This course aims at introducing students to major ideas underpinning the comparative analysis of political institutions and to current theories regarding the impact of institutional variation and governance. The course will give the student the opportunity to progress from an introduction to institutional analysis to the comparison of the different state institutions. Students will also investigate and discuss different legal and constitutional models of state power, mainly the relationship between executive and legislative and the impact of these relationships on governance and representation. It will include both diverse theoretical literature, and also an empirical component of analysis of political institutions. This course aims to compare institutions of democracies from elections through to their formal procedures and political systems and will provide an overview of the major approaches to democratic theory and representation. I) Conceptualizing political institutions II) Do institutions matter? III) Rational choice institutionalism IV) Voting behaviour V) Political regimes and electoral systems VI) Executive-Legislative relations and institutions VII) Representation and participation politics VIII) Party systems and political parties