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Rice Global Affairs Syllabus
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Global Affairs: Exploring Changing Political Systems

Course Description:  

The course will explore the rise and fall of democracy across the globe over the past few decades and its impact on citizens in various countries regarding political rights and civil liberties. First, the critical characteristics of democratic, semi-democratic, and authoritarian regime types will be reviewed. Then, challenges to democracy will be analyzed through case studies focused on four distinct events worldwide. These include:

Course Objectives:

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

  1. Identify and understand the core characteristics of democracies and dictatorships regarding political rights and civil liberties.
  2. Become familiar with different ways a democratic decline can occur in a country by reviewing specific case studies and events in various countries.
  3. Understand a variety of guardrails within a political system that can safeguard democratic systems.

Capstone Project:

You will prepare a comparative analysis of two countries (from a provided list). Focusing on events in the past 20 years, you will document the reasons one of the countries experienced democratic decline while the other survived.

Using Freedom House data, you will prepare a presentation that:

Course Outline

Module 1: Major Types of Governments Around the World

Learning Objectives:

Module Description:

In this module, you will learn about various governments, from democracy to dictatorship. You will study various examples of different governments worldwide and analyze how they recognize political rights and civil liberties. The module will conclude with an assignment that analyzes a specific country's freedoms using data from Freedom House.

Topics:

Assignment:

Using Freedom House data, create a graph for one of the countries below and identify any noteworthy shifts in the country’s freedom score between 1973 and 2022.

Choose one country from the list below:

Module 2: Political Institutions and Democracies

Learning Objectives:

Module Description:

This module focuses on political institutions that protect democracies, including democratic checks and balances, constitutional protections against abuse of power, and the role of public opinion, civil society, and international actors in safeguarding democracy. It covers three types of democratic transitions and examines case studies of failed transitions in Turkey and Nicaragua.

Topics:

Assignment: 

Choose one of the refugee's stories and their country of origin featured in the video: Bhutan, Liberia, Syria, or Cuba. Using the information shared by the refugee in the video and the Freedom House link below, answer the following questions:

  1. What was the principal reason they left?
  2. Based on their descriptions, how would you characterize the status of political rights in their country at the time they emigrated?
  3. Based on their descriptions, how would you characterize the status of civil liberties in their country at the time they emigrated?
  4. What is the status of the country now? How would you characterize the government?
  5. What influence did the media, foreign governments, international organizations, or NGOs have on the country they left?

Module 3: Transitions to Consolidation

Learning Objectives:

Module Description:

This module focuses on shifting democracies from the shift to consolidated democracies wherein the political actors accept the boundaries of the democratic system to the erosion that leads to semi-democracies and dictatorships. This module will explore two similar case studies - The United States and Brazil - to examine how both democracies faced threats related to abuse of power but managed to survive with the help of various protective measures.

Topics:

Assignment:

The transition of a country from a democracy to an illiberal democracy usually occurs gradually over time, as changes in political rights and civil liberties occur. This task aims to examine the particular instances or events that affect democracy in a country and cause it to shift from being more free to less free.

  1. Compare and contrast the political rights from 2017 and 2024. What significant events characterized the country's political environment in those years? What was the evolution of these rights from more to less over time?
  2. Compare and contrast civil liberties from 2017 and 2024. What significant qualities defined the citizen experience in those years? What was the evolution of these liberties from more to less over time?
  3. What is the country's future direction regarding political rights and civil liberties?

Module 4: The Erosion of Democracy

Learning Objectives:

Module Description:

This module explores the transition of democracies into semi-democracies or dictatorships. It begins by revisiting consolidated democracies, where all political actors accept the democratic system and no threats to democracy exist. The module then examines the reasons behind the decline of consolidated democracies and their shift to semi-democracies or dictatorships. It offers an in-depth analysis of case studies from Venezuela, Hungary, and India to provide a better understanding of the topic.

Topics:

Assignment:

Use Freedom House data and other sources to write an essay or create a presentation answering the following questions. You may choose one of the countries from this module, Venezuela, Hungary, or India, or a separate country of your choosing.

  1. Summarize the last few decades of the country's political rights, civil liberties, and economic activity.
  2. How does the government maintain legitimacy in the country or the world? In what ways has the country liberalized? Or, if it hasn't, how has it restricted citizens and their social lives?
  3. What is the state of media and journalism in the country? How has this impacted the country's political environment?
  4. In what ways are citizen’s civil rights constrained or repressed? What human rights abuses has the country been accused of or committed?

Module 5: The Fall of Democracy

Learning Objectives:

Module Description:

This module aims to explore how non-democratic countries establish legitimacy through various means such as nationalism, economic growth, religion, dynasties, ideology, repression, and censorship. It will also cover how autocratic regimes use economic, social, and civil liberation to maintain legitimacy. In addition, the module will include case studies of China, Cuba, and Qatar. The module will analyze the different stages of a failed transition to democracy and explain the concepts of competitive authoritarianism and illiberal democracy.

Topics:

Module 6: Course Conclusion & Capstone Project

Topics:

Capstone Project Presentation:

You will prepare a comparative analysis of two countries (from a provided list). Focusing on events in the past 20 years, you will document the reasons one of the countries experienced democratic decline, while the other survived.

Using freedom house data, you will prepare a presentation including:

Program and Class Policies

Academic Requirements

  1. In order to earn a Certificate of Completion, students must receive an evaluation of  “Complete” on 70% of assignments (3 of the 4 end-of-module assignments) and the Capstone Project. All assignments and the Capstone Project need to be submitted by the end of the course.
  2. Decisions regarding program completion, Certificates of Completion, and other awards are at the discretion of the School. If you are deemed ineligible for a Certificate of Completion, you will not be entitled to any refund or compensation.
  3. Evaluation Criteria:
  1. Each unit assignment, as well as the Capstone Project, will be assessed on:

Technical Requirements

This online course will be conducted using the Canvas online learning management system. Students should log into Canvas regularly to complete all course modules, assignments, and announcements. You are responsible for meeting and maintaining the minimum technical requirements for the course, including internet access and basic computer specifications necessary for using the Canvas Learning Management System.

Mobile Devices 

Your course may offer content and features that are available via a mobile device. Standard messaging, data, and other fees may be charged by your carrier.  Your carrier may prohibit or restrict certain mobile features and certain mobile features may be incompatible with your carrier or mobile device. Contact your carrier with questions regarding these issues.  

Course Mentors

Students will have opportunities along their journey to engage with a mentor for questions, guidance and feedback for both their assignments throughout the course and the final project. Mentors will provide support and encouragement at predetermined moments throughout the course.

Student Code of Conduct

We may remove from the course any students whom we deem in our discretion to be disruptive to the learning environment, dangerous to other students, have acted in a manner that shows a lack of dignity or respect for faculty and/or students, violated any intellectual property rights, or have engaged in academic misconduct, such as cheating or violating confidentiality. If you are removed from the course for violations of this Code of Conduct you will not be eligible for a Certificate of Completion, refund, or any other award or compensation.

Intellectual Property

This course is for your personal and non-commercial use only.  The course may not be shared, re-sold, reproduced, republished, modified, transferred, or distributed in any way without our prior written permission.  All video, audio, text, animations, books, diagrams, images, and other content that you receive or to which you have access during your course or through your use of the course, regardless of medium or format,  are protected by copyright law.  You may not download, record, screenshot, copy or reproduce course content in any way. You may not make any audio and/or video recording of any part of the course. You may not attempt to decompile, reverse engineer, scrape, or data mine the course. Trademarks, logos, and service marks displayed or otherwise used in the course are registered trademarks and may not be used without prior, written permission.  You may have access to digital versions of course content. Subject to your compliance with these terms and conditions, we grant you a limited, personal, non-exclusive, revocable, and non-transferable license to access course content during your program.

Terms & Conditions

The policies listed above are a subset of the Terms & Conditions for the program. You may review the complete Terms & Conditions here.

Course Designed by:

Instructor Name: Mark Jones

Role: Professor, Department of Political Science, Rice University

The University reserves the right to modify the course as may become necessary.