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European Culture and Politics - Reflection Blog / My Blog submission
« Last post by Richard Gartside on June 15, 2017, 07:46:18 PM »
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As I complete the final week of the 6 week FutureLearn Course on European Culture and Politics I find myself looking both forwards and backwards.  Forwards to the future after the course, and backwards to what I have learned, achieved and what I did not.

The course attempts to give the student an overview of What is Europe, how it defines itself, what the EU sees as being its function and objectives, and how these attempts have succeeded and failed.
I started the course with a basic knowledge of the EU and its functions from previous studies, but soon realised how much I lacked in knowledge of the culture and history of Europe.
It became very clear that any attempt to define Europe on the basis of geography, culture, history or politics was doomed to fail because Europe is a complex and poorly construed idea, even to those who live there. It is greater than the sum of the parts and to attempt to narrow the definition down is to miss the greater picture, to understand Europe we need if anything to be stepping further back rather than peering closer in.
Having moved on from seeing Europe as a physical or cultural entity, we then looked at the EU as a political entity, but even this soon showed a problem, because the EU attempts to define itself as being a socio-cultural-political body and this broadness of its scope results in a perception that it is out of touch with the people it claims to represent.
So given that all the definitions are seemingly inadequate for the task, How does this move the debate on the future of the EU forward?  We saw that there have been some promising experiments with micro-democratic structures, where a reduction in size and complexity brought forward engagement and perceived relevance.  But this is hard to translate to a larger entity like the EU, unless the EU is to re-invent itself, and see it's future as being united in its desire to be dis-united.  This is not quite the tautology it appears at first, by allowing the peoples of the EU countries to celebrate and excel in their unique differences, they can start to realise the dream of unity in diversity - we are all different, and this acceptance of our difference is what we have in common.

So, to go forward, the EU has to look to its past - use the strength of the individuals, and instead of trying to enforce a common standard, the EU should encourage divergence to bring a wider commonality of difference.
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European Culture and Politics - Write Policy Memorandum / Reform of Referendums
« Last post by Richard Gartside on June 12, 2017, 09:26:24 PM »
[size=14pt]Democracy relies on the concept of the people providing the direction for their governance, indeed the origins of the word democracy come from two words - demos meaning 'common people' and kratos meaning 'rule, strength'.

We have adopted this concept in the form of a representative democracy where the people appoint representatives to enact their will, and act on their behalf in parliament, to resolve the difficulty of how to express the opinions of millions of voices in a coherent fashion.

There are certain constitutional issues where the people may hold a strong view that can be hard to express when appointing someone to act as their representative on a range of issues. In such circumstances it may be appropriate for a referendum to be held, to allow the people to express their view clearly without altering their support of their representatives on other issues.

Convention holds that referendums are advisory and non-binding on parliament.
This clearly is contrary to the principle of people directing their representatives governance, and so legislation should be introduced to make the outcomes of referendums binding on parliament as an expression of the will of the public to their elected representatives. This does not reduce or incapacitate parliament from representing the people in matters where there may not be a clear directive from the population at large, or in non-constitutional issues, whilst simultaneously enhancing the legitimacy of parliament as the representation of the people.

There is an argument that by making referendums binding, this undermines the sovereignty of parliament, but parliament derives its authority to make and impose laws from the assent of the people, and referendums should be restricted to a clearly defined constitutional issue.

For referendums to be seen to be a clear and proper expression of the will of the people, there needs to be clarity of this expression. Consequentially a referendum result should satisfy the following requirements:[/size]
[list][li][size=12pt]That there is a clear majority of opinion[/li]
[li][size=12pt]That this opinion is universally held[/size][/li][/list]

[size=14pt]To satisfy this requirement, for a result to be held as the will of the people it must achieve the following:
[list][li][size=12pt]A majority of at least 55% of the votes cast[/li]
[li][size=12pt]Where it transcends national boundaries, the opinion of each nation should express agreement with the majority opinion.[/li][/list]

[size=14pt]Referendums should be restricted to matters of constitutional importance only, and it remains the preserve of parliament to determine if an issue is of sufficient constitutional importance, and if the public interest warrants that a referendum be called.[/size]
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European Culture and Politics - Write Policy Memorandum / Introduction
« Last post by Administrator on June 12, 2017, 09:07:11 PM »
Although having done the assignment already, the introduction page has gone, the outline of the assignment is as follows
[b]
Assignment Guidelines[/b]

Write a policy document using 300 - 400 words to identify and propose a solution to a problem within Europe - it could be EU-wide, or specific to a country. 
there should be an
introduction, which summarises and sets out the problem being identified, with evidence as appropriate to support this
Body, which sets out proposals for tackling the problem, detailing clear strategies for achieving this, and implications of these reform proposals
Conclusion, which summarises the problem, proposal and implications

The criteria being used by peers for assesing the assignments were:
[list]
[li]Have the problem and reform proposal been clearly defined and supported (by evidence)?[/li]
[li] Does the reform proposal match the problem and have implications been dealt with?[/li]
[li]Does the reform proposal define strategies to achieve the proposed policy?[/li]
[/list] 

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European Culture and Politics - Reflection Blog / Introduction to Assignment
« Last post by Administrator on June 12, 2017, 08:55:51 PM »
Reflection is a crucial part of any learning process. Reflection enables us to critically reexamine our gained experiences, knowledge and competences. It enables us to see how we have changed and grown. In a reflective blog, a learner is asked to reflect on the obtained knowledge and competences in a critical review of his or her work.

You are asked to examine how you have improved due to the learning process. Also, try to identify your future goals and interests. Focus on the strengths that you have developed, the weaknesses you were able to identify and strategies how to improve these weaknesses.

In this particular reflection blog, we would like you to answer the following question:

Which insights and qualifications did I gain in the course ‘European Culture and Politics’ and how can I employ these in my daily life?

In answering the question, you can consider your daily life, your professional experiences, your encounters with the local, national, or transnational community and your position as member of a particular social group. These reflections can but do not need to be constrained by the experiences of and encounters with Europe.

[b]Structure of Blog[/b]

[b]Introduction[/b]

This should be no longer than 50 words and should familiarise the reader with the topic of the blog. Use the introduction to identify the topic and scope of the blog, identify the main argument and provide an outline of the blog. Include answers to the following:

a) what is the main aim of the blog?
b) why should one read your blog?
c) outline of the blog?

[b]Body[/b]

This part introduces the reader to the central point of the blog: what did I learn and how did I change as a result of the learning process, what was the main cause of the change. The body states the central problem and central thesis of the blog, develops the thesis into several subsections and provides support (examples) for each of the subsections. Avoid using more than three subsections and keep the length under 400 words.

Answer the following questions:

a) What is the event/process you are reflecting upon?
b) What are the causes and outcomes of that event?
c) How does this event/process fit into the main argument of the blog (why is this important, different)?
d) How have you been affected by it and how did you respond, would you now act differently and why?

[b]Conclusion[/b]

The conclusion is used to restate your central thesis and provide a summary of the argumentation. What was the main argument and how did you support it? This should be no longer than 50 words.
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