Postgraduate Module Descriptor

POLM156: The Transformation of Politics in the Global Age

This module descriptor refers to the 2021/2 academic year.

Module Aims

This module aims to enable you to:  study the transformation of politics and of the main principles and institutions which characterize the modern nation-state particularly in its democratic and constitutional version; explore the effects that these transformations on our idea of politics and democracy, and how this affects our conception of the political community; and to investigate the feasibility of more global ideas and practices of governance and democracy.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

This module's assessment will evaluate your achievement of the ILOs listed here - you will see reference to these ILO numbers in the details of the assessment for this module.
On successfully completing the programme you will be able to:
Module-Specific Skills1. Demonstrate substantive knowledge of the theories and developments considered during the course; the significance of these theories and the major critical positions adopted towards them
2. Identify and discuss the key concepts deployed in theories of politics, statehood, democracy and globalisation, and their argumentative articulation
3. Assess the new understandings of the political community in global and multicultural contexts, identifying clearly the contentions made by the different theories of globalization
Discipline-Specific Skills4. Demonstrate critical and analytical skills in relation to this body of literature
5. Construct critical arguments with regard both to their logical rigour and political plausibility.
6. Exercise informed judgement concerning the policy implications of abstract political principles
Personal and Key Skills7. Present complex arguments with clarity and concision
8. Identify spurious conclusions and distinguish rigorous from merely persuasive argument

Indicative Reading List

This reading list is indicative - i.e. it provides an idea of texts that may be useful to you on this module, but it is not considered to be a confirmed or compulsory reading list for this module.

Max Weber, Politics as Vocation; Carl Schmitt, The Concept of the Political; Anthony Smith, The Ethnic origins of nations (Blackwell, 1986)

David Miller, On nationality (OUP, 1995); S. Caney, D. George and P. Jones (eds) National Rights, International Obligations (Westview Press, 1996)

Andrew Linklater, The Transformation of Political Community (Polity, 1997)

Amy Gutman and Charles Taylor, Multiculturalism (Princeton UP, 1992)

Alan Patten, Equal Recognition (2015); Brian Barry, Culture and Equality (2000)

Hannah Pitkin, The Concept of Representation (1967)

Michael Saward, The Representative Claim (2012)

Margaret Canovan, The People (2005)

I. Shapiro and C. Hacker-Cordon (eds) Democracy's Edges (CUP, 1999)

D. Archibugi, D. Held and M. Kohler (eds), Re-imagining political community (Polity, 1997)

C. Brown (ed), Political restructuring in Europe (Routledge, 1994)

Philippe Schmitter, How to democratize the European Union (Rowman and Littlefield, 2000)

Claus Offe, Europe Entrapped (2015)

Archibugi, Daniele, The Global Commonwealth of Citizens (2008)

John Keane, Global Civil Society? (2010)                                                              

William Scheuerman, Liberal Democracy and the Social Acceleration of Time (2004)