Check link with reading assignments below: readings with yellow mark next to it are already taken
| ca2011_syllabus_may29_ras.pdf |
CITIZENS AND ALIENS SEMINAR 2011
Active and Passive Citizenship – Political Participation in the EU and the US
Spring 2011 (May 27-28 and June 3-4)
Host Institution:
Institute for Political Studies, Catholic University of Portugal
Lisbon, Portugal
'Citizens and Aliens' founders and Seminar Instructors:
Horst Mewes
Professor of Political Theory, University of Colorado at Boulder
Visiting Professor, Catholic University of Portugal
email: horstmewes [at] yahoo.com
Paulo Zagalo e Melo
Director, Luso-American Foundation
Guest Professor and Researcher, Catholic University of Portugal
Visiting Scholar, University of Colorado at Boulder
email: zagalo-melo [at] post.harvard.edu
Guest Lecturer and IMPACT Faculty Grantee
Gulay Goksel
Teaching Assistant, University of Colorado at Boulder
Office hours: by appointment, between May 27 and June 4.
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SEMINAR OVERVIEW
For all we may resist such ultimate questions as the meaning of justice and the nature of the good life, what we cannot escape is that we live some answer to these questions – we live some ‘theory’ – all the time.
Michael Sandel, in “Democracy’s Discontent”, 1996
Citizens and Aliens: Active and Passive Citizenship - Political Participation in the EU and the US is part of an international initiative on Citizenship-related studies co-founded by Horst Mewes and Paulo Zagalo e Melo, comprising (1) Citizens and Aliens – a space for sharing knowledge and promote debate on issues of community and membership; (2) Future Citizenship – a venture to promote and facilitate access to citizenship projects internationally; and (3) Future Citizens – a peer-reviewed electronic journal publishing scholarly work on various aspects of citizenship.
Citizens and Aliens: Active and Passive Citizenship - Political Participation in the EU and the US does not aim at promoting any particular view or policy, but rather at introducing, analyzing and weighing prominent and promising citizenship theories.
Political theory requires intellectual humility. Answers to our political life's most basic questions do not come easily. The Citizens and Aliens seminar provide an opportunity for thinking carefully and seriously about crucial questions of political life such as the nature and form of political community and the rationale and shape of its membership, which shape our lives and even our views of the world. It also aims at developing our critical and methodical analysis of citizenship-related concepts.
Students are strongly encouraged to contact the instructors to express their particular goals and interests within the broad issue of citizenship, and how those fit into their current or future academic or professional plans. Hence, students should approach instructors by e-mail even before the beginning of the course.
Mandatory Readings and Reading Assignments
[Click here for access to restricted student weblet; available to students after enrolling in the seminar and contacting instructors by email]
A) Political Participation in the EU
Section 1 - Friday, May 27, 2011. 6-8 p.m.Citizenship and Civic Involvement
- Bauböck, R. (2006). Migration and citizenship: legal status, rights and political participation. IMISCOE reports. Amsterdam, Amsterdam University Press pp. 1-70.
Section 2 - Saturday, May 28, 2011. 3-5 p.m. Voting
- Lardy, H. (1997). "Citizenship and the Right to Vote." Oxford Journal of Legal Studies17(1): 75-100.
- Shaw, J. (2003). "Alien Suffrage in the European Union." The Good Society 12.2: 29-32. Project MUSE. <http://muse.jhu.edu/>.
Section 3 - Saturday, May 28, 2011. 5:30-7:30 p.m. Democracy and Its Deficits
- Bellamy, R., and D. Castiglione (1998). “Between Cosmopolis and Community: Three Models of Rights and Democracy within the European Union.” In Re-imagining political community : studies in cosmopolitan democracy. Archibugi, D., D. Held, and M. Kohler (Eds.). Stanford, Calif., Stanford University Press : pp. 152-178.
- Moravcsik, A. (2002). “In Defence of the ‘Democratic Deficit’: Reassessing Legitimacy in the European Union.” Journal of Common Market Studies. 40(4): 603–624, November 2002.
B) Political Participation in the US
Section 4 - Friday, June 3, 2011. 6-8 p.m.The Decline of Political Participation
- Putnam, R. D. (2000). Bowling alone : the collapse and revival of American community. New York, Simon & Schuster.
- Chapter 2: Political Participation
- Chapter 3: Civic Participation
- Chapter 15: What killed civic engagement? Summing Up
- Skocpol, T. (2003). Diminished democracy : from membership to management in American civic life. Norman, University of Oklahoma Press.
- Chapter 5: Why Civic Life Changed
Section 5 - Saturday, June 4, 2011. 3-5 p.m. What Is to Be Done?
- Putnam, R. D. (2000). Bowling alone : the collapse and revival of American community. New York, Simon & Schuster.
- Chapter 24: Toward an Agenda for Social Capitalists
- Skocpol, T. (2003). Diminished democracy : from membership to management in American civic life. Norman, University of Oklahoma Press.
- Chapter 7: Reinventing American Civic Democracy
Section 6 - Saturday, June 4, 2011. 5:30-7:30 p.m. Democracy and the Constitution
- Putnam, R. D. (2000). Bowling alone : the collapse and revival of American community. New York, Simon & Schuster.
- Chapter 21: Democracy
- Dahl, R. A. (2003). How democratic is the American constitution? New Haven, CT, Yale University Press.
- Chapter 1: Fundamental Questions
- Chapter 6: Why Not a More Democratic Constitution
Evaluation Requirements:
Citizens and Aliens: Active and Passive Citizenship - Political Participation in the EU and the US is fully taught in English, and all evaluation requirements must be fulfilled also in English.
During the seminar (May 27- June 4), each student must submit one 300 word (equiv. to half-page single spaced) response to each of the two challenges posted on the Citizens and Aliens blog.
Each student will be expected to give a short in-class oral report (no longer than 15 minutes) on one of the readings assigned (see below). Readings may be chosen by students on a first-come first-served basis. In case students have not chosen their reading before May 27, the instructors will assign one during the first session of the seminar.
A 2500-3000 word paper (double spaced, Times New Roman 12) is due June 20, 2011 (the paper must be emailed to both instructors, in an Ms Word or PDF file).
The final grade will be a composite of all the evaluation requirements submitted in which every single requisite – blog answers, oral presentation, and final paper – is mandatory.
Students who have not fulfilled all the grading requisites by the deadline will not be graded.
Final papers presented within 3 days after the deadline will get a 2-point penalty in the final grade. Papers presented after those 3 days will not be accepted. A student may require a ‘special case’ deadline, which will have to be approved by the instructors before the end of the regular deadline.
The final grade is ‘final’ – requests for second chances, revisions, or “melhorias de nota” will not be attended, unless to amend or correct a proven mistake such as having missed a grading requisite entirely or partially.