2019/2020

2019/2020

DM270

SPS/03 (STORIA DELLE ISTITUZIONI POLITICHE)

DIPARTIMENTO DI SCIENZE POLITICHE E SOCIALI

WORLD POLITICS AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS (POLITICA NEL MONDO E RELAZIONI INTERNAZIONALI)

PERCORSO COMUNE

1°

Secondo Semestre (24/02/2020 - 29/05/2020)

6

40 ore di attività frontale

English

ORALE

BALDASSARI MARCO (titolare) - 6 CFU

General kwnoledges in Early Modern and Modern History of Western Civilization

The course aims at exploring the multifaceted dimension of sovereignty, by giving the students evidence of the complexity of the power relations in their historical perspective. In terms of knowledge students will get familiar with the main concepts of history of political thought such as “State”, “government”, “conflict”, “constituent power”, “constitution”, “federation”, “cosmopolitism”, “supranational institutions” etc. Students will be able to recognize correctly the origin and development of modern political ideas in their concrete historical dimension and to compare different models of political regulation in European and World history, by understanding and applying both perspective and methodology of comparative approach to the study of modern and contemporary forms of governments. Students will learn how to put concepts in their correct historical dimension, by contextualizing the material and conflicting relations of modern and contemporary societies. Finally, by writing an essay, they will develop independently innovative research questions, also by adopting a critical approach based on debates organised in class.

The course will tackle the genesis and the transformation of the European modern state, by taking into consideration the analysis on sovereignty and international relations developed by Carl Schmitt in his masterpiece "Nomos of the Earth" (1950). The aim of the course is to focus on the overall structure of the European Westphalian state-system as jus publicum europaeum (1648-1945), as well as on the nation-building process. Different historical traditions of constitutionalism (France, England and USA) and the relation between the constitutional structures and governments will be considered, as well as the World-System Analysis concerning the rise of the interstate-system, sovereign nation-states and colonies. The last part of the course will be devoted to the EU integration process, making a comparison between the classical Westphalian model and the multilevel and functional governance of the EU, taking into account the first European communities, the origin of Internal Market and the idea of “shared sovereignty” (1951-1957).
The course will be structured in two modules. After the introduction of the comparative approach in history, the “global linear thinking” and the World-System Analysis, the first part is focused on the Westphalian period; in the second part the crisis of the liberal model and the search for new governmental patterns in the Twentieth Century Europe will be analysed.

The course is hold every week, according to the academic calendar. Every week consists of 2 hours of lecture and 2 hours of discussion. The discussion includes work-in-group sessions. Each discussion is related to the weekly lecture and the readings needed will be always provided a week in advance.

Module 1:
Brian Nelson, The Making of the Modern State. A theoretical Evolution, Palgrave, 2006.
Bob Jessop, The State. Past, Present, Future, Wiley, 2013.
Excerpts from Carl Schmitt, The Nomos of the Earth in the International Law of the Jus Publicum europaeum, (1950) Telos Press Publishing 2006 and The Concept of the Political (1932) University of Chicago Press, 1996.
A reading of a classical masterpiece: I. Kant, Toward Perpetual Peace A Philosophical Sketch (1795)

Module 2:
G. Majone, Rethinking the Union of Europe Post-Crisis, Cambridge University Press 2014.
Bastiaan van Apeldoorn, Jan Drahokoupil and Laura Horn (eds.), Contradictions and Limits of Neoliberal European Governance From Lisbon to Lisbon, Palgrave 2009 (selected chapters to be defined).
P. Dardot, C. Laval, The New Way of the World: On Neoliberal Society, Verso 2013. (selected chapters to be defined).

(i) Class participation. Students are expected to participate actively in class discussion; weekly readings will be assigned in order to stimulate the debate and to tackle problematic issues. Short “notes” (around 200 words) will be collected every week. The point of this exercise is to enhance discussions and find most engaging, exciting or puzzling topics during lectures. These notes will form a substantial basis for the two hours discussion and will be considered as a part of the assessment (20%) in terms of critical reasoning of the student. (ii) Exam paper (essay of 4000 words) and relevant presentation at the end of the course will count for 30% of the total grade. The presentation should prove the student’s ability to focus on a specific research question given by the teacher and to develop a scientific analysis by using the conceptual tools acquired during the course. The essay should prove independence of research capability as well a critical analysis supported by evidence and literature, and it should not be a mere descriptive list of facts or apodictic considerations. (iii) Oral part: each student will be required to study the content of the course (required readings and slides) The oral part of the exam will consist in a few questions on the reference textbooks and readings.
Grade breakdown:
Final Paper: 50% (20% notes + 30 % Paper presentation)
Oral Examination: 50%