DRAFT SYLLABUS PS 324 European Politics Fall 2019

Time and Location: 12–1.20pm MW Lillis 112 Professor: James Conran Email: [email protected] Oﬃce: PLC 911 Oﬃce Hours: TBD

NB This syllabus is mostly based on the last time PS 324 was taught by Prof. Parsons. It is subject to signiﬁcant change - please contact the instructor for any further details or other inquiries. This course surveys the contemporary politics of Europe. The central focus will be mostly on western Europe, with particular attention to Great Britain, France, and Germany, though the formerly Communist countries of central and eastern Europe will also be mentioned. We will also pay considerable attention to the European Union, which plays an increasingly central role in shaping the politics of European nation-states. Some of the substantive themes we will cover include: political cultures (e.g. ideologies), political institutions (e.g. electoral systems), political behavior (e.g. voting), political parties and public policy (especially social and economic policies such as the welfare state). Learning goals

By the end of the course, students will be able to:

• describe the most important characteristics of the political systems of several European countries.

• summarize, orally and in writing, a range of views about the challenges and opportu- nities facing contemporary European democracies.

• apply a range of social science theories and concepts to European political and economic developments and the public discourses (media reports, politicians’ speeches etc.) around them.

Assessment

• Reading quizzes and participation (15%): It is essential that you come to each class meeting having carefully read all the assigned texts. To incentivize you to do so, a short closed-book reading quiz will be held at the beginning of each class. The quizzes are designed to be easy for those who have done the reading but diﬃcult for

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those who have not. There is partial credit for participation in quizzes but students who arrive after the quiz is administered will receive a score of 0. Unless an unforeseeable disaster befalls you, I will excuse absences only if you email more than 24 hours ahead of time. Extra credits will also be awarded to students who engage constructively in the class, for example by asking or answering questions in class, attending oﬃce hours etc.

• Mid-term paper (25%): This essay in response to a prompt will be between 1,500 and 1,800 words (equivalent to about 6 double-spaced pages) and is due by the end of Week 5.

• Final paper (40%): The ﬁnal paper (in response to a prompt) will be between 2,000 and 2,500 words (8-10 double-spaced pages) and is due on Friday of Week 10 by 5pm.

• Final exam (20%): a reasonably straightforward exam basically checking some of your factual knowledge of material from the class as a whole.

How Grades Will Be Determined

Students will receive grades based on the following criteria: A+: if given at all, given to 1 or 2 students whose performance stood out as signiﬁcantly stronger than all other students in the course. A: all assignments and participation demonstrate a particularly strong and nuanced understanding of almost all course concepts and the ability to clearly connect theories from the course to empirical evidence. B: all assignments and participation demonstrate solid understanding of most course concepts and the ability to adequately connect theories from the course to empirical evidence. C: completed assignments and participation demonstrate only a basic understanding of course concepts and/or one or more assignments missing. D: missing many assignments and completed assignments demonstrate little understanding of material covered. F: assignments completed account for less than 80% of total grade. Expected distribution of grades: c.20% As, c.35% Bs, c.35% Cs, c.7% Ds, c.3% Fs

Required purchase: iClickers

In order to participate in the reading quizzes (as well as other in-class activities) you will need to purchase an iClicker (available new or used at the Duck Store). Once you have purchased your iClicker, you need to register it for the class on Canvas. In addition, there is one required book for this course, J¨urgSteiner and Markus Crepaz, European Democracies (8th ed.), available at the UO bookstore. All the other readings are available in electronic form on the course Canvas site.

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Expectations

• This course requires that you complete the assigned readings before each class. (Of course this also implies you need to attend class). More generally, the success of the class will depend on your deep engagement with the readings and your active engagement in class. • Laptops, phones, and other electronic devices should be turned off and put away during lecture unless I ask you to take them out. Research and personal experience alike suggest this is the best way to foster discussion and mutual engagement in class. There are also significant advantages to taking notes by hand. If for any reason you would like an exemption from this policy, please email me to arrange a meeting to discuss. • Plagiarism will not be tolerated in this course. As a general rule, you should never take credit for words or ideas that are not your own, and you should give your readers enough information to evaluate the source and quality of your ideas and evidence. Ignorance is no defense - it is your responsibility to familiarize yourself with the University Student Conduct Code: conduct.uoregon.edu. You can also approach the professor or GE for guidance. Anyone suspected of dishonest behavior will be reported to the Director of Student Judicial Affairs for appropriate action. • Communication: One of your responsibilities in this class is to 1) make sure Canvas announcements are routed to your UO email and 2) check your UO email daily to keep up with class information. During weekdays, instructors will generally aim to reply to emails received within 24 hours. If you have not received a response after 24 hours, feel free to email a reminder.

Course Outline

This schedule is subject to change – keep track of course announcements. Readings will be made available via Canvas. Week 1

1 Is Europe the future or the past? (Wed., Oct. 2)

Readings • Anand Giridharadas, “Modifying a Deﬁnition of Modernity,” New York Times, October 21, 2011, 3p. • Parag Khanna,“A Postmodern Middle Ages” Spiegel Online, July 23, 2009, 3p. • Mark Leonard and Hans Kundnani, “Think Again: European Decline,” Foreign Policy, April 29, 2013, 18p.

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Week 2

2 European political space vs. American political space (Mon., Oct. 7)

Readings • Crepaz and Steiner Ch. 1, pp. 1-16.

3 The ideological battles of modern Europe (Wed., Oct. 9)

Readings • David Goldblatt, “Democracy in the ‘Long Nineteenth Century,’ 1760-1919,” in David Potter et al, Democratization (London: Polity, 1997), pp. 1-13 (stop at top of p. 13).

Week 3

4 Ideologies in today’s Europe (Mon., Oct. 14)

Readings • Crepaz and Steiner Ch. 2, pp. 17-63.

5 The varying politics of electoral games(Wed., Oct. 16)

Readings • Crepaz and Steiner Ch. 3, pp. 64-90. Week 4

6 Parties and party systems (Mon., Oct. 21)

Readings • Look again at Crepaz and Steiner Ch. 2, pp. 17-63.

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7 Forming governments (Wed., Oct. 23)

Readings • Crepas and Steiner Ch. 4, pp. 91-134.

Week 5

8 Making policy: who holds power? (Mon., Oct. 28)

Readings • Joel Aberbach, Robert Putnam, and Bert Rockman, “Introduction,” in Aberbach et al, Bureaucrats and Politicians in Western Democracies (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1981), pp. 1-24.

9 European economic spaces v. American economic space (Wed., Oct. 30)

Readings • Tony Judt, selection from Ill Fares the Land (New York: Penguin, 2010), in New York Review of Books, April 29, 2010, 12p.

MID-TERM ESSAY DUE BY, Friday, November 1

Week 6

10 Neoliberalism and the British economy (Mon., Nov. 4)

Readings • BBC, “What is Thatcherism?” April 20, 2013.

• Seamus Milne, “It’s Time to Bury Not just Thatcher but Thatcherism,” The Guardian, April 16, 2013.

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11 Statism and the French economy (Wed., Nov. 6)

Readings • The Economist, “The French Model: Vive la Diﬀ´erence!”May 7, 2009, 8p. • The Economist, “So Much to Do, So Little Time,” France Special Report, November 17, 2012, 6p. Week 7

12 Corporatism and the German economy (Mon., Nov. 11)

Readings • Steven Rattner, “The Secrets of Germany’s Success: What Europe’s Manufacturing Powerhouse Can Teach America,” Foreign Aﬀairs July 2011, 7-11.

13 The Post-Communist Politics of Central and East- ern Europe (Wed., Nov. 13)

Readings • Crepaz and Steiner, Ch. 11, 227-247. Week 8

14 National identities, federalism, and devolution (Mon., Nov. 18)

Readings • Crepaz and Steiner, Ch. 7, 155-161.

15 Immigration in Europe (Wed., Nov. 20)

Readings • Christian Dustmann and Tommaso Frattini, “Immigration: The European Experi- ence,” Norface Migration Center Discussion Paper No. 2012-01. PP 1-10 REQUIRED,

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further pages optional.

• Matthew Karnitschnig et al, “Europe’s Anti-Immigrant Parties Stand to Gain Ground in Wake of Paris Attacks,” Wall Street Journal, January 16, 2015

Week 9

16 The EU and how it works (Mon., Nov. 25)

Readings • Crepaz and Steiner, Ch. 14, 304-330.

17 The EU’s successes and challenges (Wed., Nov. 27)

Readings • TBA

Week 10

18 Is Europe in crisis ? How much ? (Mon., Dec. 2)

Readings • http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/21/european-debt-crisis_n_1147173. html

• Slightly more technical: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2012/06/04/154282337/ the-crisis-in-europe-explained

19 Europe’s future (Wed., Dec. 4)

Readings • TBA

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Course policies

Accessibility

Please notify me if there are aspects of this course that result in disability related barriers to your participation. For more information or assistance, you are also encouraged to contact the Accessible Education Center (AEC), 164 Oregon Hall, 346-1155; website: http://aec. uoregon.edu. If you have already been in contact with the AEC and have a notification letter, please provide me with a statement from AEC during the first week of class so that we can make appropriate arrangements. University policy requires that students present a notification letter from AEC to receive testing accommodations (see http://aec.uoregon. edu/students/current.html).

Inclusion

All students are welcome in this class. The University is a place where people from dif- ferent cultures and experiences learn together by taking each others’ ideas, questions and perspectives seriously. Everyone in this class is entitled to - and obliged to contribute to a respectful learning environment. Understanding and respecting the plurality of perspectives in our community is critical if our classroom, and our University, is to be what we want it to be: a place of open-minded inquiry where each individual’s intellectual and moral development enriches the development of the community as a whole. In practice that means students are expected to listen attentively when others are speaking, and avoid personal attacks. At the same time, all should feel comfortable expressing their views, political or otherwise, as long as they do so in an appropriate manner.

Discrimination and harasment reporting

I am a student-directed employee. For information about my reporting obligations as an employee, please see Employee Reporting Obligations. Students experiencing any form of prohibited discrimination or harassment, including sex or gender based violence, may seek information on safe.uoregon.edu, respect.uoregon.edu, titleix.uoregon.edu, or aaeo.uoregon.edu or contact the non-confidential Title IX office (541-346-8136), AAEO office (541-346-3123), or Dean of Students offices (541-346-3216), or call the 24-7 hotline 541-346-SAFE for help. I am also a mandatory reporter of child abuse. Please find more information at Mandatory Reporting of Child Abuse and Neglect.