Free online coursePower and politics

Course Description

Power is not only exercised through elections and laws; it also runs through markets, institutions, security alliances, and the everyday incentives that shape public choices. This course helps you see how political decisions are made, who influences them, and why outcomes so often diverge from official promises. By connecting ideas from political economy, international relations, and public policy, you will develop a practical lens for analyzing current events with more rigor and less noise.

You will trace major shifts since the end of the Cold War and examine how different systems fused or fractured as globalization expanded. The course looks at the transition from Soviet communism to a new form of capitalism in Russia, the rise of a unipolar world alongside NATO and EU expansion, and the distinctive blend of communist party control with market reforms in China and Vietnam. These cases build a foundation for understanding why countries follow different paths, how sequencing of reforms matters, and what trade-offs leaders accept when stability, growth, and legitimacy collide.

The course then turns to the domestic politics of advanced democracies, exploring the resurgent right, attempts to rebrand the left, and the strategic battles over taxes and the size of government. You will examine how privatization changes accountability when core public functions move toward contractors and market logics, from utilities and local governance to prisons and the military. You will also assess how money flows through modern politics, why court decisions and campaign finance rules can reshape representation, and how political incentives influence what reforms are considered possible.

Global challenges run throughout the narrative: democratization and its limits, post-conflict transitions, humanitarian intervention, and the development of ideas such as the Responsibility to Protect. You will analyze how terrorism and the post-9/11 security landscape affected policy choices, why ambitious foreign-policy visions faltered in places like Afghanistan and Iraq, and what happens when international institutions try to enforce norms in a world of competing interests.

Finally, the course connects political power to economic shocks and social backlash. By examining the 2008 financial crisis, the housing collapse, and the political aftershocks that followed, you will better understand how inequality, automation, employment insecurity, and contested public services can fuel populism and polarization. Whether you work in business, marketing, policy, or civic leadership, you will come away with sharper frameworks for evaluating policy debates, stakeholder influence, and the political risks that shape real-world decisions.