PE 236: European Politics

Summer, 2009

Freiburg, Germany

 

Jeremy Rifkin. The European Dream. 2004 – p. 83: "…the tug between Europe and America goes even deeper than questions of personal opportunity and quality of life.  What really distinguishes the comings and goings in Europe and America today is that Europe is busy preparing for a new era while America is desperately tried to hold onto the old one.  There's a sense of excitement across Europe, a feeling of new possibilities.  To be sure, the feeling varies somewhat in intensity from country to country and region to region and even between young and old.  There are also significant pockets of resistance to a transnational political space.  Still, one gets the sense of the Europeans knowing they are creating something new and bold and that the whole world is watching them.  If I were to sum it up, I would say that Europe has become a giant freewheeling experimental laboratory for rethinking the human condition and reconfiguring human institutions in the global era."

 

 

Readings:

Rifkin, Jeremy. The European Dream. 2004

Hand-out: Gǿsta Esping-Andersen.  “The Three Political Economies of the Welfare State” from The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism. 1990.

There will be hand-outs on various topics.

 

 

Course Objectives: 

 

1. Comparative Politics Understanding: The course is designed to arrive at an understanding of what is meant by “European” politics in comparison to United States politics. Although each country has its particularities, some common aspects of culture throughout Europe influence political institutions, processes and politics in a way that contrasts at times with politics in the United States and at times converges with it. This is especially notable in public policies where, despite the strength of some of the “convergence” theories,  significant differences remain between the various political systems. History and culture help to explain these difference, such as why European states all have universal health care systems and the United States does not. Similarly, “liberal” politics takes on a different set of ideas in Europe than in the United States and “socialism” is cast in a very different political light. The role of religion and its relationship to the politics of European states compared to the United States is especially instructive at a time when religion and moralistic politics is being given a lot of attention in United States politics. The tension between similarities and differences in the group of European systems comes out in looking at the attempt to build a “super Europe” – the European Union. Building a modern, highly integrated “united states” of Europe from national units and cultures which have often clashed historically is no small feat and is one of the most significant changes facing Europe since the development of the nation states over 500 years ago. 

 

2. Developing a "Feel" for Europe. This is a difficult idea to express, but one of the objectives of the course is to help you develop a sense for what is going on in Europe -- hopes, fears, political tensions, political battles, societal statistics indicating societal trends, etc. I will bring news items to class from time to time in order that you can get closer to the political pulse of Europe as part of your immersion in a European experience. Newspapers are expensive in Germany but the PH has the International Herald Tribune and some of the British newspapers such as the Guardian and The Times which are worth browsing through periodically, if only for 30 minutes or so. For those of you with laptops you might occasionally look at Deutsche Welle which has an English version at

http://www.dw-world.de/  . Also, there is an English version of Der Spiegel, one of the most read magazines in Germany, at http://www.spiegel.de/international/.

 

3. Countries to be Studied:: Rifkin's book orients us to Europe in general. For individual countries we will  focus on Germany and Britain. Understanding Britain is basic to understanding parliamentary systems. Germany is the largest of the European states and has significant variations of political processes and welfare policies, some of which may be more acceptable in United States frameworks than the British practices, although arguably Britain and the United States are closer in terms of welfare state approaches. We’ll look at “models” which involve Scandinavian and other states in studying welfare states and will incorporate other states from time to time in our discussions.

Grading:

                Exam One:              50%

                Final Exam:             50%

                

Attendance:

                Attendance is required. More than one [1] absence will work against one’s final grade in the course. 

Mondays = No Reading Assignment. In order to allow you to take full advantage of travel possibilities during your study in Europe I have held off on Monday reading assignments. There are good English language newspapers on international politics available as well as sections of Rifkin that are not assigned that you may wish to read during lax moments, train rides, etc. The Guardian and The Times of London are excellent newspapers for British and international news. The International Herald Tribune is useful. If you have your laptop or are using an Internet cafe, Der Spiegel has an English international issue online [http://www.spiegel.de/international/ ] as does Deutsche Welle [http://www.dw-world.de/ ]. 

 

	FREIBURG SUMMER PROGRAM Reading Assignments	Assignments Are To Be Read By The Date Indicated, Thus By 5/26 You Should Have Read the assignment indicated for that date
5/25 Monday	History/Culture ---Europe as a Concept: From Nation-State to the European Dream?	Rifkin, pp. 11-57 ; "The European Context" [handed out at our Spring meeting]-- Read prior to coming to Freiburg
5/26	History/Culture ---Europe as a Concept: From Nation-State to the European Dream?	Rifkin, pp. 58-88
5/27	Studying Comparative Politics: How do we make sense of the information at hand? What is relevant to understanding other political systems in a significant fashion?  --Political Culture: The creator or the created?  --Institutions: Black boxes or real players? --Functions: Who really does what?  --Public Policy: The reason why political systems exist. --"System": How the pieces of the puzzle fit together.	Comparative politics involves varied types of approaches and methodologies. Our focus will be on: gaining awareness of institutions and the cultural factors relative to their development with Britain and Germany as the major cases for study understanding the nature of what is called the welfare state with focus on the public policy of health care in Europe , again, with Britain and Germany as the major case studies-- this also involves looking at the interaction of culture and institution while becoming aware of possible alternative policies for the U.S. and why transference of such models to the US points up the difficulties of importing public policies in-depth look at the dynamics of trying to merge 27 nation-states into a workable, unified  political and economic system in the face of tough political, economic and cultural obstacles -- Rifkin also deals with the importation question in asking if the European Dream can be a model for other countries/regions.
5/28	German Culture: The path from authoritarianism to democracy -- the "German Question" laid to rest?	Hand-outs on Germany  and Britain. [provided at our Spring meeting] for the four meetings on Germany and Britain: 5/28 - 6/3
6/1 Monday	British Culture: Muddling Through to an Example for a Democratic World? 700 hundred  years for Britain compared to- 64 years for Germany compared to 6 years for Iraq and Afghanistan?
6/2	Constitutional Ideas and Political Realities – Rules Count but Culture/Practice Provide the Practice and Dynamics --- Britain: The Parliamentary Model for the World
6/3	Constitutional Ideas and Political Realities – Rules Count but Culture/Practice Provide the Practice and Dynamics --- Germany: a Federalist Version of Parliamentary Government
6/4	The European Dream: Individuals and Property	Rifkin, pp. 119-160
6/8 Monday	The European Dream: Immigration -- From Homogeneity to an Immigrant Nation and Multi-Culturalism	As is the nature of this course, you have no reading assignments for Mondays. If you would like to read something on immigration in Europe simply as optional reading see Rifkin, pp. 247-266.
6/9	Review	Some comments on Berlin regarding its history and role in Germany and comments on the Holocaust
6/10	EXAM
6/11	Berlin, Weimar, Buchenwald
6/15 Monday	Berlin Return
6/16	The European Dream: From Nation States to a Globalized Economy	Rifkin, pp. 161-196
6/17	Welfare States In The 21st Century: Cultures of Solidarity?	Gǿsta Esping-Andersen. “The Three Political Economies of the Welfare State” [Spring meeting hand-out]
6/18	Welfare States In The 21st Century: Cultures of Solidarity?   The German Health System	[Spring meeting hand-out] German  and British Healthcare Systems. Read both since we will be doing comparisons throughout the lectures and discussions.
6/22 Monday	Welfare States In The 21st Century: Cultures of Solidarity? The British Health System
6/23	The European Union -- Can Nation States Form a More Perfect Union?	Rifkin, pp. 197-213/214-233
6/24	The European Union -- Human Rights and Peace: Quality of Life as The Basic Vision for the New Europe?	Rifkin, pp. 267-315
6/25	Review
6/26	FINAL EXAM
6/27 Saturday
6/28 Sunday