Important notice
The course guide is provisional.
The PDF version of the course guide may take a few days to become available in the DDD.
Advanced Topics in Comparative Politics and institutions
Code: 45828Credits: 6
| Degree programme | Type | Course |
|---|---|---|
| Political Science | OP | 1 |
Contact lecturer
- Name :
- John Robert Etherington
- Email :
- john.etherington@uab.cat
Teaching staff
- Jason Hickel
- Eva Ostergaard-Nielsen
Group languages
You can consult this information at the end of the document.
Prerequisites
While there are no formal requisites for this course, given that it is a continuation of the first-term course Theory, Practice and Challenges of Democracy, it is recommended that students have successfully completed the latter before starting this course.
Objectives
This course provides an in-depth, comparative analysis of the key processes transforming contemporary political systems. By examining phenomena such as migration, climate change, socioeconomic inequality, polarization, the digitalization of politics, and democratic backsliding, the course explores how these challenges impact institutional functioning, political representation, and the quality of democracy across various national and regional contexts.
Thus, by the end of the course, students are expected to have developed the capacity to use comparative methodological frameworks to analyse and explain variations in political outcomes across countries, regions, and regimes across the substantive phenomena studied.
Learning outcomes
- CA17 (Analyse local, national, and international political phenomena by identifying interconnections.) Analyse local, national, and international political phenomena by identifying interconnections.
- CA18 (Analyse complex policy issues and propose actionable explanatory and policy responses.) Analyse complex policy issues and propose actionable explanatory and policy responses.
- CA19 (Work in interdisciplinary teams to understand multifaceted policy challenges.) Work in interdisciplinary teams to understand multifaceted policy challenges.
- KA16 (Analyse key transnational phenomena such as migration, climate change, socio-economic inequality and democratic erosion, and their impact on political systems.) Analyse key transnational phenomena such as migration, climate change, socio-economic inequality and democratic erosion, and their impact on political systems.
- KA17 (Explain how theoretical frameworks and empirical studies manifest themselves in different political and territorial contexts.) Explain how theoretical frameworks and empirical studies manifest themselves in different political and territorial contexts.
- KA18 (Identify qualitative and quantitative comparative methods applied to policy.) Identify qualitative and quantitative comparative methods applied to policy.
- SA12 (Systematically compare political systems and processes in different countries, identifying patterns, divergences and causal mechanisms.) Systematically compare political systems and processes in different countries, identifying patterns, divergences and causal mechanisms.
- SA13 (Design original research projects that investigate the causes and consequences of global political challenges.) Design original research projects that investigate the causes and consequences of global political challenges.
- SA14 (Analyse and include diverse data sources to draw meaningful conclusions.) Analyse and include diverse data sources to draw meaningful conclusions.
Contents
- The Political Economy of Democratic Crises
- The Politics of Climate Change
- Democracy and Migration
Learning activities and methodology
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tutorials | 30 | 1.2 | CA19, KA17, SA13 |
| Lectures and Seminars | 32.5 | 1.3 | CA17, CA18, KA16, KA18, SA12, SA14 |
| Preparation of Assigned Readings | 40 | 1.6 | CA17, CA18, KA16, KA18, SA12, SA14 |
| Preparation of Assignments | 20 | 0.8 | CA19, KA17, KA18, SA12, SA13, SA14 |
This course emphasises active student participation in class, tutorials, continuous evaluation through the elaboration and evaluation of assignments related to the different dimensions of the module.
Please note: 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Final Exam | 50% | 2.5 | 0.1 | CA17, CA18, KA16, KA17, KA18, SA12, SA14 |
| Active Participation | 10% | 12 | 0.48 | CA17, CA18, CA19, KA16, KA17, KA18, SA12, SA14 |
| In-Class Assignments | 40% | 13 | 0.52 | CA17, CA18, CA19, KA16, KA17, KA18, SA12, SA13, SA14 |
The evaluation is divided into the following elements:
In-class assignments (40% overall grade): For each session, the respective instructor will specify a task or assignment that can take the form of group presentations and exercises, quizzes on assigned readings, small projects etc. Students will be graded on their best 80% of assignments.
In-class participation (10%): students will be graded on their contributions to in-class debates and discussions.
Final exam (50%): Each instructor will specify one topic of interest related to their respective part of the module and will provide relevant readings. In April, students will be asked to choose one of the topics, which will distributed on a first-come-first-serve basis. The number of slots for each topic will be proportional to the number of sessions given in that part of the module. Students will then prepare the readings for their topic and will be given a specific question to complete on the day of the exam. The exam will take place in the final week of the semester and will last 2 hours 30 minutes. For the exam, students will be allowed to bring printed material to assist them, but there will be no digital support allowed.
The exam will be graded using the following criteria:
- Capacity to synthesize the relevant literature
- Capacity to critically evaluate the relevant literature
- Coherence of the argument
- Originality
Use of AI/LLM
Following the UAB guidelines, this module allows for a ‘restricted use’ of Artificial Intelligence/Large Language Models (AI/LLM), meaning that it is permitted for such tasks as:
- Bibliographical research
- Analysing data
- Linguistic correction and other editing tasks
Students must clearly identify which parts, if any, of their assignments 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, including the prompts used. The lack of transparency of the use of AI in this 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.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism will not be tolerated under any circumstances. Professors will actively seek for potential cases of plagiarism, and anti-plagiarism software will be used to analyses every graded submission. Plagiarism in any written piece will entail a fail in the final mark of the module where plagiarism is committed. For further information check Section 9 of the Student’s Guide. See also these useful guidelines from MIT and Oxford University.
Feedback
Comments on work will be available three weeks at the latest after submission. Please do not hesitate to contact the professors for this feedback.
Submission
For those assignments that need to be handed in, please submit them through the Campus Virtual tasks section, where all graded submissions will be analysed by anti-plagiarism software.
Grading
All submissions will be graded with a numeric grade ranging from 0 to 10, being 10 the best grade.
Late submissions policy
A one point grade penalty will be applied for each day that a student is late with a graded submission.
Attendance
It is compulsory to attend at least at 80% of the sessions in order to pass this module.
Criteria for the “Not Assessable” grade: In accordance with point 9 of article 266 of the UAB Academic Regulations, a student will be classified as “Not Assessable” when they have not provided sufficient evidence of learning to allow for a guaranteed assessment. Within the framework of this module, it will be considered that there is insufficient evidence of assessment when the student has not submitted any continuous assessment activity or taken any test or exam.
Bibliography
- Polanyi, K. The Great Transformation: the political and economic origins of our time. Boston: Beacon Press.
- Biebricher, (2015) “Neoliberalism and Democracy”, Constellations, Volume 22, No 2, pp. 255-266. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8675.12157
- Streek, W. (2014) Buying Time: The Delayed Crisis of Democratic Capitalism. London: Verso.
- Streek, W. (2011) Taking capitalism seriously: towards an institutionalist approach to contemporary political economy. Socio-Economic Review (2011) 9, 137–167
- Blyth, M. (2002) Great Transformations: Economic Ideas and Institutional Change in the Twentieth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Harvey, D. (2007) A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Oxford: OUP.
- Artner, A-M, (2018) “Can Capitalism Be Truly Democratic?”,Review of Radical Political Economics 50:4, 793-809.
- Weeks, J. (2018) “Free Markets and the Decline of Democracy”. Review of Radical Political Economics, 50(4), 637-648.
- Patel and Moore. “Introduction”, in A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things.
- Hickel, Dorninger, Wieland, and Suwandi. 2021. “Imperialist appropriation in the world economy: Drain from the global South through unequal exchange, 1990-2015,”.
- Very short: Hickel, Jason. 2025. “Atmospheric colonization and ecological imperialism in the world-system”, Tricontinental Institute
- Hickel and Sullivan. 2024. “How much growth is required to achieve good lives for all?” World Development Perspectives. (or podcast here)
- Opening statement of the People’s Agreement of Cochabamba.
- Hickel, Jason. 2023. “The double objective of democratic ecosocialism”, Monthly Review (and/or podcast here). And/or: “Can socialism solve the climate crisis?”,Tribune.
- Koopmans, R., & Michalowski, I. (2017). Why do states extend rights to immigrants? Institutional settings and historical legacies across 44 countries worldwide. Comparative Political Studies, 50(1), 41–74. https://doi.org/10.1177/0010414016655533
- Bauböck, R. (Ed.). (2018). Debating transformations of national citizenship. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92719-0
- Lafleur, J.-M. (2015). The enfranchisement of citizens abroad: Variations and explanations. Democratization, 22(5), 840–860. https://doi.org/10.1080/13510347.2014.979163
- Fliess, N., Kiani, A., & Østergaard-Nielsen, E. (2025). Why do autocracies enfranchise their citizens abroad? A large-N event history analysis, 1990–2010. Democratization, 32(3), 659–683. https://doi.org/10.1080/13510347.2024.2383795
- Kapur, D. (2014). Political effects of international migration. Annual Review of Political Science, 17, 479–502. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-polisci-043010-095807
- Escribà-Folch, A., Meseguer, C., & Wright, J. (2022). Migration and democracy: How remittances undermine dictatorships. Princeton University Press. Read Chapter 1, “Introduction,” pp. 1–25. https://doi.org/10.23943/princeton/9780691199382.001.0001
Software
None
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