040229 SE Policy in the EU (2019S)

Important note: Since the seminar is held as a block of four day-long sessions, extensive reading (ca 250 pages) during a shorter-than-usual time (until March 1st) is required. Please familiarize yourself with the reading list before committing to the seminar, as the seminar builds on student input. Starting with the first session, there will be graded take-home quizzes on the literature that need to be submitted in advance of each session.

Contents:
In the process of European integration, member states have largely centralized competition policy at the European level and thereby moved the provision of public services to a significant extent from the public sector to the market. Through the application of the “four market freedoms”, and “mutual recognition” of foreign regulatory standards, they also opened up domestic markets in goods and services for foreign competition, sometimes governed by foreign regulation. At the same time, however, liberalization seems to have unleashed an unprecedented level of regulatory activity at the EU level, and member-states often successfully “export” their domestic regulations to the EU level.
The seminar explores these and other seeming contradictions in regulatory EU policy, using concepts from European integration theory and comparative politics. It provides and introduction to EU policy with instances of market constituting (liberal) and market-correcting (interventionist) policies as examples. It explores the tensions between these policies, their dynamics and potential for conflict; and it examines how and to what extent market constitution and market correction are embedded in the EU’s institutional architecture.
Aims:
At the end of this course, you will
- know the EU’s basic institutions and decision-making processes
- understand how the EU’s institutional setting affects policy choices and patterns of decision-making
- be able to analyse, discuss and critically evaluate selected political science literature on EU regulatory EU policies
- be able to research some political science literature and present findings in a condensed, graphical poster format

Title: EU in Crisis? Policies

Summary of the course contents:
The policies of the European Union (EU) profoundly affect the lives of people in Europe and around the world. The most commonly known policies to do that are the creation of a single market (~500 million consumers, one of the largest in the world), as well as the creation of the Euro (despite its young age, a powerful international currency). In addition to these economic achievements, the EU has become a serious actor in other areas such as environmental protection, international trade, development aid, international security, etc.
This course will be divided into three parts: the first one will focus on internal policies such as the single market, Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), EU’s social dimension, etc.; the second part will concentrate on EU’s external dimension with policies such as international trade, enlargement, the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), environmental protection, etc.; in the third part students will get acquainted with issues that currently dominate the discourse about EU studies such as the democratic deficit and legitimacy of the EU, public opinion, as well as what future for the EU.
Completion of the seminar will enable students to have a deeper understanding of selected EU policies and their impact within the EU and at the global level as well as understanding on issues dominating the discourse on the EU.

Objective of the course:
The aim of the course is twofold: a) to enable students gain in-depth understanding of relevant EU policies and issues dominating the discourse on the EU; b) advance students' ability to produce spoken and written analyses in accordance with good academic practices.

Learning outcomes:
• Detailed understanding about selected EU policies and issues currently dominating the discourse on EU studies.
• Class is designed to develop students’ analytical/critical thinking and presentation techniques. Research work and essay writing target the improvement of students’ research and academic writing skills. Hence, students will learn how to:
o Independently produce spoken and written analyses in accordance with good academic practices,
o Raise good analytical questions relevant to topics provided,
o Plan and present own research, and
o Critically analyse and think conceptually about selected EU policies by using reasoned/well-informed arguments.