This book takes up traditional approaches to political science. It aims to offer a mixture of conventional and specific analyses and insights for different groups of readers. In view of the European Union's multi-level and multi-actor polity, the book highlights the complex procedural and institutional set-up of nation states preparing and implementing decisions made by the institutions of the European Community (EC). In looking at the emerging and evolving realities of the European polity, it shows how European institutions and Member States (re-)act and interact in a new institutional and procedural set-up. It explores how governmental and non-governmental actors in different national settings adapt to common challenges, constraints and opportunities for which they are mainly themselves responsible. The book discusses the Belgian policy toward European integration as a significant demonstration of its commitment to multilateralism and international co-operation in security and economic affairs. Attitudes to European integration in Denmark, Germany, Finland, Greece, and Spain are discussed. Tendencies towards 'Europeanisation' and 'sectoralisation' of the ministerial administration during the process of European integration and the typical administrative pluralism of the Italian political system seem to have mutually reinforced each other. Strong multi-level players are able to increase their access and influence at both levels and to use their position on one level for strengthening their say on the other. German and Belgian regions might develop into these kinds of actors. A persistent trend during the 1990s is traced towards stronger national performers, particularly in terms of adaptations and reactions to Maastricht Treaty.
fact that they are reacting to the same challenge. In looking at the emerging and evolving realities of the European polity we are interested in how European institutions and Member States (re-)act and interact in a new institutional and procedural set-up. Thus, our major puzzle is: how do governmental and non-governmental actors in different national settings – involving different national traditions – adapt to common challenges, constraints and opportunities for which they are mainly themselves responsible? Given the features and the dynamics of the evolution of
This substantially updated and revised edition offers a comprehensive overview of the challenges confronting the political system as well as the international politics of the European Union. It draws from a spectrum of regional integration theories to determine what the Union actually is and how it is developing, examining the constitutional politics of the European Union, from the Single European Act to the Treaty of Nice and beyond. The ongoing debate on the future of Europe links together the questions of democracy and legitimacy, competences and rights, and the prospects for European polity-building. The aim is to contribute to a better understanding of the emerging European polity and the questions that further treaty reform generates for the future of the regional system. The authors also assess the evolving European security architecture; the limits and possibilities of a genuine European foreign, security and defence policy; and the role of the EU in the post-Cold War international system. Common themes involve debates about stability and instability, continuity and change, multipolarity and leadership, co-operation and discord, power capabilities and patterns of behaviour. The book traces the defining features of the ‘new order’ in Europe and incorporates an analysis of the post-September 11th context.
and that its students will be better equipped to deal in a more insightful and systematic manner with such intricate issues as the impact of less formalised arenas of 50 Theory and reform in the European Union governance on integration outcomes, the role of institutional values in everyday policy-making and, crucially, the normative context within which the constitutive actors and governance arrangements of the European polity operate as norm-setting forces. Multilevel governance In stark contrast to state-centric approaches to European integration like liberal
European governance. Indeed, the dynamism of EU polity-building over the 1990s has provided some of the necessary infrastructure for the emergence of a ‘constitutive’ European polity that derives its legitimacy both from the component polities and the member demoi, emphasising the need for greater civic deliberation and participation. It is not so much the actual provisions stemming from successive treaty reforms or for that matter the way in which they will be carried out that warrant our closer attention, as are the new European polity dynamics, in that questions of
constitutional debate in any case because of the intrinsic significance of this particular policy area to the constitutional foundations of the European polity. The compromises that have been proposed – the creation of the posts of EU President and an EU ‘foreign minister’ to represent the Union externally, the dual competence of Commission and Council in this area and the tentative moves towards the greater use of qualified majority
international behaviour and, on the other, the assertion of a new core set of values and principles of what might best be described as ‘political co-determination’: the forging of new co-operative arrangements for jointly managing the internal and external affairs of the nascent European polity. The perennial question to ask The theoretical setting 3 here is whether such a composite polity will strike a balance between its becoming the main locus of collective, binding decision-making for the constituent governments and the dominant focus of popular political
very existence. ‘Kosovo’ and the European security discourse have discursively framed the diverse meanings of ‘Europe’, fixing its geopolitical boundaries by locating its practices and by speaking as if a stable European polity already exists. The ‘enemy’ of Europe’s volatile identity has been defined as the ‘unknown’, the ‘unpredictable’ and the ‘unstable’. The challenge for the EU has been to prevent a
of the European polity. Fundamentally, this is linked to the issue of whether there is a European demos or a European public sphere and how this might affect EU foreign policy (Guénno 1998 , 2000 ; Hix 1998 ; Peterson 1998 : 3). Here is an issue where much more research from a discourse perspective is needed, research which cannot, of course, be limited to EU foreign policy. POLICY PRACTICE The
3 The Amsterdam reforms Partial offsets and unfinished business Introduction As a result of the IGC 1996/97, the member governments of the Union signed in Amsterdam, in June 1997, the Treaty which partially reformed the Maastricht Treaty. All those who linked the outcome of the review conference with the construction of a democratically organised European polity, or even regarded it as an opportunity for a more or less permanent clarification of the physiognomy of the Union, have no real grounds for celebration as realism, in the end, seems to have had its way