Introduction to New Zealand Politics and Policy

Description

In this class we take political analysis up close and personal, using theories and ideas about politics and political processes to better understand one of the world’s smallest and oldest democracies, New Zealand.

No prior knowledge of politics or NZ politics is needed but our intention in the course is to support your political efficacy, that is your sense you “can understand politics’, and if you want to have a say, “you can make a difference” for your local community, region the country, and its place in the world internationally.

We aim not to teach you what to think, but how to think rigorously, creatively, and critically about political and policy problems New Zealand faces, and how to tackle them.

Political science is often described as a study of the way power is exercised in a collective struggle to achieve social goals. This course introduces students to the study of political power in the context of New Zealand. In the course you are introduced to the art, craft and passion of politics as a process of establishing our visions of the good life, and to difficult common problems that face this small democratic polis or political community.

This course is then an introduction to both New Zealand government and how to conduct applied political analysis. We aim to help students new to the study of politics, to understand both the democratic framework of New Zealand government, and ways of asking deeper, probing questions about what kind of society we want to live in, why? Can we achieve this collectively? At what cost (social, economic, environmental), for whom?

This year there’s a special focus on issues concerning youth and intergenerational equity.