Master 2025/2026

Research Seminar

Type: Compulsory course (Politics. Economics. Philosophy)

Delivered by: School of Politics and Governance

When: 2 year, 1-3 module

Open to: students of one campus

Language: English

Course Syllabus

Abstract

This course is based on prior knowledge obtained by students during the study of the following disciplines: Categories of Political Science Comparative Politics Policy Analysis Economics The broad goal of this course is to sharpen students’ theoretical and methodological skills, discuss with them how to choose an adequate research design, and develop critical thinking in general. The narrow goal of the course is to help students reach high quality of their MA theses and structure their research process. We will achieve these goals by introducing to students the latest mainstream works from the leading international journals in Political Science and Comparative Political Economy. We will discuss them in terms of theory and research design. Why some countries are stuck in technological backwardness, while others prosper? Why in some countries 2 people enjoy longer and healthier lives? What is the role of political institutions in answering these questions? Are bureaucrats motivated by ideology or career concerns? Also, we will introduce today’s hot topics in Political Science and tie them to the current events. What role does Internet play in contemporary social movements? Does social media help overcome collective action problem or just disseminate more information? Who are trolls and how they manipulate public opinion? Why far rights are gaining their momentum? Why did “the efficient secret” of the UK Parliament disappear when it came to Brexit? Along answering these theoretical questions, we will touch upon the empirical concerns (endogeneity problems, null-hypothesis testing in frequentist models) and their possible solutions: instrumental variables, research discontinuity design, Bayesian analysis).