Course for international guest/part time students

Faculty

Faculty of Social Sciences

Organization

TÁTK Department of Political Sciences

Code

IRB126

Title

Comparative Politics

Usual semester

Spring

Published semester

2025/26/2

ECTS

4

Language

en

Learning outcomes

The aim of the course is to introduce the most relevant topics, theories and findings of contemporary political science, like democracy, democratization, political transitions, the various forms of contemporary authoritarianism, and a comparative analysis of key elements of political systems (parties and interest groups, voters and elections, political culture, government and decision-making, federalism, and so on). All these issues will serve as academic background and basis for further studies in the fields of IR, human rights, and EU studies. The course is a mandatory prerequisite of further seminars like regional and thematic courses in the 3-4, and the 5-6 semesters, respectively.

Course content

Introduction. Democracy: theory and system Regime changes: transition and consolidation Models of state structure: federal, unitary, and regional states Forms of government and decision-making Majoritarian and consensus democracies. The politics of pillarization. (Lijphart) Parties and party systems Political culture Political participation Political communication Policy-making

Assessment method

Written exam

Bibliography

Mandatory readings: Powell, J. Bingham – Dalton, Russel J. – Strøm, Karen (eds.): Comparative Politics Today. (11th Edition.) Pearson, Harlow, 2015. (selected chapters only) Sartori, Giovanni: Comparative constitutional engineering. An Inquiry into Structures, Incentives and Outcomes. Palgrave Macmillan, London, 1994. (selected chapters only) Caramani, Daniele (ed.): Comparative Politics. (3rd Edition) Oxford: Oxford University Press. (selected chapters only) Additional (supplementary) readings: Dahl, Robert Alan, 1971: Polyarchy. Participation and Opposition. Yale University Press, New Haven. Dahl, Robert Alan: On Democracy. Yale University Press, New Haven, 1998. Huntington, Samuel, 1991: Democracy’s Third Wave. Journal of Democracy, 2(2), pp. 12-34. Krastev, Ivan, 2011: Paradoxes of the New Authoritarianism. Journal of Democracy, 22(2), pp. 11-12. Levitsky, Steven – Way, Lucan A., 2002: The Rise of Competitive Authoritarianism. Journal of Democracy, 13(2), pp. 51-65. Lijphart, Arend: The Politics of Accommodation. Pluralism and Democracy in the Netherlands. University of California Press, Berkeley, 1968. Lijphart, Arend: Democracies: Patterns of Majoritarian & Consensus Government in Twenty-one Countries. Yale University Press, New Haven, 1984. Linz, Juan J. – Stepan, Alfred, 1996: Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation. Southern Europe, South America, and Post-Communist Europe. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore – London. Rustow, Dankwart A., 1970: Transition to Democracy. Towards a Dynamic Model. Comparative Politics, 2(3), pp. 337-363. Schedler, Andreas: The politics of uncertanity. Sustaining and Subverting Electoral Authoritarianism. Oxford University Press, 2013. Schmitter, Philippe C. – Karl, Terry Lynn, 1991: What Is Democracy… And Is Not. Journal of Democracy, 2(3), pp. 75-88. Zakaria, Fareed, 1997: The Rise of Illiberal Democracy. Foreign Affairs, 76(6), pp. 22-43. tbc. (will be available online)

Programmes of the course