Università Roma Tre

The term “politics” includes all activities related to the acquiring, the organization, the carrying out and conservation of the power of a State or among States. The power is “political power” when its decisions are enforceable towards all members of the community, even with the use of force. Political Science is the discipline that studies the different aspects of politics using the methodology of the empirical sciences. Adopting different methodologies (comparative study, case-study, ect.) and approaches, the interest of political science is to explain the phenomena and the processes of politics, through the domestic and international dimension. Starting from these premises, the course presents the basic concepts, problems and theories challenged by contemporary political science. The scope is to offer to the students the essential understandings of the characteristics and the functions of the contemporary political systems, with specific reference to the democratic systems.