Unit rationale, description and aim
This unit provides students with an overview of one of the most hotly debated topics in politics today - populism. A number of the most controversial leaders, parties and movements of recent years - Donald Trump, Hugo Chávez, Pauline Hanson, Marine Le Pen, Geert Wilders, Rodrigo Duterte, UKIP, the Five Star Movement, Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party amongst others - have been labelled as 'populist'. But what does populism mean? What unites such political actors of different ideological stripes and regional settings? What drives populist support and demand? And is populism ultimately a threat or corrective to democracy? This unit addresses these questions, and seeks to make sense of the prominence of populism in the contemporary political landscape. The course is organised in three central sections. The first will examine the historical background and theoretical underpinnings of populism, the second will analyse populism in different regional settings across the globe, and the third will explore populism's wider relationship to media, crisis and democracy in the 21st century. Overall, this unit will help students make sense of populism both in theory and practice.
Campus offering
No unit offerings are currently available for this unitLearning outcomes
To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.
Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.
Explore the graduate capabilities.
Describe the nature and significance of populism a...
Learning Outcome 01
Critically discuss diverse political and theoretic...
Learning Outcome 02
Apply concepts, theories and methods used in the s...
Learning Outcome 03
Demonstrate the capacity to gather, analyse and ad...
Learning Outcome 04
Content
- Theories and definitions of populism
- Populism throughout history
- How regional variants of populism differ from one another
- Issues in operationalising and measuring populism
- Populism’s relationship to liberal democracy
- The role of old and new media in populism
- Supply and demand side explanations for populist success and failure
Assessment strategy and rationale
The assessment tasks for this unit have been designed to contribute to high quality student learning by both helping students learn (assessment for learning), and by measuring explicit evidence of their learning (assessment of learning). Assessments have been developed to meet the unit learning outcomes and develop graduate attributes consistent with University assessment requirements. These have been designed so that they use a variety of tasks to measure the different learning outcomes at a level suitable for second year study in politics and international relations.
Overview of assessments
Tutorial assessment task/s
Tutorial assessment task/s
20%
Mid-semester essay: requires students to apply th...
Mid-semester essay: requires students to apply theories of populism to empirical cases
30%
Final essay/take-home exam: requires students to ...
Final essay/take-home exam: requires students to demonstrate critical thinking skills around populism’s relationship to core features of contemporary democracy
50%
Learning and teaching strategy and rationale
This 10-credit point unit has been for 150 hours in total across the semester. To achieve a passing standard in this unit, students will find it helpful to engage in the full range of learning activities and assessments utilised in this unit, as described in the learning and teaching strategy and the assessment strategy. The learning and teaching and assessment strategies include a range of approaches to support your learning such as lectures, tutorials, reading, reflection, discussion, webinars, podcasts, video etc.
This unit employs two formal ways of learning and teaching. Lectures are structured to promote case-based learning, a format that involves collaborative deep learning. Students will explore real world challenges and problems, a process that requires them to demonstrate their investigative, problem-solving and decision-making skills. Case-based learning requires learning specific theories and concepts that will complement the conceptual tools and theoretical knowledge critical to analysing divergent approaches to populism.
Tutorials for this unit provide students opportunities for active learning. Students will engage in activities including reading, writing, interrogating ideas, exploring case studies, doing role plays, debating, and giving presentations. These activities, as well as promoting analysis, synthesis, and evaluation of lecture content, are designed to build skills appropriate to the second-year study in Politics and International Relations.