Undergraduate Module Descriptor

POL3227: Politics, Elections, and the State in Africa

This module descriptor refers to the 2019/0 academic year.

Module Aims

This module aims to furnish you with the conceptual and analytical tools required to understand Africa’s evolving states and their politics. On completing the module, you will be able to critically engage with different conceptions of African statehood, understand the historical roots and evolution of the social identities driving politics in Africa, and evaluate past and present dangers to democracy on the continent. Through detailed case studies, you will gain in-depth knowledge of the history, culture, and contemporary politics of at least one country in Africa. The module aims to foster a genuine appreciation for the complexities of societies in Africa and inspire you to delve deeper into issues related to the governance of highly diverse states in Africa and beyond.

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 Skills	1. Critically engage with common conceptions of the African state and some of their critiques. 2. Substantively converse about Africa and contemporary African politics. 3. Critically assess the process of and challenges to nation-building in at least one African country. 4. Clearly articulate and evaluate some of the main challenges to good governance and democracy in Africa.
Discipline-Specific Skills	5. Understand theories of state-building, political parties, party competition, ethnic politics, and clientelistic politics, particularly as they relate to Africa. 6. Improve your understanding of the comparative method in Political Science. 7. Improve your grasp of elements of research design in Political Science.
Personal and Key Skills	8. Demonstrate improved presentation, writing, and exposition skills. 9. Demonstrate improve analytical skills. 10. provide constructive feedback to peers. 11. synthesize empirical material and communicate it effectively.

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 topics:

Politics, elections, and the state: key concepts
Colonial legacies and the state in Africa
Ethnicity in Africa
Nationalism in Africa
Politics under authoritarianism/hegemonic party rule
Politics under multi-party democracy
Public goods provision, nation-building, and the state in Africa
Elections and ethnic politics in Africa
Clientelism and elections in Africa
Political institutions for Africa’s plural societies: federal and unitary states
Beyond ethnicity: new social cleavages and politics in Africa
Challenges to democracy in Africa
Case studies and student presentations

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
44	256

...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:

Category	Hours of study time	Description
Scheduled learning and teaching activity	44	22 x 2 hour weekly seminars
Guided independent study	80	Seminar preparation, completion of weekly assigned readings
Guided independent study	30	Presentation preparation
Guided independent study	146	Essay and final paper preparation: reading, researching for, and drafting the essay, paper outline, and final paper for the class.

Online Resources

This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).

The following websites will be used to complement class readings and discussion:

Democracyinafrica.org

Africasacountry.com

Theelephant.info

Other Learning Resources

Students will be asked to listen to and reflect on at least one episode of BBC series “Focus on Africa”: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/n13xtmgm each week.

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
Final paper outline	1 page (500 words)	5-9, 11	Written

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
80	0	20

...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
Individual presentation	20	10 minutes + 5 minutes for feedback and questions.	1-8, 10-11	Verbal, written
Final paper	50	5,000 words	1-9	Written
Essay	30	1,000 words	1-5, 8-9, 11	Written

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
Presentation	Written assignment, (2,000 words)	1-9, 11	August/September reassessment period
Final paper	Final paper (5,000 words)	1-9	August/September reassessment period
Essay	Essay (1,000 words)	1-5, 8-9, 11	August/September reassessment period