Politics BA

Core modules:

Political Analysis 1: An Introduction to Research and Scholarship

This module introduces students to the study of politics as an academic discipline. More specifically, it involves discovering different ways to research the dynamics of the political worlds around us. Students will simultaneously develop a range of independent study skills whilst acquiring the foundational knowledge and skills needed to build, test and evaluate rigorous accounts of political problems. Students will learn through a combination of lectures, seminars, and independent study, and they will be assessed based on one reflective portfolio and an exam.

20 credits

Introduction to Western Political Thought

This module provides students with an introduction to political theory as a distinctive way of thinking about politics, via engaging with some of the most influential and renowned thinkers and texts from the history of Western political thought. In doing so it will also confront some of the most enduring conceptual and normative political questions: what is the state and why do we need it?Why should we obey the law? Can violence ever be justified? What are the limits, if any, of political power? What legitimates political rule? Why does society treat men and women differently, and what would it be for society to treat them equally? Is it justifiable for politicians to act immorally?

Through the study of this selection of seminal texts, you will not only gain an appreciation of some of the historically most influential and important philosophical responses to enduring political questions, but will also be challenged to evaluate those responses, and thereby start doing political theory for yourself. At the same time, you will develop an understanding of the various key political concepts that you will encounter and can apply to the analysis of contemporary issues throughout your degree.

20 credits

Optional modules:

British Politics

This module will introduce students to key concepts and debates in British politics through an examination of post-1976 British political history. Each lecture will take as its starting-point one day in recent British history and will describe what happened on that day and what happened as a result of that day. Each of the seminars will then follow that discussion: paying particular attention to concepts and ideas within the study of politics which can help us make sense of those events.

20 credits

Introduction to Comparative Politics

This module examines the utility of the comparative approach to politics with a particular focus on democracies, dictatorships, and semi-democratic regimes. The key features of each regime type are considered and these are used to explain the nature of the comparative method, its strengths and weaknesses. This course also applies a comparative lens to processes such as democratisation, modernisation, and mobilisation. This course will draw on a wide range of examples from democratic, authoritarian, and semi-democratic countries.

20 credits

Introduction to Global Political Economy

This module provides an introduction to global political economy (GPE). It covers key mainstream and critical theories and considers critically what GPE is. Following this, the main focus will be on sketching the outlines of the global economy (past and present) by considering particular commodities. This provides a novel way to introduce the student to the major processes of global trade, finance and production. It also considers the political economy of race, class and gender as core theoretical themes that interweave the empirical examination of the global political economy, from roughly 1500 through to the 21st century.

20 credits

Planet Politics

From the atmosphere to Antarctic ice sheets, the Earth has been fundamentally transformed by human activity: we now inhabit a ‘human planet’. At the same time, from mining and agriculture to modern patterns of resource consumption, humankind has become dependent on the very activities that have caused these transformations. 

Far from being automatic or inevitable, these transformations are deeply political on multiple levels – in their causes, in their consequences, and in the many arguments and differences over how to respond to them. 

This module will introduce students to some of this ‘Planet Politics’. It will consider questions such as: 

Are we on the verge of a planetary ecological crisis? 

Is capitalism the problem, or the solution? 

Are there just too many people? 

Is meaningful international environmental cooperation possible? 

What are the vested interests obstructing change? What forms of social resistance are appropriate? 

What is ‘environmental justice’? 

Examining both key environmental and resource issues and the main approaches to studying them, the module asks some of the biggest questions about life: how should we live, and what should we do?

20 credits

The World's Wicked Problems

This module will introduce students to key international relations concepts and discussions. Students will be able to understand, analyse and reflect on some of  the most pressing issues in the international arena including: 

migration

climate change

poverty and global inequalities

sexual violence 

armed conflict 

This introductory module will equip students with the tools to continue engaging with more in-depth theoretical and empirical international relations discussions as they progress through their studies.

20 credits

Thinking Politically: Key Concepts

This module introduces students to a range of core concepts that inform the study politics and international relations. More specifically, it involves discovering how concepts such as power, democracy, and legitimacy shape our understanding of the political world around us. Students will learn to problematise and evaluate events, information, and academic literature using these concepts, and in turn they will learn to use these concepts in political debate. The module will help students to develop their intellectual acumen as budding politics scholars by honing their ability to interpret and apply new knowledge, and think critically about the world around them.

20 credits

Core modules:

Political Analysis 2: How to do empirical research

This module provides students with an introduction to a range of quantitative and qualitative methods for studying political phenomena as well as the software required to do so. The module builds on the introduction to research design offered at level one by encouraging students to reflect on how they conceptualise and design research about the political world. It also goes further by helping them to understand and apply practical tools for collecting data and in turn, carrying out independent analysis of data. Students should leave this module with a much greater appreciation of the relationship between theory and empirical political research.

20 credits

Political Theory in Practice

This module explores key debates in political theory, and the implications of those debates for current political practice. It first examines debates surrounding justice, and what these mean for welfare and taxation policies. It then analyses disputes over the meaning of well-being, and their implications for policies surrounding disability and health. It introduces students to different ideas of toleration, and how these influence laws on free speech. It also explores controversies over multiculturalism, and in particular its impact upon women. Finally, it examines care ethics and its implications for how we value the environment.

20 credits

Optional modules:

Africa in the World

Africa has long been treated as a marginal part of the world, both historically and in relation to contemporary global politics. This module aims to take this misconception away by exploring the crucial role that Africa plays in the current world order and the way it has historically evolved. 

Students will be introduced to the political, economic, socio-cultural, and military of Africa’s international relations and be familiarized with the key actors, institutions and processes involved. 

We will look at how the slave trade and colonialism have shaped the modern world order, the global reverberations of African independence movements and pan-Africanism, and how continuing unequal relations are expressed in, amongst others, the politics of debt and military intervention. 

The module will also analyse Africa’s relations to emerging global powers, such as China. To analyze these issues, the module will equip students with a range of theoretical and conceptual tools from the field of international relations, drawing to a considerable extent on the work of African thinkers.

20 credits

Chinese Politics

This module explores the political development of China from the end of the Qing Dynasty up to the present day. The core themes animating this module centre on China's continuous quest for modernity, the transformation of domestic politics, economics, and society, and China's changing position on the international stage. 

It covers a range of topics including:

the 1949 revolution and the Mao Zedong era

the post-1978 reform and opening-up era

recent changes under Xi Jinping

Students will be expected to think critically about the transformation of China, including the main forces that shaped it, as well as the domestic and global implications.

20 credits

Contemporary Security Challenges

This module examines a series of key contemporary challenges to international security. It addresses debates about the changing nature of security, analyses some of the causes of conflict and the development of new security threats, and assesses some of the ways in which states seek to manage these threats. A range of approaches are examined in order to provide students with a theoretically-informed but policy-relevant understanding of security-related issues in the twenty-first century.

20 credits

Oppression and Resistance

This module considers oppression and resistance from a variety of perspectives. Although the Enlightenment sought to liberate individuals from social/political domination, it failed to address many forms of oppression at home and was bound to European projects of colonialism. Addressing these forms of violence has been the major project of post-Enlightenment thought and global social movements. This module gives students the historical, theoretical and empirical tools to understand modern oppression and resistance. It explores: the legacy of the Enlightenment, feminism, sexuality, racism, post-colonial and decolonial thought, intersectionality, and social movement case studies such as Black Lives Matter and #MeToo.

20 credits

Tackling the World's Wicked Problems: theoretical tools and applications

Rising poverty and inequality within and between states, increased droughts, flooding and environmental degradation, armed civil conflicts and war, infectious diseases, gender based violence, institutionalized racism, food insecurity are just some of the pressing problems that the world faces today. 

What solutions are there? 

What sources of knowledge can we draw on to develop ways forward to tackle such problems? 

This module will present students with a variety of theoretical perspectives and tools, such as Postcolonialism, and Green Theory, that seek to address the various ‘wicked problems’. Students will be tasked with critically evaluating different International Relations theories and their applications, assessing their utility and ability to practically solve the most pressing problems in world politics. 

Global problems arguably require global solutions, and therefore global sources of knowledge. This module will also introduce students to ‘non-Western’ perspectives such as ‘Chinese IR’ and Ubuntu, in the process getting students to examine their ‘problem-solving’ capacities.

20 credits

The Left: Past, Present & Future

This module considers the past, present, and future of 'The Left'. From its origins in the French Revolution, this movement has struggled to balance equality, liberty and solidarity. Implementing these values has given rise to many different stands of leftist thought, leading to debates between radicals and proponents of meliorism. This module gives students the historical, theoretical and empirical tools to understand 'The Left' as a continuing project. Core topics include: defining 'The Left', its origins and theoretical development, its relation to political economy, as well as the current state of the left in the UK and around the world.

20 credits

The Making of The Modern Middle East

This module examines the major socio-economic and political dynamics that govern contemporary Middle East. 



Drawing on insights from anthropology, history, politics, political economy and gender studies this module explores key historical developments and political themes in the region and will provide students with historical and theoretical toolkits to analyse various political events in the Middle East. 

Students will learn how to:

use politics from below perspective

listen for multiple discourses and silences

contextualise voices and silences historically, politically, economically and geographically in wider regional and global power structures. 



The module will equip students with the conceptual and analytical skills to de-exceptionalise their understanding of Middle East politics.

20 credits

The Political Economy of Global Capitalism

This module will begin by providing students with an account of the major theoretical traditions which seek to interpret and explain the global political economy. These are liberalism and interdependence theory; mercantilism, nationalism and hegemonic stability theory; and marxism, dependency and world systems theory. It then explores different aspects of the contemporary global political economy - finance, development, trade and production - and ends by reviewing the intellectual debate about the meaning of globalisation.

20 credits

The Politics and Government of the European Union

This module will provide students with a working knowledge of European integration, and of the main institutions of the European Union, including the Council of Ministers, the Commission and the Parliament. The module consists of a series of lectures on the history and institutions of the European Union, and seminars to discuss issues raised in the lectures.

20 credits

Political Theory in Practice

This module explores key debates in political theory, and the implications of those debates for current political practice. It first examines debates surrounding justice, and what these mean for welfare and taxation policies. It then analyses disputes over the meaning of well-being, and their implications for policies surrounding disability and health. It introduces students to different ideas of toleration, and how these influence laws on free speech. It also explores controversies over multiculturalism, and in particular its impact upon women. Finally, it examines care ethics and its implications for how we value the environment.

20 credits

Political Analysis 3: Independent Research Through a Dissertation

This module involves supervised research on an agreed topic. Students will meet with their module tutors and peers in five two-hour dissertation interactive lecture-workshops prepare and submit a formally assessed 1,000-word research proposal, undertake individual research, and be assessed based on an 8,000-word dissertation. Students will also undertake four individual supervision sessions with their dissertation supervisor at which objectives will be specified, their achievement monitored and general progress reviewed.

40 credits

Optional modules:

Animals, Ethics and Politics

This unit explores the debates surrounding what we owe to animals politically. It introduces students to the main debates in animal ethics, and asks how they affect our political practices, norms, institutions and policies. Particular attention is focused on the tensions between animal welfare and other political values and goods, with students exploring such controversial policy debates as animal experimentation, animal agriculture, conservation and the use of animals for entertainment. The overall aim of the unit is to investigate the implications of taking animals seriously for current political practice.

20 credits

Britain in a New Age of Crisis

This module will study some of the key moments in British political, economic, and social history since the year 2000. You will explore particular incidents over this time, such as the Iraq War, the Global Financial Crisis, austerity, Brexit, the Covid-19 pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis. You will also study recurring themes in British political history, such as the centralisation of political power, globalisation, equality, and the political economy of growth. You do not need to have studied British politics before if you wish to take this module.

20 credits

Britain and the European Union

The course seeks to make sense of: Britain's relations with the EU; the problems within UK politics associated with the European issue; and the Europeanisation of British politics/policy. The course will cover the pre-history of membership and accession. It will set out the analytical toolkit for understanding the UK's impact on the EU and then explore Britain's European diplomacy. It will also explore the EU's impact on the UK, using the Europeanisation literature to understand the impacts on British governance, its political forces and public policy within the EU. A short comparative section will put Britain in context.

20 credits

Conflict, Violence and Security in Africa

Why does Africa appear to be prone to conflict? In this module, you will seek to find the answers to this much-debated question through a systematic study of conflict, violence, and security in Africa, focussing on sub-Saharan Africa.

You will gain a better understanding of the complex and distinct dynamics of violent conflict in Africa, in part through an in-depth study of specific case studies, such as the anti-colonial wars in Kenya and Zimbabwe, military coups in Burkina Faso and Mali, child soldiers in northern Uganda, conflicts in Somalia, Liberia, Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of Congo and northern Nigeria. In addition, you will examine broader security challenges that impact the lives of ordinary Africans as well as look at the international response to conflict, violence, and insecurity on the continent.

20 credits

Civilisation, Empire and Hegemony

With American power seemingly all powerful today, this unit provides a rethink of the origins of great power politics/economics. Mainstream Eurocentric theories in International Relations view great power politics/economics as having universal materialist properties. And they view America and Britain as hegemons that provide global public goods for the benefit of all. This module problematises this view by revealing the differing moral foundations and 'standards of civilisation' that inform the various directions that great power can take. It examines Britain and China in the pre-1900 era, contemporary America, Japan, and the potential role of China in the coming decades.

20 credits

Corporations in Global Politics: Possibilities, Tensions, and Ambiguities

Corporations are ubiquitous, affecting everything from mundane individual consumption choices, to the investment decisions of both weak and powerful states. Importantly, their authority extends beyond the economic sphere and into political, as they shape and execute policies and activities for some of the world's most pressing problems. This module explores the multifaceted political roles of corporations, and challenges students to critically reflect on their implications. Drawing upon international relations, political economy, and global governance literatures, it analyses the corporation theoretically, but also empirically drawing upon diverse case studies ranging from environmental sustainability and development, to war-making and peacekeeping.

20 credits

Contemporary Issues in Latin American Politics

Latin America is home to only eight percent of the world's population, but its countries usually top the rankings in bad public outcomes such as criminal violence, corruption, clientelism, and democratic erosion. 

This module will offer a look at some of the most pressing contemporary issues in the region by critically combining theoretical approaches and empirical data. 

We will explore issues such as:

Forms of government: from authoritarian regimes to populism

Economic development: industrialization, commodity extraction, and informal job markets

Poverty and inequality

Clientelism: making people turn out to vote

Criminal and political violence

Corruption

Ethnicity and indigenous peoples

The battle for the expansion of rights

You will analyse how current theories help us understand the fate of Latin American nations, and also carefully review the evidence to build new empirically-grounded theory. By the end of this module, we aim to better understand some of the most acute contemporary problems, such as democratic erosion, criminal violence, and inequality.

20 credits

Cosmopolitanism

Cosmopolitanism is the idea that the world should in some sense be understood as a single political entity. 

This module will engage with 'cosmopolitanism' from the perspective of normative political theory. It will start by discussing the historical origins of cosmopolitanism, from the Cynics in Ancient Greece to Immanuel Kant and will then move to a discussion of the contemporary wave of cosmopolitanism theorising that began in the latter part of the 20th century. 

There have been two core strands to this wave: 

claims about the global scope of justice

claims about the need for a global democracy

Both strands have come in for considerable criticism: 

Is justice really global in scope?

Is it an idea that belongs within the state or nation? 

Do we really need a global democracy, and is it feasible? 

Does cosmopolitanism imply a world state? 

Is the whole notion of cosmopolitanism dangerously imperialistic? 

During the module students will discuss all of these questions, and more.

20 credits

Gender Politics in the Arab World

The topic of women and gender in the Middle East is probably one of the most prevalent themes in popular culture. The image of Arab women or LGBTQI community members as the victims of Arab men are only two of many images to which most people have become accustomed through the media. There is widespread ignorance concerning the lives, struggles and achievements of Muslim/Arab women and LGBTQI identifying and non-identiying persons living in the Arab World. This module examines what this focus on Arab/Muslim women tells us about current politics and power relation.  We also study how the images of Arab/Muslim women are used to justify certain policies and maintain certain discourses and truths not only about these Arab/Muslim women, but also about other women: Western women.

This module has three components: 

theoretical

historical

political

During seminars students will learn about Middle Eastern history in relation to gender and sexuality, covering early Islamic, Ottoman, colonial and recent histories. Students will study the relationship between national and Islamist movements and gender as well as  examining key current issues. 

One of the main aims of this course is to enable students to use theories to understand current trends in politics. These theories will help students pay attention to power relations not only between genders, but also in analyzing how gender functions in different knowledge/power structures and discourses.

20 credits

Global Politics of Forced Migration

Armed conflicts, persecutions, and disasters cause people to be forcibly displaced, both nationally and internationally. By the end of 2022, there were 100 million forcibly displaced people according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Forced displacement, particularly asylum, has also received more attention from the media and decision-makers. In this module, we will discuss the politics involved in these forced displacement situations. 

You will be provided with a comprehensive view of global forced displacement topics including asylum, refugee children, gender, family reunification, externalisation strategies, environmental displacement, and internally displaced people (IDP). Throughout this module, we will reflect on the following questions:

Who is a refugee? How do states create and employ different categories to classify forced displaced people? What are the implications of these classifications for forcibly displaced people?

Which actors and structures constitute the global governance regime of forced displacement? 

What are the power and constraints of international organisations working on forced displacement?

By studying the asylum systems in Europe, Africa, and Latin America in a comparative way, you will gain the important tools you need to understand the global forced displacement regime.

20 credits

Global Culture Wars

Cancel culture, identity politics, the war on woke… How should we make sense of the so-called 'culture wars' that are transforming politics? This module examines this from a global and historical perspective, looking at the contemporary politics of culture wars that are found worldwide, and at how these kind of tensions have existed in one form or another since the dawn of modernity. In doing so, we will aim to take a step back from the commotion, scandal and outrage to instead trace the historical lineages of culture wars across global politics.

20 credits

Hunger in the Global North

Millions of people across the global north lack adequate access to food. This module looks at the drivers and experiences of hunger in these countries, and the responses in place. Students will have the opportunity to explore different approaches to measuring and understanding hunger, including through data collected by governments and the voices of people with lived experiences. Students will also explore the policies and practices that are working to alleviate and address hunger across the Global North. The module will look at the work of charities including food banks and ask whether these are effective responses for ensuring everyone has adequate access to food. Students will also explore the role of welfare states and food systems in driving hunger, and how food, health and social security policies shape food experiences and environments.



The aims of the module are:

To introduce students to different concepts and theories of hunger, and ways of measuring these experiences.To provide students with the opportunity to explore how different groups are impacted by hunger.To equip students with skills and knowledge to think critically about different responses to hunger across the Global North.  To provide students with space and support to explore what effective solutions to hunger in the Global North look like.To provide students with opportunities to undertake this learning and development collectively.

20 credits

Legitimate and Illegitimate Violence

This module examines under what circumstances political violence is deemed legitimate or illegitimate. We will not treat this as a question to be answered by normative political theory, but rather as an empirical question of power and politics. The key organizing questions for the module will thus be: when is violence treated as legitimate in the world? who gets to determine this? and how and when do the boundaries between legitimate and illegitimate violence change? Specific cases may include the distinction between civilians and combatants, the use of violence in war vs. peace-time, terrorism, torture, domestic/family violence, and police brutality.

20 credits

Narcopolitics

Drugs are big business and politically salient, yet their production, trade, distribution and regulation are understudied in politics. Narcotics are rooted in complex webs of public, private and criminal power, with diverse consequences for growth, development, security and health. This module explores this evolving panorama: it traces the political evolution of therapeutic/psychotropic substances from the opium wars to prohibition, before analysing the 'War on Drugs', the attendant creation of mafia violence, and the emergence of 'narco-states'. Later classes address contemporary experiments in legalisation and decriminalisation, the development of licit recreational narcotics industries, and the implications for the global prohibitionist architecture.

20 credits

Public Policy and Democratic Politics

Recent years have seen a tide of pressures impact on policy makers. Fuelling distrust and disaffection with public policy making, populist politicians have blamed civil servants for alleged corruption. Political leaders have also pushed for fundamental changes in how states operate. From the bottom up, social movements have put pressure on policy makers to revolutionise racial and gender equality, and respond to climate catastrophe. Technological innovations confront policy makers with a new and alienating future.

Amidst a plethora of global crises, and with historically tight budgets and rapidly reducing timeframes, policy makers at multiple levels, from transnational bodies to local authorities, are now under extreme pressure to deliver. They need to find solutions for sustainability, stop pandemics, end inequality and protect fundamental rights. How can they make radical change happen? This module examines precisely this question. Students will gain a nuanced understanding of the pressures everyday policy makers face and how they manage these pressures with the aim of successfully implementing radical shifts in how we respond to the most pressing policy issues of our time.

 



 

20 credits

Parliamentary Studies

This module focuses on how parliaments and legislatures operate and is founded on the basis of theoretically-informed but policy-relevant teaching. It therefore attempts to provide students with a sense of why cultures, traditions and informal relationships matter as much (if not more) than formal procedures. Although the House of Commons and the House of Lords provide the main institutional focus for this module students will be encouraged to adopt a comparative approach whenever possible and to situate their analysis within an appreciation of the changing role of parliament within evolving frameworks of multi-level governance.

20 credits

Party Politics: Competition, Strategies & Campaigns

This module provides an in-depth analysis of party politics. It offers a detailed exposition of the multiple issues related with parties, looking at the interactions both within and outside parties. The module covers key aspects of party politics such as the different types of parties, their organization, party membership, types of party systems, political competition and issue positioning, campaign strategies, formation of new parties, the effects of cleavages, coalition formation, party financing and the number of parties.

20 credits

Peacekeeping, State-building and International Intervention

This module looks at the way international intervention has changed in recent years. It draws on a number of different areas - humanitarian intervention, peacekeeping, development and state-building. It draws these areas together by exploring what they have in common and how there has been a shift in the way that international intervention deals with these issues. In particular, the international community has moved from direct involvement towards a form of governance that operates from a distance by encouraging local ownership, capacity building and resilience.

20 credits

Political Psychology: The Personal Side of Politics

This module covers the major theories and research paradigms in the exciting subfield of Political Psychology. Rather than reviewing what happens in politics (e.g. who wins an election) or how it happens (e.g. who votes for whom), we will look at why it happens by studying the psychology of politics at the micro level (e.g. the personality of politicians), the meso level (e.g. the ideological and moral foundations of political parties), and the macro level (e.g. motivated reasoning, racism and prejudice, mass political behaviour and the influence of the media).

20 credits

Practical Politics: How to Make Policy and Influence People

This course will provide a practical, hands on account of how policy is formulated, implemented and why it sometimes doesn't work. Focussing on environmental politics, the course draws on the experiences of policy experts including civil servants, lobbyists and politicians. It will an assessment that mirrors tasks routinely undertaken by those within or seeking to influence government.

20 credits

Research Project 1

This module allows students to research and explore in-depth a topic studied on a semester one module. Students will meet with their supervisor individually, to undertake research and be assessed on the basis of a 5,000 word project.

20 credits

Research Project 2

This module allows students to research and explore in-depth a topic studies on a semester one module. Students will meet with their supervisor individually, to undertake research and be assessed on the basis of a 5,000-word project. The subject/specialised topic studied in Research Project 2 must be different to the topic studied in Research Project 1.

20 credits

Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict

This module will address when, why, and how widespread sexual violence occurs in armed conflicts. The module will
(1) examine how academics and international actors understand and research what sexual violence is and why it occurs in certain conflicts;
(2) assess the international efforts to prosecute and prevent sexual violence in armed conflict; and
(3) undertake in-depth case study analysis to assess the various long-term consequences of sexual violence in armed conflict for individuals, communities, and processes of reconciliation.
Resultantly the module will assess what can be done to address this security issue and its numerous violent consequences.

20 credits

State and Society in China

In this module, we examine relations between the party-state and society in contemporary China. You will explore this topic through a number of themes, such as resistance, 'civil society', gender, online expression, censorship and self-censorship, repression, responsiveness, and inequality. Through doing so, you will engage in important recent debates about China's political development.

20 credits

Terrorism, Violence and the State

This module aims to provide students with an understanding of the nature and legitimacy of forms of protest against the modern state. In particular the module focuses on issues of contemporary terrorism. However, in order to understand the nature and motivations of terrorism it is necessary to understand the nature of the modern state and other, non-violent forms of protest such as civil disobedience.

20 credits

The Ethics of Political Leadership

This module investigates the ethics of political leadership via an engagement with the western tradition of political thought and contemporary analytical political theory. Its overall objective is to enable students to analyse and evaluate normative arguments on the significance and function of political leaders in contemporary politics. The module examines competing theories of leadership in their historical and intellectual contexts and a number of issues of contemporary ethical significance, including the problem of 'dirty hands', the nature of political integrity, and the ethics of political compromise. The approach is theoretical and philosophical and examples of political leaders will be used to highlight strengths and weaknesses of competing theories of leadership, and to emphasise their ideological assumptions and implications.

20 credits

Understanding Elections

Elections are key moments in democratic politics.  They influence the formation of governments and provide a means for citizens to express their political preferences and their judgements on the competence of those who govern them. In doing so, they offer important insights into public opinion, participation, and political behavior. Elections are also complex events, influenced by political debates, ideas, and campaigns, by the different rules under which particular electoral systems operate, and by large social forces beyond the control of governments. Understanding elections requires insights into many aspects of modern political life.

This module will analyse how elections 'work'. We will look at elections from a range of different perspectives:

What influences voters' decisions, and how have these influences changed?

What effect do parties' political campaigns have on the outcome of elections?

How do the 'rules of the game' governing the electoral system affect the outcome of elections?

You will examine elections in the UK and around the world, drawing on the latest evidence and research to both understand academic debates on electoral politics and to develop your ideas and analyses of elections.

20 credits

War, Peace and Justice

This module provides a practical and theoretical overview of contemporary war, peace and justice. It explores key conversations, issues and conceptual responses relating to: the challenges and ethics of researching war; the construction of ethics and notions of justice in war and peace; the politics of technology in contemporary warfare; the politics of peace, resistance and pacifism; the politics of war, memory and commemoration; embodied and emotional registers of war; and the politics of death and grievability. Students will explore the practice, experience, representation and cultural imaginary of war in the 21st century and consider implications for peace and justice.

20 credits