European Public Policy

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

This course focuses on public policy in the European Union (EU) and its member states. The first part of the course focuses on the EU as a policy actor. The EU is an unprecedented experiment in economic and political integration, and EU public policies shape global standards in many domains. The course will provide students with an understanding of the structure and dynamics of EU policy-making, and will introduce them to a number of salient public policy issues in the contemporary EU, including environmental policy, market regulation, digital policy, and defense of the rule of law. The second part of the course turns to the realm of social policy - where the 27 EU member governments are the primary actors - and explores the underpinnings of and challenges to the European model of Social Democracy. We explore how European countries with variants of the European Social Model have sought to combine capitalism with robust government intervention to regulate the economy and reduce inequality. We explore how they have addressed a host of contemporary policy challenges such as poverty reduction, health care, childcare, public transit, and education and training.