Oversight in the European Union
Christopher Ansell, Professor
Political Science
Closed. This professor is continuing with Fall 2023 apprentices on this project; no new apprentices needed for Spring 2024.
The European Union is a complex international organization that influences all aspects of contemporary European politics and society. While scholars have studied how the European Union interacts with nations a great deal, it is often portrayed as having a limited capacity to enforce its rules and norms at the national level in spite of its high-minded ideals. This project aims to look at one key mechanism of oversight in the European Union as conducted by the European Parliament.
Role: *This project is currently closed to new applicants*
For the 2019-20 school year, we are especially interested in having students research, develop, and code datasets relating to the Members of the European Parliament and the European Commission, datasets which will be merged with our other datasets to create a more comprehensive database at project conclusion. For this project (Project 2), no technical expertise is required.
Students will be responsible for researching, coding, and cleaning large datasets pertaining to the European Union's oversight. Subsequent tasks may deal with data analysis using the sets prepared by the students. Additionally, students may be asked to read government documents and either A. take notes, B. code variables, or C. prepare a short memo. These materials may be from contemporary European sources or from historical primary sources, depending on what documents the project can obtain.
Students will discover the way that institutions and oversight work within the complex multilevel governance of the European Union. Students will receive hands-on training in data collection and interpreting the relationships and networks, and strengths and weaknesses, of the relationships between levels of government in Europe. Their efforts will significantly inform research that will explore policymaking and subnational politics in contemporary Europe. Students will learn about national and subnational politics in European countries and changes brought by both the post-Socialist transition and admission to the European Union. Beyond substantive areas, students will learn about the early, exploratory stages of large research projects, formulating research questions, and collecting/interpreting data.
Supervision will be primarily done remotely with occasional group meetings, so students must be self-motivated and able to work independently.
Qualifications: Experience with Excel is required. After the coding phase, which is largely data entry, the complexity of tasks given to students will depend on their technical training -- statistics or more technical backgrounds would be helpful here. Students with interests in European history/government and/or the European Union are also encouraged to apply. Please clearly indicate which project you are applying to in your application.
Hours: to be negotiated
Social Sciences Arts & Humanities