FORMAT FOR COURSE CURRICULUM

B.A (Honors) Political Science

Course Title: COMPARATIVE POLITICS & GOVERNMENT-I

L T P/S SW/F TOTAL
W CREDIT
UNITS
Course Code: - -10 - - 04
Credit Units: 04 30

Course Objectives: This course aims to introduce

undergraduate students to some of the range of issues and
literature that covers comparative politics today. It has
one marked way forward from the earlier course, in that it
includes state and non-state actors, governmental and
nongovernmental sectors; hence the name is simply,
Comparative Politics. It enables them to apply many of
the terms and concepts they would have learnt in political
theory in the first year course and so see the connection
between theory and application. Since the idea is to
introduce many aspects of politics, the choice of countries
has been influenced by where a particular concept is most
interesting. So this does not require the student to study
all the dimensions of those countries, but the specific
ones.
Pre-requisites: +2 from any stream

Student Learning Outcomes: To demonstrate knowledge of fundamentals of Comparative

Politics & Government and to analyze the comparative politics today and to apply the knowledge
of Comparative Politics in the contemporary world.

Course Contents/Syllabus:
Weightage (%)
 1. Module I : Comparative Politics and Comparative Government 25%

Descriptors/Topics
Distinction between Comparative Politics and Comparative
Government
Development of Comparative Politics.

Module II Approaches to the study of Comparative Politics 25%

Descriptors/Topics
1. Scope, purposes and methods of comparison –
Approaches to the study of Comparative Politics
Module III 25%
Contemporary forms of Government

Descriptors/Topics

1. a. Republic: USA and India

b. Monarchies: Absolute – Saudi Arabia;
Constitutional – UK
2. a. Presidential: USA and Russian Federation
b. Parliamentary: UK, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh

Module IV Different Kinds of Government 25%

Descriptors/Topics
1. Federal: USA and Russian Federation
2. Unitary: UK and China
3. Military in Politics: Pakistan, Chile and Myanmar
Pedagogy for Course Delivery: The signature pedagogy of political science is
essentially, a combination of large lecture and smaller group sessions. Political
sciences’ signature pedagogy has remained relatively static. A traditional reliance
on lectures, tutorials and private study remains the contemporary basis for teaching
and learning in political science

Lab/ Practical details, if applicable: N.A.

List of Experiments:

 -
 -
 -

Assessment/ Examination Scheme:

Theory L/T (%) Lab/Practical/Studio (%) End Term Examination

- - 70

Theory Assessment (L&T):

Continuous Assessment/Internal Assessment End Term
Examination
Components (Drop P-1 HA CT-1 ATT EE
down)
Weightage (%) 10 05 10 05 70
Lab/ Practical/ Studio Assessment:

Continuous Assessment/Internal Assessment End Term

Examination
Components (Drop P-1 HA CT-1 ATT EE
down
Weightage (%) 10 05 10 05 70

Text & References:

Amilton, P. The Enlightenment and the Birth of Social Science in Hall,S and Gieben,
(eds) Formations of Modernity, London, Polity ,1992, pp. 17-70.
Giddens, Anthony ‘The Globalising of Modernity” in Held, David and Mcgrew, Anthony
(eds)., The Global Transformations Reader Polity Press, Cambridge, 2000, pp. 92-98
Russell, J. W. Modes of Production in World History London, Routledge, 1989 chapter 7
And 8 (Capitalism)
Heywood, A., Development of Socialism: Socialism in and Outside Europe, its Collapse Politics,
Palgrave, London. Chapter on: Political Ideologies, pp. 51-59.
Russell, J. W., Modes of Production in World History London, Routledge, 1989 chapters 9
And 10 (Socialism). .
Haynes, J. Third World Politics: A Concise Introduction Blackwell, Oxford, 1996, chapter
State and Society, pp. 20-32.
Haynes, J. Politics in the Developing World: A Concise Introduction Blackwell, Oxford,
2002, Chapter 1: Politics, Economics and Societies in the Developing World at the New
Millennium, pp. 1-24.