Special Regulations for the Preliminary Examination in History and Politics

A

1. 1. The Preliminary Examination in History and Politics shall be under the joint supervision of the Board of the Faculty of History and the Social Sciences Board and shall consist of such subjects as they shall jointly prescribe.
2. 2. The Chair of the Examiners for the Preliminary Examination in History and the Chair of the Examiners for the Preliminary Examination in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics shall consult together and designate such of their number as may be required for the examination for the Preliminary Examination in History and Politics, whereupon the number of examiners shall be deemed to be complete.

B

Every candidate shall offer four papers as follows:

1. Either (a) any one of the periods in the History of the British Isles specified for the Preliminary Examination in History or (b) any one of the four periods in General History specified for the Preliminary Examination in History. For the First or Second Public Examination candidates are required to choose at least one paper—whether in General History or the History of the British Isles—covering a period before the nineteenth century. The list of papers satisfying this provision is given in the Handbook for History and Politics. Candidates who take British History paper VII for the Preliminary Examination or the Final Honour School may not also take Politics core paper 202 for the Final Honour School.

2. Theorizing the Democratic State, as specified in section (a) of Introduction to Politics: the Theory and Practice of Democracy, for the Preliminary Examination for Philosophy, Politics and Economics.

OR candidates may substitute Optional Subject 1, ‘Theories of the State (Aristotle, Hobbes, Rousseau, Marx)’ as specified for the Preliminary Examination in History.

3. Any one of the following, as specified for the Preliminary Examination in History: (a) Quantification in History or (b) any of the Optional Subjects except No. 1 (Theories of the State), or (c) Approaches to History, or (d) Historiography: Tacitus to Weber, or (e) any one of the seven Foreign Texts.

4. Introduction to Politics: Analysis of Democratic Institutions

Candidates will be required to answer three questions drawn from section (b) of the paper Introduction to Politics: The Theory and Practice of Democracy as specified for the Preliminary Examination in Philosophy, Politics and Economics.

Candidates may choose to answer any combination of questions in section (b), but each part (b-ii) question chosen must relate to a different country (so answers must be on two different countries if two answers are chosen from (b-ii) and three countries if three answers). Candidates may, where appropriate, answer questions from part (b-i) exclusively in relation to one of the named countries, but any question chosen from part (b-ii) should not then be on that same country.

Candidates are expected, where appropriate, to show knowledge of the methodological issues involved in both normative and empirical political research.

The individual specifications and prescribed texts for papers 2 and 3 above will be published in the Handbook for the Preliminary Examination in History by Monday of noughth week of Michaelmas Term each year for the academic year ahead. Depending on the availability of teaching resources, with the exception of the Optional Subject 1, not all the Optional Subjects listed in the Handbook will be available to candidates in any given year. Candidates may obtain details of the choice of options for that year by consulting the Definitive List of Optional Subjects posted at the beginning of the first week of Michaelmas Full Term in the History Faculty and circulated to tutors.

Candidates who fail one or more of papers 1, 2, 3, or 4 above may resit that subject or subjects at a subsequent examination.