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IR 341 CERTIFICATE CEREMONY

Date: 14 May 2009

BİLGİ students who finished successfully Prof. Jean Marcou's course IR 341: State, Society and Religion received from the hands of French Ambassador Bernard Emie, Prof. Ayhan Kaya and Prof. Jean Marcou on Thursday May 14th their certificate of success.

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IR 341: State, Society, Religion

Instructor: Jean Marcou
E-mail: jean.marcou@ifea-istanbul.net
Time: Friday 9.00 to 12.00
Location: Room 133 at Dolapdere Campus
(Fall 2007-2008)

About the course:

This course will focus on France, a key EU Member State, especially underlining and questioning in itself the specificity of this country in Europe, regarding its contemporary history (revolutions and restorations, democracy, colonialism, Vichy period, Resistance, Algerian war, May 68), its secular state (laicism, republicanism, human rights), its political system (semi presidential system in a Parliamentary Europe), its foreign policy (the tumultuous relations with the US, the Arabian policy of France…) its territory (centralization, regionalism and the revival of local languages) and its society (literature, cinema and politics).

Short biography of the instructor:

Jean Marcou, Professor at Grenoble Institute of Political Studies, is presently a senior researcher at the French Institute of Anatolian Studies in Istanbul (IFEA - Institut Français d’Etudes Anatoliennes-Turkey-www.ifea-istanbul.net) where he is in charge of the Observatory of the Turkish Political Life (Observatoire de la Vie Politique Turque – OVIPOT – www.ovipot.blogspot.com). Coordinator of the French speaking Department of Political Science of Marmara University (Tarabya) from 1988 to 1992, he had also been the Director of the French Affiliation of the Faculty of Economics and Political Science and of the Master in Euromediterranean Studies at the University of Cairo (Egypt) from 2000 to 2006.

Aims:

The course aims to give the students a better knowledge of France History, Politics and Society. Taking into account the important influence of the French experience on the Turkish Republic, when relevant it will compare France to Turkey and also to other European countries. In practice the course aims to familiarize students with:

• the key periods of the French Contemporary State and Society
• the main stakes of the French Contemporary State and Society
• Current debates in contemporary France

Method:

The course will be conducted through:

• ex catedra teaching by the course instructor
• reading materials to prepare for each session
• presentations by the students
• class discussions
• video documents

Assignments

1. Attendance - (20%)
2. Oral (15 minutes) or written presentations (10 000 signs) – 30%
3. Final Exams – (50%)

The final exam will comprise of two sections:

(1) an evaluation of the students’ theoretical and factual knowledge: based on a number of short answer questions
(2) an evaluation of the students’ capacity to apply concepts and theory to practice. For such an evaluation the students can be asked to analyze a newspaper article in the light of what was discussed during the course or the students can be asked to write a short essay on some (provocative) statement provided by the convenor.

Description of the course’s sessions

1. Introduction to the course: scheme, methods, students evaluation.
2. The Foundation of the French Nation State: the Old Regime, the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Period.
3. Attendance to the Seminar “Republic in Turkey and France” to be held at SantralIstanbul at Bilgi University (23 and 24 October 2008).
4. The French Republic: the French Revolution and the republican tradition, the 19th century revolutions, the importance of the Third Republic, values and symbols of the Republic.
5. The French secularism: a comparison between the French “laïcité” and the Turkish “laiklik”. The new trends in Turkey and France.
6. The First World War and its consequences for the French State and Society.
7. The Second World War, the Resistance and the Vichy Period.
8. Ambiguous periods of French contemporary History: the Algerian war, May 68.
9. The French Political System 1: The semi-presidential French system. Comparison between the American and the French President. Comments on some mains articles of the French Constitution and on some recent reforms of the French Constitution.
10. The French Political System 2: Parties and political life. The campaign of the last presidential election.
11. France in Europe and the French Foreign Policy: the traditions and the new trends.
12. France and its territory: The French system and its last evolutions (decentralization and recognition of the local languages).

Required Reading.

Readings will be provided by the course instructor for each session. The two following general books can be used as background material and provides information on French contemporary Politics and Society:

David Howarth and Georgios Vaouxakis : Contemporary France : an Introduction to French Politics and Society, 2007 Alistair Cole, Developments in French politics, London, Prentice Hall, 2005.

Course Materials

• Course Syllabus
• The Foundation of the French Nation State: the Old Regime, the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Period
• The French Republic: Symbols, History and Values