This course examines how citizens see the political world and form opinions about it, and how their political behaviour is shaped by those opinions and their social identities.
The course will start out by surveying some foundational work on different theoretical perspectives in political behaviour and central methodological challenges in political behaviour research. After that, we focus on research that addresses different voter motivations, the broader political and social context, and specific political behaviours. Throughout the course, we will pay special attention to the interplay between political institutions, contextual factors, and behavioural outcomes. Readings are drawn from all major world regions.