Dutch Politics and Qualitative Methods

COURSE OBJECTIVE
This course has two goals:
1) To deepen the students' knowledge and understanding of Dutch politics.
2) To enhance the students' skills in assessing and executing political science research, by making them familiar with some important
qualitative methods. Both objectives are closely related: students will study Dutch politics by means of qualitative research and they will learn about qualitative methods by applying them to issues in Dutch politics.

COURSE CONTENT
Consensus democracy, constitutional monarchy, multicultural society, unified-yet-decentralized state, bicameral parliament, multiparty
system, proportional electoral system, loyal member of NATO, founding member of the EU - politically speaking, the Netherlands is a complex and fascinating case. This course will discuss some essential characteristics of the Dutch political system and pay attention to
influential current developments, such as the rise of populism, Europeanization, and 'glocalization'. These topics will be studied by
means of political scientific studies in which various qualitative methods have been used, such as (comparative) casestudy analysis
(including process tracing), document analysis, (expert) interviewing, and ethnography (including participative observations). We will discuss the theoretical background of these methods, but also the practical do’s and don’ts and pros and cons. Students will learn to understand and assess existing qualitative research and in the working group sessions they will practice the use of qualitative research methods themselves.

TEACHING METHODS
 - Lectures
- Working group sessions

TYPE OF ASSESSMENT
- Participation and assignments in seminars (20%)
- Writing assignment (30%)
- Exam (50%)

RECOMMENDED BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE
Academic Skills Workshops 1 & 2