AGENTS AND PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS (20622)

  • Year: 1
  • Term: 2
  • Number of ECTS credits: 4
  • Student hours: 68 h

Syllabus

Politics, with its agents and institutions, is about public goods and the different ways though which these goods are supplied and obtained. Obtaining them requires an effort in terms of cooperation and coordination so that collective action is directed towards collective welfare. Likewise, institutions define the rules of the political game with the aim of reducing the costs of cooperation and coordination and also of the transactions which take place in the political arena.

The course aims to introduce students to the concepts and processes which guide individual political action, paying particular attention to the main institutions created to facilitate collective action and make it more effective and efficient. For this reason the course will touch on some of the major themes of political science, such as the logic of collective action, the transformation of the political community in the modern world (from the nation-state to the regulating state) as well as the working of the main political institutions (models of the state, forms of government, political parties, new forms of representation and participation, elections, etc). To further students' understanding of the ever-more complex modern scenario, the course will also consider new forms of government which have arisen as a consequence of the internationalisation process and the European integration process. The latter, in particular, has favoured a more inclusive and participative decision-making process in which civil society has become more prominent.

1. Aims and logic of political action

2. The political community in times of globalisation: from the nation-state to the regulating state?

3. The European Union and multi-level government

4. The institutions of government (1): the division of powers and territorial-administrative planning

5. The institutions of government (2): political parties

6. Elections

7. Collective actors, participation and social capital