Trenz introduces a sociological perspective on European integration by looking at different accounts of Europeanization as society building. He observes how Europeanization unfolds in ongoing practices and discourses through which social relations among the Europeans are redefined and re-embedded. The chapters describe how the project of European integration has been powerfully launched in postwar Europe as a normative venture that comprises polity and society building, how this project became ingrained in every-day life histories and experiences of the Europeans, how this project became contested and confronted resistances and, ultimately, how it went through its most severe crisis. A sociology of European integration is thus outlined along four main themes or narratives: first, the elite processes of identity construction and the framework of norms and ideas that carries such a construction (together with notions of European identity, EU citizenship, etc.); second, the socialization of European citizens, processes of banal Europeanism, and social transnationalism through everyday cross-border exchanges; third, the mobilization of resistance and Euroskepticism as a fundamental and collectively mobilized opposition to processes of Europeanization; and fourth, the political sociology of crisis, linked not only to financial turmoil but also, more fundamentally, to a legitimation crisis that affects Europe and the democratic nation-state.

This book examines the development of Harold Wilson's ambiguous policy towards the European Community within the context of Britain's shift from a global to a regional power.

This book makes a distinctive contribution to the crucial debate on the European Union (EU)’s present and future development. It systematically examines how the range of crises and challenges over the last decade have transformed the EU and relates those findings to the discussion of an increasingly differentiated EU. It argues that the post-crises EU shows clear signs of becoming a segmented political order with in-built biases and constraints. The book spells out the key features of such an order in ideational and structural terms and shows how it more concretely manifests itself in the EU’s institutional and constitutional make-up and in how member states constrain and condition EU action. Different states impose different types of constraints, as is underlined through paying explicit attention to the Visegrád countries. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of EU politics/studies, European integration and politics, East European politics and foreign policy.

The book analyzes different critical attitudes towards European integration from a multidisciplinary perspective. By applying both quantitative and normative-theoretical approaches, the contributors assess the causes and effects of the popularity of EU-critical positions and doctrines, such as souverainism, neo-nationalism and neo-populism. The book also presents country studies to compare populist movements and parties, such as the Five Stars Movement in Italy, Syriza in Greece and UKIP in the UK. It offers insights into the historical and normative roots of the diverse anti-European standpoints, and the various political demands and agendas connected with these views, ranging from rejections of EU institutions to demands for institutional reforms and propositions for alternative projects.

In the aftermath of the Maastricht Treaty, Europe saw tremendous integration, but the last few years have seen a new power game between federalist and confederalist actors. Although the Lisbon Treaty increased the power of the federalist-inclined European Parliament, the politics of the European Council are marked by a confederalist approach that re-affirms the power of the individual member states. As the European Council gains in strength, it supports the idea that EU policies should act as a means to protect individual national interests rather than as a positive-sum game to the benefit of all member states. This ‘national egoism’ as a political strategy is paralleled by the rise of nationalism in many member states, as a result of which we are faced with an increase in social inequality due to unequal social rights and social exclusion of minorities, an increase of social control disguised as security policy, nostalgic cultural policies that emphasize the national cultural heritage, and migration control that threatens the Schengen Agreement. These developments pose a challenge for European social science scholars, both theoretically and based on practical experience from their research activities. International cooperation has improved theoretical and methodological knowledge in a major way, and academic exchange and migration have led to innovation in science and research. Since academic communities support further internationalization and Europeanization, and are opposed to all types of barriers between the nation states, there is a need to theoretically, conceptually, and empirically research the idea of a ‘European society’. This book was originally published as a special issue of Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research.

Since its foundation, the Council of Europe has established a common legal system for European states, based on democracy, the rule of law and human rights. Its standard-setting texts have helped its members meet the challenges of changing societies and now apply all over Europe given the organisation¿s unprecedented geographical enlargement since 1989. In this connection, the Council of Europe has played a key role in the accession of the new member states to the European Union. The first section of the book deals with the "constitutional" law of the Council of Europe, or its internal statutes in the broad sense. It covers the 1949 Statute, which, along with related texts, lays down the Council¿s aims and determines its membership and operating methods. The second section concerns the role played by the Council of Europe - which has always been very active in standard-setting - in the harmonisation of European states¿ domestic law. The third section situates Council of Europe law in the European context. For instance, it studies the extent to which Council of Europe conventions have been incorporated in domestic law and how Council of Europe law and European Union law co-exist.

A central question in political representation is whether government responds to the people. To understand that, we need to know what the government is doing, and what the people think of it. We seek to understand a key question necessary to answer those bigger questions: How does American public opinion move over time? We posit three patterns of change over time in public opinion, depending on the type of issue. Issues on which the two parties regularly disagree provide clear partisan cues to the public. For these party-cue issues we present a slight variation on the thermostatic theory from (Soroka and Wlezien (2010); Wlezien (1995)); our “implied thermostatic model.” A smaller number of issues divide the public along lines unrelated to partisanship, and so partisan control of government provides no relevant clue. Finally, we note a small but important class of issues which capture response to cultural shifts.

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the European Union is an increasingly dense transnational social and political space. More and more non-governmental organisations develop transnational links, which are usually more intensive within the EU, even if they often extend beyond its borders to the wider world. This multi-disciplinary volume explores the importance of these structures, actors and relations for EU and European governance in the context of the theoretical debate about European integration in the social sciences. This book delivers: theoretical chapters examining and discussing the main conceptual perspectives to studying the transnational EU to provide a current overview empirical case studies of transnationalism in practice on transnational party, trade union and police cooperation to transnational education policy-making and transnational consensus-building in EMU governance. This volume will be of great interest to students in social sciences, contemporary history and law.

Joseph Stiglitz is one of the world’s greatest economists. He has made fundamental contributions to economic theory in areas such as inequality, the implications of imperfect and asymmetric information, and competition, and he has been a major figure in policy making, a leading public intellectual, and a remarkably influential teacher and mentor. This collection of essays influenced by Stiglitz’s work celebrates his career as a scholar and teacher and his aspiration to put economic knowledge in the service of creating a fairer world. Toward a Just Society brings together a range of essays whose breadth reflects how Stiglitz has shaped modern economics. The contributions to this volume, all penned by high-profile authors who have been guided by or collaborated with Stiglitz over the last five decades, span microeconomics, macroeconomics, inequality, development, law and economics, and public policy. Touching on many of the central debates and discoveries of the field and providing insights on the directions that academic economics could take in the future, Toward a Just Society is an extraordinary celebration of the many paths Stiglitz has opened for economics, politics, and public life.

Addresses a critical analysis of major media policies in the European Union and Council of Europe at the period of profound changes affecting both media environments and use, as well as the logic of media policy-making and reconfiguration of traditional regulatory models. The analytical problem-related approach seems to better reflect a media policy process as an interrelated part of European integration, formation of European citizenship, and exercise of communication rights within the European communicative space. The question of normative expectations is to be compared in this case with media policy rationales, mechanisms of implementation (transposing rules from EU to national levels), and outcomes.