DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
Master's Degree in Sociology
Academic Year 2016/2017 - 1° Year

POTERE, POLITICA, ISTITUZIONI

Teaching Staff

Learning Objectives

• Politics and decison making
  
  The course aims to provide students with the tools to be able to: - distinguish a democracy from others political systems and among different models of democracy; - assess whether, how and how much, the actual process by which democracies make decisions is effective and consistent with democratic principles.
• Politics an institutions
  
  The module aims to provide students with the tools to be able to recognize the different types of institutions that characterize democracy and to propose questions and answers about the effects that different types of democracy have on the effectiveness of the decision themselves and their probability of survival
• Public opinion and political communication
  

  The module aims to provide the conceptual and empirical knowledge, the theoretical and analytical tools related to: the communicative dimension of the political processes and the role played by the public opinion in the democratic - representative regimes of the contemporary societies; the role played by the social movements both in the social and in mass-media arenas, with particular reference to the new communicative dynamics in the virtual spaces online (Internet) and in the real off line.

Detailed Course Content

• Politics and decison making
  

  Conceptualizing and measuring democracy - The economic determinants of democracy- The cultural determinants of democracy - Can democracy make a difference ?

• Politics an institutions
  

  Democracy and its varieties - Cleavages and party systems - Institutional actors with veto powers - Consequences of democratic institutions.

• Public opinion and political communication
  

  The Communication and political processes: languages, rituals, political media coverage, electoral campaigns. The Social Movements: approaches, social structures and change, identity and symbolic production, organization and networks, repertoires of action and political context; territorial movements and globalization. Citizens and online politics. Territorial and environmental movements (No Muos); squatting movements for housing and social centers; social movements in the schools and universities.

Textbook Information

• Politics and decison making
  

  W.R. Clark, M. Golder, S.N. Golder, Principi di Scienza Politica, MacGraw-Hill, Milano 2011, capp. 5,6,7, 9

• Politics an institutions
  

  W.R. Clark, M. Golder, S.N. Golder, Principi di Scienza Politica, MacGraw-Hill, Milano 2011, capp. 10,13,14,15

• Public opinion and political communication
  

  1) de Nardis F. (2013), Sociologia politica. Per comprendere i fenomeni politici contemporanei. Milano, McGraw-Hill: cap. 15, “I movimenti sociali”, pp. 491-534; cap. 18, “Comunicazione e processi politici”, pp. 587-611. 2) Mosca L. (2011), “I movimenti collettivi tra arene sociali e arena dei mass media”, in Marini R. (a cura di), Altri flussi. La comunicazione politica della società civile. Guerini, Milano, pp. 85-111. 3) Alteri L. e Raffini L. (a cura di) (2014), La nuova politica. Movimenti, mobilitazioni e conflitti in Italia. EdiSES, Napoli, pp. 51-70; 169-190. 4) della Porta, D. and Piazza, G. (2016), Il cambiamento di scala del Movimento No MUOS: Oltre la protesta contro l’inquinamento elettromagnetico, in «StrumentiRes. Rivista online della Fondazione RES», Anno VIII, n. 2, Maggio (www.strumentires.com). 5) Mudu P. (2014), ‘Ogni Sfratto Sarà una Barricata’: Squatting for Housing and Social Conflict in Rome. In SQEK, C. Cattaneo and M. Martìnez (eds) The Squatters’ Movement in Europe. London: PlutoPress, pp. 136-163. 6) Piazza G. (a cura di) (2012), Il movimento delle occupazioni di squat e centri sociali in Europa, in “Partecipazione e Conflitto”, n. 1, Franco Angeli, Milano, pp. 5-18; 69-92.