Political Institutions and Leadership, 5 cr

Democracies are prone to political short-sightedness, because their functioning is based on sectoral interest representation under short electoral cycles. This is why slowly developing ‘megathreats’ like climate change pose special problems for democratic leaders. To empower future generations, scholars have uncovered the ethical and practical harm caused by democratic myopia, its human and political causes, and institutional solutions.

This course offers a problem-driven approach to political myopia. It begins by describing the problem’s normative underpinnings through the concept of intergenerational justice and then proceeds to examine the behavioral and political origins of democratic myopia. The course concludes with a critical assessment of the institutions that have been designed for lengthening political timespans under democratic rules of the game. The course pays special attention to Finland that has the world’s most advanced state-level foresight system which is widely regarded as a global forerunner in future-sensitive governance.

Wedding theory with practice, the course analyzes real world problems through normative and theoretical lenses of political science, paying special attention on the conditions of contemporary policymakers.