Dr Mariaelisa Epifanio

Are voters rational? How do people vote? Does the Media affect politics? What drives the demand for populist parties? How do we measure discrimination? These are some of the puzzles this course aims to explore using seminal works in political economy. Political economy uses tools from economics to study how political actors, institutions, and choices shape economic or political outcomes. This course covers recent advances in both theoretical and empirical political economy. Students are introduced to methods in empirical analysis (OLS, Difference-in-Differences). These methods will be applied to modern day political problems, in particular, the study of democratic politics.

Conflicts, terrorism and wars have plagued human societies since their inception: which factors are likely to explain their occurrence and duration of wars? How are civil wars different from inter-state and ethnic conflicts? Who is more likely to become a terrorist? How does the public react to terrorist attacks? How do states respond to terror? This course examines a number of theoretical and empirical debates in the study of conflict and terrorism. By the end of this module, students are expected to (1) develop an understanding of the major explanations for conflicts and terrorism and critically discuss their strengths and shortcomings (2) interpret the findings advanced by the empirical literature against or in line with the discussed theoretical predictions (and students' own pre-theoretical intuitions) (3) get exposed to the data and techniques employed by empirical scholarship to investigate conflict and terrorism.

Research methods in social science encompass a vast array of techniques meant to guide research of social, political and human behavior. This is a challenging and exciting enterprise. This module will introduce you to some of the most used methods in social science. We will start by defining the research process and the fundamental features of research design before covering a number of qualitative and quantitative approaches to the study of political phenomena. The aim is to equip you with the vital skills required to conduct research in political science and international relations and to provide the advanced knowledge required to undertake a dissertation at Masters level.