EU POLITICAL SYSTEM
The course aims to introduce students to the study of EU political system, focusing the attention on the EU policy-making process and its main actors.
Course Description
Course aims
The course aims to introduce students to the study of EU political system, focusing the attention on the EU policy-making process and its main actors. Students will acquire a basic knowledge on the EU legislative, executive and representative sub-systems, on the inter-institutional relations as well as on the role of parties and interest groups. Moreover, they will learn about EU competences and main policy areas.
Expected outcomes
On completion of this course you will have got acquainted with the functioning of the EU supranational system and have a clear understanding of the multi-level system of actors and interests participating in policy-making. You will be able to recognize key concepts and and be familiar with EU institutions, mechanisms and main policy issues.
Course overview (Curriculum in the platform)
Unit One. The EU as a political system
Unit Two. The inter-institutional relations: how institutions and subsystems interact.
Unit Three. The role of political parties and interest groups in the representation of interests
Unit Four. EU policy-making process
Unit Five. EU competences and main policies
About the course author
Prof. Francesca Longo and Dr. Iole Fontana
Curriculum
- Student code
- Student code
- Unit 1. The EU as a political system
- STEP 1 Overview
- STEP 2. The EU as a ‘political system’
- STEP 3. The EU as political system…that is ‘supranational’
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EXERCISE 1
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- STEP 4. The ‘sub-systems’ of EU political system
- Unit 2. The inter-institutional relations: how institutions and subsystems interact.
- STEP 1. OVERVIEW
- STEP 2. Which elements of the Presidential/separated powers model can be found in the EU?
- STEP 3. Which elements of the Parliamentary/fused powers model can be found in the EU?
- STEP 4. So, what kind of political system is the EU? It is a ‘mixed’ model!
- STEP 5: Summing up through exercises
- Unit Thee The role of political parties and interest groups in the representation of interests
- STEP 1. Overview
- STEP 2. THE EUROPARTIES OR EUROPEAN POLITICAL PARTIES
- STEP 3. THE INTEREST GROUPS
- STEP 4. CITIZENS’ INITIATIVE
- STEP 5. SUMMING-UP THROUGH EXERCISES
- Unit Four EU Policy-making process
- STEP 1. OVERVIEW
- STEP 2. Agenda-Setting in the EU
- STEP 3. Decision-making in the EU
- STEP 4. IMPLEMENTATION AND EVALUATION
- STEP 5. SUMMING THROUGH EXERCISES
- Unit Five EU Competences and Policies
- STEP 1. OVERVIEW
- STEP 2. EU DIFFERENT LEGISLATIVE ACTS
- STEP 3. The limitations to EU competences
- FINAL QUIZ
- EXERCISE 1
- EXERCISE 2
About Author
Prof. Dr. Francesca Longo is full Professor of Political Science and European Union Politics and Jean Monnet Professor of European Union Public Policies. She is PhD doctor in International Relation. Her research interests are focused on the EU migration Policy, EU policy against organised crime and the security policy of the EU. She has been a member of several international research group on the topic of the fight against organised crime and Immigration policy. She is Convenor of the Standing Group on Organised Crime – European Consortium for Political Research, member of the academic board of the “Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica” and President of the Italian Political Science Association.
Dr. Iole Fontana is post-doc research fellow at the Department of Political Sciences, University of Catania. She has a PhD in Institutions, Politics and Policies from IMT- Institute of Advanced Studies. She has been a visiting scholar at the London School of Economics in London and at the University Hassan II in Casablanca. She has also served as a research intern for the Section of Political and Cultural Cooperation of the European Union Delegation in Tunis. Her first monography has recently been published by Routledge. She has an expertise on EU politics, EU-Mediterranean relations and is currently working on the role of organized criminal groups in the migrants’ trafficking in the Mediterranean, EU migration and asylum policy. In June-July 2019, she was one of the 18 scholars selected to attend the SUSI program of the US State Department on US Foreign Policy.