Society, politics and institutions: stability and change
A.A. 2022/2023
Obiettivi formativi
The course aims at
- introducing students to the fundamental tools for the analysis of politics and institutions;
- providing knowledge of the main issues discussed in contemporary philosophy of the social sciences, with particular emphasis on social ontology and rational choice theory.
- introducing students to the fundamental tools for the analysis of politics and institutions;
- providing knowledge of the main issues discussed in contemporary philosophy of the social sciences, with particular emphasis on social ontology and rational choice theory.
Risultati apprendimento attesi
At the end of the course the students will have acquired
- some basic skills in the formation and use of scientific concepts and theories;
- some basic analytical and theoretical tools for understanding and studying politics and institutions in their social contexts as well as knowledge of some causal mechanisms typically recurring in such contexts;
- the ability of conducting "power analyses" of social and political situations;
- the ability to identify and interpret broad dynamics of political and institutional change in a historical and comparative perspective;
- substantive systematic knowledge of the "European model" (market economy, liberal democracy, the welfare state and European integration) and the challenges now facing it;
- the capacity to understand the theories that philosophers, psychologists, biologists and economists have put forward to explain the emergence of institutions;
- knowledge of the cognitive skills that allow human beings to engage in coordination and cooperation, on a scale of complexity that is unknown in the natural world;
- the ability to analyse and critically assess the main arguments brought in favour and against different views concerning the nature and functions of institutions, and the emergence of cooperation;
- the capacity to identify the ways in which these debates may be resolved, and how their solutions may contribute to scientific progress and understanding;
- the capacity to present the main arguments independently, satisfying the main requirements of scholarly writing.
- some basic skills in the formation and use of scientific concepts and theories;
- some basic analytical and theoretical tools for understanding and studying politics and institutions in their social contexts as well as knowledge of some causal mechanisms typically recurring in such contexts;
- the ability of conducting "power analyses" of social and political situations;
- the ability to identify and interpret broad dynamics of political and institutional change in a historical and comparative perspective;
- substantive systematic knowledge of the "European model" (market economy, liberal democracy, the welfare state and European integration) and the challenges now facing it;
- the capacity to understand the theories that philosophers, psychologists, biologists and economists have put forward to explain the emergence of institutions;
- knowledge of the cognitive skills that allow human beings to engage in coordination and cooperation, on a scale of complexity that is unknown in the natural world;
- the ability to analyse and critically assess the main arguments brought in favour and against different views concerning the nature and functions of institutions, and the emergence of cooperation;
- the capacity to identify the ways in which these debates may be resolved, and how their solutions may contribute to scientific progress and understanding;
- the capacity to present the main arguments independently, satisfying the main requirements of scholarly writing.
Periodo: Primo trimestre
Modalità di valutazione: Esame
Giudizio di valutazione: voto verbalizzato in trentesimi
Corso singolo
Questo insegnamento non può essere seguito come corso singolo. Puoi trovare gli insegnamenti disponibili consultando il catalogo corsi singoli.
Programma e organizzazione didattica
Edizione unica
Responsabile
Periodo
Primo trimestre
Prerequisiti
n.a.
Modalità di verifica dell’apprendimento e criteri di valutazione
The final exam will consist of a test with multiple choice and open questions.
Unit 1
Programma
Detailed outline
Week 1: Politics, society and collectivities
- Definitions of politics, Power and legitimacy
- Collectivities and boundaries: groups and nations
Week 2 - States, nations, and nationalism
- What's a group and what's a nation
- Nations-building and the role of nationalism - Nation-states
Week 3 - Power, legitimacy and violence
- power, legitimacy and loyalty in nation- and state-building processes - from political conflict to war
- from political conflict to ethnopolitics and ethnocracy
Week 4 - Managing plurality
- Multinational states
- political engineering & institutional designs (consociationalism vs centripetalism)
- State-nations
Week 5 - Beyond the ethno-national group
- Power configuration, legitimacy, and double but complementary loyalties
- Lessons from Jugoslavia
Week 6 - What is the EU?
- Mainstream integration theories: neofunctionalism vs. intergovernmentalism - Confederation and demoi-cracy
- Postfunctionalist theory
- European disintegration?
Week 7 - The EU in crisis
- Models of monetary and fiscal integration - The euro crisis
- The COVID19 crisis and the NGEU
- The rule-of-law crisis (Hungary, Poland)
Week 8 - Differentiation and fragmentation within the EU
- North and South, East and West: diverging growth models
- The political economy of European integration
- Italy and Germany in the EU
Week 9 - The European Social Model
- The Welfare State in Europe
- Social Europe and the European Social Union
- Social investment
Week 10 - Globalisation and European integration
- The liberal international order
- The external policy domains of the EU
- Towards de-globalisation?
Week 1: Politics, society and collectivities
- Definitions of politics, Power and legitimacy
- Collectivities and boundaries: groups and nations
Week 2 - States, nations, and nationalism
- What's a group and what's a nation
- Nations-building and the role of nationalism - Nation-states
Week 3 - Power, legitimacy and violence
- power, legitimacy and loyalty in nation- and state-building processes - from political conflict to war
- from political conflict to ethnopolitics and ethnocracy
Week 4 - Managing plurality
- Multinational states
- political engineering & institutional designs (consociationalism vs centripetalism)
- State-nations
Week 5 - Beyond the ethno-national group
- Power configuration, legitimacy, and double but complementary loyalties
- Lessons from Jugoslavia
Week 6 - What is the EU?
- Mainstream integration theories: neofunctionalism vs. intergovernmentalism - Confederation and demoi-cracy
- Postfunctionalist theory
- European disintegration?
Week 7 - The EU in crisis
- Models of monetary and fiscal integration - The euro crisis
- The COVID19 crisis and the NGEU
- The rule-of-law crisis (Hungary, Poland)
Week 8 - Differentiation and fragmentation within the EU
- North and South, East and West: diverging growth models
- The political economy of European integration
- Italy and Germany in the EU
Week 9 - The European Social Model
- The Welfare State in Europe
- Social Europe and the European Social Union
- Social investment
Week 10 - Globalisation and European integration
- The liberal international order
- The external policy domains of the EU
- Towards de-globalisation?
Metodi didattici
Attending students. Evaluation will be based on the final test scores.
For PPPA students, the grade of unit1 must be averaged with the grade of unit2. The averaged grade will appear on your formal records through these steps:
1. passing successfully the tests of both unit 1 and unit 2 (>18) ;
2. registering the averaged grade during the first formal exam session ("appello d'esame") available for unit 2.
For PPPA students, the grade of unit1 must be averaged with the grade of unit2. The averaged grade will appear on your formal records through these steps:
1. passing successfully the tests of both unit 1 and unit 2 (>18) ;
2. registering the averaged grade during the first formal exam session ("appello d'esame") available for unit 2.
Materiale di riferimento
The complete and final list of study material can be found on Ariel.
Lecture slides (on Ariel)
Barth F. (1969) Ethnic groups and Boundaries. The Social Organization of Culture Difference. CH1, Introduction
Brubaker, R. (2004) "In the name of the nation: reflections on nationalism and patriotism", Citizenship Studies 8(2): 115-127
Wimmer A. (2013) Waves of war, CH Introduction and summary
Stepan, Linz, Yadav (2011) Crafting state-nations. CH1, 1 Comparative Theory and Political Practice: Do We Need a ''State-Nation'' Model as Well as a ''Nation-State'' Model?
Piacentini A. (2020) Ethnonationality's evolution in Bosnia Herzegovina and Macedonia, CH2 2 Ethnic Groups and Nations in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY)
O'Leary, B. (2020) "The nature of the European Union", Research in Political Sociology 27: 17-44.
Degryse, C., Jepsen, M. and Pochet, P. (2013) "The Euro crisis and its impact on national and European social policies", Working Paper 2013.05, European Trade Union Institute.
Ferrera, M. (2017) "The Stein Rokkan Lecture 2016. Mission impossible? Reconciling economic and social Europe and the euro crisis and Brexit", European Journal of Political Research 56(3): 3-22.
Ferrera, M. (2019) "Disproved or vindicated? Stein Rokkan's 'impossibility theorem' on welfare democracy and European Integration", Journal of European Social Policy 29(1): 3-12.
Hay, C. (2006) "What's globalization got to do with it? Economic interdependence and the future of European welfare states", Government and Opposition 41(1): 1-22.
Lecture slides (on Ariel)
Barth F. (1969) Ethnic groups and Boundaries. The Social Organization of Culture Difference. CH1, Introduction
Brubaker, R. (2004) "In the name of the nation: reflections on nationalism and patriotism", Citizenship Studies 8(2): 115-127
Wimmer A. (2013) Waves of war, CH Introduction and summary
Stepan, Linz, Yadav (2011) Crafting state-nations. CH1, 1 Comparative Theory and Political Practice: Do We Need a ''State-Nation'' Model as Well as a ''Nation-State'' Model?
Piacentini A. (2020) Ethnonationality's evolution in Bosnia Herzegovina and Macedonia, CH2 2 Ethnic Groups and Nations in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY)
O'Leary, B. (2020) "The nature of the European Union", Research in Political Sociology 27: 17-44.
Degryse, C., Jepsen, M. and Pochet, P. (2013) "The Euro crisis and its impact on national and European social policies", Working Paper 2013.05, European Trade Union Institute.
Ferrera, M. (2017) "The Stein Rokkan Lecture 2016. Mission impossible? Reconciling economic and social Europe and the euro crisis and Brexit", European Journal of Political Research 56(3): 3-22.
Ferrera, M. (2019) "Disproved or vindicated? Stein Rokkan's 'impossibility theorem' on welfare democracy and European Integration", Journal of European Social Policy 29(1): 3-12.
Hay, C. (2006) "What's globalization got to do with it? Economic interdependence and the future of European welfare states", Government and Opposition 41(1): 1-22.
Unit 2
Programma
- Individualismo e teoria della scelta razionale
- Convenzioni e problemi di coordinazione
- Il problemi della cooperazione
- L'evoluzione della cooperazione
- Norme sociali
- Intenzionalità collettiva
- La teoria delle regole costitutive
- Convenzioni e problemi di coordinazione
- Il problemi della cooperazione
- L'evoluzione della cooperazione
- Norme sociali
- Intenzionalità collettiva
- La teoria delle regole costitutive
Metodi didattici
Lezioni frontali, discussioni in classe.
Materiale di riferimento
Una lista completa del materiale sarà fornita sul site Ariel del corso (https://fgualaspisc.ariel.ctu.unimi.it/) Fra i testi principali:
* Weber, M. (1921) "The Interpretive Understanding of Social Action", in Readings in the Philosophy of the Social Sciences, edited by M. Brodbeck. Macmillan, pp. 19-33.
* Guala, F. (2016) Understanding Institutions, Princeton University Press, Ch. 2 ("Games")
* Lewis, D. (1969) Convention. Blackwell, selected paragraphs from Chs. 1 and 2.
* Peterson, M. (ed. 2015) The Prisoner's Dilemma. Cambridge University Press (Introduction).
* Handout on Repeated Games
* Camerer, C. F., & Fehr, E. (2004) "Measuring social norms and preferences using experimental games: A guide for social scientists", in J. Henrich et al (eds.) Foundations of Human Sociality, Oxford University Press.
* Frank, R. H. (1988) Passions within Reason, Norton (Ch.3: "A Theory of Moral Sentiments")
* Alexander, J. M. (2019) "Evolutionary Game Theory", Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2019/entries/game-evolutionary/ [online], especially sections 1,2,3,5.
* Okasha, S., (2013) "Biological Altruism", Stanford Encyclopedia of Philoso-phy https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2013/entries/altruism-biological/
* Bicchieri, C. (2006) The Grammar of Society, Cambridge University Press, Ch. 1 ("The rules we live by"). [S&G, ariel]
* Gilbert, M. (1990) "Walking Together: A Paradigmatic Social Phenomenon", Midwest Studies in Philosophy 15: pp. 1-14.
* Searle, J. (2005) "What Is an Institution?", Journal of Institutional Economics 1: 1-22
* Guala, F. and Hindriks, F. (2015) "A Unified Social Ontology", Philosophical Quarterly 165 (2015): 177-201.
* Weber, M. (1921) "The Interpretive Understanding of Social Action", in Readings in the Philosophy of the Social Sciences, edited by M. Brodbeck. Macmillan, pp. 19-33.
* Guala, F. (2016) Understanding Institutions, Princeton University Press, Ch. 2 ("Games")
* Lewis, D. (1969) Convention. Blackwell, selected paragraphs from Chs. 1 and 2.
* Peterson, M. (ed. 2015) The Prisoner's Dilemma. Cambridge University Press (Introduction).
* Handout on Repeated Games
* Camerer, C. F., & Fehr, E. (2004) "Measuring social norms and preferences using experimental games: A guide for social scientists", in J. Henrich et al (eds.) Foundations of Human Sociality, Oxford University Press.
* Frank, R. H. (1988) Passions within Reason, Norton (Ch.3: "A Theory of Moral Sentiments")
* Alexander, J. M. (2019) "Evolutionary Game Theory", Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2019/entries/game-evolutionary/ [online], especially sections 1,2,3,5.
* Okasha, S., (2013) "Biological Altruism", Stanford Encyclopedia of Philoso-phy https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2013/entries/altruism-biological/
* Bicchieri, C. (2006) The Grammar of Society, Cambridge University Press, Ch. 1 ("The rules we live by"). [S&G, ariel]
* Gilbert, M. (1990) "Walking Together: A Paradigmatic Social Phenomenon", Midwest Studies in Philosophy 15: pp. 1-14.
* Searle, J. (2005) "What Is an Institution?", Journal of Institutional Economics 1: 1-22
* Guala, F. and Hindriks, F. (2015) "A Unified Social Ontology", Philosophical Quarterly 165 (2015): 177-201.
Moduli o unità didattiche
Unit 1
SPS/04 - SCIENZA POLITICA - CFU: 6
Lezioni: 40 ore
Docenti:
Miro' Artigas Joan, Piacentini Arianna Maria Bambina
Unit 2
SECS-P/01 - ECONOMIA POLITICA - CFU: 6
Lezioni: 40 ore
Docente:
Guala Francesco
Siti didattici
Docente/i
Ricevimento:
Martedì 9.30-12.30, solo su appuntamento
Dipartimento di Filosofia, via Festa del Perdono 7, Cortile Ghiacciaia, ultimo piano