Left and Right in Contemporary Politics
| Code | School | Level | Credits | Semesters |
| POLI3132 | Politics and International Relations | 3 | 20 | Spring UK |
- Code
- POLI3132
- School
- Politics and International Relations
- Level
- 3
- Credits
- 20
- Semesters
- Spring UK
Summary
Contemporary politics often shows two seemingly contradictory phenomena. On the one hand that many political analysts and political actors proclaim that ‘left’ and ‘right’ are outdated and not relevant anymore in contemporary politics as organising principles. On the other hand, that these terms are persistently and ubiquitously used to describe and interpret policies, events, and behaviours.
The module focuses on the question of the role of ‘left’ and ‘right’ as structuring principles in a variety of political domains, ranging from party competition, policy formation (domestic as well as foreign policy), public opinion, public political discourse, voting behaviour, media production and consumption, etc.
Target Students
Available to Final Year UG students in the School of Politics and International Relations on single and joint honours plans. Also available to Final Year UG students on the Liberal Arts plan, Final Year UG students on the Philosophy, Politics and Economics plan, Final Year UG students on the Modern European Studies plan, and incoming exchange students based in the School of Politics and International Relations.
Classes
This module is taught through a combination of lectures and seminars.
Assessment
- 15% Presentation: Presentation
- 35% Coursework 1: 1,400-word report
- 50% Coursework 2: 2,000-word report
Assessed by end of spring semester
Educational Aims
To combine theoretical and empirical perspectives on contemporary politics; to compare the use and meaning of idiomatic political labelling across contexts; to consider such labels as linkage mechanisms between mass populations and political elites.Learning Outcomes
Knowledge and understanding
- Theoretical perspectives on the role of overarching ideological dimensions in structuring a variety of political processes.
- Practical usage in political communication of shorthand idiomatic labels, their contested nature and their shared meanings.
- Over-time change of explicit or implied meanings of the left-right dimension, and its connection to generational replacement.
Intellectual skills
- Understanding political processes and constellations at different levels of abstraction, and the ability to apply insights at one level of abstraction to another.
- Connect empirical material of different kinds (documents, surveys, interviews, etc.) with theoretical questions, and to draw theoretical conclusions from empirical analyses.
Professional and practical skills
- Ability to compare systematically different theoretical approaches and reporting/presenting this in a correct, concise and professional manner.
- Developing presentation skills and the skill to provide constructive critique/feedback on presentations by others.
- Designing a small research project, executing it (individually or in small groups) and reporting it in a correct, concise and professional manner.
Transferable skills
- Further development of writing, presenting, and commenting skills.
- Productively integrating work at different levels of abstraction.
- Further development of effective collaborative work in small groups.