Politica comparata
Comparative Politics
Politica comparata is a third-year optional course of the Bachelor’s degree in History, Politics and International Relations (L-36) of the University of Catania: 6 ECTS, 42 hours in 21 sessions, in the first semester, taught in Italian. It is the new course on comparative politics that the Chair’s Grant Agreement introduces in the Bachelor’s degree. It has been taught under the Chair in 2024-25, 2025-26 and 2026-27.
Il corso in breve
Nella prima parte del corso passiamo in rassegna le nozioni di base della politica comparata: finalità e metodi della comparazione; tipi di regime e processi di democratizzazione; sistemi partitici e sistemi elettorali; parlamenti e governi; consolidamento delle autocrazie e regressioni democratiche. Ci soffermiamo poi sul populismo: le sue caratteristiche essenziali e gli elementi ideologici, le manifestazioni concrete e la complicata relazione con la democrazia, insieme alle nuove fratture sociali e ai partiti populisti e radicali in Europa. Nella seconda parte, di natura seminariale, applichiamo le nozioni e gli strumenti della prima parte all’analisi comparata delle maggiori democrazie europee ed extraeuropee e di alcune importanti autocrazie, con il confronto tra le due Coree.
Learning outcomes
By the end of the course students have a basic knowledge of the main European and non-European democracies and of the main non-democratic regimes. They apply the tools of political science to the analysis of political processes and institutions, analyse the main aspects of how political systems work in comparative perspective, and know the main challenges to contemporary democracies, in particular populism and democratic backsliding.
Structure
| Part | Topics |
|---|---|
| 1 | Basic notions: aims and methods of comparison; regime types and democratisation; party systems and electoral systems; parliaments and governments; consolidation of autocracies and democratic backsliding |
| 2 | Populism in comparative perspective; new social cleavages and populist and radical parties |
| 3 | Comparative analysis of European democracies (France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Hungary, Spain, United Kingdom) and non-European democracies (Brazil, India, South Africa, United States) |
| 4 | Comparative analysis of autocracies (China, Iran, Russia, Turkey); the two Koreas compared |
How the course is taught
The first part is taught in lectures, by the lecturer and by invited lecturers. In the second part each session has two halves. In the first hour the lecturer presents the political system of the country; in the second hour an attending student presents the country from a website built during the course, with its last election, the government in office and one current issue, followed by discussion. Attending students sign up in the first two weeks of the course and each takes one country.
Editions
- 2026-27: 18 attending students.
- 2025-26: 13 attending students.
- 2024-25: 11 attending students.
Assessment
Non-attending students take an oral exam on the reference texts. Attending students present their country in class and take an oral exam on a reduced programme.
Texts
Salvatore Vassallo (ed.), Sistemi politici comparati. Democrazie e autocrazie, il Mulino, 2026; Cas Mudde and Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser, Populismo. Una breve introduzione, Mimesis, 2020. For the presentations the lecturer provides further readings and data, including chapters from Mattia Zulianello and Petra Guasti (eds), Capire il populismo, UTET Università, 2024, and from Marco Almagisti and Paolo Graziano (eds), La democrazia. Concetti, attori, istituzioni, Carocci, 2024.
Syllabi
Student websites
The country websites built by the students are listed, with their consent, on the student websites page.
Seminars
Three seminars of the Chair in May 2026 were connected with the course. Salvatore Vassallo, editor of the textbook, spoke on comparative politics and international relations in research and teaching (20 May) and on democracies and autocracies in the first quarter of the century (21 May), when the new edition of Sistemi politici comparati was presented. Mattia Zulianello, co-editor of Capire il populismo, spoke on the populist radical right and the extreme right in Europe (26 May).