POLITICAL CONCEPTS AND IDEOLOGIES

6 ECTS credits

The key course objective is to introduce the student into the essential concepts and perspectives of political theory. The concepts are introduced through and against their historical background so that the student becomes aware of the historical roots of particular ways of understanding of the political arena. The course is separated into three major teaching blocks: the first one introduces an operational part of the syllabus and enables the student to learn about those concepts that provide a primary orientation in the field of modern or contemporary politics, such as the state, the rule of law, the separation of powers theory, and the concept of democracy including the concepts and practices of majority rule and voting in general. The second block then looks at the more abstract set of concepts that stand behind, and provide a necessary background to, the operational part, such as the concept of power, of justice and equality, the concept of liberty and toleration etc. The final part is entirely devoted to the concept of ideology and focused on two political phenomena in particular: the very notion of ideology in a political sense, and various perspectives on it, on the one hand, and, on the other, the so-called ‘totalitarian’ or ‘extremist’ ideologies. The last part also aims to enable the student to apply the understanding acquired through the entire course to various political phenomena in their real historical context.