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76279-01 - Seminar: Political Elites: Who Are They, How Do They Decide, What Do We Like/Hate About Them? (3 CP)
| Semester | fall semester 2025 |
| Course frequency | Irregular |
| Lecturers | Stefanie Bailer (stefanie.bailer@unibas.ch, Assessor) |
| Content | This seminar introduces students to the study of elite behavior and decision-making, drawing from contemporary research in political science, and partly from psychology, economics, and sociology. The course will pool insights from scholarship on elite behavior in subnational, national, and supranational governments. Throughout the term, we study the following questions: What drives individuals to run for office? What roles do legislators adopt? How do politicians learn about policies? How do psychological biases influence elite behavior? How do representatives build their image of the electorate? How do parties constrain legislators? We will cover the following research questions: Who are political elites and what drives politicians’ behavior? What is political ambition, what drives and hinders political ambition? How are political candidates selected? Do politicians make a difference? Descriptive and Substantive Representation Which biases in their decision-making have politicians? How do politicians build their image of voters? How and when do politicians respond to public opinion and how are they informed? How do voters build their image of politicians? |
| Learning objectives | - deepened understanding of the underlying challenges of the policy-making process as well as the pitfalls of representative democracy - knowledge of research design and methods to analyse the resulting research questions |
| Bibliography | - up to date research on politicians provided via ADAM e.g. - Butler, Chris, and Barbara Vis. 2022. "Heuristics and policy responsiveness: a research agenda." European Political Science 22 (2):202. - Kertzer, Joshua D, and Jonathan Renshon. 2022. "Experiments and surveys on political elites." Annual Review of Political Science 25:529-550. - Lucas, Jack, Lior Sheffer, Peter John Loewen, Stefaan Walgrave, Karolin Soontjens, Eran Amsalem, Stefanie Bailer, Nathalie Brack, Christian Breunig, and Pirmin Bundi. 2024. "Politicians’ theories of voting behavior." American Political Science Review:1-18. - Mutz, Diana C, and Eunji Kim. 2020. "The progress and pitfalls of using survey experiments in political science." In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics. - Rehmert, Jochen. 2022. "Party elites’ preferences in candidates: evidence from a conjoint experiment." Political Behavior 44 (3):1149-1173. - Sevenans, Julie, Awenig Marie, Christian Breunig, Stefaan Walgrave, Karolin Soontjens, and Rens Vliegenthart. 2025. "Are poor people poorly heard?" European Journal of Political Research 64 (3):1326-1350. |
| Comments | 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 will be limited. Priority will be given to students of Political Science. |
| Admission requirements | 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 will be limited. 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, Seminarraum 02.004 |
Dates
| Modules |
Modul: Erweiterung Gesellschaftswissenschaften M.A. (Master's degree subject: Political Science) Modul: Regionaler Fokus M.A. (Master's degree subject: Political Science) Modul: Vertiefung Politikwissenschaft M.A. (Master's degree subject: Political Science) Module: Conflicts and Peacebuilding (Master's degree program: Changing Societies: Migration – Conflicts – Resources) |
| Assessment format | continuous assessment |
| Assessment details | - learning journal contributions - development of research design |
| 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 |