the environmental problems faced globally, highlighting similarities and differences to other issues. This part also identifies the key actors, interests, and institutions that are necessary to understand the politics of climate change. The second part of the module focuses on three varieties of theories of environmental politics: collective action problems, distributional politics, and ideational conflict. The third part then examines a variety of topics in environmental politics, building upon the analytical approaches outlined in the first two parts of the course. The chosen topics allow for both understanding how politics shapes environmental outcomes, for example through international agreements, as well as how climate change and the environment affects political outcomes, for example by fostering political conflict.

   

   

• Issues in Democratic Theory

  The course examines the theoretical understandings of democracy and the conceptual issues and controversies arising from them. Modern political thought is characterised by an uneasy relationship with democracy. Whilst the values of freedom and equality are widely related to – and often thought to entail – democratic government, political theorists have identified various problems that democracy poses to those values. The course will examine these issues, with topics including: forms of democracy; the relationship between democracy, freedom and equality; the role of participation and deliberation; multiculturalism and group rights; and global democracy.

• Gender and Nationalism in the Middle East and South Asia

  This course looks at the role of gender in nationalism during the colonial and post-colonial period across the Middle East and South Asia. Students are introduced to key readings that challenge our conventional understanding of gender in international relations and look at how empire influenced our understanding of gendered roles. The course then moves to specific locations and examinations the role of gender in specific political debates in Egypt, Turkey, Algeria, India, Palestine and Iran. The course will challenge students to think beyond conventional understandings of debates about the veil, honour killings and the role of women in violent conflicts. We will examine the ways in which women in particular, seek out zones of agency for themselves, within both the domestic and political spheres in the post-colonial period, and the challenges that arise from this development. We will examine whether revolutions and political movements created spaces in which women could carve out specific political spaces for themselves, and how and why those opportunities might have been lost. By the conclusion of the course students should not only be familiar with key debates on gender and nationalism in the Middle East and South Asia, but also be able to analyse current affairs pertaining to gender in the region, in a critical perspective.