400 Level Papers

Normally, no POLS 400-level paper can be taken unless a student is in 400-level Politics Honours or PGdipArts. Exceptions are possible with the approval of the lecturer responsible for the paper.

POLS402 Community, Culture and Rights

Dr Spencer (24pts 1st semester)

Should we accommodate cultural difference through public recognition in our public policies and laws or is it sufficient for justice to leave people to pursue their own ends within a common legal framework? Do states need a common national identity to retain cohesiveness? Or does justice demand a co-sovereign approach toward indigenous peoples? Should a liberal state be tolerant toward illiberal and often sexist cultural and religious practices? Issues raised by these questions to be explored in this paper in contemporary political theory include: the validity of human rights and universal values, pluralism and relativism, identity and the role of community, traditions and cultural membership, liberal nationalism, indigenous and minority rights, and gender and multiculturalism.

This paper is 100% internally assessed.

POLS404 Politics and Society

Dr Brian Roper (24pts 2nd semester)

This course focuses on class, gender, and ethnicity, with comparative reference to the United States and Great Britain. It addresses questions such as: Why do these inequalities exist? What are some of the major ways in which they have changed historically? How do they impact upon politics and policy-making? What can and should be done about them?

POLS406 International Relations Theory

Dr Nicholas Khoo (24pts 1st semester)

Course information to be supplied ASAP

POLS416 Global Governance

Prof Nel (24pt 1st semester)

Clobal intergration and interdependence are reconfiguring political authority and creating a demand for institutions to provide global public goods. This paper reviews and evaluates various theoretical approaches to the global public goods. In addition, a simulation exercise is conducted dealing with real-life negotiations about the provision of a selected global public good.

POLS430 ST: Islamic Militancy in World Politics

Dr Najib Lafraie (24pts 1st semester)

The Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979 reintroduced religion in world politics, dismissed until then as insignificant. The subsequent rise of Islamic militancy in different parts of the Muslim world, with its effects felt in various European and American cities, has made it an important factor in international relations. After examining the role of religion in IR in general, the paper will study this new phenomenon and how it affects world politics.

POLS433 ST: International Relations and the Developing World

Dr Lena Tan (24pts 2nd semester)

Examines the material factors and social relations which shaped the 'third world' in world politics by historicizing its relationship with other states during the age of imperialism, decolonization, the Cold War, and the post-Cold War period. Also interrogates how the third world has been constituted and the way in which it has been theorized in the field of International Relations.

This paper is 100% internally assessed.

POLS490/491 Research Dissertation

Co-ordinators Assoc. Prof Hayward & Dr Rudd (48pts Full year)

POLS491 due Friday 3rd June,
POLS490 due Friday 14th October;

The research dissertation is either a piece of original research on a specified research question, or a more wide-ranging discussion of a topic which gives a critical account of existing literature and knowledge. Maximum of 15,000 words (excluding footnotes, bibliography, and appendices).

For more information on POLS 490/491 see ‘Honours and the PGDipArts’

This paper is 100% internally assessed.