JRA2321H1F L5101

Undergraduate Course Code: JRA401H1F L5101

Topics in Comparative Politics V

West European Politics

Themes

This course introduces students to the main political institutions, processes and policies in Western Europe, with a particular focus on Spain, Portugal and Italy. It is divided into four parts. Firstly, students will be presented with some common methodological approaches to the comparative study of political systems. Secondly, we will review relevant institutions in selected countries, such as models of government, party systems, voting behavior, and territorial organization and decentralization. Thirdly, certain topics will be compared across these countries, migration, the Euro, and social policy among them. Lastly, the course will present the main characteristics of the European integration process, the current strategy of austerity and its consequences for national politics in each country.

Texts

Selection (see syllabi for a complete list). Magone, José M., Contemporary European Politics, London, Routledge, 2011,
Crepaz, Markus M. L., and Jürg Steiner, European Democracies, London, Pearson, 2013,
Josep M. Colomer, Comparative European Politics. Political Institutions in Europe, Milton Park, Oxon, Routledge, 2008,
Gilmour, David, The Pursuit of Italy, New York, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011,
Bonnie N. Field and Alfonso Botti, Politics and Society in Contemporary Spain, Basingstoke, Hampshire, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.