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Course title: EU Politics and policy decision-making Study program: MSc Programs Public and Social Policy (VSP) Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University Scope of instruction: 1/1 (lectures/seminars) Credits available: 6 credits Course number: JSM736, Spring Term 2025/2026 Lectures and Seminars: Head of Lectures and Seminar classes: Dr. Emilija Tudzarovska, Ass. Prof. in Modern European Politics Email: emilija.tudjarovska@fsv.cuni.cz Consultations hours: See Calendar in SIS and book a time-slot (30 minutes) accordingly. Seminar class language of instruction is English. Goals of instruction: The aim of this course is to improve the knowledge of students of the EU politics and policy-decision making, from the aspect of actors, institutions and policy-making cycle. The goal of this course is to understand the functioning of the EU, the decision-making processes and the process of politicization taking place on nation-state level. This course also aims to explore the current democratic challenges, the role of politics in contemporary EU and the role of the EU member states, from the perspective of: representative democracies, institutions and actors involved in the policy making (legitimatization and politicization), in the aim to understand the functioning of the EU.
Main Objectives: The course will introduce students to the functioning of the European Union and the actors and institutions involve in the policy decision-making cycles. It will also introduce the students with broader understanding of the concept of liberal democracies and the challenges introduced to the policy-making both on EU and nation-state level. Preparatory readings will include contributions from EU integration theories, public policy, political theory and comparative politics.
This course is designed to help students acquire general knowledge about the EU politics and policy decision-making processes, taking into account internal dimension (nation-states; political systems; sovereignty) and external dimension (liberal market economies; EU Institutional design; neo-liberal ideology). After completion of this course, students should be able to: - Know about the EU contemporary politics and decision-making processes taking place on supra-national and national level; Learning about neo-liberal concept and transformations of capitalist societies; - Learn about the key challenges to liberal market democracies and its impact on EU politics and policy decision-making; - Engage in critical thinking and studying about the contemporary EU affairs, i.e. engagement with contemporary scholarly discussion on the EU politics and the role of the states in the global political and economic affairs; Registration prerequisites: The course is offered to students of the Bachelor studies of Public and Social Policy (Veřejná a sociální politika) and and for international visiting students (e.g., Erasmus students) enrolled in Bachelor at Charles University. Conditions for passing: Students shall be admitted to the written examination for this course (in English) if they have been sufficiently graded for their performance in lectures and seminars, and if they have elaborated and submitted a final written assignment (in English) on an agreed topic. The topic shall be based on prior consultations with head of the course. Student’s performance in lectures will be evaluated as follows: Students prepare presentations on theoretical approach, research question/methodological strategy and selected case study. The presentations are mandatory and part of the final grade. See Table 1 on the evaluation. The Final Exam is in form of a Critical Essay submitted to: Emilija Tudzarovska, Ass. Prof. (emilija.tudjarovska@fsv.cuni.cz) on schedualed date/time. The final written examination will take form of a (critical review) essay (up to 16,000 characters) on a question(s) as per the given lectures. For student’s performance in seminars consult seminar syllabus. Table 1: Points can be earned in the following ways:
Table 2: Final grading shall be based on the following formula (provided the student earns at least the minimum number of points for each particular item – consult Table 1):
N. B.: - Sources shall be credited in line with the latest version of the ISO 690 standard. No form of plagiarism is tolerated at the Charles University. Any instances of plagiarism shall be discussed by the Disciplinary Board and, eventually, the Dean. - The final written assignment shall be submitted to the mentor in a sufficient quality and approved by her (via e-mail or hand written), as a condition of enrolment for the written examination.
Time is subject to change
Mandatory readings: Bickerton, C. (2012). EU Integration: from Nation States to Member States. (217 pp)/selected chapters; Oxford University Press; Lord, C. ed. (2015). A different kind of democracy? Debates about democracy and the European Union; Open Society Foundations. Schmidt, A. V. (2020). Europe's Crisis of Legitimacy, Governing by Rules and Ruling by Numbers in the Eurozone (384 pp)/selected chapters; Jones E., Menon, A., Weatherill, S., (2014). The Oxford Handbook of the European Union (924pp)/selected chapters; White, J. (2024). Technocratic myopia: On the pitfalls of depoliticising the future. European Journal of Social Theory, Tudzarovska, Emilja. (2025). Tecnocratic governance in the EU: the legacies of neoliberalism. Comparative European Politics. Notes on reading · Students are expected to follow the media covering policy problems on an ongoing basis. · Further reading list/selection can be submitted during the course.
Internet sources European Union: http://www.europa.eu/ European Council: https://europa.eu/european-union/about-eu/institutions-bodies/european-council_en European Commission: https://europa.eu/european-union/about-eu/institutions-bodies/european-commission_en European Parliament : https://www.europarl.europa.eu/portal/en European Parliament Think Tank : https://www.europarl.europa.eu/portal/en CEPS: https://www.ceps.eu/ Eurostat : https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/home Eurobarometer : https://ec.europa.eu/commfrontoffice/publicopinion/index.cfm The European Social Survey : https://www.europeansocialsurvey.org/ Bertelsmann Transformation Index (BTI) : https://www.bti-project.org/en/meta/contact.html The Economist: https://www.economist.com EU Observer: https://euobserver.com/ POLITICO : https://www.politico.eu Financial Times: https://www.ft.com/ Poslední úprava: Tudjarovska Gjorgjievska Emilija, Ph.D. (13.02.2026)
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