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Overview

Welcome to the Website of the Jean Monnet Module JMPOLI311 (main applicant: Amy Verdun).

The University of Victoria is pleased to have been awarded a Jean Monnet Module. . This grant supports the delivery of EUS 311 and POLI 311 - "Governments and Politics in Europe" once a year over three years, 2024-27. This is a newly cross-listed course which focuses on contemporary policy issues and the process of European integration. The Module offers the instructors an opportunity to redesign the course and bring European Studies and Political Science closer together. The funds will also facilitate external speakers and provide funds for students to attend the European Study Tour and Internship Program (EUSTIP). Explore details about this course.

EUS 311/POLI 311 is open to students in other disciplines, for example, History, Philosophy, Biology, Computer Science and Engineering. If you are a student who has not taken European Studies or Political Science and wish to join this course please approach the instructor early in your program planning and ensure you have taken the required prerequisite.

Guest speakers

The Spring 2025 term will feature two guest speakers whose visits are supported by the Jean Monnet Module

Dr. Alison Johnston, Political Science, Oregon State University
Friday, January 17, 3-4:30 pm, BEC 363
“Bent into Submission? Foreign Investors, Domestic Investors and Populist Governments”
Political economy literature documents how financial investors are more partial to right executives than left ones. Right cabinets face lower interest rates, less volatile stock prices and exchange rates, and higher credit ratings than left cabinets, even after accounting for fiscal differences. But does this advantage persist if right governments accommodate far right parties or ideas? 

I hypothesize that because far right populism can introduce political instability, markets’ evaluation of right executives might deteriorate if they enter coalition with far right parties or adopt their positions. Employing a panel analysis of bond spread data, and a comparative case study of the Netherlands and Sweden, I find that right executives enjoy significantly lower spreads than their left-wing counter-parts, but this advantage disappears if they rule in coalition with the far right or produce overly right-wing manifestos. These findings highlight that right parties may encounter tangible borrowing costs and market rebuke if they accommodate far right populism. Co-sponsored with the Department of Economics and European Studies

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Dr. Simona Piattoni, University of Trento, Italy
Tuesday, April 1, 2:30-4 pm, DSB C128
“Democratic Principles for a Multilevel, Multidemoi Democracy”
Democracy is conventionally understood as “delegation with accountability”. As such, it presupposes the existence of a demos from which the matching chains of delegation and accountability must, respectively, depart from and arrive to. Moreover, these chains must ideally be unbroken, but the European Union inserts breaks in both, and this affects the nature and quality of both national and EU democracies. This state of affairs is not restricted to European democracies but, in different ways and to different degrees, affects most political systems that are or aspire to become democratic.

In my analysis, I question the premise of this notion of democracy – that there exists a pre-defined demos which is the alpha and omega of democratic delegation and accountability – and explore the normative principles that could sustain a different notion of democracy based on a plurality of overlapping and differently defined demoi that could cooperate in the construction of multilevel, multidemoi democracies. I base my argumentation by reference to historical records that shows that demoi are the result of political struggles for power and representation.
Co-sponsored with European Studies  

Knowledge mobilization

Opportunities for knowledge mobilization will include a journal article and additional other short non-refereed publications, for example, a policy brief, blog or media tip.

Outreach

 A conference is planned for policy makers and educators for March 2026.

Steering Committee

The Steering Committee that supports this Jean Monnet Module and provides regular feedback consists of Nina Belmonte (Department of Philosophy), Emmanuel Brunet-Jailly (School of Public Administration), Elena Pnevmonidou (Germanic and Slavic Studies), Oliver Schmidtke, (Departments of History and Political Science) and Paul Schure (Department of Economics).