166-228 Conflict, Control and Corruption in Western Europe

Note

Available as 166-328 at 3rd-year level.

Availability

Credit Points

Coordinator

Prerequisites

Normally 25 points of first-year Politics; students with only 12.5 points in Politics may apply to the 2nd/3rd-year coordinator.

Contact

Subject Description

An introduction to conflict, control and corruption in the contemporary democratic state in Western Europe, carried out in a thematic and comparative manner. It explores boundaries of government and the issue of corruption in Europe as well as the concept and practice of Consociational democracy. In particular, it examines, comparatively, ethnicity, racism and rise of right wing extremism in Western Europe and the challenge of these issues to the state. Students will be introduced to the Northern Ireland conflict and alternative solutions including the Framework Agreement and consociationalism. The subject critically examines the value of comparison on a thematic and cross-national basis. There will be consideration of have critically explored the question of who runs and controls the state in Western Europe as well as concepts of consociationalism, forms of democracy and party politics through research into the particular cases of the Netherlands and Northern Ireland, France and Britain.

Assessment

Essay work or equivalent totalling 5000 words.