Module SGIA3571: Democracy and Discontent in the European Union

Department: Government and International Affairs

SGIA3571: Democracy and Discontent in the European Union

Prerequisites

• Any Level 2 SGIA module

Corequisites

• None.

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None.

Aims

• To provide students with a critical understanding of the challenges facing democracy, representation, and legitimacy in the European Union and its relationships with member states from a comparative politics perspective.
• To develop students’ ability to analyse how recent crises — such as those relating to the Eurozone, migration, Covid-19, Brexit, and the war in Ukraine — have shaped integration and disintegration, and how they are related to political contestation and public discontent.
• To familiarise students with the major theoretical approaches to studying the EU’s integration and disintegration dynamics.
• To strengthen students’ ability to apply theoretical frameworks to real-world developments in EU politics, using both primary and secondary sources.
• To enhance students’ research, analytical, written and oral presentation skills through critical engagement with contemporary policy challenges and debates about the EU’s resilience and future trajectory.

Content

• Building on the module’s focus on democracy, discontent, and resilience, the content examines how the EU’s evolving competencies, institutions, and responses to crises shape political representation, legitimacy, and contestation across member states and Europe more broadly. It introduces key theoretical approaches to understanding integration, disintegration, and contestation, and applies these to major crises that have shaped the EU’s development and resilience. The module also considers how the EU’s external relations — such as with the United Kingdom (a former member), China (a key trading partner), and its neighbourhood — are influenced by internal political dynamics and linked to political contestation across the EU and within the member states. Students will explore how the EU’s internal and external challenges influence public discontent, political behaviour, and debates over the future of the European Union.
• Indicative content may include:
• The EU’s political system and identity.
• Theories of integration and disintegration in times of crisis.
• The Eurozone, migration, energy, and Covid-19 crises.
• The EU’s external relations with the United Kingdom, China, and its neighbourhood (enlargement and neighbourhood policy).
• Contestation, European elections, referendums, the democratic deficit and democratic backsliding.

Learning Outcomes

• On completion of the module students will gain knowledge of:
• Demonstrate understanding of key debates, theories, and processes shaping governance, democracy, and legitimacy in the European Union and its member states.
• Critically review and analyse the EU’s responses to internal and external crises and challenges.
• Explain and evaluate how member states and institutional factors influence EU policy outcomes and integration dynamics.

• On completion of the module students will be able to:
• Locate, select, and critically analyse sources to investigate EU crises and the policy responses.
• Construct coherent, evidence-based arguments and recommendations relating to policy and practice in the EU.
• Apply theoretical perspectives and concepts to analyse evidence and construct coherent arguments.

• Retrieve, synthesise and critically assess, relevant sources to support evidence-based evaluation of complex political and institutional challenges.
• Communicate arguments, assessment and recommendations clearly and effectively.
• Develop solutions and recommendations to complex political and institutional challenges.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• The module is taught on the basis of 12 one-hour lectures,11 one-hour seminars and one two-hour workshop, to allow the coverage of a range of specific topics. During the workshop, the module will simulate an EU summit meeting focusing on dealing effectively with a recent crisis, such as the Eurozone crisis, the migration crisis or the Covid-19 pandemic. This workshop develops students’ understanding of the complexity of EU decision-making and crisis management, directly supporting the learning outcomes for the research report,
• The lectures introduce students to the study of the EU based on a comparative politics perspective, the institutional and policy-making context in the EU and key components of current debates in the academic literature relating to EU politics. Lectures provide essential knowledge for both the research essay and research report, underpinning students’ ability to apply theoretical frameworks, interpret evidence, and evaluate competing explanations of EU politics.
• In the seminars, students will have an opportunity to discuss the issues raised in the lectures, based on a wide variety of primary and secondary sources, develop critical thinking and engage critically with the readings. Students are asked to read at least two texts for each seminar. Seminars develop students’ ability to evaluate evidence, construct reasoned arguments, and critically engage with sources, which is applied in both summative assessments.
• These teaching methods enable students to engage critically with evidence, develop analytical skills, and apply these skills directly in both summative assessments.
• Through active participation in the simulation activity, students will develop an understanding of the complexity of the EU policy process, especially in relation to crisis management, and develop negotiation skills in a formal setting.
• The formative assessment consists of a 1,000-word outline linked with the research report as students may not have had the opportunity to undertake this form of assessment previously in their studies. This outline will allow students to plan their approach, identify key sources, and structure evidence-based arguments or policy recommendations.
• The summative assessment will have two components: an essay of 3,000 words which will account for 60% of the final marks and a 2,000 word a research report which will account for 40% of the final marks. A set of essay questions will be provided, and students will select one question. Students are expected to independently identify, assess and organise resources in support of a consistent academic argument and locate and use primary and secondary sources of information to empirically test their arguments to meet the assessment criteria. The research report focuses on an EU crisis, analysing the positions and interests of member states, evaluating the EU’s response and producing evidence-based policy recommendations. The research essay tests the ability to apply theoretical frameworks, interpret empirical evidence, and evaluate competing explanations.
• Together, the two summative assessments test the full range of subject-specific knowledge and subject-specific skills developed through lectures, seminars, and the workshop.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

The formative assessment will consist of an outline for the research report of up to 1,000 words in length.

■ Students who do not attend monitored activities shown under Teaching Methods and Learning Hours, or who fail to complete the summative or formative assessment(s) specified above, may be subject to the Academic Progress procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University.