Course Catalogue

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This course focuses on processes of European integration in Central and Eastern Europe since accession to the Council of Europe and European Union and considers developments in politics and state-society relations in the region.

One 2 hour class per week

This course runs alternate years. For further information please check the CEES Moodle page or contact the subject directly 

Grade D in Central and East European Studies or cognate social science Level 2

Oral presentation (10-15 minutes, in class) (15%)

Extended essay (4,250 words) (85%)

Those students unable (for whatever reason) to present in person their presentation during the seminar, they may record their presentation and send this to the course convenor instead.

This course focuses on the political transformation and European integration of the states of Central and Eastern Europe in the wake of accession to the Council of Europe in the 1990s and European Union since 2004. The course evaluates the effects of accession on state-society relations and the benefits and challenges that accession brought. The course critically examines the impact of accession on civil society, political behaviour and the courts. And a focus on how participation in European elections has shaped national political parties in the region is compared and contrasted with the influence of CEE parties and actors on European elections and EU decision-making more broadly. Theories explaining democratization and European integration are compared and contrasted. The course considers evidence of de-democratization in the region and the EU's innovation of instruments to secure and maintain the rule of law. The course in turn considers how the enlargement of the Council of Europe and EU has brought a growing practice to more critically evaluate and monitor performance in all member states which promises to enhance the quality of democracy across Europe. Students are encouraged to consider and interpret these developments from the perspectives of a variety of theoretical frameworks in the multi-disciplinary European studies literature and political science literature.

By the end of this course, students will be able to:

■ identify and analyse the benefits and challenges to CEE of accession to the Council of Europe and European Union

■ apply key theories of European integration to explain accession and changes to political institutions in the region of CEE

■ critically examine the changing nature of state-society relations and the courts in CEE in comparative perspective

■ explain processes of democratization in the region using key theoretical frameworks and perspectives

■ evaluate competing theories to explain political behaviour and the development of political parties CEE

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.