Course Descriptions

Master’s Program

B0110 Policy Analysis (2/0) This course mainly deals with issues of public policy.  There are several topics such as problem definition, agenda setting, policy design, main problems of implementation, the resolution methods, and the feasibility of these methods.

M1122 Special Topics on Ethnic Politics in Taiwan (2/0) This course offers basic concepts, theories, and conceptual frameworks of ethnic relations in general. Three dimensions of ethnic interactions in Taiwan are thoroughly investigated and students will explore how the constitutional, party, and electoral systems may be arranged to accommodate ethnic cleavages.

M1018 Legal Policymaking (0/2) This course introduces students to the conjuncture of law and public policy. Topics include legal drafting and legislative process, the interface of law and policy, various forms or methods of state intervening mechanisms, choosing from law and alternatives, selection of implementing agencies, etc.

M1236 Seminar on Political Behavior (0/2) The course provides students with opportunities to be familiar with major fields of political behaviors including: voting behavior, political psychology, public opinion, and political communication.

M1030 Seminar on Political Economics (0/2) This course studies issues of economic development and state capacity. There are three main topics in this course: the developmental state, the function of the civil society, and the collaboration between the state and the civil society.

M1335 Bureaucratic Politics and Institutional Design (2/0) This course explores the patterns of bureaucrats’ behaviors.  We examine a wide range of bureaucracies, including the U.S. Army, the FBI, the DEA, the CIA, the FCC, and the Social Security Administration. The main purposes are to answer what government agencies do and why they do it and to describe the efforts we should make on improving the management of government agencies.

M1341 Research Method and Design (2/0) The goal of this course is to illustrate the process of completing a research paper. A variety of research methods are introduced.

M1357 Methods of Quantitative Analysis (0/2) This course offers basic and practical knowledge on statistics. To begin with, we briefly discuss the research design of empirical research. Second, we extensively explore the theoretical basis of statistics. Finally, the statistical package—SPSS is introduced to help students implement empirical studies.  

M1385 Special Topics on Political Institutions (0/2) The course focuses on three major sets of political institution: constitutional systems, party systems, and electoral systems, after general theories on political systems, particularly, neo-institutionalism, have been introduced.

M1388 Qualitative Methods (0/2) This course provides students an understanding of concepts, processes, and theories of qualitative methods. Each student completes two field projects in which the theories and methods introduced in the class are applied to analyzing social settings.

M0476 Organization Theory and Management (2/0) This course introduces the managerial implications of organizational theories and concepts that are necessary for managers to formulate effective strategies to cope with hyper-competition. In addition, the most recent developments in organization theories such as organizational economics, organizational ecology, institutionalism, and network organizations are also addressed to provide an in-depth understanding of their meanings and implications for managing organizations.

M0630 Seminar on Strategic Management (2/0) This course raises awareness of the importance of strategic management in the public sector. It introduces the concepts, models, and processes of strategic management in government. This course also discusses topics of national competitiveness, talent management, resource management, and change management, which are supposed to be vital elements to the strategic management in government.

M1492 Power and Human Rights (2/0) This course focuses on the research on human rights. Since Taiwan's first party transition in May 2002, the new government stresses that the human-rights protection is the foundation of the country. From the viewpoint of human-rights development, there is an intense relationship between power and human rights. Besides state power, social power also causes significant influence on the human rights in modern countries. In order to realize the essence of human rights and to fulfill human-rights protections, the contemporary constitution must clarify the relationship between the power and human rights.

M1636 Program Evaluation (0/2) Designed to satisfy practitioners’ need for evaluation methods and techniques, this course focuses on various types of program evaluation such as formative evaluation, monitoring evaluation, outcome evaluation, and cost-benefit evaluation.  Special care is devoted to criteria and measurements for evaluation as well as models thereof.  Upon completion, students are able to handle the task of program evaluation in real situations.

M1714 Special course for Business Law (0/2) This course emphasizes the important issues of business management and regulation, especially the lately amended business laws, and reviews of the legislative background of the changes are included in this lecture.

M1228 Seminar in Administrative Law (2/0) The seminar is that examine theoretical issues and practical problems in Administrative Law, including Taiwanese and Japanese legal system and practice.

M1815 Seminar on Administrative Practice(2/0) This course will has discussions of the advantage and disadvantage of regulations and practical operations in the central government. It includes 5 topics; public opinion survey, government program and budget, performance management, central government organization reform and the e-government. It will enhance the students’ ability to analyze administrative practice issues.

M1812 Seminar on Environment Law(2/0) The Seminar presents different approaches for protecting the environment through national environmental legislation. Emphasis is given to the major components of modern environmental legal systems, for example environmental impact assessment, access to environmental information, science-based environmental standards, and implementation of international agreements etc.

M1483 Legal Methodologies and Thesis Writing(2/0) The purpose of this class is to teach students to be familiar with methodology of legal science. In addition, the instructor also intends to teach students about legal writing of administrative law. The first part of the semester are lectures by the instructor. The second part of the semester are papers written by students, which will be reported by students in class to put the legal methology into practice.

M1810 Seminar on Policy Evaluation(0/2) This seminar is to offer a systematic approach bringing a closer relationship between policy planners and decision makers and those who are involved with social program implementation and assessment. In this seminar, we will discuss a couple of issues such as tailoring evaluations, diagnostic procedures, strategies for impact assessment, etc,

M1876 Seminar on European Union Politics (2/0) This course provides a comprehensive introduction to the European Union. It examines topics such as: the history of the EU, theories of European integration, the institutions of the EU, and EU policymaking processes. This course also examines a number of important EU policies as well as the future prospects of the EU. 

M1907 Seminar on UK Politics (0/2)  This course provides an in-depth examination of UK politics. It covers the classical topics in the study of UK politics such as: the historical context of UK politics, the constitution, the Monarch, the House of Lords, the House of Commons, the Cabinet system, political parties, and elections in the UK. This course also examines a number of contemporary issues in UK politics as well as the future prospects of UK politics.

T0808 Democratic Politics (2/0)  This course provides a comprehensive introduction to the study of democratic politics. It covers the classical topics such as: the concepts of politics, definitions of democracy, models of democracy, democracy and globalization, and democracy and its critiques. This course also examines a number of contemporary issues as well as the future prospects of democratic politics.

M1964 Seminar on EU Governance(2/0) This course provides an in-depth examination of the governance of the European Union. It covers topics such as: the history of the EU, theories of European integration, the institutions of the EU, and EU policymaking processes. This course also examines a number of important EU policies as well as the future prospects of EU governance.

M1808 Constitutional Change(0/2)This course focuses on the theory of constitutional change, and the transformation of constitution in Taiwan. Topics include constitution- making, constitutional amendment, Verfassungswandlung, etc.

M1906 Constitutionalism and Democracy(2/0) Constitutionalism enshrines respect for human worth, rights and dignity as its central principle. Democratic theory, too, is based on a notion of human dignity. Although the strain between the two theories is always real and often serious, to an extent, they need each other. We will discuss how they can coexist in a country, and analyze the elements of constitutional democracy.