Caption: The heading row descibes the categories of information about the course,
while the row in the table body holds the course information itself.
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Course Prefix
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Course Number
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Course Title
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Lecture/Lab Hours
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Credit Hours
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PSC
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280
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Non-Western Comparative Politics
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3 Lecture/Demonstration Hours
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3 Credit Hours
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Course description
Examines the political systems of selected non-Western countries, including common
governmental problems, causes of political instability and revolution and techniques
of political analysis. IAI S5 906N
Topical outline
- Introduction to Comparing Non-Western Politics
- Framework for Studying Non-Western Politics: Techniques for Political Analysis
- Selected Countries in Africa, Latin American, Asia, and the Middle East
- Examination of their culture, history, governing institutions
- Study of how their policies are made and some of their policies
- Causes of Political Instability and Revolution
- Common Governmental Problems and Issues
- Lessons of Non-Western Politics
Method of presentation
1. Lecture
2. Class Discussion
3. Others:
a. Videos
b. Text
c. Articles
d. Role-play and world simulation
e. Guest lecturers
f. Virtual field trips (internet)
g. Various sites on the internet
h. Non-Western literature
i. Small group discussions
Student outcomes
- identify theories of comparing countries.
- compare and contrast specific countries in terms of their cultures, histories, governing
institutions, and problems.
- simulate the roles of different countries in a world summit.
- analyze common governing problems.
- investigate causes of political instability and revolution.
- apply different kinds of political analysis in country studies.
- analyze scholarly articles and sources for content as well as bias.
- describe a particular non-Western political system in-depth.
- search and evaluate sources on the Internet for information about non-Western political
systems
- evaluate the merits of studying non-Western politics
Method of evaluation
Typical classroom techniques
Course content learning outcomes
Additional assessment information (optional)
- Objective tests
- Short answer quizzes
- Essay exams
- Individual and group projects
- Newspaper logs
- Country reports/collages
- Research papers
- Case studies
- Oral presentations
- Simulations
- Class discussion
- Written and oral article reviews
Textbooks
Required
- Arceneaux, Leithner, Lopus, Timms, and Zhang. The Other World: Issues and Politics
of the Developing World, 11th edition. Taylor & Francis, 2024. ISBN 9781040153888
Supplementary materials
None
Software
None
Updated: Summer 2025
