Course Description
The study of governance has risen to prominence as a way of describing and explaining changes in the variety fields of our contemporary social and political worlds around the world. The main aim of this course is to understand the idea of governance in its theoretical and methodological manners, as well as to apply this knowledge for the purposes of understanding, explaining or predicting the every-day real-world issues.
In doing so, the course is structured into the following 4 main parts:
1) Conceptual understanding of governance
- Democracy and the state in historical perspective
- The rise of international communities and globalisation
- Governance as a theory and a concept: definitions, approaches, models, typologisation
- Governance as an institutional phenomena
- Governance as a public policy and policy networks phenomena
- Governance and management
- Governance as a human rights phenomena
2) Methodological approaches to ‘measure’ governance
- Research designs of studying governance
- Indexes of governance
- Ethics and values in governance research
- Global governance cases in practice: UN, IMF, WB, WHO, OECD, EU, OSCE
- Gaps between theory and practice
3) Governance in real-life cases and issues, with a special emphasis on national and international case studies in the fields of peace, security, cooperation and development (selected seminar case studies)
4) Synthesis of contemporary governance debates: future prospects, critics, alternatives.

Teaching Methods
The course includes lectures (providing the theoretical and methodological frameworks of the issues) and weekly project seminar works (the application of the conceived theoretical knowledge through the analysis of concrete case studies).
Classroom interaction is obligatory. Students are invited to propose issues that have been raised in their country of origin, or specific governance issues of their special interest.
A list of readings will be delivered a week before the scheduled lecture and seminar in order to actively participate in the course.

Evaluation
1) Active participation in the class (positive assessments of written and oral weekly project work obligations, preparation, presentation and debate): 50 % grade;
2) mid-term and final essay: 50 % grade

Readings (an obligatory list of readings will be delivered a week before the scheduled lecture and seminar)
Stoker, G. (1998): Governance as theory: five propositions. International Social Science Journal, 50 (1): 17-28.
Van Kersbergen K. and van Waarden, F. (2004): ‚Governance‘ as a bridge between disciplines. European Journal of Political Research, 43 (2): 143-171.
Rosenau, J. N. (1995): Governance in the Twenty-first Century. Governance, 1 (1): 13-43.
Finkelstein, S. L. (1995): What is global governance. Global Governance, 1(3): 367-372.
Weiss, G. T. (2000): Governance, good governance and global governance: Conceptual and actual challenges. Third World Quarterly, 21 (5): 795-814.
van Doeveren, V. (2011): Rethinking good governance. Public Integrity, 13 (4): 301-318.
Lynn Jr, LE, CJ Heinrich, CJ Hill (2000): Studying governance and public management: Challenges and Prospects. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 10 (2): 233–262.
Lauridsen, S. L. (2012): From good governance to developmental governance – How policies, institutions and politics matter. Forum for Developmental Studies, 39 (3): 337-366.
Gisselquist, M. R. (2014): Developing and evaluating governance indexes: 10 questions. Policy Studies, 35 (5): 13-531.
Jose, Jim (2007): Reframing the ‘governance’ story. Australian Journal of Political Sciences, 42 (3): 455-470. DeAlcàntra, C. H. (1998): Uses and abuses of the concept governance. International Social Science Journal, 50 (155): 105-113.
Ansell, C. and J. Torfing (2017): Handbook on Theories of Governance. Edward Elgar Pub. (selected chapters on governance models).
Bevir, M., eds. (2013): The SAGE Handbook of Governance. Sage (selected chapters)
Levi-Faur, D., eds. (2014): The Oxford Handbook of Governance. Oxford University Press (selected chapters).

Supplementary texts will also be advised.