MA

Link zum Vorlesungsverzeichnis

In 1951, six European countries signed the Treaty of Paris to form the European Coal and Steel Community that laid the foundation for what is known today as the European Union (EU). Since its humble beginnings, the EU has played a crucial role in the political and economic developments of Europe and the globe and has evolved into an ‘ever closer union’ of currently 27 member states that have pooled their sovereignty to a historically unprecedented degree. Today, the EU constitutes one of the most complex and intriguing political and economic systems in the world, and as the European integration process remains in flux, the EU remains a moving target for those who study it. This course focuses on the scientific study of the EU and EU politics. It does not only offer you the opportunity to deepen your knowledge of the EU’s institutional actors and decision-making procedures, but encourages you to actively analyze EU politics and policy- making and to find answers to the various theoretical and empirical questions that are raised by the EU’s existence and developments. The objective is to go beyond mere description and to ask whether and how the EU’s decision-making processes and outcomes can be explained, developing theoretical models based on insights form the study of comparative politics and International Relations and systematically testing their empirical implications.