POL 448 - Special Topics in Comparative Politics

An upper division course dealing with a topic in Comparative Politics. Topics change from year to year.

Fall 2018 Topic: Populist Politics - The Case of Germany
Instructor: Lochocki

The rise of populist parties - as the French Front National (FN) or the Alternative for Germany (AfD) - fundamentally changes international cooperation on global scale. Populists successfully campaign on nationalist platforms, rejecting international cooperation. The presence of this new political player and its appealing nationalist agenda profoundly alters the mechanisms defining the scope of action for moderate governments. Moderate governments of the three strongest remaining liberal democracies in Europe - Germany, France and the United Kingdom -must win back voters from populist parties while at the same time safeguarding their commitment to international cooperation and multilateralism. This seminar focuses on Germany as a case study of rising populism and strategies of moderate governments. Ideally, students already have a strong knowledge of German history, social structure, and politics.

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