This course focuses on the historical construction of the modern political system. The state, the citizenship, nationality and globalization are the main points of focus. Therefore, course graduates should be able to analyse the social and historical context of the political process, understand issue frame construction and the weight of structures within social evolutions.

This course focuses on the historical construction of the modern political system. The state, the citizenship, nationality and globalization are the main points of focus. Therefore, course graduates should be able to analyse the social and historical context of the political process, understand issue frame construction and the weight of structures within social evolutions.

Active lecture/seminar/workshop/tutorial participation

+written test  multiple choice 

 the compulsory reading? The WHOLE  book from Fukuyama: The origins of political order plus the content of the lectures

Password for log in to moodle course:

 politika

　

Topics for the exam 2023:

 

1.      Pre-state forms of politics: Bands, Tribes, Chiefdoms (simple chiefdom, complex chiefdom)

2.        Early state: Theories of early state origin:

a.      Internal Conflict theories

b.      External conflict theories

c.       Population pressure, irrigation

d.      The leadership theories

e.      Systems theories

3.      Cases of early state origin (Mesopotamia, Egypt, Mesoamerica, Peru),

4.      Oriental despotism, hydraulic theory, China and India

5.      Patrimonialism by Max Weber

a.      Gerontocracy and primary patriarchalism

b.      Pure patrimonialism

c.       examples: Ancient Egypt, Persian empire, Merovingian empire,

d.      Eisenstadt’s concept of patrimonialism

6.      Feudalism by Max Weber

a.      Difference between the fief and the beneficium

b.      Contractual nature  of the relationship between the senior and the vassal.

c.       centralized feudalism introduced by the Normans

d.      Andreski comment of feudalism.

7.      Politics in Islamic world, military slavery

8.      The polity of estates (Ständestaat) and the Absolutist state

9.      Framework for  early modern state building by Fukuyama

                                                              i.       Weak absolutism

                                                            ii.       Successful absolutism

                                                          iii.       Failed oligarchy

                                                           iv.       Accountable government

10.   Development of Parliaments.

a.      Difference between French and English Parliament

b.        Patterns of the developments of the parliaments:

1.      Relatively long and continuous development

2.      Discontinuous development

3.      Late adoption of parliamentary forms

11.  Theories of the modern state

class theory

pluralist theory

elitist theory

Institutional statism

 

 

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