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Democracy Today: Crises and Prospects (974M9)

30 credits, Level 7 (Masters)

Autumn teaching

In the 21st century, democratic politics faces a multiplicity of crises, including:

• democratic backsliding
• aging populations
• rising inequality
• corruption and misinformation.

On this module, you’ll analyse the actors, issues and dynamics that threaten democracy today. You’ll engage with different political challenges and independently assess historical lineages, links and causalities.

You’ll focus on the interaction of local, national, global and planetary scales in the functioning of contemporary democracy. Understanding these complexities will allow you to produce nuanced problem-diagnoses and bold sketches of action plans.

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 300 hours of work. This breaks down into about 30 hours of contact time and about 270 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2026/27. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum.

We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.