| Academic year: | 2010-2011 |
| Course code module | 1BPSW-11 |
| Semester: | 2nd semester |
| Credits: | 6 |
| Study load (hours) | 168 |
| Theory (hours): | 45,00 |
| Practice/Exercises(hours): | |
| Other (hours): | |
| Part-time program: | 1 |
| Instructor(s) | Petra Meier
|
| Language of instruction: | Dutch |
| Semester exam information: | exam in the 2nd semester |
| Contract restriction information: | |
1. Prerequisites
*Algemene competenties
Being able to follow the news on (Belgian) politics in the written and audiovisual media and to reproduce it in your own words.
*Sequentiality
None
2. Objectives (expected learning outcomes)
During this course students develop an analytical perspective on Belgian politics, its problems and challenges. More particularly they get to know:
the main political actors and institutions in Belgium;
the structures and processes of Belgian politics;
the main trends and debates in Belgian politics.
At the end of the course students should be able to understand and explain Belgian contemporary politics using a scientific politicological perspective.
3. Course content
This course's aim is to introduce core actors, institutions, processes and debates of Belgian politics. We thereby pay a lot of attention to the sources of current issues and problems, where necessary by looking at the historic path of current institutions, processes and debates. This should enable students to develop a frame analysing and understanding Belgian politics and to achieve a better understanding of concepts and theories of political science. This aim is achieved by systematically studying current issues in Belgian politics. Politics is the organisation and management of society, but society undergoes change and so does its organisation. There is a shift and transformation of politics, with respect to the levels where it can be found and the actors involved in it. The course studies this evolution and its consequences for the Belgian society, treating among others: multi-level governance, decentralisation and federalisation, relations between government and parliament, asymmetric coalitions and the relations between communities, regions and the federal level, the impact of Europe, consociational vs. majoritarian democracy, partitocracy and the role of parties, pillarization, new social identities and identifications, electoral evolutions and volatility, changes in political participation, living in an ethnically diverse society, ...
4. Teaching method
Direct contact: LecturesExercise sessions
5. Assessment method
Exam: Written, without oral presentationClosed bookOpen questions
6. Compulsory reading – study material
A reader containing a selection of articles on current issues in Belgian politics by (mainly) Belgian political scientists. The reader will be available at Acco at the beginning of 2011.
Students are expected to have read the literature before attending class. The reader contains information on which literature has to be read by when. This information will also be announced during the first class.
7. Recommended reading - study material
Beaufays, Jean en Geoffroy Matagne, 2009, La Belgique en mutation. Systèmes politiques et politiques publiques (1968-2008). Brussel: Bruylant.
Deschouwer, Kris, 2009, The Politics of Belgium. Governing a Divided Society. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
8. Tutoring
Prof.Dr. Petra Meier
M278, make an appointment in case of absence:
03/265 55 93
petra.meier@ua.ac.be
Assistent: Hans Echelpoels
hans.echelpoels@ua.ac.be