Course Overview

This course is designed to familiarize you with the politics of Western Europe since World War II, not on a country-by-country basis, but in a truly comparative way that emphasizes the political determinants and consequences of institutional differences.  The fundamental goal of this course is to question how institutions, parties, and governments influence the politics of representation in Western Europe.  In this context, we will explore several issues.  Most prominent among them will be the making of the modern European state; the political economy of Western Europe; parties, party systems, and social cleavages; elections and electoral systems; the nature of governments and policy making; the origins, institutions, and policies of the European Union; and the challenges facing Western democracies.  The course is divided thematically into three sections:

1. domestic political institutions
2. the political economy of Western Europe
3. the process and politics of European integration.

We will complement our analysis of political themes with more in-depth readings on the politics of specific countries. Throughout the course, you will become acquainted with the politics of France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

There are no formal prerequisites for this class, but an introductory course in political science is recommended.

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Required Reading

Two textbooks are required for this course. You can order them from Friday Center Books & Gifts at the Friday Center either online or by using the book order form.

• Gallagher, Michael, Michael Laver, and Peter Mair.  2005.  Representative Government in Modern Europe, 4th ed.  New York: McGraw-Hill.  ISBN:  007297706X (abbreviated GLM)
• McCormick, John.  2005.  Understanding the European Union.  A Concise Introduction, 3rd ed.  New York:  Palgrave.  ISBN:  1403944512 (abbreviated McC)

E-reserve and Online Readings

In addition to the required books, there will be several required readings from other sources.  These will be available on the e-reserve system through the UNC Libraries (see Course Mechanics for information on accessing library resources) or on the Web. Links to these readings will be placed in the relevant lessons.

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Recommended and Optional Reading

Being informed about what is going on in the world is always a good idea. Although I will not grade you on your knowledge of current events specifically, I highly recommend spending a little time each day checking the international news. Keeping up with European events will enhance the quality of our discussions as we incorporate the material and the theories we are learning with what we see and read in the news. Listed below are some of the news sources I like to use to stay abreast of events in Europe.  I also provide a list of news sources under the Links section of my Web page.

• The Financial Times (British daily newspaper with quality information on Europe)
• The Economist (weekly British news magazine with a good comparative perspective)
• The Guardian (British newspaper with a weekly European edition containing extracts from a number of continental European newspapers)
• BBC News
• The New York Times (decent coverage of European events)
• The European Voice (useful source for EU news)
• The Christian Science Monitor

Some weeks will include an Optional Resources section, where I will provide links to articles, handouts, and Web sites that have additional information about topics directly or indirectly related to our course material. In general, you will not be responsible for this extra information on exams. There may, however, be occasions when I ask you to consult one of the optional handouts or articles. At that point, the material would become fair game for the exams. The Optional Resources sections will also come in handy as you begin to work on your Country Profiles and Response Papers.

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Lesson Notes

The lesson notes are analogous to the lecture you would have in a classroom version of this course. These notes synthesize the material in the readings, offer analyses of concepts and theories, and sometimes offer new material. While it is important to read through these lesson notes, they should not be viewed as a substitute for the assigned readings.  Note that the length of the lesson notes may vary greatly from week to week depending on the nature of the topic. For some topics there may be no notes.

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Course Requirements

Part of my job as your instructor is to spark and expand your interest in European politics and to uncover the connections between European politics and your life. I will do my best to fulfill my side of the bargain, but for the class to be successful and fun for all of us, you must keep your part of the bargain as well. That means you must complete the following tasks:

• Two Papers:  30 percent
• Midterm Exam:  25 percent
• Final Exam:  20 percent
• Online Discussion Forum:  25 percent

Papers (30 percent)

You are required to write two papers during the course of the semester. The first will be a five- to seven-page "thought experiment" that will require no outside research (worth 10 percent); the second will be a seven- to ten-page research paper (worth 20 percent). I will provide a link to the assignment in the “Paper Assignments ” section of the Blackboard site two weeks in advance of the due date. At that time, I will provide you with a choice of topics and more details about the expectations and requirements. The papers will be graded on a 100-point scale.

I expect your papers to be clearly organized and argued. All papers should have an introduction that includes a thesis statement for the paper, followed by clear and methodical development of the thesis, ending with a conclusion summarizing the main argument of the paper. These papers are not creative writing exercises, but a method for you to convey to me knowledge and insights you have gained from the readings. If you have never been in a technical writing situation before, let me know, and I will provide you with materials that will make the new task easier. The UNC Writing Center also offers helpful online resources about writing in political science as well as writing in general:

• Writing in Political Science
  
• Effective Academic Writing: The Argument
  
• Constructing Thesis Statements
  
• Introductions
  
• Conclusions
  
• Editing and Proofreading
  
• Improving Your Writing Style

Note: You will be allowed to revise and resubmit one of the two papers (you can choose which one) within one week after you receive the graded paper. This means that you can look at my comments on your paper, make any changes that you believe would improve it, and send it back to me along with the original graded paper. I will average the scores of the original and revised papers. This is optional, of course, as some students may be satisfied with their first grade.

Exams (45 percent)

There will be two exams during the semester—a midterm (worth 25 percent) and a final (worth 20 percent). Each of these exams will consist of a series of identification questions and short answers. The midterm exam will cover the readings and the lesson notes from Lessons 1-8, while the final exam will cover Lessons 9-13. Note that the final exam is not cumulative and will cover only the material introduced after the midterm. I will provide a study guide two weeks prior to each exam. The exams will be administered at the Blackboard site.  You will have two hours to complete each exam. You may not use your notes, books, the Internet, or other resources during the exams. I will provide you with a study guide with important terms, sample identification questions, and essay themes two weeks prior to each exam.

Online Discussion Forum (25 percent)

I will maintain an online discussion forum for the class on the Blackboard site. Each lesson will have several discussion questions designed to help you think about the readings and lesson notes.  I will post each lesson's discussion questions on the discussion board one week prior to the date that they are due.  After you have read the assigned readings for the week, you should make at least two contributions to the discussion forum, following the guidelines below:

• Contribution 1 should address one of the questions that I pose in the discussion forum section for the lesson. Your response should include a critical analysis of the evidence presented in the readings and lesson notes. The title of this contribution should be "Contribution 1: Question X" where X is the number of the question that you are addressing.  Your response should be posted by 10 pm on the Wednesday of each lesson.

• Contribution 2 should be a critical response to one of your fellow student’s first postings (those labeled "Contribution 1"). Your posting should consider the merits and problems of student's posting. Simply saying that "I agree with Joe because his argument makes a lot of sense to me" is not sufficient. This contribution should be posted by 10 pm on the Friday of each lesson and should be posted as a follow-up under the message to which you are responding. Please change the subject line of your response so that it indicates this is "Contribution 2."

You are welcome to make additional contributions to the weekly discussion forum. These contributions could be a question about concepts that are still unclear to you, a response to another student's critique of your first contribution, a defense of another student's position, or a response to any other type of comment in the discussion. While I make no promises, these additional posts will help to boost your grade for a given week if they seem to contribute to the overall discussion.

Note: You should expect to spend about thirty minutes to an hour thinking about your response and typing out your discussion forum posting. If you are finding that it takes only five minutes, you probably need to think more deeply about the subject, but if you are working on it for more than an hour, you might be going a little overboard.

You will receive a discussion forum grade on a ten-point scale for each lesson. To receive a grade of seven points, you must post all contributions on time, and your posts must meet the minimum content requirements described above. To get a grade above a seven, your posts must go beyond simply answering the question and provide a detailed critical analysis that offers evidence and support from the course materials or even material found outside the course—the news, government and organization Web sites, Wikipedia, and so on. When using material to support your argument, please tell us where that material originates so that we can check it out if we want to. (This is especially important if you are using material from sources outside the course.) If you are trying to receive a grade higher than seven points, making additional posts beyond the two required ones might come into play, but only if those posts add to the discussion.

Using the discussion forum to communicate with each other. The discussion forum also serves as one of the main ways in which you can communicate with your classmates and with me. If you have questions about the readings that you would like to pose to your classmates or to me—such as seeking clarification on the meaning of a specific passage—feel free to post the question to the forum. As long as it does not carry the titles described above that are intended for the graded contributions, it will not be graded.

Note: I reserve the right to delete any inappropriate or duplicate postings and to intervene in the discussion if the exchange becomes hostile or uncivil. In general, however, I will refrain from getting too involved in the discussion during the week.

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Grading

Letter grades will be assigned using the following scale:

A         94 or greater
A-        90-93.9
B+       86-89.9
B         84-85.9
B-        80-83.9
C+       76-79.9
C         74-75.9
C-        70-73.9
D+       66-69.9
D         64-65.9
D-        60-63.9

Although this is a straightforward formula, marginal course grades may be adjusted in rare cases when a student’s performance has steadily improved during the semester or when participation shows development of particular interests. These changes will be made at the discretion of the instructor and will be increases of one-third of a letter grade (for example, from B to B+). Grades will never be revised downwards. The intent is to reward improved performance by reasonably discounting bad evaluations early on in the course.

After each assignment deadline passes, I will try to notify students who missed the due date. I will offer a brief extension in most reasonable cases. If I extend the deadline and that deadline passes, the grade becomes a zero with no option for a longer extension. Exceptions will be granted only in extreme situations such as medical or family emergencies.

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Course Mechanics

Blackboard

Your discussion forums, quizzes, and tests are accessed through a software program called Blackboard. There is a link to the Blackboard site in the gray navigation bar at the top of every page in this course. Click on that link, and then use your Onyen to log in to Blackboard. Click on the "POLI 239" link, and you will see navigation buttons on the left taking you to the forums, quizzes, and so on.

If you experience problems accessing Blackboard, this is what you should do:

• If you do not already have a UNC Onyen, go to the Onyen Web site and follow the instructions for creating an Onyen.

• If you have an Onyen but have forgotten it (or the password), visit the Onyen Web site.

• If you have your Onyen but can't log in to Blackboard, contact Janice Durham at the Friday Center.

• If you can log in to Blackboard but can't find this course listed, contact Janice Durham at the Friday Center.

• If you can't locate an exam or discussion forum in Blackboard, contact the Instructional Designer.

• If you have other technical problems while using Blackboard, contact Blackboard Help (use the Help button in Blackboard, or call 919-962-HELP).

Library Services and E-reserves

Students enrolled in Carolina Courses Online can access online library resources from the UNC Library System by linking to Library Services for Distance Education Students. This site includes information on using general online reference works as well as accessing e-reserves and e-journals. If you are off-campus, when you click on a restricted library resource (such as e-reserves), you will be prompted to enter your Onyen. If you are unable to access the library's licensed resources, please contact the proxy team for further assistance.

E-mail

E-mails regarding the course will go to your UNC Onyen e-mail address (the one that appears when you post to the discussion forum). Off-campus users can access their UNC mail using Webmail. You can have your Onyen e-mail forwarded to a different e-mail address by clicking “Forward email” at the Onyen Web site. Please also notify Janice Durham at the Friday Center of the change.

If you use a filter on your e-mail account, you are responsible for ensuring that it does not prevent you from receiving messages from me, the course listserv, or Friday Center staff.

Hotmail users should be aware that Hotmail will block messages sent from within Blackboard because Blackboard uses “blind carbon copy” to protect privacy. We recommend that you use your UNC Onyen e-mail account rather than forwarding to Hotmail for this course.

Submitting your work

It is extremely important for you to save copies of any work you send to your instructor via e-mail. If your instructor doesn't receive your work, you must have a duplicate copy, indicating the date sent, to prove that you submitted the assignment on time. It is your responsibility to maintain copies of your sent e-mails, as there is no way to guarantee that any e-mail message will be delivered.

Please check your e-mail software to see how it manages sent and saved messages. Some software automatically deletes messages one month after they have been sent; others only save messages if they are filed in folders; others save messages received but not those sent. You may need to send yourself a copy of your e-mailed assignment at the same time you send it to your instructor, or you may need to print a copy of the e-mail message and any attachments to keep in your paper files. No matter how your system works, make sure you know how to save a copy of all work that you submit to your instructor and that you save the copy for several months beyond the end of the course.

Other Questions

Contact your instructor with questions regarding the content of the course and your progress. There is an e-mail link to your instructor at the top of every lesson page. Please include "POLI 239" in the subject line of your e-mail.

Contact your Instructional Designer at the Friday Center about problems with this Web site, including bad links.

If you have any logistical questions as you work through the course (enrollment, Onyen, credits, withdrawal, and so on), contact the Student Services staff at the Friday Center for Continuing Education (phone 919-962-1134 or 800-862-5669)

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Lesson Schedule

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Honor Code

Full compliance with the University's Honor Code is required on all assignments, discussion forums, exams, and papers. The Honor Code states that "It shall be the responsibility of every student at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to obey and support the enforcement of the Honor Code, which prohibits lying, cheating, or stealing when these actions involve academic processes or University students or academic personnel acting in an official capacity."

All suspected violations of the UNC Honor Code will, without exception, be reported to University authorities for purposes of investigation and possible prosecution. Plagiarism is a serious violation of the Honor Code. Contact me if you have questions about what constitutes plagiarism.

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Lesson 1