Comparative European Politics

Lecture 1: What we can learn from Europe and Comparative Politics

Questions for Today:

What is Europe?

What is European about Europe?

What can we learn from studying Europe/European Politics?

Question One: What is Europe?

A region?

A continent?

A community of nations?

A set of changing economic/political alliances?

All of these

Question Two: What is European about Europe?

In other words, what is the glue that holds Europe together?

What makes it a cohesive or coherent place or idea?

Europe as a civilization

Europe as a culture

Europe as an agreement on a set of political values and institutions

Question Three: What can we learn from studying Europe/European Politics?

We learn about our own country’s choices and the variables that inform these choices: history, political culture, economic growth and stagnation, social change

Policies To Explore:

European Integration/Europe’s Financial Crises

Citizenship/Migration/Immigration/Diversity

The European Social Model/Health Care