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Syllabus The European Union: A Unique "Beast" - 54833
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Last update 24-10-2017
HU Credits: 4

Degree/Cycle: 2nd degree (Master)

Responsible Department: european studies

Semester: Yearly

Teaching Languages: Hebrew

Campus: Mt. Scopus

Course/Module Coordinator: Dr. Maya Sion-Tzidkiyahu

Coordinator Email: maya.sion@mail.huji.ac.il

Coordinator Office Hours: Mondays, 5-6pm, by prior appointment through email

Teaching Staff:
Dr. Maya Sion

Course/Module description:
The European Union (EU) is a strange “beast” from a political, institutional, governance, economic and legal perspectives, challenging scholars in IR and Political Science. It is easier to define the EU by what it is not, i.e., it is more than an international organization but less than a state. The course will examine its uniqueness since the beginning of the process of building the Union on the rabbles of World War II until the debt crisis and the refugee criris nowadays. It will explain how the EU works. We will analyze the changing “balance of power” between its institutions along the years, and its unique policies, such as the single market, the single currency - the euro, the Schengen free movement zone, and the Common Foreign and Security Policy. In addition, the course will examine the relevance of integration theories to the understanding, explaining and projecting the path of the integration process.

Course/Module aims:
To instill wide knowledge and to develop deep understanding about the Eueopean integration project from historical, political, institutional, policy-making and theoretical perspectives.

To introducte the students to the main theoretical approaches of European integration.

Learning outcomes - On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
1. Define basic terms in the realm of European integration

2. To describe and analyze the ups and downs of the European integration process from historical, institutinal, economic and political perspectives.

3 To analyze the integration process by employing different theories of the discipline.

4. To generalize and exemplify phenomena and processes in the European integration process.

Attendance requirements(%):
100%

Teaching arrangement and method of instruction: The main part of the course consists of lectures accompanied by slides. Open debates are integrated during each class.

In addition, during some classes students groups will present cases and policy positions in the form of debates.

Course/Module Content:
1. Introducaion: from nationalism to supra-nationalism

2. First decades of European integration - leap to the unknown (1950-1985)

3. From Community to Union (1986-2003)

4. European Union in crisis - From the Constitutional Treaty to the Treaty of Lisbon, the debt crisis, immigration/refugees criris, Brexit and more

5. Integration theories

6. Institutions and players
6.1 The European Commission
6.2 Council of the European Union (Council of Ministers) and the European Council
6.3 The European Parliament
6.4 The European Court of Justice
6.5 Lobby groups

7. Decision making procedures and processes

8. Policy making

9. Additional Issues, such as Euroscepticism and the rise of the far right, democratic deficit, public opinion and more.

10. The Europan Unon in the Mediterranean basin and its relations with Israel

11. Concluding observations

Required Reading:
Detailed information will be provided in the course's Moodle.

The reading is based on a number of primary and advanced introductory books, as well as different articles.

The course books are:

Desmond Dinan, Ever Closer Union: An Introduction to European Integration, 4th ed., (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2010).

Michelle Cini and Nieves Pérez-Solórzan Borragán, European Union Politics, 5th Edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2016).

Simon Hix and Bjørn Høyland, The Political System of the European Union, 3rd ed., (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011).

Helen Wallace, Mark A. Pollack and Alasdair R. Young, Policy-Making in the European Union, 6th edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010).

Neil Nugent, The Government and Politics of the European Union, 7th ed. (Basingstoke: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2010).

Desmond Dinan, Ever Closer Union: An Introduction to European Integration, 4th ed., (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2010).

- William E. Paterson Neill Nugent Michelle P. Egan, Research Agendas in EU Studies: Stalking the Elephant (Palgrave Studies in European Union Politics, 2010).

Additional Reading Material:
More information will be provided in Moodle.

Course/Module evaluation:
End of year written/oral examination 0 %
Presentation 0 %
Participation in Tutorials 0 %
Project work 0 %
Assignments 0 %
Reports 0 %
Research project 50 %
Quizzes 0 %
Other 50 %
debate

Additional information:
The course is open also to BA students in their third year.

up to 5 points will be given for active and constructive participation in class.

During the course several debates will take place between groups of students. After the debate, the written arguemtns will be handed, including bibliography.
* Some changes of the syllabus may take place during the year.

* the full, updated, obliging syllabus will be in moodle.

* students should follow the announcements in moodle.
 
Students needing academic accommodations based on a disability should contact the Center for Diagnosis and Support of Students with Learning Disabilities, or the Office for Students with Disabilities, as early as possible, to discuss and coordinate accommodations, based on relevant documentation.
For further information, please visit the site of the Dean of Students Office.
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