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60395-01 - Seminar: From Party Members to Party Leaders: Selecting the Party Executive (3 CP)
| Semester | spring semester 2025 |
| Course frequency | Irregular |
| Lecturers | Clint Claessen (clint.claessen@unibas.ch, Assessor) |
| Content | What is the importance of party leaders? How do different party families shape their party executive in different countries? In many democracies, party elites play a crucial role in deciding who holds power and how. In this seminar we delve deeper into the nuts and bolts of the intra-party politics and political careers in both Westminster and continental democracies. How do party leaders get selected? How much does their personality and campaign style matter to the party goals of policy, office and votes? The seminar is structured according to the different players and aspects of the party: the party members, candidate selection, party group leadership, party families, potential voters, the party goals, the electoral system and ultimately, the party leaders themselves. The seminar consists of theoretical sessions (+-75%) and applied sessions (+-25%) where we will work in the R environment. The goal is that you learn to work with data on candidate selection and that you write a 3000-word paper comparing party elites, either over time in the same party, between parties or in different countries. |
| Learning objectives | At the end of the seminar: - The students can explain intra-party candidate selection and give at least three examples of selection processes in different parties. - They can analyze differences between party elites in different party families and under different electoral constraints. - They understand the competencies of party leaders in comparison from at least two countries. - They can perform basic statistical operations (OLS/Logit) with candidate selection data in R. |
| Bibliography | Pilet, Jean-Benoit and William P. Cross (2014) The Selection of Political Party Leaders in Contemporary Parliamentary Democracies Van Haute, Emilie (2016). Green Parties in Europe. Routlegde, Taylor & Francis Group. Musella, Fortunato (2018) Political Leadership. Beyond Party Politics. Palgrave Macmillan Ennser-Jedenastik, Laurenz and Gijs Schumacher (2020) What Parties want from their Leaders. How Office Achievement trumps Electoral Performance as a driver of party leader survival. European Journal of Political Research. [https://ejpr.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1475-6765.12391] |
| Comments | The number of participants is limited to 30 people. The places are assigned according to date of enrollment and subject of study. Priority will be given to students of Political Science. 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. |
| Admission requirements | The number of participants is limited to 30 people. The places are assigned according to date of enrollment and subject of study. Priority will be given to students of Political Science. 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. |
| Course application | Registration through MOnA |
| Language of instruction | German |
| Use of digital media | No specific media used |
| Interval | Weekday | Time | Room |
|---|---|---|---|
| wöchentlich | Thursday | 16.15-17.45 | Bernoullistrasse 14/16, Seminarraum 02.004 |
Dates
| Date | Time | Room |
|---|---|---|
| Thursday 20.02.2025 | 16.15-17.45 | Bernoullistrasse 14/16, Seminarraum 02.004 |
| Thursday 27.02.2025 | 16.15-17.45 | Bernoullistrasse 14/16, Seminarraum 02.004 |
| Thursday 06.03.2025 | 16.15-17.45 | Bernoullistrasse 14/16, Seminarraum 02.004 |
| Thursday 13.03.2025 | 16.15-17.45 | Fasnachstferien |
| Thursday 20.03.2025 | 16.15-17.45 | Bernoullistrasse 14/16, Seminarraum 02.004 |
| Thursday 27.03.2025 | 16.15-17.45 | Bernoullistrasse 14/16, Seminarraum 02.004 |
| Thursday 03.04.2025 | 16.15-17.45 | Bernoullistrasse 14/16, Seminarraum 02.004 |
| Thursday 10.04.2025 | 16.15-17.45 | Bernoullistrasse 14/16, Seminarraum 02.004 |
| Thursday 17.04.2025 | 16.15-17.45 | Ostern |
| Thursday 24.04.2025 | 16.15-17.45 | Bernoullistrasse 14/16, Seminarraum 02.004 |
| Thursday 01.05.2025 | 16.15-17.45 | Tag der Arbeit |
| Thursday 08.05.2025 | 16.15-17.45 | Bernoullistrasse 14/16, Seminarraum 02.004 |
| Thursday 15.05.2025 | 16.15-17.45 | Bernoullistrasse 14/16, Seminarraum 02.004 |
| Thursday 22.05.2025 | 16.15-17.45 | Bernoullistrasse 14/16, Seminarraum 02.004 |
| Thursday 29.05.2025 | 16.15-17.45 | Auffahrt |
| 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 | Active participation, (25%), assignments in R (25%), and a paper (3000 words) (50%) 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. |
| 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 |