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Welcome to POLS304 Comparative Government and Politics. This module provides students with an in-depth knowledge and understanding of Comparative Government and Politics, a dynamic sub-discipline of political science. Students will grapple with the concepts, theories and methods through which political institutions, politics, political systems and political societies are analysed and understood. This is done through an interrogation of country case studies, such as India, Iran, Mexico, Nigeria, the People’s Republic of China, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America. The module revolves around major themes that include political culture; political structures; systems and processes; political parties and party systems; elections and voting behaviour; crises, conflict and continuity; and political and economic reform. By the end of the module, each student will be expected to have a working knowledge of the concepts, theories and methods of the sub-discipline; be able to employ these in comparative analysis of the various country case studies; and should be able to think critically and theoretically about the contemporary political world.