Lahore University of Management Sciences

POL 100 – Introduction to Political Science

Spring 2018
Instructor Sameen A. Mohsin Ali
Room No. Room 116, Political Science Wing, Main Academic Block
Office Hours TBA
Email sameen.ali@lums.edu.pk
Telephone
Secretary/TA
TA Office Hours
Course URL (if any)

Course Basics
Credit Hours 4
Lecture(s) Nbr of Lec(s) Per Week 2 Duration 100 minutes each
Recitation/Lab (per week) Nbr of Lec(s) Per Week Duration
Tutorial (per week) Nbr of Lec(s) Per Week Duration

COURSE DESCRIPTION
The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the study of Political Science. It begins by discussing what politics is, and goes on to explore
some of the major concepts and ideas in the field. Emphasis is laid on how these concepts and theories affect us as citizens of a country. The
course aims to provide an overview of political theory and philosophy, comparative politics, and international relations. It concludes with a
section on current debates and issues in political science.
By the end of the course, students will be equipped with some of the basic knowledge that will help them understand politics and political
phenomena. They will also be encouraged to think critically, and to question, contextualize and re-imagine throughout the course.

COURSE OBJECTIVES
 Provide students with a better understanding of what politics is about and what it means to study political science
 Help students develop a deeper understanding of the world around them, how it works, when and why it doesn’t, and what can be done to
fix it
 Guide students in critiquing existing writing and ideas, and in structuring and writing essays.

Course Requirements/Grading

ASSESSMENT:
Attendance 10%
CP 10%
Mid-term exam 25%
Final exam – take home – due first day of the final exam schedule 30%
Quizzes 25%
This class will include both lectures and seminars, and students will be expected to participate actively in class discussions. The readings are
extensive and in order to have a fruitful discussion, it is essential that students complete the assigned reading before they come to class. Students
will be asked to express their opinions about material they have read, and about the real world applicability of concepts we will study.
Students are encouraged to discuss all written work with the instructor well before announced due dates. Please note that this course will be
graded in relative terms.

Readings: Required readings should be completed by the date corresponding with the topic as indicated on this syllabus. Most readings
are available in the reading pack. Any changes that are made to the syllabus will be announced in class. Readings with an * before them are
recommended, but not required.
Attendance: Regular class attendance is essential for this course. Given that there may be times that you are unable to attend class, you may
miss 2 classes over the course of the semester without incurring any penalty.
Participation: This will be evaluated on the basis of high quality contributions to the discussion. If you do not speak up, I might call on you
directly. Students are encouraged to bring in articles, news items, essays, short videos, even memes that they think are relevant to the
themes of the course – they will be asked to speak about the piece in class and will receive double CP points for doing so.
 Lahore University of Management Sciences
In addition, CP points can be gained throughout the semester by participating in various in-class assignments. These can involve a range
of different activities, for instance, group work, presentations, role play, learning journal entries, etc. The objective is to judge
whether students have understood, absorbed and applied the readings; that students can critically engage with the arguments made by the
authors; that students can apply theories, ideas, and concepts to the real world; and that students can analytically convey what they think
of the reading/s. Over the course of the semester, we will do a number of such assignments – some are already scheduled in the course
outline. Others will be announced in class.

Quizzes: There will be 6 quizzes over the course of the semester, 3 before mid-term week and 3 after. This class has an n-1 quiz policy,
meaning only the marks of 5 out of 6 quizzes will be included in your grade. The quizzes will make up 25% of your grade.

Midterm and Final Exams: We will discuss the format for these in class.

Cheating and Plagiarism

Written work must be properly cited in accordance with the Harvard OR Chicago style. If you take an idea from the text, another book,
newspaper, or any other source, you must give the author credit. Furthermore, changing one or two words in a sentence is not an acceptable
substitution for not using quotation marks. It is expected that all assignments represent original work not previously or simultaneously
handed in for credit in another. Cheating, plagiarism, or any other violations of the honor code will be dealt with according to LUMS policy.

COURSE OUTLINE

Session 1: Introduction to the course

Concepts in Political Science

Session 2: What is Politics?
Garner, et al. pp. 1-23
*Grigsby, E. Analysing Politics. Chap 2

Session 3: Politics and the State

Garner, et al. pp. 27-47; 161-168
*Grigsby Chap 3, pp. 58-66
*Solo reveals the weakness of the Star Wars Galactic Empire - https://t.co/v1WvZeB5Lp

Session 4: Key concepts in Politics: Power, Authority

Garner, et al. pp.48-67
*Grigsby, E. Chap 3, pp. 42-57, and Chap. 4
*Ice and fire: what Game of Thrones can teach us about power politics - https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-
radio/2017/aug/29/game-of-thrones-hbo-cato-institute-politics
*With great power comes great uncertainty: Marvel’s slowly evolving politics -
https://www.vox.com/culture/2018/2/26/17029572/black-panther-marvel-politics

Session 5: What is Democracy?

Garner, et al. pp. 68-92
*Grigsby Chap 8
*Gibson, J. L. Political Intolerance in the context of Democratic Theory. Pp. 409-414.

Session 6: Freedom and Justice

Garner, et al. pp. 93-112

Session 7: What is an ideology? What is Liberalism/Conservatism/Socialism?

Garner, et al. pp. 113-133
*Grigsby, E. Chap 5

Session 8: Alternative ideologies?

Garner, et al. pp. 134-155
*Grigsby Chap 6 and 7
*Baer, J. A. Feminist Theory and the Law. Pp. 305-318.
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Session 9: Politics, the Law, and Constraints on Power
Garner, et al. pp. 182-202
*Colomber, J. M. Comparative Constitutions, pp.176-184
*Whittington, et al. Overview of Law and Politics. pp. 247-252
*Grigsby Ch 10
*Federalism - Bulmer, pp 1-20

Session 10: What is an Election?

Garner, etal. Pp. 203-227
*What good are elections anyway? https://www.vox.com/mischiefs-of-
faction/2018/10/30/18032808/what-good-are-elections

Session 11: What is a Political Party?

Garner, et al. pp. 228-248
*Grigsby Chap 9
*Aldrich, J. H. Political Parties in and out of legislatures. Pp. 196-216

Session 12: The Executive

Garner, et al. pp. 249-272

Session 13: In-class assignment - Parties

Session 14: MID-TERM EXAM

Session 15: What is Civil Society?

Garner, et al. pp. 273-294
*Edwards, M. 2011. Civil Society and the geometry of human relations

Session 16: Democratization and Authoritarianism

Garner, et al. pp. 295-316.

Session 17: In-class exercise – Designing a State

Session 18: What is Political Culture?

Swedlow, B. Political Culture. In, Encyclopedia of Modern Political Thought. 624-626
Huntington, Samuel P. 1993: The Clash of Civilizations, Foreign Affairs (pp. 1-15 only)
Said, Edward Oct 4 , 2001: The Clash of Ignorance, The Nation
*Norris and Inglehart, Islam and the West: Testing the Clash of Civilizations Thesis

Session 19: What is Nationalism?

Smith; Connor pp. 34-46

Session 20: What is Race? What is Intersectionality?

Delgado and Stefancic. Critical Race Theory. Pp. 1-14.
Crenshaw, K. 1991. Mapping the margins

Session 21: Social Change: Social Movements, Political Violence, and Terrorism
Little, W. Social Movements and Social Change
https://opentextbc.ca/introductiontosociology/chapter/chapter21-social-movements-and- social-
change/
Ahmed, Eqbal. Terrorism: Theirs and Ours http://www.sangam.org/ANALYSIS/Ahmad.htm

Subfields

Session 22: International Political Economy

Garner, et al. pp. 441-463
 Session 23: Global Politics/IR
Garner, et al. pp. 319-341
Keohane, R. O. Big Questions in the study of world politics. pp. 767-775.
*Grigsby Chap 11 and 12
Contemporary Debates

Session 24: Politics of Place and Space & in-class exercise

Therborn, G. Why and how place matters. Pp. 498-520.

Session 25: Urban Politics

Ward, K., et al. 2011. Urban Politics: an interdisciplinary dialogue. Pp. 853-871

Session 26: Migration

Anna-Kaisa Kuusisto-Arponen and Mary Gilmartin. 2015. The politics of migration

Session 27: Populism

Mudde, Cas. 2018. How populism became the concept that defines our age. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/22/populism-concept-defines-our-
age?CMP=share_btn_tw

Session 28: Revision