The course program is divided into three parts. The first part deals with some of the classic themes of political science: the phenomenology of power and authority, the empirical analysis of political power in national states and in local communities, the significance of violence and ideology in relations between the rulers and the ruled. Necessary theoretical and conceptual insights and appropriate methodological references are provided. In the second part, the course focuses on conceptual, theoretical and empirical analysis of modern political regimes, with particular reference to the development of democracies. More specifically, it focuses on three thematic areas: the first examines the actors of representation and political participation (parties, groups, collective movements); the second outlines the relations between parliamentary institutions, governments and bureaucracies; the third describes the processes of formulation and implementation of public policies. The third part of the course focuses on debates and theories in International Relations, with particular reference to realism, liberalism and systemic theories. The specific subject of the program, in this part, will be some of the classic themes of International Relations, such as the dynamics of conflict and co-operation between states, interactions between the domestic political system and the international system, changes in the international system and security policies after the the Second World War, the advent of the European Community and the processes of Europeanisation of public policies