Current Challenges in Europe
Section outline
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Introduction + Cleavages in Europe: religious, ethnic, economic, social
Discussion about main cleavages in European society and their changes in recent years
Kriesi, H., Restructuration of Partisan Politics and the Emergence of a New Cleavage Based on Values, West European Politics, 33:3, 2010, pp. 673-685.
Minkenberg, M., Religion and Euroscepticism: Cleavages, Religious Parties and Churches in EU Member States, West European Politics, 32:6, 2009, pp. 1190-1211.
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Current Populism in Europe
Discussion about main populist topics and actors in contemporary Europe
Kriesi, Hanspeter. 2014. "The Populist Challenge". West European Politics 37, 2, 361-378.
Mudde, Cas. 2004. „The Populist Zeitgeist“. Government and Opposition 39, 4: 542-563.
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Post-communist countries: a successful transformation?
Discussion about how the post-communist countries performed during the process of transformation towards democracy and how they are doing now.
Kitschelt, H., Mansfeldová, Z., Post-Communist Party Systems, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999, pp. 19-42.
Ágh, A., Increasing europopulism as a megatrend in East Central Europe: from facade democracies to velvet dictatorship, Baltic Journal of Political Science, Vol. 5, 2016, pp. 21-39.
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Democratic Consolidation and Backsliding
Guest lecture from Thareerat Laohabut (University of Munich and EPS Alumna)
This session aims to theoretically and empirically explore and understand the dynamics and changes in European democracy in the post-Cold War era.
Bogaards, M. (2018). De-democratization in Hungary: Diffusely Defective Democracy, Democratization. 25(8), 1481-1499.
Lührmann. A & Lindberg, S. I. (2019) A third wave of autocratization is here: what is new about it?, Democratization, 26(7), 1095-1113.
Norris, P. (2017). Is Western democracy backsliding? Diagnosing the risks, Harvard Kennedy School.
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3/11 Cultural cleavages and the rise of radical right parties in Western Europe, 14:00-15:20 (class from Culture and Politics in Europe)
Guest lecture from Thareerat Laohabut (University of Munich and EPS Alumna)
This session aims to theoretically and empirically explore and understand how culture can influence and play a role in shaping politics, specifically in European political context.
Reading:
Kriesi, H., Grande, E., Lachat, R., Dolezal, M., Bornschier, S., & Frey, T. (2008). Globalization and its impact on national spaces of competition. In West European Politics in the Age of Globalization (pp. 3-22). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Norris, P., & Inglehart, R. (2019). The backlash against the silent revolution. In Cultural Backlash: Trump, Brexit, and Authoritarian Populism (pp. 87-131). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.¨
Voluntary reading:
Norris, P., & Inglehart, R. (2019). Who Votes for Authoritarian-Populist Parties? In Cultural Backlash: Trump, Brexit, and Authoritarian Populism (pp. 257-293). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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Guest lecture from Maxine David (Leiden University)
Russia’s War on Ukraine: Unbottled Emotions and the Conditioning of the EU’s Russia Policy
(This article is out to review and is used with the permission of the authors for the purposes of this class only. It is not to be distributed further – under any circumstances)
Plus recommended article:Marco Siddi (2022) The partnership that failed: EU-Russia relations and the war in Ukraine, Journal of European Integration, 44:6, 893-898
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Green Politics of the EU
Where has the green new deal its origin? What is so revolutionary about the European Green Deal (if any)? Can the EU be perceived as the green global leader?
Liefferink, D. and Wurzel, R. (2017). Environmental Leaders and Pioneers: Agents of Change? Journal of European Public Policy 24(7), pp. 951-968.
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Climate and related securities and Europe
What kind of climate security risks does Europe concentrate on? How does climate security change the geopolitics of the European perspective on the world?
Kuzemko, C. et al. (2022). Russia's War on Ukraine, European Energy Policy Responses & Implications for Sustainable Transformations. Energy Research & Social Science 93, pp. 1-8.
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European Left: what happened after the end of the welfare state?
Discussion about the development of left-wing ideologies in the 21st century.
Císař, O., The Left in the beginning of the 21st century, in Kopeček, L., Trajectories of the Left. Social Democratic and Ex-Communist Parties in Contemporary Europe: Between Past and Future, Brno: CDK, 2005, pp. 11-28.
March, L., Radical Left Success before and after Great Recession, in March, L. and D. Keith, Europe´s Radical Right: From Marginality to Mainstream?, London: Rowman, 2016, pp. 27-50.
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Migration to Europe: challenges and opportunities
Discussion about main national and EU approaches towards different types of migration to Europe
Mathias Czaika, Marta Bivand Erdal & Cathrine Talleraas (2023) Exploring Europe’s external migration policy mix: on the interactions of visa, readmission, and resettlement policies, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 49:12, 3140-3161
Erik Snel, Özge Bilgili & Richard Staring (2021) Migration trajectories and transnational support within and beyond Europe, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 47:14.