Comparative Political Systems International Relations & Business Program Fall 2018 Semester - San Jose

This course helps students to develop competencies for critically analyzing democratic political systems through the comparative analysis of the different international regimes, which allows the proposal of improvements that guarantee peace and stability on a global level. In the course, the student critically assesses the present and future evolution of the political systems in the international context from the perspective of democratic quality, so as to determine how much each type of system and their interaction promote the desired peace and stability in international relations.

Through the analysis of cases of comparative political systems and their systematization through the blog of reflections, as well as during the round tables and the final essay, the students identify and discuss about the main challenges for the improvement of the quality of democracy in the different political systems, in such a way that they show their competence to contribute to world stability and peace creatively but at the same time on an academic basis.

This course is, in methodological terms, the most important one for the academic and professional training in International Relations, since the discipline distinguishes itself from other social sciences in virtue of its comparative method. This disciplinary competence determines the analytical abilities of the students not only for their application to the political systems compared, but in general, for the adequate comprehension of the topics and problems proper to the field of study, as well as their propositional capability.