ObjectivesThis programme has been designed to provide you with the full range of tools to analyse the contemporary public policy-making process in the complex, multi-level system of the EU as well as European states. It will enable you to develop an advanced understanding of the functioning of the European Union, and its impact on national political systems and modes of public policy-making. It is based on a broad conception of what ‘Europe’ is, since it encompasses both the EU and individual states.
Academic titleEuropean Public Policy (MSc / MRes)
Course descriptionYou will take core courses and option courses, and write a dissertation.
-Core course 1, The European Union – Integration, Politics and Policy, examines the dynamics of European integration since 1945, considering the origins of European integration, the theories of integration, the EU’s institutions, policy development in key areas – including economic and monetary union, the single market, external policy, social policy and justice and home affairs – and then examines the response of Western Europe to the collapse of Communist regimes, and the evolution of post-Cold War institutional architectures. It provides an informed perspective from which it is possible to evaluate claims about where power lies in the EU, the ‘democratic deficit’ and the single currency.
-Core course 2, Comparative European Public Policy, aims to equip you with advanced knowledge of the theories of public policy and the responses of European states to common policy problems. In particular it offers a critical assessment of the impact of the processes of so-called ‘Europeanisation’ and ‘globalisation’ on the autonomy of European nation states. It seeks to identify and subsequently explain patterns of convergence and divergence in select areas of public policy. It also attempts to place these patterns in the historically defined wider socio-political context from which they emerge.
The core courses are supplemented by options and the completion of a dissertation on an agreed subject. Modules are normally available in:
-British, US and European government and politics
-international relations, international security, and US foreign policy
-politics of globalisation and international political economy
-politics, policy and administration of the EU
-political theory and political sociology
-war, conflict, nationalism, politics and religion
-policy analysis, policy-making processes and comparative public policy
-public management and public sector reform
-research methods
For MRes students, research methods training forms part of the programme's core elements.