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PLS 350

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PLS 350
Government and Politics of Western Europe
Saint Martin's College
Course Syllabus

Purpose of the Course
The purpose of this course is to introduce the student to contemporary European politics. Most students have some appreciation and understanding of the American political system. However, they have little knowledge about the political systems of Europe. This course seeks to fill this gap by providing a basis for comparing various governmental institutions and political process in their historical, socioeconomic, and cultural contexts.

This course will focus on the political systems of Britain, France, Germany, and Russia. The course will examine the factors that have influenced the development of each of these systems, their political culture and socialization, political structures, electoral dynamics, political parties, interest groups, and political problems.

Course Requirements
This course will be primarily a lecture course with discussion strongly encouraged. The instructor expects students to keep up with the reading so they will be able to participate more actively in these discussions.

In addition to the main textbook, we will also use an anthology, Annual Editions in Comparative Politics, which contains contemporary articles on European political systems.  I plan to use these as the basis of class presentations and discussions, so it is important that you keep up with these readings. Students should also attempt to keep up with current political news on the countries we will cover in this class. This will facilitate discussion in class.

This instructor may occasionally provide articles on line for student discussion. These articles are an integral part of the course. The instructor expects these read before class, and questions from them may be used on examinations. Each student must have an internet account at the Computer Center or at home. This instructor will use his for communication with students in this class. Each student's email address should be filed with the instructor to facilitate communication. The answer to questions about the course, assignments, readings, etc. may be facilitated by email. Of course, the "old fashion" method of direct contact is warmly appreciated!

Discussion Mondays
Each student will be responsible for monitoring political, economic, and social developments in one of the countries that we are studying. Time will be allotted on Mondays to discuss these issues. The instructor expects short oral reports drawn from newspapers, articles, news shows in TV etc. Internet sites are a particularly useful source for these reports. (One can get the New York Times Washington Post and Christian Science Monitor on line for no cost.) European newspapers are particularly good sources for information. Links to newspapers are listed below.  

New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/
Washington Post http://www.csmonitor.com/
Christian Science Monitor  http://www.csmonitor.com/
International Herald Tribune  http://www.iht.com/frontpage.html
The Independent (London). http://www.independent.co.uk/
The Times. http://www.timesonline.co.uk
The Financial Times. http://news.ft.com/home/uk
Frankfueter Allgemeine Zeitung http://www.faz.com/IN/INtemplates/eFAZ/default.asp
Le Monde Diplomatique  http://mondediplo.com/
Agence France-Presse.  http://www.afp.com/english/home/
The Economist http://www.economist.com/
Moscow Times http://www.themoscowtimes.com/indexes/01.html

Grading Policy
There will be TWO EXAMINATIONS and an ORAL REPORT required of all students in this course. Each examination will count 25% of you total grade. The oral report will also count 25%; class discussion and class participation will constitute the final 25% of the grade. The grades for this course will be calculated as follows:

Oral Reports
Students will be divided up into four groups at the beginning of the semester. Each group will be responsible for presenting an oral report on the articles in the Annual Editions dealing with Britain, France, Germany and Russia. These oral reports should outline the central argument of the articles and critically evaluate the substance and ideas of these articles. The presentation of each group should be approximately 20-30 minutes in length. Each student should participate in these presentations, but it is up to the group as to how this is structured.

A short summary of each article should be provided to the instructor on line at least one week before the presentation.  These summaries will be placed on line for students to consult before the presentations.

Attendance
I consider attendance to be an important part of this course. Excessive absences will be penalized. Students who miss more than 3 classes for any reason will be penalized one half of a letter grade (20 points); students who miss more than 5 classes will be penalized one letter grade (40 points). This policy will be strictly enforced.

Required Textbooks

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