PSCI 347
Enlarging Europe: Political Transformations and Current Challenges Fall 2009
Division II
This is not the current course catalog

In this course we will analyze and assess the major political, social and economic transformations taking place in Europe. First, European states have intensified their cooperation and pooled sovereignty within the European Union. How and by what means can states that fought each other during the second world war and represented two competing alliances during the bipolar world order make common policies in an increasing number of policy areas within the EU? Second, the older and younger democracies in Europe are facing a multitude of challenges. Even though democracy is widely supported by European citizens, traditional forms of democratic citizenship such as voting and membership in parties and organizations are in decline in the ¿west¿, whereas citizens in Central and Eastern European states manifest low trust in political institutions and political parties. The party political landscape is transforming. In the 1980s new political cleavages, such as environmentalism, were added to the traditional left-right dimension. Since the 1990s populist and right-wing radical parties voicing criticism against the political and economic establishments and representing xenophobic and anti-islamic ideas have gained support. Third, some claim that the European welfare states based on taxation and redistribution are under threat due to globalization and europeanization. Is the welfare state in terms of publicly provided health services, education, child and elderly care an asset or a burden in the current economic crisis? Similarities and differences among the European welfare systems will be analyzed and compared.