Students are expected to carry out their reading assignments in preparation for the next class and to actively participate in class discussions.
Leistungsnachweis
Students will hand in three 1-page essays throughout the seminar, hold a presentation on a class topic, and turn in a term paper at the end of the course. The presentation will be held in English, the essays and the term paper may be written in English or in German.
The process of European integration has undoubtedly contributed immensely to the advancement of peace, prosperity and liberal democracy in Europe over the last seven decades. The EU has come to include 27 member states and has become a central actor on the European and world political stage as well as in the everyday life of hundreds of millions of its citizens. Despite this, the story of this process is plural and more complex than a triumphant march towards the telos of an “ever closer Union”. The last two decades in particular have seen the EU being hit by multiple crises and have registered a rise in Euroscepticism, i.e. a scepsis towards European institutions and/or the European integration project. Euroscepticism is also a complex and plural field, with critics ranging from anti-immigration sovereigntist radical-right (Orbán’s Fidesz of Hungary) to anti-austerity pro-integration left-wing parties (Spain’s Podemos), and the scope of their critique going from all-out opposition (as in the case of British Euroscepticism leading to Brexit) to discontent only with certain elements of the institutions (as expressed by many reformers).
In this seminar, these various and plural forms of critique of the project of European integration (Euroscepticisms), expressed across time and space, will be analysed from a comparative perspective, with a particular focus on contemporary empirical cases of party-based Euroscepticism. After a critical review of the narratives and theories of European integration, we will be looking at the main strands of theory within the field of Euroscepticism studies. In the second part of the seminar, our goal will be to make use of these theories to analyse and compare with each other a host of empirical cases of (mostly) party-based Euroscepticism at several stages of the history of the EC/EU, in different member states East and West of the former Iron Curtain and hailing from the Right as well as the Left of the political spectrum.
Anmelderegeln
Diese Veranstaltung gehört zum Anmeldeset "Anmeldung gesperrt (global)".
