GV264      One Unit
Politics and Institutions in Europe

This information is for the 2025/26 session.

Course Convenor

Availability

Requisites

Pre-requisites:

Students must have completed GV101 before taking this course.

The course aims to give students an understanding of the full range of leading topics and areas of debate and research relevant to the analysis of political institutions and politics in Europe. The course focuses on both core fields of comparative enquiry, such as the study of party competition and voting behaviour, and emerging fields of interest, such as national and European identities, and immigration. The course places particular emphasis on the diverse experiences of liberal democracy in different parts of Europe. The course covers not only long-established democracies in Western Europe, but also the relatively new democracies in Central and Eastern Europe. In the Winter Term, the course will study in depth a number of European countries, such as Britain, France and Germany, analysing the main developments in the country concerned in the last twenty years (elections, parties, governments), and then examining issues of particular interest related to that country. Course topics include: electoral behaviour; ideology and issues; political parties and party competition; government formation and coalitions; regionalism and federalism; national and European identities; and immigration.

15 hours of lectures and 9 hours of classes in the Autumn Term.
15 hours of lectures and 10 hours of classes in the Winter Term.
1.5 hours of lectures in the Spring Term.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Autumn and Winter Term.

Essay in Autumn Term Week 10

Essay in Autumn Term Week 5

Essay in Winter Term Week 7

Students will be expected to produce two essays in the AT and one essay in the WT.

C De Vries, S Hobolt, S-O Proksch and J Slapin, Foundations of European Politics (2021); T Bale, European Politics: A Comparative Introduction (4th edn) (2017); S Hix and B Hoyland, The Political System of the European Union (4th edn) (2022); V Dimitrov, K H Goetz & H Wollmann, Governing after Communism: Institutions and Policymaking (2006); A Lijphart, Patterns of Democracy (2nd edn) (2012); M Gallagher et al, Representative Government in Modern Europe (5th edn) (2011); P Heywood et al (Eds), Developments in European Politics (2006).

Exam (100%), duration: 180 Minutes in the Spring exam period

GENERAL COURSE STUDENTS ONLY:

The Class Summary Grade for General Course students will be calculated as follows: 15% general contribution to class discussions, 15% presentation(s) and, if applicable, essay outline(s), 60% grading of formative coursework (20% for each of the three essays), 10% attendance.