History of political institutions 02.04.D2.EM.HPI

During the classes students are familiarized with an importance of historical knowledge in understanding the contemporary political phenomena, with special focus on a role and evolution of political institutions. The institutional approach in political science, including its advantages and disadvantages, is presented to the students. Political institutions’ development is analyzed in its social, cultural and economic contexts. The special attention is being paid rather to the discernible patterns of evolution of political institutions, than to an abundance of historical facts. The main political institutions of the contemporary state are under historical analysis like a monarchy, parliament, political parties, bureaucracy. The historical growth of institutional basis of the good governance is also included into the curriculum. In order to explain weakness of the classic institutional approach the phenomena like corruption and clientelism are studied as an examples of informal political institutions

Supplementary literature

Barcham M., Hindess B., Larmour P. (eds.) Corruption. Expanding the focus. Canberra: The Australian National University Press. Luiten van Zanden Jan, Buringh Eltjo, Bosker Maarten, The rise and decline of European parliaments 1188-1789, Center for Economic Policy Research, London 2010. Mungiu-Pippidi Alina, Becoming Denmark: Understanding good governance historical achievers, European Research Centre for Anticorruption and State-Building, 2011. Michael Mann, The Sources of Social Power: Volume 2, The Rise of Classes and Nation States 1760-1914, Cambridge University Press, 1993. Rothstein B., State building and capitalism: the rise of the Swedish bureaucracy, „Scandinavian Political Studies”, vol. 21, no. 4, 1998. Stepan A., Linz J., Minoves J., Democratic parliamentary monarchies „Journal of Democracy” vol. 25, No 2, 2014. Kokkonen A., Sundel A., Delivering stability – primogeniture and autocratic survival in European monarchies 1000-1800, The Quality of Government Institute, University of Gothenburg, 2012.

Type of course

general courses

Course coordinators

Term 2023/24-Z:

Grzegorz Haber
Joanna Kulska

Term 2024/25-Z:

Joanna Kulska
Magdalena Ozimek-Hanslik

Term 2022/23-Z:

Grzegorz Haber
Joanna Kulska

Learning outcomes

The student has expanded knowledge about different types of political institutions and structures (economic, legal, cultural, security and social ones)

The student is able to comprehensively explain the systems of norms and rules (legal, moral, organizational, professional, ethical) determining political structures
Using advanced knowledge the student can comprehensively analyze and participate in the public debate
The student can comprehensively refer to the current discussion on historical and contemporary processes by employing scientific methods and facts.
The student is able to study politics as a social phenomenon in insightful manner.
The student demonstrates in-depth reflexivity when evaluating the historical and contemporary events
The student can work and cooperate in team by assuming different roles in an effective and creative manner

Assessment criteria

Written exam:
3,0: passing the test (51-54 % of the maximum number of points)
3,5: passing the test (55-70 % of the maximum number of points)
4,0: passing the test (71-85 % of the maximum number of points)
4,5: passing the test (86-94 % of the maximum number of points)
5,0: passing the test (95-100 % of the maximum number of points)
Exercises :
3,0: attendance (min. 70%)
3,5: attendance (min. 78%)
4,0: attendance (min. 90%)
4,5: attendance (min. 90%) and sporadic participation in a discussion
5,0: attendance (min. 90%) and frequent participation in a discussion

Bibliography

Acemoglu D., Robinson J., Why nations fail. The origins of power, prosperity and poverty, London 2013.

Byock Jesse, The Icelandic Althing: Dawn of Parliamentary Democracy, in: Heritage and Identity: Shaping the Nations of the North, ed. J. M. Fladmark, Donhead, 2002.

Caenegem C.R., An historical introduction to western constitutional law, Cambridge University Press 1995.

Krzywoszyński Przemysław, The Origins of Religious Liberty within Modern Democracy: Some Remarks on Poland’s “Golden Freedom”, 'ANNALES Universitatis Mariae Curie Sklodowska', sectio K,VOL. XIX, 2, 2012

Perie Arnold, Democracy and corruption in the XIX century United States: parties
‘spoils’ and political participation, in: The History of corruption in the central government, ed. Seppo Tiihonen, Amsterdam 2003.

Rhodes R., The institutional approach, [in:] Theory and methods in political science, ed. D. Marsh, G. Stoker, 1995 Macmillan Press.

Scarrow S., The nineteenth-century origins of modern political parties: the unwanted emergence of party-based politics, [in:] Handbook of party politics, ed. R. Katz, W. Crotty, Sage Publication 2006.

Satoshi Koyam, The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth as a Political Space: Its Unity and Complexity, in: Regions in Central and Eastern Europe: Past and Present, ed. by Hayashi Tadayuki and Fukuda Hiroshi, Sapporo, Slavic Euroasian Studies 15, 2007.

Additional information

Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system:

Description of 02.04.D2.EM.HPI in USOSweb