Exams and Theses

Final Exams (Diplom/Magister)

You have to have attended at least one seminar (Hauptstudium/advanced studies) by the Chair of Comparative Politics and you must have completed it with an exam or a term paper in order to take your final exam with the Chair of Comparative Politics.
You will have specific literature from various topics of Comparative Politics in the final exams. You will receive a list of this literature on request or check our homepage (see below). You will have to know all these texts. Futhermore we will ask you about basics on Comparative Politics as they are taught in the introductory lecture in the oral examinations.

The number of topics you have to prepare depends on the type of your exam:
Only written exam: two topics

• The written exam will be comprised of two parts. In the essay section you will have to answer one out of two questions (one question for each topic). In the other section you will have to answer several small questions on both topics.

Only oral exam: one topic

• In the oral exam there will be a professional discussion about your topic. Furthermore I will ask you some questions on basic knowledge about Comparative Politics as taught in the introductory lecture.

Written and oral exam: two topics

• The written exam will be comprised of two parts. In the essay section you must answer one out of two questions (one question for each topic). In the other section you will have to answer several small questions to both topics.

• The oral exam will be about a topic that you have not written about in your essay. There will be a professional discussion about your topic. Furthermore I will ask questions on basic knowledge about Comparative Politics as taught in the introductory lecture.

You can choose from following topics

• Zweikammersysteme im internationalen Vergleich
• Konkordanzdemokratie
• Demokratietypen und Demokratiequalität (alt)
• Demokratietypen (neu, ab WS 09)
• Demokratietheorie (neu, ab SW 09)
• Regierungen und Koalitionen
• Vetospieler und Agendasetzung
• Wahlsysteme und Wahlsystemwandel
• Regierungssysteme im internationalen Vergleich

For technical support please contact Lydia Parnow (sekretariat-vergleich@uni-potsdam.de).

Undergraduate exam (Vordiplom/Zwischenprüfung)

The literature of the exam will be the script and literature of the lecture “Einführung in die Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft” (Link). From this range you have to choose three topics (according to the headlines of the lecture), which will be the focus of the oral exam. Furthermore you will be asked questions on basic knowledge about Comparative Politics as taught in the introductory lecture.
For support and organization of the exam contact Christian Stecker (stecker@uni-potsdam.de).