Kenneth Benoit’s Home Page

New MSc in International Politics from the  Department of Political Science, Trinity College Dublin

This new M.Sc. in International Politics offers graduate students a combination of rigorous training in the study of international politics with a comprehensive empirical approach to understanding many prominent problems in contemporary world politics, especially topics where domestic and international politics cannot be understood in isolation from each other. These topics include democratisation, international cooperation, development and foreign aid, international conflict as well as the politics of many environmental issues and their implications for the politics of developing countries. Students will also receive training in research methods.

Application deadline for entry in Sept. 2010: June 1, 2010

For programme and application details, click here.

Merit-based SCHOLARSHIPS are available for the incoming cohort that enters the programme in September 2010. One full-fees scholarship (EU or non-EU fees as relevant to the beneficiary) will be awarded for each Masters programme on offer in the Department. The Department will also offer a limited number of partial fee awards. For information on how to apply for these merit-based scholarships, please visit the Admission Requirements and Application Procedure website.

NOTE: Week 6 will be a double-length session, since Week 7 clashes with the Political Economy mini-conference. As a result, there is no field seminar meeting on Mar 12. Instead, the Week 6 (Feb 26) will last from 9-13:00.

Strategic Behavior , Dr. Jon Slapin

Readings:

• Thomas Schelling. 1978. Micromotives and Macrobehavior. Chapter 1 & chapter 3.
• Timothy Besley. 2006. Principled Agents. Chapter 1 & chapter 2.
• Barry Weingast. 1997. The Political Foundations of the Rule of Law. American Political Science Review 97(2).
• R. Preston McAfee. Introduction to Economic Analysis. Chap 7.1. (pgs 7-251 to 7-270). Available from www.introecon.com.

The Michigan Model, Professor Michael Marsh

This is classically presented in A. Cambell et al The American Voter, which is available via Google online. Critical chapters are 2, 6 and 7. Or look at a redced version, for instance in R. Niemi and H. Weisberg eds, Classics in Electoral Behaviour ch 22 [based on TAV ch 6-7].

A sympathetic  but contemporary restatement is M. Lewis-Beck at al, The American Voter Revisited ch 6-7.

For Ireland

Michael Marsh, Party identification in Ireland An insecure anchor for a floating party system’, Electoral Studies, 25, (3), 2006, p489 – 508
[available from INES page at www.tcd.ie/ines]

A recent debate on party identification is Bartle and Bellucci’s edited volume Political Parties and Partisanship, Routledge 2008.  See esp:

• Chapter 3: Thomassen and Rosema
• Chapter 4 B. Grofman et al
• Chapter  6 Clark et al
• Chapter 11 Green and Schickler – a defence of TAV.