Undergraduate Module Descriptor

POL3196: Democracy in the European Union

This module descriptor refers to the 2016/7 academic year.

This plan is indicative of the topics to be covered by the module. More details will be given and the plan finalized in the module outline.

Introduction
Representation theory and the institutional architecture of democratic representation
Representation in the EU from the foundations until today
The European Council and the Council of the European Union
The European Parliament I
The European Parliament II
Euro-parties
National Parliaments in EU policy-making I
National Parliaments in EU policy-making II
National parties
The Court of Justice of the European Union
Civil society (organizations): Different approaches
The EU and civil society organizations
The interest system of the EU and the domestic face of CSO involvement
Simulation I
Simulation II
The citizen: the European Citizen Initiative
The citizen: referendums in EU affairs
The democratic deficit debate
The Euro debt and financial crisis: A failure of democratic representation?
The UK and the EU: What kind of representation?
Compound representation in the EU – coherent or colliding?

This table provides an overview of how your hours of study for this module are allocated:

Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities	Guided independent study	Placement / study abroad
44	256

...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:

Category	Hours of study time	Description
Scheduled Learning & Teaching activities	44	22 x two-hour seminars. These will be a mix of formal lectures led by the co-ordinator, student presentation and student discussion. The emphasis is on weekly seminar presentations; active seminar participation.
Guided independent study	256	A variety of private study tasks directed by module leader, including reading at least two articles per class, the reading for the oral presentation and its preparation for those who chose to give one or alternatively the drafting of a text commentary, the preparation of the simulation, the reading for the essay, the conducting of research for it and the writing of the essay. The large bulk of the independent study time will be spent with the weekly reading of key texts and the research for and drafting of the essay.

This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).