.
Political Theories
Study Course Description
Course Description Statuss:Approved
Course Description Version:1.00
Study Course Accepted:19.03.2024 14:51:39
| Study Course Information | |||||||||
| Course Code: | SZF_009 | LQF level: | Level 6 | ||||||
| Credit Points: | 2.67 | ECTS: | 4.00 | ||||||
| Branch of Science: | Politics | Target Audience: | Political Science | ||||||
| Study Course Supervisor | |||||||||
| Course Supervisor: | Elvīra Šimfa | ||||||||
| Study Course Implementer | |||||||||
| Structural Unit: | Faculty of Social Sciences | ||||||||
| The Head of Structural Unit: | |||||||||
| Contacts: | Dzirciema street 16, Rīga, szf rsu[pnkts]lv | ||||||||
| Study Course Planning | |||||||||
| Full-Time - Semester No.1 | |||||||||
| Lectures (count) | 10 | Lecture Length (academic hours) | 2 | Total Contact Hours of Lectures | 20 | ||||
| Classes (count) | 10 | Class Length (academic hours) | 2 | Total Contact Hours of Classes | 20 | ||||
| Total Contact Hours | 40 | ||||||||
| Study course description | |||||||||
| Preliminary Knowledge: | For successful completion of the study course, students must have a prior knowledge of the basic concepts of political science. | ||||||||
| Objective: | The course aims to look at political theories of the 20th century, with particular emphasis on those that have maintained their relevance also in the early 21st century. The course is intended as a follow-up to the course “Introduction to Political Theory”, which covered key political theories until the 20th century. So listeners should have preliminary knowledge of political theories of Hobbes and Locke, utilitarists and Marx. As we know, there is no clear agreement on what the concept of “political theory” means in special or popular literature. | ||||||||
| Topic Layout (Full-Time) | |||||||||
| No. | Topic | Type of Implementation | Number | Venue | |||||
| 1 | Political theory in the 20th century | Lectures | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 2 | Political theory of liberalism | Lectures | 2.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 3 | John Stuart Mill “On Liberty” | Classes | 2.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 4 | Isaiah Berlin “Two Concepts of Liberty” | Classes | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 5 | Theory of justice | Lectures | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| Classes | 2.00 | auditorium | |||||||
| 6 | Marxism and Frankfurt School | Lectures | 2.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 7 | Post-Modernism and political theories | Lectures | 2.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 8 | Criticism of capitalist society in Marxism and Post-Marxism | Classes | 2.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 9 | Post-modernists about power and liberal society | Classes | 1.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 10 | Feminist and “green” political theory | Lectures | 2.00 | auditorium | |||||
| 11 | Gender and sex in politics | Classes | 2.00 | auditorium | |||||
| Assessment | |||||||||
| Unaided Work: | As part of the study course, students will be required to study the required readings (up to 100 pages of text for each class), write essays on the specified topics, pass seminars, write a report, and pass the final course examination. To assess the overall quality of the study course, the student must complete the course evaluation questionnaire on the Student Portal. | ||||||||
| Assessment Criteria: | • attendance of lectures and seminars 5%; • participation in seminars 15%; • summaries 30%; • report 25%; • final examination 25%. | ||||||||
| Final Examination (Full-Time): | Exam (Written) | ||||||||
| Final Examination (Part-Time): | |||||||||
| Learning Outcomes | |||||||||
| Knowledge: | Following completion of the course, the student will acquire knowledge of principles on which the governance of society should be based and how to ensure compliance with these principles. | ||||||||
| Skills: | Will be able to understand both the philosophy of politics, conceptual and methodological issues of political science, and predicting theories of political processes. | ||||||||
| Competencies: | To be able to understand and apply political theories in research. | ||||||||
| Bibliography | |||||||||
| No. | Reference | ||||||||
| Required Reading | |||||||||
| 1 | Visa literatūra ir angļu valodā un piemērota gan latviešu, gan angļu plūsmas studentiem | ||||||||
| 2 | M., Reus-Smit, C., True, J. 2022. Theories of International Relations. Houndmills, New York. Palgrave Macmillan. | ||||||||
| 3 | Kenneth Waltz. Man, the State, and War. Columbia University Press. New York: 2018. | ||||||||
| 4 | John W.Creswell, Research Desing. Qualitative, Quantitative and Mixed Methods Approaches, 3rd ed. Sage, 2018. | ||||||||
| 5 | Jurgensen, Knud E. International Relations Theory – A New Introduction. 2nd edition. Palgrave, 2018. | ||||||||
| Additional Reading | |||||||||
| 1 | Kenneth Waltz. Theory of International Politics. Boston etc.: McGraw Hills, 1979. | ||||||||
| 2 | Stephen Van Evera. Guide to Methods for Students of Political Science. – Cornell University Press. – Ithaca and London. – 1997. | ||||||||
