IFCO 2775 - Democracy in Europe: Backsliding and competition in multi-level systems

The course introduces students to core debates relating to democratic developments and challenges to democracy in Europe. It is anchored in a multi-level perspective, covering both the national and the European levels. The course discusses the institutional and cultural underpinnings of democracy as well as current challenges in the form of the rising democratic opposition and democratic backsliding. Addressing the ways in which aspiring autocrats reduce democracy, the course also presents the responses that democratic actors can provide to these developments. It equips students with a solid understanding of the key concepts from democracy research and recent developments in this field. It also introduces various quantitative measures of democracy and its institutions. This course uses advanced academic literature and is therefore targeted towards students comfortable with reading scientific texts in English.

This is a fundamental course open to anyone who is comfortable reading more complex academic texts in English.

Lectures

Final exam 70%:

• Three short answer questions, one essay question.

Group paper 30%:

• Focus on an aspect of democracy or democratic decline that we have studied.
• Combine theoretical questions and reflections with specific case study(ies).
• Groups of 3 or 4 students assigned by the professor.