166-033 European Integration: Politics of the EU

Formerly available as 166-240/340. Students who have completed 166-240 or 166-340 are not eligible to enrol in this subject.

Usually 25 points of first-year politics or first-year European studies, see Prerequisites.

This subject aims to provide students with an in-depth analysis of the politics of the European Union (EU). It analyses the policy-making of the EU and examines the tensions of sovereignty and Europeanism in the attitudes of the member states and other participants in the integration process. The subject analyses the institutions and participants in the EU, including a detailed examination of the objectives and roles of the 15 member states and the benefits and disadvantages of membership for these states. It further analyses institutional and policy creation and reform, from the Single European Act and the significance of the Single European Market, created in 1992. It scrutinises the policies introduced by the Maastricht Treaty on European Union, including Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) and the single currency, the Euro; a Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and Justice and Home Affairs (JHA). It further discusses the issues raised by the Maastricht, Amsterdam and Nice Treaties and beyond, including the contested issues of protest, representation and participation, the democratic deficit and complexities of citizenship, ethnicity and gender.

Essay and exam work totalling 4000 words.

A subject reader will be available.

• D Dinan, Ever Closer Union? An Introduction of the European Community. Macmillan, 1999.
• N Nugent, The Government and Politics of the European Union. Macmillan, 1999.
• P Gowan & P Anderson (eds), The Question of Europe. Verso, 1997.