Course Number: SS101

Course Title: Introduction to Political Science

STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES 

General Objective

1. To introduce basic terminologies and concepts of political science. (PART I)
2. To introduce and discuss the evolution of political thoughts from the early philosophers to the contemporary political theorist. (PART I)
3. To introduce major areas of the State and Public Policy. (PART II)
4. To introduce the concept of different types of regimes and citizenships. (PART III)
5. To discuss the importance of non-governmental dimensions of the political systems such as public opinion, interest groups, political parties, and political
    action committees.    (PART IV)
6. To introduce the structure of modern political systems. (PART IV)
7.To introduce the concept of international relations and global politics. (PART V)

Specific Objectives

Students will be able to:

PART I

l. Define basic vocabularies and concepts of politics.
2. Write an essay explaining on how politics is used in modern day FSM.
3. Explain how politics is used as a power to make collective decisions.
4. Discuss political science as a field and apply that idea into a working theory.
5. Differentiate ancient and modern political philosophies.
6. Analyze modern political philosophies in terms of underlying ideologies.

PART II.

1. Discuss the concepts of "state" and "nation".
2. Write an essay on "nationalism" and its application in the FSM.
3. Discuss and explain variety of policy decisions which face the modern state.
4. Discuss economic policies and issues such as economic growth, inflation, unemployment and economic inequality.
5. Define justice and how it applies to policy making in the state.
6. Discuss the evaluation of policy fairness and efficiency.

PART III:

1. Explain how and why legitimacy exists with the people of the state.
2. Discuss how governments achieve legitimacy in the eyes of their citizens.
3. Discuss the fragility of democracy.
4. Explain the development of democracy; from the process of "last word" to the "end of history".
5. Explain the different problems in which democracy faces.
6. Write an essay on the existence of democracy in the FSM.
7. Compare and contrast democratic governments and autocratic governments.
8. Differentiate democratic governments vs. non-democratic governments.
9. Describe non-democratic governments such as military government and one-party government.

PART IV:

l. Discuss the concept of constitutionalism.
2. Write an essay on the development of the FSM Constitution.
3. Explain the functions served by elections; both the democratic function and the universal function.
4. Describe the electoral system of such democratic nations as United States and Sweden and apply to FSM's own electoral system.
5. Differentiate interest groups and political parties.
6. Discuss the origin of political parties.
7. List functions of political parties in democratic states.
8. Discuss and explain the diversity of interest groups in modern states.
9. Describe the basic model of a parliamentary government.
10. Describe the basic model of a presidential government.
11. Compare and contrast between a parliamentary government and presidential government.
12. Define public administration.
13. Discuss the recent growth of public administration.
14. Discuss the political problems of public administration.
15. Define Bureaucracy.
16. List problems of bureaucracy.
17. Discuss the concept of legal systems.
18. Discuss FSM's modern day legal system and how it applies to the islands' traditional legal systems.
19. List the different types of laws.
20. List and explain the different varieties of courts.

PART V.

1. Discuss and explain the evolution of the international system since 1945.
2. Explain what the "New World Order" is.
3. Discuss the differences between inter-state politics and intra-state politics.
4. Write an essay on how FSM politically policies and affairs are influenced by the international world and events.