Module POLM156 for 2021/2
- Overview
- Aims and Learning Outcomes
- Module Content
- Indicative Reading List
- Assessment
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.
On successfully completing the programme you will be able to: | |
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Module-Specific Skills | 1. 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 Skills | 4. 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 Skills | 7. Present complex arguments with clarity and concision 8. Identify spurious conclusions and distinguish rigorous from merely persuasive argument |
Module Content
Syllabus Plan
Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover some or all of the following:
- The idea of politics and the political in modern times
- The emergence and consolidation of the nation-state as the main context for politics
- Issues of sovereignty, democracy and governance in the nation-state context
- Multi-level governance and the politics delegation as challenges to democratic governance
- The crisis of representative politics and new forms of representation
- The multicultural challenge to the nation state: how to reconcile equality and difference
- The global challenge: mobility, borders and people in the contemporary political community
- Global governance and cosmopolitan democracy
Learning and Teaching
This table provides an overview of how your hours of study for this module are allocated:
Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
---|---|---|
22 | 278 | 0 |
...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:
Category | Hours of study time | Description |
---|---|---|
Scheduled Learning & Teaching activities | 22 | 11 x 2 hour per week seminars including small group work, presentations, and class discussion |
Guided Independent Study | 155 | Reading |
Guided Independent Study | 35 | Presentation Preparation |
Guided Independent Study | 88 | Essay Writing |
Online Resources
This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).
ELE - ( vle.exeter.ac.uk )
How this Module is Assessed
In the tables below, you will see reference to 'ILO's. An ILO is an Intended Learning Outcome - see Aims and Learning Outcomes for details of the ILOs for this module.
Formative Assessment
A formative assessment is designed to give you feedback on your understanding of the module content but it will not count towards your mark for the module.
Form of assessment | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
---|---|---|---|
Short Essay | 600 words | 1-8 | Oral and written feedback |
Summative Assessment
A summative assessment counts towards your mark for the module. The table below tells you what percentage of your mark will come from which type of assessment.
Coursework | Written exams | Practical exams |
---|---|---|
100 | 0 | 0 |
...and this table provides further details on the summative assessments for this module.
Form of assessment | % of credit | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
---|---|---|---|---|
Short essays in answer to pre-set questions | 30 | 3,000 words | 1-8 | Written and oral comments |
Essay on a chosen topic | 70 | 5,000 words | 1-8 | Written comments |
Re-assessment
Re-assessment takes place when the summative assessment has not been completed by the original deadline, and the student has been allowed to refer or defer it to a later date (this only happens following certain criteria and is always subject to exam board approval). For obvious reasons, re-assessments cannot be the same as the original assessment and so these alternatives are set. In cases where the form of assessment is the same, the content will nevertheless be different.
Original form of assessment | Form of re-assessment | ILOs re-assessed | Timescale for re-assessment |
---|---|---|---|
Short essays in answer to pre-set questions | Short essays (on pre-set questions) 3,000 words | 1-8 | August/September reassessment Period |
Essay on a chosen topic | Essay (on a chosen topic) 5,000 words | 1-8 | August/September reassessment Period |
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)