EdX

Discover Political Science (edX)

Offered by LouvainX, Université Catholique de Louvain - UCL,

Understand current political stakes as you learn about important concepts and how to analyze politics with a critical point of view. Politics impact all of us. Everyday, political decisions impact many areas of our lives. In the 21st century, multiple paradoxes blur our vision of these decisions. The course aims at understanding and explaining political phenomena from a critical standpoint.

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In which context are these decisions made?
What is power in a multi-level society?
Does the state remain the main political actor, if it is in competition with international and regional organizations?
Can democracy – pushed forward by the international community – coexist with authoritarian, or even totalitarian, regimes?
What is the role of ideologies in contemporary politics?

The course material and exercises are in English but please note that the videos are in French with English subtitles.

What you'll learn
At the end of the course, you will be able to:

Define and explain concepts of political science
Link concepts with their authors and, more broadly, with the concrete phenomena they refer to
Understand how to analyze political events

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