Democratic Governance and Representation in Europe
Full course description
It is almost conventional wisdom that the European Union (EU) is suffering from a democratic deficit, as it is seen as falling short on premises that are “shared by a broad range of democratic theorists” (Follesdal and Hix, 2006, p. 547). This is also an issue that policymakers at the national and European level have tried to tackle for several decades. Attention of both academics and policymakers has focussed on strengthening the European Parliament (EP) and increasing consultation with civil society organisations, but also on formalising the role of national parliaments and exploring new forms of citizen involvement.
During this course you will gain new insights into questions of democratic governance and representation in the EU. We will discuss and reflect upon key scholarly works on democratic governance and representation in the EU. You will also encounter a range of central concepts, theories and approaches and will learn to apply these to the EU, taking into account the democratic challenges that come with governance in a multi-level polity. Building on the knowledge gained during the course, you will conduct your own research on issues related to questions of democratic governance and representation in the EU, integrating theory, methodology and empirical insights.
Course objectives
Upon completion of this course, you will:
- Have acquired advanced knowledge and understanding of questions related to democratic governance in the EU in its political and institutional dimensions, including an overview of the related state of the art in the interdisciplinary field of European Studies;
- Be able to integrate and combine substantive knowledge, theories and methods from the interdisciplinary field of European Studies in a well-reasoned manner;
- Be able to compare, select, integrate, and apply appropriate theories, concepts and scientific research methods to analyse novel research puzzles and questions related to EU politics and questions of democratic legitimacy in the EU;
- Be able to critically appraise the quality of various source materials and design, plan and implement an independent research project;
- Be able to communicate your findings to others – fellow academics, including students and scientific staff, as well as practitioners – and discuss these in a critical manner;
- Possess the learning skills to continue to study in a manner that is largely self-directed and autonomous, while being able to translate your findings to other research domains.
Prerequisites
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Recommended reading
Each problem comes with one key reading to help you start the research process. But you will need to do more research to answer learning goals and to prepare for your integrated research paper. The reading list at the end of this course book is a good starting point for this, but you are explicitly invited to contribute additional material to our discussions throughout the course. You may also want to consult literature from the previous course period, plus, of course, literature discussed during the parallel methods courses.