Undergraduate Module Descriptor

POL3196: Democracy in the European Union

This module descriptor refers to the 2021/2 academic year.

Module Aims

This module familiarizes you with core theories, debates and actors of political representation in the EU. It aims at providing you with the skills to engage in current debates on parliaments, parties, interest groups, and citizens, and to apply theories of representation and of EU integration to concrete instances of political representation, as well as to critically evaluate the usefulness of these theories. Furthermore, the module familiarizes you with current key debates in the EU and challenges you to develop your own position on those debates. In doing so, it aims to equip you with the analytical skills required to describe and explain the hybrid system of political representation in the EU and take an active part in related debates. The first part of the module looks at theoretical foundations of democracy in the EU as well as at the different actors present in it. The second part engages with key contemporary debates that relate to the state of today’s democracy in the EU.

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 Skills	1. demonstrate understanding of core concepts and approaches regarding democracy, political legitimacy and political representation and their application to the EU context; 2. give an account of the main institutions, actors and processes of governance in the EU; 3. show theoretical and practical knowledge of the debate on the democratic deficit of the EU; 4. critically engage with on-going relevant debates about the state of todays democracy in the EU.
Discipline-Specific Skills	5. critically evaluate core concepts; 6. construct rigorous arguments which show an understanding of key theories; 7. deploy theoretical arguments and apply them to empirical case studies; 8. justify own choices of theory, research design and method.
Personal and Key Skills	9. critically evaluate ideas and debates; 10. write clearly and coherently; 11. deploy the ability to communicate clearly and deliver presentations to peers; 12. work independently and in collaboration with peers; and 13. use IT for the retrieval and presentation of information.

Module Content

Syllabus Plan

This plan is indicative of the topics to be covered by the module. More details will be given and the plan finalized in the module outline.

The module will look at representation theory in a first step before it moves on to address the main actors involved in democratic representation in the EU – the Council of the EU, the European Council, the European Parliament, Europarties, national parliaments, national parties, interest groups and civil society organisation, as well as citizens. We will then move on to look at relevant current debates and developments such the democratic deficit debate, the debate on democratic backsliding, the Euro crisis, the UK leaving the EU as well as increasing Euroscepticism.

Learning and Teaching

This table provides an overview of how your hours of study for this module are allocated:

Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities	Guided independent study	Placement / study abroad
44	256	0

...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:

Category	Hours of study time	Description
Scheduled Learning & Teaching activities	44	22 x two-hour seminars. These will be a mix of formal lectures led by the co-ordinator, student presentation and student discussion. The emphasis is on weekly seminar presentations; active seminar participation.
Guided independent study	256	A variety of private study tasks directed by module leader, including reading at least two articles per class, the reading for the oral presentation and its preparation, the preparation of the podcast, the reading for the essay, the conducting of research for it and the writing of the essay. The large bulk of the independent study time will be spent with the weekly reading of key texts and the research for and drafting of the essay.

Online Resources

This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).

Core readings and lecture slides from presentations will be made available via ELE http://vle.exeter.ac.uk/