Politics: Modern Italy and the EU

Catalog description

This course offers an introduction to Italian and EU politics. The aim of the course is to provide students with the tools to understand the political systems of Italy and the EU today. To do so, the course will combine background historical information with analytical tools of political science and sociology. We will consistently explore the link between modern Italy and the EU, and the interplay between the two. The first part of the course will focus on the Italian unification process and its legacy, the political organization of the Italian state, and the role of society, media, and parties in shaping the political outcomes. We will then move beyond Italy to provide a synthetic but exhaustive analysis of what the EU is and what it does. The goal of this course is to provide students with an understanding of Italy, its problems and evolution, and its relationship with the European Union - to what extent a member state like Italy can be "independent" and to what extent it is bound by its European commitments; what are the advantages and disadvantages of being part of the EU for a country like Italy?