EXECUTIVE MSc IN THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF EUROPE

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1 EXECUTIVE MSc IN THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF EUROPE European Institute The London School of Economics and Political Science A

2 CONTENTS Why LSE 1 The Executive MSc in the Political Economy of Europe 2 Seminar and Public Lecture Series 3 About the European Institute 4 Curriculum information 2014/15 5 Block week format and assessment 7 Schedule for the Executive MSc in the Political Economy of Europe 8 FAQs 9 Preliminary reading 10 B

3 WHY LSE? LSE offers a unique opportunity to study the social sciences at a university with a worldwide academic reputation, while enjoying the cultural, social and recreational facilities of one of the world s capital cities. The heart of London The character of LSE is inseparable from its location. Situated in the heart of central London, the School is located in one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world. Only a short distance from Europe s financial, legal and cultural centres, LSE stands at the crossroads of international debate, fundamental to our identity as an outward looking institution with an active involvement in UK and world affairs. LSE is stimulating, cosmopolitan and very much a part of the real world. These qualities derive from the variety of its staff and students, from its active academic and political concerns, and from the easy interchange of ideas between the School and the world outside Government, Parliament, the business and financial institutions of the City, the Law Courts and media are all on the School s doorstep. Each year, there are many influential outside speakers at the School (national and international politicians, business leaders, industrialists and civil servants) as well as leading academics from all around the world who visit to participate in teaching, to give public lectures and to pursue their own research. LSE is compact and full to the brim with students and staff this contributes to the vitality and friendliness of the place. A world centre of research and teaching Our research informs and constantly invigorates our teaching. Graduate students play a valued and important role in the School s contribution to scholarship, through the research they undertake during their studies. LSE supports the research of its staff through academic departments and institutes, and also through a range of interdisciplinary research centres. Some 97 per cent of LSE academics are actively engaged in research. Staff are regularly sought out as advisers, consultants and commentators, becoming involved in the practical impact of the subjects they teach and research. The School s international reputation and London location ensure that in times of crisis it is to LSE that the media turn first for a response. Professor Nicholas Stern (climate change), Professor Conor Gearty (human rights), Professor Anne Power (housing policy), Tony Travers (London and local government) and Professor Danny Quah (the weightless economy) will all be familiar names to many news addicts. For a guide to staff research and consultancy experience, and their leading publications, please see lse.ac.uk/experts Research quality The Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) is a UK-wide assessment of research excellence at universities undertaken by the Higher Education Funding Councils every five to seven years. The most recent RAE took place in 2008 and the results confirmed LSE s position as a world leading research university, with the School topping or coming close to the top of a number of rankings for research excellence. Individual subject areas at LSE also head national tables of excellence. LSE comes top nationally by grade point average in Economics, Law, Social Policy and European Studies, with Anthropology coming second. More information about the RAE and individual subject areas can be found at lse.ac.uk/ researchandexpertise/rae2008 The student community Students who choose LSE are intent on experiencing an active and varied programme. The structure of our degrees emphasises the need for self-study and rigorous intellectual skills where an individual student s opinion matters. The student community at LSE is one of the most internationally diverse in the world, with students from over 145 countries living and studying on campus. This mix encourages a truly global and international approach to intellectual discovery and academic life at LSE, which cannot be matched elsewhere. The total student population at LSE is around 9,250 full-time and 900 part-time, 59 per cent of whom are studying at graduate level. If you are the kind of student who enjoys being challenged intellectually, socially and personally then choose LSE. 1

4 THE EXECUTIVE MSc IN THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF EUROPE The ongoing economic crisis in Europe demonstrates, yet again, the dilemma of too much Europe versus too little. Too much, because EMU was a bridge too far in an economically and socially diverse continent. Too little, because the crisis showed that EMU will only work if member states are willing to transfer much of their sovereignty to supranational institutions in a new pan-european macro-economy. Above all, Europe s traumas shows that politics and economics are always closely intertwined: optimal economic solutions have to be negotiated in second-best worlds; while political will meets its constraints when the winners and losers become apparent. That is one scenario. The other is a rapid political integration in response to the crisis of EMU, with member states pooling sovereignty in such areas as fiscal policy and banking regulations to match monetary union. And that, in turn, leads to the inevitable reorganisation of the political system in Europe to match the transfer of sovereignty. The Executive Masters degree in the Political Economy of Europe provides you with the tools to answer these questions and assess the likelihood of each of the two scenarios above and of others that may emerge as the crisis of EMU unfolds. But it does more. It also examines different aspects of economic integration, fragmentation and reform in Europe, of the establishment and evolution of democratic capitalism in Central Europe, and of the trajectories of the EU since the late 1970s. In each of these areas, Europe is facing a new and unprecedented mix of opportunities and potential crises. And problems in many of these broad areas have the tendency to spill over into any of the others as the Euro crisis has made painfully clear. The Executive Masters degree in the Political Economy of Europe offers working professionals the opportunity to earn an LSE Master s degree while pursuing a full-time career. The programme is aimed at candidates with strong academic credentials and substantial work experience. A Bachelor s degree or equivalent is a necessary pre-requisite. The strongest applicants have at least three years of professional experience in international organisations, nongovernmental organisations, or the private sector in matters related to Europe. The courses in the Executive Masters degree in the Political Economy of Europe are taught by experienced teaching staff in the European Institute at the LSE. Students attend eight one-week sessions at the LSE campus in central London. Evaluations consist of essays as well as written take-home exams. A key component of this Executive degree is a dissertation of up to 6,000 words on a topic individually selected. Students receive special research training and support on and off campus to guide them through their dissertation. Over the course of the programme, students have 150 face-to-face contact hours with staff, additional meetings with their tutors, and support while off-campus through online revision sessions and virtual seminars. Through the duration of the programme students have full access to the LSE Library, the largest in the world devoted exclusively to the social sciences. 2

5 SEMINAR AND PUBLIC LECTURE SERIES LSE is one of Europe s most influential platforms for addressing issues, trends and policies affecting both the European Union and the wider Europe. The LSE European Institute and its various research centres play host to a number of seminar and public lecture series, including the high-profile Perspectives on Europe public lecture series, which attracts leading decision-makers and opinion formers from across the continent, with speakers submitted to lively and incisive questioning by LSE students and academics, as well as by the media and the wider public. Far left: Heinz Fischer, President of Austria Middle top: Philip Rösler, German Federal Minister of Economics and Technology EI Events lse.ac.uk/europeaninstitute/ events/home.aspx 3

6 ABOUT THE EUROPEAN INSTITUTE The European Institute (EI) at the London School of Economics and Political Science was created in 1991 to be a primary focus for the inter-disciplinary study of processes of integration and fragmentation within Europe. Its disciplinary range is unrivalled. It currently has 25 academic members of staff drawn from the fields of politics, economics, geography, history, political economy, law, philosophy, and international relations. It has prioritised four important themes in its work, which could not be fully studied within a department with a single discipline: Governance and democracy in European Union European society Political economy in Europe Europe beyond the EU The Institute offers six Masters programmes, an Executive MSc and an extensive doctoral programme. It currently has one of the largest cohorts of European studies students anywhere in the world with over 200 Masters students and 40 doctoral students from around the world. The Institute is outward looking. It has strong links with other LSE departments, most notably the Government and International Relations Departments. It has also developed a number of collaborative links with international partners, most notably Sciences Po with whom it has a joint degree. The EI is a Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence and recognised world-wide as a leading research centre on Europe. In 2008 it led the UK s Research Assessment Exercise in European Studies, and its staff and PhD students have won several prestigious international prizes. The final hallmark of the Institute is a strong public profile, making the LSE one of the leading platforms in the European Union for informed public discussion about the history and identity of Europe, and the policy challenges confronting the EU and its member states. The Institute hosts over 50 events a year, with an outstanding cast list of high-level speakers from politics, public administration, academia and the media, including presidents, prime ministers, foreign ministers, finance ministers, EU commissioners, and heads of European agencies and the EU institutions, along with distinguished scholars and influential commentators. 4

7 COURSE GUIDES SESSION 2014/15 EU449E Capitalism and Democracy in Central Europe EU452E Key Issues in the Political Economy of Europe The course applies concepts of political economy, economics and political science to its investigation of Central and Eastern Europe s evolution through post-communist transition to highly open, FDI-dependent emerging markets with European expectations of welfare. Placing the region in the comparative context of both the EU15 and comparable emerging markets, the course investigates the ongoing challenges of political and institutional consolidation and the developmental consequences of the liberalization and FDI-led growth model of the 1990s/2000s. The course examines the emerging strengths and persistent weaknesses of these political economies and considers their implications for the region s emerging varieties of capitalism, relative international competitiveness and political stability. This is the core course of the Executive MSc Political Economy of Europe. It tries to understand how the relation between state and economy in both Western Europe and Central and Eastern Europe has evolved over the post-war period. Key debates in this regard include the demise of Keynesianism as fiscal intervention by government and of real existing socialism, as well as the crisis of monetarism. We also examine how the operation of the EU as a whole, the Single Market and the monetary union in particular, interact with the political economy of European states inside and in the neighbourhood of the Community. The course aims to provide students with both an analytical understanding of and a systematic treatment of empirical issues related to the evolution of the European political economy. Topics include: State and economy in European economies; Economic theory and policy in Europe; The political economy of European integration; EU membership as a reform lever in post-communist Europe and in mature Western welfare states; EU enlargement; Monetary union and its crisis; the evolution of the Single Market. EU443E European Capitalism(s) and the Global Economy The course consists of two parts. In the first part we will discuss the basic arguments and methodological considerations of the Varieties of Capitalism literature and conduct a comparative analysis of the core issue areas in the political economy of contemporary capitalism: how capital, labour and product markets are structured. The second part will build on these thematic treatments to discuss the structure of and dynamics of the main Western, Southern and Central European models of capitalism. 5

8 EU425E Interest Groups, Markets and Democracy The focus of this course is on the representation of interests in Europe, and their role in Economic policy-making. Students will analyse the main theoretical issues and selected empirical questions on how interests are differently organised across countries and at the EU level, on the interplay between interest representation and electoral politics, and on the policy outcome after interest intermediation. The objective is to understand the dynamics of economic policy-making in comparative perspective, with an emphasis on the globalisation period. EU497E Dissertation Students in the Executive MSc Political Economy of Europe are required to write a dissertation on a topic within the field of their programme. Teaching 9 x 3 hour seminars on aspects of research, writing etc Coursework At least two research proposal drafts within two-month intervals. Final dissertation project outline after six months (from December to July) Deadline Second Monday in September of the second year EU446E Economic Governance of EMU The purpose of this course is to analyse the process of European monetary integration and its implications for the institutions of economic governance in the EU. There will be a strong emphasis on using the experience of the financial and economic crises since 2008 as a source of evidence to assess both the performance of EMU and the theories about monetary integration. We consider briefly the political and economic rationale for the establishment of EMU and then examine in detail how these rationales played themselves out in practice (e.g. problems of free-riding, political exchange, information asymmetries between policymakers etc). Indicative questions addressed in this course include: how and why did the EU develop the EMU project?; did economic theories prepare us for the Euro area crisis of ?; what are the challenges for member states in adjusting to the discipline of the Euro-zone?; what issues arise for the EU in managing relations between member states in the Euro-zone and those outside?; how does the Euro affect the ability of member states to adjust to periods of crisis and to external shocks?; is the sovereign debt crisis of 2010 indicative of imbalances within the EU and basic flaws in its institutional design? EU453E The Political Economy of Welfare State Reform The aim of the course is to apply concepts of economics and political economy to social policies in European welfare states. The seminars establish the theoretical context, summarise the findings of quantitative comparative case studies and discuss European experience in the context of broader international experience. They then build on these concepts and apply them to qualitative case studies of welfare state arrangements in member states, considering in particular the role of social policy legislation and coordination at the EU level. The course will provide students with the conceptual and empirical background to enable them to answer questions such as: What does economic theory and political economy tell us about the design of welfare states? How do social policies in European welfare states reconcile equity and efficiency? What drives or stalls reform dynamics in member states? What are the proper boundaries of EU social policy? Is the EU gradually developing into a social union, through international mobility and the portability of social entitlements? 6

9 SCHEDULE FOR THE EXECUTIVE MSC IN THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF EUROPE YEAR /16 YEAR /17 September MODULE September 2016 (EU497E) October November PRE-MODULE ACTIVITIES October-November December January MODULE December 2015 (EU452E) MODULE December 2016 (EU443E) February March April MODULE April 2016 (EU452E) MODULE March 2017 (EU425E) May June July MODULE 3* June 2016 (EU449E) MODULE June 2017 (EU446E) August September MODULE September 2017 (EU453E) 7

10 FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS How do I apply? To apply for the Executive MSc Political Economy of Europe please see how to apply page lse.ac.uk/ study/graduate/taughtprogrammes2015/ MScPoliticalEconomyOfEurope(Modular).aspx. If you have any questions on this please do not hesitate to contact our programme manager on c.milne1@lse.ac.uk. What are the entry requirements A good Bachelor s degree: UK 2:1 or higher, 3.5 or higher GPA, or equivalent international qualification 3 or more years relevant work experience Higher level English language IELTS or TOEFL: if your native language is not English or if the language of instruction of your previous degree is not English You will also need to submit the following with your application: Two references: one academic and one professional reference, OR two professional references if you have been out of university education for more than five years. (click here for guidance on submitting references) Personal statement: include your interest and suitability for the programme, career achievements and ambitions, what you hope to get out of the programme and what you think you can bring to the class What are the application deadlines? There is no application deadline it s an rolling admissions process. The programme does offer a limited amount of places, so when the places are filled the class is closed for that academic year. We recommend that applicants apply as early as possible to secure a place on the programme. What happens after I submit my application? The LSE Graduate Admissions Office will process your application. They will confirm to you that it has been received and if any further action or documents are required from you. Graduate Admissions receive applications and documentation for all graduate programmes. This means that it may take some time for your application to be processed. You can see the current processing times on-line. Once you have received your application number you can track the status of your application. Please note that all queries relating to application documents should be directed to Graduate Admissions. What is the cost of the degree? About 10,816 for Year One and about 10,816 for Year Two. This includes access to all LSE facilities such as the library facilities and course materials/required textbooks. CV or resume You should also ensure you have the support of your current employer to attend all of the classroom teaching modules during the programme. 8

11 PRELIMINARY READING If you want to have a broad sense of the topics that the degree addresses and the way it does, the books below give that. In addition, please visit the webpages of the EI staff to find out about their research output: lse.ac.uk/europeaninstitute/ staff/academicstaff/home Eichengreen, B J (2007): The European economy since 1945: Coordinated capitalism and beyond, Princeton NJ: Princeton UP Nicholas Barr (Ed) (2005): Labor Markets and Social Policy in Central and Eastern Europe: The Accession and Beyond, World Bank James A Caporaso (2000): The European Union: Dilemmas of Regional Integration, Westview Press Paul De Grauwe (2005): The Economics of Monetary Union. Oxford University Press Kenneth Dyson and Kevin Featherstone (1999): The Road to Maastricht, Introduction, Oxford University Press Grzegorz Ekiert and Stephen E Hanson (2003): Capitalism and Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe: Assessing the Legacy of Communist Rule, Cambridge University Press Peter A Hall and David Soskice (eds) (2001): Varieties of Capitalism: The institutional foundations of competitiveness. Introduction, Oxford University Press Andrew Martin and George Ross (eds) (2004): Euros and Europeans. Monetary Integration and the European Model of Society. Cambridge University Press Gérard Roland (2000): Transition and economics: politics, markets and firms, chapter 1, Cambridge MA: The MIT Press Stephen White, Judy Batt and Paul G Lewis (2003): Developments in Central and East European Politics 3, Palgrave C

12 For more details on the European Institute and its staff, and the London School of Economics and Political Science, please visit: European Institute Cowdray House London School of Economics and Political Science Houghton Street WC2A 2AE lse.ac.uk/europeaninstitute lse.ac.uk D