The seminar looks at war and other forms of large-scale political violence from a normative point of view. In the first part of the seminar we will discuss standard just war theory and its main opponents (pacifism, realism). In the second part of the seminar, we will learn about more recent developments in just war thinking, including attempts to extend the reach of the normative framework to non-paradigmatic contexts such as terrorism or to technology-driven changes in the nature of warfare.

Preparatory Reading

Orend, Brian (2016): War. In: Zalta, Edward N. (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2016). https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2016/entries/war/

Assignments and Credits

6 CP (TP 1, GS): term paper (15-20 pp.) or oral exam (30 min.)
3 CP (TP 2, GS): presentation (15 min.) with written elaboration (5 pp.) or short term paper (8-10 pp.)

Political parties are central actors in democracies. In recent decades, established party systems have been re-shaped by the effects of globalisation, de-industrialisation and demographic change, and by the actions of political parties both old and new. This seminar deals with the origins and development of parties and party systems in democracies, as well as changes over time. We discuss connections between parties and citizens, changing lines of conflict, and dynamics of political competition. The aim is to deepen understanding of the role and behaviour of political parties, and enable participants to compare parties and party systems among countries and over time.

Mental health is a central concern of contemporary health care systems and the wider welfare state, but both the coverage of services and the generosity of public benefits vary considerably among jurisdictions. Mental health policies have been completely transformed in Western Europe and North America since the end of the Second World War through the transition from institutional to community-based care. This course deals with the politics of mental health policy in comparative perspective. Its main aim is to enable participants to critically analyse the economic, scientific, and ideological drivers of mental health policies, and their political feedback effects.