Advanced Contemporary Russian and East European Politics

Centre for Russian and East European Studies, School of Government and Society

College of Social Sciences

Details

Code 21882

Level of study Third/Final year

Credit value 20

Semester Full Term

Pre-requisite modules Where students take this course as a 10 credit unit they will be expected to undertake self directed study of the material not covered from the readin

Module description

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


Teaching and learning methods

These courses are taught by a combination of lectures, classes and directed reading.

This module is available as:
Autumn term only 10 credit unit – 3,000 word assessed essay
Spring term only 10 credit unit – 3,000 word assessed essay
Whole Year 20 credit unit – 2,500 words summative essay (30%), 4,000 word summative essay (60%), plus presentation (10%).