Exercises:

I. Word Study.

1. Learn the pronunciation and remember the following words:

administration / / n	administrative / / a
alumnus n / / pl alumni / - /	analysis n / / pl analyses / - /
anthropology / / n	area / / n
Bachelor / / n	basis / / n pl bases / - /
campaign / / n	course / / n
curriculum / / n pl curricula / - /	datum / / n pl data / - /
economics / / n	economical / / a
economy / / n	ensure / / vt
foreign / / a	government / / n
governmental / / a	issue / / n
Master / / n	method / / n
methodology / / n	philosophy / / n
process / / vt	professor / / n
prognosis / / n pl prognoses / - /	psychology / / n
qualify / / vt	science / / n
social / / a	society / / n
sociology / / n	technical / / a
technique / / n	technology / / n
theoretical / / a	theory / / n

2. Translate and learn the following words and phrases:

administrative body n phr	alumnus n (pl alumni)
annual research paper n phr	applied political studies n phr pl
Bachelor’s degree (in smth.) n phr	comparative political studies n phr pl
curriculum n (pl curricula)	electoral campaign n phr
final year dissertation n phr	governmental body n phr
Master’s degree (in smth.) n phr	to meet (e.g., standards) vt
political science n phr

II. Grammar Exercise. Find the verbals in the text and explain their syntactic functions.

(To help you, some of them are already underlined.)

III. Retell the text interpreting it from your position of a student of the Institute. Department of Political Governance

The Department was established in 1995 as a successor to the former Centre for Socio-Political Reform in Russia. At first, the Department specialized in the research of Russian political reform; hence its name is the Department of Socio-Political Reform in Russia. Later, the Department began conducting research in the fields of public administration reform, public management, and comparative analysis of politics in Russia and post-socialist countries. In 1996 the Department began admitting students to the new curriculum ‘Public Administration and Law’. In the same year the Centre for Innovations in Public Administration was established at the Department to organize research in the field. In November 1998 the Department acquired its current name.

The Department trains students for a Bachelor’s degree (specialization ‘Public Administration and Law’) and a Master’s degree (specialization ‘Political Processes in Russia’). The Department also provides postgraduate training in Political Institutions and Processes, Political Culture and Ideology, and Political Sociology. Students from different countries (ex-USSR, Mongolia, Japan, Afghanistan) come to study at the Department.

The Department conducts research in the following fields:

- Methodology for the Comparative Analysis of Political Systems

- Innovations in Public Administration and Politics

• Social State Theory

• Ideology and Politics of Administrative Reform in Russia

• Governance Techniques

• Economic and Socio-Political Change

• Political Management.

The Centre for Political Management based at the Department organizes applied social and political research as well as develops innovative models for public administration. In cooperation with the Komi Republic Academy of Public Service and the Komi Republic Administration, the Department conducts research on the Manpower Policy System in Federation Subjects and the Efficiency of Public Administration.

The Department’s staff attended at the First Russian Philosophy Congress and the First and Second Russian Congresses in Political Science. They have also participated in a number of international seminars and conferences at the Free University of Berlin (Germany), Cambridge University (UK), University of Tübingen (Germany), University of Budapest (Hungary), Stanford University (USA). Three student conferences in Political Science have been held: ‘Socio-Political Reform in Russia and the Young Generation’ (1997), ‘Applied Political Studies and Contemporary Political Processes in Russia’ (1998), ‘Political Management: Theory, Methodology, Practice’ (1999). In June 1998 the Department hosted the international seminar ‘Liberalism, Communitarism, and Democratic Reform in Russia’.

The Department cooperates with the International Institute of Public Administration (Brussels), Interdisciplinary Centre for Comparative Research in the Social Sciences (Vienna), University of Tübingen (Germany), and San Francisco State University (USA).

In 2000 the Department published an on-line course in comparative political studies by Head of Department, Professor L. Smorgunov. It is based on his courses given at Saint Petersburg State University and the Russian State Pedagogical University since 1992, as well as on his monograph Comparative Political Studies. Theory and Methodology of Democracy Measurement published in 1999. This new on-line course is fundamental for training specialists in political science. It deals with the history of comparative political studies, and the methodology and techniques of comparative political research. Among other issues, special attention is paid to the empirical theory of democracy, comparative analysis of parties and party systems, public bodies, political culture, and public politics. The course teaches qualitative and quantitative methods for comparing political processes, such as case studies, historical-comparative techniques, and Boolean algebra.