MP107Z Theory of State
autumn 2019
Teacher: Zuzana Vikarská
Contact: zuzana.vikarska@mail.muni.cz
Consultations: every "even" Wednesday 18-19h
Annotation and goal(s)
The aim of these seminars is to deepen your knowledge gained in lectures and to practice the application of this knowledge by means of class discussion. Strong emphasis will be placed on your willingness to think (out loud) and to write short argumentative essays. We will mainly train your critical thinking.
Schedule
Since we only have 6 seminars, we cannot afford to have a "chilled" opening and closing seminar. For this reason, the course will be sharp from the very beginning and I kindly ask you to prepare already for the first lesson.
In seminars, we will cover the following topics:
- seminar 1: Society and state
- seminar 2: Liberal and illiberal democracy
- seminar 3: Elections and electoral systems
- seminar 4: Forms of government, division of powers
- seminar 5: [no seminar]
- seminar 6: Final seminar - book circle
Materials
This is very important! Although you have decided to make your life harder and to follow this course in English, you will still be required to take your exam in Czech. That means that you will have to follow two information flows in parallel: seminars in English and lectures in Czech. Lectures are not mandatory at our faculty, but in this situation I strongly recommend you to attend them, otherwise you might struggle to prepare for your exam.
You can minimise this struggle by reading one of the following textbooks:
- Filip & Svatoň: Státověda (Wolters Kluwer 2011)
- Reschová, Kindlová a kol.: Státověda (Wolters Kluwer 2019)
- Pavlíček a kol.: Ústavní právo a státověda, I. díl (Leges 2014)
- Holländer: Základy všeobecné státovědy (Aleš Čeněk 2013)
Please note that the first textbook (Filip & Svatoň) is the official textbook for the exam. However, it is important that you find the book that suits you. The main goal is for you to understand the material. Therefore, I leave it up to you to pick the best textbook for your own needs. Just remember: at the end of the day, the rule says that your knowledge shall reflect the content of the official textbook (and in Czech, of course). Please, keep that in mind.
That being said, you can find a very basic textbook by a Slovak academic in your study materials. Please use it to prepare for our class discussions. If you have any suggestions for improvement, please do communicate them!
Conditions
In order to gain the credits, you must fulfil the following conditions:
- attend the seminars actively: I expect you to prepare for the seminars and to be ready to discuss the issues covered. Please prepare a name tag (with your first name), so that I can call you by name during our discussions. In case you are not able to attend any of the seminars, please let me know in advance.
- regular submission of written assignments: you will be asked to submit a number of assignments during the semester - please see this interactive syllabus for the problem questions and deadlines.
- pass the final test: no worries, you will get the relevant information in time.