Course Code: POLS 2003
Academic Year: 2024-2025
From Ancient Greece to the Arab Spring, ideas of democracy have occupied a catalytic position at the heart of global politics. But what does it mean to say that one country is democratic and another is not? Is democracy the ideal form of government for all countries? How do differences in economic and cultural development shape processes of democratization? Students are invited to explore these and related questions within the framework of comparative politics as a discipline. In the process, students are introduced to the primary theoretical models and empirical methods used by researchers in the field. Students proceed by considering the history of democracy, before more systematically evaluating the diverse economic, cultural, systemic and institutional factors at play in processes of democratization. At the end of this course, students will have gained insight into the complexities of both democratization and comparative research methodologies as well as the regional and experiential diversity of global politics.