Ph.D. Program in Political Systems and Institutional Change / PSIC

The doctoral program in Political Systems and Institutional Change at IMT is a multidisciplinary course that uses a comparative perspective to analyze institutions and their historical, political, sociological, economic and legal features. Special attention is devoted to processes of institutional change. The Ph.D. program aims to form political analysts adept at planning and managing collaborative and integrated processes at an international level; analyzing and assessing policies and institutional settings at supranational, national and regional levels; and confronting the specific problems of countries in transition towards democracy and a market economy. The Ph.D. program equips students with the analytical tools and methodologies of investigation elaborated within various contemporary traditions in the social sciences, thereby providing the theoretical and practical knowledge necessary to both evaluate comparatively the performance of institutional systems, and elaborate proposals for structural reforms. Courses focus on the historical, political, institutional and economic dynamics that characterize the development of European and former Soviet countries after the Second World War. A typical roster of course offering also covers the following topics: the institutional and decisional dynamics of European countries and the European Union, including the trend towards multilevel governance both at European and domestic levels (federalization, independent regulatory authorities, etc.); EU-US relations; the relationship between politics, social processes and economic policy decisions; paths of economic and political development; the institutional workings of international organizations; and geographical area studies of special relevance. Graduates of the Ph.D. program will be able to analyze and compare political processes and public policies and will be highly qualified for careers in: - international organizations, European Union institutions, NGOs; - national public administrations, in positions where particular competence is required in the evaluation of public policies and institutional change; - independent regulatory authorities; - agencies producing geopolitical and geoeconomic analyses for private investors and think-tanks; - those private firms which require competence in the fields of politics and public policies, above all if internationally-oriented; - consultancy to political decision-makers.