Courses
Courses in political science offered at the University of Cologne cover a wide range of the discipline. There are courses in Comparative Politics, Political Economy, Democratic Theory, International Relations, European and Multi-Level Politics, qualitative and quantitative methods, Political Theory and History of Ideas, as well as other areas.
The current course catalogue is available via the KLIPS campus management system. You can browse the catalogue by faculty, institute, and so on. Alternatively, you can view available courses by study programme.
Course catalogue in KLIPS
Sample courses
These are some sample courses that can give you an idea of the courses offered at the department. Please also note the current course catalogue in KLIPS.
Bachelor
These are some sample courses that can give you an idea of the courses offered in the Bachelor’s programmes at the department. The current course catalogue is available via KLIPS.
Most courses in the Bachelor’s programmes require proficiency in German.
Core lectures
- Grundlagen der Internationalen Beziehungen
- Einführung in die Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft: Vergleichende Politische Ökonomie
- Grundlagen der Europäischen Politik – Das politische System der Europäischen Union
- Grundlagen der Vergleichenden Analyse Politischer Institutionen
- Grundlagen der Politischen Theorie und Ideengeschichte [until ER 2015]
Seminars (examples from the 2021 summer term)
- Bolivien und die Krise in Lateinamerika: Vom Krisenland zum Hoffnungsparadigma und zurück?
- Wissenschaftliches Arbeiten in den Internationalen Beziehungen am Beispiel Medien und Öffentlichkeit
- Die mediale Beurteilung von Merkels Kanzlerschaft in Krisen
- Deutsche Außen- und Sicherheitspolitik am Scheideweg? Ein Workshopseminar
- Ein Kontinent in Aufruhr?! Protestbewegungen in Lateinamerika (in historischer Perspektive)
- Interessen und Strategien: Fallstudien zur deutschen Außenpolitik 2005 bis 2021
- Politische Kommunikation im „Superwahljahr“ 2021
- Das Politische System der Bundesrepublik Deutschland
- The European Green New Deal – Which Governance?
- The Concept of Democracy
- Arendt, de Beauvoir, Rand und Weil: Politische Theorie und Philosophie
- Freiheit in der Politischen Theorie
- Die Politische Ökonomie der Bundesrepublik Deutschland
Master
These are some sample courses that can give you an idea of the courses offered in the Master’s programme at the department. The current course catalogue is available via KLIPS.
Core lectures
- Comparative Political Institutions
- Comparative Political Economy: Theories and Methods
- Democratic Theory and Practice
- International Relations [seminars]
- Comparing European Democracies
Method courses
- Research Design
- Quantitative Methods (lecture and laboratory)
- Qualitative Methods (lecture and laboratory)
Seminars (examples from the 2020/2021 academic year)
- Stability, Quality, and Performance of Democracy
- Decentralization, Federalism, Multi-Level Politics
- The Political Economy of Turkey
- Who Rules the Economy? The Political Economy of Labor and Business
- Elections as Instruments of Democracy
- Proactive Foreign and Security Policy: Geopolitics, Geostrategy, Change Management, and International Law as Tools for Designing Politics
- The Americas in the Time of Donald Trump: A Look at the Different Faces of the Right
- The International Politics of Climate Change
- Digital Politics
- The EU’s Climate Change Policies and Laws before the Court of Justice of the European Union
- Analyzing EU Politics with Big Data
- Causal Inference and Public Policy in Europe