The European Political System

Teacher(s)

Duez Denis;

Language

French

Prerequisites

The prerequisite(s) for this Teaching Unit (Unité d’enseignement – UE) for the programmes/courses that offer this Teaching Unit are specified at the end of this sheet.

Learning outcomes

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :

On completion of the course, students will have a global understanding of the whole set of actors that contribute to the "European political game", as well as of the main type of interactions among them. They will be familiar with the actors' contribution to the dynamic and the development of the EU. They will also have been introduced to the question of legitimacy in the European Union.

Content

The course combines two perspectives. On one hand, the course will identify all types of actors participating in the European political system (European and national ones). The course will present their composition, resources and main instruments for action, their identity and political orientations. The weight of each of these actors in the European political decision-making process will be underlined. On the other hand, the course will engage a more dynamic perspective, centred on the interactions among the actors. It will acknowledge the fundamental diversity of actors and levels of governance of the European public affairs. Selected case studies will be used to illustrate this second perspective of the course.

Teaching methods

Course description:

The course will present theoretical and empirical works (legal, political and socio-political) on each of the themes. PowerPoint presentations, including the structure of each lecture, tables, charts, images and links to videos or websites presented during the course, will be made available in Moodle.

Learning activities description:

First, each lecture is associated with a list of readings. Of these, one reading is compulsory. Further readings are optional and allow students to go deeper into the subject of the course. The compulsory readings are collected in a syllabus and posted on the course website (Moodle). Students may be asked to respond to multiple choice questionnaires available in Moodle. These questionnaires cover the content of mandatory readings. The answers to these questionnaires are not evaluated. They are part of self-study activities.

Secondly, students will be invited to attend two events (conferences, seminars, debates) in connection with the course. These events will be selected either in the activities organized at Université Saint-Louis – Bruxelles or in the many activities organized in Brussels in the field of European affairs.

Evaluation methods

Written examination.
The examination aims to verify the student's mastery of the notions and concepts studied during the course. The questions presuppose a very good knowledge and understanding of the subject matter. The student could, for example, be asked to comment on a current topic by adequately mobilizing the concepts, theories or typologies presented during the course. One or more questions relate to learning activities (+/- 25% of the final grade).

Bibliography

Le portefeuille de lectures est disponible sur Moodle.

Faculty or entity

ESPB