Syllabus
1. Introduction, Simulation in Political Science (October 11)
The content of the course will be presented. Students will learn about a teaching method of simulations together with both advantages and disadvantages of the approach. Specific types of simulation will be differentiated. Last but not least, students will participate in the very first simulation of politics.
Reading:
Asal, V., & Blake, E. L. (2006). Creating simulations for political science education. Journal of Political Science Education, 2(1), 1–18.
Baranowski, M. K., & Weir, K. A. (2015). Political simulations: What we know, what we think we know, and what we still need to know. Journal of Political Science Education, 11(4), 391–403. 2. Coalition Formation (October 25)
The content of the simulation is a hypothetical post-election coalition formation in Germany. The parties to the negotiations are CDU, CSU, SPD, FDP, and the Greens, as entities that aspire to form a government coalition.
Reading:
Martin, C. J. (2013). Conditions for Successful Negotiation: Lessons from Europe. In J. Mansbridge & J. C. Martin (Eds.), Negotiating Agreement in Politics (pp. 121–143). American Political Science Association. 3. Same-Sex Marriage (November 8)
The discussion simulates a round table discussion on the actual draft amendment to the Civil Code, which introduces the possibility of same-sex marriage in the Czech Republic. Participants in the debate are representatives of parliamentary parties from both sides of the spectrum of opinion, as well as representatives of civic associations, as well as supporters and opponents of the amendment.
Reading:
Foster, C., Mansbridge, J., & Martin, C. J. (2013). Negotiation Myopia. In J. Mansbridge & J. C. Martin (Eds.), Negotiating Agreement in Politics (pp. 73–85). American Political Science Association.
Warren, M. E., & Mansbridge, J. (2013). Deliberative Negotiation. In J. Mansbridge & J. C. Martin (Eds.), Negotiating Agreement in Politics (pp. 86–120). American Political Science Association. 4. Civil War Settlement (November 22)
The simulation is based on a fictional three-way civil war in a fictional country in Africa. Participants need to agree to a cease-fire to stop further casualties and damages. Besides this, it is necessary to negotiate a comprehensive peace settlement to prevent a restart of the conflict and to secure a peaceful and prosperous future for the country.
Reading:
Du Toit, P. (2008). Rules and Procedures for Negotiated Peacemaking. In J. Darby & R. Mac Ginty (Eds.), Contemporary Peacemaking: Conflict, Peace Processes and Post-War Reconstruction (pp. 78–93). Springer.
Mitchell, C. (2008). Mediation and the Ending of Conflicts. In J. Darby & R. Mac Ginty (Eds.), Contemporary Peacemaking: Conflict, Peace Processes and Post-War Reconstruction (pp. 94–104). Springer. 5. Green Climate Fund (December 6)
International negotiations are based on a specific dynamic of discussions. Therefore, the simulation imitates a meeting of the Green Climate Fund board that needs to decide what projects will be financially supported by the fund.
Reading:
Odell, J. S., & Tingley, D. (2013). Negotiating Agreements in International Relations. In J. Mansbridge & J. C. Martin (Eds.), Negotiating Agreement in Politics (pp. 144–182). American Political Science Association. 6. Agenda-Setting (December 20)
The simulation focuses on the role of media in contemporary politics. To be more specific, several negotiations will mimic newsroom meetings of different newspapers, during which editors need to select a story on the front page of the newspaper.
Reading:
McCombs, M. E., & Shaw, D. L. (1972). The agenda-setting function of mass media. Public opinion quarterly, 36(2), 176–187.
McCombs, M. (2005). A look at agenda-setting: Past, present and future. Journalism studies, 6(4), 543–557.
Annotation
The course introduces essential processes of contemporary politics. To do that, the course employs a teaching method of simulations, which is a unique approach to teaching political science.
Importantly, the method helps students to understand events and processes of current politics from the perspective of participants. Seminars focus mainly on simulated debates, but a substantial part of the course also consists of preparing the discussions and evaluating them.