Content and Objectives
This course explores key concepts in political science and how they relate to the study of governance in different fields of political science. It is organised as an introductory exploration to the wider study of politics and presupposes little or no knowledge of politics or governance and their diverse literatures and methodologies of investigation.  

The course is organised along 5 modules. The first is an introduction to what is politics and how is it studied. It is followed by three modules corresponding to three sub-fields of political research; namely, states and political systems, policy and public administration, international relations and regional integration. Finally, there is a module on the methodology and techniques of political research which, among other topics, discusses the unique characteristics of political analysis.  

In this course, governance is integrated into the study of politics both as an object of analysis and, crucially, as an analytical approach that cross-cuts all three sub-fields/foci of political research mentioned above. In this respect the course differs from a traditional introduction to politics as it discusses not only how the variety of macro-theoretical, meso-theoretical and methodological approaches relate to the study of governance but also how studying governance brings a conceptually and analytically richer perspective into the study of governing societies.