Syllabus
CHARLES UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
INSTITUTE OF POLITICAL STUDIES
Course: Central European Politics (1/1; 6 credits)
Course Code: JPM239
Academic Year 2013/2014
Summer Semester
Course time: 2 WEDNESDAYS: April, 30. and May, 7 from 9:30 to 12:30 2 FRIDAYS: May, 2. and May, 9 from 15:00 to 18:00
Seminar Room: TBD
Lecturer: PhDr. Malvína Krausz Hladká, Ph.D.
Office: J3099 Office hours: online only
E-mail: hladka@fsv.cuni.cz
Mailbox: IPS secretariat, building "A", Jinonice campus
Common e-mail address: (www.gmail.com)
Students are required to check the common e-mail address prior to each session; any possible changes (of time, topics, reading) would be announced there.
COURSE DESCRIPTION and GOALS
The main aim of this course is to familiarize students with political systems of central European states. It is designed to provide students with a deeper understanding of central European politics, to highlight trends in development, and to help them anticipate some of the future problems of the region. The course will start with the question of whether we can speak about Central Europe as an entity, with a characterization of the region’s main cleavages, and will continue in blocks dealing with the process of democratization in Central Europe, political parties, party systems, parliamentary election systems, cabinet formation, and heads of states in Central Europe.
LECTURES and SEMINARS
Lectures and seminars: block teaching: 2 WEDNESDAYS: April, 30. and May, 7 from 9:30 to 12:30 2 FRIDAYS: May, 2. and May, 9 from 15:00 to 18:00. A list of lecture topics is attached below. Seminars should focus in detail on issues arising from lectures. Seminars require preparation in advance. All students are expected to have completed allocated readings and/or assignments before the seminar.
Any changes (time, dates, topics, presentations, room) will be announced at the common course e-mail. Students are required to check it prior to each session. Do not delete any e-mails from the course e-mail address!
Note: in case you wish to contact the lecturer, use her private e-mail address. There will no response in case you use the common e-mail address.
ASSESSMENT
Assessment will be based on one oral presentation and one written exam (60 minutes).
The final grade is a combination of the following items:
Presentation and Essay: 40%
Final exam: 60%
Participation in seminar discussions is required. Students are expected to attend 90 percent of seminars and lectures. Students are required to take the Final exam on the following date: ......................... For more information, see below.
REQUIREMENTS
Participation and preparation
All students, whether or not they are giving a presentation, are expected to prepare so that they can participate fully in the subsequent discussion of the topic. Participation in seminar discussions is required. Students are expected to attend 90 percent of seminars and lectures.
Presentation
The presentation and accompanying short essay account for 40 % of the total grade. The oral presentation should reflect an intellectual mastery of the topic, good structure, and good presentation. Each student (or: group of students) will give one formal presentation, which should last about 15 minutes.
Please, make sure that you come to the seminar the day when your presentation is due. Any presenter who cannot come the day of his/her presentation must inform the lecturer at least 48 hours in advance (see the lecturer’s private e-mail address above). You should provide the lecturer with a substantial reason (illness, etc.) for your absence. Please, note that you may be asked to present your work at another/following seminar. Any changes of this kind are to be discussed with the lecturer
F i n a l E x a m
Final exam accounts for 60% of the total grade.
Final exam questions/topics will be carefully chosen from all course lectures, seminar topics, required readings and presentations.
First term: ..........................
Students will be asked to take a multiple-choice test. In addition to that, they will be required to write short analyses on chosen topics. All topics and the multiple choice questions will be carefully chosen from the lectures, required reading, presentations and seminar discussions. The examination will then be marked as following: Excellent, Very good, Good. 75% of correct answers are required in order to pass the test (the DPES policy).
Please, note:
In case you present the oral presentation and take the Final exam, your grade will be put into the SIS electronic system within next week. Please, CHECK THE E-SYSTEM FOR YOUR GRADE. Come to consult your work in case of any problems or possible failures. Consultation hours will be announced in the class and common e-mail address.
Second term: ......................
Third term: ........................... Students are asked not to postpone the exam to this very last term.
A BRIEF COURSE OVERVIEW
INTRODUCTORY SESSION:
An introductory session. Course overview.
FIRST LECTURE & SEMINAR BLOCK:
Central vs. Eastern Europe. (What is Central Europe)
Seminar topics:
- What is Central Europe?
- Interventions in Central Europe. 1956 and 1968.
SECOND LECTURE & SEMINAR BLOCK:
Theories of transitions. Transition period in Central Europe (in comparison with the development in Eastern Europe).
THIRD LECTURE & SEMINAR BLOCK:
Building of democratic constitutional systems in CE countries.
Central Europe in 1989.
FOURTH LECTURES & SEMINARS BLOCK:
Key moments in political development 1989-2014.
FIFTH LECTURES & SEMINARS BLOCK:
Last parliamentary and presidential elections in CE countries. Elections results and the following political development of V4 countries and the CE region.
Foreign policies of the CE countries. Foreign policy priorities, security issues.
Elections and electoral systems. Party systems in the CE countries in comparative perspective.
FINAL EXAM:
Seminars
Seminars follow the lectures. Seminar topics are related to the reading. In order to facilitate learning, class readings may be altered prior to the next meeting. Additional readings will be distributed when appropriate. In addition to that, students are required to check the e-mail
Annotation
This course is designed to introduce you to the politics of Central Europe. It is a course in comparative politics so we will take a comparative political history perspective rather than a country-by-country approach or focus exclusively on analyzing the contemporary political institutions of the Central-East European countries.
We will do so because the aim of this course is to expose you to some of the fundamental and lingering controversies that surround and permeate the politics of Eastern European countries. The comparative elements focus on two main themes. The first is uniformity versus diversity among the states we are studying. We look at what they shared in common during their experience of Soviet-style communism, and the extent to which they differed from each other, and identify the explanatory factors that account for the divergence. This analysis continues when we examine their transitions to democracy and paths to democratic consolidation. The second comparative theme questions the extent to which Europe?s post-communist democracies are exceptional, and how far they can be analysed using general tools developed for the study of states with different historical backgrounds. This relates both to general literature on transitions to democracy, and to the effects of institutional design on the functioning of democratic polities. In examining the constitutions, electoral rules and party systems of the new democracies in a framework familiar from the study of other EU member states, we attempt to identify specific factors that distinguish their experiences from those of their western neighbors.