What's Wrong with the Europe Union and How to Fix It

What's Wrong with the Europe Union and How to Fix It PDF Author: Simon Hix
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0745658377
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
The European Union seems incapable of undertaking economic reforms and defining its place in the world. Public apathy towards the EU is also increasing, as citizens feel isolated from the institutions in Brussels and see no way to influence European level decisions. Taking a diagnosis and cure approach to the EU’s difficulties, Simon Hix tackles these problems with distinct clarity and open-mindedness. What the EU needs, Hix contends, is more open political competition. This would promote policy innovation, foster coalitions across the institutions, provide incentives for the media to cover developments in Brussels, and enable citizens to identify who governs in the EU and to take sides in policy debates. The EU is ready for this new challenge. The institutional reforms since the 1980s have transformed the EU into a more competitive polity, and political battles and coalitions are developing inside and between the European Parliament, the Council, and the Commission. This emerging politics should be more central to the Brussels policy process, with clearer coalitions and identifiable winners and losers, at least in the short term. The risks are low because the EU has multiple checks-and-balances. Yet, the potential benefits are high, as more open politics could enable the EU to overcome policy gridlock, rebuild public support, and reduce the democratic deficit. This indispensable book will be of great interest to students of the European politics, scholars, policy makers and anyone concerned with the future of the European Union.

What's Wrong with the Europe Union and How to Fix It

What's Wrong with the Europe Union and How to Fix It PDF Author: Simon Hix
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0745658377
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 240

Get Book

Book Description
The European Union seems incapable of undertaking economic reforms and defining its place in the world. Public apathy towards the EU is also increasing, as citizens feel isolated from the institutions in Brussels and see no way to influence European level decisions. Taking a diagnosis and cure approach to the EU’s difficulties, Simon Hix tackles these problems with distinct clarity and open-mindedness. What the EU needs, Hix contends, is more open political competition. This would promote policy innovation, foster coalitions across the institutions, provide incentives for the media to cover developments in Brussels, and enable citizens to identify who governs in the EU and to take sides in policy debates. The EU is ready for this new challenge. The institutional reforms since the 1980s have transformed the EU into a more competitive polity, and political battles and coalitions are developing inside and between the European Parliament, the Council, and the Commission. This emerging politics should be more central to the Brussels policy process, with clearer coalitions and identifiable winners and losers, at least in the short term. The risks are low because the EU has multiple checks-and-balances. Yet, the potential benefits are high, as more open politics could enable the EU to overcome policy gridlock, rebuild public support, and reduce the democratic deficit. This indispensable book will be of great interest to students of the European politics, scholars, policy makers and anyone concerned with the future of the European Union.

What's Wrong with the Europe Union and How to Fix It

What's Wrong with the Europe Union and How to Fix It PDF Author: Simon Hix
Publisher: Polity
ISBN:
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 234

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Book Description
The European Union seems incapable of undertaking economic reforms and defining its place in the world. Public apathy towards the EU is also increasing, as citizens feel isolated from the institutions in Brussels and see no way to influence European level decisions. Taking a diagnosis and cure approach to the EU's difficulties, Simon Hix tackles these problems with distinct clarity and open-mindedness. What the EU needs, Hix contends, is more open political competition. This would promote policy innovation, foster coalitions across the institutions, provide incentives for the media to cover developments in Brussels, and enable citizens to identify who governs in the EU and to take sides in policy debates. The EU is ready for this new challenge. The institutional reforms since the 1980s have transformed the EU into a more competitive polity, and political battles and coalitions are developing inside and between the European Parliament, the Council, and the Commission. This emerging politics should be more central to the Brussels policy process, with clearer coalitions and identifiable winners and losers, at least in the short term. The risks are low because the EU has multiple checks-and-balances. Yet, the potential benefits are high, as more open politics could enable the EU to overcome policy gridlock, rebuild public support, and reduce the democratic deficit. This indispensable book will be of great interest to students of the European politics, scholars, policy makers and anyone concerned with the future of the European Union.

Unhappy Union

Unhappy Union PDF Author: John Peet
Publisher: The Economist
ISBN: 161039450X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
The euro was supposed to create an unbreakable bond between the nations and people of Europe. But when the debt crisis struck, the flaws of the half-built currency brought the European Union close to breaking point after decades of post-war integration. Deep fault-lines have opened up between European institutions and the nation-states—and often between the rulers and the ruled—raising profound questions about Europe's democratic deficit. Belief in European institutions and national governments alike is waning, while radicals on both the left and the right are gaining power and influence. Europe's leaders have so far proved the doomsayers wrong and prevented the currency from breaking up. "If the euro fails, Europe fails," says Angela Merkel. Yet the euro, and the European project as a whole, is far from safe. If it is to survive and thrive, leaders will finally have to confront difficult decisions. How much national sovereignty are they willing to give up to create a more lasting and credible currency? How much of the debt burden and banking risk will they share? Is Britain prepared to walk away from the EU? And will other countries follow? In Unhappy Union, The Economist's Europe editor and Brussels correspondent provide an astute analysis of the crisis. They describe America's behind-the-scenes lobbying to salvage the euro, economists' bitter debates over austerity, the unseen maneuvers of the European Central Bank and the tortuous negotiations over banking union. In the final chapter, they set out the stark choices confronting Europe's leaders and citizens.

The Desperate Union

The Desperate Union PDF Author: Ewoud van Laer
Publisher: Union Bridge Books
ISBN: 178527175X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 172

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Book Description
The European Union’s origins lie in the ruins of World War Two. This war inflicted huge psychological damage and everyone came to the same conclusion: no more war! European integration proved a successful tool for realising this deep-seated need. Now, 60 years on, the tool appears to have lost its effectiveness. A large section of the population is worried about the EU’s common policies. Will the Greeks ever pay back those billions? Will immigrants ever really integrate? For 60 years European integration has been proceeding regardless, without taking cultural differences into account. Can this process carry on unnoticed? Has the integration process perhaps gone too far? Will it at some point stir up such powerful counterforces that the European Union becomes a victim of its own success? The Desperate Union discusses the consequences of the profound cultural differences in Western Europe and emphasises the role cultural differences can play in the debate about further European integration.

The European Union and the People

The European Union and the People PDF Author: Mette Elise Jolly
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191526584
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
The European Union is frequently accused of having a 'democratic deficit'. Many commentators argue that this could be remedied by increasing the powers of the European Parliament relative to those of the Council and the Commission. The fact that the European Parliament is the only EU institution whose members are directly elected leads to the assumption that it is also the most legitimate. The author argues that this position is based on the flawed assumption that the nature of the European citizenry is similar to those of the member states. In other words, the position assumes that the union has a demos, or a people, who are prepared to accept majority outcomes even when finding themselves in the minority. In this book the author argues that this is not the case and that the most severe dimension of the democracy problem is not procedural, but socio-psychological. The fact that the EU does not have a people means that establishing an EU-wide democracy based on analogies to domestic political systems is likely to lead to a further loss of democratic legitimacy. The EU can rely on output legitimacy in policy areas which do not require pan-European solidarity and identity and in which policy-making at EU-level increases efficiency and thereby benefits all citizens. However, policy areas which require high levels of solidarity or a common identity should either remain fully within the nation states, or be subject to intergovernmental rather than supranational decision-making at EU-level.

Democracy in Europe

Democracy in Europe PDF Author: Vivien A. Schmidt
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191532967
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
Democracy in Europe is about the impact of European integration on national democracies. It argues that the oft-cited democratic deficit is indeed a problem, but not so much at the level of the European Union per se as at the national level. This is because national leaders and publics have yet to come to terms with the institutional impact of the EU on the traditional workings of their national democracies. The book begins with a discussion of what the EU is-a new form of 'regional state' in which sovereignty is shared, boundaries are variable, identity composite, and democracy fragmented. It then goes on to examine the effects of this on EU member-states' institutions and ideas about democracy, finding that institutional 'fit' matters. The 'compound' EU, in which governing activity is highly dispersed among multiple authorities, is more disruptive to 'simple' polities like Britain and France, where governing activity has traditionally been more concentrated in a single authority, than to similarly 'compound' polities like Germany and Italy. But the book concludes that the real problem for member-states is not so much that their practices have changed as that national ideas and discourse about democracy have not. The failure has been one of the 'communicative' discourse to the general public-which again has been more pronounced for simple polities, despite their potentially greater capacity to communicate through a single voice, than for compound polities, where the 'coordinative' discourse among policy actors predominates.

What's Wrong with the Euro and How to Fix It

What's Wrong with the Euro and How to Fix It PDF Author: Erik Jones
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780745690957
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
The Euro is in crisis. Economic performance is diverging across EU countries. Politics is tense. Decision-making slow and often conflictive. Policymakers, it seems, are running out of options. Cyprus almost left the single currency by accident in 2013 whilst Greece looked set to opt out by choice (or requirement) just over two years later. The architects of the European Union imagined the Euro would be a crowning achievement; now everyone is asking what went wrong. They also want to know how to fix it. There are many different answers to this pressing question but the key is identifying a path that will unlock a workable solution. In this incisive analysis, Erik Jones argues that we can solve the problems of the Euro by focusing not on the single currency but on the single market. The stresses and strains that Europe is experiencing at the moment derive from the forces unleashed through market liberalization dating back to the late 1980s, if not earlier. European policy-makers, he contends, must do more to channel those forces and to underpin market confidence. In doing so, they will not only safeguard the Euro, they will also help to preserve the achievements and the integrity of the European Union itself.

The European Union in Crisis

The European Union in Crisis PDF Author: Desmond Dinan
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350312738
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 418

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Book Description
The European Union (EU) is in crisis. The crisis extends beyond Brexit, the fluctuating fortunes of the eurozone and the challenge of mass migration. It cuts to the core of the EU itself. Trust is eroding; power is shifting; politics are toxic; disillusionment is widespread; and solidarity has frayed. In this major new text leading academics come together to unpack all dimensions of the EU in crisis, and to analyse its implications for the EU, its member states and the ongoing study of European integration.

The End of Europe?

The End of Europe? PDF Author: Andreas Staab
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1793634246
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 237

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Book Description
This book analyzes the causes of five dilemmas that are shaping European integration— populism, migration, the Euro, Brexit, and enlargement. While critical of the responses of European Union actors in handling these crises, the author outlines avenues which might avoid the potential collapse of Europe.

The European Union and the Return of the Nation State

The European Union and the Return of the Nation State PDF Author: Antonina Bakardjieva Engelbrekt
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030350053
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 282

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Book Description
This book explores the complex and ever-changing relationship between the European Union and its member states. The recent surge in tension in this relationship has been prompted by the actions of some member state governments as they question fundamental EU values and principles and refuse to implement common decisions seemingly on the basis of narrowly defined national interests. Furthermore, Brexit forces the EU for the first time to face the prospect of a major member state preparing to leave the Union. Are these developments heralding the return of the nation-state, and if so, in what form? Is the national revival a lasting phenomenon that will affect the EU for a long time to come, or is it a transitory trend? This book takes an interdisciplinary approach to answer these questions. It brings together scholars from economics, law, and political science to provide insights into the multifaceted relations between the Union and its member states from different perspectives. All chapters are based on up-to-date research findings, succinct assessments of the current state of affairs and ongoing debates about the direction of European integration. The book concludes by offering policy recommendations at European and national levels.