View Timetables for 2020: Semester 1 Semester 2
Short descriptions for all our courses are listed below.
Unless otherwise indicated, all courses take the format of 12 two-hour seminars, once weekly, over the course of the relevant semester. An "F" suffix denotes a first semester course. An "S" suffix denotes a second semester course.
POL4059FS POLITICAL THEORY: AFRICAN POLITICAL THEORY 24 NQF credits at NQF level 8 Convener:
Entrance requirements:Acceptance for an Honours programme.
Course outline: This course aims to introduce students to key debates, texts, questions, concepts and traditions in African political theory, including its engagements with Western political theory. Through a survey of ancient and more contemporary texts students will be encouraged to critically analyse points of resonance and tension in the ontologies, epistemological claims and normative commitments of thinkers writing against the canon, and those who define it. For example, students will be introduced to the work of thinkers like Ibn Khaldun, Cabral, Ake, Emecheta, Amadiume, Mudimbe, Biko, Mbembe and that of their intellectual interlocutors.
DP requirements: Submission of all written coursework and satisfactory attendance of seminars
Assessment: Coursework (50%) and examination (50%).
POL4060FS COMPARATIVE POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT
24 NQF credits at NQF level 8 Convener:
Course entry requirements: Acceptance for an Honours programme.
Course outline: This course surveys major topics and theoretical contributions in the field of comparative politics and government. The courses examines: the formation and evolution of the modern state, government institutions and their role in the policy process; democracy; authoritarianism; revolution and political stability; theories of transitions; nationalism; voters and parties, constitutional arrangements and their effects, and macro theories of political change. With the explicit goal of exploring how research in comparative politics should be pursued in the future, each session assigns readings from both traditional macrohistorical and methods of comparison, and more recent analytical models. DP requirements: Submission of all written coursework and satisfactory attendance of seminars. Assessment: Coursework (50%) and examination (50%).
POL4061FS GLOBAL POLITICS: INTERNATIONAL AND TRANSNATIONAL RELATIONS
24 NQF credits at NQF level 8
Convener: Associate Professor H Scanlon
Course entry requirements: Acceptance for an Honours programme.
Course outline: This graduate course introduces students to key political debates, theoretical approaches and empirical cases of international and transnational politics to analyse the dynamics of global political processes. It includes interactive elements in which students train their analytical and practical skills in order to gain more in-depth knowledge about key geopolitical problems. The course will also examine the more functional and institutional problems in today’s diplomacy (e.g. security, human rights, trade, environment & biodiversity, social diplomacy) as well as the efficacy of strategies used by societies to deal with the legacies of political atrocities and gross human rights violations. DP requirements: Submission of all written coursework and satisfactory attendance of seminars.
Assessment: Coursework (50%) and examination (50%).
POL4062FS RESEARCH METHODS IN POLITICS
24 NQF credits at NQF level 8
Convener: Associate Professor Z Jolobe
Course entry requirements: Acceptance for an Honours programme. Course outline: This course is designed to introduce postgraduate students to the logic of social science inquiry, strategies of research design, and a variety of research methods. The course aims to explore both quantitative and qualitative approaches to social science research in terms of their epistemologies, their research design strategies, and the tools they offer for carrying out social science research. DP requirements: Attendance at all seminars and submission of all written tasks/assignments.
Assessment: Coursework (100%).
POL5005H INTERNSHIP COMPONENT II
NQF credits: 24 at HEQSF level 9.
Entrance requirements: Admission to the Justice and Transformation Master's programme, and by permission of the Convener.
Course outline: Provision is made for a student to serve an internship with an approved outside organisation, under the supervision of his/her programme convener. The student is required to intern two days a week for thirteen weeks or the equivalent hours. A detailed report of the work engaged in during the internship is required on its completion.
DP requirements: Attendance as required by the approved organisation, and completion of all written assignments as agreed in consultation with the programme convener.
Assessment: This course is graded as Pass or Fail. The outcome will be determined by the Convener/course lecturer after consultation with the organisation and assessment of written work.
NQF credits: 24 at HEQSF level 9.
Entrance requirements: Admission to an Honours or Master’s programme, and by permission of the course convener.
Course outline: This course is an analysis of the major issues and trends in Public Administration and Management. It looks at traditional Public Administration approaches to service delivery; the New Public Management (NPM) approach which attempts to incorporate business-type principles into the running of government; the governance approach which takes a broader view to the study of Public Administration; the non-hierarchical network literature and Joined up/Holistic government, which calls for a more centralised core in the delivery of services. An examination is also undertaken of the Public Value and Neo-Weberianism schools which both can be classified as post-NPM approaches.
DP requirements: Completion of all written tests, essays and/or assignments as stipulated by the course convener.
Assessment: Coursework 70%; examination 30%.
POL5007S POLICY EVALUATION AND IMPLEMENTATION
NQF credits: 24 at HEQSF level 9.
Entrance requirements: POL4006F, or by permission of the course convener to eligible Honours or Master’s students. Acceptance for an honours or master’s programme.
Prerequisite: POL4006F, or by permission of the course convener to eligible Honours or Master’s students.
Course outline: This course examines the implementation and evaluation components of the public policy process. The first half of the course discusses how implementation theorists have tried to unpack this crucial but complicated aspect of the policy cycle, whilst the second half of the course shifts to a discussion of the uses and abuses of how policy is monitored and evaluated.
DP requirements: Completion of all written tests, essays and/or assignments as stipulated by the course convener.
Assessment: Coursework 70%; examination 30%.
POL5019S PUBLIC SECTOR REFORM (not offered 2023)
NQF credits: 24 at HEQSF level 9
Course entry requirements: POL5006F or by permission of the course convener to eligible Honours or Master’s students.
Course outline: This course is an advanced study of public sector reform. The first part of the course looks at the Pollitt/Bouckaert theoretical framework for understanding public sector reform. It looks at the nature of public management reform, a model for public management reform, types of politico-administrative systems, trajectories of modernisation and reform as well as the results of such reform. The second part of the course is a detailed examination of public service reform in South Africa since 1994. It will look at the context in which these change processes were initiated as well as more specific issues such as reorganisation of the state – structurally and process wise; transformation in terms of the composition of the public sector; changes in terms of human resource practices such as labour relations, recruitment and retention strategies, remuneration, performance management and capacity development. Issues related to changing the organizational culture such as service delivery, innovation, accountability, corruption, information-based decision-making and the knowledge/ learning organisation, are also discussed. The course concludes with an analysis of the South African government’s employment equity policies.
DP requirements: Completion of all written tests, essays and/or assignments as stipulated by the course convener.
Assessment: Coursework 70%; examination 30%.
NQF credits: 24 at HEQSF level 9.
Entrance requirements: Admission to an Honours or Master’s programme, and by permission of the course convener.
Course outline: On occasion, the Department offers a small number of additional and exceptional courses under the rubric Special Topics. Such courses do not form part of our normal menu of course offerings. Special topics courses can be drawn from anywhere in the broad field of Political Studies: Political Science, International Relations, Political Theory, Public Policy and Administration, Governance, or Transformative Justice, among others. These courses are typically offered as a result of the temporary availability of expert academic staff who are not normally available to teach within the department.
DP requirements: Completion of all written tests, essays and/or assignments as stipulated by the course convener. There may be a fieldwork component to the course.
Assessment: As determined by the course convener.
POL5032S INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL ECONOMY
NQF credits: 24 at HEQSF level 9.
Entrance requirements: Previous studies in IPE or related subjects AND by permission of the course convener.
Course outline: This course provides a survey of the fundamental issues, concepts and literature that deal specifically with IPE theory. The course is based on the three main paradigms of International Political economy - mercantilism, liberalism and structuralism - and investigates the myth or reality of globalisation, regionalism and the role of the state in the globalisation process.
DP requirements: Completion of all written tests, essays and/or assignments as stipulated by the course convener. Participation is noted and counts towards the final mark.
Assessment: Participation and one major written paper 100%.
NQF credits: 24 at HEQSF level 9.
Course entry requirements: Admission to an Honours or Master’s programme, and by permission of the course convener.
Course outline: In this course we examine conflict in sub-Saharan Africa. We are concerned with the following dimensions of conflict: the analysis of conflict; causes of conflict; actors in conflict; behaviour during conflict; consequences of conflict; and moral evaluation of conflict. In each dimension, we ask questions. To each of these questions, there are different, even opposing, answers. We examine these answers, illustrating them with cases and/or empirical material.
DP requirements: Short assignments; seminar attendance; presentation; test and an essay.
Assessment requirements: Assessment is by coursework made up of a presentation (10%); test (40%); and essay (50%).
POL5035F DATA ANALYSIS IN POLITICAL SCIENCES
NQF credits: 12 at HEQSF level 9.
Entrance requirements: Admission to an Honours or Master’s programme, and by permission of the course convener.
Course format: 6 two-hour seminars; 6 two-hour lab sessions
Course outline: The aim of this course is to enable students to enable them to test hypotheses and answer research questions through the analysis of quantitative data. The course will introduce students to computer assisted data analysis and cover basic methods of univariate, bivariate and multivariate statistical techniques. Students attend a weekly two-hour seminar and a two-hour laboratory session over six weeks. In the first session of each week, the instructor will cover the basic principles of a statistical technique, and in the second session students will execute those techniques on their own data. This course is pitched at a basic introductory level and no prior statistical experience is required.
DP requirements: Completion of all presentations and/or assignments as stipulated by the course convener.
Assessment: Coursework 100% (which includes participation, laboratory work, exercises and assignments).
POL5036S SPECIAL TOPICS II (not offered 2020)
NQF credits: 24 at HEQSF level 9.
Course entry requirements: Admission to a relevant Honours or Master’s programme or by permission of the course convener.
Course outline: On occasion, the Department offers a small number of additional and exceptional courses under the rubric Special Topics. Such courses do not form part of our normal menu of course offerings. Special topics courses can be drawn from anywhere in the broad field of Political Studies: Political Science, International Relations, Political Theory, Public Policy and Administration, Governance, or Transformative Justice, among others. These courses are typically offered as a result of the temporary availability of expert academic staff who are not normally available to teach within the department.
DP requirements: Completion of all written tests, essays and/or assignments as stipulated by the course convener.
Assessment: As determined by the course convener.
POL5037S POST-CONFLICT JUSTICE IN AFRICA (not offered 2023)
NQF credits: 24 at HEQSF level 9.
Entrance requirements: Admission to Honours / Master’s in Justice & Transformation or International Relations.
Course outline: This course explores the field of post conflict justice in Africa with emphasis on attempts to address the legacies of past injustices. This course will examine international, national and local approaches to post-conflict justice in African contexts and interrogate some of the normative and political debates raised by transitional justice processes. More than any other continent, Africa has been the site of transitional justice experimentation and thus it is important to analyses cases in which processes have been initiated in an effort to grapple with atrocities. In particular the course will attempt to assess the strengths and weaknesses of recent transitional justice processes in advancing post-conflict justice on the continent. The first part of the course examines the notion of postconflict justice in relation to various concerns on the continent including socio-economic justice, land restitution, displacement, gender justice and natural resource exploitation. It will also survey various models of post-conflict justice including truth seeking, criminal justice and reparations in contexts as diverse as Liberia, Kenya and Tunisia. Part Three will examine some of the questions that have emerged over the efficacy of transitional justice interventions and mechanisms on the continent.
DP requirements: Completion of all written tests, essays and/or assignments as stipulated by the course convener.
Assessment requirements: Two response papers (30%); two essays (50%), presentations (20%).
POL5042S INTERNATIONAL MEDIATION
NQF credits: 24 at HEQSF level 9.
Course entry requirements: Admission to an Honours or Master’s programme, and by permission of the course convener.
Course outline: This course will consider the concepts and theories of peacebuilding, as well as how it has been applied (mainly in post-conflict settings). The specific focal areas of the course will be: UN’s approach peacebuilding; post-conflict economy; armed violence; arms control and disarmament; the demobilisation and reintegration of combatants into civilian life; security sector reform; refugees and the diaspora; youth violence; policing; civil society and peacebuilding; as well as information communication technology and peacebuilding.
DP requirements: Completion of all written tests, essays and/or assignments as stipulated by the course convener.
Assessment: A minimum of five assignments of 2500 words each (50%); one course paper of 6000-8000 words (50%).
POL5043F REGIONALISM IN AFRICA (not offered in 2023)
NQF credits: 24 at HEQSF level 9.
Entrance requirements: Admission to an Honours or Masters programme, and by permission of the course convener.
Course outline: This course aims at equipping students with the skills and knowledge to analyse regional economic formations in Africa, thereby enhancing their understanding of regionalist impulses on the continent. It proceeds on the premise that regional integration has become a key feature of Africa’s political economy and as a viable route to the continent’s development. Thus since the independence decade of the 1960s, various regional blocs have emerged in Africa. The course examines the emergence, performances and, in some cases, the demise of regional organisations in Africa. The regional blocs to be studied in the course include the OAU and AU, ECOWAS, SADC, and the revived East African Community. A further objective is to analyse the prospects of these regional bodies under globalisation. The first two lectures will be devoted to introducing students to the broader theories of regionalism.
DP requirements: Students must satisfy all course requirements – course attendance, presentation, weekly assignments, and a major semester paper.
Assessment: Response papers (30%), class presentation (20%), term paper (30%), class test (20%).
POL5044S SOUTH AFRICAN POLITICS (not offered 2023)
HEQF credits: 24 at HEQSF level 9.
Entrance requirements: Admission to an Honours or Master’s programme and permission of the course convener.
Course outline: This advanced course explores South African politics through a variety of historical, theoretical and comparative lenses. The early weeks of the course draw on historical, sociological, and other materials to investigate the 20th century political history of the country. Students will address conflicts that have unfolded between traditional, liberal, popular and quasi-Marxist conceptions of how a society ought to be governed. The middle sections of the course investigate the causes, significance, and implications of the ‘democratic transition’ using a diversity of scholarly resources. In the final sections, students will explore some key issues in South Africa’s contemporary political life. They will focus on the party system; the nature of the post-apartheid state; the relationships between party, state and business; contests over the meaning of democracy; and the changing character of the ANC. There will be a core of essential readings. Beyond these, however, the course will be centred around student-led, independently researched, seminars and discussions.
DP requirements: Completion of all written tests, essays and/or assignments as stipulated by the course convener.
Assessment: Two long essays (30% each); test (30%); and a student presentation (10%).
NQF credits: 24 at HEQSF level 9.
Course entry requirements: Admission to an Honours or Master’s programme, and by permission of the course convener.
Course outline: This course critically evaluates prominent discourses about development, modernity, independence and solidarity in the Third World. We will address the following questions: How and why did the Enlightenment and the processes of colonialism and imperialism give rise to the idea of the Third World? What, if anything, was distinctive about the characteristics and ambitions of the Third World governments in comparison to other blocs in the international community of sovereign nation-states? Which power relations associated with the “West”, “First World” or “Second World” did Third World elites critique, and which power relations did they try to replicate in their own states after attaining independence? What are the prospects for producing scholarship on the Third World that is critical, reliable, embedded in the experiences of Third World peoples, original and transformative?
DP requirements: Completion of all written work as stipulated by the course convener.
Assessment: Three response papers (15% each); term paper (55%)
POL5047S COMPARATIVE FOREIGN POLICY ANALYSIS
NQF credits: 24 at HEQSF level 9.
Course entry requirements: Admission to a relevant Honours or Master’s programme or by permission of the course convener.
Course outline: This course introduces students to the field of foreign policy analysis and seeks to answer several key questions: What are the foreign policy goals of states? What are the different factors and actors that influence foreign policy making? What are the tools available to states? The course will cover different approaches to foreign policy analysis as well as case studies, with a focus on the emerging powers.
DP requirements: Completion of all written tests, essays and/or assignments as stipulated by the course convener.
Assessment: Presentations and a research project (60%); examination (40%).
POL5026F ADVANCED TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE
24 NQF credits at HEQSF level 9
Course entry requirements: Admission to a master’s programme, and by permission of the course
convener.
Course outline:
Every year the Department offers a small number of additional and exceptional courses under the
rubric Special Topics. Such courses do not form part of our normal menu of course offerings.
Special topics courses can be drawn from anywhere in the broad field of Political Studies: Political
Science, International Relations, Political Theory, Public Policy and Administration, Governance, or
Transformative Justice, among others. These courses are typically offered as a result of the
temporary availability of expert academic staff who are not normally available to teach within the
department.
DP requirements: Completion of all written tests, essays and/or assignments as stipulated by the
course convener. There may be a fieldwork component to the course.
Assessment: Coursework (50%); examination (50%).
POL5056F GENDER, PEACE & JUSTICE
24 NQF credits at HEQSF level 9
Course entry requirements: Acceptance for an honours programme.
Course outline: The development of peace-building initiatives in Africa has been mirrored by the expansion of
various models of transitional justice. These encompass a range of judicial and non-judicial
approaches adopted by post-conflict societies to address human rights abuses of the past such as war
crimes tribunals and truth and reconciliation commissions. Despite increased attention by the
international human rights community to the gender dimension of violations perpetrated during
conflict, gendered experiences of conflict have generally received inadequate attention in
transitional justice processes. Neglecting gendered patterns of abuse ultimately affects both women
and men in their access to justice. This course will explore the evolution of transitional justice
mechanisms in Africa and will analyse their successes and failure in addressing gender-based human
rights violations.
DP requirements: None
Assessment: Two essays 60%; two response papers 20%; course participation 10%; group
presentation 10%.
POL5053S COMPARATIVE LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Course entry requirements: Admission to an honours programme, and by permission of the course
convener.
Course outline:
This course is an advanced study of selected themes in comparative local government. The major
part of the course is an examination of some of the major theoretical and comparative local
government literature material. It looks at the state of the comparative local government, local
government boundaries, the relationship between size, efficiency and democracy, metropolitan
government reform, patronage and clientelism, local government in Africa and innovation
partnerships. The second part of the course is an advance analysis of some contemporary South
African local government issues in South Africa namely intergovernmental relations and the
relationship between decentralisation, clientelism and patronage.
DP requirements: Completion of all written tests, essays and/or assignments as stipulated by the
course convener.
Assessment: Coursework 70%, examination 30%.
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POL5030F DISCOURSE, TEXTUALITY AND IDEOLOGY
24 NQF credits at HEQSF level 9
Course entry requirements: Acceptance for an honours programme.
Course outline:
The course will explore various interpretative methods in human sciences through the study of
textuality, ideology & discourse analysis. The approaches we will look into have a reflexive and
historical stance towards the structural linguistic method as well as the subject matter of its enquiry
and sees them as embedded in a historical context of meaning based on background practices where
power relations are at play. Some of the interpretative approaches we will be examining in this
course are Saussurean structural linguistics and semiotics, Althusserian structuralism, hermeneutics,
ideology critique, psychoanalysis, discourse analysis, post-colonial theory, poststructuralism,
postmodernism, post-Marxism & liberation theory. The readings may include selections from the
works of Saussure, Emille Benveniste, Louis Althusser, Roland Barthes, Julia Kriesteva, Paul
Ricoeur, Edward Said, V. Y. Mudimbe, Mitchel Foucault, Jacques Lacan, Derrida, Fanon & Slavoj
Zizek. The course will be structured in two parts: Part 1 will give an exposition of Saussure’s
structural linguistic revolution, Althusser’s theory of structuralism, the return of the subject in
poststructuralist and post-Marxist debates; and, Part 2 will look at the implications of the theory of
the subject, textuality, and discourse on the logic of resistance and liberation, as read in anti-colonial
theory and postcolonial theory.
DP requirements: Completion of all written work as stipulated by the course convener.
Assessment: Assignment 1 - 20%; Assignment 2 - 20%; Participation - 10%; Examination - 50%