Politics

The module explores the world of politics. It aims to provide participants with a knowledge of concepts, ideas and practices to enable them to evaluate political activities and outcomes. This course also offers students the opportunity to discuss, measure and evaluate their own views on politics.

The first segment of five lectures and classes will survey key sets of ideas (ideologies) and concepts that have informed the analysis and practice of politics. Concepts such as the state, society, power, authority and legitimacy will be set out. The place of these concepts in different approaches such as liberalism, Marxism, conservatism and feminism and ecologism will be discussed.

The second segment of two lectures will then concentrate on government and politics – or the practice and application of politics - by taking a look at the British political system. In this section the relationship between institutions, such as Parliament, and concepts practices such as democracy will be delved into.

The final segment of three lectures will look at politics in the international realm and in particular, the political relations between states. This section once again surveys approaches that have been developed to describe and analyse international politics such as realism, liberalism, Marxism and constructivism. An underlying theme of this section will be whether new concepts are needed to understand politics at the international level.

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