Russian Politics

A student who has completed the course should have the following learning outcomes defined in terms of knowledge, skills and general competence:

Knowledge

• Demonstrate understanding of trends and events in Russian history
• Show general knowledge of Russia´s political structure and key forces in contemporary Russian politics
• Show evidence of deep comprehension of the important social-scientific concepts, approaches and theories used to understand Russian politics. These concepts, approaches and theories include, but are not limited to, historical political economy, constructivist theories of identity politics and the transition paradigm.

Skills

• Demonstrate an ability to use social-scientific concepts, approaches and theories to investigate political phenomena; show awareness of limits and shortcomings of these concepts, approaches and theories.
• Use scientific approaches to evaluate causal claims about political phenomena

General competence

• Critically and scientifically evaluate the implications of theory, establish scope conditions and express uncertainty about claims regarding political phenomena; both abstractly and with regard to the Russian case
• Use the Russian case to engage with broader debates in political science, e.g. those regarding the long-term implications of historical events and the relationship between identity and political behavior