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Political Science Politics of the European Union
by
John McCormick

Introduction

The European Union (EU) has become a critical new actor on the global stage, containing twenty-seven member states (with more considering membership) and nearly 500 million people. With its origins in postwar efforts to promote peace, security, and economic reconstruction in Europe, the EU constitutes a new level of authority above that of the member states and has overseen the building of a European single market, the launch of the euro, and the development of common (or coordinated) policies on agriculture, the environment, trade, regional development, external relations, immigration, and a wide variety of other issues. But the jury is still out on the personality of the EU and the wisdom of European integration, some praising its achievements but others regarding it as undemocratic and a threat to the sovereignty of its member states. The literature on the EU has grown exponentially since the late 1980s, as scholars and other analysts struggle to understand both the dynamics and the implications of European integration. This entry offers a taste of the range of topics within the literature, with sections on the theory and principles of integration, the history of the EU, its major institutions, political processes, and key areas of policy activity.

General Overviews

The number of general surveys of the politics and policies of the European Union (EU) has grown dramatically since the early 1990s, reflecting the new levels of interest in understanding how the EU works and what impact it has had on Europe, on Europeans, and on the place of Europe in the global system. These entries all offer useful points of departure, providing general surveys of the underlying principle of European integration, the history of the EU, its major institutions, and its policy effects. Nugent 2010 is a benchmark for the genre, while Dinan 2010 offers the perspective of a historian and McCormick 2011 is a brief introductory survey. Cini and Borragan 2009 and Bache, et al. 2011 are edited surveys, Ginsberg 2010 offers an American perspective, and Bomberg, et al. 2008 focuses on actors and policymaking.

Journals

Although publishing on the politics and policies of the European Union (EU) and individual EU member states appears in numerous journals across the disciplines of political science and international relations, listed below are the more specialist journals, listed approximately according to their reputation in the field. The two oldest are West European Politics, which has focused mainly on national political studies, and the Journal of Common Market Studies. The European Journal of Political Research and Comparative European Politics focus on comparative and cross-national studies, the Journal of European Public Policy is unique in focusing on policy, and the relatively recent addition of European Union Politics and the Journal of European Integration reflect the growing academic interest in EU studies.

Theories of European Integration

Almost since its creation, there has been a lively debate about how the European Union (EU) is best understood from a theoretical perspective. The focus has shifted over time from analyses based on the perspectives of international relations scholars to those offered by scholars of comparative politics and public policy. The entries in this section include general surveys of integration theory along with a selection of the more influential contributions to the theoretical debate. Wiener and Diez 2009 offers a survey, while Mitrany 1966 looks at the broad context of achieving world peace and Haas 1958 is the starting point for neofunctional analyses. Hoffmann 1966 is a key example of the intergovernmental approach, which later evolved into the liberal intergovernmentalism of Moravcsik 1998. Hix and Hoyland 2011 looks at the EU as a political system in its own right, Lister 1996 and Burgess 2000 offer confederal and federal perspectives, Hooghe and Marks 2001 considers the EU as an example of multilevel governance, and Parsons 2006 is an example of the constructivist subliterature.

  • Burgess, Michael. Federalism and European Union: The Building of Europe, 1950–2000. London: Routledge, 2000.

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    A study of the EU from a federal perspective, offering a revisionist history of the evolution of the EU and written by one of the most prolific authors in this particular school of European integration theory.

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  • Haas, Ernst B. The Uniting of Europe: Political, Social, and Economic Forces, 1950–1957. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1958.

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    Focusing on the European Coal and Steel Community, this was the first systematic study of the process of European integration. It gave birth to the theory of neofunctionalism and is widely regarded as the starting point for the theoretical debates about the dynamics of integration.

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  • Hix, Simon, and Bjorn Hoyland. The Political System of the European Union. 3d ed. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.

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    The paradigmatic exposition of the argument that the EU should be approached as a political system in its own right and using the perspectives and methods of comparative politics. Offers a contrast to the numerous explanations offered by scholars of international relations.

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  • Hoffmann, Stanley. “Obstinate or Obsolete? The Fate of the Nation State and the Case of Western Europe.” Daedelus 95 (1966): 862–915.

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    By one of the earliest exponents of intergovernmental approaches to understanding European integration. Argues that while nonstate actors played an important role in the process of integration, state governments alone had the legal sovereignty and the political legitimacy that came from being elected and the authority to decide the pace of integration.

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  • Hooghe, Liesbet, and Gary Marks, eds. Multi-level Governance and European Integration. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2001.

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    A key entry in the debate about the EU as an example of multilevel governance, where power is shared among the supranational, national, subnational, and local levels of government—with a high degree of interaction among these levels.

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  • Lister, Frederick K. The European Union, the United Nations, and the Revival of Confederal Governance. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1996.

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    One of the curiously rare assessments of the European Union as a confederal system, a possibility that is routinely overlooked in much of the theoretical debate about Europe.

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  • Mitrany, David. A Working Peace System. Chicago: Quadrangle, 1966.

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    Even though Mitrany was more interested in world peace generally than in the resolution of European problems, this is the usual starting point for conceptual studies of regional integration.

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  • Moravcsik, Andrew. The Choice for Europe: Social Purpose and State Power from Messina to Maastricht. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1998.

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    The key exposition of the liberal intergovernmental approach to understanding the EU, based on a two-level approach that combines the neofunctionalist view of the importance of domestic politics with the role of the governments of the EU member states in making major political choices.

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  • Parsons, Craig. A Certain Idea of Europe. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2006.

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    An example of the constructivist approach to EU studies, which argues that today’s EU is the ideological project of aggressive elite leadership, offering an alternative to other accounts of EU history that downplays the role of ideas and ideology.

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  • Wiener, Antje, and Thomas Diez, eds. European Integration Theory. 2d ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.

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    A survey of theories of European integration, outlining the major theories and the responses to them. A good point of departure for anyone new to the field.

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History of the European Union

History is a critical part of understanding the core features and principles of political systems, and rarely is this truer than with the European Union (EU). Appreciating what it has become and understanding the sometimes peculiar features of its political systems and processes demands familiarity with the key steps in its evolution. The sources in this section offer a mix of general and revisionist surveys of European integration and of the postwar history of Europe. Dinan 2004 is the best general history of European integration, while Hitchcock 2004 and Judt 2005 offer surveys of postwar Europe that provide the context within which European integration can be understood. Gilbert 2003 and Gillingham 2003 take more revisionist approaches, Henig 2002 focuses on the wider context, and Meunier and MacNamara 2007 offers an edited collection of more recent perspectives.

  • Dinan, Desmond. Europe Recast: A History of European Union. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.

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    Essential reading before moving on to more detailed or revisionist studies. Offers a concise and thorough survey of key events and developments and their underlying motives and longer-term effects.

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  • Gilbert, Mark. Surpassing Realism: The Politics of European Integration since 1945. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003.

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    A more revisionist history of the EU, asking how European states were able to overcome their traditional suspicions and rivalries, which events and individuals had the greatest impact on integration, and which problems remain to be resolved.

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  • Gillingham, John. European Integration, 1950–2003: Superstate or New Market Economy? Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003.

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    Another revisionist view, challenging many preconceived ideas and myths about Europe, focusing on the impact of missed opportunities and bad decisions, and coming to grips with troubling questions about the significance of European integration.

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  • Henig, Stanley. The Uniting of Europe: From Consolidation to Enlargement. London: Routledge, 2002.

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    Another survey of the history of the EU, this one focusing on how institutional developments have been conditioned by wider international considerations. Looks at the role of the Cold War and the superpowers on European calculations and the consequences of enlargement and the end of the Cold War.

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  • Hitchcock, William I. The Struggle for Europe: The Turbulent History of a Divided Continent. New York: Anchor, 2004.

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    This does for Europe what Dinan 2004 does for the EU: it offers a readable general survey of postwar European history that helps place more detailed studies in perspective. Assesses the impact of World War II, the effect of the Cold War on European ideas, the causes of the collapse of the Berlin Wall, and the longer-term effects of regional integration.

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  • Judt, Tony. Postwar: A History of Europe since 1945. New York: Penguin, 2005.

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    Another survey of developments in Europe since 1945, which treats the continent as a whole and looks at political, economic, social, and cultural changes in both eastern and western Europe alike. While looking at the bigger picture, Judt also provides details on key developments, placing European integration in its broader context.

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  • Meunier, Sophie, and Kathleen R. McNamara, eds. Making History: European Integration and Institutional Change at Fifty. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.

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    The most recent in a series of periodic reviews of the state of the EU, this one looking at developments in theoretical understandings, economic policy, law and society, and the changing nature of the global role of the EU. Concludes that the EU has considerable unresolved tensions that indicate a mix of robustness and critical political and institutional challenges.

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European Union Institutions

The literature on the European Union (EU) institutions is substantial but unbalanced, with a large number of often specialized and provocative studies of the European Commission and the European Parliament but surprisingly few of the powerful Council of Ministers and the European Council and even fewer assessments of the European Court of Justice (which has been the subject of considerable study by legal specialists but has been left largely untouched by political scientists). And only recently, as their number and reach increase, has there been much study of the specialized institutions of the EU, such as the European Central Bank, Europol, and the growing number of agencies. Warleigh 2002 and Peterson and Shackleton 2006 offer general surveys of the EU institutions, while Hix 2008 focuses on what is wrong with the EU and how it might be improved in order to make it more efficient and responsive.

The European Commission

The European Commission is the best-known of the major EU institutions and has been the subject of the most substantial ongoing scholarly study. Nugent 2001 offers a baseline study of the structure and dynamics of the commission, while Spence 2006 offers a more detailed insider’s view. Bauer 2008 focuses on the pressures to reform the commission, and Smith 2004 looks at the influences that help explain the dynamics of commission decision making.

The Council

“The Council” is a collective term for the European Council and the Council of Ministers, related institutions that have quite different memberships and roles and both of which have been relatively overlooked in the literature—surprising given their powers and key roles in EU decision making. Westlake and Galloway 2004 offers an edited collection of assessment of the council, while Hayes-Renshaw and Wallace 2006 offers a detailed review of the structure and dynamics of the Council of Ministers. Werts 2008 is the only recent book-length study of the European Council.

The European Parliament

Starting with the institution of direct elections in 1979 and growing with an increase in its powers from the early 1990s, public and scholarly interest in the European Parliament has grown. Corbett, et al. 2007 and Judge and Earnshaw 2008 offer the standard assessments of the structure and dynamics of Parliament, while Steunenberg and Thomassen 2002 looks at its changing role in the EU institutional structure and Whitaker 2011 offers the most complete assessment of its committees.

The European Court of Justice

The European Court of Justice is the subject of surprisingly few political analyses, most studies to date having been written by legal scholars more focused on its legal impact than on its political role. Alter 2009 (cited under The Council) offers a collection of assessments with political consequences, while Hartley 2007 is representative of the numerous guides to EU law.

  • Alter, Karen J. The European Court’s Political Power: Selected Essays. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.

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    A collection of articles on the European Court of Justice, written by one of its most active scholars.

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  • Hartley, T. C. The Foundations of European Community Law. 6th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.

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    One of the best of the many guides to EU law, with chapters on institutions, the legal system, legal principles, and the effects on the member states. Offers little in the way of political analysis but provides the survey of the legal system needed to place the European Court of Justice in its political context.

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Specialized Agencies

In addition to the major institutions, a wide range of more specialized institutions has also evolved to focus on more discrete aspects of EU policy. Géradin, et al. 2005 contains an edited selection of studies of those agencies, while Howarth and Loedel 2001 and Kaltenthaler 2006 provide initial assessments of the role of the European Central Bank.

  • Géradin, Damien, Rodolphe Muñoz, and Nicolas Petit, eds. Regulation through Agencies in the EU: A New Paradigm of European Governance. London: Edward Elgar, 2005.

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    An edited collection of studies of the motives behind setting up specialized agencies and the potential effects. The number and policy reach of such agencies has grown particularly since the 1990s, without a general planning template, posing numerous questions about their role in EU policymaking and their role in the changing relationship between EU institutions and member states.

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  • Howarth, David J., and Peter Loedel. The European Central Bank. 2d ed. Frankfurt am Main, Germany: European Central Bank, 2001.

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    An assessment of the creation, design, and operation of the European Central Bank, including a discussion of the different national perspectives on central bank independence, the organization of the bank, and a commentary on the difficult first years of its operation.

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  • Kaltenthaler, Karl. Policymaking in the European Central Bank: The Masters of Europe’s Money. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006.

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    Based on interviews with officials of the European Central Bank (ECB), this assesses the factors that have shaped the bank’s domestic and international monetary strategies, showing how the bank reflects the structure and approaches of the German Bundesbank.

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Political Processes

Until the late 1980s, a “permissive consensus” prevailed in matters of European integration, the assumption being that political elites could pursue their own agendas without reference to ordinary Europeans, who were not much interested in integration. But this began to change in the early 1990s with new levels of public criticism about how the European Union (EU) was evolving; as a result, public opinion has come to matter much more, and there has been a rapid growth in the number of studies of elections to (and political groups in) the European Parliament, national referendums on European issues, and the work of interest groups. Lodge 2005 is the most recent of a series of studies of specific rounds of European Parliament elections. Thomassen 2005 looks at the changing dynamics of the European voting public as a whole, while Lindberg, et al. 2009 examines the changing role of parties in the EU. Greenwood 2007 is the best survey of the work of interest groups, whose lobbying efforts are examined by Coen and Richardson 2009 and the dynamics of which are assessed by Balme and Chabanet 2008. Hobolt 2009 offers the most thorough assessment to date of the mechanics and effects of national referendums on EU issues, while Taggart and Szczerbiak 2008 offers the most comprehensive analysis of “Euroscepticism.”

  • Balme, Richard, and Didier Chabanet. European Governance and Democracy: Power and Protest in the EU. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2008.

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    A study of interest-group politics at the European level, arguing that while EU decision making has moved outside the elite arena, those groups that already have a strong record of influence at the national level tend to be favored at the European level.

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  • Coen, David, and Jeremy Richardson, eds. Lobbying the European Union: Institutions, Actors, and Issues. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.

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    Studies the role of interest groups in the EU policy process, looking at how groups organize to influence the EU institutions and how they build different coalitions.

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  • Greenwood, Justin. Interest Representation in the European Union. 2d ed. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.

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    The standard assessment of the increasingly important (but not always fully understood) role of interest groups in EU decision making. Focuses on professional, consumer, social, business, and labor interests.

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  • Hobolt, Sara Binzer. Europe in Question: Referendums on European Integration. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.

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    The national referendum has become an increasingly critical element in EU governance since the early 1990s. Hobolt looks at how voters make their decisions and studies the role of political elites and the impact of the campaign dynamics. Concludes that voters are more competent than is often perceived.

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  • Lindberg, Bjorn, Anne Rasmussen, and Andreas Warntjen, eds. The Role of Political Parties in the European Union. London: Routledge, 2009.

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    Studies the mechanics and role of political parties in the European and national arenas, comparing their role at the European level with their roles in the member states.

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  • Lodge, Juliet, ed. The 2004 Elections to the European Parliament. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.

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    The most recent of a series of studies of European elections, this one focusing on the issues surrounding the 2004 election and the results by member state and by party.

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  • Taggart, Paul, and Aleks Szczerbiak, eds. Opposing Europe? The Comparative Party Politics of Euroscepticism. 2 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.

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    The most thorough study yet of Euroscepticism, looking at its strength and breadth across multiple EU member states and linking it with party systems and domestic political considerations.

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  • Thomassen, Jacques, ed. The European Voter: A Comparative Study of Modern Democracies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.

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    A systematic comparative analysis of how and why voting behavior has changed in Europe in recent decades, focusing on societal change such as greater material affluence and improved educational attainment as well as on changes in the policies of political parties.

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Expansion and Enlargement

The European Economic Community began life as a small club of six western European states focused mainly on economic integration. It has since expanded to a grouping of twenty-seven states with often different political, economic, and social perspectives. The internal dynamics of the European Union (EU) has, as a result, become more complex; the EU is now more truly a European exercise, and the pull of the club is reflected in the number of other European states that have either applied for membership or consider it a long-term goal. There is a discussion in the literature about the impact on past and prospective enlargement on both the EU and those new and aspiring members. Nugent 2004 offers a useful survey of the debate, while Zielonka 2002 takes the broad view on the effect of enlargement on the reshaping of European borders and Schimmelfennig 2004 is focused on the mechanics behind eastern enlargement of both the EU and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Brimmer and Fröhlich 2005 and Armstrong and Anderson 2007 review the debates over the impact of enlargement on the EU’s geopolitical identity and considerations.

  • Armstrong, Warwick, and James Anderson, eds. The Geopolitics of European Union Enlargement: The Fortress Empire. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2007.

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    An assessment of the changing geopolitics of Europe’s border and border regions and the effects enlargement has had on the meaning of “Europe.” Explores issues such as security, immigration, economic development, and the EU’s relations with other world powers and with the Islamic world.

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  • Brimmer, Esther, and Stefan Fröhlich, eds. The Strategic Implications of European Union Enlargement. Baltimore: Center for Transatlantic Relations, Johns Hopkins University, 2005.

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    An assessment of the broader implications of eastern enlargement, looking at the possible impact of the demands of absorbing ten new members on the global role of the EU and on its ability to address selected regional and policy issues.

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  • Nugent, Neill, ed. European Union Enlargement. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.

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    An edited collection of EU enlargement as it related mainly to eastern Europe, with reviews of the historical and theoretical context of enlargement and its implications for identity, governance, economics, policies, and the international role of the EU.

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  • Schimmelfennig, Frank. The EU, NATO and the Integration of Europe: Rules and Rhetoric. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2004.

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    An analysis of the eastern enlargement of the EU and NATO, which concludes that it can best be understood in terms of liberal democratic values and norms and was based at least in part on shaming opponents into agreeing to enlargement.

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  • Zielonka, Jan, ed. Europe Unbound: Enlarging and Reshaping the Boundaries of the European Union. London: Routledge, 2002.

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    An assessment of the evolving scope and nature of borders in Europe. Looks at how dilemmas of inclusion and exclusion might be handled in the new Europe as well as how expanding boundaries will likely change the geopolitical map. Also studies the impact of changing patterns of migration and new security issues in Europe.

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Public Policy in the European Union

Discreet areas of public policy within the European Union (EU) have been the subject of considerable study, the focus following the changing balance of policy interests (hence economic and agricultural policy have been joined by growing literatures on environmental, regional, and home affairs policy). But the number of more general surveys of the personality and procedures of policymaking at the European level, and how it interacts with policy making at the level of the member state, has been relatively limited. Even the general surveys tend to have chapters devoted to developments in separate areas of policy rather than taking a more general approach to the qualities of the policymaking process. Two overviews are offered in Wallace, et al. 2010 and Richardson 2006. Hayward and Menon 2003 looks at how patterns of governance in Europe in general have changed, while Princen 2009 studies how public agendas are formed. The politics of the EU budget are reviewed by Lindner 2006, and the growing literature on Europeanization is represented by Featherstone and Radaelli 2003 and Graziano and Vink 2007.

  • Featherstone, Kevin, and Claudio M. Radaelli, eds. The Politics of Europeanization. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.

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    Traces the influence of the European Union on domestic politics and public policies, offering a good point of departure for better understanding the mechanics of Europeanization, which is now one of the more popular approaches to the study of policy and governance in the EU.

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  • Graziano, Paolo, and Maarten P. Vink, eds. Europeanization: New Research Agendas. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.

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    A useful study of the main theoretical and empirical currents of the new research into Europeanization, assessing its achievements and its problems and suggesting possibilities for future research.

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  • Hayward, Jack, and Anand Menon, eds. Governing Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.

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    Looks at key changes in the nature of governance in Europe, including executives, public administration, the courts, and political parties. Includes discussions about the changing nature of public policy and the state.

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  • Lindner, Johannes. Conflict and Change in EU Budgetary Politics. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2006.

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    One of the more recent of the surprisingly few full-length studies of the EU budget, which like all budgets has critical political effects and provides insight into the decision-making processes and the policy priorities of the EU and its member states.

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  • Princen, Sebastiaan. Agenda-Setting in the European Union. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.

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    A study of why the EU deals with some issues rather than others, using case studies in environmental and health policy to better understand the formation of the EU policy agenda.

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  • Richardson, Jeremy, ed. European Union: Power and Policy-Making. 3d ed. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2006.

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    Collection that studies the EU policymaking process and includes chapters on the role of different EU institutions in the process.

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  • Wallace, Helen, Mark A. Pollack, and Alasdair R. Young, eds. Policy-Making in the European Union. 6th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.

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    Includes chapters offering general assessments of the EU policy environment and chapters focusing on specific policy areas, including agriculture, the single market, competition, and social policy.

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Economic and Monetary Policy

European integration was long focused on economic matters, primarily the building of the common or single market, and later by efforts to achieve exchange rate stability as a prelude to the launch of the European single currency, the euro. The latter has, not surprisingly, been the subject of a more intensive and wide-ranging debate since its launch in 1999, while more specialized studies of aspects of economic policy—for example, competition policy—have attracted more attention since the passage of the Single European Act. Neal 2007 and Molle 2008 provide useful overviews of the dimensions of economic integration, while Gros and Thygsen 1998 looks at the development of the European Monetary System and Marsh 2009, and Dyson 2008 offer assessments of the euro (all of which must be reviewed in light of the euro crisis that unfolded in 2010). The best review of EU competition policy is offered in Cini and McGowan 2009.

Agricultural and Environmental Policies

Agricultural policy was long at the heart of European-level public policies, mainly because of the expense of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the ongoing controversy over its effects. By contrast, environmental policy was a relative latecomer to the European Union (EU) policy agenda. Their roles have somewhat reversed of late, with much less attention being paid to agricultural policy than even in the 1990s, and a rapidly growing literature on the nature and effects of environmental policy. Now decisions are made more often at the EU level than by its individual member states. Grant 1997 and Ackrill 2000 provide surveys of the development and content of CAP, while Greer 2005 places it in context by looking at European agricultural policy more generally and Garzon 2006 and Skogstad and Verdun 2010 assess the causes and effects of CAP reform. On environmental policy, Jordan 2005 and Knill and Liefferink 2007 are just two of the growing number of studies of the content of that policy, while Wurzel and Connolly 2010 offers a case study of EU activities on climate change.

  • Ackrill, Robert. The Common Agricultural Policy. London: Continuum, 2000.

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    Another overview of CAP, setting out its aims and looking at the effects of pressures for reform from within the EU and from outside. Looks in particular at the long-term effects of CAP on the EU budget.

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  • Garzon, Isabelle. Reforming the Common Agricultural Policy: History of a Paradigm Change. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.

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    An assessment of reforms to CAP using multilevel, multi-issue, and policy network approaches and asking whether the cumulative changes constitute a paradigm change.

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  • Grant, Wyn. The Common Agricultural Policy. New York: St. Martin’s, 1997.

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    Although now dated, this is one of the few full-length published studies of the CAP and useful for what it says about the origins and effects of CAP and the early pressures to reform.

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  • Greer, Alan. Agricultural Policy in Europe. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2005.

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    Looks at European agricultural policy in general, placing CAP within its national context and reviewing different national policy styles across Europe.

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  • Jordan, Andrew. Environmental Policy in the European Union: Actors, Institutions and Processes. London: Earthscan, 2005.

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    An overview of the theory and practice of EU environmental policy, with case studies on issues such as climate change and genetically modified organisms, an assessment of the effects of EU expansion, and discussion of manner in which EU environmental policy has impacted other EU policy sectors.

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  • Knill, Christoph, and Duncan Liefferink. Environmental Politics in the European Union: Policy-Making, Implementation and Patterns of Multi-level Governance. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2007.

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    Provides a comprehensive survey of the forces behind the development, formulation, and implementation of EU environmental policy and takes a critical look at the EU record.

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  • Skogstad, Grace, and Amy Verdun, eds. The Common Agricultural Policy: Policy Dynamics in a Changing Context. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2010.

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    An assessment of the causes and effects of reforms to CAP, asking how novel they are and whether they represent substantial change and assessing their consequences for farmers, consumers, and third parties outside the EU.

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  • Wurzel, Rüdiger, and James Connelly, eds. The European Union as a Leader in International Climate Change Politics. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2010.

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    A study of EU policy in one particularly critical area, arguing that the EU has become a global leader on climate change negotiations. Chapters look at the different EU institutions, the member states, and how EU policy compares with that of other key actors, such as the United States and China.

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Social Policies and Justice and Home Affairs

Social policies—those addressing problems arising out of regional economic disparities and barriers to labor mobility—have moved higher up the European Union (EU) agenda as agricultural policy has moved down and the pressures have grown to achieve greater economic efficiency in the face of globalization. A related challenge has been to manage problems such as immigration, cross-border crime, and terrorism, usually described with the catchall label “justice and home affairs.” In all these areas there has been an expansion of EU policy activities and of the related literature. Brine 2002 looks in detail at the European Social Fund, while Hantrais 2007 examines the broader features and implications of social policy and Baun and Marek 2008 reviews the effects of EU enlargement on cohesion policy. Kleinman 2001 offers a contextual treatment by relating social policy to the evolution of the European welfare state. On the justice and home affairs front, Mitsilegas, et al. 2003 offers a discussion of the problems that cooperation is designed to address, while von Hippel 2005 and Geddes 2008 review two particular issues, terrorism and asylum and immigration, respectively.

The European Union (EU) as a Global Actor

The global role of the EU has been the subject of a lively debate in recent years. Some argue that it is a major player on the international stage, while others think that it has too many internal policy problems and that it has not been living up to its potential and is not as important for future calculations about the international system than either China or India. The starting point for recent developments in the debate is the short and provocative Kagan 2003, reviewed in responses contained in Lindberg 2005. Orbie 2008 looks at the implications of Europe as a civilian power, while Reid 2004, Leonard 2006, and McCormick 2007 make the argument that the EU’s global influence is far greater than previously thought. Rifkin 2004 and Hill 2010 explain critical aspects of that influence, while Laqueur 2007 argues that the EU role is not what it seems.

  • Hill, Steven. Europe’s Promise: Why the European Way Is the Best Hope in an Insecure Age. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010.

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    Argues that the emergence of the EU has recrafted the rules for how modern societies should function, focusing on its effects on economic policy, health care, environmental policy, and investment.

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  • Kagan, Robert. Of Paradise and Power: America and Europe in the New World Order. New York: Knopf, 2003.

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    Required reading (in spite of the criticism directed at Kagan’s arguments) for what it says about Europe’s global role in contrast with US views of the world.

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  • Laqueur, Walter. The Last Days of Europe: Epitaph for an Old Continent. New York: Thomas Dunne, 2007.

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    Offers a contrast to the more positive assessments of the European global role, offering case studies of immigration, the structural weakness of welfare systems, and the trials and tribulations of the European Union as evidence that the EU’s global role is overplayed.

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  • Leonard, Mark. Why Europe Will Run the 21st Century. London: Public Affairs, 2006.

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    A short and pithy treatment of the EU’s global influence, focusing in particular on the political and economic consequence of EU expansion.

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  • Lindberg, Todd, ed. Beyond Paradise and Power: Europe, America, and the Future of a Troubled Partnership. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2005.

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    An edited collection of responses to Kagan, offering contrasting European and American assessments about the changing nature of the transatlantic relationship.

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  • McCormick, John. The European Superpower. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.

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    Argues that the EU has emerged as a new kind of postmodern superpower that emphasizes soft rather than hard options to express its global influence.

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  • Orbie, Jan, ed. Europe’s Global Role: External Policies of the European Union. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2008.

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    An assessment of the core foreign policy areas of the EU, looking at the global dimensions of the EU as a civilian power and its relevance as a global actor, with chapters on trade, development, asylum, immigration, energy, and competition.

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  • Reid, T. R. The United States of Europe: The New Superpower and the End of American Supremacy. New York: Penguin, 2004.

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    A best-selling and provocative treatment of the global role of the EU by a veteran correspondent for the Washington Post, focusing in particular on how Europe’s rise has impacted the United States.

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  • Rifkin, Jeremy. The European Dream: How Europe’s Vision of the Future Is Quietly Eclipsing the American Dream. Cambridge, MA: Polity, 2004.

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    Controversially argues that the European approach to capitalism, education, welfare, health care, and technology not only serve to emphasize the weaknesses in the American model but also propose a new and more relevant set of ideas about political, economic, and social priorities.

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Foreign Relations

In spite of numerous questions about its successes, the literature on the external relations of the European Union (EU) is substantial, with a growing literature on its foreign and security policies in general and on discreet aspects of that policy in particular. Keukeleire and MacNaughtan 2008 offers a survey of EU foreign policy, while Smith 2008 looks at themes in that policy. Howorth 2007 is the best single-authored assessment of security and defense policy, Meunier 2007 focuses on trade policy, and more specific areas of policy are reviewed by Kopstein and Steinmo 2008 (EU relations with the United States), Weber, et al. 2007 (the EU and its immediate neighborhood), Kerr and Fei 2007 (the EU and China), and Mold 2007 (development policy).

  • Howorth, Jolyon. Security and Defence Policy in the European Union. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.

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    A good overview of the trials and tribulations of the EU in this critical policy area.

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  • Kerr, David, and Liu Fei, eds. The International Politics of EU-China Relations. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.

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    One of a growing number of studies of EU–China relations, this one looking at the global implications of this relationship.

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  • Keukeleire, Stephan, and Jennifer MacNaughtan. The Foreign Policy of the European Union. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.

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    An assessment of EU foreign policy, looking at the content and dynamics of foreign and security policies in general as well as the interaction between EU institutions and member states and policies toward specific parts of the world.

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  • Kopstein, Jeffrey, and Sven Steinmo. Growing Apart? America and Europe in the Twenty-First Century. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008.

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    An assessment of the history and character of, and prospects for, the US–Europe transatlantic relationship, which has blown hot and cold since the beginning but has recently undergone a fundamental shift.

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  • Meunier, Sophie. Trading Voices: The European Union in International Commercial Negotiations. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007.

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    Given its dominating global role—it is the world’s largest trading bloc—the EU has been studied remarkably little in terms of the structure and effects of its trade policy. This study looks at how that policy works, examining both its strengths and its weaknesses.

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  • Mold, Andrew, ed. EU Development Policy in a Changing World: Challenges for the 21st Century. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2007.

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    A collection of studies of the past and the future prospects of EU development policy.

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  • Smith, Karen E. European Union Foreign Policy in a Changing World. 2d ed. Cambridge, UK: Polity, 2008.

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    A thematic approach to EU external relations, with chapters on policy instruments and the role of the EU in the promotion of human rights and democracy, in conflict prevention, and in curbing international crime. Looks at the unique qualities of the EU as a global actor and at the conflicts within its policy objectives.

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  • Weber, Katja, Michael Smith, and Michael Baun, eds. Governing Europe’s Neighbourhood: Partners or Periphery? Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2007.

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    An assessment of the European Neighbourhood Policy and its possibilities, focusing on how the EU relates to its neighboring states.

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LAST MODIFIED: 11/29/2011

DOI: 10.1093/OBO/9780199756223-0042

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