Course Syllabus
CPO3103: Politics of Western Europe
Dr. Lukas K. Danner
Best Way to Contact Me: Canvas Inbox
Office Hours: By Appointment
Website: Prof. Danner's Website
Course Description and Purpose
This course is a comparative introduction to the governmental systems and current political issues in Europe, with a concentration on Western Europe. The focus will be on a selection of European states and the European Union (EU) as overarching integration project. Through a comparative approach, domestic politics and policymaking, structures and functions of political institutions and political transitions will be analyzed with particular attention to political culture, governance and political parties. Upon completion of this course, students should be able to understand the historical legacies in Western European politics, analyze current Western European political trends through a theoretical (comparative) lens, as well as explain the impact of transnational issues on Western European domestic politics as well as EU integration. Students will be assessed by three reading & concept challenges (a quiz, a midterm and a final), four discussion arena essays and posts, and a co-curricular activity report.
This class counts toward the FIU’s European Studies Certificate and is also a Gordon Rule core curriculum course, which means that you will be expected to write extensively through a number of assignments.
Course Objectives
Students will be able to:
- Discuss the basic common history of European nations.
- Identify different political system in (Western) Europe.
- Describe and compare European political systems.
- Discuss topics directly related to important questions about Western European politics
- Analyze current Western European political trends through a theoretical (comparative) lens
- Explain the impact of transnational issues on singular Western European nations
- Use college-level research and writing skills when formulating complex arguments.
Course Awards
Important Information
Before starting this course, please review the following pages:
- Policies
- Netiquette
- Technical Requirements and Skills
- Accessibility and Accommodation
- Panthers Care & Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS)
- Academic Misconduct Statement
Additional Course Policies
- All times and deadlines are given in United States Eastern Time (ET).
- No incompletes are given.
- No make-up opportunities are given.
- For discussion arena and final research paper: Late submissions will result in point penalties according to this rule: one day late = -10 %, two days late = -20 %, three days late = -30 %, etc.
- For online reading & concept challenges in Respondus LockDown Browser: reading & concept challenges will be open for one week (first & second) and five days (third), respectively. Once the reading & concept challenge closes at the deadline, it will not be re-opened for you and it will irrevocably count as a zero if you did not take it before the deadline.
- Copying from the textbook or cutting and pasting sections from websites or other reference materials or presenting someone else’s ideas as your own is plagiarism and will not be tolerated and will result in zero (0) points for that assignment. Please review the FIU Plagiarism Prevention Guide. In addition, all work submitted must be original for this class.
- This class will utilize the Turnitin originality software—integrated with the LMS.
- Papers that are not properly cited will be issued a zero.
- If the instructor is unable to open an attachment, it must be resubmitted within 48 hours or the assignment will be issued a zero.
- Always check the uploaded attachment is correct. After the deadline passes, the content submitted will be used for grading.
- Medical emergencies can generally not count as excuses for not submitting assignments, taking tests or posting essays/replies. This is because the assessments (whether they be discussion arena posts, online reading & concept challenges, or written assignments) are open for several days, sometimes weeks each and therefore you will have much leeway in deciding when to take a reading & concept challenge, or submit an assignment. The only exception would be a truly grave medical emergency/accident in which you are hospitalized for several days or weeks. In such case, obtain written documentation and send a scan to the instructor.
- Textbooks and the purchase thereof are the student’s responsibility. Some article readings will be offered as download online. Any readings from the assigned textbooks will not be made available for download.
- There is no extra-credit in this class.
- Appointments: I welcome students to contact me by email with questions or email me to make an appointment with me to meet on campus (MMC, for South Florida residents) or via Skype (for remote students).
- The instructor reserves the right to modify this syllabus should the need arise.
Adobe Connect Lectures
This class will use Adobe Connect for pre-recorded lectures.
Course Prerequisites
There are no prerequisites for this course.
Proctored Exam Policy
This course does not require proctored exams.
Textbook and Course Materials
(ca. $52 new - Price at the FIU Bookstore)
(ca. $69 new; ca. $25 used; ca. $68 kindle - Prices on Amazon.com)
Expectations of this Course
This is an online course, meaning that most of the course work will be conducted online. Expectations for performance in an online course are the same as for a traditional course; in fact, online courses require a degree of self-motivation, self-discipline, and technology skills that can make them more demanding for some students.
Students are expected to:
- Review the how to get started information located in the course content
- Introduce yourself to the class during the first week by posting a self-introduction in the appropriate discussion forum
- Take the practice quiz to ensure that your computer is compatible with Canvas
- Interact online with instructor(s) and peers
- Review and follow the course calendar
- Log in to the course several times per week
- Respond to discussion arenas by the corresponding deadline
- Respond to emails within three days
- Submit assignments by the corresponding deadline
The instructor will:
- Log in to the course several times per week
- Respond to discussion arenas within three days
- Respond to emails within 1 business day
- Grade assignments within four days of the assignment deadline
Course Communication
Communication in this course will take place via the Canvas Inbox. Check out the Canvas Conversations Tutorial or Canvas Guide to learn how to communicate with your instructor and peers using Announcements, Discussions, and the Inbox.
Discussion Arenas
Keep in mind that your discussion arena postings will likely be seen by other members of the course. Care should be taken when determining what to post.
The first part of this assignment is posting your own response to each quest and corresponding reading on Canvas’s “Discussion Arena.” Questions that you may respond to after reading are going to be provided in the heading of the discussion arena. The discussion arena that corresponds to each quest will be opened shortly after the quest becomes available. Your response should be between 300 and 350 words long, be structured like an essay, and ideally show reference to the studied quest and readings. At the end of your essay, please provide a question for further discussion that your classmates may reply to in the second part of this assignment. This first part of the assignment is graded with a rubric.
The second part of this assignment is reading and replying to the discussion posts of two of your peers. So after you have posted your own, original response in the first part of the assignment (reading others’ discussion posts is disabled until you post your own), you need to reply to, at least, two (2) discussion posts of your classmates: This will contribute to the discussion character of this task. This second part of the assignment is graded and included in the rubric.
This assignment corresponds to our quests in the course content and the assigned reading to it. So, for each quest, there will be a discussion feature. There will be as many discussions as there will be class quests. We may use Turnitin to check the originality of your posted essay. If you borrow material, identify the sources via proper citation. Your essay post must answer the question(s) provided to guide you in this assignment. Your posts will be graded in the order that they are submitted. Opinions and examples are valuable to your posts but you need to show that you have read the assigned reading and class quest.
Items to consider when writing your discussion:
- Relevance to assigned material: the posted ideas indicate that the student has read the assigned material.
- Clarity and coherence.
- Critical thinking: there is evidence that the student has adequately analyzed, synthesized, and evaluated the assigned material.
- Your discussion includes a question for further discussion on the topic. The posting articulates a question for discussion that pertains to the assigned material.
- Spelling, grammar: the posting must meet university-level standards of spelling and grammar.
- Length: the initial posting for each discussion post essay must be between 300 and 350 words.
- Guidelines: First submit your essay (ca. 300 words), then separately submit your discussion question, and then proceed to look at your peers posts and reply to at least two different peers’ questions/react to their essay.
- Please note: You will not be able to see what your peers have posted prior to submitting your initial post (essay). This is to ensure originality and no copy-paste/filibustering mentality. Should your first post be an empty post (to circumvent this initial blocking view of others’ posts), it will count as zero (0) points.
- Late submission is subject to the deduction policy specified above under “Policies.”
Rubric:
- Student clearly and coherently answers the question posted (1 point)
- Student posts a question for further discussion (1 point)
- Student includes theoretical concepts for discussion (2 points)
- Student includes explanations on the application of the concepts (4 points)
- Student uses University-level standards for spelling and grammar and professional demeanor (1 point)
- Student answers to peers’ discussion questions with two replies (1 point)
Assessments
There will be THREE ONLINE READING & CONCEPT CHALLENGES (with Respondus Lockdown Browser).
Assessment Expectations:
- Complete the three online reading & concept challenges (Quiz, Midterm & Final) within this course
- Relevant material for reading & concept challenges are PowerPoints, Lectures, and—first and foremost—assigned required readings. Readings which are merely recommended are not directly relevant as reading & concept challenge material—unless they have been mentioned, summarized or introduced via lectures or quests, for example (nevertheless, you do not have to read them but just know what was mentioned about them, if they came up in lectures/quests).
- The reading & concept challenges are cumulative, meaning that they cover all material previously learned, though they have a focus on the material learned after the last test.
- Reading & concept challenges will consist of multiple-choice questions.
- The assessment duration is 60 minutes for the quiz and midterm, 120 minutes for the final.
- If you access the reading & concept challenge last minute then you will not receive the full amount of time on the challenge. Therefore, it is recommended to take the reading & concept challenge the latest two hours before the deadline. Please note that the assessment will close permanently after the deadline, so starting it late is not possible.
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Result details:
- Students will be able to see their results after the availability period has ended (i.e. all of the questions and answers).
- The expected turn-around time for grades on online reading & concept challenges is immediately after the submission deadline.
Respondus Lockdown Browser
- Review the Respondus LockDown Browser Instructions on how to install, access your assessments and view your grades.
- After installing the browser, please take the Practice Quiz to familiarize yourself with the testing environment and to ensure that you have downloaded the Respondus Lockdown Browser correctly.
Co-Curricular Activity Report Quest
Students will be required to experience or attend a co-curricular activity or event, visit a museum exhibition, or watch a movie with relevance to Western European politics during the course of the Summer B semester, but no later than July 20. The instructor will announce eligible activities for this assignment to students on a regular basis—the choice is the student’s what in particular they would like to undertake. It has to be related to politics, though, and in case the student is unsure, contact the instructor. Whichever co-curricular activity is undertaken, a one to one-and-a-half page (1 - 1.5 page) (350-450 words) report is required to be written by the student describing their co-curricular experience (summary), how they feel about it (personal opinion), and how it relates to this class (academic relevance). Submission is within one week of attending the co-curricular event, however, no later than the July 20th deadline (whichever comes first), through a Turnitin Dropbox. This assignment will count for fifteen points of your class grade of 100 points.
- The co-curricular activity report cannot exceed 450 words. (Over 450 words would be deductions from the guideline rubric; the paper should not have less than 350 words but under no circumstances more than 450 words). The page count is secondary—word count determines whether this requirement of 350 to 450 words is met, but you should expect a paper length about 1 - 1.5 pages.
- Format: Normal margins, 12 pt Times New Roman (or Palatino Linotype) font, double spacing, no extra spaces between paragraphs.
- Quotations: Likely you will not need quotation as you are using your own words to paraphrase an experience. If you do want to quote, please stick with one quotation type, choose the one you feel most comfortable with/you are used to, i.e., either MLA, or APA, or Chicago, or Turabian—but stick with it/be consistent.
- Activity Choice: The co-curricular activity has to do either with a topic to do with a country of Western Europe (UK, Germany, France, Italy, BeNeLux, Switzerland, Austria, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, the Nordic countries) or the EU as a whole.
- Final Report: The co-curricular activity paper is due through the Turnitin dropbox on the Modules section of Canvas. This means it will be checked whether it is original in terms of compared to the world-wide web, scholarly outlets, and reviews submitted with Turnitin—but also compared to your peers in this class. This is an individual assignment and you must work on it by yourself, i.e., it cannot be identical or similar to another student’s submitted paper.
- Late submission is subject to the deduction policy specified above under “Policies.” However, 10 days after the initial deadline submission will close permanently and no further late submission will be possible after that date.
- Grading time frame is about one week after the submission deadline.
Important Dates and Deadlines
Discussion Arena Posts:
- June 30, 2020 (Tuesday) - First discussion arena, essay & discussion question due by 11:59 pm ET.
- July 2, 2020 (Thursday) – First discussion arena, two participation replies due by 11:59 pm ET.
- July 7, 2020 (Tuesday) - Second discussion arena, essay & discussion question due by 11:59pm ET.
- July 9, 2020 (Thursday) – Second discussion arena, two participation replies due by 11:59 pm ET.
- July 14, 2020 (Tuesday) - Third discussion arena, essay & discussion question due by 11:59 pm ET.
- July 16, 2020 (Thursday) – Third discussion arena, two participation replies due by 11:59 pm ET.
- July 21, 2020 (Tuesday) - Fourth discussion arena, essay & discussion question due by 11:59 pm ET.
- July 23, 2020 (Thursday) – Fourth discussion arena, two participation replies due by 11:59 pm ET.
Reading & Concept Challenges:
- July 6, 2020 (Monday) – First online reading & concept challenge (Quiz) due by 11:59 pm ET.
- July 20, 2020 (Monday) – Second online reading & concept challenge (Midterm) due by 11:59 pm ET.
- July 31, 2020 (Friday) – Third online reading & concept challenge (Final) due by 11:59 pm ET.
Assignments:
- July 24, 2020 (Friday) – Co-Curricular Activity Report due by 11:59 pm ET.
University Deadlines:
- June 29, 2020 – Add/Drop period ends
- July 3, 2020 – Independence Day Observed (University closed, no classes)
- July 20, 2020 – Last Day to Drop Course with a DR grade
- July 31, 2020– Last Day of Classes
- August 6, 2020 – Grades available on My FIU by 2:00am
Grading
| Course Requirements | Number of Items | Points |
|---|---|---|
| Discussion Arena Participation (10 points each) | 4 | 40 |
| Reading & Concept Quiz Challenge | 1 | 10 |
| Reading & Concept Midterm Challenge | 1 | 15 |
| Co-Curricular Activity Report Quest | 1 | 15 |
| Reading & Concept Final Challenge | 1 | 20 |
| TOTAL | 8 | 100 |
| Letter | Range | Letter | Range | Letter | Range |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 95 or above | B | 83 - 86 | C | 70 - 76 |
| A- | 90 - 94 | B- | 80 - 82 | D | 60 - 69 |
| B+ | 87 - 89 | C+ | 77 - 79 | F | 59 or less |
Course Summary:
| Date | Details | Due |
|---|---|---|