COURSE INFORMATION Course Title: ISSUES IN POLITICAL THEORY

Code	Course Type	Regular Semester	Theory	Practice	Lab	Credits	ECTS
PIR 415	B	1	3	0	0	3	7.5

Academic staff member responsible for the design of the course syllabus (name, surname, academic title/scientific degree, email address and signature)	NA
Main Course Lecturer (name, surname, academic title/scientific degree, email address and signature) and Office Hours:	Dr. Avdi Smajljaj asmajljaj@epoka.edu.al , Tuesday & Wednesday 2-3 pm;
Second Course Lecturer(s) (name, surname, academic title/scientific degree, email address and signature) and Office Hours:	NA
Teaching Assistant(s) and Office Hours:	NA
Language:	English
Compulsory/Elective:	Compulsory
Study program: (the study for which this course is offered)	Professional Master in Political Science and International Relations
Classroom and Meeting Time:	On Wednesdays
Code of Ethics:	Code of Ethics of EPOKA University Regulation of EPOKA University "On Student Discipline"
Attendance Requirement:
Course Description:	This is a master level course. This course is intended to familiarize students with some of the most important issues introduced throughout the political discourse of humankind. Themes such as the state, justice, liberty, equality and democracy will be considered in terms of the assumptions they provide about human nature, and the challenges they continue to pose to politics in the 21st century. This course is divided into four parts: the first reflects on the basic unit of political power, the state, and the nature of power itself; the second one focuses on the discussion of justice, liberty and equality ; the third considers modern democracy and ideologies that have purported to rival it; while the fourth and final part is devoted to crucial and emergent issues within the modern democratic framework itself including democratization as process, multiculturalism and feminism. Students will be expected to develop a grasp of most important issues in political theory and assess the relevance of individual thinkers in the contemporary setting.
Course Objectives:	Module is designed for Master students in order to give information about politics and political theories. It is known that some of these students have not been thought the subject at all. This is not a disadvantage for those students, because we aimed to convey basic terms on the subject. This module will provide clear understanding for students on political theory. It will ‘shows students why an understanding of theory is crucial to an understanding of issues and events in a rapidly shifting global political landscape. Bringing together classic and contemporary political concepts and ideologies into one book, this new text introduces the major approaches to political issues that have shaped the modern world, and the ideas that form the currency of political debate’.

BASIC CONCEPTS OF THE COURSE

1	Liberty, State, Authority, Justice

COURSE OUTLINE

Week	Topics
1	Introductory Class
2	What is Political Theory? Heywood, A. (2015), Chapter 1: What is Political Theory; Goodwin, B. (2014), Chapter 1: What is Political Theory; McKinnon, C. (Ed.) (2008) Introduction
3	Political Authority and Obligations. Heywood, A. (2015), Chapter 5: Power, Authority and Legitimacy (pp. 109-130 + 220-226); Goodwin, B. (2014), Chapter 13: Power, Authority and State (pp. 341-351+389-402); McKinnon, C. (Ed.) (2008) Chapter 1: Political authority and Obligation; Savigny, H. & Marsden, L. (2011) Chapter 2: Power
4	Liberty. Heywood, A. (2015), Chapter 9: Freedom, Toleration and Identity (pp.237-250); Goodwin, B. (2014), Chapter 14: Freedom and Rights (pp.361-371); McKinnon, C. (Ed.) (2008) Chapter 5: Liberty
5	Toleration. Heywood, A. (2015), Chapter 9 (pp. 250-257); Goodwin, B. (2014), Chapter 14: Freedom and rights (pp.381-385); McKinnon, C. (Ed.) (2008) Chapter 6: Toleration
6	6. Democracy. Heywood, A. (2015), Chapter 6: Democracy, Representation and Public Interest; Goodwin, B. (2014), Chapter 12: Democracy; McKinnon, C. (Ed.) (2008) Chapter 4: Democracy.
7	Equality & Social Justice. Heywood, A. (2015), Chapter 10: Equality, Social Justice and Welfare (pp.268-287); Goodwin, B. (2014), Chapter 16: Social Justice and Equality
8	8. Multiculturalism. Goodwin, B. (2014), Chapter 17: New Political Dimensions (pp.447-450); McKinnon, C. (Ed.) (2008) Chapter 10: Multiculturalism; Savigny, H. & Marsden, L. (2011) Introduction (pp. 5-9); Heywood, A. (2017), Chapter 11: Multiculturalism
9	Human Rights. Heywood, A. (2015), Chapter 8: Rights, Obligations and Citizenship; Goodwin, B. (2014), Chapter 14: Freedom and Rights (pp. 373- 381); McKinnon, C. (Ed.) (2008) Chapter 9: Human Rights
10	Global Justice. Heywood, A. (2015), Chapter 7: Law, Order and Justice (pp.196-204); McKinnon, C. (Ed.) (2008) Chapter 9: Global Justice
11	War and Intervention. Heywood, A. (2015), Chapter 12: Security, War and World Order; McKinnon, C. (Ed.) (2008) Chapter 10: War and Intervention
12	Environment. Heywood, A. (2017), Chapter 9: Green Ideology; Goodwin, B. (2014), Chapter 10: Green Ideologies; McKinnon, C. (Ed.) (2015) Chapter 11: Environment; Savigny, H. & Marsden, L. (2011) Chapter 10 : The Environment
13	Gender. McKinnon, C. (Ed.) (2015, 2008) Chapter 12: Gender; Heywood, A. (2017), Chapter 8: Feminism; Goodwin, B. (2014), Chapter 9: Feminism
14	Student Presentations

Prerequisite(s):	NA
Textbook(s):	C. McKinnon (Ed.), Issues in Political Theory, 3rd edition, 2015 and 1st edition 2008; A. Heywood, Political Theory An Introduction, 4th edition, 2015; B. Goodwin, Using Political Ideas, 6th edition, 2014; A. Heywood, Political Ideologies An Introduction, 6th edition, 2017; H. Savigny and L. Marsden, Doing Political Science and International Relations, 3rd edition, 2011
Additional Literature:	Homepages: 1) http://www.lse.ac.uk/resources/calendar/courseGuides/graduate.htm, accessed on 22 December 2009 2) http://colinfarrelly.blogspot.com/2006/04/what-is-political-theory.html, accessed on 22 December 2009 3) http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-politics/, accessed on 22 December 2009 4) http://www.booksites.net/download/stein_pol/student_files/weblinks.htm, accessed on 22 December 2009
Laboratory Work:	NA
Computer Usage:	NA
Others:	No

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

1	At the end of the course the students will be able to discuss the classical ideas such as the state, freedom, equality, justice and classical ideologies namely liberalism, conservatism, socialism and as well as contemporary ideologies such as feminism, multiculturalism, fundamentalism and ecologism.
2	Democracy and democratization process in the world and the contribution of Muslim and Eastern scholars to the western political ideas and ideologies will be wellknown from the students.
3	At the end of the course, the students will develop their ability to formulate current problem within framework of political theory.
4	This module will provide clear understanding for students on political theory

COURSE CONTRIBUTION TO... PROGRAM COMPETENCIES (Blank : no contribution, 1: least contribution ... 5: highest contribution)

No	Program Competencies	Cont.
Professional Master in Political Science and International Relations Program

COURSE EVALUATION METHOD

Method	Quantity	Percentage
Presentation	1	15
Project	1
Term Paper	1	30
Final Exam	1	45
Attendance		10
	Total Percent:	100%

ECTS (ALLOCATED BASED ON STUDENT WORKLOAD)

Activities	Quantity	Duration(Hours)	Total Workload(Hours)
Course Duration (Including the exam week: 16x Total course hours)	16	3	48
Hours for off-the-classroom study (Pre-study, practice)	16	2	32
Mid-terms	1	15	15
Assignments	2	29	58
Final examination	1	34.5	34.5
Other			0
Total Work Load:			187.5
Total Work Load/25(h):			7.5
ECTS Credit of the Course:			7.5

CONCLUDING REMARKS BY THE COURSE LECTURER