EU politics

Teacher(s)

Brogna Valentina;

Language

English

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 :

At the end of the course, students will have: - been presented with a general overview of the history of the European project - acquired a basic knowledge of the peculiar political system that is the European Union - had informed debates regarding the long-standing issue of the democratic deficit of the European Union

Content

The lectures will proceed in three stages. To begin with, we will look at the history of the European project to explain how we arrived at the current institutional outcome. We will show that the European Union was not built in a day and that many of its quirks result from hard-fought negotiation processes and compromises opposing conflicting views of the European integration project. We will link institutional developments to different theories of European integration and EU governance.
Secondly, we will make the point that the political institutions constitutive of the European Union are integrated enough to be considered an actual political system. Accordingly, the European Union can be studied as such, which we will be doing for several lectures, putting the emphasis on the fact that the EU is a quite unique political system that deserves to be approached as a sui generis case. We will highlight the institutionalized relationships between its main actors and paint at great brushstrokes its inner institutional logic. We will lean on different policy-making modes.
Thirdly, we will focus on selected policy areas, showing which actors and policy-making modes constitute them, their historical development and how, concretely, decisions are made. All throughout the course, we will also deal with the long-standing issue of EU democratic deficit.

Teaching methods

The course rests on two teaching methods: the class begins with a lecture by the teacher; after that, students will be invited to present the reading associated to the lecture and to discuss it. Additionally, there can be presentations by professionals working around EU institutions.

Evaluation methods

Two-hours written exam, in English, consisting of open-ended questions:
- 2 questions on the course programme
- 1 question on the readings
- 1 question of personal reflection 
BONUS: students presenting one reading during the course can get 1 point; students discussing one reading during the course can get 1 point; students delivering written summaries of all the readings can get up to 2 points. 
The use of Artificial Intelligence is strictly forbidden.

Other information

Face-to-face , second term, 30 hours of theory.
The slides are given to the students right after each session.
Students are encouraged to take their notes, as a way to assimilate the subject.

Bibliography

A bibliography of useful further references will be provided during the course.

Teaching materials

• Cini M. and N. Pérez-Solórzano Borragán (eds.) 2022, European Union Politics, 7th ed, OUP (selected chapters)
• Wallace H., Pollack M. A., Roederer-Rynning Ch. and A. R. Young (eds.) 2020, Policy-making in the European Union, 8th ed., OUP (selected chapters)
• Readings

Faculty or entity

> ESPB