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Poslední úprava: Mgr. Jan Váška, Ph.D. (10.02.2023)
Monday 20 March 2023 morning + afternoon Tuesday 21 March 2023 morning Monday 3 April 2023 morning + afternoon Tuesday 4 April 2023 morning *** *** *** This course seeks to explore the impact of the 2016 referendum's decision to leave the EU, along with the elections that followed in 2017 and 2019, on the relations among the four parts of the United Kingdom, British politics and political culture, constitution, and party system. There is a special focus on the non-English parts of the UK: Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Brexit is putting immense strain on the uncodified British constitution, as evidenced by the succession of Conservative Prime Ministers following the election and particularly in 2022. The tensions introduced by Brexit will be related to constitutional and institutional structures of British politics, including the legislature and the judiciary, the electoral system and the party system. The immediate implications are discussed in real time. The Moodle platform for the course can be accessed at https://dl2.cuni.cz/course/view.php?id=4219, enrollment key JTB310. *** *** *** Instructors: Professor Iain McLean and Dr Scot Peterson, Department of Politics & International Relations, Oxford University. Course coordinator at Charles University, to whom all queries concerning the organisation of this course should be directed, is Dr Jan Váška (jan.vaska@fsv.cuni.cz). |
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Poslední úprava: Mgr. Jan Váška, Ph.D. (10.02.2023)
Upon completing the course, students will be able to analyse and explain both the result of the 2016 referendum, the difficulties in the subsequent Brexit negotiations and the impact of the two subsequent elections on current political events in the UK. These will be closely integrated into constitutional and institutional problems, including the notion of “parliamentary sovereignty” as a constitutional principle, empowerment of the judicial system, potential consequences for the electoral system, and possible de-alignment of the two main political parties. |
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Poslední úprava: Mgr. Jan Váška, Ph.D. (20.03.2023)
Requirements: (exam, 6 ECTS) 1. Regular and active participation in seminars.
2. Two essays on topics assigned by instructors (for each teaching bloc, choose one topic from a list). Length of each essay 1200 words (+/- 150 words). Citations and final bibliography required (recommended standard ISO 690-2/Chicago Manual of Style).
Essays (in Word, RTF of PDF format) shall be submitted via Moodle and checked for plagiarism by Turnitin software.
Chatbot policy as clarified during the introductory class: 1) Use of chatbots as tools is permitted during the work on the essays. However students need to be acutely aware of the risks: inaccurate information, fabulated bibliography etc. All pieces and information and resources suggested by bots need to be carefully verified; it is the stuent whi is responsible for all mistakes in the submitted text. 2) Each essay must contain a truthful statement by the student on the use chatbots (not counted into the headline wordcount of 1200 words): whether they used them or not, at what stages of the work, and what were the questions and tasks asked from the bot. 3) Any parts of the text devised by the bot (and not the students themselves) must be treated as quotations (ie. quotation marks, references..).
From each essay, students may obtain a maximum of 50 points, and they need to score at least 26 points from each of the essays to meet the course requirements.
Deadlines: Essay 1 (for Scot Peterson) : 20 May 2023 (24:00) Essay 2 (for Iain McLean): 10 June 2023 (24:00)
Late submission policy: maximum 7 days on either essay, with the penalty of 1 point per day.
Classification: 91 – 100 % A – Excellent. The student has shown excellent performance, originality and displayed an exceptional grasp of the subject. 81 – 90 % B – Very Good. The student understands the subject well and has shown some originality of thought. Above the average performance, but with some errors. 71 – 80 % C – Good. Generally sound work with a number of notable errors. 61 – 70% D – Satisfactory. The student has shown some understanding of the subject matter but has not succeeded in translating this understanding into consistently original work. Overall good performance with a number of significant errors. 51 – 60 % E - Sufficient. Acceptable performance with significant drawbacks. Performance meets the minimum requirements. 0 – 50 % F – Fail. The student has not succeeded in mastering the subject matter of the course.
Proposed essay topics
Essays for Scot Peterson (deadline 20 May 2023)
1. Will Brexit weaken or strengthen cabinet government in the UK? Why? 2. What changes can we expect in the current party system after Brexit? 3. How should judges influence the outcome of Brexit? 4. When are referenda politically useful? Are general elections better for deciding broad questions of policy? 5. Has Brexit made it more likely that the UK will codify its constitution?
+ We will discuss alternative topics during the final class.
Essays for Iain McLean (deadline 10 June 2023)
1. The UK voted to leave the EU, but the vote in Scotland, London, and Northern Ireland was in favour of remaining in the EU. What happens now? 2. What lessons does the separation of the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1992/3 have for the possible separation of Scotland and the rest of the UK? 3. Is the rise of populist parties in the UK, including UKIP and the Brexit/Reform Party, similar to the rise of populist parties in central and southern Europe, or different? 4. Do you expect the ‘Brexit’ vote to lead to similar votes in other EU member states? If so, which ones, and why? 5. Could the UK become a federation? If so, what lessons are there from other federations (e.g., USA, Germany, the Hapsburg Empire….) 6. In Northern Ireland, Lebanon, and Bosnia, governments have to comprise politicians from different religions. Can this solution to inter-religious conflict be made to work? If so, how? 7. Can you make the Northern Ireland Protocol work? 8. What do think will happen to the UK’s nuclear submarines and warheads in Scotland, which the Scottish government is asking to remove? 9. Why do you think most Scottish people voted against independence in 2014, and yet the pro-independence party dominates Scottish politics in 2023? 10. You may choose a different topic, but only after getting Iain’s approval in class |
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Poslední úprava: Mgr. Jan Váška, Ph.D. (10.02.2023)
READING LIST British politics textbook available as electronic resources via ukaz.cuni.cz
BLICK A., UK Politics (OUP, 2021) GARNETT M., DOREY P. aand LYNCH P. (eds.), Exploring British Politics (5th edition Routledge 2021) GRIFFITHS S. and LEACH R. (eds.), British Politics (3rd edition Palgrave 2018) JONES B., NORTON P. a HERTNER I. (eds.), Politics UK (10th edition Routledge 2022)
Reading list for lectures 1-3 (Scot Peterson): (MAY BE UPDATED
Reading for classes 1-3 can be accessed via this link:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/a11gim6onvkel37/AAAs46rhY5q5a-d7qniP-hPUa?dl=0
Class 1 Begin with Rutland (d). The seminar will be built around Judge (b) and Payne (c), so be sure to read those carefully. a) Jack, Maddy Thimont, and Hannah White. "Parliament after Brexit." Published by Institute for Government. London, 2019. b) Judge, David. "Walking the Dark Side: Evading Parliamentary Scrutiny." The Political Quarterly 92, no. 2 (2021): 283-92. c) Payne, Sebastian. "The Supreme Court and the Miller Case: More Reasons Why the UK Needs a Written Constitution." The Round Table 107, no. 4 (2018): 441-50. d) Rutland, Peter. "Britain." In Comparative Politics : Interests, Identities, and Institutions in a Changing Global Order, edited by Jeffrey Kopstein, Mark Irving Lichbach and Stephen E. Hanson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014.
Class 2 Begin with Webb (d), and read Raymond (c) and Bale (a, which is short). We will discuss Denham (b) briefly. a) Bale, Tim. “How Brexit Could Be Exploding the Established Parties.” 2019. Online at https://ukandeu.ac.uk/how-brexit-could-be-exploding-the-established-parties/. b) Denham, Andrew. "From Coronations to Close Encounters: Party Leadership Selection in British Politics." British Politics 8, no. 2 (2013): 164-80. c) Raymond, Chris. "Why British Politics Is Not a Two-Party System." Political Insight 7, no. 3 (2016): 28-31. d) Webb, Paul. “The Party System: Turbulent Multipartyism or Duopolistic Competition?” in Richard Heffernan et al. Developments in British Politics 10 (2016), chapter 4.
Class 3 Begin with Denver (b) and the commission report on referendums (c). Ahmed (a) and Mellon et al. (d) are more advanced, and I will summarize them before we discuss. a) Ahmed, Amel. "Reading History Forward: The Origins of Electoral Systems in European Democracies." Comparative Political Studies 43, no. 8-9 (2010): 1059-88. b) Denver, David. "Elections and Voting." Chap. 5 in Developments in British Politics 9, edited by Richard Heffernan, Philip Cowley and Colin Hay, 71-90. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. c) Independent Commission on Referendums. "Report." London: University College London, 2018, chapters 1–3. d) Mellon, Jonathan, Geoffrey Evans, Edward Fieldhouse, Jane Green, and Christopher Prosser. "Brexit or Corbyn? Campaign and Inter-Election Vote Switching in the 2017 UK General Election." Parliamentary Affairs 71, no. 4 (2018): 719-37.
Additional materials to be provided during Class 1, based on recent developments.
Reading list for lectures 4-6 (Iain McLean): (more detailed suggestions for reading within these will be given in class) Books • I. McLean, M. Kenny and A. Paun ed. Governing England Oxford University Press for the British Academy 2018 • B. O’Leary, A Treatise on Northern Ireland vols 2 and 3. Oxford University Press 2019 • I. McLean, ‚Understanding the Union‘ in M. Keating ed., Handbook of Scottish Politics (Oxford University Press 2020). Also study the chapters on the political parties, public finance, and the 2014 referendum (chs 12-15, 28, 35) • I. McLean, J. Gallagher, and G. Lodge, Scotland’s Choices 2nd ed 2014. Edinburgh University Press. • R. Ford and M. Goodwin, Revolt on the right: explaining support for the radical right in Britain Routledge 2014 • I. McLean What’s wrong with the British Constitution? Oxford University Press 2012 • P. Lynch, SNP: the history of the Scottish National Party 2nd ed. 2013 Cardiff: Welsh Academic Press. • A. Jackson, The two unions: Ireland, Scotland, and the survival of the United Kingdom, 1707-2007. Oxford University Press, 2013 • Gavin McCrone. After Brexit: the economics of Scottish independence Edinburgh: Birlinn 2022. • Labour Party, Report of the Commission on the UK’s Future, at https://labour.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Commission-on-the-UKs-Future.pdf
Government and parliamentary sources
Other online sources • https://ukandeu.ac.uk/explainers/?_sft_theme=relationship-with-the-eu/ and navigate around this site for useful briefings • https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/our-work/brexit Another leading UK thinktank, although the Brexit pages have not been updated recently • http://constitution-unit.com/. Blogs on UK constitutional affairs. Check especially tabs ‘Brexit’ and ‘Devolution’., and their report on procedures for Irish unification
• http://ggcpp.nuff.ox.ac.uk/index.php/working-papers/ Papers by IM and Jim Gallagher on Brexit problems for Ireland and Scotland.
Reliable news sites • BBC News: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk (Free) • The Guardian news: http://www.theguardian.com/uk (Free) • CNN international: https://edition.cnn.com/ (Free) • Washington Post (charge) Non-UK perspectives on UK news • Daily Telegraph news: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ (First few articles free) • Scotsman news: http://www.scotsman.com/ (Free) • Irish Times news: http://www.irishtimes.com/ (Free to begin with) • Economist: http://www.economist.com/ (charge) • Financial Times: https://www.ft.com/ (charge)
Web sources for more detail • Irish border: http://www.historyandpolicy.org/policy-papers/papers/brexit-and-the-history-of-policing-the-irish-border • Northern Ireland Select Committee: https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201617/cmselect/cmniaf/48/4802.htm • Scottish public expenditure: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Economy/GERS • Scottish public opinion: http://whatscotlandthinks.org/ • Election and referendum results: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/politics/eu_referendum; http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/2015; http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/events/scotland-decides; https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/2017/results • ‘English votes on English laws’: https://www.parliament.uk/about/how/laws/bills/public/english-votes-for-english-laws/ |
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Poslední úprava: Mgr. Jan Váška, Ph.D. (10.02.2023)
Lectures followed by discussions. |
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Poslední úprava: Mgr. Jan Váška, Ph.D. (20.03.2023)
Requirements: (exam, 6 ECTS) 1. Regular and active participation in seminars.
2. Two essays on topics assigned by instructors (for each teaching bloc, choose one topic from a list). Length of each essay 1200 words (+/- 150 words). Citations and final bibliography required (recommended standard ISO 690-2/Chicago Manual of Style).
Essays (in Word, RTF of PDF format) shall be submitted via Moodle and checked for plagiarism by Turnitin software.
Chatbot policy as clarified during the introductory class: 1) Use of chatbots as tools is permitted during the work on the essays. However students need to be acutely aware of the risks: inaccurate information, fabulated bibliography etc. All pieces and information and resources suggested by bots need to be carefully verified; it is the stuent whi is responsible for all mistakes in the submitted text. 2) Each essay must contain a truthful statement by the student on the use chatbots (not counted into the headline wordcount of 1200 words): whether they used them or not, at what stages of the work, and what were the questions and tasks asked from the bot. 3) Any parts of the text devised by the bot (and not the students themselves) must be treated as quotations (ie. quotation marks, references..).
From each essay, students may obtain a maximum of 50 points, and they need to score at least 26 points from each of the essays to meet the course requirements.
Deadlines: Essay 1 (for Scot Peterson) : 20 May 2023 (24:00) Essay 2 (for Iain McLean): 10 June 2023 (24:00)
Late submission policy: maximum 7 days on either essay, with the penalty of 1 point per day.
Classification: 91 – 100 % A – Excellent. The student has shown excellent performance, originality and displayed an exceptional grasp of the subject. 81 – 90 % B – Very Good. The student understands the subject well and has shown some originality of thought. Above the average performance, but with some errors. 71 – 80 % C – Good. Generally sound work with a number of notable errors. 61 – 70% D – Satisfactory. The student has shown some understanding of the subject matter but has not succeeded in translating this understanding into consistently original work. Overall good performance with a number of significant errors. 51 – 60 % E - Sufficient. Acceptable performance with significant drawbacks. Performance meets the minimum requirements. 0 – 50 % F – Fail. The student has not succeeded in mastering the subject matter of the course.
Proposed essay topics
Essays for Scot Peterson (deadline 20 May 2023) MAY BE UPDATED
1. Will Brexit weaken or strengthen cabinet government in the UK? Why? 2. What changes can we expect in the current party system after Brexit? 3. How should judges influence the outcome of Brexit? 4. When are referenda politically useful? Are general elections better for deciding broad questions of policy? 5. Has Brexit made it more likely that the UK will codify its constitution?
+ We will discuss alternative topics during the final class.
Essays for Iain McLean (deadline 10 June 2023)
1. The UK voted to leave the EU, but the vote in Scotland, London, and Northern Ireland was in favour of remaining in the EU. What happens now? 2. What lessons does the separation of the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1992/3 have for the possible separation of Scotland and the rest of the UK? 3. Is the rise of populist parties in the UK, including UKIP and the Brexit/Reform Party, similar to the rise of populist parties in central and southern Europe, or different? 4. Do you expect the ‘Brexit’ vote to lead to similar votes in other EU member states? If so, which ones, and why? 5. Could the UK become a federation? If so, what lessons are there from other federations (e.g., USA, Germany, the Hapsburg Empire….) 6. In Northern Ireland, Lebanon, and Bosnia, governments have to comprise politicians from different religions. Can this solution to inter-religious conflict be made to work? If so, how? 7. Can you make the Northern Ireland Protocol work? 8. What do think will happen to the UK’s nuclear submarines and warheads in Scotland, which the Scottish government is asking to remove? 9. Why do you think most Scottish people voted against independence in 2014, and yet the pro-independence party dominates Scottish politics in 2023? 10. You may choose a different topic, but only after getting Iain’s approval in class |
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Poslední úprava: Mgr. Jan Váška, Ph.D. (16.03.2023)
Programme – Summer Term 2023:
All classes except for the introductory online session are held in in Room 508 at Voršilská 1/144
Lecture and Seminar times:
Teaching session 1: Monday, March 20th (9:30-12:15 + 14:30-16:00) Tuesday, March 21th (9:30-12:00)
Teaching Session 2: Monday, April 3rd (9:30-12:00 + 14:000-16:00) Tuesday, April 4th (9:30-12:00)
March Session (Scot Peterson)
Class 1 (Monday 20 March, 9:30)
Q&A on organisation of the course, requirements and sources (Jan Váška)
The UK Constitution: Executive, Legislature, Judiciary
Class 2 (Monday 20 March 14:00)
Parties: Traditional, National and Issue-Oriented
Class 3 (Tuesday 21 March, 9:30)
3.1 Electoral Behaviour and Unpredictability 3.2 Where are We Now? What Happens Next?
April Session (Iain McLean)
Class 4 (Monday 3 April, 9:30)
Q&A on organisation of the course, requirements and sources (Jan Váška)
Brexit in three elections, two referendums, and the possible break-up of the United Kingdom
Class 5 (Monday 3 April, 14:00)
More detailed analysis: Brexit and the Irish border. Why the ‘protocol’ is such a difficult issue.
Class 6 (Tuesday 4 April, 9:30)
6.1 Federalism in the UK: Brexit and Scotland 6.2 Picking up the pieces in England and Wales |