POLI 7971 Special Topics in Comparative Politics
The European Union”

      Term: Fall 2008               Instructor: Dr. Ray
      Time: Wednesday 9:10 – 12:00  Office: 153A Howe Russell Hall
      Room: 210 Stubbs Hall         Office Hours: T Th 10:00 – 12:00
The European Union has often been described as a unique political project- the successful peaceful unification of sovereign democratic states. One can question whether the European Union is really unique (remember the American founding?), peaceful (what of the background threat of a Soviet invasion?), or successful (too soon to tell?). But it is an important political phenomenon, and by weakening traditional notions of sovereignty it has challenged the traditional Political Science division between International Relations theory and Comparative Politics. This course will explore alternative theoretical perspectives on the European Union- as an international organization, or as an emerging polity, and then survey the literature in comparative politics on the EU as an emerging political system. For each topic, a few readings are assigned in order to introduce students to the variety of ways in which European integration has been studied. Students are expected to read and discuss the assigned works each week.
    In addition to participation in class discussion, there are a number of written requirements for the course, each of which will count for a quarter of the student's final grade..
  1. Students will hand in a brief (1-2 paragraph) summary of each of the readings assigned for each week. (Since these will cover all of the readings, it is this important to keep these brief.)
  2. Students also are required to complete one literature review (4-5 pages) which present the recent literature on an EU related topics. Such topics may include: “Europeanization,” EU Social Policy, EU citizenship, the “democratic deficit,” National identity and European identity.
  3. Students will write either a second literature review on another EU topic, or a research paper which builds upon the first literature review. This paper could be a quantitative analysis using any of the numerous available EU related data sources, a historical or qualitative case study, or a theoretical exploration of the normative implications of European integration.
  4. In class final exam.

Reading Schedule

for week 1 Sept 3


Intro: Regional Integration Theory

Prehistory of the European Union:

Deak, Francis. 1931 “Can Europe Unite?” Political Science Quarterly 46:3 pp 424-433.
Dorpalen, Andreas 1948 “The European Polity: Biography of an Idea” The Journal of Politics Vol 10 Issue 4 712-733.
Kover, J.F. 1954 “The Integration of Western Europe” Political Science Quarterly Vol 69 No3 354-373

Functionalist Integration theory:


Mitrany, David 1948 “The Functional Approach to World Organization” International Affairs Vol 24 Issue 3 350-363.

Transactionalist integration theory:


Deutsch, Karl 1957 Political Community and the North Atlantic Area (excerpt)
Fisher, William 1969. “An Analysis of the Deutsch Sociocausal Paradigm of Political Integration” International Organization Vol 23 No 2 254-290.

Europe as a model:


Haas, Ernst 1961 “International Integration: The European and the Universal Process”. International Organization Vol 15 No 3 366-392.