COMPARATIVE EUROPEAN POLITICS

This seminar introduces the scientific study of European politics. The course applies the basic theoretical tools, concepts, and empirical methods of comparative politics to analyze, understand, and explain some of the systematic relationships that exist between economic, political, and social variables within European countries and the European Union. The seminar is divided thematically into three parts. Following a brief introduction to the course and review of the comparative method, the first section covers the origins of European states and democracy in Europe as well as the democratic transition processes of the ‘third wave’ in Southern, Central, and Eastern Europe. The second section focuses on the domestic political institutions of liberal European democracies and the variation that exists between them and the institutions of the European Union. While the course covers country-specific knowledge, the course is not an in-depth study of individual countries. Instead, the course discusses the similarities and differences in the executive-legislative relations, electoral systems, and party systems across Europe. The final section of the seminar deals with the effects and policy consequences that the variation in these institutional arrangements has on government accountability, representation, economic performance, political stability, and various economic and social policies.