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Comparative Politics II

Code: 101080
Credits: 6
2026/2027
Degree programme Type Course
Political Science and Public Management OB 3
International Relations OB 3

Contact lecturer

Name :
Eva Ostergaard-Nielsen
Email :
eva.ostergaard@uab.cat

Teaching staff

Eva Ostergaard-Nielsen
Pablo Castaño Tierno
Luisa Faustini Torres

Group languages

You can consult this information at the end of the document.

Prerequisites

Comparative Politics I 

Objectives

The main objective of this course is to provide theoretical and methodological tools relevant for the comparative analysis of politics across the world. The course covers a broad span of types of political regimes including both democratization and autocratic resilience and the factors that might help us understand these processes. Students will engage with lectures on different themes across in particular the Americas, Africa and Asia.

This course follows on from comparative politics 1 which focuses on the study of mainly EU countries.

Learning outcomes

  1. Working in teams and networking, particularly in interdisciplinary conditions.
  2. Identifying sources of data and conducting bibliographic and documentary searches.
  3. Synthesizing and critically analysing information.
  4. Interpreting and applying English texts in an academic way.
  5. Arguing from different theoretical perspectives.
  6. Demonstrating good writing skills in different contexts.
  7. Managing the available time in order to accomplish the established objectives and fulfil the intended task.
  8. Working autonomously.
  9. Demonstrating the comprehension of the structure and functioning of political systems in the internal and international arena, both in the analytic area and in the elaboration of intervention proposals or public policies.
  10. Connecting the different components that shape the structure and operations of political systems and the environment where they interact.
  11. Analysing the electoral processes, including campaigns, parties' electoral strategies, political scenarios and analysis and interpretation of electoral results.
  12. Explaining political, individual and collective attitudes and behaviours, as well as the education process and expression of political preferences.
  13. Identifying and distinguishing the functioning of the electoral processes.
  14. Demonstrating knowledge about the structure and working of the European Union and its main institutions, as well as identifying the main political actors and recognising the main means of integration.
  15. Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
  16. Students must develop the necessary learning skills to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
  17. Identify data sources and carry out rigorous bibliographical and documentary searches.
  18. Use metatheoretical data to argue and establish plausible relation of causality and establish ways of validating or rejecting them.
  19. Draw up comparative analyses of different political systems, identifying the way in which differences and similarities are argued.
  20. Identify the main actors, structures and operation of internal and international political systems from a comparative perspective.
  21. Identify the main actor, structure and operation of different political systems .
  22. Analyse the public policies of different countries and political systems.

Contents


Introduction


- State formation and democracy


-Theories of democratic development


-Theories of autocratic resilience


-How to measure and compare democracy



Political regimes, institutions and mobilization


-Presidentialism in comparative perspective


-Federalism and secessionism applied to concrete cases globally


-Populism in Latin America and Asia


-International migration and democratization



Further regional perspectives


-Democracy and Autocracy in the Middle East


-Electoral democracies and autocracies in Africa


-Asian political development, China and India.

Learning activities and methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning outcomes
Writing 15 0.6 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 15, 18
Lectures and seminars 49.5 1.98 1, 5, 9, 10, 15, 20, 21, 22
Reading 30 1.2 4, 7, 16
Tutorials 4 0.16
Individual study 30 1.2 2, 3, 4, 8, 16, 17

Directed activities:
- Lectures by the instructor
- Seminars: discussion of readings and exercises 
- Presentation of papers: presentations by gropus, comments and evaluation 
 
Supervision:
- Individual support to write papers and follow up of the course 
 
Autopnomous activities:
- Readings: papers, articles, book chapters 
- Individual study
- Writing papers and completing exercises: question on readings, comparative analysis of various countries followingthe guidelines provided by instructors. 
- Evaluation: Individual exercises, written exams.

 

Annotation: within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.

Assessment

Continuous assessment activities

Title Weight Hours ECTS Learning outcomes
Readings control and presentations 30% 8 0.32 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22
Exam 40% 3.5 0.14 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22
Group Paper 30% 10 0.4 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22
  • The evaluation of this subject will be made from the following deliveries by the student:
    Exam: 40% of the grade.
  • Reading and exercise controls in seminars: 30% of the grade
  • Course paper:30% of the grade, group paper of 2-4 students (depending on class size) on one of the proposed topics.

 

Important considerations:

  • The course cannot be passed without a grade in all three forms of evaluation of this course: seminars, group paper and exam. 
  • The course cannot be passed without passing the exam. The exam may not be exactly the same for the groups of morning and afternoon. 
  • There is mandatory presence at seminars to have access to the reading control or other forms of evaluations.
  • It is mandatory to comply with the dates for all deliveries (presentations, group work) in order to obtain feedback/grades.  
  • There are two exam dates. Those who pass on the first date will not be able to appear on the second. Only those who have failed on the first date may present themselves for the re-examination where their max grade can be 5.

Not evaluable: 

Any student who has participated in any of the evaluated activities cannot opt for being 'no avaluable'.
 
Single assessment 
  • There will be a single assessment evaluation on the exam date set by the Faculty.
  • The single assessment will include different three assessment activities where the the student must demonstrate having acquired the sameskills and competencies as students who opt for continuous assessment.
  • The tests will consist of an exam, a control of all the readings of the course and an individual work with identical weights to those of the continuous assessment.
  • The details of the single assessment will be explained in the beginning of the course.
     
     
     
    Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI): 
    For this subject, the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies is allowed exclusively in support tasks, such as bibliographic or information searches, text correction or translations. The student must clearly identify which parts have been generated with this technology, specify the tools used and include a critical reflection on how these have influenced the process and the final result of the activity. The lack of transparency of the use of AI in any assessable activity will be considered a lack of academic honesty and may lead to a partial or total penalty in the grade of the activity, or greater sanctions in serious cases.

Bibliography

Basic, more specific readings for seminars to be provided at beginning of course. 

Boix, Carles and Susan C. Stokes (eds.) (2007). The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Politics, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Croissant, Aurel and Philip Lorenz (2018), Comparative Politics of Southeast Asia, Amsterdam: Springer

Levitsky, Steven and Daniel Ziblatt (2019), How Democracies Die, New York: Crown.

Linz, Juan (1990) “The Perils of presidentialism” Jornal of democracy, Vol 1, N.1

Meredith, Martin (2005) The State of Africa, A History of Fifty Years of Independence. Free press 

Roitman Rosenmann, Marcos (2019) Por la Razón o la Fuerza. Historia y Memoria de los Golpes de Estado, Dictaduras y Resistencias en América Latina, Ed. Siglo XXI España.

Siaroff, A. (2022). Comparing Political Regimes: A Thematic Introduction to Comparative Politics. University of Toronto Press.

 

Software

 Freedom House, VDEM, Polity IV, Economist Inteligence Unit 

Course groups and languages

The information provided is provisional until November 30. After this date, you will be able to consult the language of each group through this link. To access the information, you will need to enter the course CODE

Type of teaching Group Language Semester Shift
(TE) Theory 1 English second semester morning-mixed
(SEM) Seminars 1 English second semester morning-mixed
(SEM) Seminars 10 English second semester morning-mixed
(TE) Theory 51 Catalan second semester afternoon
(SEM) Seminars 51 Catalan second semester afternoon