Is the process of European integration shifting the targets of social movements from the national arena to the European Union level? Does the EU remain isolated from the reach of national democratic politics? Or are social movements responding to the transnational issues posed by the European Union, but continuing to do so by treading the traditional pathways of nation-specific contentious politics? Addressing these key but hitherto unexplored questions, this groundbreaking volume explores how European citizens are responding to the growing policymaking power of the EU. The contributors argue...

European politics has been reshaped in recent decades by a dual process of centralization and decentralization. At the same time that authority in many policy areas has shifted to the suprantional level of the European Union, so national governments have given subnational regions within countries more say over the lives of their citizens. At the forefront of scholars who characterize this dual process as Omulti-level governance, OLiesbet Hooghe and Gary Marks argue that its emergence in the second half of the twentieth century is a watershed in the political development of Europe. Hooghe and...

With euro banknotes and coins starting to circulate as of January 2002, this work comes at a crucial juncture for the European Union. Exploring the origins of and progress toward the introduction of the euro, the contributors focus on the importance of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) as part of the larger process of European integration. Thus, chapters consi der the value and limits of a range of theoretical approaches for understanding economic and monetary integration, the pros and cons of EMU's institutional design, and country-specific experiences. With an international group of leading...

This original work explores the increasingly important phenomenon of the formation of transnational identity. Considering the ongoing relevance of the European Union, the contributors ask a series of intriguing questions: Is a European identity possible? How are the various types of European identity formed and maintained? How are these identities linked to the process of European integration? Combining a rich array of theoretical and methodological perspectives, distinguished scholars examine both the theoretical understanding of why and how transnational identities form and new empirical...

This timely comparative analysis explores the evolution of governance in Central and Eastern Europe. The book considers post-communist leaders' key challenge: the development of central government institutions capable of coordinating, integrating, and steering the policymaking process. Building on a broad range of primary sources and extensive field research, the distinguished authors analyze the processes and outcomes of institution-building in Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Bulgaria since the late 1980s. They examine in detail the organization and inner workings of central...

Europeanization has become a major theme within European studies in recent years, emphasizing the domestic effects of the EU on its member and applicant states. At the same time, multilevel governance has emerged as an important concept, highlighting shifts both in horizontal relations between state and society and in vertical links between actors at different territorial levels. In this state-of-the-art study, Ian Bache traces the relationship between these two key elements, considering the extent to which Europeanization advances multilevel governance within member states through the...

Drawing on numerous interviews with high-ranking and founding members of the European Central Bank (ECB), Karl Kaltenthaler identifies and explains the factors that shape the bank's domestic and international monetary strategies. As at all institutions, politics are very much involved in policy-making at the ECB. Kaltenthaler finds that instead of being unconcerned with how the bank's policies impact the citizens of the Eurozone, the central bankers desire to keep the economy healthy. This desire is driven by the central bankers' two primary personal preferences: to appear competent to as...

The discussion about a constitution for the European Union and its rejection by referendum in two of the EU founding member states has once again spurred public and scholarly interest in the democratic quality and potential of the European Union. Debating the Democratic Legitimacy of the European Union brings together distinguished thinkers from law, political science, sociology, and political philosophy to explore the potential for democratically legitimate governance in the European Union. Drawing on different theoretical perspectives and strands from democratic theory, this volume is the...

The creation of an economic and monetary union (EMU) in Europe is among the most important_and controversial_developments of the 1990s. This clear and balanced book brings together economists and political scientists to explain why the creation of a European monetary union is so contentious; how the debate has affected the political determination to construct a monetary union; and how it will influence the functioning of EMU into the next century. Focusing on how economics and politics interact both in the prelude to unification and in its aftermath, the authors provide an innovative analysis...

Political authority in todayOs leading democracies rests on generally shared perceptions by a given people that their government is responsible to them and considers each individual citizen equal under the law. Yet since the dawn of the industrial age, democratic governments have presided over economies that function on the basis of an unequal distribution of real resources. As globalization opens these economies, the gap between legal, ideal and economic reality widens and boundaries separating Othe peopleO of different democracies erode. This thought-provoking book explores the consequent...