GV101      One Unit
Introduction to Political Science

This information is for the 2025/26 session.

Course Convenor

Availability

The course is an introduction to the multiple ways political scientists study important political questions. To do so, the course will be divided in three parts. 

In the first half of the AT, students are introduced to political concepts. What is theory and what is evidence? How do we define different political regimes and does it matter? How do we characterize institutions and what are the effects of different institutions? Who are thought to be the main political actors and do they differ in democracies and autocracies?

In the second half of the AT, students are introduced to the most used methods in political science. We will have a brief look at game theory, case study analysis, and large-N analyses. We will illustrate each method we cover with examples from papers published in political science or related fields. 

In the WT, students are exposed to research problems that have interested political scientists in recent years. This term is centered around five themes, and we will devote two weeks to each of them. Themes change on a yearly basis. Examples of themes that have been or could be covered are: economic inequality and political inequality, identity politics, the effect of social media on politics, autocracy vs democracy. The last theme each year will be determined after polling students’ interests in the first few weeks of the AT.

15 hours of lectures and 9 hours of classes in the Autumn Term.
15 hours of lectures and 10 hours of classes in the Winter Term.
1 hours of classes in the Spring Term.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Autumn and Winter Term.

Multiple choice quiz weekly

Problem sets

Essay in Winter Term Week 7

Students will be expected to undertake weekly multiple-choice questions to learn the course material and practice for the related summative assessment, one problem set during the winter break, and a formative essay due Week 7 of the WT.

W Clark, M Golder and S Nadenichek Golder, Foundations of Comparative Politics, Sage, 2019.

Exam (40%), duration: 120 Minutes in the Spring exam period

Essay (40%, 1500 words) in Spring Term Week 1

Multiple choice quiz (20%) in Winter Term Week 11

GENERAL COURSE STUDENTS ONLY:

The Class Summary Grade for General Course students will be calculated as follows: 75% class participation (including attendance and contribution), and 25% formative essay.

The Exam Grade for General Course students will be 40% essay, 40% exam, and 20% multiple choice questions.