Comparative Political Parties
Course content
This course aims to expose students to the literature and research on political parties. The course will explore many of the foundational questions surrounding political parties. These include questions such as: why do political parties form? How are they organized? What kinds of roles do they play in society? How do they link the wider electorate to the government? Why do people support one political party but not another? In exploring these questions, this course will also take a global approach and examine parties from across the world. Students will thus walk away from the course with a more holistic understanding of the many different roles and forms that political parties can take in contemporary societies.
The course will be divided into two core modules. The first will focus on the core themes of party politics. These include party formation, party organizations, party systems and types, party responsiveness, and party competition. The second module takes a global perspective and surveys party systems from each region of the world. These include American parties, European parties, Latin American parties, African parties, and Asian parties. Regional experts on each region will be invited as guest speakers to present a broad perspective of the unique traits of parties from that region, or to present original research. Students will also be able to hone their research skills through a final research paper on a party related topic of their choosing.
Full-degree students enrolled at the Department of Political Science, UCPH
- MSc in Political Science
- MSc in Social Science
- MSc in Security Risk Management
- Bachelor in Political Science
Full-degree students enrolled at the Faculty of Social Science, UCPH
- Bachelor and Master Programmes in Anthropology
- Bachelor and Master Programmes in Psychology
- Master Programme in Social Data Science
- Master Programme in Global Development
The course is open to:
- Exchange and Guest students from abroad
- Credit students from Danish Universities
- Open University students
Knowledge:
- A broad and in depth understanding of foundational work on political parties as well as the different roles they play in different societies.
Skills:
- Read and synthesize English language research on parties. There will also be the opportunity for collaborative group work including discussions, seminars, and group presentations so student will develop their oral communication skills. Lastly, students will be expected to write an original research paper, thereby improving their research skills.
Competences:
- Critical thinking, comparative analysis, research design
Each class session will be split between lectures and group
discussion. The lecturer will cover the essential material from the
readings, after which there will be a group activity. These will be
different every week and can include breaking off into small groups
for group discussion, formal group presentations, or interactive
activities (for example, for the week on American parties, there
are online tools allowing one to design electoral districts, which
help illustrate why the US has a 2 party system).
The second module on global parties will have guest speakers and
lectures.
Tentative:
- Abou‐Chadi, Tarik and Werner Krause. 2020. “The Causal Effect of Radical Right Success on Mainstream Parties’ Policy Positions: A Regression Discontinuity Approach.” BJPS. 50.3: 829‐847.
- Aldrich, John. Why Parties? A Second Look. 2011. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
- Boix, Carles. 1999. “Setting the Rules of the Game: The Choice of Electoral Systems in Advanced Democracies.” APSR. 93.3: 609‐624.
- Chandra, Kanchan. 2004. Why Ethnic Parties Succeed: Patronage and Ethnic Head Counts in India. New York: Cambridge UP.
- Cox, Gary. 1997. Making Votes Count: Cambridge: Cambridge UP. Ch. 8. [C]
- Downs, Anthony. 1957. An Economic Theory of Democracy.
- Greene, Kenneth F. 2010. “The Political Economy of Single‐Party Dominance.” Comparative Political Studies. 43.9: 1‐27.
- Hidalgo, F. Daniel and Simeon Nichter. 2016. “Voter Buying: Shaping the Electorate through Clientelism.ʺ American Journal of Political Science. 60.2: 436‐455.
- Hicken, Allen, Edward Aspinall, Meredith L. Weiss, and Burhanuddin Muhtadi. 2022. “Buying Brokers: Electoral Handouts beyond Clientelism in a Weak‐Party State.” World Politics. 74.1: 77‐120.
- Inglehart, Ronald. 1997. Modernization and Post‐Modernization: Cultural, Economic, and Political Change in 43 Societies. Princeton UP.
- Katz, Richard and Mair, Peter. 1995. “Changing Models of Party Organization and Party Democracy: The Emergence of the Cartel Party.” Party Politics 1.1: 5‐2.
- Kalyvas, Stathis. 1996. The Rise of Christian Democracy in Europe. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP.
- Kirchheimer, Otto. 1990. “The Catch‐All Party” in The West European Party System, Peter Mair, ed. Pgs. 50‐60.
- Klüver, Heike and Jae‐Jae Spoon. 2016. “Who Responds? Voters, Parties and Issue Attention.” British Journal of Political Science. 46.3: 633‐654.
- Lipset, Seymour Martin and Stein Rokkan. 1967 [1990]. “Cleavage Structures, Party Systems, and Voter Alignments.” In The West European Party System, Peter Mair, ed. Pgs. 91‐138.
- Lupu, Noam. 2013. “Party Brands and Partisanship: Theory with Evidence from a Survey Experiment in Argentina.” APSR. 57.1: 49‐64.
- Meguid, Bonnie. 2005. “Competition between Unequals: The Role of Mainstream Party Strategy and Niche Party Success.” APSR. 50.3: 513‐529.
- O’Grady, Tom and Tarik Abou‐Chadi. 2019. “Not So Responsive after All: European Parties Do Not Respond to Public Opinion Shifts across Multiple Issue Dimensions.” Research & Politics. (October). 1‐7.
- Schlesinger, Joseph. 1984. “On the Theory of Party Organization.” Journal of Politics. 46: 369‐400.
- Somer‐Topcu, Zeynep. 2015. “Everything to Everyone: The Electoral Consequence of the Broad Appeal Strategy in Europe.” AJPS. 59.4: 841‐854.
- Stokes, Susan. 2005. “Perverse Accountability. A Formal Model of Machine Politics with Evidence from Argentina.ʺ APSR. 99.3: 315‐325.
- Strøm, Kaare. 1990. “A Behavioral Theory of Competitive Parties.” AJPS. 34.2: 565‐598.
- Thachil, Tariq. 2014. “Elite Parties, Poor Voters: Theory and Evidence from India.” APSR. 108.2: 454‐477.
- Thomson, Robert, et al. 2017. “The Fulfillment of Parties’ Election Pledges: A Comparative Study on the Impact of Power Sharing.” AJPS. 61.3: 527‐542.
- Van Cott, Donna Lee and Roberta Rice. 2006. “The Emergence and Performance of Indigenous Peoples’ Parties in South America: A Sub‐national Statistical Analysis.” Comparative Political Studies. 39.6: 709‐32.
Intro to Comparative Politics, Intro to research methods.
When registered you will be signed up for exam.
- Full-degree students – sign up at Selfservice on KUnet
- Exchange and guest students from abroad – sign up through Mobility Online and Selfservice- read more through this website.
- Credit students from Danish universities - sign up through this website.
- Open University students - sign up through this website.
The dates for the exams are found here Exams – Faculty of Social Sciences - University of Copenhagen (ku.dk)
Please note that it is your own responsibility to check for overlapping exam dates.
- ECTS
- 7,5 ECTS
- Type of assessment
-
Home assignment
- Type of assessment details
- Free written assignment.
See the section regarding exam forms in the programme curriculum for more information on guidelines and scope. - Aid
- All aids allowed
- Marking scale
- 7-point grading scale
- Censorship form
- No external censorship
- Re-exam
-
In the semester where the course takes place: Free written assignment
In subsequent semesters: Free written assignment
Criteria for exam assessment
Meet the subject's knowledge, skill and competence criteria, as described in the goal description, which demonstrates the minimally acceptable degree of fulfillment of the subject's learning outcome.
Grade 12 is given for an outstanding performance: the student lives up to the course's goal description in an independent and convincing manner with no or few and minor shortcomings
Grade 7 is given for a good performance: the student is confidently able to live up to the goal description, albeit with several shortcomings
Grade 02 is given for an adequate performance: the minimum acceptable performance in which the student is only able to live up to the goal description in an insecure and incomplete manner
Single subject courses (day)
- Category
- Hours
- Class Instruction
- 28
- Preparation
- 83
- Exercises
- 40
- Exam Preparation
- 55
- English
- 206
Kursusinformation
- Language
- English
- Course number
- ASTK18466U
- ECTS
- 7,5 ECTS
- Programme level
- Full Degree Master
Bachelor
- Duration
-
1 semester
- Placement
- Autumn And Spring
- Studyboard
- Department of Political Science, Study Council
Contracting department
- Department of Political Science
- Department of Anthropology
- Department of Psychology
- Social Data Science
Contracting faculty
- Faculty of Social Sciences
Course Coordinator
- Matthias Benjamin Zuk Avina (3-72667b456e6b7833707a336970)
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Kursusinformation for indskrevne studerende