The Architecture of Democracy: Institutions, Constitutions and Political Culture

This course examines recent scholarship in comparative politics on institutions, constitutions, and democratic culture, using Israel as the central case through which broader comparative and theoretical questions will be explored. It is designed to familiarize students with leading research and major contemporary debates on questions that stand at the center of the field. Themes covered include constitution-making in comparative perspective, relations between executives and legislatures, electoral systems across different political settings, party competition and party systems, comparative public law, populism and democratic backsliding, political culture and political trust, citizen behavior from a comparative perspective, rights and liberties in comparative analysis, religion and democracy, and the operation of democratic institutions in divided societies.