Undergraduate Module Descriptor

POL3081: Markets, Regulation and Europeanisation

This module descriptor refers to the 2016/7 academic year.

Module Aims

The aim of the module is to provide you with a full range of conceptual skills to explain and appraise market creation, regulation, the emerging governance architecture of the Eurozone and the consequences for domestic politics and policy. In the first part you will learn about the basic feature of the European Union. We do this because not all students taking this module are familiar with the institutional structures of the European Union.

In the second part, we will explain and critically discuss the emergence of the regulatory state in Europe. We will then turn to current political issues in this field, specifically the quality of EU legislation, the contestation of market integration in some policy domains, the legitimacy of the European Commission as 'European regulators, and whether new modes of governance introduced during the last ten years have delivered or made things worse. We will look into recent developments such as the 'balance of competences review' in the UK. You will learn how to use political science theories and concepts to address these issues. In the final part of the module you will learn about the most important political science models that explain how Europeanization occurs, and you will use empirical analysis and political theory basic concepts to answer the question whether Europeanization has gone too far.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

This module's assessment will evaluate your achievement of the ILOs listed here – you will see reference to these ILO numbers in the details of the assessment for this module.
On successfully completing the programme you will be able to:
Module-Specific Skills1. explain the growth of market regulation in Europe and appraise its efficiency and legitimacy by using different types of evidence and normative standards;
2. apply the most important models of Europeanization to analyze the consequences of the single market, the Eurozone and regulation for domestic politics and policy;
Discipline-Specific Skills3. critically assess different political science approaches on the basis of their research design and methods;
4. synthesize competing theories and evidence in order to apply them to current problems in politics and public policy;
Personal and Key Skills5. communicate ideas effectively and in a given number of words and with a poster, in groups and in writing; and
6. work independently and in groups.