MSc Political Economy

This class looks at how the interplay between economic and politics shapes societies. It familiarises students with models of capitalism and the diversity of political economy traditions amongst states. It also explores the interface between domestic and supranational political economies - the competitive struggle between member states to shape EU economic policy, and the constraints that EU policy places on the governance of the domestic economy.

This module focuses the role of international institutions and the international economic order in conflict and cooperation. It explores the politics of international trade, money, and finance both in developing and developed economies.

Learn how to address important questions in political science, and social science more generally, with the help of quantitative data. Analysing data using statistical methods allows us to test whether relationships and causal effects exist that we cannot determine by looking at a few cases alone.

The module introduces students to the fundamental theories and principles of probability, statistical inference, hypothesis testing, and analysis techniques such as linear regression. Furthermore, it equips students with the practical skills and techniques required to conduct their own statistical analyses.

Go beyond the basic tools used in quantitative analysis including descriptive statistics, probability, and measurement.

The module covers Generalized Linear Models, a statistical modelling which enable modelling dependent variables that are not normally distributed including, non-negative continuous variables, count variables and binary variables and multinomial categorical variables.

Further, panel and time-series modelling framework will be introduced, which is widely used to analyse specific trends over time within and between individual units of observation. Last, an introduction to text-as-data analysis will give insight on novel developments of data analysis within the field of political science.

The purpose of this class is to provide students with a comprehensive overview of the concepts and theoretical approaches central to understanding and analysing the role of international institutions and regimes in the contemporary world.

This class will survey a variety of international institutions and regimes, exploring how they shape global interactions in a number of cross-cutting issue areas such as security, trade, human rights and the environment. The overall analysis will contribute to the understanding of the theories, practices and processes through which global politics are organised and to an assessment of the future of international institutions and regimes in global governance. 

This class introduces students to the literature and research agendas related to conflict and cooperation in international relations studies.

We will cover a wide array of approaches that relate to interstate and intrastate (civil) conflict, cooperation and other contemporary security topics such as post-conflict peace, peacekeeping operations, terrorism, and human rights violations.

Institutions structure conflicts in democratic regimes by determining the choices and strategies available to voters and elites and set the rules of the game. This class covers multiple theoretical perspectives, institutional structures and the long-term implications of institutions through historical and international comparison.

This class revolves around the different aims for conducting comparative policy analysis such as explaining the variation of policy output and outcome across different institutional, economic, social and cultural settings, generalising a given theory of policy process in different geographical contexts and by taking time into consideration, as well as capturing the interdependence of countries. Units of analysis include countries, states/regions, local governments, and international organisations.

Students will be introduced to concepts, research design, and methods.

This class covers key research design issues and enables you to evaluate alternative research designs and create appropriate research proposals. The class is designed to help you decide a research topic and a design that you will use for your dissertation. Topics covered include formulating research questions, developing concepts, and how to select cases to study.

Public policy is the study of how governments and other agencies acting in the name of the general public deliberate on and enact policy.

This class examines the theoretical, empirical and practical issues involved in conducting policy analysis. Included are discussions of major concepts, processes, and types of policy issues, all studied in comparative manner. Major classics in the field will be read.

This class seeks to examine the EU system of governance through the lenses of democracy, legitimacy and efficiency. Examining key processes, policy areas and proposals for reform, participants will be encouraged to consider the role of the EU and the nature of its relationship with its public.