Course description
The course is aimed at providing basic knowledge about global governance decision-making processes, institutions and core topics. The course is divided in two parts. The first part is devoted to an introduction to global politics and global decision-making which will allow the students to better understand global political affairs and global policies. The second part of the course is devoted more specifically to the international organizations and actors involved in global governance and the policies and means through which they (try to) influence national decisionmakers.

Evaluation methods
40% oral presentations or written assignments
60% written exam

Detailed syllabus and bibliography

All the readings are compulsory except for those marked with * - which are suggested readings.

Week 1 - 3 March
Understanding global governance and politics

Castells, M. (2005). Global governance and global politics, PS: Political Science & Politics, 38(1): 9-16.
Wullwuber, J. (2018). Constructing Hegemony in Global Politics. A Discourse-Theoretical Approach to Policy Analysis, Administrative Theory & Praxis, 41(2): 148-167.

Week 2 - 10 March
Understanding global decision-making: Globalization vs. Europeanization?
Graziano, P. (2003). Europeanization or Globalization? A Framework for Empirical Research (with some evidence from the Italian Case), Global Social Policy, 3(2): 173-184.

Ladi, S. (2006). Globalization and Europeanization: Analyzing Change, IBEI Working Papers, 4/2006.

Week 3 - 17 March
The global policy cycle and policy design
Howlett, M. (2017). The criteria for effective policy design: character and context in policy instrument choice, Journal of Asian Public Policy, 11(3): 245-266.
Daviter, F. (2019). Policy Analysis in the face of complexity: What kind of knowledge to tackle wicked problems?, Public Policy and Administration, 34(1): 62-82.
van Buuren, A., Lewis, J. M., Peters, B. G. & Voorberg, W. (2020). Improving public policy and administration: exploring the potential of design. Policy and Politics: an international journal, 48(1): 3-19

Week 4 - 24 March
Global agenda setting and policy formulation

Guo, L. and Vargo, C.J. (2017), Global Intermedia Agenda Setting: A Big Data Analysis of International News Flow, Journal of Communication, 67(4): 499-520.
Gneiting, U. (2016), From global agenda-setting to domestic implementation: successes and challenges of the global health network on tobacco control, Health Policy Plan, 31(Suppl. 1): 74-86.

Week 5 - 31 March
Global policy adoption and policy implementation

Jeddi Yeganeh, A., McCoy, A.P. and Schenk, T. (2020), Determinants of climate change policy adoption: A meta-analysis, Urban Climate, 31: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.uclim.2019.100547
Croese, S., Oloko, M., Simon, D. and Valencia, S. C. (2021), Bringing the Global to the Local: the challenges of multilevel governance for global policy implementation in Africa, International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development, 13(3): 435-447.

Week 6 - 17 April
Participation to VIU workshop

Week 7 - 28 April
Global policy evaluation

DeGroff, A., & Cargo, M. (2009). Policy implementation: Implications for evaluation. New Directions for Evaluation, 124: 47–60.
Schoenefeld, J. and Jordan, A. (2017). Governing Policy Evaluation? Towards a New Typology, Evaluation, 23(3): 274-293.

Week 8-10 - 5, 12 and 15 May
International Organizations

Barnett, M.N. and Finnemore, M. (1999). The Politics, Power, and Pathologies of International Organizations. International Organization 53(4): 699–732.
Putnam, R.D. (1988). Diplomacy and Domestic Politics: The Logic of Two-Level Games. International Organization 42(3): 427–460.
Lee, S.-H., & Woo, B. (2020). IMF = I’M Fired! IMF Program Participation, Political Systems, and Workers’ Rights. Political Studies, 69(3), 514-537.

Clark, R. and Dolan, L.R. (2021). Pleasing the Principal: U.S. Influence in World Bank Policymaking, American Journal of Political Science, 65(1): 36-51.
Silva, V. (2021). The ILO and the future of work: The politics of global labour policy. Global Social Policy, 22(2), 341-358.

Week 11
The European Union

Bengtsson, L. and Elgstrom, O. (2012). Conflicting Role Conceptions? The European Union in Global Politics, Foreign Policy Analysis, 8, 93-108.
Bouris, D., FIsher-Onar, N., and Huber, D.V. (2025), Towards Allyship in Diversity? Critical Perspectives on the European Union’s Global Role, Journal of Common Market Studies, 63(5): 1393-1419.

Week 12
Students’ Presentations

Last updated: Jan 23, 2026