COURSE INFORMATION Course Title: GOVERNMENT, POLITICS AND PUBLIC POLICY IN ALBANIA

Code	Course Type	Regular Semester	Theory	Practice	Lab	Credits	ECTS
PIR 261	B	3	4	0	0	4	5

Academic staff member responsible for the design of the course syllabus (name, surname, academic title/scientific degree, email address and signature)	NA
Lecturer (name, surname, academic title/scientific degree, email address and signature) and Office Hours:	Lisen Bashkurti , Monday, at 14:30-17:30 hours
Second 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
Classroom and Meeting Time:	Monday and Wednesday, at 12:30-14:30 time intervals
Course Description:	The primary goal of this course is to obtain an understanding of the basic principles, functions and foundations of the Albanian system of government and politics. It aims to study the methods in which major and transformative changes take place in Albanian public policy. What makes some reforms succeed and other fail? Overall, this course explores the major political institutions and organizations in the Albanian policy process.
Course Objectives:	The primary goal of this course is to obtain an understanding of the basic principles, functions and foundations of the Albanian system of government and politics. It aims to study the methods in which major and trans-formative changes take place in Albanian public policy. Why at makes some reforms succeed and other fail? Overall, this course explores the major political institutions and organizations in the Albanian policy process.

COURSE OUTLINE

Week	Topics
1	Introduction on political concepts, terms and definitions
2	The Constitution of Albania: Analysis; Sovereignty , Strengths and Weaknesses
3	The Parliament, the Prime Minister and the President
4	Political Parties: Structure, Policies and Ideas
5	Local Government
6	Elections and Voting: Electoral System, Electoral reform and Voting Behavior
7	Midterm Week
8	Democracy and Participation in Albania
9	Policy Analysis, Implementation and Evaluation System in Albania
10	Foreign Policy
11	Economic and Budgetary Policy
12	Environmental and Energy Policy
13	Health Care and Social Policy
14	EU Cohesion Policy and Accession: Important Issue for Albania

Prerequisite(s):	N/A
Textbook:	Albanian Journal of Politics, http://ajp.alpsa.org/ Beshku, K.; Malltezi, O. (2013), Albania and Europe in a Political Regard, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, New Castle: UK Albanian Institute for International Studies, http://www.aiis-albania.org/publications.html Politics of Albania, https://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Politics_of_Albania.html Albanian Center for Economics Research, http://www.acer.org.al/
Other References:	-Kushtetuta e Republikes se Shqiperise, 2016 - Albanian Journal of Politics, http://ajp.alpsa.org/ -L. Bashkurti, “National and European Identity of Albania”, ADSh, Tirane, 2006
Laboratory Work:	N/A
Computer Usage:	N/A
Others:	No

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

1	To understand the basic theoretical concepts, systems, developments, events that characterized the Balkan region from 1600 to 1900 century, by using comparative analysis between Habsburg and Ottoman Empires.
2	To have foundation knowledge and necessary analytical capacity to clearly understand how the geography and the history has impacted the Balkan Peninsula and what were the main differences in two parts of the Balkans.
3	To be able to use theoretical concepts and historical knowledge to find out why the Balkans has so many challenges in know a time.
4	To develop their critical approach about the lesson learned from the Balkan political history and its impact in current and future development of the Region on the way of their integration in UE and NATO.

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

No	Program Competencies	Cont.
Bachelor in Economics (3 years) Program
1	Students define the fundamental problems of economics	4
2	Students describe key economic theories	1
3	Students critically discuss current developments in economics	2
4	Students appropriately use software for data analysis	1
5	Students critically contextualize the selection of an economic problem for research within scholarly literature and theory on the topic	3
6	Students apply appropriate analytical methods to address economic problems	2
7	Students use effective communication skills in a variety of academic and professional contexts	5
8	Students effectively contribute to group work	5
9	Students conduct independent research under academic supervision	2
10	Students uphold ethical values in data collection, interpretation, and dissemination	2
11	Students critically engage with interdisciplinary innovations in social sciences	5
12	Student explain how their research has a broader social benefit	5

COURSE EVALUATION METHOD

Method	Quantity	Percentage
Homework	2	10
Midterm Exam(s)	1	30
Final Exam	1	40
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)	15	4	60
Hours for off-the-classroom study (Pre-study, practice)			0
Mid-terms	1	13	13
Assignments	2	11	22
Final examination	1	30	30
Other			0
Total Work Load:			125
Total Work Load/25(h):			5
ECTS Credit of the Course:			5