Course catalogue

International aid often operates in authoritarian contexts, as the vast majority of developing countries are non-democratic or in political transition. While some countries are in the mould of predation and rule by repression, others have developed sophisticated mechanisms of market economics and maintaining social order without overt violence or repression. We will examine the variations of authoritarian rule, their origins and the underpinnings of their persistence: Coercion, (re)distribution of economic benefits, legitimation, quasi-democratic institutions and the role of digital technology. We will also challenge the notion that authoritarianism and democracy are incompatible and explore political dynamics during periods of political transition.

This course is for 2nd year MIA and MPP students only.

Healthcare is one of the largest and fastest growing sectors in the world. It is also one of the most complicated sectors to manage given the uncertainty of healthcare demand, the fiduciary nature of the doctor-patient relationship and frequent government intervention. This course presents key theoretical concepts in economics as they apply to healthcare markets and complements them with empirical findings from the health economics literature. In doing so, the course focuses on demand uncertainty, determinants of healthcare demand and demand for health insurance. It also pays close attention to the supply side and focuses on medical school capacity, service provision (hospitals and physicians) and the pharmaceutical industry. A significant portion of the course will be dedicated to market failures in healthcare by adopting both a public and a private industry lens.

At the end of the course, students with be able to:

• Understand key economic concepts as they apply to healthcare.
• Critically evaluate, compare and contrast health policies in developing countries, Europe and USA.
• Discuss topics specific to certain sectors in healthcare such as pharmaceuticals and hospital services.
• Characterise the differences between the public and private sector in healthcare and appraise the tension between the two. 

Education and training are key elements of societal and economic development. Questions of educational reform and the provision of high-quality training play an increasingly salient role for policy makers worldwide. This course critically reflects on how educational systems are structured and governed, how they are embedded in diverse political contexts and, crucially, how they are changing due to megatrends such as digitalisation, online learning, globalisation and Europeanisation. We will also consider the key role of international nongovernmental organisations (e.g. the OECD and the World Bank) in shaping educational policymaking. The course enables students to analyse how educational policymaking and the governance of education and employment systems is changing in different world regions. This includes in-depth analyses of the relationship between education and social policy and social inequalities, but also the impact of ongoing privatisation processes. Furthermore, we will study the conditions for educational governance in the Global South as well as challenges and opportunities related to cross-national policy transfer. Students will be acquainted with key strategies for policy analysis in the field of education. The course will allow students to transfer relevant concepts and methods to other, related policy fields such as labour markets and innovation systems. Students will acquire a thorough understanding of the fundamental elements of educational policymaking at the local, national and global levels.

Climate change is caused by greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane and others) being emitted into the atmosphere. The fact that such emissions are not priced is “the greatest market failure that the world has seen”, as Lord Nicholas Stern put it. In addition, emissions of local pollutants (SOX, NOx, particular matter) rank high on the list of most pressing policy problems in many parts of the world, in particular in many of the megacities in fast-growing developing and emerging economies. Economists have long advocated for putting a price tag on emissions as an efficient means to address emissions. However, putting emissions pricing into practice has turned out to be difficult. The purpose of this class is to understand why and how robust emission pricing policies ought to be designed.

This class provides a comprehensive overview of the theory and, more importantly, the political practice of pricing emissions. This is an advanced course that provides a deep-dive in a narrow but technical and complex topic. The objective of this class is to equip students with the analytical and empirical understanding needed to implement, assess and advance carbon pricing schemes in governments, companies and civil society.

First of all, students will be introduced to the environmental economic theory of externalities, such as climate change. We will discuss the two principal types of pricing externalities, taxation and cap-and-trade. Then, we will turn to specific topics of real-world emissions pricing: The intertemporal nature of trading schemes that requires governments to earn investors’ trust, the political economy of initial allowance allocation and revenue recycling, international and inter-sectoral carbon leakage, and the (im)possibility of implementing sensible national emission policies for countries that are part of international trading schemes. During the last third of the course, we will study concrete emission pricing policies, most importantly the EU Emission Trading Scheme.

This course is for 2nd year MIA and MPP students only.

Implementation is the crucial stage of policymaking and in environmental policy in particular, the gap between policies, laws and regulations on the one hand and the reality on the ground is wide. Implementation gaps and enforcement deficits are a global phenomenon and this course explores the causes, consequences and potential for improving implementation from a global comparative perspective. The course first introduces the political, societal and administrative causes of implementation failure - and success. Secondly, on the basis of existing scholarship on the politics of enforcing environmental, labour and consumer protection policy, in Latin America and Asia in particular, students will carry out their own (small) case studies on (environmental) policy enforcement. Key elements of comparative case study research design will be introduced and applied by you in empirical mini-projects. Guest speakers will provide insights into select aspects of global environmental policy.

Illiberalism and authoritarianism have become major threats to democracy across the globe. The titles of the 2019 editions of the reports of the major democracy research institutes are therefore rather gloomy, from 'Democracy facing global challenges' and 'Democracy in retreat' to 'Polarisation and repression increase'. In 2019, a third of the world’s citizens lived in countries where the quality of liberal-democratic institutions had declined over the previous 10 years. The decline even strongly affected well-established democracies such as the United States. Semi-democratic right-wing populist parties had also been on the rise in many countries by 2019.

The main contemporary challenge to democracy is not sudden regime breakdown in the form of military coups or regime collapses as they occurred in 1989, but it is a gradual demise after illiberal or authoritarian-leaning political leaders come to power in elections. These trends towards illiberalisation and autocratisation are eroding our democracies from within.

Nevertheless, these trends are not unstoppable. In many European countries, in Canada and New Zealand, democratic institutions continue to be strong. Democratic political parties still win elections. Nevertheless, we have empirical evidence that citizens’ belief in the legitimacy of these institutions is continuing to decline. Therefore, we need to draw our attention to questions which help us to recognise the institutions and practices which strengthen or weaken the democratic quality of political regimes in our times. In the course we want to work on both concepts – 'democratic erosion' and 'democratic resilience' – and apply them to empirical cases and countries. 

Intelligence and espionage affairs are often treated as intriguing yet anecdotal parts of diplomatic history. Nevertheless, a closer look at key junctures of international relations in the last two centuries exposes the central role that strategic intelligence plays in international politics. The fate of nations has often been decided on the basis of their ability to gather, understand and act upon information about the international system that surrounds them. In addition, the world of strategic intelligence provides a distinctive setting for international interaction. From the joint efforts to decipher the enigma codes to the current contexts of the “war on terror” and cyber espionage, intelligence affairs has been both a key arena for international conflict as well as a platform for international cooperation.

The course examines the role of strategic intelligence as a distinct component in the process of foreign policymaking by focusing on two distinct dimensions. First of all, it focuses on intelligence as a source of information which shapes the national leadership’s policy choices. We will explore the manner in which intelligence information and assessments influence the strategic decision-making process of leaders and nations. Secondly, the course investigates the political use of intelligence as an instrument of influence in international relations. We will investigate how nations utilise covert information and intelligence capacities as active means to promote their foreign policy goals.

This course is for 2nd year MIA and MPP students only.

The objective of the course is to foster ethical reflection on a variety of economic issues by examining problems from economic life and by analysing (and possibly solving) them with the help of moral philosophy. Participants will be trained in the use of relevant terminology and will develop their skills in advancing and assessing arguments with respect to moral issues and ethical dilemmas emerging in markets and other contexts of social interaction.

Upon completing the course, participants will have an overview of the main ethical conceptions and their interconnections with economic theory and policy and will be able to produce and defend moral arguments backed by reason (e.g. by evaluating the coherence and the consistency of claims, by using appropriate evidence and by considering appropriate objections). This will be achieved by way of studying relevant texts, critically reflecting upon the different ethical conceptions and by deepening the moral intuitions of the participants in carefully selected case studies.

Is it possible to provide an ultimate justification for our moral convictions? If yes, how is this possible? If not, what is the alternative? Do we behave morally independently of the context that we are in or does our moral behavior crucially depend on the situation? If this is the case, why is it the case? Is the image of a self-interested individual acting egoistically in the market a scientific representation of economic actors or a fairy tale? Does the answer to this question make any difference for the actual behavior of market participants? How should one decide in a fundamentally uncertain environment in which the future will not necessarily look like the past? Should one stick to rules or be creative and if the latter is the case, what does creativity amount to and how can it be explained? Does the question 'Are market outcomes just?' allow for a concrete, definite answer? Can we fight corruption by changing our moral attitudes or not, and is it primarily a moral issue or not? Should the sole aim of business organisations be profit maximisation? If not, where should be the limit be and who should set and impose it?

This course is for 2nd year MIA and MPP students only.

The prevalent impression that the EU is plagued by several deep crises mainly relates to its domestic politics. For many pro-European actors, a more united EU is the only way of avoiding marginalisation by rising powers in a rapidly changing world. Much of the political discourse on the EU in the world thus refers to political long-term goals rather than current realities, especially in the field of military action. On the other hand, the EU was and is a very powerful actor in many areas and its powers are increasing. As a matter of fact, EU power varies strongly across issues.

The course will look at this topic from several angles. First, it will look at the actual role played by the EU in various policy fields and in relation to specific actors in order to see the strength, weaknesses and consequences of EU action in different issues. Second, it will look at current shortcomings of a stronger EU action and plans to address them in order to contrast rhetoric with reality and to get a realistic image of what is achievable. Topics range from digital sovereignty and ideas about a ‘normative power' to policy-specific plans in security or democracy promotion. It is a cross-cutting theme, which is how EU external relations work in practice. The course does not require major knowledge about the EU. It is suitable for students with a broad interest in world politics.

The European Union is the biggest market in the world. It is also the most advanced example of regional integration based on economy. The course aims at giving students a good understanding of the mechanisms of the European Union internal market, highlighting the regulatory framework. Understanding the law principles governing private and business relations and transactions, including corporate crimes committed in the exclusive interest of legal entities, is key to understand the economic context in which individuals and firms operate in the EU. In the light of the above, the course aims at giving an insight into European business law and will particularly focus on internal market, competition law and company law of the EU; at the same time the course aims to provide a knowledge of the general framework within the European Union Member States of the system of liability of private and public law bodies for offences committed by their top management and directors when they act in the course of their duties and in the exclusive interest of the company or public service. This course does not study the historical and political aspects of the European Union integration, although these aspects remain slightly present in the study of the EU regulatory framework.

The course focuses on the comparative analysis of political preferences and positions of voters, parties and legislators over time and across countries. We analyse issue attention and positions on issues such as European integration, environmental policy, trade liberalisation or morality policies, as well as latent dimensions (e.g., left-right) that structure political competition. The course is divided into three sections: Firstly, we consider public opinion and voter preferences; secondly, we study party positions; thirdly, we focus on legislator positions. Each part introduces and critically evaluates different data source measuring positions, based, for example, on surveys, party manifestos or voting behaviour. We will work with the data in class, putting it into perspective and testing insights from the literature while drawing on examples from different countries across the globe. The course investigates how preferences at the different levels can be explained and how they are linked. In this process we will explore how representation, responsiveness and accountability, as well as party competition, shape the translation of public preferences into policy output.

This course is for 2nd year MIA and MPP students only.

This course is about the fundamental debates that have shaped and continue to shape our understandings of human rights. Through a critical analysis of the developments of human rights law and many of its prevailing controversies, it asks how human rights operates as a central normative concern in domestic and global governance practices.  This is a course for those interested in exploring the central debates concerning if, and how, human rights should guide decision-making at domestic and international levels.

The course has two parts:

• Part 1 starts with grand and classic debates about human rights, such as the universality/relativity of human rights, the legitimacy of human rights lawmaking, enforceability of socio-economic rights and the absolute character of certain human rights.

• Part 2 focuses on contemporary debates, including rights of religious minorities, corporate accountability for human rights violations, human rights of future generations from the scourges of climate change and issues emerging from the developments of new technologies.