Introduction to Political Science
Module Code: PO1600/PO1601
Module Name: Introduction to Political Science
- ECTS Weighting: 10
- Semester/Term Taught: Michaelmas + Hilary Term
- Contact Hours: 2 lectures per week; 1 tutorial per fortnight
- Module Personnel 2013–14: Professor Jaqueline Hayden
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
- Analyse, specify and appraise differing conceptions of power and how it affects them in their daily lives.
- Discriminate between differing theoretical conceptions of the role of the state and evaluate the impact of these differing conceptions on citizens.
- Design a political structure that reflects their conception of an ideal polity and justify and interpret how the institutions chosen will support that conception.
- Evaluate the importance of concepts such as the separation of powers and the role of judicial review and estimate the significance of such institutions in a democracy. In particular students will be able to assess the impact of judicial review on social change in Ireland since the 1970's.
- Differentiate between theories of international relations and evaluate the explanatory power of these theories by reference to particular episodes in international politics.
- Appraise the claim that the study of human behaviour can be conducted scientifically. They will be able to discriminate and explain the key arguments made by those who say that politics can be studied using the methods of the natural sciences.
- Summarize the range of research tools they would use if they were to engage in `scientific' research at a future date.
Module Learning Aims
This course aims to achieve two key things. First it seeks to equip students with a basic knowledge of the key problems and questions around which politics revolves. Secondly it tries to equip students with the fundamental conceptual, theoretical and analytical tools used in the consideration of political questions. A notable feature of this course is that guest lectures will offer their specialist knowledge of particular political problems with the aim of bridging the gap between academic analysis and real life politics. In a phrase, the course aims to identify the core issues and debates at the heart of political discourse as well as introducing students to a variety of different theoretical approaches to analysing political questions.
Module Content
This course is designed both for those who will never formally study politics again after 1st year and also for those who hope to take politics for their degree. As such, it tries to introduce students to the big issues in politics and whet the appetites of those who want to study these big issues more closely in subsequent courses.
Recommended Reading List
Students are encouraged to read newspapers, political magazines and to seek out information from political web sites which are highlighted during lectures. Although there is no core text - Andrew Heywood's `Politics', 3rd edition, 2007 (Palgrave) serves as a good introduction to the key the themes of the course.
Assessment Details
One 1,500 word take-home essay worth 20% of the overall mark for the course
1 x 3-hour examination