Political Institutions Gov

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

This course will provide comparative and theoretical analyses of democratic political institutions. Political institutions are conceived as “the rules of the game”; basically, they establish the domains of public activity, the procedures to select leaders and the rules to make collective decisions. Different rules induce political actors to develop diverse strategies producing different outcomes. We will examine both the origins of the different institutional formulas and their consequences for policy-making, governmental performance, and democratic stability. Major topics include the foundations of political communities at city, state, continental and global levels; the diffusion of democracy in the world; the role of political parties in elections and in government formation; the relations between the executive and the legislative; electoral systems and other forms of representation and decision-making. We will also address the evolution, change and reforms of institutions in the world in a long-term perspective.