Politics of
Tuesday, Thursday 2:20 – 3:35 1957 E Street Rm
214
Professor Kimberly Morgan
Office: Old
Phone: 994-2809
Email: kjmorgan@gwu.edu
Office Hours: Tuesday, Thursday,
Summary
This class will introduce you to the study of politics in
West European countries, with an emphasis on four states:
There are two required texts for this class:
Michael Gallagher et al., Representative Government in
Modern
Mark Kesselman et al., European Politics in Transition
4th ed.
You can purchase both textbooks at the GWU bookstore. There is a copy of the Gallagher book on reserve (Gelman), in case you prefer to read it in the library. Unfortunately, GWU lacks a copy of the Kesselman, 4th edition that can be put on reserve. The other required readings are available as pdf files through the e-reserves on the Blackboard system – you can either read them on-line or print them out.
Blackboard
In addition to required reading, you will find other useful information on Blackboard, such as copies of the overheads used in class, helpful websites on European politics, and a copy of the syllabus. On the day of each class, I will post a one-page outline of the topics to be covered in that day’s lecture. If you want, you can print out a copy to follow along, or else print it out later. I will also post any tables or graphs shown as overheads in that day’s lecture, so that you don’t have to scribble this information down during class. Handouts and outlines are available through the “Outline” section of Blackboard.
To access Blackboard, you must have a Colonial e-mail account and be registered for this course. To log in, go to http://blackboard.gwu.edu and type in your NetID and email password. If you have problems or questions, try going to http://helpdesk.gwu.edu. Please try to access Blackboard as soon as possible, to make sure that you are in the system and that you understand its various features.
Current events
One of the goals of the class is to make you a more
sophisticated consumer of news on European politics. As a result, we will be talking about current
developments in European politics on a regular basis, most often in the first
5-10 minutes of class. You can keep
up-to-date through a number of sources: The
New York Times, Washington Post,
CNN, and MSNBC offer some coverage of European politics and are available on-line. Some particularly good sources on European
politics are: The Guardian (www.guardian.co.uk), The Economist (some web articles freely available, www.economist.com), The Financial Times (news.ft.com/home/europe),
The European Voice (www.europeanvoice.com), and the International Herald Tribune (www.iht.com).
The International Herald Tribune also publishes English versions of El Pais (
Exams
Midterm/Final: These exams consist of identifications
and short essays. The first exam, on March 10, will cover the first half of
the course. The second exam is a
take-home, and will cover the entire class, with an emphasis on the second
half. The exam will be
distributed on the last day of class on May 5, and will be due by
Map quiz: There will be a map quiz on February 3. There is a map available in the Kesselman
textbook. In addition, to help you
prepare for the quiz, there are some websites listed on Blackboard (under
“Outline”). You should know all of the European
countries west of
Grading:
Map quiz: 5%
Midterm exam: 45%
Final exam: 55%
Introduction and
Historical Foundations
January 18: Introduction;
what is
January 20: NO CLASS,
Inauguration day.
January 25: The origin of political liberalism and
democracy:
January 27: The complicated
path to democracy:
February 1: Overview of European society and politics since 1945.
Legislative,
Executive, and Judicial Institutions
February 3: Executives
and Heads of State. MAP QUIZ IN CLASS.
February 8: Parliamentary Government.
February 10: Electoral Systems.
February 15: Politics, Italian Style
Felia Allum and James Newell,
“Aspects of the Italian Transition,” Journal
of Modern Italian Studies 8, 2 (2003): 182-96.
February 17: Judicial Systems.
Alec Stone, “Legal Constraints to
Policy-Making: The Conseil constitutionnel and the Conseil d'état.” In P. Godt, ed., Policy-Making
in
Political Parties
February 22: The Traditional Left: Social Democratic, Socialist and Communist Parties.
February 24: the Traditional Center/Right: Christian Democrats, Tories, Thatcher’s Revolution.
Please look at the
first few pages of the SPD and CDU party platforms, available through
blackboard.
March 1: New Social Movements, Post-Materialism, Green Parties
Ronald Inglehart, “Globalization
and Postmodern Values,”
March 3: Radical right-wing parties.
Mark Neocleous and Nick Startin, “’Protest’ and Fail to Survive: Le Pen and the
Great Moving Right Show,” Politics
23, 3 (2003): 145-55.
James Newell, “
March 8: The New Left; review.
Mark Wickham-Jones, “From Reformism to Resignation and Remedialism? Labour’s Trajectory Through British Politics,” Journal of Policy History 15, 1 (2003).
“The Blair/Schroeder Manifesto,
March 10: MIDTERM EXAM.
SPRING BREAK March
14-18
Diversity and politics.
March 22: Immigration and diversity
Brett Klopp, “German Immigration History and National Citizenship Policy,” in Klopp, German Multiculturalism: Immigrant Integration and the Transformation of Citizenship (Praeger, 2002): 33-55.
March 24: Islam
in
J. Christian Soper
and Joel S Fetzer, “Explaining the Accommodation of
Muslim Religious Practices in
Ian Buruma, “Letter from
March 29: Women and Politics.
Pippa Norris, “Women’s Representation and Electoral Systems,” Encyclopedia of Electoral Systems (CQ Press, 2000).
Jane Freedman, “Increasing Women’s Political Representation:
The Limits of Constitutional Reform,” West
European Politics 27, 1 (Jan 2004): 104-23.
Public policy
issues
March 31: The
Role of the State in the Economy,
April 5: Unions, corporatism, and the growth of the welfare state.
Chris Pierson, “On the origins of welfare state 1880-1975,” in Beyond the Welfare State? The New Political Economy of Welfare 2d edition (1998), pp. 99-135.
April 7: The Nature and Future of the Welfare State
“Taxing the Poor to Pay the Poor,” Economist 371 (
Mads Meier Jæger and Jon Kvist, “Pressures on State Welfare in Post-Industrial Societies: Is More or Less Better?” Social Policy and Administration 37, 6 (Dec 2003): 555-72.
Gerard Braunthal, “The SPD, the
Welfare State, and Agenda 2010,” German
Politics and Society 69, 21 no. 4 (Winter 2003): 1-29.
The European Union
April 12: The Origins of European
Integration.
April 14: The Institutions of the EU.
Karen J. Alter and Sophie Meunier-Aitsahalia, “Judicial Politics in the European Community: European Integration and the Pathbreaking Cassis de Dijon decision,” pp. 397-423.
April 19: EU Policies – The Single Market; EMU;
Agriculture.
Barry Eichengreen, “New
Michael Baun, “Intergovernmental
Politics,” in Neill Nugent, ed., European
Union Enlargement (
April 21: NO CLASS.
Professor out of town.
April 26: The Impact of the EU on domestic politics
Geoffrey Evans “
Sonia Mazey, “The European Union and Women’s Rights,” in Hine and Kassim, Beyond the Market: The EU and National Social Policy (Routledge: 1998): 134-52.
Articles from the forum on, “Is the EU Democratic and Does it Matter” http://www.eustudies.org/Winter2004Forum.pdf
April 28: EU Enlargement; the future.
David R. Cameron, “The Tough Trials Ahead for the EU’s Eastern Expansion,” Current History 103, 671 (March 2004): 119-26.
Michael Baun,
“The Implications of EU Enlargement for the
David L. Phillips, “
Wolfgang Schäuble,
“Talking Turkey,” Foreign Affairs 83,
6 (Nov/Dec 2004): 134-8.
May 5: Summary, review. Final exam will be
distributed at the end of class, and is due Friday, May 6 at