Introduction to European politics

This is a module framework. It can be viewed online or downloaded as a zip file. As taught in Spring Semester 2009 This module seeks to provide students with an understanding of the rationale and key stages of European integration, as well as of the institutions of the European Union and its functioning. Topics covered will include an overview of the History of European integration, key approaches to integration, the main institutions (Council, Commission, Court of Justice, European Parliament) as well as several policy areas (foreign policy, monetary policy, enlargement). Recent developments including the 2008 Treaty of Lisbon will be covered as will be the debates about the alleged democratic deficit of the EU. Suitable for: Undergraduate Level Year One students Professor Andreas Bieler and Dr Simona Guerra, School of Politics. Andreas Bieler is Professor of Political Economy and Fellow of the Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice (CSSGJ) in the School of Politics and International Relations, University of Nottingham/UK. His main research interest is the current struggle over the future economic-political model of the European Union. He is author of Globalisation and Enlargement of the European Union (Routledge, 2000) as well as The Struggle for a Social Europe: Trade unions and EMU in times of global restructuring (Manchester University Press, 2006). During the academic year 2009/2010, Andreas Bieler is a research fellow at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies (http://www.helsinki.fi/collegium/english/). Simona Guerra is a Teaching Fellow at the University of Nottingham since September 2008. Previously she was a researcher at Cardiff University for the EU-funded project 'Eurosphere', undertaking research on political parties and think tanks. Simona gained her MA in European Studies at the University of Siena, Italy - attending modules at the Instytut Spraw Publicznych, Uniwersytet Jagiellonski in Krakow, Poland, and at the Institut des Hautes Etudes Europeénnes, Université Robert Schuman in Strasbourg, France. She gained her MSc in Social Research Methods at the University of Sussex, where she successfully defended her DPhil research in Contemporary European Studies in September 2008. Her main research interests are on public opinion on European integration and disengagement with politics in Central and Eastern Europe. Among her publications, ‘Not Just Europeanization, Not Necessarily Populism: Potential factors underlying the mobilization of populism in Ireland and Poland’, forthcoming on Perspectives on European Politics and Society (with John FitzGibbon) and ‘The League of Polish Families betwen East and West, past and present’ , The Journal of Communist and Post-Communist Studies, 42, 527-549 (with Sarah de Lange). In 2009-10, Simona is also a guest lecturer for the MA in European Studies at the Centre of Research in European Integration (CRIE), Facolta' di Scienze Politiche, University of Siena, where she teaches a module on the fifth EU enlargement ('When East Meets West: l'Unione europea e l'allargamento a Est')