HU Credits: 2

Degree/Cycle: 2nd degree (Master)

Responsible Department: European Studies

Semester: 1st Semester

Teaching Languages: English

Campus: Mt. Scopus

Course/Module Coordinator: Dr. Tristan Klingelhöfer

Coordinator Email: tr.klinge@mail.huji.ac.il

Coordinator Office Hours: Mondays, 14:00 – 15:00

Teaching Staff:
Dr. Tristan Klingelhoefer

Course/Module description:
The course surveys the politics of contemporary Europe. In addition to delineating the basic institutional set-up of European democracies, the first part of the course introduces theoretical approaches commonly employed to understand European politics. We then take a systemic perspective and focus on issues and themes that have come to characterize the politics of exemplary European countries. In the final part, we adopt a decidedly comparative stance, highlighting the sources and consequences of different institutions, processes, and policy outcomes across the region.

Course/Module aims:
The course aims to equip students with a roadmap for understanding politics in European countries. It provides an overview of the variety of institutions, processes, and political outcomes that characterize democracies in the region. This will enable students to both contextualize day-to-day politics as well as analyze relevant topics and issues scientifically. To the letter end, the course introduces central debates in the respective academic literatures and showcases the variety of methods employed in the social sciences.

Learning outcomes - On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
• describe variation in institutions, processes, and policy outcomes across European democracies,

• analyze the interplay of political actors in both systemic as well as comparative perspective,

• explicate how the different issues relate to broader themes and developments in the politics of Europe.

Attendance requirements(%):
85

Teaching arrangement and method of instruction: Seminar

Course/Module Content:
Part 1 – Foundations of European politics

(1) The basic institutional set-up of European democracies
(2) Party government and its critics
(3) Multi-level governance


Part 2 – Exemplary political issues in Europe

(4) Switzerland: Direct democracy and immigration
(5) Italy: Populists in government
(6) Poland: Democratic backsliding
(7) Sweden: Social Democracy, now and then
(8) The United Kingdom: The aftermath of Brexit


Part 3 – Comparative perspectives on politics in Europe

(9) Elections and representation
(10) Governments and governing
(11) Welfare state retrenchment and inequality
(12) The progressive transition and backlash
(13) Zooming in on the populist challenge to party government

Required Reading:
The complete syllabus and the required reading will be uploaded to the Moodle site of the course.

Additional Reading Material:

Course/Module evaluation:
End of year written/oral examination 0 %
Presentation 15 %
Participation in Tutorials 15 %
Project work 70 %
Assignments 0 %
Reports 0 %
Research project 0 %
Quizzes 0 %
Other 0 %

Additional information: