Course Topics
The course is mandatory for the PPE and it belongs to the disciplinary sector of Political Science. The course provides an overview of the main concepts; theories, methods, and topics of Comparative Politics together with some first insights into the academic and professional practice of political research. Students will be encouraged to actively take part to the classes by discussing and critically analyzing the studied subjects. This continuous exercise will provide the students with the tool and the needed knowledge to professionally discuss and analyze phenomena concerning political institutions, behaviors and outcomes. The course will cover the following aspects: · What is comparative politics and how to study it: this first part introduces the course. It is dedicated to explaining the relevance of the discipline together with the main approaches in comparative politics and the core methods used. · Lessons from the history and beyond: this part of the course will be dedicated to understanding the origin of the nation-state, the type of polities and regimes, focusing on democracies (meaning and types of democracy), and authoritarian states. · Political structures and institutions: this part of the course provides notions on legislatures, governments, and bureaucracies, constitutional rights and judicial power, elections, and referenda with a focus on the multilevel structure of the European Union. · Who is in there and how it works: this part of the course is dedicated to understanding parties and party systems but also interest groups, social movements, and other core actors of politics adopting both a top-down and a bottom-up perspective. · Culture, communication, and participation: ideas, attitudes, political participation, and communication (with a special focus on populism and Euroscepticism). · Comparative political outcomes: public policies and political change. · Comparative political methods: the course offers an overview of the commonly used methods exploring also interdisciplinary methodologies. · Course summary: refresh all the core “take-aways” of the course, focusing on understanding research texts, their structure, and methods. During the course summary part, students will engage in an exam simulation (either written or oral). The various course sections will be structured to provide the students with basic discipline knowledge alongside some aspects of contemporary political phenomena (e.g.: the effects of the crises, political elections and so on). Furthermore, while discussing the proposed themes references to concrete and current case studies will be done.

Propaedeutic courses
None

Teaching format
The course comprises lectures, seminars, and event participation. Students are strongly encouraged to actively engage during lectures.

Educational objectives
Knowledge and understanding: At the end of the course, students will have acquired the following skills and abilities: fundamentals of political science and understanding of the structure of the discipline; the concept of political power and the conditions for its exercise; the concept of political system; the distinction between empirical and normative approaches; the purpose of theories; the relationship between the state and the individual, the concept of subjective rights, the nature of third-type constitutions; the state, parliament, government and judicial bodies; 7. political parties, interest groups, movements; 8. the European Union as a political system, the process of integration and the prospects for enlargement; globalisation and the logic (and actors) of the international system. Applying knowledge and understanding: Ability to understand, analyse and identify political decision-making processes; Ability to distinguish between political systems based on normative criteria (e.g., distinguishing between democratic and authoritarian systems and their subcategories). Ability to distinguish political systems based on empirical criteria (e.g., distinguishing between parliamentary, presidential, and semi-presidential systems); Ability to analyse and anticipate the effects of particular events and/or actions, such as political elections, on the political system; Ability to understand the political logic of globalisation processes; this allows for the integration of strictly political knowledge with knowledge acquired in related areas such as law and economics, which investigate the same processes from other perspectives; 5Ability to analyse a technical text using appropriate theoretical tools; Ability to produce a reasoned text on a political science topic. Autonomy of judgement Acquisition of the capacity for judgement and of the methodological tools useful for the critical analysis of data, sources, assumptions and implications of scientific practice, of the political, ethical and legal context within which economic phenomena are inscribed and with which they interact Communication skills The course contributes to reaching the following objectives: fluency (oral and written) in Italian, German and English, including translation between these languages. Intercultural competence. Conceptual awareness, ability to summarise and express oneself in writing, particularly with regard to the drafting of scientific or science-based documents Learning skills Promotion of critical thinking and analytical skills to focus on complex problems in their long-term dynamics and in the variety of their implications, including ethical ones

Additional educational objectives and learning outcomes
Attending the lectures is not mandatory. However, attendance coupled with individual study and personal reflection will allow you to know and understand the key concepts, theories, and methods of comparative politics. You will be able to analyze, describe and classify political systems. Furthermore, the course is intended to provide you with a clear understanding of the core methods of political research while you will be able to critically analyze original academic articles. Thanks to the course, you will constructively discuss and judge political questions also concerning contemporary political phenomena (e.g.: populism and Euroscepticism). The course will also allow you to learn and professionally use the specific technical language of comparative politics while providing you with all the instruments to analyze, summarize and evaluate academic text (with a specific focus on original research articles).

Assessment
Please note that even if course attendance is not mandatory, it will determine different exam modalities. Indeed, the exam modalities are to be intended as follows: - Attending students: the exam will be divided in two parts. Please note that you will be judged upon two assignments structured as follows: o Group work (50% of the final grade): you will have the chance to produce a group research work that might take different shapes (e.g.: poster to be presented and showed to the classroom, short audiovisual material, traditional presentation). The work will concern an issue of your choice to be picked up from the course’s program. You will be given all the needed information and scientific material during the course. o Final exam: for attending students the exam will consist of (50% of the final grade): o 10 quick answer questions (short reply) o 2 analytical questions (long reply maximum 15 lines). Please note that that to obtain your final grade you will have to take part to both the activities listed above. Each activity will be judged following the criteria listed below. - Non-attending students: for those of you who will not attend the lectures you will be judged through a written exam that will consist of: o 20 quick answer questions (0.5 points each) o 4 Analytical questions with a maximum of 8 lines answer (2.5 points each) o 2 Analytical questions with a maximum of 15 lines answer (5 points each) Please note that further information concerning the exam modality and schedule will be provided to you during the first lectures of the course.

Evaluation criteria
The evaluation will be based on your ability to recall and apply the content of the assigned readings. Particular attention will be given to the precision and appropriateness of your expression, as well as to your critical engagement with the discipline—namely, your ability to reason critically about the political concepts and phenomena studied. The same evaluation criteria will apply to both attending and non-attending students.