Approved

by Dean B. Kumalakov
_____________________
«_____» __________ 2022

Syllabus for Political Science

Academic Year 2022-2023

1. General information
Course Code Pol 2109
Course Title Political Science
Degree Cycle (Level)/ Major All majors
Year, semester 2022/2023
Number of Credits 2
Language of instruction: English
Prerequisites N/A
Postrequisites Political awareness; Humanistic perspectives
Lecturer Diana Toimbek
Syllabus designer Diana Toimbek

2. Goals, objectives and learning outcomes of the course

Course description This course is an introduction to the basic theories and concepts in the Political Science, including:
connection between everyday life with the political system; historical development of the area;
political systems, ideologies & philosophies; international relations; and Kazakhstan’s profile in the
framework of the studied discourses. Related topics include interdisciplinary areas, such as
sociology, economy, culturology, public policy and security studies.

Course goal(s) The main goal of the course is the formation of political worldview and critical thinking on political
tendencies

Course objectives - gain a working understanding of the field of Political Science and all it encompasses;
 - to explore the various topics covered in Political Science, its history, its impact on society and
individuals, and its limitations in real world applications;
- get acquainted with basic elements of political theory and political concepts;
- acquire the capacity to interpret and assess political ideas and political behaviours in an
independent manner;
- develop argumentative skills on conflicting topics;
- formation of critical thinking and functional literacy skills.

Skills & competences - ability to understand political theories and concepts in order to understand different viewpoints;
- ability of think critically and enhance problem-solving skills;
- ability of carrying out individual works on researching, drafting, writing and editing;
- ability to select and use reference materials;
- ability of discussing and interpreting different political thoughts and trends.

Course learning outcomes: - understand the role and function of the politics in everyday life;
- have a basic comprehension on characteristics of political trends;
- understand the development and significance of political thoughts and theories;
- be able to interpret and apply concepts, ideas and notions on political processes and
developments;
- understand political behaviour in connection with social change and challenges;
- correctly express and reasonably argue different opinions on significant political topics.

Methods of assessment Group projects. Individual student works. Discussions. Quizzes

Course literature Goodin, Robert E., ed. The Oxford handbook of political science. OUP Oxford, 2009.
https://web.s.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=bb33da3a-fa24-475b-9d9d-
d70c0da2472a%40redis&bdata=Jmxhbmc9cnUmc2l0ZT1laG9zdC1saXZl#AN=87654451&db=a9h
Alt, J. E., Chambers, S., & Kurian, G. T. (2011). The Encyclopedia of Political Science; five-volume
Set. https://web.s.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=18e4115e-e48e-448d-b0a5-
8fe1c39e9ca4%40redis&bdata=Jmxhbmc9cnUmc2l0ZT1laG9zdC1saXZl#AN=59446291&db=a9h
Weisberg, H. F. (2007). Political science: the science of politics. Algora Publishing.
Phillips, W. S. (2019). Power and choice: An introduction to political science. Fifteenth edition.
Grigsby, E. (2009). Analyzing politics an introduction to political science.
Marsh, D., & Stoker, G. (Eds.). (1995). Theory and methods in political science (p. 115). London:
Macmillan.
 Simon, D. W., Romance, J., & Riemer, N. (2018). The challenge of politics: an introduction to
political science. CQ press.
Hague, R., & Harrop, M. (2015). Political science: A comparative introduction. Macmillan
International Higher Education.
Ishiyama, J. T., & Breuning, M. (Eds.). (2011). 21st century political science: A reference
handbook (Vol. 1). Sage.

Resources Main resources:

All the resources for the course will be found in the Moodle

Other resources:
https://100kitap.kz/en
https://openu.kz/kz/books
https://www.sciencedirect.com/
https://scholar.google.com/
https://books.google.com

Additional suggested resources Books (Additional readings will be uploaded in the Moodle):
Pinker, S. (2018). Enlightenment now: The case for reason, science, humanism, and progress.
Chicago (Author-Date, 15th ed.).
Pinker, S. (2011). The better angels of our nature: The decline of violence in history and its
causes. Penguin uk.
Sandel, M. J. (2009). Justice: What's the right thing to do?. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Gates, M. (2019). The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World
(Unabridged).
Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty. Pbk. ed. New York: Crown
Business, 2013.
Harari, Yuval N. author. (2015). Sapiens: a brief history of humankind. New York: Harper
Cameron, S. (2016). The Hungry Steppe: Famine, Violence & the Making of Soviet Kazakhstan.
Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Bhavna Dave, Kazakhstan: Ethnicity, Language and Power. London — New York: Routledge,
2007, 242 p.
Lee, K. Y. (2000). From Third World to first: The Singapore story, 1965-2000: Singapore and the
Asian economic boom. New York: HarperCollins Publishers.
Hawking, S., Redmayne, E., Thorne, K. S., & Hawking, L. (2020). Brief answers to the big
questions. John Murray.
Gates, B. (2021). How to avoid a climate disaster: the solutions we have and the breakthroughs
we need. Penguin UK.
Dweck, C. (2017). Mindset: Changing the way you think to fulfil your potential.

Watch:
Ian Shapiro Yale open lecture on Youtube: Lecture 1: Introduction to Power and Politics in Today’s
World
Michael Sandel Harvard lecture on Youtube: Justice: What's The Right Thing To Do? Episode 01
"THE MORAL SIDE OF MURDER
Simon Anholt. TEDSalon Berlin 2014. Which country does the most good for the world? June
2014
John Lewis and Bryan Stevenson. TED Legacy Project. The fight for civil rights and freedom.
November 2019
Kristen Wenz. We the Future. What if a single human right could change the world? September
2019
Stacey Abrams. TEDWomen 2018. 3 questions to ask yourself about everything you do.
November 2018
Yuval Noah Harari. TED2018. Why fascism is so tempting — and how your data could power it.
April 2018
Tshering Tobgay. TED2016. This country isn't just carbon neutral — it's carbon negative. February
2016
Yuval Noah Harari. TED Dialogues. Nationalism vs. globalism: the new political divide. February
2017
Margaret Heffernan. TEDSummit 2019. The human skills we need in an unpredictable world. July
2019
Hugh Evans. TED2016. What does it mean to be a citizen of the world? February 2016
Robb Willer. TEDxMarin. How to have better political conversations. September 2016
Eric Liu. TED2019. How to revive your belief in democracy. April 2019
Wanis Kabbaj. TED@UPS. How nationalism and globalism can coexist. July 2018
Jim Yong Kim. TED2017. Doesn't everyone deserve a chance at a good life? April 2017
 H.E. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. TEDWomen 2019. How women will lead us to freedom, justice and
peace. December 2019
Michael Tubbs. TED2019. The political power of being a good neighbor. April 2019
Onora O'Neill. TEDxHousesOfParliament. What we don't understand about trust. June 2013
Wanjira Mathai. We the Future. 3 ways to uproot a culture of corruption. September 2019
Kade Crockford. TEDxCambridgeSalon. What you need to know about face surveillance.
November 2019

Coursera:
Moral Foundations of politics. Ian Shapiro. Yale University
Human Rights for Open Societies. Janneke Gerards, Antoine Buyse, Claire Loven. Utrecht
University

3. Course policy
The course will be delivered online synchronously via Microsoft Teams. The
course instructions and assignments will be posted on Moodle.
The course will require both group and individual works by students, with the most
time devoted on researching various topics apart from the lectures.
The in-class hour is a platform to interact with groupmates and demonstrate
knowledge and skills the students acquire from researching assignments’ topics.
These tasks are mandatory and will determine the course grade. The course
includes:

- 10 lecture themes (10 hours)

- Seminar hours (10 hours)
- Midterm – Quiz with 20 Multiple choice questions
- End Term – Quiz with 20 Multiple choice questions
- Final examination – 40 Multiple choice questions

▪ All new updates on the course will be displayed in the Moodle page.
▪ Assignments will be discussed and presented during the practical
sessions only. A lecturer might assign the Late Submission for some
assignments depending on the schedule and availability of practical
sessions. If scheduled, students may defend their works with the
automatically 5 pts decrease in grading for lateness.
 ▪ Exceptions from the rule: students studying abroad with academic
mobility and official decree from the dean’s office about special
circumstances of your absence (See the Annex 1).
▪ Failure to pass assignments on time will result in 0% for the work.
▪ Bonus tasks and extra works to raise grades are not envisaged.
However, every student has a chance to increase their assignment grades.
See the Participation part of the Syllabus.

NB: If a student grade for Midterm or End term is lower than 25 out of 100 %, that
student is not allowed to take the final exam according to “Regulations on the
Student Assessment System” dated February 1, 2021.

The office hours are:

Each Monday 12:00 – 13:00

Academic integrity Students and all others who work with information, ideas, texts, images, music,
inventions, and other intellectual property owe accuracy and honesty in using,
crediting, and citing sources. As a community of intellectual and professional
workers, the University recognizes its responsibility for providing instruction in
information literacy and academic integrity, offering models of good practice, and
responding vigilantly and appropriately to infractions of academic integrity.
Accordingly, academic dishonesty is prohibited at the university and is
punishable by penalties, including failing grades, suspension and
expulsion.

Any plagiarized assignment (with similarity more than 20%) will receive 0-
points with no possibility to resubmit the work.
Students are expected to present assignments with proper APA style of
referencing or they will not be regarded.

The Academic integrity policy may be found on the university website (Реестр
внутренних нормативных документов Astana IT University «Academic Integrity
Policy of Astana IT University»).

Attendance Each student has to attend 70% of sessions. In case you miss more than 30% of
the lessons, you will not be allowed to take the final exam.
 After 5 minutes from the beginning of the lesson, a student will receive “Late”;
after 15 minutes “Absent”.

Participation The class participation and engagement quality (not quantity) will result on
increase of grades (2 pts max for each session).
The following types of class participation are particularly appreciated and can help
to increase your participation grade:
- Ask adequate and thematic questions from presenters.
- Communicate your ideas and opinions in an accurate, concise and logical
manner;
- Present reasoned explanations for phenomena, patterns and relationships apart
from what is given in the lectures;
- Understand the implications of, and draw inferences from, data and evidence;
- Discuss and evaluate choices, and make reasoned decisions, recommendations
and judgements;
- Draw valid conclusions by a reasoned consideration of evidence.

4. Course content
N Abbreviation Meaning
1 BA degree Academic degree Bachelor of Arts
2 GP Group project
3 ISA Individual student assignment
4 LQ Lecture Questions
5 MCQ Multiple Choice Questionnaire
 5. Course plan
Week Lecture topics* Practical session assignments** Weight Deadline

1. Introduction into the Science of Politics Introductory discussions. Q&A 0 pts Practical session
Lecture 1 questions 5 pts On a scheduled lecture day
2. Moral Foundations of Politics Individual students’ assignment 1 15 pts Practical session
Lecture 2 questions 5 pts On a scheduled lecture day
3. Political Ideologies and Systems in
Societies Lecture 3 questions 5 pts On a scheduled lecture day
4. Political Institutions and General Group project 1 30 pts Practical session
Enabling Environment Lecture 4 questions 5 pts On a scheduled lecture day
5. Political Economy of Education
Lecture 5 questions 5 pts On a scheduled lecture day
Mid-term Quiz (MCQ) 30 pts Will be set on Moodle
(Week 5) in
accordance with the
academic calendar
6. Globalization and International Relations Individual students’ assignment 2 15 pts Practical session
Lecture 6 questions 5 pts On a scheduled lecture day
7. Politics of Institutionalized Oppression
Lecture 7 questions 5 pts On a scheduled lecture day
8. Energy Security and Governance Group project 2 30 pts Practical session
Lecture 8 questions 5 pts On a scheduled lecture day
9. Politics and Information Technologies
Lecture 9 questions 5 pts On a scheduled lecture day
10. Systematic review of Kazakhstan’s Lecture 10 questions 5 pts On a scheduled lecture day
political discourse End-term Quiz (MCQ) 30 pts Will be set on Moodle
in accordance with the
academic calendar
* Every video-lecture on Moodle has 5 questions to answer. Every question wights 1 pts.
** ISA and GP assignments are divided into 2 weeks. Half of a group will present during the first practical session, while another half
in the second practical session.
Achievement level as per course curriculum shall be assessed according to the evaluation chart adopted by the academic credit system.
Letter Grade Numerical Percentage Grade according to the
equivalent traditional system
А 4,0 95-100 Excellent
А- 3,67 90-94
В+ 3,33 85-89 Good
В 3,0 80-84
В- 2,67 75-79
С+ 2,33 70-74
С 2,0 65-69
С- 1,67 60-64 Satisfactory
D+ 1,33 55-59
D 1,0 50-54
FX 0 30-49
Fail
F 0 0-29

6. Students’ performance evaluation*

Period Assignments Points Total

Mid-term Individual students work 15 100
Lecture questions 25
Group project 30
Mid-term assessment 30
End-term Individual students work 15 100
Lecture questions 25
Group project 30
End-term assessment 30

* The total course evaluation goes as follows: mid-term (30%), end-term (30%), the final test (40%).
 7. List of assignment topics

Mid-term period ISA* • Choose any topic or subtopic from the lectures of Week 1 to 5 and elaborate the
discourse from various sources based on the grading criteria in Table 8. Please note
Weeks that you are not asked to retell lectures but research more on chosen topics
2-3
GP** Provide in-depth analysis to following topics based on the grading criteria in Table 9:
• Governmental responses to ecological disasters & environmental crises (you can
Weeks choose local cases of Semipalatinsk testing site, Air or water pollution in different
4-5
regions, Aral Sea, etc; or global such as Chernobyl, Kamchatka, Japan, Great Sparrow
campaign in China, Faroe Island dolphin killings, Zakouma elephant slaughter, etc);
• Socio-political experiments (Milgram’s obedience experiment. Stanford prison
experiment – do not only explain the experiment, talk about real life cases as well);
End-term period ISA • Choose any topic or subtopic from the lectures of Week 6 to 10 and elaborate the
discourse from various sources based on the grading criteria in Table 8. Please note
Weeks that you are not asked to retell lectures but research more on chosen topics
6-7
GP Provide in-depth analysis to following topics based on the grading criteria in Table 9:
• Why politics matter in combating climate change/ensuring energy security?;
Weeks
8-9 • Critical reflections on conflicts (you may choose local: Jeltoqsan-1986, Zhanaozen-
2011, January events in 2022; or international: Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Russian
invasion to Ukraine, the Arab spring, Talibans in Afghanistan, etc).
• Perspectives of achieving sustainable development via Information Technologies (you
free to choose any national issues and present your vision/idea of assisting in its
development via your area of expertise).
*ISA: No more than 3 students from a definite group can present the same topic. No visual aids needed for this assignment
**GP: A group project must include visual aids (ppt). Each team should include no more than 2-3 students. A team will receive joint marks collectively. No more
than 3 teams can present the same topic.

Achievement level as per course curriculum shall be assessed according to the evaluation chart adopted by the academic credit system.
 8. ISA grading criteria*

Points Criteria Details

3 Structure & Organization 1 The work is followed proper structure & presenting ideas in logical and
well-organized manner
1 Providing introduction/background information of a topic.
1 Solid and comprehensive conclusion that reinforce the main ideas in the
presentation
4 Depth of Research & Evidence 2 Topic is explored from minimum 3 sources, 1 of which is scientific article
(Wikipedia will not be counted for a reference).
2 Presenting personal critical opinion in a comprehensive and valid manner
3 Analytical Originality & Argumentation 1 Exceptional analytical originality and well justified critiques that go beyond
what is covered in the course
1 Thoroughly identify, define and relate key concepts/theories/models/case
issues
1 Clear argumentations of different opinions/views/arguments (at least 2)
offering nuanced and sophisticated insights
2 Delivery 2 Evidence of being prepared by not overly relying on notes (substantial
dependence on notes will decrease pts in accordance with severity)
3 Mechanics 2 References are given / mentioned by the end of speech
1 Video is switched on (For academic mobility and excused students with
an official decree from the dean’s office)
Maximum 15 pts (100%)
*Any plagiarized assignment (similarity more than 20%) will receive “0” points with no possibility to resubmit the work. Note, content of your works may differ
according to your work but must cover assessment criteria

9. GP grading criteria*

Points Criteria Details

7 Structure & Organization 2 The work is followed proper structure & presenting ideas in logical and
well-organized manner
2 Providing introduction/background information of a topic.
2 Solid and comprehensive conclusion that reinforce the main ideas in the
presentation
1
 Effectively manage the use of visual aids to enhance the effect of the
presentation/work
7 Depth of Research & Evidence 3 Topic is explored from minimum 3 sources, 1 of which is scientific article
(Wikipedia will not be counted for a reference).
1 Detailed and comprehensive evidence or examples, demonstrating wide
understanding & reading of relevant literature
3 Presenting personal critical opinion in a comprehensive and valid manner
7 Analytical Originality & Argumentation 3 Exceptional analytical originality and well justified critiques that go beyond
what is covered in the course
2 Thoroughly identify, define and relate key concepts/theories/models/case
issues
2 Clear argumentations of different opinions/views/arguments (at least 2)
offering nuanced and sophisticated insights
5 Delivery 3 Evidence of being prepared by not overly relying on notes (substantial
dependence on notes will decrease pts in accordance with severity)
2 Verbal skills and non-verbal skills (engaging audience, poise, enthusiasm,
speaking in a good pace)
4 Mechanics 2 References are given in accordance with APA style
In text sources are given in accordance with APA style
2 Video is switched on (For academic mobility and excused students with
an official decree from the dean’s office)
Maximum 30 pts (100%)
*Any plagiarized assignment (similarity more than 20%) will receive “0” points with no possibility to resubmit the work. Note, content of your works may differ
according to your work but must cover assessment criteria
 Annex 1

Steps to pass assignments for students who study by academic mobility and have the necessary decree to pass the course online:

• Carefully follow the deadlines for your assignments. They are the same for everyone. Assignments after the deadline will not be accepted
• Read the grading criteria and assignment topics in the syllabus. You don’t have to make visuals for ISA, however, for the GP topic you need the
presentation (Make sure that your video is like my video lectures. Meaning: even if you have a ppt, there’s still a box where your face is visible. It
makes me know that your video is turned on (one of the requirements of grading criteria).
• All the assignments should follow following format. Missing any of the point will result in rejection of the work:

1. All the assignments should be submitted to my e-mail ([email protected]) with the title "Academic mobility student + ISA or +GP" (depending on
what you are submitting – individual student assignment (ISA) or the Group Project (GP)).
2. An assignment should be sent in video format. Send the recorded video (or a link to it) before the deadline. If you recorded your video in Teams, make sure
that you open the access for me.
3. Together with an assignment you also have to attach your official decree on Academic mobility (every time).

Steps to pass assignments for students who have official excuses from the dean's office:

1. Send the e-mail "Late submission with the dean's decree-ISA" or "Late submission with the dean's decree-GP" to my e-mail ([email protected]).
2. An assignment should be sent in video format. Send the recorded video (or a link to it) before the deadline. If you recorded your video in Teams, make sure
that you open the access for me.
3. Attach an official decree from the dean’s office. If you don’t have a decree in hand, then write down a decree’s number.
4. You must submit an assignment before the passing date of your decree! Assignments after the deadline given in decrees will not be accepted.