Political science

Teacher(s)

Paye Olivier;

Language

French

Learning outcomes

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :

This is an introductory class. Its aim is to introduce the students to the understanding of contemporary political phenomena through the study of a few basic analytical frameworks. The lecture will look into some foundational concepts and typologies in political science, as well as some authoritative explanatory theories. By the end of the lectures, the students are expected to be familiar enough with those theories to apply them to concrete situations. During the exam (see ‘assessment methods’), the students will be asked to use those key theoretical points to analyse some contemporary political phenomena that will not have been discussed during the lectures.

Content

This is an introductory course. It aims to introduce students to the understanding of current political phenomena through a basic analytical framework, based on the fundamental concepts and typologies of political science, as well as on a few reference theories.
The course is divided into four main parts, each corresponding to a classic concept of political science: Politics, Power, State, Democracy. In the analysis of each concept, and of the reality it covers, care will be taken to show, on the one hand, what makes political phenomena specific in comparison with other social phenomena and, on the other hand, what makes contemporary Western political phenomena specific in comparison with political phenomena taking place in other geopolitical contexts or having occurred in earlier periods.
Throughout the course, many examples drawn from current affairs will be used to illustrate and better explain the theoretical elements whose practical mastery is expected by the end of the course.

Teaching methods

Of the 5 credits of the course, 3 credits correspond to the follow-up of the lectures (1): attendance and note-taking during the lectures; reorganisation of the notes in connection with the course materials; assimilation of the course content. The remaining 2 credits are linked to a ‘self-teaching activity’ consisting in the completion of assignments and exercises (2).
(1) LECTURES
The content developed during the lectures is contained in the following handbook: N. Schiffino, O. Paye et al., Fondements de science politique, 2e éd., Bruxelles, De Boeck Supérieur, 2022. This handbook is available at the Course Materials Office (‘Bureau des supports de cours’). The precise passages of the handbook that are part of the course content are listed in a document available under the heading ‘Documents’ of the course website on the Moodle platform. A slideshow supports the oral developments made during the lectures. It shows the general structure of the course, the core ideas that make up the course content, as well as clarifications and illustrative examples complementary to those contained in the handbook. The slideshow is available in paper format at the Course Materials Office (‘Bureau des supports de cours’) and can be downloaded in electronic format from the course website.
(2) SELF-TEACHING ACTIVITY
The self-teaching activity mainly takes the form of eight assignments, available on the course website, whose statements are drawn from exam questions of previous years. The assignments anticipate the type of questions that will be put to students during the exam sessions of the current academic year. Each assignment invites the student to answer a question bearing on the content covered in a previous lecture. As in the exam, students must answer in a maximum of five lines per question.
Each assignment is carried out in five phases, with the support of a virtual coach called Piccolo, accessible through the course website. Phase 1: the student writes an initial version of his or her answer, which must have been produced exclusively by himself or herself, without any help from a third party or from an artificial intelligence. He or she submits this first draft to the virtual coach. Phase 2: the student discusses this initial version with the virtual coach, going through at least two iterations with it. Phase 3: the student writes the final version of his or her answer. Phase 4: the virtual coach produces an assessment of the quality of the answer with reference to the criteria defined by the lecturer. Phase 5: the student uploads the conversation report (which reproduces the content of phases 1 to 4) on the course website, under the heading ‘Devoirs’. A model answer is put online on the course website once the submission deadline has passed, so as to allow students to gauge the gap between their own answers and the model answers.
An assignment is considered as validly submitted only if the conversation report has been uploaded, in electronic format, on the course website (Moodle platform), under the heading ‘Devoirs’, within the previously set deadline (generally a few days after the lecture the assignment relates to). Further details on this procedure will be given during the lectures. Should the virtual coach Piccolo be technically unavailable, an alternative procedure for completing and submitting the assignment will be communicated via the course website. Any student who submits at least seven of the eight assignments benefits from a two-point bonus (out of twenty) on the exam, whatever the assessment produced by the virtual coach. This bonus is transferable from one exam session to the next, but not from one academic year to the next. A student who does not submit at least seven assignments does not benefit from the bonus, whatever the reasons that may be put forward (including illness, bereavement, late registration, etc.): his or her mark for the course will then consist exclusively of the mark obtained for the exam (see ‘Evaluation methods’), without the bonus.
The weekly submission of assignments aims to encourage students to go back regularly, by themselves, over the content covered during the lectures. If the assignments are done regularly and seriously, the student will start the study period having already reviewed the whole course content at least once and being familiar with the way questions are asked in the exam. Experience from previous years shows beyond doubt that serious and systematic completion of the assignments is a significant asset for passing the exam, beyond the bonus it gives right to.
Alongside the assignments, students are invited to answer by themselves thirty exercises (one per theoretical referent) available on the course website, where their model answers can also be found. Finally, in order to test their level of mastery of the course content before the exam itself, students may answer by themselves, as a trial run, several exam papers of previous years, whose model answers are also available on the course website.

Evaluation methods

The assessment consists exclusively of a written open-book exam: students are free to consult during the exam any document in paper format, including annotated ones, that they have brought with them at the start of the exam. Lasting a maximum of one and a half hours, the exam is made of four open questions, one on each of the four parts of the course. Each question is marked out of 10; the total is then divided by two to obtain an overall mark out of 20, to which, where applicable, the two-point bonus linked to the submission of the assignments is added (see ‘Teaching methods’).
All questions invite the students to analyse, in a correct way from a political science point of view, cases that will not have been examined during the lectures. Students must relate these particular cases in an adequate way to the general elements of knowledge developed during the lectures. To that end, a list of 30 theoretical referents on which the exam questions may bear will be put online on the course website. Each question will be based on an excerpt from the press or from a guest lecture. It will contain all the factual information needed to carry out the required case analyses.
The evaluation methods are the same for all exam sessions.

Online resources

The course has a website on the Moodle platform, on which students will find in particular:
- the electronic version of the slideshow projected during the lectures;
- the list of the precise passages of the handbook Fondements de science politique that make up the written version of the course content;
- the list of the theoretical referents of the course (concepts, typologies, theories) that make up the exam material, a list that will be updated after the last lecture;
- the calendar of the lectures and the numbers of the slides they will cover;
- the exercises based on exam questions (and their model answers) of previous years;
- several exam papers of previous years and their model answers, as a trial run;
- the assignments, including access to the virtual coach Piccolo, designed to support students in completing these assignments;
- the model answers to the assignments;
- a forum allowing students to ask questions of clarification about the course content.

Bibliography

La version littéraire de la matière de cours est entièrement contenue dans l’ouvrage précité : N. Schiffino, O. Paye et al., Fondements de science politique, 2e éd., Bruxelles, De Boeck Supérieur, 2022. Aucune autre lecture que les passages idoines de cet ouvrage – qui sont repris précisément dans un document consultable sur le site de cours – n'est requise pour réussir l’examen.

Les étudiant•e•s qui souhaiteraient aller plus loin que la matière du cours trouveront des orientations bibliographiques spécifiques dans l’ouvrage susmentionné. Le site de cours met également à leur disposition un document contenant des références à d’autres manuels d’introduction à la science politique, à des dictionnaires de termes de science politique, à des publications introductives aux institutions et à la vie politiques belges ainsi que des adresses de sites web d’associations de science politique.

Teaching materials

• Schiffino N., Paye, O. et al., Fondements de science politique, 2e éd., Bruxelles, De Boeck Supérieur, 2022.
• Diaporama du cours de Science politique

Faculty or entity

> ESPB