Face-to-face , second term, 30 hours of theory.

Second term
Thursday from 17:15 to 19:15

French

The course introduces the students to the analysis of two major types of political collective actors, the political parties and the lobby groups, mainly in the context of the Western democratic political systems, with a special focus on Belgium. By the end of the lectures, the students will have studied a comprehensive framework based on the main concepts, classifications, empirical trends and explanatory theories produced by political science about political parties and lobby groups. They will thus be able to better understand the role played by these intermediate groups in the Western democratic political systems in general and in the Belgian political system in particular.

For the Bachelor in Information and Communication :

For the Bachelor in Philosophy :

For the Bachelor in Political Sciences: General :

For the Bachelor in Political Sciences: General (Evening Programme) :

For the Bachelor in Sociology and Anthropology :

None

First, the course provides a brief overview of the political parties and lobby groups, including their mutual links as well as their relationship with the State. Then, the course is divided in two parts. The (large) first part is dedicated to the political parties approached by their definitions, functions, organization, membership and electorate and political ideas. The (smaller) second part is dedicated to the lobby groups. It is made of two sections : conceptual explanations (for instance, about the distinction between interest group, social movement, social organization...); usual classifications.

The course includes lectures on the one hand and personal homework on the other hand. The literary version of the class' content is to be found in Th. BALZACQ et al., Fondements de science politique, Bruxelles, De Boeck, 2014. The relevant excerpts from the handbook are listed in a document available on the class' webpage, on the Moodle interactive platform. At the end of the latest lecture the document will be updated to reflect the lecture's exact progress. In this way, the exam's material will be accurately delineated.
Lectures are based on a portfolio of PowerPoint slides also available on the class' webpage. Students questions and reflections are welcomed.

For the personal homework, students have to read a portfolio which contents a selection of texts related to contemporary parties, interest groups or collective mobilizations such as, parties like La France insoumise or La République en Marche, lobbies like Act Up and Tea Party and a case study related to a collective action led by a group of irregular migrants in Paris.
At the exam, students have to be able to answer some questions about these activities (see next section).

It is a two and a half hours long written and open-book exam. It is made of 4 questions, each assessed on 10 points. The resulting total is then divided by two to obtain a consolidated result on 20 points. Two questions will be dedicated to the reading portfolio, the other two ones will address the course material itself.

More details on the course website which offers for instance copies of previous years' exams and their correct answers.

Rules remains similar for the second session of examination and also if the exam would be held on line.

Nonetheless, if, because of the health measures to control the spread of Covid-19, the first lectures were to be held online, the exam would only count for 10 of the 20 points of the course mark, with only two questions (each scored out of 5 points), covering both the course material and the reading portfolio, but both focused on political parties. The examination would be reduced to one hour. The other two examination questions will be replaced by a short analysis note (10 out of the 20 points of the course mark) on both the course material and the reading portfolio, but focusing exclusively on the interest groups, to be submitted at the beginning of the exam session. A more precise document explaining the content and form of these note will be available on the Moodle course website.

No other reading than the relevant excerpts of the handbook and the PowerPoint slides is required.
For the students wishing to go further, the handbook contains some additional bibliographical suggestions.

The class has a Moodle webpage on which the students will find, amongst other things, the following documents: the up-to-date version of the Power Point slides' portfolio, a list of the exact excerpts of the handbook (Fondements de la science politique) constitutive of the class' content, copies of previous years' exams and their correct answers, a set of guidelines for the homework. An online forum is also available for the students to ask any question, provide some answers to their co-students, and communicate with the professor.