Contemporary Era: politics and institutions

Academic year: 2009-2010 Course code module FLWG003300 Semester: 1st semester Credits: 6 Study load (hours) 168 Theory (hours): 45,00 Practice/Exercises(hours): Other (hours): Part-time program: 1/2 Instructor(s) Marnix Beyen Language of instruction: Dutch Semester exam information: exam in the 1st semester Contract restriction information: 1. Prerequisites *Algemene competenties no specific prerequisites *Sequentiality None 2. Objectives (expected learning outcomes) The students are acquainted with the ideological fundaments and the institutional elaborations of the large-scale political projects of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in the Western and the non-Western world. They understand the pluriformity and the interdependency of these projects. They avoid thinking in terms of over-simplified antagonisms (like those between left and right, progressive and conservative) and using encompassing labels to refer to divergent political currents. Through a thorough insight into political history, the students find their way more easily in current-day world-politics. The students are able to present the insights they gain through their autonomous reading of academic literature both in an oral and a written form. 3. Course content The starting point of this course is the insight that nearly all political currents and regimes of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries had at least one thing in common, distinguishing them from political regimes of the Ancien Regime: they pretended to be the emanation of 'the people' or 'the nation'. In that sense, they all took on a 'democratic' profile, even those who acted in a firmly antiparliamentary way. An important difference between those regimes, however, was situated in their very diverse definitions of the notions 'people' or 'nation'. This definition could be more or less inclusive, and rest upon very diverse criteria for distinguishing between members and non-members of the nation. Moreover, the degree to which diversity within that nation - which was fundamentally considered as a unity - was tolerated, could highly vary. From this perspective, this course deals with the major political projects of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (Liberalism, Socialism, Nationalism, Conservatism, Fascism, the Welfare State) in and outside Europe. For each of these currents, attention is consecutively paid to the theoretical and ideological fundaments, to the institutional and political-cultural elaborations, and to the resistances that were aroused by the confrontation between theory and practice. Not only the differences, but also the similarities and the continuities between the different political systems will be extensively dwelt upon. 4. Teaching method Direct contact: Lectures Personal work: Assignments - individual 5. Assessment method Exam: Oral, with written preparation Open book 6. Compulsory reading – study material A reader consisting of primary and secundary texts will be provided at the start of the course; a syllabus will be distibuted through Blackboard. 7. Recommended reading - study material Will be communicated for each topic dealt with in the course. 8. Tutoring laatste aanpassing: last update: 16/09/2009 12:29 marnix.beyen