Year Three Subject
PS301: Political Thoughts and Ideologies
Political theory can be considered a tradition of discourse or a mode of thinking about the significance of political events that can pave ways to a better understanding of our contemporary societies, but is politics necessarily driven purely by sub-rational motives such as material interests or can ideas make a difference? This course is designed to introduce and explore the history, nature, and evolution of political theory—a realm of intellectual inquiry where we examine our most basic concepts and definitions, engage in normative judgment of our existing systems of government, and articulate and defend a vision of the system of political organization we envision to be ideal. It is meant to offer critical insight into the different ways in which political thinkers have responded to the challenges and divisive issues in the complexity of our contemporary political world. By studying the evolving constructs of political theory mainly in the past several centuries, students will gain insight into different approaches that leaders use to solve complex problems of governance and maintenance of social order and that which revolutionizes the ways we come to understand democracy, justice, rights and politics in a broader sense mainly from the 18th Century, if not ancient time.
PS302: Politics of Economic Development
This course aims to provide a critical overview of the politics that directly impacts the economic development. The course introduces students to the theoretical and empirical studies of international development. One of the core objectives of the course is to deepen students’ knowledge and insights into analytical framework and empirical evidence of the influence of politics on economic development so that students can draw on viable policy solutions and recommendations that can be applied in various policy contexts. The course covers numerous substantive topics, including but not limited to state capacity, economic development based on democratic principles, political competition, political inequality and exclusion, corruption, transparency and accountability, political clientelism, political parties and interest groups, political conflicts, and international politics.
PS303: Introduction to Research
This course is intended to provide students with basic, essential research concepts and how-to approaches to research that can be applied to most social settings, especially in International Studies. This course will be very helpful for conducting small-scale projects and for writing the senior project in the final year. In addition, the concepts in the course will help students critically read and deal with various research findings they may encounter in the future.
PS304: Good Governance in the 21st Century
Good Governance in the 21st Century considers a wide variety of desirable features of democratic political regimes pertinent to government transparency and accountability, political participation, economic growth and development, equality, social and economic predictability, political stability, rule of law, effectiveness of public service delivery. This course is designed to provide a critical examination and insight into conceptual debates, contemporary issues, challenges of policy practices, and viable policy solutions associated to the quality of good government.
PS305: International Human Rights Law
This course examines the philosophy of human rights protection; the universal protection of human rights in international human rights law, in particular through the work of the UN Human Rights Council and other treaty-based committees. It offers an overview of the existing conventions and institutions. Indeed, this course is designed to equip students with the knowledge and skills—notably legal expertise sensitivity to cultural differences and knowledge of the UN system and its NGOs interfaces—necessary to be effective human rights workers and/or advocates within governments, NGOs and organizations more generally.
PS306: Ethics and Values in Public Policy
This course places a great emphasis on ideal conceptions of the common good, moral reasoning, and normative values in public policy that influence how policy actors develop and justify policy preferences. Students will familiarize themselves with various critical situations whereby the policy analysis processes and the practical policy solutions can be formed based on moral and ideological values in order to address ethical challenges and contemporary domestic and international policy issues. The course examines the tensions between politics and ethics, different moral theories, the justification and interpretation of policy preferences by various political actors, institutional arrangements, moral arguments, systematic analysis of values, and policy analysis and recommendations.
PS307: Comparative Politics
Designed as a guide to comparative politics, this course looks at institutions and policies of various countries and regions from cross-national/regional perspectives. Topics covered include what comparative politics is, the history of comparative politics, political development, political culture, challenges and alternatives to the development approach, communism, democracy and democratization, and applicability of the various models and paradigms of comparative politics, as well as what lies ahead in comparative politics. Students will be exposed to mono-country, bi-country, and multi-country comparative studies in various fields.
PS308: Political Parties and Interest Groups
This course aims to investigate not only a theoretical examination of the roles that political parties and interest groups play in politics but also an empirical examination of their political activities and political tactics they use to pursue their goals. These two groups are commonly known by negative claims about their roles that can undermine democratic values and generate sectional interests of a small portion of population. In this connection, the course encourages students to critically evaluate the claims about the roles of political parties and interest groups so that they can make a rational judgment of what roles these two entities actually play with a great emphasis on the recent and current issue areas.
PS309: Research Methods in Political Science
This course is designed to equip students with fundamental concepts and methods of research in political science. Students will familiarize themselves with the ways in which scientific methods of research can be designed to study human behaviors through both qualitative and quantitative methods of analysis. Students will learn how to identify research questions, conduct literature review, develop hypotheses, and measure variables. Furthermore, research design in political science will be discussed precisely throughout the course. In the end, students will build up their research knowledge by applying the concepts they have learn in a real research project in order that they can identify and work on research findings and discussions within this course or in the future.
PS310: International Political Economy
This course aims to equip students with broad critical thinking on the current knowledge of the global political economy through the discussions of different theories, approaches, and definitions. This course will look into specific practical applications of economic and political theories at regional and global levels. It helps students understand the current issues surrounding development and financial system.
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