POLS-381 The Politics of the Republic of Ireland & the United Kingdom
This class will examine the political systems of the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom. It will look at the development of the Republic of Ireland from 1916 until the present paying particular attention to the role that the Irish Government has played in fostering economic development and social stability. It will further look at the country's relationships with the European Union and United States of America. The class will present Northern Ireland and the efforts to resolve the troubles there in as the nexus between these foreign relations, domestic politics in both countries and the relationship between the two of them. A key part of the class will be examining the way in which the British political system functions and is organized, paying particular attention to the multicultural and devolutionary policies that the UK government has enacted in the recent past. The impact that these changes in policy have had in resolving the conflict in Northern Ireland will be examined in depth.