Political Science

Syllabus

1. Political science as a social science: methodology of social sciences, research methods in social sciences, historical development and origin of political science, subject of its research, discussion of political science as a scientific discipline, basic terminology 2. Politics and political power: the concept of politics and perception of politics, the founders of the European tradition of social thought, the founders of the Chinese and Arab philosophical traditions, characteristics of the concept of political power and ways of its implementation, legality, legitimacy, morality and politics, issues of political power in a democratic political system, panopticism, biopower and biopolitics 3. The relationship between politics and economics: economic pressure groups, economic functions of the state, economic policy and its instruments, models of economic policy, capitalist and socialist economy, market economy and mixed economy 4. Political system: definition of the term political system, functions of political systems, forms of government, typology of political systems according to the head of state (monarchy, republic), idealism and realism in the foundations of European practical philosophy 5. Political regimes: characteristics of democratic and non-democratic regimes (dictatorship, authoritarian regime), consociational and Westminster model 6. The state and its place in the political system: history, genesis, functions of the state, features of the state (state power, state mechanism, territoriality, citizenship, sovereignty), basics of philosophy of law and philosophy of contractualism, the question of the division of power in the state 7. Vertical division of power: state administration and territorial self-government (local and regional), classification of states according to administrative division (unitary state – centralization, decentralization, autonomy, federal state, unions of states – confederation, real, personal union) 8. Classical political ideologies: the role of ideologies in politics, conservatism, socialism, liberalism 9. Derived political ideologies: anarchism, nationalism, fascism, new ideologies (feminism, environmentalism, multiculturalism, religious fundamentalism) 10. Cleavage theory: classical cleavages, new cleavages, political spectrum – Left-Right spatial metaphor 11. Political parties: functions of political parties, genesis, historical types of parties (elite, mass, catch-all, cartel, media party), typologies of political parties and party families, movements and pressure groups, party systems (bipartism, multipartism) 12. Elections and electoral systems: elections and their basic functions, majority electoral system, system of proportional representation, combined systems, electoral legislation of the Slovak Republic, electoral laws (Duverger's, Sartori's laws) 13. The issue of life in a democratic society: totalitarianism, universal human rights and the problem of an open society, stability of democratic regimes, clash of cultures, democratic values ​​and identity, civic participation, political extremism, freedom of speech and Internet, new (social) media and its political dimension