Forme di governo; Stato; Sistemi elettorali; comportamento di voto; partiti politici, dei principali sistemi di governo democratici. Lo studio dei singoli casi è posto in relazione ad altri casi per effettuare comparazioni. Il corso prevede lezioni frontali, alcune anche in inglese, su argomenti specifici. E' possibile anche la presenza di ospiti che interverranno su aspetti trattati a lezione. La parte teorica è accompagnata da una parte empirica, composta da analisi concreta di casi nonché dalla redazione di un breve saggio. La presentazione dei casi di studio si svolge anche attraverso un'ampia discussione tra professore e studenti, i quali presentano anche il loro breve report.

1) G. Sartori (2005), Ingegneria costituzionale comparata, Bologna, Il Mulino (capp. 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 12). ENGLISH version: Or. Edition: Comparative Constitutional Engineering: An Inquiry Into Structures, Incentives, and Outcomes (NYU, 1997). 2) A. Lijphart (2001) Le democrazie contemporanee. Bologna, il Mulino (capp. 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 13) ENGLISH version: Or. Edition: Patterns of Democracy. Government Forms and Performance in Thirty-Six Countries. New Haven. London. Letture/Readings: - R. Elgie (2001) (ed) Divided Government in Comparative Perspective, Oxford University press (chap. 1). - J. J. Linz “The Perils of Presidentialism”. Journal of Democracy, 1990 - J. Carey and M. S. Shugart, “Incentives to Cultivate the Personal Vote” Electoral Studies, 1995, 417-39. - Strom, K. 1984. "Minority Governments in Parliamentary Democracies: The Rationality of Non-Winning Cabinet Solutions," Comparative Political Studies 17,2: 199-227. - Katz, RS, Mair, P (1994) The evolution of party organizations in Europe: The three faces of party organization. In: Crotty, WJ (ed.) Political Parties in a Changing Age [Special issue of American Review of Politics, Winter] . - I. van Biezen and T. Poguntke. "Going, going, … gone? The decline of party membership in contemporary Europe". European Journal of Political Research 2011:24-56. - M. Duverger, 1980. ‘A New Political System Model: Semi-presidential Government’. European Journal of Political Research, 8: 165–87. - D. Samuels. "Presidentialized Parties: The Separation of Powers and Party Organization and Behavior". 2002. Comparative Political Studies 461-83 - G. Passarelli: "The Presidential Party: A Theoretical Framework for Comparative Analysis". Political Studies Review. 2020: 87-107. - E. Herron, R. Pekkanen, and M.S. Shugart (2018). Terminology and Basic Rules of Electoral Systems. In E. Herron, R. Pekkanen, and M.S. Shugart (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Electoral Systems. Oxford: Oxford University Press: 851-70 - un caso studio da scegliere liberamente da: one case study chosen among from: E. Herron, R. Pekkanen, and M.S. Shugart (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Electoral Systems. Oxford: Oxford University Press Introduzione e Conclusioni di: G. Passarelli The Presidentialization of Political Parties. London: Palgrave, 2015 capitoli 1 e 6 -G. Passarelli (2019) Preferential Voting Systems. Influence on Intra-Party Competition and Voting Behaviour (Palgrave): chap. 1, 2, 3 and 6