Admission requirements
Registration for the Minor European Union Studies or admission to the pre-master European Union Studies.
Description
The European Union is founded on the belief that sustainable economic growth can advance alongside – and even demands – high levels of social rights, protection and cohesion. To express this belief, the 1957 Treaty Establishing the European Community (also known as the Treaty of Rome) commits the Community to the “promotion of employment, improved living and working conditions […] proper social protection, dialogue between management and labor […] and the combating of exclusion.” Whether the Community has always succeeded in fostering these objectives remains a matter of debate, however. From the start of the economic integration process, critics have argued that social objectives are frequently sacrificed in favor of commercial and economic interests. And over time, the process of European economic integration has increasingly come to be viewed as a major threat to the existence of labor market and social welfare policies that serve to maintain national social standards. This course questions whether sustainable economic growth can indeed be reconciled with high levels of social rights and investigates how ‘Social Europe’ can survive under the twin challenges of globalization and European economic and political integration. The main purpose of the course is to investigate how the process of European integration has affected national labor markets and social welfare policies in recent years. It places particular emphasis on the impact of negative integration and recent attempts to develop a new European governance.
Course objectives
To provide students a comparative overview of national social systems and the core features of modern welfare policies in Europe
To provide students an overview of the debate on the relationship between European integration and national welfare systems
To consider together in class discussions and in a written assignment the state of welfare in Europe.
Timetable
The timetables are available through My Timetable.
Mode of instruction
Seminar
Assessment method
Weighing and assessment
20%: Class attendance and participation
20%: Class presentation
60%: A final paper analysing Social Europe literature from the perspective of a social policy field
The final mark for the course is established by determining the weighted average. To pass the course, the weighted average of the partial grades must be 5.5 or higher. In addition, the grade for the grade for the final paper needs to be at least a 5.5 as well. Students who fail to obtain a pass grade for the final paper are entitled to resubmit the paper.
Inspection and feedback
How and when an exam review will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the exam results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will have to be organized.
Reading list
The readings will be provided in class.
Registration
Enrolment through MyStudyMap is mandatory.
General information about course and exam enrolment is available on the website
Contact
For substantive questions, contact the lecturer listed in the right information bar.
For questions about enrolment, admission, etc, contact the Education Administration Office: Huizinga
Remarks
Not applicable