Politics BA

Core modules:

Political Analysis 1: An Introduction to Research and Scholarship

As the first part of three key modules taken throughout your degree, Political Analysis 1 will introduce you to the study of politics as an academic discipline.

You will discover different ways to research the dynamics of different political worlds and acquire the foundational knowledge and skills needed to build, test and evaluate rigorous accounts of political problems. 

Throughout the module, you will learn through a combination of lectures and seminars. You will also undertake independent study to delve deeper into the case studies of political scandal and failure discussed each week. 

20 credits

Introduction to Western Political Thought

During this module, you will be introduced to political theory as a distinctive way of thinking about politics. You will engage with some of the most influential and renowned thinkers from the history of Western political thought, critically analysing questions of power, justice and legitimacy.

Through the study of seminal texts, you will be challenged to evaluate historical responses to political questions and thereby start doing political theory for yourself. You will also develop a deeper understanding of various concepts that can be applied to your analyses of contemporary issues throughout the degree.

20 credits

Optional modules:

British Politics

You will be introduced to the key concepts and debates that have shaped British politics with an emphasis on history, institutions and culture.

Each lecture will focus on a specific element of British politics, with subsequent and linked seminars providing an opportunity to deepen this knowledge by looking at critical case studies or official reviews.

This module provides key employability skills and practice based knowledge through a focus on the theory and practice of political decision-making processes and the challenges of implementing policy.

20 credits

Introduction to Comparative Politics

Comparative politics is the systematic study and comparison of the diverse political systems in the world. 

Throughout the module you will examine the utility of the comparative approach to politics, focusing particularly on types of political regimes (democracies, dictatorships, and electoral authoritarian), and their implications for fascinating outcomes such as development (why some countries are more affluent than others), and conflict (why some countries are more prone to civil war than others). We will also discuss the role that colonialism plays in this interaction between regimes and consequences.

You will consider the key features of each regime type to be able to explain the nature of the comparative method, its strengths and weaknesses. You will also have the opportunity to learn useful skills which will help you design and come up with potential data to answer your research questions.

20 credits

Introduction to Global Political Economy

Global political economy (GPE) is a field of study that investigates the interaction between political and economic forces in contemporary and historical capitalism. You will consider key mainstream and critical theories.

You will be introduced to major processes of trade, production and exploitation, sketching the power relations of the global economy by using examples of contemporary production in different industries. You will also consider how the political economy of race, class and gender have structured the global economy through histories of colonisation and decolonisation, from the fourteenth to the twenty-first century.

20 credits

Planet Politics

From climate change to biodiversity loss, humans have fundamentally transformed the planet. Patterns of resource consumption have had catastrophic effects but are difficult to change: humankind has become dependent on the very activities that are causing these dramatic transformations.

Far from being automatic or inevitable, these transformations are deeply political. This module will help you make sense of planetary change by assessing different political causes and consequences whilst being introduced to different theories, ideas and critiques across disciplines about how we have got here and what we need to do to prevent further destruction. 

By examining the major environmental challenges of our age, Planet Politics will take you through some of the most pressing and contentious questions about how humans have affected our shared planetary ecosystems and how we should live and what we should do for life to prosper on Planet Earth.

20 credits

The World's Wicked Problems

The World's Wicked Problems serves as an introduction to International Relations as a discipline. 

Throughout this module you will engage in key international relations concepts and discussions, including migration, climate change, poverty and global inequalities, sexual violence and armed conflict.

As an introductory module, you have the opportunity to develop the tools needed to understand, analyse and reflect on in-depth theoretical and empirical international relations which shall continue to support you throughout your degree.

20 credits

Thinking Politically: Key Concepts

A concept is a general idea about something. We use concepts all the time to make sense of the world. For example, we use the concept of a 'table' to describe a piece of furniture with a flat top and some legs to keep it stable. We also use concepts to make sense of our experiences and not just to describe 'things'. For example, we talk about a painting being 'beautiful' or a tyrant being 'cruel'.  

In this course, you will be introduced to a range of core concepts that inform the study of politics and international relations in the twenty-first century: politics, authority, power, democracy, rights, justice, freedom, nations, the distinction between refugees and migrants, and populism.  

You will discover how these concepts shape our understanding of the political world around us, and learn how to engage in conceptual analysis (i.e. how to argue about how we should understand each of these concepts). By the end of the module, you will have learnt to problematise and evaluate events, information, and academic literature, enabling you to successfully and critically use key concepts in political debate.

20 credits

Core modules:

Political Analysis 2: How to do empirical research

An important skill for the study of  politics and international relations is the ability to effectively collect, analyse and evaluate reliable and robust evidence about real-world political phenomena. A good grounding in methods for collecting qualitative data can allow you to both make more sense of (and critically engage with) the research literature, and to carry out your own independent research, enabling you to address your own questions about the political world. Political Analysis 2 will introduce you to a range of quantitative and qualitative methods for studying political phenomena which will give you the skills you need.

In the course of the module, we will look at:The principles of effective research design in politics and IR - how to set up your research to answer your questions effectively and reliablySources of qualitative and quantitative data for politics and international relation researchMethod for collecting qualitative dataHow to code and analyse qualitative dataAnalysing trends and associations in political data;Using quantitative data and regression analysis to evaluate theories about real-world politics.

Building on the module taking in the first year, you will have the opportunity to learn how to apply the practical tools needed to collect and independently analyse data.

20 credits

Political Theory in Practice

You will explore key debates in political theory and their implications for current political practice. 

You will have the opportunity to engage in: debates surrounding justice and what these mean for welfare and taxation policies; disputes over the meaning of democracy and their implications for how we choose our leaders; discussions about different ideas of freedom of speech, and what 'hate speech' is; and to explore controversies around multiculturalism, in particular its impact upon women. 

Overall, this module will help you become well-equipped to identify and evaluate the competing values that lie behind so many of our current political controversies.

20 credits

Optional modules:

Africa in the World

Africa has long been treated as a marginal part of the world, both historically and in relation to contemporary global politics. Throughout this module you will challenge this misconception by exploring the crucial role that Africa plays in the current world order and the way it has historically evolved.

You will be introduced to the political, economic, socio-cultural, and military of Africa's international relations, familiarising yourself with the key actors, institutions and processes involved. You will assess how the slave trade and colonialism have shaped the modern world order, the global reverberations of African independence movements and pan-Africanism, and how continuing unequal relations are expressed in the politics of debt and military intervention. You will also analyse Africa's relations to emerging global powers.

By the end of the module you will have used a range of theoretical and conceptual tools from the field of international relations, drawing to a considerable extent on the work of African thinkers.

20 credits

Chinese Politics

Exploring the political development of China from the end of the Qing Dynasty up to present day, you will investigate China's continuous quest for modernity, the transformation of domestic politics, economics and society, and China's changing position on the international stage.

You will have the opportunity to learn about a range of topics, including the 1949 revolution and the Mao Zedong era, the post-1978 reform and opening-up era, and the recent changes made under Xi Jinping.

Thinking critically about the transformation of China, you will develop your understanding of the main forces that shaped the country as well as the domestic and global implications.

20 credits

Contemporary Security Challenges

Throughout the module you will examine a series of key contemporary challenges to international security.

You will engage in debates about the changing nature of security, analyse some of the causes of conflict and the development of new security threats, and understand the key ways in which states and non-state actors shape and respond to these threats.

You will explore a range of approaches to gain a theoretically-informed but policy-relevant understanding of security-related issues in the twenty-first century.

20 credits

Oppression and Resistance

Intense and ongoing debates over oppression shape contemporary politics. The key to these debates are disagreements over what constitutes oppression, how it functions, and how it can be resisted.

During this module, you will explore the strategies and legacy of movements that resisted specific forms of oppression such as racism, sexism, homophobia, class-based oppression and violence against non-human animals. To do this you will learn about movements like the Haitian Revolution, Black Lives Matter, Pride, #MeToo, and the 504 Disability Rights Sit-in.

You will be introduced to the historical, theoretical and empirical tools to understand and analyse modern oppression and resistance.

20 credits

Tackling the World's Wicked Problems: theoretical tools and applications

The world is faced with many pressing problems, from military conflicts to climate change, terrorism, and humanitarian catastrophes. These problems often seem intractable.

In this module, you will be presented with a variety of theoretical perspectives and tools, such as Postcolonialism and Green Theory, that seek to address these various 'wicked problems'. The module offers an in-depth discussion of some of the most important International Relations theories and applies them to empirical cases.

You address how various theories propose to practically solve the most pressing problems in world politics. You will also gain experience in approaching problems from a diversity of perspectives in order to better understand how problems arise and come to exist in global politics.

20 credits

The Left: Past, Present and Future

From its origins in the French Revolution, the movement of 'The Left' has struggled to balance equality, liberty and solidarity. Implementing these values has given rise to many different strands of leftist thought, leading to debates between radicals and proponents of meliorism. 

This module will provide you with the historical, theoretical and empirical tools to understand 'The Left' as a continuing project. You will explore topics such as defining 'The Left', its origins and development, its relation to political economy, and the current state of the Left in the UK and around the world.

20 credits

The Making of The Modern Middle East

You will examine the key political, economic and social dynamics that have shaped and have been shaped by the politics in the contemporary Middle East. Drawing on insights not only from politics but also from history, sociology, anthropology, and political economy, you will explore historical developments and political themes in the region.

The module content will encourage the development of the skills and knowhow to use the 'politics from below' perspective, listen for multiple discourses and silences, and contextualise these voices and silences historically, politically, economically and geographically in wider regional and global power structures.

By the end of the module, you will have used the conceptual and analytical skills needed to de-exceptionalise your understanding of politics in the Middle East.

20 credits

The Political Economy of Global Capitalism

In this module you will explore the political dynamics that underpin the organisation of capitalism.

You will study major issues within the global economy, ranging from the contested rise of neoliberal globalisation to the gendered and racialised patterns of work, production, inequality, and (financial) crises. You will investigate the history and contemporary operation of capitalism as a mode of production, and examine how capitalist social relations affect individuals, communities, states and the environment.  

The module will provide detailed knowledge of the political economy of capitalism and expose you to the tools to critically analyse it. You will become more familiar with cross-disciplinary methods as the module draws on a wide range of scholarship drawn from (International) Political Economy, Sociology, Geography and History. Finally, through a critical media analysis assessment, you will  analyse current real-life developments with the help of theories and concepts.

20 credits

Europe in Crisis

The European Union (EU) is a unique and highly developed instance of transnational governance and a major actor in world politics. It remains, despite Brexit, an important political and economic ally and partner to the United Kingdom. 

Your lectures will discuss the history and institutions of the EU and explore a range of contemporary debates and issues. Seminars will offer an opportunity for you to review and explore these topics in greater detail.

The module will provide a working knowledge of European integration, EU policy making, and of various recent political and economic crises.  At the same time you will, via various seminar activities, group work and assessments, have the opportunity to develop a range of relevant transferable skills.

20 credits

Political Theory in Practice

You will explore key debates in political theory and their implications for current political practice. 

You will have the opportunity to engage in: debates surrounding justice and what these mean for welfare and taxation policies; disputes over the meaning of democracy and their implications for how we choose our leaders; discussions about different ideas of freedom of speech, and what 'hate speech' is; and to explore controversies around multiculturalism, in particular its impact upon women. 

Overall, this module will help you become well-equipped to identify and evaluate the competing values that lie behind so many of our current political controversies.

20 credits

Political Analysis 3: Independent Research Through a Dissertation

For this module, you will conduct a supervised research dissertation on an agreed topic with guidance and support from a dissertation supervisor, drawing on the culmination of knowledge and skills you have gained throughout your degree.

You will meet with your module tutor and peers in five two-hour interactive lecture-workshops to prepare you to submit a formal 1,000 word research proposal, undertake individual research and produce a 8,000 word dissertation.

You will also undertake four individual supervision sessions with your dissertation supervisor where you will plan out your research process, set objectives, and you can discuss your progress and receive feedback.

40 credits

Optional modules:

Animals, Ethics and Politics

Throughout this module, you will explore the key debates surrounding what we owe to animals politically. You will discuss the main debates in animal ethics and ask how they affect political practices, norms, institutions and policies. 

Particular attention will be paid to the tensions between animal welfare and other political values and goods, enabling you to explore controversial policy debates such as animal experimentation, animal agriculture, conservation and the use of animals for entertainment.

Overall, you will investigate and debate the implications of taking animals seriously for current political practice.

20 credits

Britain in a New Age of Crisis

During this module, you will study some of the key moments in British political, economic and social history since the year 2000.

You will explore particular incidents over this time, such as the Iraq War, the Global Financial Crisis, austerity, Brexit, the Covid-19 pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis. You will also study recurring themes in British political history, such as the centralisation of political power, globalisation, quality, and the political economy of growth.

You do not need to have studied British politics before if you wish to take this module. Studying this module can enhance your analytical and communication skills, as the delivery of the course is centred around the development of groupwork.

20 credits

Brexit and Beyond

The United Kingdom (UK) has left the European Union (EU), but the EU's impact on its politics and economy has been profound and will endure long after Brexit.

Throughout this module, you will investigate complex issues such as the UK's historical relations with the EU and the Europeanisation and de-Europeanisation of British politics, policy and economy.

By the end of the module, you will have critically analysed: the pre-history of membership and accession, the EU's impact on the UK and the UK's impact on the EU, and the process and impact of Brexit. At the same time, seminar activities, group work and assessments will support your development of important transferable skills.

20 credits

Conflict, Violence and Security in Africa

Why does Africa appear to be prone to conflict? You will seek to answer this much-debated question through a systematic study of conflict, violence and security, focussing on sub-Saharan Africa. 

You will have the opportunity to conduct in-depth case studies on topics such as the anti-colonial wars in Kenya and Zimbabwe, military coups in Burkina Faso and Mali, child soldiers in northern Uganda, conflicts in Somalia, Liberia, Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of Congo and northern Nigeria. In addition, you will examine broader security challenges that impact the lives of ordinary Africans as well as look at the international response of conflict, violence, and insecurity on the continent. 

By the end of the module you will have had the opportunity to gained a thorough understanding of the complex and distinct dynamics of violence conflict in Africa.

20 credits

Civilisation, Empire and Hegemony

With American power seemingly all powerful today, this unit provides a rethink of the origins of great power politics/economics. Mainstream Eurocentric theories in International Relations view great power politics/economics as having universal materialist properties. And they view America and Britain as hegemons that provide global public goods for the benefit of all. This module problematises this view by revealing the differing moral foundations and 'standards of civilisation' that inform the various directions that great power can take. It examines Britain and China in the pre-1900 era, contemporary America, Japan, and the potential role of China in the coming decades.

20 credits

Corporations in Global Politics: Possibilities, Tensions, and Ambiguities

Corporations are ubiquitous, affecting everything from mundane individual consumption choices, to the investment decisions of both weak and powerful states. Importantly, their authority extends beyond the economic sphere and into the political, as they shape and execute policies and outcomes for some of the world's pressing problems.

Drawing upon international relations, political economy, and global governance literatures, you will analyse the corporation theoretically and empirically by drawing upon a diverse range of case studies from environmental sustainability and development, to war-making and peacekeeping. 

You will have the opportunity to explore the multifaceted political roles of corporations, learning to critically reflect on their implications.

20 credits

Contemporary Issues in Latin American Politics

Latin America is home to only eight percent of the world's population, but its countries usually top the rankings in bad public outcomes such as criminal violence, corruption, clientelism, and democratic erosion. 

This module will offer a look at some of the most pressing contemporary issues in the region by critically combining theoretical approaches and empirical data. 

We will explore issues such as:

Forms of government: from authoritarian regimes to populism

Economic development: industrialization, commodity extraction, and informal job markets

Poverty and inequality

Clientelism: making people turn out to vote

Criminal and political violence

Corruption

Ethnicity and indigenous peoples

The battle for the expansion of rights

You will analyse how current theories help us understand the fate of Latin American nations, and also carefully review the evidence to build new empirically-grounded theory. By the end of this module, we aim to better understand some of the most acute contemporary problems, such as democratic erosion, criminal violence, and inequality.

20 credits

Cosmopolitanism

Cosmopolitanism is the idea that the world should, in some sense, be understood as a single moral or political entity.

This module will encourage you to engage with cosmopolitanism from the perspective of normative political theory. You will be introduced to the historical origins of cosmopolitanism, from the Cynics in Ancient Greece to Immanuel Kant, before moving on to discuss the contemporary wave of cosmopolitanism theorising that began in the latter part of the twentieth century.

There are two core strands to the contemporary wave: claims about the global scope of justice, and claims about the need for global democracy. Both have come under considerable criticism as scholars ask: Is justice really global in scope, or is it an idea that belongs within the state or nation? Do we really need a global democracy? Does cosmopolitanism imply a world state? Is the whole idea of cosmopolitanism imperialistic? These are just some of the questions that you will be discussing and investigating during your seminars and lectures.

20 credits

Gender Politics in the Arab World

The topic is women and gender in the Middle East is a prevalent theme in popular culture. The image of Arab women or LGBTQI community members as the victims of Arab men are only two of many images to which most people have become accustomed through the media.

There is widespread ignorance concerning the lives, struggles and achievements of Arab women and LGBTQI identifying and non-identifying persons living in the Arab world. Often Arab is understood as also meaning Muslim, with Arab and Muslim incorrectly being used interchangeably. During this module, you will examine the focus on Arab-Muslim women and identify what this tells us about current politics and power relations. You will investigate how images of Arab/Muslim women are used to justify certain policies and maintain certain discourses and truths about both Arab/Muslim women and Western women. 

This module will also give you the opportunity to learn feminist self-reflective research techniques to look inwards and examine yourself as a researcher. Through a self-reflective journal you will learn how to use your own experiences to speak back to the readings and gain a deeper understanding of the readings that is not just based on critical analysis but also your own embodied knowledge. 

Through theoretical, historical, self-reflective and political study, you may gain a deeper understanding of how to assess power relations and be able to analyse how gender functions in different knowledge/power structures and discourses.

20 credits

Global Politics of Forced Migration

Armed conflicts, persecutions, and disasters cause people to be forcibly displaced, both nationally and internationally. By the end of 2022, there were 100 million forcibly displaced people according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Forced displacement, particularly asylum, has also received more attention from the media and decision-makers. This module will open discussion on the politics involved in these forced displacement situations.

You will be provided with a comprehensive view of global forced displacement topics, including asylum, refugee children, gender, family reunification, externalisation strategies, environmental displacement, and internally displaced people. With this knowledge, you will investigate and debate key questions, such as: who is a refugee, what are the implications of classifications on forcibly displaced people, what are the power constraints of international organisations working on forced displacement, and which actors and structures constitute the global governance regime of forced displacement? 

By studying the asylum systems in Europe, Africa, and Latin America in a comparative way, you will be exposed to the important tools needed to understand the global forced displacement regime.

20 credits

Global Culture Wars

Cancel culture, identity politics, the war on woke… How should we make sense of the so-called 'culture wars' that are transforming politics?

Throughout this module, you will examine this topic from a global and historical perspective, investigating the contemporary politics of culture wars that are found worldwide, and the tensions that have existed in one form or another since the dawn of modernity. Topics you will study include the rise of the global right, the transnational backlash against LGBT+ rights, and how social media has shaped contemporary politics. 

As a group, we will take a step back from the commotion, scandal and outrage to trace the historical lineages of culture wars across global politics.

20 credits

Hunger in the Global North

Millions of people across the global north lack adequate access to food. You will look into the drivers and experiences of hunger in these countries, and the responses in place such as the work of charities and food banks.

During the module, you will ask and debate whether different responses are effective for ensuring everyone has adequate access to food. You will investigate the role of welfare states and food systems in driving hunger and how food, health, and social security policies shape food experiences and environments. You will have the opportunity to explore different approaches to measuring and understanding hunger, such as analysing data collected by governments and hearing the voices of peoples' lived experiences.

By the end of the module, you will be practiced in the skills and knowledge to think critically about the different responses to hunger across the Global North. You will also be given the space and support to explore what effective solutions to hunger could look like.

20 credits

Legitimate and Illegitimate Violence

You will examine what circumstances political violence is deemed legitimate or illegitimate, approaching your investigation as an empirical question of power and politics. 

You will have the opportunity to explore a range of related topics, such as the distinction between civilians and combatants, the use of violence in war vs peace time, terrorism, torture, domestic and family violence, and police brutality. 

The key areas you will address are: when is violence treated as legitimate in the world; who gets to determine this; and how and when do the boundaries between legitimate and illegitimate violence change?

20 credits

Narcopolitics

Drugs are big businesses and politically salient, yet their production, trade, distribution and regulation are understudies in politics. Narcotics are rooted in complex webs of public, private and criminal power, with diverse consequences for growth, development, security and health.

You will explore this evolving panorama through tracing the political evolution of therapeutic/psychotropic substances (from the opium wars to prohibition), analysing the 'War of Drugs', investigating the attendant creation of mafia violence, and following the emergence of 'narco-states'. 

Towards the end of the module, you will assess contemporary experiments in legalisation and decriminalisation, the development of licit recreation narcotics industries, and the implications for the global prohibitionist architecture.

20 credits

Public Policy and Democratic Politics

Recent years have seen a tide of pressures impact on policy makers. Fuelling distrust and disaffection with public policy making, populist politicians have blamed civil servants for alleged corruption. Political leaders have also pushed for fundamental changes in how states operate. From the bottom up, social movements have put pressure on policy makers to revolutionise racial and gender equality, and respond to climate catastrophe. Technological innovations confront policy makers with a new and alienating future. 

You will examine the challenges policy makers face at multiple levels and ask the question: how can they make radical change happen? 

By the end of the module, you will have been exposed to more nuanced understanding of the pressures policy makers face and how they manage them, with the aim of successfully implementing radical shifts in how we respond to the most pressing policy issues of our time.

20 credits

Parliamentary Studies

You will analyse how parliaments and legislatures operate through theoretically-informed but policy relevant teaching. You will address key topics in order to understand why cultures, traditions and informal relationships matter as much (if not more) than formal procedures.

The House of Commons and the House of Lords will provide the main institutional focus for this module, but you will be encouraged to adopt a comparative approach where possible to situate your analysis within an appreciation of the changing role of parliament within evolving frameworks of multi-level governance. 

This module is skills-based with practitioners travelling from Parliament to co-deliver seminars and discuss career options and professional pathways.

20 credits

Party Politics: Competition, Strategies and Campaigns

'Party Politics' offers an in-depth examination of various issues related with parties, looking at their characteristics as well as their interactions. The module is motivated by a series of fundamental questions about parties and party systems. How and why do political parties emerge? What characterises different party families? How do parties run campaigns, and how effective are they? How do parties compete during elections, and what determines the kind of coalitions we get in government? Why do some political systems have few parties, while others many? Why do some parties appeal to voters by promising particular programs, whereas others use clientelist methods to mobilise electoral support? The module is empirical in nature, trying to evaluate theories related to party politics through the use of evidence. You will be encouraged to think critically about the approaches used and apply real-world cases to the topics under investigation. A key aspect of the module is the use of the comparative method as a way to think analytically and make inferences. You do not need to have any prior knowledge of empirical methods to take the course.

20 credits

Peacekeeping, State-building and International Intervention

International interventions are ubiquitous in today's global politics. Designed to protect civilians, to deliver humanitarian aid, to ensure peace or to rebuild states, international interventions take a variety of forms and are led by international organisations, states and non-governmental organisations. In this module, you will investigate the ways these interventions function, the limitations and problems they face, and how they have changed in recent years.

Drawing on a number of different approaches (such as feminist approaches to peace, the turn to the local, or decolonial approaches) and empirical examples, you will explore the key practices of international intervention (peacebuilding, statebuilding and development).

As an advanced International Relations module, you will use key skills needed to critically analyse the successes and failures of international interventions. You will also gain experience in developing solutions and alternative approaches to improve the outcomes of these interventions.

20 credits

Political Psychology: The Personal Side of Politics

In this module, you will discuss the major theories and research paradigms in the exciting subfield of Political Psychology. At its core, Political Psychology is an attempt to use what we know about human psychology to understand the attitudes and behaviours of individuals and groups within political systems. 

Rather than reviewing what happens in politics, or how it happens, you will ask why events happen by studying the psychology of politics at the micro level (e.g. the personality of politicians), the meso level (e.g. the ideological and moral foundations of political parties), and the macro level (e.g. motivated reasoning, racism and prejudice, mass political behaviour and the influence of the media).

This module will encourage you to think in new ways about the psychological diversity of individuals, groups, and communities, and the ways in which this shapes their engagement in politics. In the process, you may become open-minded to new interdisciplinary approaches in the study of politics and social relations, and practice resilience as you seek to master unfamiliar concepts and scientific methods.

20 credits

Practical Politics: How to Make Policy and Influence People

What is public policy? Who makes it? How? When is policy making successful, and why is it sometimes not?   

From health to education, from environment to crime, from central government to local councils, from  NGOs to big tech, this course will teach you how policy is made and how you can influence it. It includes regular guest talks by politicians, civil servants, campaigners and think tankers, and independent tasks reflecting the things policy makers actually do. 

This module will give you not just a practical understanding of how policy making is done, but a direct sense of what it would be like to work in the policy field.

20 credits

Research Project 1

You will choose to research and explore a topic studied during a semester one module at a deeper level. With an academic supervisor for support, you will conduct and write a 5,000 word research project.

The research project will support the development of your academic scholarship and your critical thinking skills by immersing you in the research process. You will practice identifying credible sources, evaluating information objectively, and drawing and articulating meaningful insights from your findings.

20 credits

Research Project 2

You will choose to research and explore a topic studied during a semester one module at a deeper level. With an academic supervisor for support, you will conduct and write a 5,000 word research project.

The subject chosen in Research Project 2 must be different to the topic studied in Research Project 1.

The research project will support the development of your academic scholarship and your critical thinking skills by immersing you in the research process. You will practice identifying credible sources, evaluating information objectively, and drawing and articulating meaningful insights from your findings.

20 credits

Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict

Conflict related sexual violence (CRSV) was once overlooked and ignored by policymakers. Now eliminating CRSV and sex and gender based violence features on the policy agendas of numerous international organisations, especially the United Nations. 

Throughout the module, you will undertake three key tasks: an examination of what sexual violence is, why it occurs and why it is so widespread; an assessment of the international efforts to prosecute and prevent sexual violence in armed conflict, and explore the various long-term consequences of sexual violence in armed conflict for individuals, communities, and processes of reconciliation.

You will have the opportunity to discuss what can be done to prevent CRSV (and its numerous violent consequences), explore what it is like to conduct research into CRSV, and undertake case study analysis including designing recommendations for a policy audience.

20 credits

Party, State and Society in China

This module examines changing state-society relations in the People's Republic of China from the Mao Zedong era to the present day.

You will get to explore this topic through a number of themes, such as resistance, 'civil society', gender, online expression, censorship and self-censorship, repression, responsiveness, and inequality.

Throughout the module, you will engage with important recent debates about China's political development. You will also practice your critical thinking, discussion, and essay-writing skills.

20 credits

Terrorism, Violence and the State

In order to understand the nature and motivations of contemporary terrorism, it is necessary to understand the nature of the modern state and other, non-violent forms of protest such as civil disobedience. 

The module will examine the nature of modern political violence, covering non-violent resistance; violent resistance and terrorism; motivations, tactics, strategies and goals of terrorists; state responses to terrorism; the role of gender and the relationship with media.

By studying these topics, you may advance your understanding of the nature and legitimacy of forms of protest against the modern state.

20 credits

The Ethics of Political Leadership

This course examines the ethics of political leadership. To do so, it focuses on broad and timeless questions, such as 'What is the relationship between politics and morality?' as well as more focused questions, including 'May politicians bend moral constraints in the name of political necessity?' and 'Is it always wrong for leaders to lie?'

To answer these questions, you will analyse and evaluate normative arguments on the significance and function of political leaders in contemporary politics. You will also examine competing theories of leadership in their historical and intellectual context. This module will encourage you to take a theoretical approach, using examples of political leaders to highlight strengths and weaknesses of competing theories of leadership, and to emphasise their ideological assumptions and implications.

20 credits

Understanding Elections

Elections are key moments in democratic politics. They influence the formation of governments and provide a means for citizens to express their political preferences and their judgements on the competence of those who govern them. In doing so, they offer important insights into public opinion, participation, and political behaviour. Elections are also complex events, influenced by political debates, ideas, and campaigns, by different rules under which particular electoral systems operate, and by large social forces beyond the control of governments. Understanding elections requires insights into many aspects of modern political life. 

During this module, you will investigate elections from a range of different perspectives, answering questions about what influences voter decisions and how these have changed, the effect of party political campaigns on election outcomes, and the impact of the 'rules of the game' governing the electoral system on the outcome of elections. 

Examining elections in the UK and around the world, you will draw on the latest evidence and research to understand academic debates on electoral politics and to develop your ideas and analyses of elections.

20 credits

War, Peace and Justice

During this module, you will critically examine the politics of liberal war,  a term used to describe the various military activities of the liberal powers since the end of the Cold War, from military interventions in Kosovo to the invasions occupations, counter insurgencies in Afghanistan and Iraq, to the training and arming of Ukraine's military. Liberal war is grounded in ethical claims and logics that emphasise war as a humanitarian measure to liberate the oppressed and to achieve or preserve ideals of the international liberal order, such as democracy and freedom. War pursued by the liberal powers is therefore seen to be a mechanism of liberal peace and justice.  

You will study the role of liberal war within global racial hierarchies and the ongoing condition of coloniality, the relationship between liberal war and gender, different conceptualizations and ways of understanding the violences of liberal war, the relationships between liberal war and liberal economy, and the politics of death in liberal war. You will also examine the presents and the futures of liberal war, considering events such as the fall of Kabul and the war in Ukraine. 

By the end of the module, you will have critically assessed liberal war's logics and ethical claims and the practices that go along with them.

20 credits