Upon the successful completion of this course, students should be able to:
- recognize the main ways in which domestic actors and institutions in EU member states get involved in EU affairs
- assess the main models of the participation of national institutions in EU policy-making
- explain the different patterns of national preferences with regard to the integration process
- evaluate how and why individual member states differ in their success with implementing EU legislation

The course focuses on several key dimensions of the member states’ involvement in EU policymaking. The three selected dimensions explored in the course are: 1) the institutional set-up of member states’ participation in EU affairs (executive coordination and parliamentary control  in other words, how ministries, cabinets, and national parliaments take part in EU affairs); 2) formulation and articulation of national preferences and positions at the EU level; and 3) implementation of EU law at the domestic level (and the subsequent compliance with this law).  

The course structure consists of the following sections:

A. National executives and parliaments and EU affairs
B. Member states’ preferences in the EU
C. Implementation of EU law in the member states

Registration by email to Jan Karlas (jan.karlas@fsv.cuni.cz) by 15 September.

Compulsory preceding studies: POLPOP02 Introduction to Political Science

1) Reading prior to the seminars
For each seminar, every student has to read at minimum one mandatory text (see the list of the readings below).

2) One seminar presentation (30% of the grade)
Each student is supposed to prepare one presentation and lead – together with the course conveyor – a subsequent discussion once during the course. If the number of the participating students exceeds the number of the presentations, students will collaborate on preparing a presentation collectively. The presentation will be based on the all readings (both the mandatory and additional readings) for the given seminar. The presentation should be reflective and argumentative (not just summarising the readings). 

3) Active seminar participation (30% of the grade)
Students are expected to be actively involved in the seminar discussions. Questions for the discussion part will be partly distributed by the lecturer in advance and partly raised by those delivering a presentation in the seminar.

4) Final paper (40% of the grade)
The term paper will address some issues related to the class topics chosen by the student according to his/her interest.  Two general possibilities for a term paper are a comparative description or an argumentative essay. It should be 1500-2000 words in length (that is about 5-7 standardized pages) in length. More information on the term paper will be provided by the lecturer at the final session of the course.

Course structure.pdf

Readings:

aspinwall2002.pdf

beichelt2007.pdf

borzel2000.pdf

COSAC2007.pdf

falkner_etal2008.pdf

finke_melzer2012.pdf

gartner_etal2011.pdf

karlas2012.pdf

kassim2000.pdf

miklin2009.pdf

Moravcsik-JCMS-1993.pdf

olesen.pdf

risse_etal1999.pdf

spendzharova2012.pdf

sprungk2013.pdf

Compulsory preceding studies: POLPOP02 Introduction to Political Science