This distinctive new text provides an overview and assessment of key debates about the political character of the EU. Arguing that it is best seen as an international organization - albeit of a particularly integrated kind - Paul Magnette shows how the need to accommodate a range of state interests shapes the EU political system and assesses the implications for its democratic functioning; for institutions and policy; and for Europeanization and integration.

Modern states and novel multinational polities such as the European Union have to contend with greater degrees, and more complex forms, of diversity. What elements keep complex, -post-national-, political entities together? What are the ties that bind people together in a world where they cannot rely on the safety of established national identifications (if they ever could)?
This collection of essays by leading political scientists, philosophers and legal academics from Canada and Europe provides a transatlantic dialogue on the ways in which complex states (such as Canada) and non-states...