Countless interest groups representing governments and civil societies try to lobby the European Union effectively in pursuit of the desired legislation, subsidies and more. This book describes the everyday practice of lobbying in Brussels, drawing on extensive research and the author's personal experience. The objective of these interest groups is to influence the EU decision-making, of which they see themselves as a stakeholder. To the existing representative bodies such as the Parliament and the Council, they add their practice of lobbying for a desired outcome by making their interests present or represented at the EU level. In a roundabout way, they contribute to the EU integration and also to its democracy, so long as the following conditions are fulfilled.

Five hundred years after his death, Niccolò Machiavelli still draws an astonishing range of contradictory characterizations. Was he a friend of tyrants? An ardent republican loyal to Florence’s free institutions? The father of political realism? A revolutionary populist? A calculating rationalist? A Renaissance humanist? A prophet of Italian unification? A theorist of mixed government? A forerunner to authoritarianism? The master of the dark arts of intrigue? This book provides a vivid and engaging introduction to Machiavelli’s life and works that sheds new light on his originality and relevance. Gabriele Pedullà—a leading Italian expert and acclaimed writer—offers fresh readings of the Florentine thinker’s most famous writings, The Prince and the Discourses on Livy, as well as lesser-known texts. A new and often surprising Machiavelli emerges: one closer to his time but also better suited to inform our own. Pedullà’s portrait of Machiavelli highlights his close attention to social and emotional bonds, staunch opposition to oligarchy, keen awareness of the economic side of power dynamics, and strong preference for history over philosophy as a guide for leaders. This book recovers the excitement Machiavelli roused in his first readers for a twenty-first-century audience, capturing his capacity to provoke, both then and now, with unconventional ideas and startling insights.

Ton de Leeuw was a truly groundbreaking composer. As evidenced by his pioneering study of compositional methods that melded Eastern traditional music with Western musical theory, he had a profound understanding of the complex and often divisive history of twentieth-century music. Now his renowned chronicle Music of the Twentieth Century is offered here in a newly revised English-language edition. Music of the Twentieth Century goes beyond a historical survey with its lucid and impassioned discussion of the elements, structures, compositional principles, and terminologies of twentieth-century music. De Leeuw draws on his experience as a composer, teacher, and music scholar of non-European music traditions, including Indian, Indonesian, and Japanese music, to examine how musical innovations that developed during the twentieth century transformed musical theory, composition, and scholarly thought around the globe.

In Machiavelliana Michael Jackson and Damian Grace offer a comprehensive study of the uses and abuses of Niccolò Machiavelli’s name in society generally and in academic fields distant from his intellectual origins. It assesses the appropriation of Machiavelli in didactic works in management, social psychology, and primatology, scholarly texts in leaderships studies, as well as novels, plays, commercial enterprises, television dramas, operas, rap music, Mach IV scales, children’s books, and more. The book audits, surveys, examines, and evaluates this Machiavelliana against wider claims about Machiavelli. It explains the origins of Machiavelli’s reputation and the spread of his fame as the foundation for the many uses and misuses of his name. They conclude by redressing the most persistent distortions of Machiavelli.

Who is really making EU laws and regulations? Formally, and according to most popular accounts, responsibility lies with European politicians who are directly elected (MEPs) or indirectly accountable to elected bodies at the European or national level (council). In practice, however, as this book shows, things can be very different. The real makers of European legislation and rules are frequently unelected and far from the public gaze. This book describes and evaluates the role of many such unseen lawmakers, including commission officials, experts from national governments and companies, lobbyists, secretaries of the council and others.

Fifty years after the conclusion of the Treaties of Rome (25 March 1957) and the foundation of the European Economic Community, Brussels has become a political world city and international capital with global influence. The acta of the interuniversity and international colloquium, held in Brussels on 18 and 19 December 2006, present a general outline of the research results and 26 contributions, based on original research and divided into three parts. The first part focuses on Brussels' position in the 'world city network'. How has Brussels grown into the European and international 'capital' we know today? What exactly is its legal status as the European 'Capital'? Of course, other aspects such as the relationship between the Brussels-Capital Region and the Europe of Regions and the role of Brussels as the place for lobbying the European Union are also examined. The second part focuses on the interaction between the European institutions and Brussels. What are the socioeconomic, demographic, political and linguistic effects of their presence? Finally, a number of pressure points and areas of tension are analysed. How is Brussels 'imagined' or represented as the capital of Europe? And what is the impact of the European presence on urban planning and security policy? -- Back cover.

What do we imagine when we imagine Europe and the European Union? To what extent is our understanding of the EU – of its development, its policies and its working processes – shaped by unacknowledged assumptions about what Europe really is? The book constructs a case for re-imagining Europe – not as an entity in Brussels or a series of fixed relations - but as a simultaneously real and imagined space of action which exists to the extent that Europeans and others act in and on it. This Europe is constantly being made in particular spaces, through specific actor struggles, whose interconnections are often ill-defined. We ask how do those concerned with building Europe, with extending and elaborating the EU, think of where they are and what they are doing? The book captures Europeans in the process of making Europe: of performing, interpreting, modelling, referencing, consulting, measuring and de-politicising Europe.

This book offers a novel approach to mapping the people and organisations working in EU affairs, allocating much of the volume to a discussion of non-EU institutional representation in Brussels. Complementary to this, a distinct section focuses on those entities situated in EU capitals connected with EU policy dynamics. The intention of the book is to describe each sector within Brussels’ eco-system, including statistics and numbers, but also to have practical examples of organisations that are represented in EU affairs. The second part of the book is dedicated to interviews with relevant influencers from within the Brussels scene. This publication is a working tool for experts in EU affairs, academics and students. It could also be an interesting read for those seeking a job in EU affairs, as well as entrepreneurs, who want to set up a sustainable business.

Preliminary Material -- AGAINST ALL THE ODDS: MACHIAVELLI ON FORTUNE IN POLITICS /Timo Airaksinen -- BORDER-VALUE MORALITY AND SEMANTICAL COHERENCE IN MACHIAVELLI'S PRINCE /Hubert Schleichert -- NICCOLÒ MACHIAVELLI ON POWER /Manfred J. Holler -- THE MODERN WHO BELIEVED THAT HE WAS THE ANCIENT: NICCOLÒ MACHIAVELLI IN EUROPEAN THOUGHT AND POLITICAL IMAGINATION /Leonidas Donskis -- MACHIAVELLI AND THE THEORY OF EXEMPLARY CONSTITUTIONS /Cătălin Avramescu -- VIRTUE IN HOBBES: SEEN FROM MACHIAVELLIAN POINT OF VIEW /Juhana Lemetti -- RETHINKING MACHIAVELLI: REPUBLICANISM AND TOLERANCE /Olli Loukola -- CONTRIBUTORS -- INDEX -- VIBS.

An informative but light-hearted look at the popularity of the Renaissance today, this book was written by a Renaissance scholar intrigued with the way his subject continues to resonate outside the scholarly community. His purpose is to uncover and describe the many manifestations of America's love of the Renaissance. Why do millions don costumes to attend Renaissance Faires? Why do novels and films about the period enjoy continued popularity, as do Renaissance icons such as Elizabeth I, Michelangelo, Shakespeare and the Mona Lisa? How is it that American politicians and business leaders still look to Machiavelli as a symbol of wisdom-or of evil? Grendler posits that Americans embrace the Renaissance as a model of culture and sophistication, seeing it as confirmation that the individual can achieve greatness against long odds, a belief at the core of our own society. After an examination of The Real Renaissance (1400-1620), the book looks at ways in which Americans relive the experience (including Faires and Living Last Suppers), ways in which we re-create the Renaissance in our own world, and finally, ways in which the Renaissance is portrayed, for better or worse, in fiction and film.