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Module Title
LH Advanced Contemporary Russian and East European Politics
School
Government
Department
Political Sci & Intern'tl Stud
Module Code
08 21882
Module Lead
Prof Wolczuk
Level
Honours Level
Credits
20
Semester
Full Term
Pre-requisites
Co-requisites
Restrictions
All Russian Studies, European Politics, Society & Economics, and POLSIS programmes
Prohibited module combinations: 08 12050/1 Contemporary Russian and East European Politics A & B
The module focuses on contemporary Russia and Ukraine as the two biggest Soviet successor states. The underlying theme of the module is the progress or otherwise of democracy. The module is split into the following blocks:
The collapse of the Soviet Union
The Soviet political system, nationality policy, causes of collapse
Institutions, Power and Political Actors
Institutional choice, informal power, party development
Spatial Politics
Centre-regional relations, the Chechen Wars
Foreign Policy
Relations between Russia and Ukraine, relations with former Soviet states and relations with the West and Western institutions
State and Nation Building
Challenges of post-communist nation-building
Developing post-Soviet states
Conceptualising political change
Problems of transition, democratisation, new models of political change
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the module the student should be able to:
Understand the key features of the USSR as a political system and the role of nationalist movements in the disintegration of the USSR.
Apply and develop broad concepts of `transformation' in the Russian and Ukrainian cases.
Identify key political developments facing Russia and Ukraine since the break-up of the USSR.
Identify major political forces in Russia and Ukraine and to identify their distinctive features.
Conceptualise Europe from an eastern European perspective, and understand the dynamics of regional integration within the former Soviet Union.