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Dr David Woodruff

This course is available on the BA in Social Anthropology, BSc in History and Politics, BSc in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, BSc in Politics, BSc in Politics and Data Science, BSc in Politics and Economics, BSc in Politics and History, BSc in Politics and International Relations, BSc in Politics and Philosophy and BSc in Social Anthropology. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit and to General Course students.

Students must have completed Introduction to Political Science (GV101).

Other background in political science will be considered as a substitute for GV101 for students outside of Government.

This course will acquaint students with the contemporary study of comparative politics, focusing largely on theories susceptible to testing with narrative historical evidence. Students will learn to address the methodological challenges of developing and testing such theories. The course will treat a wide variety of themes, including the political impact of natural resources in developing countries, social and political revolutions, political and bureaucratic corruption, the political economy of distribution, and political ideologies. With respect to each theme, students will receive a grounding in theories of the topic and samples of application to empirical cases drawn from throughout the developed, developing, and post-Communist world.

This course is delivered through a combination of classes and lectures totalling a minimum of 50 hours across the Autumn, Winter and Spring Terms.

Classes are expected to run from Weeks 2-5 and 7-11 in AT and Weeks 1-5 and 7-11 in WT. There will be a reading week in Week 6 of both terms.

The Week 11 lecture in WT will be a revision lecture and there will be one revision class per group in Week 1 of ST.

Students will be expected to produce 2 essays in the AT and 1 essay in the WT.

The highest-marked formative essay will count for assessment; see below.