Moodle@Warwick

Welcome to the Gender and Development Moodle page! 

The module is taught through one lecture and one seminar each week. The lectures provide an introduction and overview of the topic under discussion and the seminars explore the main issues in more detail.

Please be aware that there is NO seminars in both week 1 and week 2, but you will need to complete a group exercise before week 3 (detailed instructions regarding the exercise, please see announcement). 

**Seminar classes begin in Week 3** of the autumn term and finish in Week 20, which is the last week of the spring term in the following year. The exceptions are Weeks 6 and 16, which are PAIS Reading Weeks.

The main teaching part of the course is scheduled to finish in Week 20 to allow you to complete essays over the Easter break. When we reconvene in the summer term, we will be holding revision classes.

in office room E1.15

Why study EU policy-making? How has the EU developed, and how has its development been theorized? What are the main characterisations of the EU as a system? What are the different perspectives on the EU’s legitimacy and the existence or not of a ‘democratic deficit’?

Reading

Basic text on the EU

Kenealy, D. et al (2022) The European Union: how does it work? Oxford, chs 1-3, 5

Theoretical reflections on the EU

Marks, G., Hooghe, L., & Blank, K. (1996). European integration from the 1980s: State‐centric v. multi‐level governance. JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, 34(3), 341-378

Laffan, B., O’Donnell, R. and Smith, M. (1999) Experimental Union: Rethinking Integration, Routledge, chapter 1

Fabbrini, S. & Puetter, U. (2016). Integration without supranationalisation: studying the lead roles of the European Council and the Council in post-Lisbon EU politics, Journal of European Integration, 38(5), 481–495, https://doi.org/10.1080/07036337.2016.1178254

The EU and the world

Bradford, A. (2012)The Brussels Effect, https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/faculty_scholarship/271/

The EU, democracy and legitimacy

Kenealy, D. et al (2022) The European Union: how does it work? Oxford, ch 6

Kassim, H. (2007) ‘The Institutions of the European Union’ in C. Hay & A. Menon (eds), European Politics,Oxford University Press, pp. 168-99 [old, but has useful overview of diagnoses of the ‘democratic deficit’]

Scharpf, F.W. (1999) Governing in Europe: Effective and Democratic? Oxford UP [for reference to ‘output legitimacy’].

SEMINAR: INTRODUCTION

Introduction: what is this module about?

 Democracy is a crucial ideal – ‘rule by the people’ - and set of political practices, such as voting in free and fair elections and public debate and deliberation. It is also a deeply contested ideal and a practice.  In several countries it is not unusual to find proponents of very different policy or ideological positions each using the rhetoric of democracy in favour of their position and against their opponents. 

 The ambiguities at the heart of democracy – what is it exactly, how should it be practiced? – are viewed by some as a weakness: maybe, in the end, it is an idea empty of real meaning? However, this very ambiguity may reflect something positive and offer opportunities. Perhaps democracy is flexible: it can be thought of and done differently in different places and contexts. Could democracy be a matter of design for different purposes and contexts; creative and experimental uses of a range of institutions enacting distinct sets of ideals? 

 The module explores democratic design. Looking at a range of democratic principles (equality, freedom, etc.) and institutions (from the familiar such as parliaments to the new and innovative, such as the Brazil-inspired participatory budgeting process), it interrogates the notions of democracy and design. It considers new approaches to democratic change in the face of varied challenges to democratic organisation and effectiveness. 

 Democratic Design is an experimental module in which ideas will be debated and tested without preordained conclusions.

Welcome to the Moodle page for PO383, 'The Politics of Religion'.

The module is taught through one lecture and one seminar each week. Lectures are all online and pre-recorded. The lecture links are available below, and will go live every Friday at midnight. The lectures will provide an introduction and overview of the weekly topics, and the seminars shall explore the core issues in more detail.