Politics – (B.A.)

Contents

Please note modules may be subject to change.

Year One introduces you to key concepts and debates within politics, and gives you a broad foundation for your studies in Year Two and Three. There are two compulsory modules in Year One.

* Freedom, Power and Democracy: an introduction to political ideas asks you to consider and then reconsider whether you believe in democracy, freedom, equality and rights, what these ideas mean, whether they are realised in practice and how power really operates in our society.
* Globalisation explores the evolution of global politics from the rise of the modern state to the present day. You will examine the great ideological revolutions of modern times, the apparent 'rise' of a global economy and the nature of the backlash against globalisation.

You also choose two modules from the list below, and two further elective modules to complete the course programme.

* British Politics
* European Politics
* International Politics

In Year Two, you have more flexibility in your study and can direct your degree towards the areas that interest you most. There is one compulsory module in Year Two.

* Approaches to Political Science examines the scope, content and methods of political science and provides a guide to its key theoretical debates. You will study the role of behavioural analysis; rational choice theory; feminist perspective and discourse theory, among others.

Then you choose one of the following Political Theory courses.

* The Age of Ideology
* Theories of Justice
* Theories of Political Morality

You also choose one of the following Comparative Politics and Governments course.

* British Central Government
* Governing the European Union
* Making the European Union
* Politics and International Relations of Pacific Asia
* Politics in Japan
* Politics in Russia
* The Politics of Mediterranean Europe
* State and Politics in Africa
* United States Politics

And you choose a further 120 credits from a wide range of modules to complete the course programme.

Year Three. The only compulsory module in Year Three is your Dissertation. This is a piece of written work of 12,000 words, and can be researched on a topic of your own choice. It is designed to allow you to produce an extended piece of written work on a topic of special interest to you.

You will then study 40 credits of optional modules to be chosen from the following list of third level modules.

* British Political Parties
* Prime Ministers and British Politics
* The End of British Politics?
* Britain and the EU
* Contemporary West European Socialist Parties
* Environmental Politics and Policy in the EU
* Europe in the World
* Extreme Right Parties in Contemporary Western Europe
* American Foreign Policy
* Israel: Politics and Society
* Political Corruption
* Political Leadership in the Contemporary West
* Global Political Theory and the Environment
* Critical Theory
* Culture and Community: Theoretical Perspectives
* Feminist Challenges to Political Theory
* Gramsci and the Theory of Modern Politics

For your remaining 40 credits of Year Three you choose from an extensive range of level three modules.