ESPS1001 Introduction to European History, Law, Politics and Philosophy
This is the first-year core module, compulsory for all First Year ESPS students, giving an introduction to concepts and theories central to the understanding of modern European politics, history and thought. The module is divided into six main sections, listed in the order in which they will be taught.
History I:
Twentieth Century Europe (Tutor tbc)
Political Science I: explores the key issues, concepts & problems in Politics (Prof Marlière)
Political Science II: Challenges to the State in World Politics (Dr Bakke)
Law: focuses on general principles of law and the foundations of EU law (Dr Boccardi)
History II:
History of Political Thought (Dr Schröder)
Political Science III: title tbc (Dr Kappe)
Philosophy: is concerned with philosophical problems in European thought (Dr Stern).
Guest lectures from other disciplines, and classes on essay and examination writing, will also be given. Lectures are supported by weekly back-up classes, in which students discuss ideas and arguments raised in the lectures and in a weekly set reading. These classes are generally convened by Ph.D students.
Available to: ESPS First Years, ESPS Affiliates, and students from other departments. Students not taking an ESPS degree should note that due to the disciplinary range of this module, it will be hard to pass.
Module value: 1.0 unit
Convenor: tbc
Duration: Two terms
Teaching structure: 1 one-hour lecture (Mon 4-5), 1 one-hour seminar (Thurs 3-4), and 1 one-hour back-up class (choose one of Fri 10-11, 11-12, 12-1, 1-2). All parts of the course are compulsory and attendance is monitored.
Workload: one practice essay and one assessed essay; weekly seminar reading (available on Moodle) and two seminar presentations
Assessment: 1 unseen three-hour written exam (75%), 1 assessed essay of 2,500 words (25%)
Students entering the programme in September 2013 should view the preliminary reading list for this module to be uploaded here in due course.
ESPS9001 ESPS Dissertation
The Dissertation is compulsory for all final-year ESPS students, with the exception of students taking a full Economics specialism, for whom it is optional.
This module consists of research on a topic derived from the field of the student's specialisation. The theme of the Dissertation is chosen during the second year, in discussion with ESPS tutors and course teachers. The research for the Dissertation is carried out during the third year abroad, in the country or countries of the major language(s) studied, utilising foreign sources. In the final year at UCL, students finish writing up and submit a 6,500 - 8000 word paper on their research, which is assessed as one of the four units of the final year.
The Dissertation draws together knowledge acquired in the humanities or social science specialisation and in the literature and culture of the country studied, as well as utilizing linguistic skills developed during the year abroad. A successful Dissertation may well form the starting point for further, more independent work at postgraduate level, and it will be seen as an important indicator of an aptitude for research. For those interested in developing a particular aspect of their research at the end of their degree, an opportunity exists for publication of selected articles based on the Dissertations, in the ESPS annual journalEuropean Social and Political Research.
In the first term of the final year, there will be assessed presentations by students on their dissertation. Two weeks in advance of their presentation, students submit to the ESPS office an electronic copy of an article in English which will provide other students with a background to the topic, together with a bibliography of three titles for those who wish to pursue the topic further. The article and bibliography will be uploaded to Moodle. All students are expected to have read the background articles in time for the presentations each week. In their presentations students explain how they have formulated the problem which their dissertation addresses, their reasons for selecting the topic, and their sources, hypotheses, methods, findings and conclusions. After the presentation each student receives a detailed response from a discussant. The class as a whole then offers feedback - concerning omissions and inconsistencies, suggestions for new angles and methods, and comparative insights into links with other topics.
Detailed information on the ESPS Dissertation is included in the ESPS Year Abroad Guide and Dissertation Guidelines, available on Moodle.
Available to: Final Year ESPS students only
Prerequisites: Satisfactory progression to final year
Module value: 1.0 unit
Convenor: Dr Kristin Bakke
Duration: Two terms
Contact hours Term 1: 1 two-hour seminar (Tues 4-6).
Assessment: presentation (15%); dissertation (85%)
ESPS students may select optional modules taught by ESPS tutors, listed below, in addition to any suitable courses offered by language, humanities or social science departments at UCL.
ESPS options for non-ESPS students
Students from other departments may apply for any of the optional modules listed below, unless indicated otherwise, as well as for the first-year core module ESPS1001, listed above. Click here for details of the application procedure. Please note that availability cannot be guaranteed for any modules, and admission to any given module is at the discretion of the course tutor. It is advisable to prepare a back-up choice.
ESPS2101
European Integration in Historical Perspective
This course examines differing conceptions of Europe, the history of the EEC and EU, and the attitudes of individual states to the process of European integration. It covers topics such as war and reconstruction, planning and liberalization in post-war economies, and Europe's relationship with both East and West.
Available to: First Years, Second Years and Affiliates
Module value: 0.5 unit
Convenor: tbc
Duration: One term (Term 1)
Teaching structure: 1 one-hour lecture (Mon 12-1), 1 one-hour seminar (Wed 10-11)
Assessment: 1 unseen two-hour written exam (50%), 1 assessed essay of 2,500 words (50%)
This course aims to provide students with an understanding of the process of European integration, and its current political implications for European nation-states. It discusses the origins and development of the EU, different theoretical models of integration, policy aspects of the EU such as the European Social Policy, the main EU institutions (notably the European Parliament), party politics in the EU and the rise of a 'EU political scene'. It finally looks at the question of enlargement of the EU and its political implications.
Available to: First Years, Second Years, and Affiliates
Prerequisites: None, but not available to students who have taken POS6006 Politics of the EU.
Module value: 0.5 unit
Convenor: Prof Philippe Marlière
Duration: One term (Term 1)
Teaching structure: lecture and seminar (Tues 11-1)
Assessment: 1 unseen two-hour written exam (80%), 1 assessed essay of 2,500 words (20%)
ESPS2103 Political Violence and Intrastate Conflicts
Why have some states been more peaceful than others? What are the reasons and mechanisms that encourage people to pick up arms and fight against each other? This course explores theses questions. In the last decades, both scholars and policy makers have increasingly paid attention to conflicts going on within, rather than between, states. The course introduces students to theoretical debates and empirical trends on intrastate conflicts and political violence. It covers conflicts across the world, including nationalist mobilization in the former communist countries, ethnic conflicts in Asia, political protest and violent conflicts in Europe and the Middle East, civil wars in Africa, and insurgencies in Latin America.
Political violence and conflicts within states are today among the biggest threats to international peace and stability. This course aims to give you the theoretical tools to help you analyze the causes and dynamics of such violence, as well as introduce you to different types of political violence and intrastate conflicts—including self-determination struggles, civil wars, and terrorism—across the world. Through class discussions and written assignments, you will be able to apply the theories and concepts learnt in class to “real world” cases.
Available to: All years and Affiliates
Module value: 0.5 unit
Convenor: Dr Kristin M. Bakke
Duration: One Term (Term 2)
Teaching structure: 1 two-hour seminar (Thurs 11-1)
Assessment: 2 assessed essays of 2,500 words (50% each)
The course introduces students to the major theoretical traditions in International Relations— Realism, Liberalism, Marxism, Constructivism, and Feminism— and uses these different theories to address historical and current events in world politics. The course aims to link theory and the “real world,” by providing the students with different lenses for understanding and explaining questions related to wars, nuclear weapons, terrorism, globalization and free trade.
Available to: All Years and Affiliates. Note on Registration: this is the same module as POLS6010. ESPS students should register on ESPS2104, all non-ESPS students should apply for POLS6010 through the Department of Political Science.
Module value: 0.5 unit
Convenor: Dr Kristin M. Bakke
Duration: One term (Term 1)
Teaching structure: 1 one-hour lecture (Mon 10-11), 1 one-hour seminar (choose one of: Thurs 9-10, 10-11, 11-12, 12-1)
Assessment: 2 assessed essays of 2,000 words each (40% and 60% respectively)
ESPS2106 Reform or Revolution: European Social Democracy c 1870-1930 (not running 2013-14)
This course examines the emergence of political labour movements in different European countries in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and asks why these movements arose, at more or less the same time, across the continent. We will look in particular at debates about social class as an influence on political action. What motivates working-class people to become politically active and seek to form political parties in order to influence how they are governed? Moreover, how can we explain the different forms which labour politics took in different European countries? The events of 1917 in Russia sharpened a debate which had been developing since the 1890s: should socialists work within the existing capitalist system to try to secure reforms, or should they attempt to overthrow the entire system and construct a new one? How was this debate played out in different parts of Europe and how can we explain different levels of support for reformist and revolutionary politics?
Available to: Second Years, Final Years and Affiliates
Module value: 0.5 unit
Convenor: Dr Mary Hilson
Duration: One term
Teaching structure: lecture and seminar
Assessment: 1 unseen two-hour written exam (70%), 1 assessed essay of 2,500 words (30%)
ESPS2107 Food: Consumerism and Globalisation from Free Trade to Fair Trade
The production and consumption of food is fundamental to human existence , and not surprisingly it has generated some fierce political struggles. This course explores the ‘moral economies’ of food production, consumption and distribution in the context of industrial capitalism, from the early nineteenth century to the present day. The central assumption underpinning the course is that debates about food prices, fair trade, ethical production, globalisation, sustainability and ‘good’ consumption are not exclusively contemporary phenomena, but must be considered in historical perspective. The course examines political struggles over food in different historical contexts in Europe and beyond, ranging from local demonstrations against high food prices to the international co-operative movement and its aspirations to create a consumers’ international.
Available to: Second Years, Final Years and Affiliates
Module value: 0.5 unit
Convenor: Dr Mary Hilson
Duration: One term (Term 1)
Teaching structure: 1 one-hour lecture (Wed 12-1), 1 one-hour seminar (choose one of: Fri 10-11, 11-12)
Assessment: 1 unseen two-hour written exam (70%), 1 assessed essay of 2,500 words (30%)
This course aims to provide students with a very good grounding in the foundational doctrines of European Union (EU) Law. The first part of the course will focus both on the institutional and constitutional law of the EU and in particular on the processes of political and administrative decision-making, legislation and adjudication. The second part of the course will examine aspects of substantive EU Law in relation to the creation of the Internal Market and the 'Four Freedoms' regarding the movement of goods, persons, services and capital.
Available to: All years and Affiliates
Module value: 1.0 unit
Convenor: Dr Ingrid Boccardi (Tutor: Alessandro Spano)
Duration: Two terms
Teaching structure: 1 two-hour seminar (Wed 9-11)
Assessment: 1 unseen three-hour written exam (90%), 1 practical exercise of 1,500 words (10%)
The goal of this course is to familiarize students with important concepts and models in Political Economy. The course starts with basic ideas about social organization: why live in an organized state, cooperation, collective action and the provision of public goods and then focuses on problems of social choice, and provides an introduction to spatial models of political competition followed by fundamental ideas about institutions and institutional change. After these foundations, the focus shifts towards democratic institutions with a quick tour through basic ideas and problems of legislative organization, intergovernmental relations, veto player theory and an analysis of electoral rules and party systems. The last part looks at problems of delegation and the interplay of politics and the macro-economy on the national and international level.
Available to: All Years and Affiliates.
Module value: 0.5 unit
Convenor: Dr Roland Kappe
Duration: One term (Term 2)
Teaching structure: 1 one-hour lecture (Tues 1-2), 1 one-hour seminar (choose one of: Thurs 12-1, 1-2)
Assessment: 1 assessed essay of 3,000-4,000 words (100%)
This course looks at ways in which German thinkers such as Marx, Weber and Habermas have explained the distribution and exercise of power in modern societies and how they have approached the question of political domination and representation.
Available to: Second Years, Final Years and Affiliates
Module value: 0.5 unit
Convenor: tbc
Duration: One term (Term 2)
Teaching structure: 1 two-hour seminar (Tues 4-6)
Assessment: 1 unseen two-hour written exam (50%), 1 assessed essay of 2,500 words (50%)
This is a final year option for students who are interested in political ideas and who wish to understand how those ideas are born and shape political conducts, or influence paradigmatic shifts in the domain of policy making.
This course starts from two basic propositions: firstly, the notion of a post-ideological society is a false one, and ideologies remain important to political action. Secondly, the traditional model of political ideologies, which saw them arranged on a map running from Left to Right, is no longer adequate as a framework for understanding politics today. The discussion builds upon two concepts for understanding the paradigmatic changes in today’s world: ideological hegemony, and resistances to those dominant ideas which can take very different forms. Why are certain ideologies effective in arousing political sympathy, and why do they lose their power? Why was Keynesianism abandoned in the 1970s? Why did Communism eventually lose its mobilising power in the 1980s? Why did nationalism help mobilise people in parts of Central Europe in the 1990s? Has the hegemony of Neoliberalism been undermined by the recent financial crisis in capitalist economies? Were the recent ‘revolutions’ in the Middle-East ideologically motivated?
Available to: Final Years and Affiliates
Module value: 0.5 unit
Convenor: Prof Philippe Marlière
Duration: One term (Term 2)
Teaching structure: 1 two-hour seminar (Tues 11-1)
Assessment: 1 unseen two-hour written exam (70%), 1 assessed essay of 2,500 words (30%)
The course is concerned with the philosophical theories of the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Students will read a selection of Nietzsche’s work as well as relevant secondary commentary and criticism. Students will be expected to articulate clearly and evaluate critically Nietzsche’s ideas on a variety of topics.
Available to: Second Years, Final Years and Affiliates
Module value: 0.5 unit
Convenor: Dr Tom Stern
Duration: One term (Term 1)
Teaching structure: 1 one-hour lecture (Mon 9-10), 1 one-hour seminar (choose one of: Thurs 11-12, 12-1, 1-2)
Assessment: 1 assessed essay of 3,000-4,000 words (100%)
This course is designed for ESPS students in their second or fourth year, who specialise in History of Political Thought or Political Philosophy. War and the discourse about its legitimacy is one of the major features of human civilisation, or indeed – as some would argue – the starkest sign of the lack of civilisation. We will engage in theories about war and peace from early modern to modern times. Please note that this course will focus on the theories developed in the early modern period and is NOT a course on IR.
Available to: Second Years, Final Years and Affiliates
Module value: 0.5 unit
Convenor: Dr Peter Schröder
Duration: One term
Teaching structure: 1 two-hour seminar
Assessment: 1 assessed essay of 5,000 words (100%)
ESPS7402
Political Theories of Self-government (not running 2013-14)
This course is designed for students who specialise in History, Philosophy or Politics. The discourses about political participation, the relation between the individual and the state and the legitimacy of state power are as old as human forms of civilisation. We will engage in the writings about republicanism which will cover the development of the main theories leading to the current debate about democracy in Europe and the issue of a European constitution.
Available to: Second Years, Final Years and Affiliates
Module value: 0.5 unit
Convenor: Dr Peter Schröder
Duration: One term
Teaching structure: 1 two-hour seminar
Assessment: 1 assessed essay of 5,000 words (100%)
This course examines the relation between the individual, society and the state by exploring the tradition of political thought, which has both individualistic and collectivist varieties, which regards the claims of authority with scepticism or hostility, and which pursues the aim of emancipation by achieving understanding of the real, but concealed determinants of power. Assessment is by one essay of the student's own devising.
Available to: Final Years and Affiliates with advanced knowledge of history, history of thought, political theory or political philosophy
Prerequisites: At least one of ESPS7101 German Political & Social Thought, ESPS7401 War & Peace, ESPS7402 Political Theories of Self-government or HIST2310 State, Sovereignty and Liberty, or similar courses
Module value: 0.5 unit
Convenor: Dr Peter Schröder
Duration: One term (Term 2)
Teaching structure: 1 two-hour seminar (Wed 11-1)
Assessment: 1 assessed essay of 5,000 words (100%)
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