European Union: Politics, Institutions and Society

This course provides an in-depth understanding of the history, institutions, laws, and policies of the European Union (EU). We will debate alternative explanations for the political development of the EU, unearth the events and actors that have shaped European integration, and place the EU in a broader comparative perspective. We will also grapple with key social and political debates facing the EU today, such as debates concerning the democratic legitimacy of the EU, immigration and the EU’s handling of the refugee crisis, the rise of Euroskepticism and Brexit, the rule of law crisis and autocratization of some EU member states, and how the war in Ukraine has impacted the trajectory of European integration.