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The course focuses on defining the objects of study of this discipline, the aspects that justify its scientific character, as well as the characters of the main concepts where this science is supported to produce knowledge. Although in the course we study the relation of political science with other disciplines, it has a disciplinary character.

Comparative politics is one of the core areas within Political Science. The explanation for this lies on the fact that a considerable amount of the academic production comes precisely from this field, as well as from numerous theoretical and methodological innovations that have come up in Political Sciences as a result of comparative studies. Unlike other areas within the same discipline, comparative politics is not defined under a topic-based criteria but rather by a methodological criteria, thus the study of comparative politics implies an approach to a methodology of political analysis. This course intends to familiarize the student with the comparative analysis on Political Science. To this end, during the first classes, we will discuss the usefulness of comparisons and their logic. Afterwards, through the discussion of the different compared studies, we will introduce to the students the diversity of comparative politics, its scope, and some of the theoretical and methodological debates from this field.

In this course we will introduce the concepts and central issues of present-day international relations. The presentations, lectures, discussions and activities to be carried out will be based upon real world problems, from the present and from the past alike. However, the main emphasis will be given to the concepts, processes and relevant theories to analyze global politics, and not to current or historical events. This course pursues three objectives: to provide the basic knowledge on the international system, to develop the necessary analytical tools to critically study the global relations, and to prepare students for more advanced courses on the international relations by introducing them to the basic theories of this discipline.

This introductory course is the starting point to understand the Area of Colombian Politics as a key component within the undergraduate program offered by the Department of Political Sciences of Universidad de los Andes. First of all, we will apply several basic concepts from political sciences to the Colombian political process. Furthermore, we seek to explore the political, economic and social conditions that characterized the structuring of the Republic of Colombia and its evolution during the 20th century. We intend to familiarize our students with some of the most important historic concepts on political science, and allow them to understand its complexities, features and impacts on the current political development.

In the past, normative questions controlled the political theory. Only after the beginning of the 20th century and especially after World War II, the political science was established as an empirical doctrine different to disciplines as philosophy, law and sociology. The main objective of the course is to familiarize the students with some of the normative and empirical theories that have structured the political science. Instead of making a fast study on the past, it deepens some classical texts, and it establishes a dialog between authors from different times. With this course, we intend to provide the students with an adequate framework to the specific problems that may go over other subjects, as well as different conceptual tools for its study.

This course introduces the students to the basic concepts and problems of research methodology in social sciences. Within this context, the course starts by going over the philosophical debates related to methodological issues. Later on, based on the aforesaid, we concentrate on the idea of research design. In a particular fashion, it focuses on the different proceedings to produce information and on the relevant techniques to collect that information.