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74153-01 - Seminar: Governing In Parliamentary Democracies. How Governments are Formed, how they Govern, how they End (3 CP)
| Semester | fall semester 2024 |
| Course frequency | Irregular |
| Lecturers | Sophie Suda (sophie.suda@unibas.ch, Assessor) |
| Content | In this seminar, we look at all aspects concerning governments and coalitions, mainly in parliamentary democracies. Three blocks of topics will be covered: how coalitions are formed, how they work, and how they end. First, we deal with how governments are formed: how do parties find their coalition partners? How do institutions shape coalition choices? How does the allocation of cabinet portfolios work? Second, we look at how governments act. Since this is a broad topic, this bloc is limited to the relationship between parliament and government, and the extent to which parties in government fulfil their campaign pledges. Third, we look at how governments end: this includes factors that make the breaking of governments more likely, and mechanisms that can be installed to prevent premature termination. |
| Learning objectives | - Understanding coalition dynamics, party preferences and strategies - Being able to measure party positions as well as generally broadening knowledge about methods and data |
| Bibliography | Gallagher, Michael, Michael Laver and Peter Mair (2011): "Building and Maintaining a Government." in: Gallagher et al. Representative Government in Modern Europe. McGraw-Hill: 381-403. Ecker, Alejandro and Thomas M Meyer (2015): The duration of government formation processes in Europe. Research & Politics, 2(4). Bäck, Hanna, Marc Debus and Patrick Dumont (2011): Who gets what in coalition governments? Predictors of portfolio allocation in parliamentary democracies. European Journal of Political Research 50: 441-478. Klüver, Heike and Jae-Jae Spoon (2020): Helping or hurting? How governing as a junior coalition partner influences electoral outcomes. The Journal of Politics 82(4): 1231-1242. Debus, Marc, Mary Stegmaier and Jane Tosun (2014): Economic voting under coalition governments. Evidence from Germany. Political Science Research and Methods 2(1): 49- 67. |
| Comments | Attention: All Seminars will be graded in the Department of Political Science. Grading scale 6.0 to 1.0, whereupon 4.0 is a pass. The number of participants is limited. The places are assigned according to date of enrollment and subject of study. Priority will be given to students of Political Science. |
| Admission requirements | Attention: All Seminars will be graded in the Department of Political Science. Grading scale 6.0 to 1.0, whereupon 4.0 is a pass. The number of participants is limited. The places are assigned according to date of enrollment and subject of study. Priority will be given to students of Political Science. |
| Language of instruction | English |
| Use of digital media | No specific media used |
| Interval | Weekday | Time | Room |
|---|---|---|---|
| wöchentlich | Thursday | 10.15-11.45 | Bernoullistrasse 14/16, Kleiner Seminarraum 02.001 |
Dates
| Modules |
Modul: Erweiterung Gesellschaftswissenschaften B.A. (Bachelor's degree subject: Political Science) Modul: Regionaler Fokus B.A. (Bachelor's degree subject: Political Science) Modul: Vertiefung Politikwissenschaft B.A. (Bachelor's degree subject: Political Science) |
| Assessment format | continuous assessment |
| Assessment details | Readings: Each week, there will be a short reading, which is necessary to follow the course. Summary of Dataset: You will get a dataset assigned where you will have to fill in a table with the most important information, such as access, variables and time frame. In the end, we will have a big table with the most commonly used datasets in political science, which will help you for this term paper as well as future research. Seminar Paper: In the end, you will have to write a seminar paper in English or German answering a research question of your choice. About 3000 words are required. The paper needs to address the research question in an empirical way, which means using a regression using in R. |
| Assessment registration/deregistration | Reg.: course registration; dereg.: not required |
| Repeat examination | no repeat examination |
| Scale | 1-6 0,5 |
| Repeated registration | as often as necessary |
| Responsible faculty | Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, studadmin-philhist@unibas.ch |
| Offered by | Fachbereich Politikwissenschaft |