The class examines innovation as a core governance problem for modern states. After exploring foundational debates on the nature of innovation and the ways in which states have come to problematize it, the class moves into cutting-edge debates on the shape, workings, and discontents of contemporary innovation states with a major focus on Europe. Mid-term, the class features a hands-on data analysis workshop that introduces students to current European conventions and techniques to measure and compare innovation and innovation policies. Themes the course develops in more detail are cross-national institutional differences in the governance of innovation, links between national security, the military, and innovation policy, the interaction between policies meant to stimulate innovation and policies meant to regulate and contain it, and the policies structuring the financing of innovation. The last third of the class explores core aspects of the current European innovation state. Thematically, this block centres on problems of organising innovation policy in a characteristically weak supranational state structure, climate change and green innovation, semiconductor policy, regional innovation clusters, and the compensation of losers and losing regions in current knowledge economies.

Literatur zur Vorbereitung/Preparatory Reading:

Fagerberg, J. 2006. “Innovation: A Guide to the Literature. ” In The Oxford Handbook of Innova-
tion, edited by J. Fagerberg and D. C. Mowery, 1–26. Oxford: Oxford Academic.

Prüfungsleistungen und CP/Assignments and Credits:

Students are required to prepare two memos and a final paper. Deadlines, subjects, structure, and requirements for the final paper will be discussed in session 1 and developed throughout the course.

Distributive politics characterize income redistribution and the allocation of public goods and services (e. g. health care, education, social security, but also particularistic goods) to individuals or groups and are based on taxes and transfers. Wealth and resources are unequally distributed in society. The question that distributive politics consequently address asks: who gets what, who benefits – who loses? Distributive politics illustrate the very heart of politics and a vibrant field of research which just gained new momentum in the last years. We will study principles of resource allocation from political actors (parties) to individuals (voters), considering the electoral payoff for political parties and voters. Which groups are targeted by political parties with public goods provision: core or swing voters, the rich or the poor, the median voter or particular groups (clients), the winning coalition or the selectorate? Do voters respond to non-programmatic inducements such as vote buying? When does income inequality lead to upheaval and regime change? We will start with the discussion of classical concepts and theories in comparative political economy before we move towards the analysis of current issues in this field of research in the course of the seminar.
Distributive politics refer to two central aspects in the political sphere: 1) political accountability and 2) political responsiveness. The first aspect studies how far voters are able to hold political actors accountable for their actions and, thus, takes into account the political consequences of distributive politics (e. g. political survival, distributive conflict). The latter considers the redistributive effect of distributive politics. Do these policies reflect the demand of the voters (mostly, the median voter) or rather particular groups, and do they maximize welfare? We will start with the clarification of classical concepts, such as core and swing voters, and theories of distributive politics (I). In section II we study income inequality and distributive conflicts that emerge from unequal distribution of wealth, finding out which incentives are at work at the individual level to either push for or against redistribution. We investigate micro theories on redistribution in democratic and non-democratic countries and tease out the important role of regime type. In section III we move on to distributive politics that are based on favoritism (political clientelism) and voter intimidation. Here, we study the effects of vote buying on political accountability and political participation with a particular focus on the case of Argentina and we investigate the redistributive effects of clientelistic resource allocation regarding electoral outcomes for the incumbent and the quality of democracy in general. Finally, we will delve into the new research field on voter intimidation (through violence and coercion) as an electoral strategy to influence voting behavior looking at field experiments for the case of Nigeria and the politician’s incentive for the case of electoral intimidation in Imperial Germany.

Preparatory Reading:
Przeworski, A., Stokes, S. and Manin, B. (1999) Democracy, Accountability and Representation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Acemoglu, D. and J. Robinson (2005) The Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kitschelt, H. and Wilkinson, S. I. (2007) Patrons, Clients, and Policies: Patterns of Democratic Accountability and Political Competition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Assignments and Credits:
6 CP: Term paper
3 CP: In-class presentation and written report of presentation topic

Distributive politics characterize income redistribution and the allocation of public goods and services (e. g. health care, education, social security, but also particularistic goods) to individuals or groups and are based on taxes and transfers. Wealth and resources are unequally distributed in society. The question that distributive politics consequently address asks: who gets what, who benefits – who loses? Distributive politics illustrate the very heart of politics and a vibrant field of research which just gained new momentum in the last years. We will study principles of resource allocation from political actors (parties) to individuals (voters), considering the electoral payoff for political parties and voters. Which groups are targeted by political parties with public goods provision: core or swing voters, the rich or the poor, the median voter or particular groups (clients), the winning coalition or the selectorate? Do voters respond to non-programmatic inducements such as vote buying? When does income inequality lead to upheaval and regime change? We will start with the discussion of classical concepts and theories in comparative political economy before we move towards the analysis of current issues in this field of research in the course of the seminar.
Distributive politics refer to two central aspects in the political sphere: 1) political accountability and 2) political responsiveness. The first aspect studies how far voters are able to hold political actors accountable for their actions and, thus, takes into account the political consequences of distributive politics (e. g. political survival, distributive conflict). The latter considers the redistributive effect of distributive politics. Do these policies reflect the demand of the voters (mostly, the median voter) or rather particular groups, and do they maximize welfare? We will start with the clarification of classical concepts, such as core and swing voters, and theories of distributive politics (I). In section II we study income inequality and distributive conflicts that emerge from unequal distribution of wealth, finding out which incentives are at work at the individual level to either push for or against redistribution. We investigate micro theories on redistribution in democratic and non-democratic countries and tease out the important role of regime type. In section III we move on to distributive politics that are based on favoritism (political clientelism) and voter intimidation. Here, we study the effects of vote buying on political accountability and political participation with a particular focus on the case of Argentina and we investigate the redistributive effects of clientelistic resource allocation regarding electoral outcomes for the incumbent and the quality of democracy in general. Finally, we will delve into the new research field on voter intimidation (through violence and coercion) as an electoral strategy to influence voting behavior looking at field experiments for the case of Nigeria and the politician’s incentive for the case of electoral intimidation in Imperial Germany.

Preparatory Reading:
Przeworski, A., Stokes, S. and Manin, B. (1999) Democracy, Accountability and Representation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Acemoglu, D. and J. Robinson (2005) The Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kitschelt, H. and Wilkinson, S. I. (2007) Patrons, Clients, and Policies: Patterns of Democratic Accountability and Political Competition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Assignments and Credits:
6 CP: Term paper
3 CP: In-class presentation and written report of presentation topic

The course provides an overview and introduction of the most important actors, processes,
and outcomes of employment relations from a comparative and international perspective.
The first part will provide an introduction to the core logic and institutional features of
employment relations, taking into account issues such as employment protection, wages,
working time and training as well as social protection. The second part will mostly focus on
changes and diversity in employment relations given changes in the economic environment,
regulatory settings, including the EU, technological progress and demographic shifts.

Literatur zur Vorbereitung/Preparatory Reading:

Piasna, A. (2023). Job quality in turbulent times: An update of the European Job Quality
Index (June 7, 2023). ETUI Research Paper - Working Paper 2023.05, Available at SSRN:
https://ssrn.com/abstract=4472203 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4472203

2a Hyman, R. (2025). Concise introduction into employment relations, chapter 3: Labour as a
collective actor. Edward Elgar, 27-53.
2b Hyman, R. (2025). Concise introduction into employment relations, chapter 4: Actors and
processes: the complex role of the state, Edward Elgar, 54-69.
2c Hyman, R. (2025). Concise introduction into employment relations, chapter 5: Varieties of
employment regimes: from local to global? Edward Elgar, 70-84.

Prüfungsleistungen und CP/Assignments and Credits:

3-6 nach Vereinbarung

Between a third and one half of GDP flow through public budgets every year in developed economies. How the public finances are organized, how public revenue is generated, and what it is spent for thus has an enormous influence on the development of the economy and of society more broadly. Furthermore, persistent fiscal imbalances or the acute need to insert public money into reeling banking systems can threaten the stability of entire countries, as recent debt crises have dramatically demonstrated.
How can we explain such imbalances? Why have some states much bigger governments than others? Who decides what public revenue is spent for? And how is it raised? This course will explore the main theoretical approaches to the study of fiscal policy, place them in the historical context in which they were formulated, and apply them to current policy debates. It relies primarily on class discussions of original research in the field of comparative political economy.

This is an in-depth, MA-level course that introduces students to survey methodology and survey analysis, with special emphasis on the application of these methods in Social Policy Research and Comparative/International Political Economy regarding questions related to the welfare state, taxation and the labor market. Through readings, discussions, and applied assignments such as designing and testing an original standardized public opinion survey, students will explore strategies for concept formation and theory testing via public opinion surveys. The focus will be on social policy research, addressing questions on demand for redistribution, support for welfare state reform, and individual attitudes toward public goods provision. The course covers both high-income economies and developing countries, discussing the challenges and obstacles of data collection in less developed democracies in particular. The course will start with a brief overview on the application of public opinion surveys within social policy research (1). We will then get acquainted with the fundamentals of survey methodology, such as sampling strategies, survey error, questionnaire design and framing of survey items (2). The third part of the course focuses data collection and analysis (3). The last three sessions will be used for presentations of your individual research projects and (peer) feedback. Examples during the course will be drawn from the research frontier on distributive politics and political economy questions on developing countries.

Literatur zur Vorbereitung/Preparatory Reading:

• Groves, R. M., Fowler Jr, F. J., Couper, M. P., Lepkowski, J. M., Singer, E., & Tourangeau, R. (2011). Survey methodology (Vol. 561). John Wiley & Sons.
• Gelman, A., and Hill, J. (2009). Data Analysis Using Regression and Multilevel/Hierarchical Models. Cambridge University Press: New York.
• Lumley, T. (2010). Complex Surveys: A Guide to Analysis Using R. Wiley.

Prüfungsleistungen und CP/Assignments and Credits:

Term paper/Hausarbeit 6CP; Referat und schriftliche Ausarbeitung des Referats bei 3CP/ In-class presentation and written report of presentation topic for 3 CP

This course wants to enable students to run their own (quantitative) research project in R. In the process, they will learn basic data wrangling and data visualisation in R. Every student will choose a project that they want to conduct using publicly available data of their choosing (some examples will be provided) and will, in consultation with the course coordinator, work towards a project report at the end of the course that they will present to the other students. Students will analyse their data in the open-source programme R and will be encouraged to write their final reports in it, too. The course will be a mixture of lectures on practical issues and a project based working sessions in exchange with the course coordinator and other students to make use of peer-to-peer learning. The lecture will be tailored to the needs and levels of the participating students.

In this course students are encouraged to run their own small-scale analysis project using R from beginning to end: choosing a topic and research question they find interesting, selecting and downloading the relevant data, using simple (presumably mostly) descriptive statistics such as means, and writing a report about their findings. They will be encouraged to use Quarto/ Rmarkdown, the integrated tool within R-Studio, to write their final reports and export them into PDF to automatically integrate updated findings. Also, students will be encouraged to upload and maintain their project on git. This course teaches practical skills and combines it with theoretical grounding in reproducible science. Hence it can be used as a good foundation for quantitative bachelor or master theses, and to learn skills that can be used also outside of academia.

Literatur zur Vorbereitung/Preparatory Reading:

• Wickham, Hadley, Mine Çetinkaya-Rundel, and Garrett Grolemund. ‘Introduction’. In R for Data Science, 2nd Edition, Second edition. O’Reilley, https://r4ds.hadley.nz/intro.html.
• Munafò, Marcus R., Brian A. Nosek, Dorothy V. M. Bishop, et al. ‘A Manifesto for Reproducible Science’. Nature Human Behaviour 1, no. 1 (2017): 0021. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-016-0021.

Prüfungsleistungen und CP/Assignments and Credits:

Students can take the course for 3 CP or 6 CP. The final assessment will depend on the amount of CP students chose. Both assessments include the simple progress report every two weeks (just about one paragraph in an unstructured form, including reasons for no progress, which will always happen, is no problem and part of the process) and the final script of the project. Beyond that, the two different levels encompass the following two assessments:

3 CP:
• Short presentation (10 minutes)
• Short final research note with references (~5 pages, at least one high-quality graph)
6 CP:
• Long presentation (20 minutes)
• Long final research note with references (~10 pages, at least two high-quality graphs)

The seminar explores and examines the phenomenon of disinformation in international politics, with a focus on current trends and developments. Topics of the seminar include disinformation in elections, crises and conflicts; the political utility of fake news; information warfare; digital technology; deepfakes; strategic motivations of various (non-)state actors; the impact of disinformation on democratic processes; regulatory efforts; and ways of identifying fact-based knowledge and of verifying information. The seminar takes an interdisciplinary perspective for a fuller understanding of how disinformation functions and how democratic societies may guard against it.

Learning goals: The seminar content is taught with a participatory, case-study approach. Students will be able to understand key concepts; deconstruct and analyse disinformation campaigns regarding their source, motivations, target audiences and objectives; critically assess cases in light of the tension between free speech and threat mitigation; and strengthen their capacities of identifying reliable information. Students will also strengthen their analytical, writing and presentation skills. Gained knowledge serves both further academic studies of the topic and the application to other professional areas.

Regular participation in the seminar is an important basis to achieve the seminar's learning goals. Preparatory reading is recommended.

Literatur zur Vorbereitung/Preparatory Reading:

Chan, Kenddrick and Chris Alden. n.d. Understanding and Mitigating Disinformation: A Primer for Policymakers and Stakeholders. LSE. Download: https://www.lse.ac.uk/ideas/Assets/Documents/project-docs/LSE-Meta-GK-Primer-on-Disinformation.pdf

USAID. Center for Excellence on Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance. 2021. Disinformation Primer.
Download: https://www.echocommunity.org/resources/319e91d9-41ef-4fd7-aff3-d429b5774801

Prüfungsleistungen und CP/Assignments and Credits:

3 CP: Oral presentation in class (20-25 min) with 2-page handout and discussion
6 CP: Oral presentation in class (20-25 min) with 2-page handout and discussion & research paper (5,000 words ±10%, excluding references)
9 CP: Oral presentation in class (20-25 min) with 2-page handout and discussion (40 % of grade) & research paper (8,000 words ±10%,, excluding references) (60 % of grade)
Papers to be turned in by end of the semester (Sep. 30, 2026)

The class provides an introduction to core concepts of international relations theory. The focus is on what different theories consider to be the key drivers of international and transnational relations. global politics, focusing on key concepts and issues of theories of international relations: states, sovereignty, conflict, cooperation, international institutions, non-governmental organizations, delegation and (indirect) global governance. The course starts with a focus on classical, Western literatures but concludes with sessions on gender, race, colonialism and the end of the Western-dominated liberal international order. By the end of the course, students will be able to understand and apply the key concepts in their own research.

Literatur zur Vorbereitung/Preparatory Reading:

any textbook on IR

Prüfungsleistungen und CP/Assignments and Credits:

6 CP
Requirements

Attendance: Students are expected to be present and prepared for every class session. Active participation during seminar discussions is essential. If unavoidable circumstances arise which prevent attendance or preparation, the instructor should be advised in advance by email.

Reseearch paper:Each student submits a brief paper at the end of the seminar. The paper should engage with one of the readings of this class, summarize the main argument and comment on it. Grading will consider the rigor of the analysis, and the quality of writing. The word limit is 3000 words everything included. Each student presents his or her paper idea in a short presentation during the final session. .

Maps are powerful tools for understanding and communicating political phenomena. In this block seminar you will learn to use the statistical software R to produce customisable, publication-quality maps and other data visualisations. No prior knowledge of R is required. Participants are encouraged to use data from their own research projects, but test datasets will also be provided.

Prüfungsleistungen und CP/Assignments and Credits:
3CP

What does solidarity mean and how is it realised? This seminar examines the concept of solidarity and its role in domestic and international politics. We discuss how solidarity has been conceptualised in social theory and invoked by politicians, scholars, and activists across different contexts. We analyse its empirical manifestations in areas such as domestic social policy, international cooperation, and transnational social movements.

Prüfungsleistungen und CP/Assignments and Credits:
3CP or 6CP

https://www.uni-bremen.de/fb8/international/internationales-modul
3 CP/ECTS for this course, +3 CP/ECTS extra credit

The class examines innovation as a core governance problem for modern states. After exploring foundational debates on the nature of innovation and the ways in which states have come to problematize it, the class moves into cutting-edge debates on the shape, workings, and discontents of contemporary innovation states with a major focus on Europe. Mid-term, the class features a hands-on data analysis workshop that introduces students to current European conventions and techniques to measure and compare innovation and innovation policies. Themes the course develops in more detail are cross-national institutional differences in the governance of innovation, links between national security, the military, and innovation policy, the interaction between policies meant to stimulate innovation and policies meant to regulate and contain it, and the policies structuring the financing of innovation. The last third of the class explores core aspects of the current European innovation state. Thematically, this block centres on problems of organising innovation policy in a characteristically weak supranational state structure, climate change and green innovation, semiconductor policy, regional innovation clusters, and the compensation of losers and losing regions in current knowledge economies.

Literatur zur Vorbereitung/Preparatory Reading:

Fagerberg, J. 2006. “Innovation: A Guide to the Literature. ” In The Oxford Handbook of Innova-
tion, edited by J. Fagerberg and D. C. Mowery, 1–26. Oxford: Oxford Academic.

Prüfungsleistungen und CP/Assignments and Credits:

Students are required to prepare two memos and a final paper. Deadlines, subjects, structure, and requirements for the final paper will be discussed in session 1 and developed throughout the course.

Distributive politics characterize income redistribution and the allocation of public goods and services (e. g. health care, education, social security, but also particularistic goods) to individuals or groups and are based on taxes and transfers. Wealth and resources are unequally distributed in society. The question that distributive politics consequently address asks: who gets what, who benefits – who loses? Distributive politics illustrate the very heart of politics and a vibrant field of research which just gained new momentum in the last years. We will study principles of resource allocation from political actors (parties) to individuals (voters), considering the electoral payoff for political parties and voters. Which groups are targeted by political parties with public goods provision: core or swing voters, the rich or the poor, the median voter or particular groups (clients), the winning coalition or the selectorate? Do voters respond to non-programmatic inducements such as vote buying? When does income inequality lead to upheaval and regime change? We will start with the discussion of classical concepts and theories in comparative political economy before we move towards the analysis of current issues in this field of research in the course of the seminar.
Distributive politics refer to two central aspects in the political sphere: 1) political accountability and 2) political responsiveness. The first aspect studies how far voters are able to hold political actors accountable for their actions and, thus, takes into account the political consequences of distributive politics (e. g. political survival, distributive conflict). The latter considers the redistributive effect of distributive politics. Do these policies reflect the demand of the voters (mostly, the median voter) or rather particular groups, and do they maximize welfare? We will start with the clarification of classical concepts, such as core and swing voters, and theories of distributive politics (I). In section II we study income inequality and distributive conflicts that emerge from unequal distribution of wealth, finding out which incentives are at work at the individual level to either push for or against redistribution. We investigate micro theories on redistribution in democratic and non-democratic countries and tease out the important role of regime type. In section III we move on to distributive politics that are based on favoritism (political clientelism) and voter intimidation. Here, we study the effects of vote buying on political accountability and political participation with a particular focus on the case of Argentina and we investigate the redistributive effects of clientelistic resource allocation regarding electoral outcomes for the incumbent and the quality of democracy in general. Finally, we will delve into the new research field on voter intimidation (through violence and coercion) as an electoral strategy to influence voting behavior looking at field experiments for the case of Nigeria and the politician’s incentive for the case of electoral intimidation in Imperial Germany.

Preparatory Reading:
Przeworski, A., Stokes, S. and Manin, B. (1999) Democracy, Accountability and Representation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Acemoglu, D. and J. Robinson (2005) The Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kitschelt, H. and Wilkinson, S. I. (2007) Patrons, Clients, and Policies: Patterns of Democratic Accountability and Political Competition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Assignments and Credits:
6 CP: Term paper
3 CP: In-class presentation and written report of presentation topic

Distributive politics characterize income redistribution and the allocation of public goods and services (e. g. health care, education, social security, but also particularistic goods) to individuals or groups and are based on taxes and transfers. Wealth and resources are unequally distributed in society. The question that distributive politics consequently address asks: who gets what, who benefits – who loses? Distributive politics illustrate the very heart of politics and a vibrant field of research which just gained new momentum in the last years. We will study principles of resource allocation from political actors (parties) to individuals (voters), considering the electoral payoff for political parties and voters. Which groups are targeted by political parties with public goods provision: core or swing voters, the rich or the poor, the median voter or particular groups (clients), the winning coalition or the selectorate? Do voters respond to non-programmatic inducements such as vote buying? When does income inequality lead to upheaval and regime change? We will start with the discussion of classical concepts and theories in comparative political economy before we move towards the analysis of current issues in this field of research in the course of the seminar.
Distributive politics refer to two central aspects in the political sphere: 1) political accountability and 2) political responsiveness. The first aspect studies how far voters are able to hold political actors accountable for their actions and, thus, takes into account the political consequences of distributive politics (e. g. political survival, distributive conflict). The latter considers the redistributive effect of distributive politics. Do these policies reflect the demand of the voters (mostly, the median voter) or rather particular groups, and do they maximize welfare? We will start with the clarification of classical concepts, such as core and swing voters, and theories of distributive politics (I). In section II we study income inequality and distributive conflicts that emerge from unequal distribution of wealth, finding out which incentives are at work at the individual level to either push for or against redistribution. We investigate micro theories on redistribution in democratic and non-democratic countries and tease out the important role of regime type. In section III we move on to distributive politics that are based on favoritism (political clientelism) and voter intimidation. Here, we study the effects of vote buying on political accountability and political participation with a particular focus on the case of Argentina and we investigate the redistributive effects of clientelistic resource allocation regarding electoral outcomes for the incumbent and the quality of democracy in general. Finally, we will delve into the new research field on voter intimidation (through violence and coercion) as an electoral strategy to influence voting behavior looking at field experiments for the case of Nigeria and the politician’s incentive for the case of electoral intimidation in Imperial Germany.

Preparatory Reading:
Przeworski, A., Stokes, S. and Manin, B. (1999) Democracy, Accountability and Representation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Acemoglu, D. and J. Robinson (2005) The Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kitschelt, H. and Wilkinson, S. I. (2007) Patrons, Clients, and Policies: Patterns of Democratic Accountability and Political Competition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Assignments and Credits:
6 CP: Term paper
3 CP: In-class presentation and written report of presentation topic

The course provides an overview and introduction of the most important actors, processes,
and outcomes of employment relations from a comparative and international perspective.
The first part will provide an introduction to the core logic and institutional features of
employment relations, taking into account issues such as employment protection, wages,
working time and training as well as social protection. The second part will mostly focus on
changes and diversity in employment relations given changes in the economic environment,
regulatory settings, including the EU, technological progress and demographic shifts.

Literatur zur Vorbereitung/Preparatory Reading:

Piasna, A. (2023). Job quality in turbulent times: An update of the European Job Quality
Index (June 7, 2023). ETUI Research Paper - Working Paper 2023.05, Available at SSRN:
https://ssrn.com/abstract=4472203 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4472203

2a Hyman, R. (2025). Concise introduction into employment relations, chapter 3: Labour as a
collective actor. Edward Elgar, 27-53.
2b Hyman, R. (2025). Concise introduction into employment relations, chapter 4: Actors and
processes: the complex role of the state, Edward Elgar, 54-69.
2c Hyman, R. (2025). Concise introduction into employment relations, chapter 5: Varieties of
employment regimes: from local to global? Edward Elgar, 70-84.

Prüfungsleistungen und CP/Assignments and Credits:

3-6 nach Vereinbarung

Between a third and one half of GDP flow through public budgets every year in developed economies. How the public finances are organized, how public revenue is generated, and what it is spent for thus has an enormous influence on the development of the economy and of society more broadly. Furthermore, persistent fiscal imbalances or the acute need to insert public money into reeling banking systems can threaten the stability of entire countries, as recent debt crises have dramatically demonstrated.
How can we explain such imbalances? Why have some states much bigger governments than others? Who decides what public revenue is spent for? And how is it raised? This course will explore the main theoretical approaches to the study of fiscal policy, place them in the historical context in which they were formulated, and apply them to current policy debates. It relies primarily on class discussions of original research in the field of comparative political economy.

This is an in-depth, MA-level course that introduces students to survey methodology and survey analysis, with special emphasis on the application of these methods in Social Policy Research and Comparative/International Political Economy regarding questions related to the welfare state, taxation and the labor market. Through readings, discussions, and applied assignments such as designing and testing an original standardized public opinion survey, students will explore strategies for concept formation and theory testing via public opinion surveys. The focus will be on social policy research, addressing questions on demand for redistribution, support for welfare state reform, and individual attitudes toward public goods provision. The course covers both high-income economies and developing countries, discussing the challenges and obstacles of data collection in less developed democracies in particular. The course will start with a brief overview on the application of public opinion surveys within social policy research (1). We will then get acquainted with the fundamentals of survey methodology, such as sampling strategies, survey error, questionnaire design and framing of survey items (2). The third part of the course focuses data collection and analysis (3). The last three sessions will be used for presentations of your individual research projects and (peer) feedback. Examples during the course will be drawn from the research frontier on distributive politics and political economy questions on developing countries.

Literatur zur Vorbereitung/Preparatory Reading:

• Groves, R. M., Fowler Jr, F. J., Couper, M. P., Lepkowski, J. M., Singer, E., & Tourangeau, R. (2011). Survey methodology (Vol. 561). John Wiley & Sons.
• Gelman, A., and Hill, J. (2009). Data Analysis Using Regression and Multilevel/Hierarchical Models. Cambridge University Press: New York.
• Lumley, T. (2010). Complex Surveys: A Guide to Analysis Using R. Wiley.

Prüfungsleistungen und CP/Assignments and Credits:

Term paper/Hausarbeit 6CP; Referat und schriftliche Ausarbeitung des Referats bei 3CP/ In-class presentation and written report of presentation topic for 3 CP

This course wants to enable students to run their own (quantitative) research project in R. In the process, they will learn basic data wrangling and data visualisation in R. Every student will choose a project that they want to conduct using publicly available data of their choosing (some examples will be provided) and will, in consultation with the course coordinator, work towards a project report at the end of the course that they will present to the other students. Students will analyse their data in the open-source programme R and will be encouraged to write their final reports in it, too. The course will be a mixture of lectures on practical issues and a project based working sessions in exchange with the course coordinator and other students to make use of peer-to-peer learning. The lecture will be tailored to the needs and levels of the participating students.

In this course students are encouraged to run their own small-scale analysis project using R from beginning to end: choosing a topic and research question they find interesting, selecting and downloading the relevant data, using simple (presumably mostly) descriptive statistics such as means, and writing a report about their findings. They will be encouraged to use Quarto/ Rmarkdown, the integrated tool within R-Studio, to write their final reports and export them into PDF to automatically integrate updated findings. Also, students will be encouraged to upload and maintain their project on git. This course teaches practical skills and combines it with theoretical grounding in reproducible science. Hence it can be used as a good foundation for quantitative bachelor or master theses, and to learn skills that can be used also outside of academia.

Literatur zur Vorbereitung/Preparatory Reading:

• Wickham, Hadley, Mine Çetinkaya-Rundel, and Garrett Grolemund. ‘Introduction’. In R for Data Science, 2nd Edition, Second edition. O’Reilley, https://r4ds.hadley.nz/intro.html.
• Munafò, Marcus R., Brian A. Nosek, Dorothy V. M. Bishop, et al. ‘A Manifesto for Reproducible Science’. Nature Human Behaviour 1, no. 1 (2017): 0021. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-016-0021.

Prüfungsleistungen und CP/Assignments and Credits:

Students can take the course for 3 CP or 6 CP. The final assessment will depend on the amount of CP students chose. Both assessments include the simple progress report every two weeks (just about one paragraph in an unstructured form, including reasons for no progress, which will always happen, is no problem and part of the process) and the final script of the project. Beyond that, the two different levels encompass the following two assessments:

3 CP:
• Short presentation (10 minutes)
• Short final research note with references (~5 pages, at least one high-quality graph)
6 CP:
• Long presentation (20 minutes)
• Long final research note with references (~10 pages, at least two high-quality graphs)

The seminar explores and examines the phenomenon of disinformation in international politics, with a focus on current trends and developments. Topics of the seminar include disinformation in elections, crises and conflicts; the political utility of fake news; information warfare; digital technology; deepfakes; strategic motivations of various (non-)state actors; the impact of disinformation on democratic processes; regulatory efforts; and ways of identifying fact-based knowledge and of verifying information. The seminar takes an interdisciplinary perspective for a fuller understanding of how disinformation functions and how democratic societies may guard against it.

Learning goals: The seminar content is taught with a participatory, case-study approach. Students will be able to understand key concepts; deconstruct and analyse disinformation campaigns regarding their source, motivations, target audiences and objectives; critically assess cases in light of the tension between free speech and threat mitigation; and strengthen their capacities of identifying reliable information. Students will also strengthen their analytical, writing and presentation skills. Gained knowledge serves both further academic studies of the topic and the application to other professional areas.

Regular participation in the seminar is an important basis to achieve the seminar's learning goals. Preparatory reading is recommended.

Literatur zur Vorbereitung/Preparatory Reading:

Chan, Kenddrick and Chris Alden. n.d. Understanding and Mitigating Disinformation: A Primer for Policymakers and Stakeholders. LSE. Download: https://www.lse.ac.uk/ideas/Assets/Documents/project-docs/LSE-Meta-GK-Primer-on-Disinformation.pdf

USAID. Center for Excellence on Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance. 2021. Disinformation Primer.
Download: https://www.echocommunity.org/resources/319e91d9-41ef-4fd7-aff3-d429b5774801

Prüfungsleistungen und CP/Assignments and Credits:

3 CP: Oral presentation in class (20-25 min) with 2-page handout and discussion
6 CP: Oral presentation in class (20-25 min) with 2-page handout and discussion & research paper (5,000 words ±10%, excluding references)
9 CP: Oral presentation in class (20-25 min) with 2-page handout and discussion (40 % of grade) & research paper (8,000 words ±10%,, excluding references) (60 % of grade)
Papers to be turned in by end of the semester (Sep. 30, 2026)

The class provides an introduction to core concepts of international relations theory. The focus is on what different theories consider to be the key drivers of international and transnational relations. global politics, focusing on key concepts and issues of theories of international relations: states, sovereignty, conflict, cooperation, international institutions, non-governmental organizations, delegation and (indirect) global governance. The course starts with a focus on classical, Western literatures but concludes with sessions on gender, race, colonialism and the end of the Western-dominated liberal international order. By the end of the course, students will be able to understand and apply the key concepts in their own research.

Literatur zur Vorbereitung/Preparatory Reading:

any textbook on IR

Prüfungsleistungen und CP/Assignments and Credits:

6 CP
Requirements

Attendance: Students are expected to be present and prepared for every class session. Active participation during seminar discussions is essential. If unavoidable circumstances arise which prevent attendance or preparation, the instructor should be advised in advance by email.

Reseearch paper:Each student submits a brief paper at the end of the seminar. The paper should engage with one of the readings of this class, summarize the main argument and comment on it. Grading will consider the rigor of the analysis, and the quality of writing. The word limit is 3000 words everything included. Each student presents his or her paper idea in a short presentation during the final session. .

Maps are powerful tools for understanding and communicating political phenomena. In this block seminar you will learn to use the statistical software R to produce customisable, publication-quality maps and other data visualisations. No prior knowledge of R is required. Participants are encouraged to use data from their own research projects, but test datasets will also be provided.

Prüfungsleistungen und CP/Assignments and Credits:
3CP

What does solidarity mean and how is it realised? This seminar examines the concept of solidarity and its role in domestic and international politics. We discuss how solidarity has been conceptualised in social theory and invoked by politicians, scholars, and activists across different contexts. We analyse its empirical manifestations in areas such as domestic social policy, international cooperation, and transnational social movements.

Prüfungsleistungen und CP/Assignments and Credits:
3CP or 6CP

https://www.uni-bremen.de/fb8/international/internationales-modul
3 CP/ECTS for this course, +3 CP/ECTS extra credit