The specialization of Political Behaviour is devoted to provide a sound understanding of the relationship between the political actions of citizens and the political process in a democracy. The issues developed will include electoral behaviour, political attitudes, political behaviour and new forms of political participation, as well as the differences between the electoral systems and their consequences for political representation and political systems.
In the end, students will have acquired specific knowledge about theories and empirical evidence relating to mass political behaviour in advanced democracies; developed a thorough grounding in the major theoretical approaches to analyse political phenomena and become well-versed in the sources and analysis of different kinds of data (quantitative, qualitative, official statistics, documents, original texts). In addition, students will learn to evaluate theoretical claims in the light of appropriate empirical evidence and be prepared to undertake independent research in our discipline and employ primary (quantitative or qualitative) data.
The topics of the courses in this specialty are the following:
Political Attitudes and Democracy
This course is focused on the analysis and discussion of the most important comparative dimensions of public opinion and political culture. This course will also cover the process of formation and change of political attitudes, the impact of individual and contextual factors, and finally, the study of public opinion and its influence on the political process.
Participation and the Political Process
The aim of this course is to acquire a competent knowledge of the concept and dimensions of political participation and their distinctive evolution overtime. It will contain a full discussion of new modes of political participation, their different motivations and the effects of political participation on the political process.
Electoral Competition and Voting Behaviour
The course wants to provide a competent knowledge of the different models of voting behavior and the most influential factors on the individual voting decision. This course will be comparative in nature and it will be also aimed to acquire good knowledge and enough skills for the analysis of electoral results and the formulation of electoral strategies.
Electoral Systems
Advanced knowledge on the types of electoral systems and the way they work in democratic countries. Advanced competence on the institutional design of the electoral systems and on of the analysis of their effects
Design, evaluation and analysis of questionnaires for survey research
The purpose of the course is that the students become aware of the major problems which are connected with survey research, are able to develop proper questionnaires, can evaluate the quality of questionnaires of other people, have seen the effect of measurement error on survey results and have seen the problems of comparative cross cultural research.
The specialty provides an understanding of the interplay between methods, theories and evidence in the field of political behaviour as well as empirical skills for undertaking doctoral research in the field of mass political behaviour or for enhancing employability in the job market.