UCL - Political Egineering and Elections

[SPRI2210]

[30h + 15h] 5 credits

Teacher(s): Lieven De Winter, Benoît Rihoux

Language: French

Level: Second

Aims
Main themes
Content and teaching methods
Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Aims

After completion of this specialized course, the student will have acquired a series of technical skills in the field of institutional and organizational design, as well as a capacity of critical reflection and of response to practical questions or queries.

Main themes

The main topic of the course is that of " institutional design ", at the level of institutions (e.g. electoral engineer-ing, management of assemblies, party funding, etc.) as well as at the level of political organizations (parties, interest groups etc.). The core themes are first tackled following some theories (comparative politics and organ-izational theories), then mostly following a practical approach (response scenarios vis-à-vis concrete situations or problems).
Each year, two main themes are selected, according to their objective importance (saliency etc.), to the debates they may raise, and possibly also in connection with a concrete request linked with an ongoing project. Each one of the themes is first approached from a theoretical angle, then through hands-on project work, so as to elaborate response or action scenarios.

Content and teaching methods

On the one hand, the course is taught in a lecture-based format (presentation of theories and previous cases in a comparative perspective), and on the other hand through project work (seminar-style follow-up) on the practical case(s).

Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Evaluation : project report (more details in the detailed course outline).