This course is designed to provide students with a thorough understanding of European integration from the post-war period to the present. The course is divided into three parts. Part one explores the history, ideas and rationale behind EU integration over the past 50 years, including the most recent EU enlargement. Part two examines the institutions of the European Union, their origins, functions, and organisation. The third and final part of the course will explore a number of key issues facing the European Union at present, including the problematic relationship between the EU and Britain, in the year of Britain's presidency of the European Union, E.U.-USA relations, reform of the Common Agricultural Policy, and the future of the European Constitution.
Prerequisites:
None
Learning outcomes:
Students who complete this course will have developed a thorough knowledge of the development of European Integration from its origins to the present. Students will also acquire a thorough knowledge of the institutions of the European Union, including the European Council, European Commission, European Parliament and Courts of Justice. Students will also develop an understanding of European monetary union and the challenges it is currently facing.
Method of presentation:
Lectures (including video documentaries), seminar discussions, and student presentations.
Required work and form of assessment:
Course Evaluation: Students will be required to submit one assessed essay (3-4,000 words, approx. 10-15 pages – due week 11) on any topic relating to the European Union (a list of possible topics, with select readings, is appended to this course outline). Students will be required to sit a mid-term examination and a final examination (scheduled during the period of final examinations). Students will also be required to give one seminar presentation, which should be an oral version of your final essay. Students will receive written feedback on their presentations. The feedback is to be used to improve on any weaknesses in your research paper. Students are also required to read the set text each week. Weekly readings are compulsory and constitute a large component of a student's participation grade. Students must also read a newspaper each day (especially The Financial Times and The International Herald Tribune, Le Monde {the English version is on-line} & Le Monde Diplomatique which are very good on European news). Newspapers are available in the IES library and online. Students are advised to read the monthly news journal Prospect (particularly good on European affairs). Other media, such as television and radio should be followed. BBC Radio Four and World Service are available online, and select programmes can be downloaded as MP3 files. Students should also consult the EU's website - http://europa.eu.int for more information than would fill your wildest dreams (nightmares?!).
Mid-term 20%
Final examination 30%
Essay 30%
Class participation 10%
One seminar presentation 10%
Grades are given according to the standard letter scale used for university students (A, A-, B+, etc down to F). Students are assessed on the extent to which they demonstrate a measured awareness of the topics under study, investigate secondary sources, and offer original contributions through analysis and argument. Please refer to the IES Academic Policy contained in your handbook and the hand-out which serves as a useful guide: Studying In Britain: Teaching you how to think, not what to think. (Distributed during academic orientation)
content:
WEEK 1: 'The future is Europe': or why study European integration?
Introductory examination of Europe’s position in the world today. Discussion of the importance of the European Union to international trade, the promotion of democratic values world-wide, and of global diplomatic, environmental, military, and financial security.
Reading: T.R. Reid, The United States of Europe, chs.4 & 5; Mark Leonard, Why Europe will run the 21st Century, ch.1.
WEEK 2: 'The past is Europe': West European integration: a history
Examination of the earliest attempts at European unification. This session will focus first on eighteenth and nineteenth-century attempts to achieve a unified Europe, and then on twentieth-century endeavours. Particular attention will be paid to Europe’s post-Second World War history, and to the competing plans for European unification.
Reading: A. Pagden (ed.), The Idea of Europe, ‘Introduction’; T.R. Reid, The United States of Europe, ch.2 ; Desmond Dinan, Ever Closer Union?: An Introduction to the European Community, ch.1.
WEEK 3: 'Peace through Strength in Numbers': The first phase of integration, 1958-69
Exploration of the role of the Franco-German Axis in the development of the institutions of the European Community. The class will examine the important issue of Intergovernmentalism vs. Supranationalism, and of the first phase of European enlargement in 1972.
Reading: John Pinder, The European Union: A Very Short Introduction, ch.2; Desmond Dinan, Ever
Closer Union?: An Introduction to the European Community, ch. 2.
WEEK 4: 'That European Feeling' or the logic of institutional development from the early
1970s to European integration in the mid 1980s Examination of the first economic tests of European community institutions. Special attention will be paid to the effects of the Oil crisis on EC institutions, in particular on the Commission. The class will also continue with the theme of intergovernmentalism vs. Supranationalism by exploring the vexed relationship between the Commission and the Council. The problems of enlargement (Britain, Ireland, Denmark, and later Greece, Spain and Portugal) will also be explored.
Reading: Desmond Dinan, Ever Closer Union?: An Introduction to the European Community, chs. 3 & 4.
WEEK 5: 'Glasnost means the Cold War is on Ice: from E.C. to E.U.' European integration and the end of the Cold War This class will examine the impact that German unification had on the EC. The class will analyse the developments behind the Maastricht Treaty of European Union and explore how that treaty altered the relationship between member states.
Reading: Desmond Dinan, Ever Closer Union?: An Introduction to the European Community, ch.5.
WEEK 6: 'Here I am at Home' or 'the mission and the design of a United Europe'
The class will explore how the EU began preparing for the 21st century with the passage of the Amsterdam and Nice Treaties. These treatises will be examined in detail.
Reading: Desmond Dinan, Ever Closer Union?: An Introduction to the European Community, ch.6.
WEEK 8: 'E pluribus unum': or count your pennies in euros
Examination of the development of the Euro. The class will review the previous attempts at monetary union in the 1960s and 1970s, and it will explore in detail the economic arguments for and against monetary union.
Reading: A. Pagden (ed.), The Idea of Europe, ch.12; John Pinder, The European Union: A Very Short Introduction, ch.4; T.R. Reid, The United States of Europe, ch.3; Simon Hix, The Political System of the European Union, ch.10.
WEEK 9: 'Executives make decisions': The Commission, the Council of Ministers, the Presidency and the European Council
This session will examine the core institutions of the European executive. Special attention will be paid to their structure and internal and external dynamics. The class will also focus on how these executive institutions interact with other non-executive institutions of the European Union.
Reading: Neill Nugent, The Government and Politics of the European Union, chs.8-10; Alex Warleigh, European Union: the basics, ch.4.
WEEK 10: 'We the People'. The European Parliament and democracy in the EU
The role of the parliament will be explored in detail. Special attention will be paid to the development of parliaments in the first institutions of the EC to their consolidation into a single European parliament. The class will analyse the importance of the European parliament, and examine how the populations of member states view its legitimacy.
Reading: Neill Nugent, The Government and Politics of the European Union, ch.11.
WEEK 11: 'Under the rule of law'. European Union law and the Courts of Justice and Human Rights
This session will examine the principal judicial institutions of the European Union with a specific focus on the European Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights. The class will also examine the role of human rights has shaped the institutions of the EU.
Reading: A. Pagden (ed.), The Idea of Europe, ch.11; Neill Nugent, The Government and Politics of the European Union, ch.12.
FINAL ESSAY DUE
WEEK 12: 'Milwaukee or Budvar? Whose Future is it anyway? Budweiser's or Budweiser's?' The EU and the USA
The focus of this class will be on European trans-Atlantic relations. The class will explore the changing, sometimes volatile, political, diplomatic, and economic relations between the EU and the USA and Canada.
Reading: T.R. Reid, The United States of Europe, chs.5-9; Mark Leonard, Why Europe will run the 21st Century, chs.3,6,10.
WEEK 13: Does Europe have a future
This session will explore the challenges facing Europe today and into the future. Specific attention will be paid to whether the current institutions of the EU are sufficiently robust to meet the challenges of globalisation and those posed by newly developed economies.
Reading: Larry Siedentop, Democracy in Europe.
FINAL EXAMS PER SCHEDULE & MOODLE PAGE
Required readings:
Desmond Dinan, Ever Closer Union? An Introduction to European Integration (fourth edition) (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2010)
Simon Hix & Bjorn Hoyland, The Political System of the European Union (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2011) Mark Leonard, Why Europe will run the 21st century (London: Fourth Estate, 2005)
Neill Nugent, The Government and Politics of the European Union, (7th edition) (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2010)
A. Pagden, (ed.), The Idea of Europe: From Antiquity to the European Union (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006)
T. R. Reid, The United States of Europe (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2005) Larry Siedentop, Democracy in Europe (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2000) Alex Warleigh, European Union: the basics (London: Routledge, 2004)
Recommended readings:
* Michael Artis & Frederick Nixson, The Economics of the European Union (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003).
* Ian Bache & Stephen George, The Politics of the European Union (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003).
* Timothy Bainbridge, The Penguin Companion to European Union (Third Edition) (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2003).
* Elizabeth Bomberg and Alexander Stubb, The European Union: How Does it Work? (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).
Michelle Cini (ed.), European Union Politics (2nd edition) (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006).
* Desmond Dinan, Europe Recast: A History of the European Union (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2004).
* John Gillingham, European Integration, 1950-2003: Superstate or New Market Economy? (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003).
* John McCormick, Understanding the European Union, a Concise Introduction (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2005)
* Neill Nugent, The European Commission (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2001).
* Derek W. Urwin, A Community of Europe: a History of European integration since 1945 (2nd edition) (London: Longman, 1995).
* Amrita Narlikar, The World Trade Organization: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005).
* John Peterson and Michael Shackleton (eds.), The Institutions of the European Union (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006).
* Alec Stone Sweet, The Judicial Construction of Europe (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).
* Loukas Tsoukalis, What Kind of Europe? (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005).
Other Resources:
POSSIBLE TITLES FOR THE ASSESSED ESSAY
Origins of West European Integration
1. What was the role of the Marshall Plan in launching European integration?
2. Why was the European Economic Community established?
READINGS:
Michael Burgess, Federalism and the European Union: The Building of Europe, 1950–2000 (London: Routledge, 2000).
Desmond Dinan, Ever Closer Union? An Introduction to European Integration chapter 1.
Geir Lundestand, Empire by Integration: The United States and European Integration, 1945-1997 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), especially chapters 2-5.
Alan S. Milward, ‘The Springs of Integration’, in Peter Gowan and Perry Anderson, eds, The Question of Europe (London: Verso, 1997).
Craig Parsons, ‘Showing Ideas as Causes: The Origins of the European Union’, International Organization, vol. 56, no. 1, Winter 2002.
First phases of European Integration
1. Do the events of the 60’s show that the European Community was nothing but an intergovernmental body?
2. Why did the decisions of the 1969 Hague Summit, aimed at “relaunching” European integration, fail?
READINGS :
Charles de Gaulle, ‘A Concert of European States’, in Brent Nelsen and Alex Stubb, The European Union: Readings on the Theory and Practice of European Integration (2nd edition, Rienner, 1998).
Desmond Dinan, Ever Closer Union? An Introduction to European Integration, chapters 2-3. Stephen George, An Awkward Partner: Britain in the EC (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990).
Nina Heathcote, ‘The Crisis of European Supranationality’, Journal of Common Market Studies, vol. 5, no. 2, December 1966.
Stanley Hoffmann, ‘Obstinate or Obsolete? The Fate of the Nation State and the Case of Western Europe’, Daedalus, no. 95, 1966. (an excerpt of this article is also in the Nelsen and Stubb reader )
Geir Lundestand, Empire by Integration: The United States and European Integration, 1945-1997 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), chapters 6-8.
Paul Taylor, The Limits of European Integration (London: Croom Helm, 1983), chapter 3.
Later Stages of Integration
1. Why did European integration pick up again in the 1980?
2. How did the Single European Act change the European Community?
3. What major changes in the working arrangements of the European Community were introduced by the Maastricht Treaty?
4. What impact did the end of the Cold War have on the negotiations that led to the Maastricht Treaty of the European Union?
READINGS :
Philip Budden, ‘Observations on the Single European Act and “Relaunch of Europe”: A Less “Intergovernmental” Reading of the 1985 Intergovernmental Conference’, Journal of European Public Policy, vol. 9, no. 1, 2002.
Desmond Dinan, Ever Closer Union? An Introduction to European Integration, chapters 4-6.
Andrew Moravcsik, ‘Negotiating the Single European Act: National Interests and Conventional Statecraft in the European Community’, International Organization, vol. 45, no. 1, 1991. (This is also in Robert Keohane and Stanley Hoffmann, eds, The New European Community, Westview Press, 1991.
Anthony Forster, ‘Britain and the Negotiation of the Maastricht Treaty: A Critique of Liberal Intergovermentalism’, Journal of Common Market Studies, vol. 36, no. 3, 1998.
Peter Gowan and Perry Anderson, eds, The Question of Europe (London: Verso, 1997), chapters 4-9.
Robin Niblett and William Wallace, eds, Rethinking European Order: West European Responses, 1989–1997 (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2001).
Joseph Grieco, The Maastricht Treaty, Economic and Monetary Union and the Neo-realist Research Program’, Review of International Studies, vol. 21, no. 1, 1995.
Jeffrey Anderson, German Unification and the Union of Europe: The Domestic Politics of Integration Policy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999).
Preparing the EU for the 21st Century
1.What were the major reforms introduced by the Amsterdam Treaty?
2.What are the ‘Amsterdam leftovers’ and how easy have they been to resolve?
3. How does the current financial crisis jeopardise the future of the EU?
READINGS :
Desmond Dinan, Ever Closer Union? An Introduction to European Integration, chapter 7 and conclusions.
Andrew Duff, ed., The Treaty of Amsterdam (London: Federal Trust for Education and Research, 1997).
Geoffrey Edwards and Alfred Pijpers, eds, The Politics of European Treaty Reform: The 1996
Intergovernmental Conference and Beyond (London: Pinter, 1997).
Jorg Monar and Wolfgang Wessels, eds, The European Union after the Treaty of Amsterdam (London: Continuum, 2001).
Andrew Moravcsik and Kalypso Nicolaïdis, ‘Explaining the Treaty of Amsterdam: Interests, Influence, Institutions’, Journal of Common Market Studies, vol. 37, no. 1, 1999.
John Peterson and Elizabeth Bomberg, Decision-making in the European Union, (London: Macmillan,
1999), conclusions.
Wolfgang Wessels, ‘Nice Results: The Millennium IGC in the EU’s Evolution’, Journal of Common Market
Studies, vol. 39, no. 2, June 2001.
Ulf Sverdrup, ‘An Institutional Perspective on Treaty Reform: Contextualizing the Amsterdam and Nice
Treaties’, Journal of European Public Policy, vol. 9, no. 1, 2002.
Monetary Union and the Euro
1. Why has Britain resisted adopting the Euro?
2. Does monetary union lead inevitably to political union?
3. Will the Euro survive?
Readings:
Simon Hix, The Political System of the European Union, ch.3.
D. Howarth, 'The European Central Bank', in A. Warleigh (ed.), Understanding European Union Institutions (London: Routledge, 2002).
V. Lintner, 'European Monetary Union: Developments, Implications and Prospects', in J. Richardson (ed.), European Union Power and Policy-making (London: Routledge, 2001).
James D. Savage, Making the EMU: The Politics of Budgetary Surveillance and the Enforcement of Maastricht (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).
The Commission, the Council of Ministers, the Presidency and the European Council
1. What are the powers of the Commission?
2. Is the Council the ‘government’ of the EU?
READINGS:
Desmond Dinan, Ever Closer Union? An Introduction to European Integration, chapter 8-9.
Neill Nugent, The European Commission (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2001)
M.A. Pollack (1997) ‘Delegation, Agency, and Agenda-Setting in the European Community’, International Organisation, 51, 1, 99-134.
S. K. Schmidt (2000) ‘Only an Agenda Setter? The European Commission’s Power over the Council of Ministers’, European Union Politics, 1, 1, 37-61.
Geoffrey Edwards and David Spence, eds, The European Commission (2nd edition, Cartermill, 1997).
John Peterson and Michael Shackleton, eds, The Institutions of the European Union (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), chapters2-4, 7, & 13.
John Peterson, ‘The Santer Era: The European Commission in Normative, Historical and Theoretical Perspective’, Journal of European Public Policy, vol. 6, no. 1, 1999.
David Bostock, ‘Coreper Revisited’, Journal of Common Market Studies, vol. 40, no. 2, 2002.
Ricardo Gomez and John Peterson, ‘The EU’s Impossibly Busy Foreign Ministers: “No One Is In Control”’, European Foreign Affairs Review, vol. 6, no. 1, 2001.
Philippa Sherrington, The Council of Ministers : political authority in the European Union (London, Pinter, 2000)
The European Parliament and democracy in the EU
1. How do the co-decision, cooperation, consultation and assent procedures work?
2. Will increasing the European Parliament's powers overcome the democratic deficit?
READINGS:
Simon Hix, The Political System of the European Union, chapter 3
Andreas Maurer, ‘The Legislative Powers and Impact of the European Parliament’, Journal of Common Market Studies, vol. 41, no. 2, 2003.
Richard Corbett, Francis Jacobs and Michael Shackleton, eds., The European Parliament (3rd edition, Cattermill, 1995).
Richard Corbett, The European Parliament’s Role in Closer EU Integration (Macmillan, 1998).
Richard Corbett, Francis Jacobs, and Michael Shackleton, ‘The European Parliament at Fifty: A View from the Inside’, Journal of Common Market Studies, vol. 41, no. 2, 2003 (and see other articles in this special issue on the EP).
Andrew Moravcsik, ‘In Defence of the “Democratic Deficit”: Reassessing Legitimacy in the European Union’, Journal of Common Market Studies, vol. 40, no. 4, 2002.
Roger Scully, Becoming Europeans?: Attitudes, Behaviour, and Socialization in the European Parliament (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005).
Thomas Zweifel, ‘Who is without Sin Cast the First Stone: The EU’s Democratic Deficit in Comparison’, Journal of European Public Policy, vol. 9, no. 5, 2002.
European Law and the EU's Courts
1. Do the judicial institutions of the European Union impede on the legislative and executive branches of the EU and its member countries?
2. Does the European Convention on Human Rights hinder European Security?
READINGS:
Simon Hix, The Political System of the European Union.
G. Smith, The ECJ: Judges or Policy Makers? (Bruges Group, 1990)
Jörg Monar, 'Justice and Home Affairs', in Geoffrey Edwards and Georg Wiessala (eds.), The European Union: Annual Review, 1999/2000 (Oxford University Press, 2000)
The EU and the USA
1. Are the EU and the USA drifting apart?
2. Is discord between US and EU foreign policy inevitable?
READINGS:
Kevin Featherstone, Roy Ginsberg, The Unites States and the European Union in the 1990’s: partners in transition, (London: Macmillan, 1995).
Will Hutton, The World We Are In (London : Little, Brown, 2002).
Geir Lundestad, The United States and Europe since 1945: from Empire by invitation to transatlantic drift, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003).
Robert Kagan, Of Paradise and Power: America and Europe in the new world order, (New York: Knopf, 2003).
Joseph Nye, The Paradox of American Power, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002).
The Future of the EU
1. What is the European constitution?
2. Does Europe need a constitution?
READINGS:
Desmond Dinan, Europe recast : a history of European Union.
Desmond Dinan, ‘Governance and Institutions: The Convention and the Intergovernmental Conference’, Journal of Common Market Studies. The European Union: Annual Review 2003/2004, vol. 42, pp. 27-42.
David R. Cameron, “The Stalemate in the Constitutional IGC over the Definition of a Qualified Majority”, European Union Politics 5 (3):373-91, 2004
Paul Magnette and Kalypso Nicolaidis, The European Convention: Bargaining in the Shadow of Rhetoric. West European Politics 27 (3):381-404. 2004
Stefano Bartolini, Restructuring Europe: Centre formation, system building, and political structuring between the nation state and the European Union (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005).
Wayne Sandholtz and Alec Stone Sweet (eds.), European Integration and Supranational Governance (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998)
Other Possible Essay Titles
1. What was the impetus behind European Integration?
2. Was the Luxembourg crisis of 1965-6 a turning point in the development of European Integration?
3. What were the most important factors which led to the successful launching of the Single European
Market initiative in 1985-1986?
4. What were the major factors behind the member states agreement to hold the two intergovernmental conferences of 1990 that led to the Maastricht Treaty?
5. Why has it been necessary to convene two further intergovernmental conferences since the completion of the Treaty of European Union in 1991-1992?
6. Is the Council of Ministers (Council of the European Union) the Government of the EU?
7. Does Europe have a democratic deficit?
8. Evaluate the costs and benefits of eastward enlargement of the EU.
9. Does European Integration threaten British Sovereignty?
10. Are the USA and the EU partners or adversaries? Discuss with reference to the entire post war period.
Brief Biography of Instructor:
Dr. Michael Drolet was a Commonwealth scholar and obtained his Ph.D. in Political Theory from the University of Kent at Canterbury. He has taught at the University of Ottawa, Queen’s University of Belfast, and Royal Holloway, University of London. He was Gustave Gimon Visiting Scholar in French Political Economy, Stanford University (2009) and lecturer in Political Theory and the History of Political Thought, Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford. He is currently Deakin Fellow at St. Antony’s College, Oxford. He has published numerous articles in the history of French political thought and contemporary French political theory. His publications include Tocqueville, Democracy and Social Reform (Palgrave, 2003), a Choice Magazine Outstanding Academic Title, and The Postmodernist Reader: Foundational Texts (Routledge, 2004). He is currently writing an intellectual biography of Michel Chevalier.
This course is designed to provide students with a thorough understanding of European integration from the post-war period to the present. The course is divided into three parts. Part one explores the history, ideas and rationale behind EU integration over the past 50 years, including the most recent EU enlargement. Part two examines the institutions of the European Union, their origins, functions, and organisation. The third and final part of the course will explore a number of key issues facing the European Union at present, including the problematic relationship between the EU and Britain, in the year of Britain's presidency of the European Union, E.U.-USA relations, reform of the Common Agricultural Policy, and the future of the European Constitution.
None
Students who complete this course will have developed a thorough knowledge of the development of European Integration from its origins to the present. Students will also acquire a thorough knowledge of the institutions of the European Union, including the European Council, European Commission, European Parliament and Courts of Justice. Students will also develop an understanding of European monetary union and the challenges it is currently facing.
Lectures (including video documentaries), seminar discussions, and student presentations.
Course Evaluation: Students will be required to submit one assessed essay (3-4,000 words, approx. 10-15 pages – due week 11) on any topic relating to the European Union (a list of possible topics, with select readings, is appended to this course outline). Students will be required to sit a mid-term examination and a final examination (scheduled during the period of final examinations). Students will also be required to give one seminar presentation, which should be an oral version of your final essay. Students will receive written feedback on their presentations. The feedback is to be used to improve on any weaknesses in your research paper. Students are also required to read the set text each week. Weekly readings are compulsory and constitute a large component of a student's participation grade. Students must also read a newspaper each day (especially The Financial Times and The International Herald Tribune, Le Monde {the English version is on-line} & Le Monde Diplomatique which are very good on European news). Newspapers are available in the IES library and online. Students are advised to read the monthly news journal Prospect (particularly good on European affairs). Other media, such as television and radio should be followed. BBC Radio Four and World Service are available online, and select programmes can be downloaded as MP3 files. Students should also consult the EU's website - http://europa.eu.int for more information than would fill your wildest dreams (nightmares?!).
Mid-term 20%
Final examination 30%
Essay 30%
Class participation 10%
One seminar presentation 10%
Grades are given according to the standard letter scale used for university students (A, A-, B+, etc down to F). Students are assessed on the extent to which they demonstrate a measured awareness of the topics under study, investigate secondary sources, and offer original contributions through analysis and argument. Please refer to the IES Academic Policy contained in your handbook and the hand-out which serves as a useful guide: Studying In Britain: Teaching you how to think, not what to think. (Distributed during academic orientation)
WEEK 1: 'The future is Europe': or why study European integration?
Introductory examination of Europe’s position in the world today. Discussion of the importance of the European Union to international trade, the promotion of democratic values world-wide, and of global diplomatic, environmental, military, and financial security.
Reading: T.R. Reid, The United States of Europe, chs.4 & 5; Mark Leonard, Why Europe will run the 21st Century, ch.1.
WEEK 2: 'The past is Europe': West European integration: a history
Examination of the earliest attempts at European unification. This session will focus first on eighteenth and nineteenth-century attempts to achieve a unified Europe, and then on twentieth-century endeavours. Particular attention will be paid to Europe’s post-Second World War history, and to the competing plans for European unification.
Reading: A. Pagden (ed.), The Idea of Europe, ‘Introduction’; T.R. Reid, The United States of Europe, ch.2 ; Desmond Dinan, Ever Closer Union?: An Introduction to the European Community, ch.1.
WEEK 3: 'Peace through Strength in Numbers': The first phase of integration, 1958-69
Exploration of the role of the Franco-German Axis in the development of the institutions of the European Community. The class will examine the important issue of Intergovernmentalism vs. Supranationalism, and of the first phase of European enlargement in 1972.
Reading: John Pinder, The European Union: A Very Short Introduction, ch.2; Desmond Dinan, Ever
Closer Union?: An Introduction to the European Community, ch. 2.
WEEK 4: 'That European Feeling' or the logic of institutional development from the early
1970s to European integration in the mid 1980s Examination of the first economic tests of European community institutions. Special attention will be paid to the effects of the Oil crisis on EC institutions, in particular on the Commission. The class will also continue with the theme of intergovernmentalism vs. Supranationalism by exploring the vexed relationship between the Commission and the Council. The problems of enlargement (Britain, Ireland, Denmark, and later Greece, Spain and Portugal) will also be explored.
Reading: Desmond Dinan, Ever Closer Union?: An Introduction to the European Community, chs. 3 & 4.
WEEK 5: 'Glasnost means the Cold War is on Ice: from E.C. to E.U.' European integration and the end of the Cold War This class will examine the impact that German unification had on the EC. The class will analyse the developments behind the Maastricht Treaty of European Union and explore how that treaty altered the relationship between member states.
Reading: Desmond Dinan, Ever Closer Union?: An Introduction to the European Community, ch.5.
WEEK 6: 'Here I am at Home' or 'the mission and the design of a United Europe'
The class will explore how the EU began preparing for the 21st century with the passage of the Amsterdam and Nice Treaties. These treatises will be examined in detail.
Reading: Desmond Dinan, Ever Closer Union?: An Introduction to the European Community, ch.6.
WEEK 7: Mid-Term Examination Week (Consult timetable & course Moodle page)
WEEK 8: 'E pluribus unum': or count your pennies in euros
Examination of the development of the Euro. The class will review the previous attempts at monetary union in the 1960s and 1970s, and it will explore in detail the economic arguments for and against monetary union.
Reading: A. Pagden (ed.), The Idea of Europe, ch.12; John Pinder, The European Union: A Very Short Introduction, ch.4; T.R. Reid, The United States of Europe, ch.3; Simon Hix, The Political System of the European Union, ch.10.
WEEK 9: 'Executives make decisions': The Commission, the Council of Ministers, the Presidency and the European Council
This session will examine the core institutions of the European executive. Special attention will be paid to their structure and internal and external dynamics. The class will also focus on how these executive institutions interact with other non-executive institutions of the European Union.
Reading: Neill Nugent, The Government and Politics of the European Union, chs.8-10; Alex Warleigh, European Union: the basics, ch.4.
WEEK 10: 'We the People'. The European Parliament and democracy in the EU
The role of the parliament will be explored in detail. Special attention will be paid to the development of parliaments in the first institutions of the EC to their consolidation into a single European parliament. The class will analyse the importance of the European parliament, and examine how the populations of member states view its legitimacy.
Reading: Neill Nugent, The Government and Politics of the European Union, ch.11.
WEEK 11: 'Under the rule of law'. European Union law and the Courts of Justice and Human Rights
This session will examine the principal judicial institutions of the European Union with a specific focus on the European Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights. The class will also examine the role of human rights has shaped the institutions of the EU.
Reading: A. Pagden (ed.), The Idea of Europe, ch.11; Neill Nugent, The Government and Politics of the European Union, ch.12.
FINAL ESSAY DUE
WEEK 12: 'Milwaukee or Budvar? Whose Future is it anyway? Budweiser's or Budweiser's?' The EU and the USA
The focus of this class will be on European trans-Atlantic relations. The class will explore the changing, sometimes volatile, political, diplomatic, and economic relations between the EU and the USA and Canada.
Reading: T.R. Reid, The United States of Europe, chs.5-9; Mark Leonard, Why Europe will run the 21st Century, chs.3,6,10.
WEEK 13: Does Europe have a future
This session will explore the challenges facing Europe today and into the future. Specific attention will be paid to whether the current institutions of the EU are sufficiently robust to meet the challenges of globalisation and those posed by newly developed economies.
Reading: Larry Siedentop, Democracy in Europe.
FINAL EXAMS PER SCHEDULE & MOODLE PAGE
Desmond Dinan, Ever Closer Union? An Introduction to European Integration (fourth edition) (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2010)
Simon Hix & Bjorn Hoyland, The Political System of the European Union (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2011) Mark Leonard, Why Europe will run the 21st century (London: Fourth Estate, 2005)
Neill Nugent, The Government and Politics of the European Union, (7th edition) (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2010)
A. Pagden, (ed.), The Idea of Europe: From Antiquity to the European Union (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006)
T. R. Reid, The United States of Europe (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2005) Larry Siedentop, Democracy in Europe (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2000) Alex Warleigh, European Union: the basics (London: Routledge, 2004)
* Michael Artis & Frederick Nixson, The Economics of the European Union (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003).
* Ian Bache & Stephen George, The Politics of the European Union (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003).
* Timothy Bainbridge, The Penguin Companion to European Union (Third Edition) (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2003).
* Elizabeth Bomberg and Alexander Stubb, The European Union: How Does it Work? (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).
Michelle Cini (ed.), European Union Politics (2nd edition) (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006).
* Desmond Dinan, Europe Recast: A History of the European Union (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2004).
* John Gillingham, European Integration, 1950-2003: Superstate or New Market Economy? (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003).
* John McCormick, Understanding the European Union, a Concise Introduction (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2005)
* Neill Nugent, The European Commission (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2001).
* Derek W. Urwin, A Community of Europe: a History of European integration since 1945 (2nd edition) (London: Longman, 1995).
* Amrita Narlikar, The World Trade Organization: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005).
* John Peterson and Michael Shackleton (eds.), The Institutions of the European Union (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006).
* Alec Stone Sweet, The Judicial Construction of Europe (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).
* Loukas Tsoukalis, What Kind of Europe? (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005).
POSSIBLE TITLES FOR THE ASSESSED ESSAY
Origins of West European Integration
1. What was the role of the Marshall Plan in launching European integration?
2. Why was the European Economic Community established?
READINGS:
Michael Burgess, Federalism and the European Union: The Building of Europe, 1950–2000 (London: Routledge, 2000).
Desmond Dinan, Ever Closer Union? An Introduction to European Integration chapter 1.
Geir Lundestand, Empire by Integration: The United States and European Integration, 1945-1997 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), especially chapters 2-5.
Alan S. Milward, ‘The Springs of Integration’, in Peter Gowan and Perry Anderson, eds, The Question of Europe (London: Verso, 1997).
Craig Parsons, ‘Showing Ideas as Causes: The Origins of the European Union’, International Organization, vol. 56, no. 1, Winter 2002.
First phases of European Integration
1. Do the events of the 60’s show that the European Community was nothing but an intergovernmental body?
2. Why did the decisions of the 1969 Hague Summit, aimed at “relaunching” European integration, fail?
READINGS :
Charles de Gaulle, ‘A Concert of European States’, in Brent Nelsen and Alex Stubb, The European Union: Readings on the Theory and Practice of European Integration (2nd edition, Rienner, 1998).
Desmond Dinan, Ever Closer Union? An Introduction to European Integration, chapters 2-3. Stephen George, An Awkward Partner: Britain in the EC (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990).
Nina Heathcote, ‘The Crisis of European Supranationality’, Journal of Common Market Studies, vol. 5, no. 2, December 1966.
Stanley Hoffmann, ‘Obstinate or Obsolete? The Fate of the Nation State and the Case of Western Europe’, Daedalus, no. 95, 1966. (an excerpt of this article is also in the Nelsen and Stubb reader )
Geir Lundestand, Empire by Integration: The United States and European Integration, 1945-1997 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), chapters 6-8.
Paul Taylor, The Limits of European Integration (London: Croom Helm, 1983), chapter 3.
Later Stages of Integration
1. Why did European integration pick up again in the 1980?
2. How did the Single European Act change the European Community?
3. What major changes in the working arrangements of the European Community were introduced by the Maastricht Treaty?
4. What impact did the end of the Cold War have on the negotiations that led to the Maastricht Treaty of the European Union?
READINGS :
Philip Budden, ‘Observations on the Single European Act and “Relaunch of Europe”: A Less “Intergovernmental” Reading of the 1985 Intergovernmental Conference’, Journal of European Public Policy, vol. 9, no. 1, 2002.
Desmond Dinan, Ever Closer Union? An Introduction to European Integration, chapters 4-6.
Andrew Moravcsik, ‘Negotiating the Single European Act: National Interests and Conventional Statecraft in the European Community’, International Organization, vol. 45, no. 1, 1991. (This is also in Robert Keohane and Stanley Hoffmann, eds, The New European Community, Westview Press, 1991.
Jeppe Tranholm-Mikkelsen, ‘Neofunctionalism: Obstinate or Obsolete?’, Millennium, vol. 20, no. 1, 1991.
Anthony Forster, ‘Britain and the Negotiation of the Maastricht Treaty: A Critique of Liberal Intergovermentalism’, Journal of Common Market Studies, vol. 36, no. 3, 1998.
Peter Gowan and Perry Anderson, eds, The Question of Europe (London: Verso, 1997), chapters 4-9.
Robin Niblett and William Wallace, eds, Rethinking European Order: West European Responses, 1989–1997 (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2001).
Joseph Grieco, The Maastricht Treaty, Economic and Monetary Union and the Neo-realist Research Program’, Review of International Studies, vol. 21, no. 1, 1995.
Jeffrey Anderson, German Unification and the Union of Europe: The Domestic Politics of Integration Policy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999).
Preparing the EU for the 21st Century
1.What were the major reforms introduced by the Amsterdam Treaty?
2.What are the ‘Amsterdam leftovers’ and how easy have they been to resolve?
3. How does the current financial crisis jeopardise the future of the EU?
READINGS :
Desmond Dinan, Ever Closer Union? An Introduction to European Integration, chapter 7 and conclusions.
Andrew Duff, ed., The Treaty of Amsterdam (London: Federal Trust for Education and Research, 1997).
Geoffrey Edwards and Alfred Pijpers, eds, The Politics of European Treaty Reform: The 1996
Intergovernmental Conference and Beyond (London: Pinter, 1997).
Jorg Monar and Wolfgang Wessels, eds, The European Union after the Treaty of Amsterdam (London: Continuum, 2001).
Andrew Moravcsik and Kalypso Nicolaïdis, ‘Explaining the Treaty of Amsterdam: Interests, Influence, Institutions’, Journal of Common Market Studies, vol. 37, no. 1, 1999.
John Peterson and Elizabeth Bomberg, Decision-making in the European Union, (London: Macmillan,
1999), conclusions.
Wolfgang Wessels, ‘Nice Results: The Millennium IGC in the EU’s Evolution’, Journal of Common Market
Studies, vol. 39, no. 2, June 2001.
Ulf Sverdrup, ‘An Institutional Perspective on Treaty Reform: Contextualizing the Amsterdam and Nice
Treaties’, Journal of European Public Policy, vol. 9, no. 1, 2002.
Monetary Union and the Euro
1. Why has Britain resisted adopting the Euro?
2. Does monetary union lead inevitably to political union?
3. Will the Euro survive?
Readings:
Simon Hix, The Political System of the European Union, ch.3.
D. Howarth, 'The European Central Bank', in A. Warleigh (ed.), Understanding European Union Institutions (London: Routledge, 2002).
V. Lintner, 'European Monetary Union: Developments, Implications and Prospects', in J. Richardson (ed.), European Union Power and Policy-making (London: Routledge, 2001).
James D. Savage, Making the EMU: The Politics of Budgetary Surveillance and the Enforcement of Maastricht (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).
The Commission, the Council of Ministers, the Presidency and the European Council
1. What are the powers of the Commission?
2. Is the Council the ‘government’ of the EU?
READINGS:
Desmond Dinan, Ever Closer Union? An Introduction to European Integration, chapter 8-9.
Neill Nugent, The European Commission (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2001)
M.A. Pollack (1997) ‘Delegation, Agency, and Agenda-Setting in the European Community’, International Organisation, 51, 1, 99-134.
S. K. Schmidt (2000) ‘Only an Agenda Setter? The European Commission’s Power over the Council of Ministers’, European Union Politics, 1, 1, 37-61.
Geoffrey Edwards and David Spence, eds, The European Commission (2nd edition, Cartermill, 1997).
John Peterson and Michael Shackleton, eds, The Institutions of the European Union (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), chapters2-4, 7, & 13.
John Peterson, ‘The Santer Era: The European Commission in Normative, Historical and Theoretical Perspective’, Journal of European Public Policy, vol. 6, no. 1, 1999.
David Bostock, ‘Coreper Revisited’, Journal of Common Market Studies, vol. 40, no. 2, 2002.
Ricardo Gomez and John Peterson, ‘The EU’s Impossibly Busy Foreign Ministers: “No One Is In Control”’, European Foreign Affairs Review, vol. 6, no. 1, 2001.
Philippa Sherrington, The Council of Ministers : political authority in the European Union (London, Pinter, 2000)
The European Parliament and democracy in the EU
1. How do the co-decision, cooperation, consultation and assent procedures work?
2. Will increasing the European Parliament's powers overcome the democratic deficit?
READINGS:
Simon Hix, The Political System of the European Union, chapter 3
Andreas Maurer, ‘The Legislative Powers and Impact of the European Parliament’, Journal of Common Market Studies, vol. 41, no. 2, 2003.
Richard Corbett, Francis Jacobs and Michael Shackleton, eds., The European Parliament (3rd edition, Cattermill, 1995).
Richard Corbett, The European Parliament’s Role in Closer EU Integration (Macmillan, 1998).
Richard Corbett, Francis Jacobs, and Michael Shackleton, ‘The European Parliament at Fifty: A View from the Inside’, Journal of Common Market Studies, vol. 41, no. 2, 2003 (and see other articles in this special issue on the EP).
Andrew Moravcsik, ‘In Defence of the “Democratic Deficit”: Reassessing Legitimacy in the European Union’, Journal of Common Market Studies, vol. 40, no. 4, 2002.
Roger Scully, Becoming Europeans?: Attitudes, Behaviour, and Socialization in the European Parliament (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005).
Thomas Zweifel, ‘Who is without Sin Cast the First Stone: The EU’s Democratic Deficit in Comparison’, Journal of European Public Policy, vol. 9, no. 5, 2002.
European Law and the EU's Courts
1. Do the judicial institutions of the European Union impede on the legislative and executive branches of the EU and its member countries?
2. Does the European Convention on Human Rights hinder European Security?
READINGS:
Simon Hix, The Political System of the European Union.
G. Smith, The ECJ: Judges or Policy Makers? (Bruges Group, 1990)
Jörg Monar, 'Justice and Home Affairs', in Geoffrey Edwards and Georg Wiessala (eds.), The European Union: Annual Review, 1999/2000 (Oxford University Press, 2000)
The EU and the USA
1. Are the EU and the USA drifting apart?
2. Is discord between US and EU foreign policy inevitable?
READINGS:
Kevin Featherstone, Roy Ginsberg, The Unites States and the European Union in the 1990’s: partners in transition, (London: Macmillan, 1995).
Will Hutton, The World We Are In (London : Little, Brown, 2002).
Geir Lundestad, The United States and Europe since 1945: from Empire by invitation to transatlantic drift, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003).
Robert Kagan, Of Paradise and Power: America and Europe in the new world order, (New York: Knopf, 2003).
Joseph Nye, The Paradox of American Power, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002).
The Future of the EU
1. What is the European constitution?
2. Does Europe need a constitution?
READINGS:
Desmond Dinan, Europe recast : a history of European Union.
Desmond Dinan, ‘Governance and Institutions: The Convention and the Intergovernmental Conference’, Journal of Common Market Studies. The European Union: Annual Review 2003/2004, vol. 42, pp. 27-42.
David R. Cameron, “The Stalemate in the Constitutional IGC over the Definition of a Qualified Majority”, European Union Politics 5 (3):373-91, 2004
Paul Magnette and Kalypso Nicolaidis, The European Convention: Bargaining in the Shadow of Rhetoric. West European Politics 27 (3):381-404. 2004
Stefano Bartolini, Restructuring Europe: Centre formation, system building, and political structuring between the nation state and the European Union (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005).
Wayne Sandholtz and Alec Stone Sweet (eds.), European Integration and Supranational Governance (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998)
Other Possible Essay Titles
1. What was the impetus behind European Integration?
2. Was the Luxembourg crisis of 1965-6 a turning point in the development of European Integration?
3. What were the most important factors which led to the successful launching of the Single European
Market initiative in 1985-1986?
4. What were the major factors behind the member states agreement to hold the two intergovernmental conferences of 1990 that led to the Maastricht Treaty?
5. Why has it been necessary to convene two further intergovernmental conferences since the completion of the Treaty of European Union in 1991-1992?
6. Is the Council of Ministers (Council of the European Union) the Government of the EU?
7. Does Europe have a democratic deficit?
8. Evaluate the costs and benefits of eastward enlargement of the EU.
9. Does European Integration threaten British Sovereignty?
10. Are the USA and the EU partners or adversaries? Discuss with reference to the entire post war period.
Dr. Michael Drolet was a Commonwealth scholar and obtained his Ph.D. in Political Theory from the University of Kent at Canterbury. He has taught at the University of Ottawa, Queen’s University of Belfast, and Royal Holloway, University of London. He was Gustave Gimon Visiting Scholar in French Political Economy, Stanford University (2009) and lecturer in Political Theory and the History of Political Thought, Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford. He is currently Deakin Fellow at St. Antony’s College, Oxford. He has published numerous articles in the history of French political thought and contemporary French political theory. His publications include Tocqueville, Democracy and Social Reform (Palgrave, 2003), a Choice Magazine Outstanding Academic Title, and The Postmodernist Reader: Foundational Texts (Routledge, 2004). He is currently writing an intellectual biography of Michel Chevalier.