What effect is market integration having on national cultures and social policies? Paulette Kurzer examines Finnish and Swedish alcohol policy, Dutch drug decriminalization policy, and the Irish ban on abortion. She finds that regional integration is leading to adjustments that bring abortion, drug policy, and restrictive drinking measures into closer alignment within the EU. Kurzer's conclusion is that shifts in values and attitudes, affected in part by EU market integration, are bringing about a gradual convergence in morality norms.

This book reveals how the institutional structures of different countries have been changed in different ways by membership in the European Union. In particular, the author shows how European Union membership has affected the relationship between the center and the regions. In studies of Germany and Spain, she indicates how Europeanization has undermined the regions, but then led to cooperation between center and regions to get the most from the European Union.

Arguing that legal rules can be implemented beyond national boundaries, this volume examines compliance beyond the nation-state. Four contributors compare compliance with regulations that have been formulated in a very similar way at different levels of governance. They demonstrate that nation states do not necessarily display the best compliance records and that a high degree of legalization, verification and sanctioning systems seem to be more important.