University of Bergen Department of Comparative Politics
The Department of Comparative Politics is a department at the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Bergen that researches and teaches in comparative politics, a subfield of political science.
Fields of research
The department does research and teaches in the topics of political development, democracy and democratisation in a broad sense. However, the empirical approach based on the method of comparison is more defining for the department's activities than the topics. Initially, the subject was mainly concentrated on European affairs, but global political developments has caused a widening of interests and focus to themes associated with democracy and democratisation in Asia, Africa and Latin America as well.History
The Department of Comparative Politics has existed as an individual unit since January 1, 1980. Stein Rokkan, the man regarded as the founder of the department, was appointed as Professor in Comparative Politics at the University of Bergen as early as in 1966. The Comparative Politics subject was initially a part of the Department of Sociology.Since 1981 the department has arranged the Stein Rokkan Memorial Lecture. This has been in cooperation with the Rokkan Centre since 2002.