Are we witnessing a structural change of global politics? Is territory becoming less important? Or are we returning to a salience of borders? Is sovereignty challenged by global politics? And what are the major global trends we have experienced? This course aims to introduce students to an analytical study of the global politics in contemporary times in order to answer the above questions and several others puzzles related to international institutions, war and advanced theories from International Relations. This academic year there will a monographic part on the concepts, dynamics and polices related to “internationalism”. The course is in English. 


The course addresses key factors challenging contemporary representative democracies, the causes driving “autocratization”, the mechanisms of “democratic backsliding”, and both domestic and international factors undermining the legitimacy of democratic systems. The course also introduces the students to some possible responses that representative institutions and political actors can adopt to strengthen public support for democracy. The course employs the comparative approach, which represents the mainstream method for testing hypotheses in the field of political science, and quantitative techniques for data analysis. Both aggregate-level and individual-level data will be investigated.

By the end of the course, students will be familiar with the analytical tools to study the main threats to contemporary representative democracies and with a range of theoretical and empirical approaches in the broad field of comparative politics. Students will develop analytical skills in the critical use of data for understanding the social, political, cultural and economic stresses facing democracies across the world and innovatively engaging with these challenges in academic, government and NGO settings.

Short course description and program

The course focuses on questions concerning global justice. The first part of the course addresses basic notions and concepts connected to distributive justice as well as major conceptions of justice developed for the domestic level. The second part of the course offers clues for appreciating the peculiarity of the global domain and the specific challenges connected to extending requirements of justice beyond domestic contexts. On this background, the third part of the course is meant to provide insights about issues - such as poverty, migration, climate change and public health - that are likely to have global import and that might require cooperation at the international level. In the final part of the course, students will be actively involved in debate sessions, which will provide them the opportunity to apply theoretical frames and philosophical arguments to issues currently discussed within public debates.

The complete program of the course, with details about the methods of assessment and indications about the exam materials, is available at this link.

The updated syllabus can be downloaded here.


Timetable and venues

Classes start Wednesday January 8th, and they are organized according to the followin schedule:

  • Monday 8:30-10:30 - Room 21
  • Wednesday 8:30-10:30 - Room 25