Politics of Governance: Eastern Europe (L2037)

15 credits, Level 5

Spring teaching

The module begins by examining the kind of legacies that the communist period left in Eastern European countries before moving on to consider the institutional structures and party and electoral politics of new post-communist democracies.

You then consider some of the major issues raised by the process of post-communist democratisation. These include how to:

• deal with functionaries of the previous non-democratic regime
• introduce radical economic reform
• accommodate the existence of the numerous ethnic minorities that most of these states encompass.

We also consider the impact of attempts to integrate into Euro-Atlantic international structures (such as the EU and NATO) on Central and East European domestic politics. The final session attempts to evaluate the nature of the regimes that are emerging in the region.

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 150 hours of work. This breaks down into about 22 hours of contact time and about 128 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2023/24. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to COVID-19, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum. We’ll make sure to let our applicants know of material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.

Courses

This module is offered on the following courses:

• American Studies and Politics (with a study abroad year) BA
• Economics and Politics BA
• History and Politics BA
• Politics BA
• Politics and International Relations BA
• Politics and Philosophy BA
• Politics and Sociology BA