Seminar Democracy in the European Union

Course Outline: Topic and Goals of the Seminar The seminar focuses on the democratic quality of the European Union. As policy-making has shifted to a remarkable extent to the EU-level, the question of democratic legitimacy of the processes and the output of the decision-making in these supranational structures has emerged within the last decades. Many scholars of political science have addressed the issue, however they could agree neither on a common diagnosis nor on an endeavour to effectively democratize the political system of the European Union. On the basis of the academic discussion, the seminar will intensively look at the arguments in the debate which support or question the alleged existence of a democratic deficit in the European Union. Furthermore we will address proposed remedies to solve the democratic problem e.g. by parliamentarization, by deliberative democracy or by direct participation of the citizens. One central finding of our discussions might be that the concept as well as the operationalization of democracy beyond nation state has to be reviewed. For each class all students are asked to prepare the assigned reading (approx. 15-30 pages/week). In-class participation is considered obligatory.   Course Objectives and Teaching Approach At the end of the term, you should be familiar with the basic characteristics of democratic governance, the specificities for democracy in the EU, and be able to critically scrutinise democratic governance in multilevel political systems. In addition, the course should serve as room to train research relevant skills, in particular presenting an academic argument and drafting an analytical paper. Sozialw.Ges.Str. dem.Reg. (MA, PO 2013) Course Requirements and Grading     All participants need to participate actively in the course. Besides these minimum requirements for participation credits (BN), the examination requirements (AP) are the following: • Master -European Studies-   You have the option to do your final oral examination for the module -governance- in this course. Registration with the examination office (-Prüfungsamt) is required. • Master -Sozialwissenschaften- and Master -Politische Kommunikation-        You can do a final examination either as oral examination or as written examination. Registration with the examination office (-Prüfungsamt) is required. • International students (ERASMUS)       You can do a final examination either as oral examination or as written examination. Registration with the examination office is not required for you.   Oral Exams: about 20 minutes, Written Exams: term paper of maximal 6000 words (bibliography included).   Active Participation  1) Participation in a working group which prepares a (power point) presentation of about 15 minutes (in the week of your presentation send a draft version of presentation to the instructor before Tuesday noon, projector will be provided, bring a notebook along) and submittal of two reading diaries on articles of the assigned reading (except on the one of the second meeting and the one of the respective presentation meeting, each about 600 words, hand the printed review to the instructor at the beginning of the meeting in which the assigned reading is discussed and be prepared to contribute to the discussion) or 2) submittal of five reading diaries (reviews) on articles of the assigned reading (each about 600 words, except on the one of the second meeting, hand the printed review to the instructor at the beginning of the meeting in which the assigned reading is discussed and be prepared to contribute to the discussion) Universität Düsseldorf WiSe 2016/17 Univ.-Prof. Dr. Marschall Stefan Ernst