Syllabus |
1. Introduction: the State problem in the abstract and its main conceptual axes (the sources and the point of view of the State: the paradox of Competition, Cooperation and Recognition, Altruism and Selfishness, Power and Authority: Legitimacy and Legality, the Public and the Private, Regulation, Rights and Duty, the reason for the State: the problem of the Authority for Security and Control in Freedom, the State's ideology); 2. The laws of state development: consolidation, rationalization and expansion; definition of practical basic concepts: political regimes and systems of government; parliamentarism, presidentialism and hybrid systems; the problem of executive power and legislative power. Conceptual conditions of practical possibility for the Rule of Law and for Liberal Democracy; 3. Practical Cases of Power: A Comparative Critique of States and Their Political Systems; critical readings: Pluralism, Elitism, Marxism and Institutionalism;
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Main Bibliography |
- Colin Hay, Michael Lister, David Marsh (Ed.s), The State: Theories and Issues, Hampshire, Palgrave Macmillan, 2006; - Daniele Caramani (Ed.), Comparative Politics, OUP, 2017; - Fukuyama, Francis; Political Order and Political Decay: From the Industrial Revolution to the Globalisation of Democracy, Profile Books, 2015; - Fukuyama, Francis, The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution, Profile Books, 2012; - Mcclelland, J. S., A History of Western Political Thought, Routledge, 1998; - Moreira, Adriano, Ciência Política, Coimbra, Almedina, 2009; - Pasquino, Gianfranco, Sistemas Políticos Comparados, Principia, 2007;
Other specific readings will be suggested during classes.
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