Political Parties State Systems of Government Civil Society-Participation
Students are expected to be able to: understand the nature of political representation in its myriad perspectives and approaches, including structures of representation, such as parliaments and political parties within a representative democracy and political election, the exercise of voting and its constraints, the electoral systems and representative democracy in its structuring elements and main characteristics. In a progressive and cumulative way, students are expected to acquire the competence to analyse contemporary processes of representative politics in its relationship with electoral systems and representative democracy.
1. Nature of political representation
2. Representative government, representative democracy and structures of political representation
3. Representative democracy and political election
4. Electoral procedure and its constraints
5. Electoral systems and representative democracy: characteristics
Electoral systems: typology, characteristics and effects
Core Reference:
MEIRINHO, Manuel (2008) Representação Política. Eleições e Sistemas Eleitorais, Lisboa: Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Políticas
Complimentary Bibliography:
HEYWOOD, Andrew (2002), Politics, Hampshire/New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
LOPES, Fernando Farelo (2004), Os Partidos Políticos: Modelos e Realidades na Europa Ocidental e em Portugal, Lisboa: Celta Editora.
LOPES, Fernando Farelo & FREIRE, André (2002), Partidos Políticos e Sistemas Eleitorais: Uma introdução, Lisboa: Celta Editora.
MARTINS, Manuel A. Meirinho (1997), “Moisei Ostrogorski: a Sobrevivência dos Partidos Políticos”, in Elites e Poder – Estudos, Lisboa: ISCSP.
RACHMAN, Giddeon (2011), Zero-Sum World. Politics, Power and Prosperity after the Crash, London: Atlantic Books.
STOCK, Maria José (coord.); TEIXEIRA, Conceição Pequito; REVEZ, António Manuel (2005), Velhos e Novos Actores Políticos. Partidos e Movimentos Sociais, Lisboa: Universidade Aberta. (Mainly the 1st part referring to Political Parties)
E-learning.
Continuous assessment is privileged: 2 or 3 digital written documents (e-folios) during the semester (40%) and a
presence-based final exam (p-folio) in the end of the semester (60%). In due time, students can alternatively choose to perform one
final presence-based exam (100%).
