LFU:online

 European Integration - Enhanced Level

Students are able to explain the functionality and differentiation of the political system of the EU. They discuss and answer questions illustrated by individual organs and institutions of internal and institutional decision-making processes and the characteristics of individual political fields.

The EU Social and Fundamental Rights Policy is situated in the nexus between Europeanization and national competences (redistributive processes as an identification marker and core task of the modern-nation state; the EU as a “regulatory state” providing a regulatory framework). The research workshop will analyze Europeanization processes and actor behavior in a multi-level-governance system (EU institutions like Council, Commission, Parliament and Court of Justice, but also civil society actors, NGOs and interest groups). Special attention will be given to questions of legitimacy (e.g. through civil society involvement), democracy development, the development of the European Parliament as the most “open” institution for fundamental and human rights issues, the EU’s role as a human rights actor and new challenges for social and fundamental rights policies posed by migratory and refugee movements.

Lecturer input, written seminar paper and oral presentations by the students, group discussion

Presentation and written seminar paper, regular attendance, active participation

Anderson, Karen M. (2015). Social Policy in the European Union. Houndsmills: Palgrave Macmillan.

successful completion of compulsory modules 1, 2 , 3 and 5

possibility to write BA-thesis (sign up via e-mail until 2^nd session)