Module POL2100 for 2021/2
- Overview
- Aims and Learning Outcomes
- Module Content
- Indicative Reading List
- Assessment
Undergraduate Module Descriptor
POL2100: Political Conflicts in Europe
This module descriptor refers to the 2021/2 academic year.
Module Aims
This module familiarizes you with basic approaches to understand political conflicts in Europe from the perspective of comparative politics. This includes theories on party political conflict and its dimensions as well as theoretical approaches to understand ‘post-factual’ politics and threats to the quality of democracy. It aims at providing you with the skills to apply core theories to current political conflicts in a variety of European countries, to critically evaluate the usefulness of these theories, and to equip you with the presentation skills required to describe, analyse, and explain political conflicts in Europe yourself. That is, the module seeks to improve your ability to critically analyse texts and to communicate effectively. Apart from its focus on substantive issues, the module also seeks to introduce you to the comparative method and other quantitative research designs in political science. This focus also promotes an understanding of predictive social science models. Case studies come from Western Europe, Eastern Europe, and Northern Europe.
| On successfully completing the programme you will be able to: | |
|---|---|
| Module-Specific Skills | 1. demonstrate knowledge of the major concepts and theories used in political science to understand conflicts in Europe 2. evaluate theories in the field of comparative politics based on empirical evidence |
| Discipline-Specific Skills | 3. exercise informed judgment concerning the use of empirical evidence in support of an argument in published research 4. synthesize competing theories to analyse new problems |
| Personal and Key Skills | 5. present complex arguments with clarity and concision 6. work independently and with peers to meet common research and assessment deadlines effectively 7. speak confidently in front of small and large audiences on a subject you have studied |
Indicative Reading List
This reading list is indicative - i.e. it provides an idea of texts that may be useful to you on this module, but it is not considered to be a confirmed or compulsory reading list for this module.
Basic reading:
Ferrin, M., and H. Kriesi (2016). How Europeans view and evaluate democracy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Flynn, D., B. Nyhan and J. Reifler (2017). The nature and origins of misperceptions: understanding false and unsupported beliefs about politics. Political Psychology 38 (S1): 127–150.
Hooghe, L., and G. Marks (2017). Europe’s Crises and Political Contestation. Journal of European Public Policy, unassigned.
Hutter, S., E. Grande and H. Kriesi (eds) (2016). Politicising Europe: Integration and Mass Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Mudde, C. (2013). Three decades of populist radical right parties in Western Europe: So what?. European Journal of Political Research 52.1: 1-19.
Jost, J. T., P. Barberá, R Bonneau, M Langer, M Metzger, J Nagler, J Sterling, and J A. Tucker (2018). How Social Media Facilitates Political Protest: Information, Motivation, and Social Networks. Political Psychology 39 (2018): 85-118.
Norris, P. and R. Inglehart, 2018. Cultural Backlash: Trump, Brexit, and the Rise of Authoritarian Populism. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Risse, T. (2010). A Community of Europeans? Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Vachudova, M. (2014). EU leverage and national interests in the Balkans: The puzzles of enlargement ten years on. JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies 52.1: 122-138.
Vachudova, M. A. (2005). Europe undivided: democracy, leverage, and integration after communism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
