Online courses directory (90)
This course surveys American political thought from the colonial era to the present. Required readings are drawn mainly from primary sources, including writings of politicians, activists, and theorists. Topics include the relationship between religion and politics, rights, federalism, national identity, republicanism versus liberalism, the relationship of subordinated groups to mainstream political discourse, and the role of ideas in politics. We will analyze the simultaneous radicalism and weakness of American liberalism, how the revolutionary ideas of freedom and equality run up against persistent patterns of inequality. Graduate students are expected to pursue the subject in greater depth through suggested reading and individual research.
Public procurement is a process that occurs when a government organization or a public authority purchases from external suppliers. Public authorities in Europe spend over €2000 billion a year purchasing goods and services, and this huge purchasing power forces suppliers to become more innovative as they have to produce higher quality products at lower prices. Public authorities in Europe have introduced procurement rules which are designed to increase competition between suppliers. <br /><br />ALISON's free online diploma course has been created by Procurement Academy, an institute dedicated to training procurement professionals.<br /><br />The course covers topics such as best practices for developing specifications, what procedures are used during the procurement process, how to write the Request for Tender (RFT) document, implementing the public procurement process, and the ethics associated with the procurement process. <br /><br />This detailed procurement course will be of great interest to procurement professionals who are interested in how the European public procurement process works and the steps involved in the public procurement process itself. For businesses seeking to expand, understanding how to win EU contract business is a competitive advantage in itself. We suggest that at least one employee in every European business should study this online EU procurement course.<br />
This course is designed as a vocabulary of the main terms used by all of us when talking about local as well as world politics. We often use these terms without a proper awareness of their meanings and connections, a circumstance not exactly helpful for any attempt to understand how politics really works, regardless of our wishful thinking or simplistic morality or easy cynicism.
Now, if we want to go deeper into the workings of politics - the only serious starting point for those who want reform - we must agree to begin with very abstract notions. This includes the general definitions of what politics, conflict, power (incl. force/violence), and what legitimate power mean (Part 1: What is Politics?). On these premises, we will then explain the still main political institution, the state, and peer into the dynamics of war and peace that has dominated the relationships between the states (Part 2: How Does Politics Work?). Since with economic globalisation, which has restricted the room for political action, things are getting much more complicated on the planet, and more challenging outside of it (man-made climate change starts in the atmosphere), classical notions have to be rethought. The very nature of the threats endangering our global commons does not leave the definition of politics (Part 3: World Politics and the Future).
This course does not aim at communicating any 'message' as to how politics ought to be. However, we will obviously try to clarify the main concepts - freedom, equality, justice - concepts we will make use of while talking about values and principles in politics. This is, what is called 'normative political philosophy' and is regarded here as an important chapter of political philosophy, not the whole of it (Part 4: Ethics and Politics).
What will I learn?
At the end of the course, you will have achieved a clearer and less confused awareness of political vocabulary, thus gaining a more complex, more autonomous and more critical understanding of political processes. If you are a student of political science, law, sociology and economics you will gain better tools for catching the overarching sense of processes. This will help you overcome an otherwise fragmented perspective and perspective.
My teaching method aims primarily at defining and discussing concepts, not illustrating authors or providing historical narratives; needless to say, there will be plenty of references to authors, books, events and processes, in particular with regard to the evolution of political modernity.
What do I have to know?
Due to my conceptual approach, to follow this course you do not need a prior knowledge of philosophy or political science, just the degree of general culture needed to pass the final high school exam, be it Abitur, maturità, baccalauréat or 高考(gao kao).
Course Structure
Chapter 1:
Aim and method of the course. General information. Two definitions of politics.
Chapter 2:
Disassembling the classical definition, and its components: Conflict, (Legitimate) Power, Force.
Chapter 3:
Questions about power. A word on political philosophy.
Chapter 4:
The subjective side of politics, legitimacy, political identity and political obligation.
Chapter 5:
Political order, political institutions, models of order: From Aristotle to Hegel.
Chapter 6:
The (modern) state. Basic thoughts on democracy.
Chapter 7:
The states: Power, peace, and war in the anarchical society.
Chapter 8:
Globalisation and global governance.
Chapter 9:
Global challenges and politics after modernity.
Chapter 10:
Liberty and equality.
Chapter 11:
Justice.
Chapter 12:
Ethics and politics in modernity.
This course examines Supreme Court decisions concerning the development of the 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th, 8th, and 14th Amendments to the United States Constitution. We will look specifically at establishment and free exercise; free speech, including obscene speech; 4th Amendment guarantees against unreasonable searches and seizures; the 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination; 8th Amendment prohibitions against cruel and usual punishment; as well as related cases that have recognized rights of historically marginalized groups in United States history, including African-Americans, women, and sexual minorities through these Amendments. Particular attention will be paid to how the Supreme Court has developed arguments which have expanded and contracted “rights” and “liberties.” We will also pay close attention to larger political contexts apart from court decisions that contribute to the overall development of “civil rights and civil liberties” in the United States.
This course examines Supreme Court decisions concerning the development of the 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th, 8th, and 14th Amendments to the United States Constitution. We will look specifically at establishment and free exercise; free speech, including obscene speech; 4th Amendment guarantees against unreasonable searches and seizures; the 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination; 8th Amendment prohibitions against cruel and usual punishment; as well as related cases that have recognized rights of historically marginalized groups in United States history, including African-Americans, women, and sexual minorities through these Amendments. Particular attention will be paid to how the Supreme Court has developed arguments which have expanded and contracted “rights” and “liberties.” We will also pay close attention to larger political contexts apart from court decisions that contribute to the overall development of “civil rights and civil liberties” in the United States.
The United States Congress is the most open of the national branches of government, and therefore the most closely studied. This course aims to find ways to deal with the vast array of information we have about Congress by asking two basic questions: What does Congress do (and why), and what are the various ways of studying congressional behavior? This course focuses on both the internal processes of the House and Senate, and on the place of Congress in the American political system.
This course analyzes the development of the United States Congress by focusing on the competing theoretical lenses through which legislatures have been studied. In particular, it compares sociological and economic models of legislative behavior, applying those models to floor decision-making, committee behavior, political parties, relations with other branches of the Federal government, and elections. Graduate students are expected to pursue the subject in greater depth through reading and individual research.
This course examines American constitutional law in historical and modern context. It focuses closely on the constitutional text and Supreme Court case law. It explores the allocation of decision-making authority among government institutions, including the distribution of power across the branches of the federal government and between the federal and state governments. The course also examines the guarantees of individual rights and liberties stemming from the due process, equal protection, and other clauses in the Bill of Rights and post Civil War amendments.
Acknowledgments
Professor Warshaw would like to acknowledge the training in Constitutional Law he received from Gary J. Jacobsohn, Kathleen Sullivan, and Norman Spaulding.
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