Authoritarianism and its Critics (L2110)

30 credits, Level 6

Autumn teaching

The most common form of autocracy today is electoral autocracy, where multiparty elections coexist with autocratic practices.

In this module, you’ll study:

  • the ideologies used to justify and critique these regimes around the world
  • how to analyze and interpret politicians’ speeches and actions, and evaluate writings about them
  • how justifications of electoral autocracy engage with past and present political theories
  • how these justifications distort ideas from democratic theory
  • how critiques of electoral autocracy draw from and contribute to democratic thought.

Teaching

33%: Lecture
67%: Seminar

Assessment

100%: Written assessment (Essay)

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 310 hours of work. This breaks down into about 30 hours of contact time and about 280 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We鈥檙e planning to run these modules in the academic year 2024/25. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum.

We鈥檒l make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.