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Lehrende: Dr. Dietmar Schirmer
Veranstaltungsart:
Seminar
Orga-Einheit: Politics, Administration & International Relations
Anzeige im Stundenplan:
VSPAIR_II
Semesterwochenstunden:
3
Credits:
9,0
Hinweis: In Ihrer Prüfungsordnung können abweichende Credits festgelegt sein.
Standort:
Campus der Zeppelin Universität
Unterrichtssprache:
Englisch
Min. | Max. Teilnehmerzahl:
10 | 18
Prioritätsschema: Standard-Priorisierung
Inhalte:
For political scientists, populism is a vexed topic. Despite, or perhaps because of the immense amount of research it has stimulated, it remains notoriously ill-defined, its relationship to democracy as unclear (“shadow”?, “corrective”?, “antithesis”?) as its causal status (cause or consequence of a crisis of democracy?). In this seminar, we will seek to cut through the underbrush of the populism discourse in three steps. Step One will be about theory, with most of the texts a bit older so as to escape the presentism and opportunism characteristic of much of the current Trump/Brexit-induced populism-discourse. Step Two will offer a critical discussion of a few of the most influential pieces of the current populism debate, with special attention given to the question whether the electoral success of populist actors and parties is due mainly to economic insecurity or cultural alienation. In Step Three we will switch to a less-travelled path and treat populism not as the cause, but the symptom of a crisis of liberal democracy. For this purpose, we will take a theory of democracy-perspective and asks how changes in the practice of liberal democracy may have opened the door for political actors who turn the tension between the liberal and the democratic ingredients of liberal democracy into a weapon for its destruction.
At this point, I have not yet completed the syllabus for this class. However, you can find a copy of the syllabus I used in the last rendition (Fall 2020) of the course under "Materials". The structure will more or less remain the same, but there will be significant changes in the selection of texts.
Lernziele:
The seminar seeks to
· familiarize students with theories of populism and relate them to relevant debates in the theory of democracy;
· engage students with empirical research on contemporary populism;
· give students a historical perspective that allows them to contextualize current phenomena in the broader context of contestation over democracy in the twentieth century.
Zugelassene Hilfsmittel für die Prüfung:
The exam will be conducted as a Take Home (2 out of 3 essays, 3 pages each, 48 hrs). All materials admissable.
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