MA Politics

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Critical Reading in the Social and Political Sciences (Core)

This social science module explores the ways in which knowledge is created, communicated, consumed, and debated in the social and political sciences. It aims to expose students to key issues of methodological choice, issue framing, research ethics, and author subject position through interrogation of contemporary and classical texts of relevance to the social and political sciences and the disciplinary concerns of the MA programs on which it appears. The module seeks to develop student's skills in critical reading and in both oral and written academic debate.

Master's Dissertation in Politics (Core)

The dissertation module allows students to explore their own interests relevant to the study of politics. It provides students with an opportunity to undertake and produce an independent piece of in-depth research. Students will develop their research ideas in collaboration with teaching staff and will be supported to design and implement a coherent, robust research project and to write up their findings/analysis in the form of a dissertation.

The format of the study will vary from primarily library-based or theoretical research to the production of empirical research through qualitative or quantitative fieldwork. Students will need to: examine an issue related to their discipline; demonstrate the ability to critically review the relevant academic literature; address a clear research question or hypothesis; address ethical issues in conducting social research; and give a clear explanation and defense of the methods they have chosen as most appropriate to their study.

Political Analysis (Core)

This module aims to provide an advanced level of understanding of issues related to the theoretical basis of contemporary political analysis. Politics, like other social sciences, is an essentially contested field, in which there is significant disagreement among researchers about how to analyze political institutions, ideas, and behavior.

The module deals with the use of theory and meta-theory in politics and international relations. It begins with an examination of the nature of explanation and understanding in the social sciences before examining a series of key theoretical and meta-theoretical debates within the discipline. Amongst the topics to be covered are the relationship between ontology and epistemology, structure, agency and power, and the role of ideas in political analysis.

Politics and Public Policy (Core)

The first subject-specific core module in the MA Politics, Politics, and Public Policy provides an overview of public policy-making across different institutional arenas and geographical contexts. It aims to familiarise students with the stages of the policy-making process, ranging from the discovery of policy problems to the setting of political agendas and the implementation of policy solutions.

It considers cases and examples that illustrate real-world dilemmas of public policy-making and draws attention to different understandings of what public policy can achieve. New ideas about how to obtain governing outcomes through nudges or meta-governing, for example, will be explored with an interest in their potential and limitations.

Researching Social and Political Sciences (Core)

This module is designed to introduce students to research in social and political sciences. The aim of the module is to provide a crucial foundation for all students (regardless of disciplinary background) to understand debates around research methods/methodologies in social science; to enable familiarity with a variety of research methods and to equip students to be able to critically evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of applying specific methodologies/methods to different research projects in social and political sciences. Overall, the module will aim to prepare students for independent studies later in their degree and equip them with transferable research skills.

Analysing Policy Success and Failure (Option)†

The module will focus on the conceptual challenge of defining success and failure, and examine the range of factors that various studies have identified as contributing to policy success or failure - including structural, process, programmatic, and behavioral factors. Through a series of case study workshops students will be given the opportunity to apply this conceptual literature to a number of real-world examples.

Comparative Legislatures (Option)†

This module provides an in-depth understanding of the role of legislatures in political systems, and how the form, structure, activities, and impacts of legislatures vary across a range of states. It will focus on the broad differences in the role and impact of legislatures in parliamentary and presidential systems, and through a series of case studies examine the operation of legislatures in a number of states such as the United Kingdom, the USA, Germany, France, China, and Russia, as well as the European Parliament and the devolved assemblies within the UK.

Feminisms: Theories and Debates (Option)†

This module explores feminist theories of gender, applying feminist perspectives to contemporary issues. As there is no single feminist perspective, the module will introduce students to different strands of feminist thought including liberal, radical, black, postcolonial, and postmodern feminisms. Feminist debates around the nature of gender/sex, the causes of gender inequality, the intersection of gender with other important social and political identities (such as race, class, and sexuality), and disagreements over strategies for how best to address continuing gender inequalities will all be addressed. In addition, we will examine the extent to which a postfeminist perspective that takes feminism for granted but at the same time dismisses its continuing relevance is currently dominant in society. We will also engage with questions about the relevance of feminism to men and masculinity. Finally, we will consider what light feminist theoretical perspectives can shed on a range of gendered issues. Sample topics might include the family, pornography, popular culture, the workplace, the family, everyday sexism, and objectification. Students will be encouraged to develop their own critical and informed answers to key questions such as how far gender is a performance (as opposed to biologically determined), which feminist perspectives offer the most promising tools for challenging the contemporary gender order, and how we can apply feminist thought to re-imagining gender relations. In accordance with a feminist pedagogical ethos, students will also be required to demonstrate a reflexive approach to the theory, analyzing the links and disjunctures between their own experiences and feminist theoretical debates. Overall, the module will aim to make the familiar strange and enable students to question their own assumptions, as well as popular and common sense notions of gender.

Global Health: Policy and Practice (Option)†

This module examines the concepts that shape debates in (and are shaped by) global health, including global health governance and global health diplomacy. It then critically assesses programs and strategies designed to address global health challenges such as pandemics, infectious and non-communicable diseases, reproductive health, biosecurity, and inequalities of health.

Global Issues in Gender and Sexuality (Option)†

This module aims to provide the opportunity to develop an in-depth understanding of some central concepts and theoretical debates on gender and sexuality including feminist theory and masculinities. These can be examined in greater depth in the context of key issues relating to power and economy in contemporary global politics.

These theories can then be applied to a range of case studies/issues. These case studies may change to reflect contemporary issues and academic developments but sample topics include decision-making processes in national and international political systems, the construction of gender and sexual identities in a globalised world and militarised masculinities.

Globalisation (Option)†

This module aims to examine the background of globalization and its relationship to the emerging trends toward regional governance and integration. The module seeks to draw out the implications of these trends for the nation-state and its various corporate and policy actors.

The current globalization trend has far-reaching consequences. Its origins are economic and lie in the gradual movement towards economic interdependence and integration of markets which has been taking place during the second half of the twentieth century.

Globalization also reflects the decline of US hegemony and the collapse of Soviet power. Globalization poses a major legitimization challenge to the nation-state and nation-state-based political economies. This has been evident in a tendency in recent years for national governments to seek to depoliticize social and economic policy decisions by reference to global forces. More proactively the challenge to the nation-state has given a new impetus to the development of regional political economies notably the EU.

Masculinities, Power, and Society (Option)†

This module explores masculinities and the operation of power through masculinities in society. It aims to engage with key theoretical perspectives on gender and masculinity, taking an in-depth look at these concepts, along with related ideas such as hegemonic masculinity, heteronormativity, and intersectionality. Important contemporary debates in masculinities scholarship will be addressed, such as around hegemonic masculinity, whether this is a useful concept, and how far it can explain (global) gendered power relations. Masculinities and masculinity will also be explored in different empirical settings.

Political Leadership (Option)†

This module focuses on the structural parameters and manifestations of political leadership by political chief executives (heads of government, party leaders, and heads of state). The course is designed to introduce students to some of the many different theoretical and conceptual approaches that have guided empirical investigations into and assessments of political leadership in Britain and beyond.

This module equips students with the necessary tools for studying leaders and leadership in different settings. Students will have the opportunity to apply theories and concepts of political leadership to case studies of presidents, prime ministers, and party leaders and apply comparative methods to analyze leaders (such as Blair and Cameron, Hawke and Howard in Australia, and Merkel and Macron).

Based on a thematic approach students will consider a range of approaches to political leadership including personality and charisma, theory from Machiavelli onwards, executive leadership, court leadership, rhetorical, party leadership, and bad/toxic leadership.

Public and Political Leadership in Practice (Option)†

In this module, we explore different ways of understanding a salient but often ill-understood political phenomenon: public and political leadership. Students will engage with those who have held or currently hold leadership positions or have supported those in leadership positions. Topics will include a practical exploration of an aspect of public leadership, followed by a guest speaker to discuss the practical application.

Terrorism (Option)†

The label terrorism is applied erratically with little clear precision or exclusivity to its use and fails to clearly differentiate those labeled 'terrorists'. The long and contested histories of diverse political and ideological struggles in respect of securing the legitimacy of this label, and/or the resistance to it, are often made unclear by the cultural significance of the label itself.

The aim of this module is to provide a critical understanding of these heated debates focusing on past and current management strategies, their relative strengths and weaknesses, the problems with conceptualization, and their various proponents from the worlds of academia/counter insurgency studies, political and criminal justice/military experts.

Theories and Concepts in International Relations (Option)†

This module aims to provide students with a graduate-level overview of both mainstream and critical approaches to theorizing international relations. The emphasis is on evaluating and applying theories, understanding the historical development of international relations as a field, and engaging with contemporary debates and concerns.

The module explores how the discipline of international relations is characterized by competing interpretations and applications of key concepts (eg power, the role of the state, agency/structure, and conceptualizations of world order) and differing methodological approaches and views about the practical purpose underpinning theories of world politics.

Students will be encouraged to critically explore the ways in which international relations theory influences policy-making and practice. On a broader level, students can gain insights into the contested nature of contemporary global politics. Case studies and contemporary materials will be used extensively throughout the module to illustrate the varying theoretical models and their applicability in the contemporary world.

Transition From Communism to Post-Communism (Option)†

The module aims to develop analytical skills and provide the opportunity to broaden students' knowledge by exposing them to the wide-ranging debates on the problems of transition from Communism focusing, for example, on the Soviet and post-Soviet systems.

Students have the opportunity to develop knowledge of not only the academic literature on late Soviet and post-Soviet Russian politics but also to read several major works from the comparative literature on transitions in order to assess the relevance of generalizations in that body of scholarship to the Soviet and Russian transition. They are encouraged also to consider what contribution an understanding of the Soviet and Russian cases has to make to political science more generally. The module analyses both the significant achievements and the major problems of the transition from Communism to post-Communism in Russia.

More generally, it aims to provide students with the skills and knowledge to interpret current and future developments in Russia. Given the continuing importance of Russia in international relations, this may be of practical benefit to careers other than academia - among them politics, the civil service, international banking, and journalism.

U.S. Exceptionalism (Option)†

The term American exceptionalism or, more precisely, US exceptionalism (since the United States does not represent all of America) has gone viral in recent years. Previously only used by a small group of American Studies scholars and historians, the term was first propelled into public discourse by the Republican Party during the failed presidential campaigns of John McCain (2008) and Mitt Romney (2012). Since then it has become a hegemonic concept.

This module aims to provide MA students with highly advanced knowledge and a critical understanding of US exceptionalism. The aim is to encourage students to think holistically and critically about the discourse of US exceptionalism so as to understand its roots in contemporary power relations and be able to challenge it.

How You Study

The learning and teaching strategy adopted within MA Politics reflects a commitment to self-directed, student-centered learning, with an emphasis on applied analytical skills.

This degree offers a distinctive range of modules, drawing upon the existing research and teaching expertise in the School of Social and Political Sciences to deliver an academically rigorous and contemporary program. Please note that the availability of optional modules may vary depending on student numbers and staff availability.

This program aims to develop specialist subject knowledge and equip students with a set of transferable skills relevant to further academic study and employment. The incorporation of a strong research methods element within the MA is designed to enhance employability and the development of transferable skills.

Students are taught using a range of methods including lectures, seminars, workshops, and tutorials. Lectures are designed to introduce students to key themes and perspectives, generate enthusiasm for further inquiry, provide illustrative examples, and signpost substantive issues.

Seminars and workshops provide students with an environment for more interactive learning and reflection, aimed at deepening critical understanding of the subject matter. These sessions are organized in a variety of ways, including tutor or student-led discussions, presentations, and problem-solving exercises, normally centered on a particular theme.

Tutorials are available to students on an individual or small-group basis as a means of supporting the preparation of individual or group assignments, offering feedback on progress, dealing with any particular learning difficulties, and offering advice on specific choices within the module program. E-learning will be supported through the use of the University's virtual learning environment.

Full-time students in this program can expect to receive approximately eight hours of contact time per week. However, this may vary depending on which optional modules are selected by students.

The research methods modules in this program are taught in weekly two-hour sessions and the remaining modules are mostly taught through two-hour weekly lecture and seminar sessions. In addition, students are expected to attend personal tutor groups, dissertation workshops, and meetings with their tutors and dissertation supervisor.

We expect that a full-time student on this course would engage in at least four hours of self-study for every hour of lecture and seminar time. This equates to 32 hours of self-study per week These figures are halved for part-time study.

How You Are Assessed

The program is designed to expose students to a range of different forms of assessment and to develop a range of academic, professional, and work-relevant skills such as public speaking.

Students will have the chance to develop written communication skills through essays, report writing, and independent study, all of which are designed to expand students' skills in professional and academic writing.

The development of high-level research skills is a central feature of the program and students will be expected to develop these through the core research methods module and apply them in their dissertation. Further research skills are also embedded in assessments throughout other core and optional modules.

Critical, analytical, and reflexive thinking are central to all assessments. IT skills are embedded in many modules and include word processing, digital data management, and presentation, statistical data handling, the use of electronic search engines, and other resources.

Assessment Feedback

The University of Lincoln's policy on assessment feedback aims to ensure that academics will return in-course assessments to students promptly - usually within 15 working days of the submission date.

How You Study

The learning and teaching strategy adopted within the MA Politics reflects a commitment to self-directed, student-centred learning, with an emphasis on applied analytical skills.

This degree offers a distinctive range of modules, drawing upon the existing research and teaching expertise in the School of Social and Political Sciences to deliver an academically rigorous and contemporary Program. Please note that the availability of optional modules may vary depending on student numbers and staff availability.

This Program aims to develop specialist subject knowledge and equip students with a set of transferable skills relevant to further academic study and employment. The incorporation of a strong research methods element within the MA is designed to enhance employability and development of transferable skills.

Students are taught using a range of methods including lectures, seminars, workshops, and tutorials. Lectures are designed to introduce students to key themes and perspectives, generate enthusiasm for further enquiry, provide illustrative examples, and to signpost substantive issues.

Seminars and workshops provide students with an environment for more interactive learning and reflection, aimed at deepening critical understanding of the subject matter. These sessions are organised in a variety of ways, including tutor or student-led discussions, presentations, and problem-solving exercises, normally centred on a particular theme.

Tutorials are available to students on an individual or small-group basis as a means of supporting the preparation of individual or group assignments, offering feedback on progress, dealing with any particular learning difficulties, and offering advice on specific choices within the module Program. E-learning will be supported through use of the University's virtual learning environment.

Full-time students on this Program can expect to receive approximately eight hours of contact time per week. However, this may vary depending on which optional modules are selected by students.

The research methods modules on this Program are taught in weekly two-hour sessions and the remaining modules are mostly taught through two-hour weekly lecture and seminar sessions. In addition, students are expected to attend personal tutor groups, dissertation workshops, and meetings with their tutors and dissertation supervisor.

We expect that a full-time student on this course would engage in at least four hours of self-study for every one hour of lecture and seminar time. This equates to 32 hours of self-study per week These figures are halved for part-time study.

Lincoln’s MA Politics course is designed to equip students with a range of skills that are valued in a variety of employment sectors. Graduates from the School have gone on to careers in local and central government, parliament, the civil service, law, industry and commerce, as well as in a variety of other public and private sector organisations.

The University Careers and Employability team offer qualified advisors who can work with you to provide tailored, individual support and careers advice during your time at the University. As a member of our alumni we also offer one-to-one support in the first year after completing your course, including access to events, vacancy information and website resources; with access to online vacancies and virtual and website resources for the following two years.

This service can include one-to-one coaching, CV advice and interview preparation to help you maximise your future opportunities. The service works closely with local, national and international employers, acting as a gateway to the business world.