Comparative Politics

This course immerses students in the comparative study of regimes such as liberal democracy, monarchy, tyranny, and theocracy, especially as these are found in historical or contemporary city-states, nations, or empires. Such study can be comparative either because two or more different regimes are being examined together (e.g., aristocracy and democracy) or because the same regime is being investigated from different perspectives (e.g., liberal democracy in Germany and France) or with different means (e.g. tyranny is studied using contemporary and historical information, literature, political biography, geography, religious traditions, political theory, etc.). In every case, at least two different countries will be studied.