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The goal of this course is to introduce students to the main topics of comparative politics, as well as to the comparative method. Students will learn the basic skills of how to do social science research and how to link theory and empirical phenomena.

Introduction to Comparative Politics is an entry level course designed to give students a first overview of the field of comparative politics. The class will focus on studying and evaluating the effect of democratic institutions such as the type of the executive (presidents vs. prime minister), the type of electoral system (first-past-the-post vs. proportional), the type of governing structure (unitary vs. federal), as well as the different type of systems of government (democracy vs. autocracy).  We will spend some time discussing the comparative method and its various empirical forms (qualitative and quantitative studies, case or large-N studies). Through discussions on real-world political phenomena, we will evaluate the usefulness of each method. Individual classes will consist of a lecture, discussion and presentations.

 The grades will be determined based on participation, attendance, research paper, and presentations.

 The required text which we will use for the course is Principles of Comparative Politics, 2nd Edition, (2012) by William Roberts Clark (University of Michigan), Matt Golder (Pennsylvania State University) and Sona Nadenichek Golder (Pennsylvania State University) printed by SAGE and CQ Press. ISBN is 978-1-60871-679-1.

positive completion of the module according to § 5 Para 1 No 1