Fall/Winter Timetable
POL2321H1S L0201
Undergraduate Course Code: POL438H1S L0201
Topics in Comparative Politics I
Parties in Comparative Perspective
Themes
This course provides an overview of the literature on comparative political parties. Our goal is to explore the main questions, puzzles and theories on the origins and nature of parties and party systems. Why do parties arise? How do institutions, societal cleavages and strategic action shape parties and party systems? Why do some countries have more parties than others? What explains differences in ideology and party organization? We will also study the effects of parties on the quality of democracy and governance, as well as their role in non-democratic regimes. Finally, we take a look at specific issues of party change, party system collapse, party competition, and party institutionalization in developed and developing democracies including the role of ethnic parties, the rise of extremist parties, the relationship between parties and clientelism, and the role of dominant parties.
Texts
TBA
Format and Requirements
One two-hour seminar per week. Course requirements TBA.
November 14, 2023
Congratulations to Madalyn Hay, a recipient of a 2023-2024 Connaught PhDs for Public Impact Fellowship. Madalyn, one of our doctoral students, holds a BAH in Contemporary Studies and Classics from the...
August 24, 2023
Congratulations to alumna Meaghan Williams, a recipient of the 2022-23 Governor General’s Gold Medal for Academic Excellence, the highest academic honour available to graduate students in Canada. Awarded annually by the Office of the...
June 14, 2021
Great news from the Canadian Political Science Association, which held its annual awards ceremony (online) over the weekend of June 12 & 13: Professor Stefan Rencken’s book "Private Governance and Public...
April 22, 2021
Congratulations to two political science alumni now teaching at U of T who have both won Superior Teaching Awards! Igor Shoikhedbrod and Khalid Ahmed will be celebrated on May 5th at...
August 6, 2020
Q&A with 2020 Vanier Scholar Yojana Miraya Oscco Congratulations to PhD student Yojana Miraya Oscco who has won a prestigious Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship (SSHRC). Launched in 2008, the program enables...
April 30, 2020
Congratulations to our graduate student Kevin Edmonds who has won New College's June Larkin Award for Pedagogical Development. A PhD candidate specializing in Caribbean political economy, histories of alternative/illicit development, foreign intervention and...